Old 06-07-2011, 12:20 PM   #1
gvdv
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Default Anyone Used Reaper on a Mac?

Hi,
This is my first post here.

I'm thinking of switching to Reaper from Garageband, and am excited about the potential advantages of using Reaper.

I have a few questions about this, but will first say a little about why I'm thinking of making this change in DAWs.

I've consistently had problems getting good conversions to .WAVs and .MP3s from Garageband (the problem is that the songs sound great in GB, but awful when 'mastered' to .WAV or .MP3. I have never had this problem in the past when mastering songs to all manner of media using various different kinds of multitrackers).

So, rather than spending any more time fooling around with Garageband (which I love), I thought that I might try to use Reaper as my DAW, and wanted to ask anyone who might be using Reaper with their Macs some specific questions:

1. Is it possible to export directly to .WAV or .MP3 directly from Reaper (i.e., without going through iTunes)?

2. Does Reaper have the ability to burn directly to a CD without going through a conversion process (i.e., without converting files to .WAV or .MP3, CDA or another format)? I guess I'm asking whether or not Reaper has this kind of functionality, and if it does, whether or not it can do this kind of thing in one operation or whether it requires the Mac to take care of burning a CD.

3. Are there any specific advantages/disadvantages of using Reaper on a Mac that people could talk about?

Thanks,
GVDV.
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Old 06-07-2011, 12:25 PM   #2
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1) yes
2) yes (but I've never done it straight from reaper)

(d/l the user guide for an explanation of how)

3) advantages/disadvantages compared to what? It's much more comprehensive than Garageband, that's for sure

welcome to the forum
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Old 06-07-2011, 12:47 PM   #3
gvdv
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timlloyd View Post
1) yes
2) yes (but I've never done it straight from reaper)

(d/l the user guide for an explanation of how)

3) advantages/disadvantages compared to what? It's much more comprehensive than Garageband, that's for sure

welcome to the forum
Hi timlloyd,
Thanks very much for your quick and informative response.

In terms of advantages/disadvantages, I suppose that one of the disadvantages, to me, of Reaper in relation to Garageband is Reaper has no loops that come with the programme, whereas GB does.

On the other hand, one has to export to iTunes from Garageband in order to export files to make CD's, .WAVs, .MP3s and the like. To me, this is a huge disadvantage of GB..

Thanks very much for the link to the Reaper manual - I don't think that I had found that link previously.

And thanks for your kind words of welcome to the forum

GVDV.
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Old 06-07-2011, 02:44 PM   #4
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The thread topic is quite funny...

Quote:
Originally Posted by gvdv View Post
I've consistently had problems getting good conversions to .WAVs and .MP3s from Garageband
Garageband (and even Logic) seem to do quite bit behind the scenes regarding to level adjustments, which is why I never feel I can trust them. On this level the user MUST know EXACTLY what is being done.

Regarding the questions:
1. Ofcourse. For mp3 rendering you have to download a free encoder first. Doesn't take even a minute.

2. Well, kind of. However, Reaper does rely on external programs to do this, so the easiest way for me is to burn 44.1KHz 16bit stereo wav files and burn them with the burner of choice. No conversion is needed.

3. Compared to Reaper on Windows or other DAWs on a Mac? For me, no other DAW is suitable for serious and speedy workflow, wether on a Mac or Windows. But some will say that about some other software. The lack of included MIDI loops and software instruments is something to take into account, but since there are so many 3rd party ones to choose from, the pro's of Reaper clearly win the battle. For me that is.

There are quite a few more (especially free) plugins and istruments available for Windows compared to a Mac, so something might be missed when comparing Windows and Mac in general. I still miss Electri-Q and IQ4 after 4 years on a Mac.
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Old 06-07-2011, 07:55 PM   #5
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Hi mrelwood,
Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I, too, have found that GarageBand / iTunes does a lot 'behind the scenes', and no matter how much I tweak things by increasing the bitrate, taking off the auto-normalizing and so on, I find all of the power and dimensionality stripped out of my .band files. It would make other men weep, but it just makes me angry.

I suppose I should have known better before sinking so much money into my Mac set-up, because the whole 'let the computer do everything for you automatically' philosophy behind Macs is bound to result in generic-quality sound files.

Ultimately, the so-so quality of mastered files is what puts me off continuing to use Garageband and has me considering Reaper. Regarding your point about the availability of third party plug-ins for Reaper (in relation to trying to make up for lack of loops that are included with Garageband), for me the 'price' of GarageBand can't be argued with at all. (I can't for the life of me understand why Microsoft hasn't copied the idea and included a multitrack / DAW program in Windows).

Thanks for your advice and comments about Reaper. I actually downloaded the installation file but have not yet installed it on my Mac, but will probably do so tomorrow.

Thanks, once again,
GVDV.
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Old 06-07-2011, 11:44 PM   #6
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Dude, anything is better than Garage Band

also
Quote:
1. Is it possible to export directly to .WAV or .MP3 directly from Reaper (i.e., without going through iTunes)?
A fully functional digital audio workstation should allow you to do that. It if doesn't then its not much of a DAW. Some programs such as Pro Tools makes its a huge pain in the ass to import audio, DP isn't very friendlier either, but friendlier than pro tools. (also I wouldn't recommend using any sort of mp3. Full quality wav or aiff files are much higher in quality. Usually you want to start high, and move down from there, not the other way around)

Your second question, yes, but its not ideal. Also I wouldn't burn anything to CD using iTunes. It has some sort of weird compression and less control over your sampling rates etc, there are much better programs out for it. XLD is a good choice for that.
The only reason I would use iTunes is simply for its audio player.

Your third question ... we'll it simply boils down to this:
If Garage Band does everything you need it to and you're happy with it, there's simply no reason why you should switch. Moving from one program to the other requires a huge learning curve and in general, the more comprehensive a program, the bigger the learning curve.

If all you do is drag and drop loops, and do a simple recording over it, then Garage Band should work for you. If you need something with a bit more functionality, then I guess you should move up to a larger DAW.

in all honesty the higher functional DAWs such as Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Digital Performer, Cakewalk, Reaper, etc are all equally as decent. You just need to pick the right one that fits you best.

There are other programs such as ableton live and fruity loops that are specialized to specific markets (i.e. DJ's)

Just consider what you do, what you need to do before you go out and download/buy a band new DAW.

as for your statement
Quote:
Reaper has no loops that come with the programme, whereas GB does.
you're correct, however reaper is not that kind of program, but reaper does have that functionality where you can just drag and drop loops (you can even drag and drop loops from garage band into reaper if you have the wav or midi files) and stretch them out.
Some guy made a youtube vid demonstrating how this could be done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpPwkcCMBG0

anyways I hope that answers your question.
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Old 06-08-2011, 12:04 AM   #7
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Reaper doesn't have built in content - like loops or virtual instruments, and has few presets for plugins. Reaper also lacks notation if you need this.

You can do alot more in Reaper though, audio editing is more advanced and midi is better (though not ahead of logic). Reaper works fine on a mac, I was using it for uni work early today.
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Old 06-08-2011, 03:41 AM   #8
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Since yesterday with Reaper in demo-mode, surprised by the speed of response actions with respect to Logic / Digital Performer _
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Old 06-10-2011, 11:29 AM   #9
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Reaper is untouchable responsiveness-wise.
I'm using it almost everyday for the last... 2, 3 years.
If you want the mp3 codec for your install, I have a download on my website www.jeracravo.com
Welcome to the Reaper world!
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Old 06-10-2011, 08:19 PM   #10
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Recorded a concert pianist( guy has serious skills!!) last night with two condensers into Reaper. Reaper performed like a champ, no issue at all on a laptop, old G4 series MacBook too. OSX 10.5.8
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Old 06-12-2011, 12:00 PM   #11
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I have Reaper, Logic and Garageband on a powerbook. The nice thing with Reaper is that you get the feeling that you are the boss. I probably spend 80% on my time with Reaper. That will probably soon be 100%. Garageband is almost a toy and Logic is easy to dislike but very difficult to like.
I have to add that I start my pieces in Sibelius so notation is no issue. The notation system in Logic is a bad joke.
Be happy that you have a mac. I have a win computer too but testing has persuaded me that I have no need to switch.

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Old 06-12-2011, 12:12 PM   #12
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Quote:
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The notation system in Logic is a bad joke.
I have to agree!
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Old 06-14-2011, 12:41 PM   #13
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HI there, welcome to the forum.
I might be a little late on the topic but I can tell you about my experience of Reaper on mac. I did the switch from Cubase a few months ago and before switching to reaper I took the luxury to compare it th Logic, garage band and live (sorry, no friend of mine would lend me a PT license !)
The thing is, Reaper isn't perfect, that's for sure, but it has a far greater ability to correct the bugs and problems you can encounter (thx to the dev team).
I'll suggest giving it a try, it's free and uncrippled to play with (and even with the 5sec nag screen it still was faster to load than cubase)

However, I do have some issues with exporting. I also have to say that it seems to be related with the use of some plug ins.
Anyway, for now, depending of what you want to do with the exported music, I'll suggest to make an uncompressed export, normalize and than final compression to mp3 or whatever format you want to use (maybe this kind of feature will be available directly from the export menu of Reaper someday)

Have fun.
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Old 07-15-2016, 07:09 AM   #14
gvdv
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Hi,
Just going through some old threads, and wanted to follow up and thank everyone who replied after my last post. Sorry I did not get back to you with thanks, but better late than never.

I continued to use GB, but now that my Mac is woefully out of date and non-upradeable, and am switching fully to Reaper.

The terrible issue I had with GB was that I got whisper quiet (I am not joking) exports when I mastered my projects to CD, .MP3, and so on.

Finally, I read a suggestion to re-import the mastered stereo file, and then re-export that, and that solved all my problems with that issue (just in case anyone else has had the same problem - and I only know of a couple of people who have).

Anyway, thanks once again to everyone who replied to this thread.

gvdv
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Old 07-15-2016, 10:42 AM   #15
Don Schenk
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Hi gvdv,

Did you find the free video tutorials for Reaper?

http://reaper.fm/videos.php

And Reaper does come with some 240 plug-ins.

:- Don
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Old 07-16-2016, 08:09 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gvdv View Post
I continued to use GB, but now that my Mac is woefully out of date and non-upradeable, and am switching fully to Reaper.
I suspect you will find that Mac is not as out of date as you thought after firing up Reaper. Reaper in OSX is the most stable DAW you can find. What machine do you have?

Garageband has a lot of annoying restrictions by design too. It's basically intended as a demo for Logic so they lock a lot of stuff out. Locking out the ability to use a sample rate other than 44.1k and making exporting tracks extremely difficult (and with default settings that reduce quality), etc, etc.
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Old 08-13-2016, 07:18 PM   #17
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1. Yes
2. What's a CD?
3. My iMac behaves much better with plug ins than my windows system.

REAPER was always stable on windows, but much of my VST library was a hot mess. Everything is smooth sailing on OS X.

And faster, too.
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Old 08-18-2016, 07:17 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CloseToTheEdge View Post
1. Yes
2. What's a CD?
3. My iMac behaves much better with plug ins than my windows system.

REAPER was always stable on windows, but much of my VST library was a hot mess. Everything is smooth sailing on OS X.

And faster, too.
Hot mess ! thats a classic , will use it from now on !

Are you referring to third party plugins in reaper OSX compared to win reaper please ?

I only ask as all the evidence I've seen around here suggests that windows works a lot better in that respect. My only grip with OSX reaper is its hit and miss plugin compatibility and bugs.

I too found reaper menu response time to be much faster on osx reaper on my old MBA '11 compared to a 2016 new powerful quad i7 desktop pc.
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Old 08-18-2016, 09:31 PM   #19
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Reaper is great on my MacBook Pro, on Windows 10 and even in my Linux machine. I have used Garageband a little and have been using Cubase for 10 years. I highly recommend Reaper on any platform. I like having options as you can tell. Thanks to the tutorial videos from Kenny Gioia, its a breeze to get going with Reaper. Bye bye GB

There are loads of ways to get royalty free content if you shop around. Look at Computer Music Magazine for example, each month they have thousands of samples you can download if you've purchased the online mag.... for about 6 Dollars thats a great deal. Along with 50+ plugins.

And as a basic license for Reaper is so inexpensive, you can probably afford some content or additional plugins too.

Cheers
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