Old 06-29-2020, 03:23 PM   #1
jbesser
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Default Is Reaper right for me?

Hi all - I'm wondering if Reaper is right for what I want to do.

I am a musician, not a techie, and I want to do 2 things:

- record my own tunes - single tracking AND overdubbing so I can play with myself, using my Mac

- Take WAV or MP3 files created by bandmates, upload them to my Mac, record my own parts while playing theirs and listening on headphones.

I have good condenser and dynamic mics, and plan to purchase a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface to use with my Mac Mini.

I also hope to rip tunes from YouTube videos to learn them; currently, I use Audacity to do that, with the IShowYou audio capture app installed on my Mac.

Is this all doable with Reaper? Is it more user friendly than Audacity, which I find sort of impenetrable? Anything else I should know?
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Old 06-29-2020, 04:16 PM   #2
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Yes, it's right. Do you want some help getting started...PM me? Obviously you need an interface also though but the focusrite is a great choice. I think it's way better than Audacity but Audacity is a kids toy compared to Reaper.
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Old 06-29-2020, 04:43 PM   #3
Meo-Ada Mespotine
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Welcome to the forum

Quote:
Originally Posted by jbesser View Post
Hi all - I'm wondering if Reaper is right for what I want to do.

I am a musician, not a techie, and I want to do 2 things:

- record my own tunes - single tracking AND overdubbing so I can play with myself, using my Mac

- Take WAV or MP3 files created by bandmates, upload them to my Mac, record my own parts while playing theirs and listening on headphones.

I have good condenser and dynamic mics, and plan to purchase a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface to use with my Mac Mini.

I also hope to rip tunes from YouTube videos to learn them; currently, I use Audacity to do that, with the IShowYou audio capture app installed on my Mac.

Is this all doable with Reaper? Is it more user friendly than Audacity, which I find sort of impenetrable? Anything else I should know?
More userfriendly not necessarily. It's a powerful tool and a lot of power also means, that things can become much more complicated than Audactiy.
But, it's quite easy to outgrow the things Audacity offers, so if you need a DAW that gives you enough space to grow and explore, Reaper is the right thing to do.

Some things I would suggest:
- Watch the Youtube-videos by Kenny Gioia, who made tons of real good and short videos on how to use Reaper. That's the best ressource for Reaper available, together with the unofficial Reaper Blog.

- Choose a good theme. The default ones can be really overwhelming for new users, so it's a good idea to browse through the stash https://stash.reaper.fm/ and look for a theme, that looks and feels as least intimidating to you as possible.
You can change later, if you need more things later on, even customizing it yourself if needed..
If you don't know where to start, ask in the theme-subforum here:
https://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=26
so they can suggest you some themes that you can try. Just post the things you want to do in Reaper, as you did in this thread, so people know, where your current neccessities are.

- Try, fail, ask questions in a nice way(this community tries to help whenever they can) and succeed in using Reaper. The learning curve can be high for beginners, the payoff in the long run very rewarding.

- And if in the end you come to the conclusion, that Reaper isn't the software of your choice, you can always revert to Audacity.
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Old 06-29-2020, 04:48 PM   #4
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Hi JB and welcome.

Don't be overwhelmed by the number of options and opportunities that REAPER offers. You won't need most of them. Just focus on the basics.

Take the time to read thru the first three chapters of the free PDF User Guide.

https://www.reaper.fm/userguide.php

And this newbieland forum is where you can as as many questions as you need to!
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Old 06-29-2020, 07:59 PM   #5
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I won't sugar coat it. If you want things straightforward and obvious all the time, there is every other DAW to choose from (tho none of them are dead simple). If you want things how you want things and enjoy customizing things, then yes, Reaper is your dream DAW.

But take note that home recording is a fat can of worms. You might think, "I just wanna do X & Y, how hard can that be?" Well, harder than you think if you want the result to sound somewhere in the ballpark of "good." Any way you slice it, you'll have to learn things you didn't think you had to learn. Don't wanna learn? Pay money for studio time.
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Old 06-29-2020, 08:41 PM   #6
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I think it's easy if you are trying to do a couple simple things and at least have some experience with Audacity. I think even Audacity has a learning curve and it's a similar curve to Reaper except Reapers keeps curving up to infinity, where you stop on the curve is your own deal. Not everybody has to know how to buss things, send to side-chain, automation...etc but it's there when they need it and luckily there are some pretty nice people on this forum to help if they can't figure it out which I'm sure we've all misused at times but hopefully paid it forward later like we are all trying to do now. Eventually you will learn those things and realize how much you were giving up with Audacity. I think the easiest DAW to learn from scratch is Tracktion to be completely honest but there's still a curve. Reaper at least has a kick-ass forum of people to help and a ton of great videos from the very awesome Kenny Gioia which are worth paying for if you get into it. When I came over from Tracktion when they were becoming vaporware I just started dipping my toe into Reaper and it eventually became the one I wanted to stick with and I'm very happy with it.
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Old 06-30-2020, 06:20 AM   #7
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Welcome jbesser. Actually REAPER is quite simple for simple stuff once you get a hang of the interface.
You might find Kenny's videos a good way to start basic recording etc. but as stated this is a very helpful (and typically fast!) forum if you need help.

I'd say the problem might come trying to learn another DAW after REAPER! For instance the whole idea that a track is a track regardless of whether its for audio, MIDI even video etc. is seamlessly accomplished in REAPER compared to other DAWS.
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Old 06-30-2020, 06:27 AM   #8
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Reaper has some strong features over other DAWs.
Reaper on a Mac is one of the most happiness and light software experiences I've ever had.

Stability!

Run live sound with very low latency settings. (The capability of your audio interface is obviously a factor is the lowest latency you can set for. All things normalized, Reaper has a stability edge at low latency settings.)

Run large track/plugin count studio projects. (Again, computer and hard drive specs matter. A netbook style machine with a spinning HDD will max out pretty quick! Any reasonable production computer with a SSD will do a lot.)

All audio needs from live sound to live performance to recording to studio production to mastering are covered. You can run a live sound mix for a show with low latency settings while simultaneously recording the raw multitrack while simultaneously making a broadcast mix and Reaper delivers error free.

Customization

You can make macros of commands (called "actions" in Reaper)
The action set in Reaper to begin with is FAR beyond what any other DAW app has.

If no bs stability is important, this is your DAW.
All of that makes any learning curve a moot point. Everything has a learning curve.

If you wanted more of a hands off pull up some 'beat' and a clicktrack and play virtual instruments over it. Little glitches or crashes aren't a big deal. Visual stuff might be more important and you like to play with different themes and such. Then you probably won't like Reaper very much! The focus here is meat n' potatoes stability and functionality.
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Old 06-30-2020, 08:45 AM   #9
jbesser
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Thanks all! That's incredibly useful information. No doubt I will be asking more questions as I dive into Reaper.
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