REAPER

Last year I've been sequencing in Studio One, FL Studio 21, Serato Studio, Mixcraft, Cubase 13, etc...nothing comes close to the quality of tools and sequencing that comes with Reaper version 7, a beast of a DAW, among the top 3 on the market almost on par with Pro-tools and Logic X, with the lack of quality virtual synthesizers...and put a few hours playing at the beginning and you will see how impressive is REAPER .

Greatest strength of this program:
Singular experience across 2 affordable price tiers, evaluation and 3 operating systems
(everyone has the same set of features no matter the OS or level of investment).

Performance and GUI consistency are at the forefront. It feels very much like a fully professional DAW. Combines functionality patterns from Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools, Cakewalk. Has its own feel, yet feels familiar.

It's actually worth the price, because it's not a lock-in.

My fav features and highlights:

• well thought out plug-in / processor "rack" functionality.
• digital asset management features (media explorer, plug-in explorer, etc.).
• complete functionality of piano roll (multi-functional).
• very organic and feature complete arrangement area.
• mixer and track list very well designed.
• extremely customizable mixer with customization profiles.
• unlimited routing capability.
• fine control of hardware abstraction.
• multiple ways to do everything.
• single searchable list of every action.
• full keyboard mapping.
• works out of the box.

Just a reply to user pentapower below:

No REAPER doesn't access to your contacts. It has never done anything like this in the 6+ years I've used it and I can confidently say it never will.

Unless of course you've stupidly downloaded a torrent that has been mined with a Trojan from some shady russian source, instead of the official website...

Reaper is a really great DAW, especially for a couple of thing where it is better than its competition. For recording/tracking of audio and editing of audio it is the best and extremly fast and efficient when you learn the workflow. The program also has a really small footprint, can be customised and is very flexible. The fact that all channels can be routed to everywhere and receive anything is great. Very very powerful, but might not be super easy for beginners.

Some of the stock plugs are pretty good and a lot of functionality can be added if you dig a bit deeper, but they will be pretty basic right out of the box. So beginners might find them a bit underwhelming.

I would advice all new (and old) users to learn from the videos at https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php to get a better understanding of the possibilities within Reaper.

PS: I now use Reaper mainly for tracking when I have recording-sessions with bands and artists, and when I do audio-editing. Production I now do mostly in Bitwig, but I have done a lot of production earlier in Reaper.

With the Imperial White Tie theme and the comprehensive suite of ReaPlugins, Reaper is a fully fledged industry standard DAW without limits. The learning curve is not steep but with so many useful features and regular updates, the gradual slope continues to climb as desired. The subprojects feature is a must have for any CPU intense, massively layered tracks and effects for more complex sound design, soundtrack and professional audio work.

Pros:

Great for audio and live recording.

Scripts and much more.

Cons:

Lots of features are missing in the MIDI and fx chain area.

FX Chain: there is no ability to make parallel connections between fx and synths inside a single track, this make it really messy when trying to make impressive racks or even simple parallel chains...

Automation: Automation envelopes don't give accurate results - untrustable. and there is no option to change it.

GUI: can't resize the fonts of the media browser files from the software itself since it uses windows's fonts, really hard in big screens like mine.

REAPER is a great DAW. It did take a bit of learning coming from Pro Tools, but any DAW will do that. I have Pro Tools, Studio One, Ableton Live, Mixbus, MPC Beats and REAPER. I keep coming back to REAPER because it is quick and flexible. I can do almost anything I can dream up in REAPER. I'll use my other DAWs to kick start creativity sometimes, but generally come back to REAPER to finish it off. I bought a license back in version 3 and am using v5.99 as my license ran out after two major updates (I will renew my update license eventually). They still have all the older versions available for download too.

Reaper has a suspicious activity. Why does a DAW ask for access to users' contacts? I deleted it right at the first trial.

Le must have suffisant .

Les + : son prix (achat unique), fiable, configurable à souhait, possibilités, formations comprises excellentes et très très nombreuses (gratuites), évolutions constantes (un vrai investissement), compatibilité, organisation de ses pistes...

J'ai l'impression que tout ce qu'on veut y ait ou sinon, cela va arriver avec une prochaine mise à jour (il suffit de demander ?).

Le - : tout est en anglais.

Pour moi, c'est juste un logiciel énorme et au top.

If you are seeking a good MIDI DAW for virtual instruments, forget about it. Reaper sucks for that. Just simply looping on the grid is a nightmare. If you just need a recording DAW that is super flexible in other ways, it's more than up to the task.

I use(d) Sonar, Cubasis, Reason, Ableton Live and recently bought Reaper after having tried it.

It is a huge surprise. I still use Ableton Live notably for Max for Live extensions but I was fed up by the weight and CPU ressources and the weak evolution of it comparing to its price. Notably MassiveX and Live or Maschine and Live on my MacBook Pro Core i5 RAM 8Go is very bad: CPU ressources are too high and the computer becomes too much warm.

With Reaper I can use all of this soft synths without any problem, the CPU stays normal. I only had troubles with Waves AR chamber.

The workflow of Reaper -after a little adaptation- is very nice and flexible. The sound is perfect, the design very nice to use and it never crashes either on my PC desktop and on my MacBook. The relation price-quality is just incredible with constant improvements.

I'm still discovering functionalities reading the good and complete manual and seeing the excellent videos.

The power of this software comparing to its weight and ressources consomption is just amazing! And the ability to melt Live with Reaper (Rearoute on PC, Soundflower on Mac, IAC on Mac for midi) allows to use the best of each environnement.

I'm a happy musician.

The new Reaper 6 is a really great step up. Reaper in general is among, if not, the best DAW for every kind of music.

Working in MIDI is great, its easy to add or change notes, changing velocity, position and length, named keys great for drum samplers, MIDI cc data envelopes, including pitchbend, its like automation just for the MIDI data, something I've always wanted, its finally here, and its perfect.

Super fast audio handling, splits, glue, render, audio clip effects in real time, not rendering with effects no no, its real time on the clip as if inserted on the inserts on a track, and its automatable. Clips are repeatable just by dragging it, its looped, not just cloned to unique clips, changes operate through out the clip loop. Super easy fade in and out slope curves and easy crossfades.

Automation is very powerful, you can toggle automation for the last touched parameter, all automation points can be turned into an automation clip that you can copy-paste all over and even on other parameters over other plugins on different tracks, no limits.

The mixer is very pleasant to work with, inserting effects is fast and its super easy to clone effects just by dragging them onto another channel, and removing then just requires alt+click, bypass is shift+click. Version 6 introduced embedded effects, so you can see minified versions of the compressor or eq f.ex. not nothing i use no matter which DAW, but it works fine. Also minor things like ctrl+clicking the peak indicator digits resets all digits on all channels, solo defeat, grouping, VCA and multiple layout types just makes it the best mixer on the market i think.

Last positive thing i wanna mention is the performance, its ridiculously efficient, super low CPU usage, super fast load on both program and projects, and it sounds just as good as all the other majors, especially with the new samplerate conversation engine introduced in version 6.

Negative things, well there's not much, one thing I'm missing is auto track colouring, but it can be archived by installing SWS which is a free Reaper extension. Actually, if i find that I'm missing something, its most likely already there in Reaper, just open the Actions window and search for it, and maybe assign a shortcut for it, or maybe design a macro including multiple actions, again, Reaper is quite limitless.

Simply an excellent and good-looking DAW for generic recording. Full demo version, with unlimited everything, is free (will just take longer and longer time to start), full version for personal, non-commercial use is like €60, and if you want to use it for commercial use (defined by your annual turn-over), it is just a little more expensive. Updated a number of times every year with new features and bugfixes. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux(!).

Excellent routing, excellent macro features, excellent shortcut remapping (allowing you to do complex tasks even triggered by MIDI events).

Contains a scripting engine that allows you to write your own VSTs for both audio and MIDI data in several different languages, even a quite simple one that anyone can learn by just modifying one of the huge amounts of pre-shipped scripts. I've actually even written a driver for a Novation LaunchControl XL, since its default reaper integration wasn't what I wanted it to be.

Updated a number of times every year with new features and bugfixes. You can even buy a print-out of the manual for a very cheap price, too.

Drawback: Not all DAW and keyboard controllers have dedicated settings for Reaper, but many newer ones do, and may even be shipped with overlays so you know exactly what each button does in the context of Reaper. I've heard some old-timers complain about it being hard to get into, but I - who haven't been working with other DAWs before and hence wasn't biased from the Big DAWs workflows - found it very easy to work with.

I think a newbie cannot go wrong with Reaper, and it'll never lack a feature you'll need as you grow with it.

Incredibly powerful and so versatile. Very good community and forums. Super present Administrators. Such as a 2h delay reply on a bug report and an actual solution provided quickly.

Extremely satisfying interface customizations. Full screen display. Excellent usage or computer ressources. Excellent MIDI editing. Awesome Keyboard shortcuts to infinite possibility with macros.

You can also create your own plugins, or transform the excellent Fabfilter Pro-Q 2 into a sidechain dynamic EQ with REAPER's integrated and easily applicable functions (parameter modulations). You can create anything like a custom multiband compressor with your favorite single band compressors... Most flexible ..endless..routing features I've ever seen. Coming from Cubase pro 9.5...

Perfect YouTube community for teaching tips and tricks accurately. Specially the "REAPER mania" channel by Kenny Gioia.

Super good not to say breath taking automation features such as automate the automation lane with advanced LFO. Including random LFO for humanizing MIDI sounds.

Extra high quality Sample Rate Conversion. FX chains presets stored easily and recalling on tracks or idividual items. Very efficient track freezing to save CPU and still be able to recall the previous settings by unfreezing.

Render speed faster than I ve experimented with Cubase.

Very stable. Super fast installation (11MB) and portable install possible on flash drive for example.

Can't think how much I should have stepped in REAPER faster. Would have saved money, time and energy and made better music. Honestly.

60 dollar for 2 complete versions?? Its almost free!.

Thanks to the devoloppers.

Alex.

After Henry da Vandal AKA Gibson bought out Cakewalk, I knew that it was time to get out of Dodge...

I had been a Cakewalk user since the stone age and a Sonar Pro user since it's inception and I knew the program pretty well and I thought that they really got it all together with the X3e Pro x64 update...

So I have started using REAPER 5 and I love it !

The install is minuscule, it loads faster than a speeding bullet and it is very well coded...

The workflow is extremely fast and it has never crashed or given me any grief...

Of course there is a learning curve, but like anything, if you log in the hours and check out the manual and the menus, it's not that painful...

Step by step and it all makes a little more sense...

Also, the tutorials that Kenny Gioia did are really great...very informative...Take a bow Kenny G :)

One of the things I have noticed through changing DAWS and adopting a slightly different workflow, is that I am using a lot less plugins and the sound is more "open" as a result of this...

I used to use the channel strips in Sonar X3e Pro extensively and they sounded great, but by using less effects in REAPER I feel that the results are much better...

It really does reinforce that the quality of the sound at the source is vital...

Anyway, I am happy to be using REAPER and it's great that Justin has this project on his menu..He made mega miilions out of Winamp and is blessed to be able to now spend his time pursing his passions..

That's a very cool thing...

REAPER is one of those passions and we are fortunate to be able to enjoy the fruits of his labour...

5 Stars for REAPER :)

I bought Reaper around five or six years ago. I'm not going to go through the features list as Cockos (www.reaper.fm) can do it better than I can. What is important though is that after Logic was sold to Mac, and I didn't want to buy a Mac (not just because I didn't like them - but because Mac were forcing people to migrate to a system I just did not prefer), I had to find another DAW.

Reaper back then was an insider tip and after comparing other free or lower priced DAWs, Reaper beat them all. I tested it until I bought it. Guys, for the little money you pay, you get a fully fledged DAW. This is not to say that Cockos should increase the price - on the contrary. The price was what initially attracted me to it (apart from the specs). It works! After transferring all of my songs from Logic to Reaper, I have never looked back.

What also sets Reaper apart from the overpriced competition is that you get loads of high quality VST plugins and the software is updated on a regular basis. You don't have to wait a couple of years for a fix and then pay for it. No, Sir! Every few weeks or months, Cockos has an update. It may not even be a fix but just an improvement. And as I am writing this, Cockos has a new update: version 5.12. This is what I call good service. Cockos have done the right thing by the consumer by offering a system that does the same as most other DAWS but even better in my opinion. They listen to users.

There was one minor issue I did want to raise. This doesn't reduce my overall rating but some people might think otherwise. I really miss the notator so that you view the score and print it out. I've since learned to to use the piano roll editor, but a proper score would be very helpful, especially for those who study music and or need to print it out for whatever reason. I have written a few orchestral arrangements, and if I were to have a classical musician play it, they'd expects notes. Music students may buy Logic or another program just because of this. A couple of my friends are music teachers who have stayed with Logic for this very reason. Cockos: you're losing a huge demographic here.

Otherwise, great program.

PS: I upgraded to Windows 10 a few days ago because I heard that latency issues had been improved. Reaper has always been stable. But Windows 10 has resolved the latency and popping/crackling sounds coming from my lexicon Omega (which I am currently updating). Reaper works fine in Windows 10.

This is it. What an amazing DAW! If You are willing to put in the time and effort to work thru the action list, this thing can do whatever You want, how You want it and in ways you haven't even thought of yet. The basic setup looks limiting at first if You are used to other DAWs like Live, Bitwig, Logic or ProTools, but once You get under the hood, it is fantastic. I bought this just a few months ago and I have just finished setting up my computer keyboard with easy to find shortcuts, every controller I have is mapped exactly like I want them, like they've never been mapped with any other software before. Even my Push have come to life with nativeKontrol PXT-General better than it works in both Live and Bitwig. It just works, is super stable, fast, low on CPU and the workflow is like nothing else. Sure there are some fancy things missing and it's not as pretty as other DAWs but hey I know that I am not looking back. I have found my DAW. The mapping and routing in both audio and MIDI is beyond anything I've tried before. And considering the price this just has to be an 11 out of 10.

For long time, my main DAW is Reaper. Its lightweight, fast, and customizable. Doesn't come with 1000's of samples and unneeded material. Yes - this is for those, who already have their VSTs and VSTIs and don't want the DAW to include those. No problem of installing, reinstalling, updating at all, you can even use it for free, or buy a license just for 60 bucks. You may think it lacks features, but it has really everything for creating music. You can't find any other DAW whose value/price is better than Reaper. Recording, automating, mixing anything with anything, placing MIDI and/or audio into tracks are simple and clever.

I've been in the game a while. I started in the mid-to-late 80's, with programs like Texture and Sequencer Plus Gold. Recorded to a Tascam 8-track with dbx, later with an Alesis ADAT, and did mixes to an Atari 1040ST running Hybrid Arts ADAP II.

Long, slow fade to a few years ago. Cakewalk Sonar (pre-Roland). Hangs and crashes. Lost sessions. Pushed through to the Roland acquisition era, still can't get what I need out of it.

Then, cue the angel chorus -- Reaper. $60 for a basic license? Built-in effects, native plugins that actually help my work flow, skins that make sense... and no hassle for upgrades? There's gotta be a catch, right?

The only catch is, you have to learn it. It's got a lot of features, and a lot of available customization, and it's easy for a rookie to get frustrated. Fortunately, the Cockos Reaper forum is full of helpful people who don't mind saying something besides "read the @#$%in' manual". There's lots of YouTube vids from actual pros who are using the program.

There will always be those who say,"it doesn't work like (a competitive program)." Well, if you can afford that program, grab it. But it will cost a lot more to do just about everything this one does.

Version 5 has improved the MIDI implementation considerably, and it's got one of the smallest data footprints I've ever seen, 8 MB (32-bit). It's backwards compatible to Windows XP... and it's cross-platform with OS X back to 10.5.

The demo is uncrippled, and there's no watermarks of any kind. What have you got to lose?

I have used Reaper for years, but always as a companion to Reason when I needed the use of some of my VST's for more in-depth audio editing. I also own and use Studio one Pro 3 and Samplitude ProX2 but I find the low CPU usage and compatibility with most plugins an endearing feature within reaper. Stability has always been pretty good but Version 5 for me has been far and away the most stable version of Reaper yet! The interface has had a little face lift and it seems to play very nice with about every theme you can imagine so skinning is a breeze. Plugins that seem to have trouble being found in other DAW's are always there and ready to load in Reaper 5 without any hassle. In the current state of music making software, programs like Cockos Reaper (and Reason) are a true gift in that they get you away from the computer side of music making and allow you more time to simply be creative. Version 5 has put Reaper at the very top of the DAW food chain for me and I hope to see even more of the same thing from them in the future.

xtrasmall instalation, superfast, a bunch of option but EVERYTHING is configurable, stable, excellent routing, best support and forum, price is too low :) Forget Cubase and competition that does not justify price, look no further - best DAW ever.

For me, this is the best DAW. Coming from Cubase originally, the learning curve was pretty steep. But the payoff was worth it. SUPER stable and the ability to easily route anything to anything is awesome as well. I haven't had a crash in years. Love it, love it, love it, love it.

Small, fast, light, stable, ton's of FX and good looking too.

REAPER is great. Built for the pro, priced for the beginner. From basic tracking and mixing all the way to advanced routing tricks and mastering, REAPER has you covered. It is not merely the sum of bullet points for all its features. REAPER is also high quality software. Any other "pro" DAW you try will install hundreds of megs of "stuff" you may never need or use. REAPER's install is slim (10-20 megs and most of that is the UI "skin"). If your goal is to record and mix audio then you won't do better than REAPER. Try it.

If you're looking for a an exhaustive reaper review, read the free manual... ;-) ... my two cents ... I've been working intensively with Cubase for years getting bugged more and more of its restrictions and clumsiness. A year ago I switched to reaper... it was like moving from a stumble-upon-on-entering-lumber-room to a catch-a-breath-meadow. It does not waste your time when loading large projects, neither huge numbers nor sloppy coded VSTs bring it to it's knees, and there are much more things to enjoy. Of course it's not perfect, using such a mighty tool one discovers many things to improve (e.g. the thing is getting crowded and confusing with functions, devs should focus on structure). But as far as I've been using it it supports me, and doing things in Reaper I haven't done before is a question of learning and not about constructing workarounds.

Back to my starting point... some months ago I bought the Cubase 8 Upgrade... setting the VST directories I got an error message, that one of the VSTs is corrupt... and Cubase stopped reading and initializing my VST collection. None of my VSTs was available inside of Cubase... emails to Steinberg... digging for logs... Reaper just told me, that there's a corrupt VSTi it would not add to the FX list... all my VSTs were available (except for the corrupt one). A single simple example, but its exemplary for what is featuring Reaper. Using Reaper the complexity of your working is your decision, and not a coercion of your DAW.

KVR *really* needs to fix its review system so that old reviews with no numbered rating don't register as "0 out of 10". Reaper's the best DAW out there, period, especially if you're the DIY type, this is the best set of tools available for making things happen. Only gets better and the devs have an awesome attitude. Jesusonic alone is reason for me to sing Reaper's praises, but it offers so much more.

The only thing I miss in Reaper for now is some kind of Ableton's "session view" and M4L-like data flow routing/programming. Everything else is perfect. The best DAW I've ever used.

Brilliant piece of software... Learn the reaper way of doing things and chances are you wont miss much from any other DAW. All the tools you need to make a pro mix are there, and the modulation routing makes it possible to create advanced Automations from audio signals... Vocal riding, side chaining, etc.

Highly underrated by many... And loads of free tutorials online to help you get started.

Cheers V.

best daw I have used, and many of them extremely more expensive! it has (for me at least) a fast work flow, fair prize, and it seems to be light on cpu. when given big resources as overclocked cpu, ssd's for save and work folder on ramdisk, it responds with fast handling and zero latency on almost as many active tracks with live monitoring as you want! it has tons of configuration and functionality, good sound and fast handling of almost anything.

it has some really great built in plugins, they have good sound, but looks boring. so try them, don't just look at them.

it can rewire as another output on your pc, so if you are a freak as me, you can send the sound from your media player to reaper as an asio driver and make a hell of a sound when torturing your home cinema.

the only negative I can think of is the plugins UI looks boring, only standard knobs with text. when you start to use them it actually is a good thing, cause you don't have to look at all the fancy stuff, you read the text, then tweak the knobs. it's faster that way.

it's stupid, but most people want things to look cool instead of working well! so, reaper is a really good daw, but I think more people would use it if the plugs had a cooler look.

try it, it's free to try, and if you buy it's prized on a basis of what you'll use it for.

I've used Pro Tools LE since 2001 and switched to Reaper about 2010. Don't know much about other DAWs, so I can only compare it to PT. Reaper is fast and light, the exact opposite of bloatware. The download is only 7-13 MB (depends on your OS). The application only takes up 42MB on my system. It launches in under 5 seconds. It only costs $60. And yet after recording and mixing several CDs with it, I can honestly say that there is NOT A SINGLE THING I miss about Pro Tools.

Reaper does things Pro Tools can't do. It supports things like FLAC and OSC. It supports older systems like Windows 2000, OS X 10.4, and even Linux. It has a built-in programming language that lets you write your own effects. It can be a rewire slave, it can receive MIDI via rewire, and it can handle multi-channel MIDI files.

The only thing that some might consider an omission is the lack of built-in software instruments. I say, just download some of the many free VSTi's to be found here, and skip the bloat.

I used to use pro tools M powerd then got a focusrite pro 40 and went to cubase that my girl got me as a gift. I really liked it as far as how it handled latency and MIDI but i don't do a lot of MIDI stuff.

Now a little while ago I had water damage in my studio my main computer and my I loc died now im on a laptop 2.3 ghz old I7 with 8 gigs of RAM. so I switched to reaper so far Its what I did not like in cubase but I lacks a few things.

overall if you get over the customizations and just use it to get some music done you cant complain. often fanboys just like all the stuff you can do.

The problems that I come across With using this DAW can be considered minor and major for who uses it. For one The MIDI control on reaper is not what you would consider the best in any way. Its overall control of MIDI is fine but its ability to make it easy and quick are just lacking. I dont have to use MIDI much because of the styles I mix and I usually just get sent tracks to mix so when i do need a synth its basic minor stuff so the controls are not a huge issue but sometimes I want it to be more indepth.

the other problem i notice is this high latency makes reaper crap out when i use alot of high latency stuff on a project say a combo of like my verbtone my stripbus on every channel and a instance of specter on the reverb channel I notice it kinda starts to crap out. cubase does not do that. I wish i was willing to get a new i loc but I dont have a million usb inputs to spare so I would rather not. so im stuck with reaper.

personally if they could fix those two things i would give it a ten I have gotten alot more work done alot quicker and alot easier because of its basic set up I like to think of things as do what works not what everyone else does keep it simple mix in mono use eq and compression to separate and some reverb or delay to give depth and your good so reaper is perfect for me. sometimes though i need some MIDI and sometimes.

all in all though its a bang for a good buck I use it not thinking of the price or look but on what i can do with it and so far its great glad i have it and I probably will not switch to anything else I love supporting smaller developers like sknote, klanghelm, eareckon, and cockos all of them great great developers and I do love the stillwell plugins that reaper has. I plan on buying a lot of those because of using reaper so that's another great product i hope to soon own. but bills and living in LA are not cheep ha but yea great program some small things that really are not to much of a problem. And usually things get resolved quick with reaper its got a huge do what the fans want kind of feel to it and for me its just right.

Version 4.14 is out. High time to review the newest version of this masterpiece.

First statement: With REAPER you can record, arrange, mix, remix and mangle audio in highest professional quality.

Handling: REAPER has it's own way getting things done. If you are used to another DAW that can be a bit strange first. One thing that REAPER-starters often struggle with ist the fact, that there is only one sort of track. These tracks can hold any kind of data (midi, audio). They have to be routed carefully (REAPER helps you doing this, though). Data, controllers, audio etc. can be sent across the programm with ease. Building up a kick-drum-side-chain-compression is a calkewalk....when you have understood what REAPER does. To be honest: It is a bit confusing first. On the other hand, when you found a working setup, you can save it as a template (for tracks, for VSTis, for FX, the whole setup). Templates are a set and forget feature. You just have to think things over once. Conclusion: A bit of work until you got it -> then a lot of power and a lot of unique features.

Features: Reaper ist complete. It offers a lot of tools other DAW-Software lacks of, or just provides in the high-end product range. It works with any soundcard (from onboard to mulit in-out) with ASIO-support (I didn't work with Core-Audio so I can't say anything about that).

Fast: REAPER is fast, very fast. I just could compare it to Cubase Essential 5. It is ready to rock in about 10 seconds. Cubase in comparism often took several minutes to start up. Don't know why. I have lots of plugins in both programs but REAPER starts extremely fast.

FX: There is any Studio FX you can think of. High class Reverb (algorithm), High class Convolution (zero latency), Delay, EQ, Flanger, Chorus and more specific FX like FIR-noise reduction with noise-print and it's working automatic. All kind of dynamic FX (Limiter, Comp, Gate, Multiband Comp). And a lot more beause you can use the Jesusonic-FX along with VST-FX. Those provide hundreds of FX and can be tweaked to your needs. I would say that no other DAW-software is that well armed with Plug-Ins. What it lacks a bit is a good synth or a good sampler. The ones that come along with the DAW are very basic.

Recording: REAPER offers a lot of cool functions. For example: You could define a loop an then record a few passes. After you stopped recording you can easily cut the best parts an comp them together. Thanks to stacked recording/editing. Very handy when recording complicatet parts and much better than punch in / punch out (but you can punch in / out if you like). This is one example for a feature that CUBASE only offers in it's high priced versions.

Editing: Wave editing is a bit basic when it comes to mangle the actual waveform. You can embed an external Audio-Editor if you want. I never needed that. The Non-destructive editing is all that I need. Midi-editing is also very good. Every tool you would need is there (Quantize, draw, Scale correct etc.).

Customizing: That is one of the best features of all. You can customize any menu and any toolbar to your specific needs. You can even chain several commands in the order you like and then aply them via on button in your customized toolbar. You can download lots of Themes with different Layouts or you can create your own ones if you are desperate to do so. Chances are that is not necessery. There are lot of very good ones to download from their page.

Extensions: REAPER is open to other software-developers for extending the programm. You can download new features if you need them (you will need them because they are so cool). Example: The groove-tool. Extract the groove of one recording and transfer that groove to another recording (Audio & Midi).

Edit (2016): The scripting capabilities of REAPER are one major plus. A lot of users write their own scripts that can be installed and run to complement the programms native functions. There is a wide range of possibilities, eg. a very complex quantize tool that can quantize anything (notes, items, etc.) or a beat mapping function that automatically inserts stretch-markers at transients. All of this is bundled in the so called ReaPack, so not every script has to be installed manually but in one clean way. The scripts can also be updated via ReaPack.

The Community: If you need help. Go for the REAPER-forum. Questions are usualy answered within minutes. Feel safe and comfortable there. Very friendly people!!!.

Value for Money: Very, very, very good pricing. REAPER offers 2 pricing models. Full commercial and small buisness. That doesn't change anything in the features like in all the other DAW programms (e. g. Cubase). You get a full-featured software. For hobby-users that is phanastic. REAPER gives free acces to 2 generations. That means: Buy version 4.xx and get free updates/upgrades until version 5.99.

Updates: REAPER is updated very often (normally every few weeks) with official releases and also gives access to pre-releases. So chances are, if you have an issue with something, the problem get's solved very soon.

Summing up: You may like or may not like REAPER for its specific design. But there are not so much reasons for any factual citicism. REAPER is a classic DAW. So it may not be the tool for someone who is first of all working with loops (like in Ableton Live). But REAPER is a serious Rival for programms like Cubase, Pro Tools and Logic. It is available on both major platforms (Mac and PC). Coming from Cubase, I switched to REAPER because it ist full of features and reasonably priced.