Making Reaper more accesible to new users

patriciocs · 01-22-2019, 09:00 AM

I am a Reaper user since a couple of years and I am really happy about it. I think it is a great DAW and eveytime I can I share my experience with other people. I am not a professional, just a hobbyst just as my friends. However has bee very difficult that any of my friends stays on Reaper because they found it too difficult to understand. Also there's the language barrier (I speak spanish) but that is out of scope of this post.

I think they are not wrong. I tried Reaper several times before purchasing it and always had the impression thatit was something like a DAW for extremely knowledgable people. When I installed and opened it and saw just an empty screen it was very difficult to see all the potential of this wonderful software.

I really think that it would make a huge impact in new users if Reaper include in its installation some templates and some track icons. It doesn't have to be complex ones. I took this https://stash.reaper.fm/v/29346/MixingTemplate.rpp and made some small adjustments (track icons, colors, etc.). After checking Reaper with this template some friends were impressed with what Reaper can really do. Now they see it as a real DAW and not as a framework.

Perhaps this has been proposed before, but why don't create some templates (per example for Rock mixing, mastering, 16 track recording, etc) and include it in the installation along with some icons? I am sure that it could potentially attract a lot of more people to this wonderful DAW and also will demonstrate how powerful it is.

foxAsteria · 01-22-2019, 01:02 PM

Reaper has always been something of a DIY DAW. I think it's just not the right choice for anyone who doesn't want to customize at all. There do exists setups made for noobs though...

ivansc · 01-22-2019, 04:04 PM

One is even stickied in the Newbie section.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=152012

Cranky Emu · 01-22-2019, 05:57 PM

[QUOTE=patriciocs;2085602]However has bee very difficult that any of my friends stays on Reaper because they found it too difficult to understand.[QUOTE]

Most DAW's require a certain level of experience/knowledge to drive right off bat. Some are easier than others - for my money Reaper has been pretty damn easy, add to that an excellent support community via these forums, not forgetting the exceptionally fantastic 'Kenny Videos' on Youtube.

Quote:

Perhaps this has been proposed before, but why don't create some templates (per example for Rock mixing, mastering, 16 track recording, etc)

I believe Pro Tools has a something like this, where you can select different track layouts etc like you describe would be a nice thing.

patriciocs · 01-23-2019, 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ivansc

One is even stickied in the Newbie section.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=152012

Well, I am talking about something more integrated into Reaper installation. Also it looks like that thread is rather old and it is not what I am proposing. I meant some project templates with stock effects, routing, etc, that demonstrate Reaper's power.

patriciocs · 01-23-2019, 05:05 AM

[QUOTE=Cranky Emu;2085767][QUOTE=patriciocs;2085602]However has bee very difficult that any of my friends stays on Reaper because they found it too difficult to understand.

Quote:

Most DAW's require a certain level of experience/knowledge to drive right off bat. Some are easier than others - for my money Reaper has been pretty damn easy, add to that an excellent support community via these forums, not forgetting the exceptionally fantastic 'Kenny Videos' on Youtube.
[/I]

I do agree with that, but if you are a non-english speaker the learning resourses are quite limited. So for people not speaking english, how intuitive a DAW is in the first approach is fundamental.

I remember Cakewalk and Cubase having project templates, and in Cakewalk you even have a full demo project which shows Sonar capabilities.

I know you should make some effort in order to benefit of Reaper, but I think that there is room for improve in this aspect with very little effort and low cost.

Judders · 01-23-2019, 05:06 AM

There was a big thread about this here: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=185596

Cranky Emu · 01-23-2019, 05:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patriciocs

I meant some project templates with stock effects, routing, etc, that demonstrate Reaper's power.

I am not sure how practical that would be. For example, unless you were confining the FX solely to those built-in to Reaper then it would be pointless - not everyone has the same plugins. And not everyone wants reverb on a snare for example.

Any template is never going to be one-size-fits-all and it may wind up causing more damage then it actually solves - new users may look at it and think "Is this all it can do" rather then learning it's capabilities themselves.

As for routing that is a project-by-project thing, I am not sure if a pre-defined routing template would work for most people - I could be wrong though!

In respect to non-english speaking persons, well there is an opening for all you non natively english speaking users - why not contact Kenny and offer to transcribe his videos with sub-titles? Not sure if he would be open to it, but you can only offer.

patriciocs · 01-23-2019, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cranky Emu

In respect to non-english speaking persons, well there is an opening for all you non natively english speaking users - why not contact Kenny and offer to transcribe his videos with sub-titles? Not sure if he would be open to it, but you can only offer.

Good idea, I would be happy to help in my spare time.