from protools to reaper?

fhinspectit · 01-16-2007, 06:53 PM

just downloaded demo after months of reading about it on numerous forums. I currently us PTMP 7.3, but always am intrigued by different apps. I figure once I learn to use reaper along with flstudio,and my vsti I will most likely purchase it. just wanted to say that from the looks of it reaper seems like an awesome product. I posted the specs on futureproducers.com under the software sequencers/samplers section under the thread titled {Protools "industry standard?"} Lots of people on the site looking for either their first DAW or alternatives. Keep up the good work.

Audio-Hedonist · 01-17-2007, 08:34 AM

You betcha this is a great product- I'm coming from the Pro Tools world also, with PTLE 7.1 cs9 on my system. One thing that bugs me about Digidesign is that they want to charge you $75 for minor release upgrades such as from 7.1 to 7.3. Come on! I could see paying $75 maybe for a major upgrade, like from 7.1 to 8.0 or something, but sheesh!

I don't think you will find a better DAW than Reaper, for at least three reasons:

1. Price - Q: where can you find another DAW of this capability for the ridiculously low shareware fee that the folks at Cockos are asking? A: You can't.

2. Hardware Freedom! With Digi software, you are tied irrevocably to their hardware. Sure, you can get M-Powered and run with various M-Audio interfaces. But there is nothing like the feeling of freedom that you get when you start running Reaper and realize that you can use any audio interface, from the lowliest motherboard-based sound chip, to the highest-end RME MADI card or firewire interface, a MOTU traveller, etc..etc.. if it works with your PC, it will probably work with Reaper. The hardware shackles are off!

3. Developer Responsiveness - Justin's responsiveness to bugs and user suggestions is outstanding. To be fair to Digi, they are pretty good at user support, and I've seen responses on the DUC occasionally from the moderators. But it's no comparison to the *immediate* response that you get for Reaper problem resolution. And I speak from personal experience. I had a problem which I described in the 'Bug Reports' forum here, and in about 5 minutes (FIVE MINUTES!) I got a response and a solution from Justin. Amazing.

Finnish · 01-17-2007, 08:53 AM

Amazing product. I can't even remember the last time I used my Pro Tools 7

chip mcdonald · 01-17-2007, 09:13 AM

I've suggested this before, but a Pro Tools friendly keyboard shortcut set might be a cool thing....

Art Evans · 01-17-2007, 04:34 PM

I saw PT in action for the first time yesterday at an informal training session, and although there were a number of nice touches which Reaper could perhaps add to its own feature list (a mini display of all tracks which you could use to hide/show any track, the ability to select multiple envelopes at once and adjust them as a group, etc etc), in general it seemed rather like something they'd love to rewrite from the ground up if they had the chance! In particular, the multi-tool UI seems to have had stuff added on to make it look a bit less multi-tool, but there's no hiding really. And as for real time render (bounce) - when I asked if that was really the way it worked and the tutor said yes, you should have seen the shock/horror around the attendees, used to fast mixdowns in other apps!

The fact that it kept making horrible noises and throwing up DAE errors when simply trying to crossfade two items also did not impress... though the installation is new and maybe there are teething troubles, although that same system is running Reaper very nicely thank you!

Sam C · 01-17-2007, 04:45 PM

Art, were you seeing this on an HD system? My friend has one and although it is not my favorite program, glitches are something I don't see!

Art Evans · 01-17-2007, 05:18 PM

No, just an LE system. Trouble is those error messages took me straight back to my days of running sound tools on an Atari!

tweed · 01-17-2007, 11:03 PM

Features Smeachers... [respect of course to all]

When I can run my processor at 100 percent and still get audio out fine, when I have the most INCREDIBLE routing capabilities, when the GUI is all meat and no tart so to speak... anyways... I did a mad ramble down the page at the Welcome Cubasers Post
http://www.cockos.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4750

Just look at the Preferences window [sniff those REAL feature]... oh and notice that you aren't locked into the window when it's open.... mind boggling... while my cubase sx3 and nuendo 3 donlge gather dust... REAPER is fun as well..

hey, you can contact the DEVelopers!!! woohoo
Stay tuned for my post tomorrow titled:

GROUP LICENSING BUY Cool? Why+What makes me nervous!

Audio-Hedonist · 01-19-2007, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Evans

...snip...snip...The fact that it kept making horrible noises and throwing up DAE errors when simply trying to crossfade two items also did not impress... though the installation is new and maybe there are teething troubles, although that same system is running Reaper very nicely thank you!

Well, I have taken Digi to task on the DUC (the Digi User Conference) a couple of times regarding what I consider to be the extreme 'pickiness' of PTLE as to what hardware it is running on; I'm thinking of this thread in particular:

http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.p...32#Post1068474

But I think it's like spitting into the wind to try to convince Digi that they need to re-code Pro Tools LE so that it runs without glitches on the widest possible variety of currently available PC hardware.

It seems that Digidesign's attitude is that they can only test PT on a few different hardware configurations, and these will be the only 'approved' Digi systems that PT will be supported on. My contention (and you can read my bloviations on this topic, if you care to, on the DUC - I post as 'dbrunell' over there) is that if PTLE was properly coded, it wouldn't experience so many DAE and other errors on any given computer. And the word would get around that PTLE can run on just about anything, which would be a great selling point for them.

It would be interesting to hear Justin's take on this, but he's probably too busy to get into speculative conversations on why Digidesign's host-based DAW is designed and implemented the way it is.. I just think that the fact that Reaper (and other host-based DAWs, from what I've read) seems to run well on just about any hardware I install it on, is proof that it's possible, and that Digi's coding of PTLE has something wrong with it.

pipelineaudio · 01-19-2007, 10:59 AM

Digi hasnt been long on native, except the stereo sample editor of what, 12 years ago? SInce that time and before, other companies were running native on one platform or another.

On the PC side, SAW and Cakewalk have been coding and optimizing for a looooong time and it shows. Digi's native entry is pretty recent comparatively, so expect some bugs

also, why SHOULD PTLE work?

Digi spends all their time telling of the complete inferiority and unprofessionality of native systems. PTLE need only be a window into PT land for it to accomplish its purpose. Crashing may even be beneficial in that case. " Imagine, all you see here n this app, but with no latency, complete stability, and 4 times the track count....bug your mom for it as soon as she wakes up, be the first kid in your neighborhood to have a pthd rig!"

Audio-Hedonist · 01-19-2007, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pipelineaudio

Digi hasnt been long on native, except the stereo sample editor of what, 12 years ago? SInce that time and before, other companies were running native on one platform or another.

On the PC side, SAW and Cakewalk have been coding and optimizing for a looooong time and it shows. Digi's native entry is pretty recent comparatively, so expect some bugs

I don't buy this. I've run various versions of PTLE for at least 5 years; they couldn't get it right by now? Seems to me that if you have basic design flaws, no amount of expert coding is going to make it work right- kind of like polishing a turd, if I may be so crass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pipelineaudio

also, why SHOULD PTLE work?

Digi spends all their time telling of the complete inferiority and unprofessionality of native systems. PTLE need only be a window into PT land for it to accomplish its purpose. Crashing may even be beneficial in that case. " Imagine, all you see here n this app, but with no latency, complete stability, and 4 times the track count....bug your mom for it as soon as she wakes up, be the first kid in your neighborhood to have a pthd rig!"

Well, hmmmm.. Look at it this way. Don't you think that if Digidesign made Pro Tools LE the most bitchen host-based DAW around, the most platform-independent, the most tolerant of PC hardware configuration, great performance, CPU efficiency, etc., etc., wouldn't that drive more sales of their HD/Accel systems? People like me who stick their toes into the Pro Tools waters with PTLE would be much more inclined to upgrade to an HD system with confidence if PTLE worked great on just about any hardware configuration. Like Reaper! I think Digidesign are shooting themselves in the foot by not fixing PTLE. It needs a complete re-write from scratch, imho. With the current state of affairs, I'm not sure I'd want to shell out at least $8,000 for an HD system running basically the same software..

Pete · 02-26-2007, 05:49 PM

I have very recently started using REAPER and ProTools more or less simultaneously - my first veture into PC-based DAWs in twenty years of recording.

My first impression of ProTools was: "When on earth do I START? I'm currenly reading through the 800-page manual as well as fiddling with a few things. I HATE the fact I have to have both an iLok AND and ProTools compatible interface connected to even start the program.

By contrast, my experience with Reaper has been pretty happy. I found the interface easier to get around and powerful enough for the lightly produced "real instrument" recording I mostly do, and I love being able to edit on my laptop on the train with nothing but a pair of crappy headphones.

My question concerning REAPER is, what's the catch? In terms of *audio end product*, all other things being equal (hardware I/O, sample rates, bit depth etc), is there anything to choose between them? I'm not talking about ease of use, or highly conplex editing options, just end-user sound fidelity.

I have recently puchased an M-Audio ProjectMix (with ProTools M-Powered 7.1) as an eventually replacement for my beloved Roland VS1680 (digital multitracker). I needed to get REAPER because it is currently the only DAW which can recognise Roland's proprietary sound files, so it is the route via which I can export WAV files from my VS1680.

I have managed to get REAPER to talk to my control surface, so I'm wondering what, if anything, I need ProTools for?

burak · 02-26-2007, 06:00 PM

I have Protools le 7.1 as well, but I feel like it doesn't use my dual-core PC as efficiently as Reaper does.
Even though 7.1 was the dual-core optimized version, I still have to have a higher latency setting than Reaper with the same amount of track count and similar plugins.
If we had the option to import protools key bindings, it would be cool

Bevosss · 02-26-2007, 06:03 PM

Just curious Pete with your ProjectMix, is it still only +10dB line inputs? It was when I was considering it about a year ago, there was talk of M-Audio changing this but I never heard the outcome. Good to hear it works in Reaper.

Pro Tools still has a couple of thing we could use like Beat Detective and Track Grouping (which I believe might be soon), but in most other areas I'd say Reaper slays it now for speed of use.

Pete · 02-26-2007, 08:04 PM

I'm embarrassed to say that I'm not enough of an engineer to give you a definite answer.

Line input spec is as follows: Max input @ min gain - +10dBu bal/+7.8dBV unbal.

Pete

Fausto · 02-26-2007, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete

I have managed to get REAPER to talk to my control surface, so I'm wondering what, if anything, I need ProTools for?

The control surface on the Projectmix is talking to reaper??

Man, if I could get my Digi 002's CS to talk to reaper, I would only use PT for beat detectiving some louzy drummers.
F.