The dark side

[Arthur LabusModerator]

You can also have my Reaper projects of our collaborations. If you just look after some free plugins i've used, you should have it almost complete. Almost, because i've use at least one plugin i've payed for (6,99 € ?!) - Amp simulation.
And really take a closer look to the themes above!

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Hi Anders, welcome to the dark side 🙂

I like the Reaper theme Arthur 🙂

[Arthur LabusModerator]

Yes, i also still impressed 🙂 That LCS mod on one big Display with tracks and mixer. That's it !

[Jan GrunwaldParticipant]

Hi Mark,

another reaper user here, and to your question: I am using a several waves plugins in reaper, never had a problem. (I just don't like their "waves central" license system with all this hoo-ha when I want to use them on a different computer - but that has nothing to do with reaper).

Regards from Germany

Jan

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Hey Jan,
Thanks for the waves info. I am also put off by the downloader thing but I might try some of the demos then when I get some spare time. I have the same issue with the Slate products using the key lock thing.
Cheers Mark

[Stephen KorstParticipant]

Seriously considering a deep dive into the "dark" side. I don't have any experience using other DAWs besides Sonar. Mainly didn't want to spend hundreds of more dollars and time learning another DAW, but the evaluation period and user price really have me interested. So far, I haven't done much with it except some minor mixing but it seems very easy to get acclimated with the basics. Good customer service website and videos on YT. I especially like the fact that I can continue to use most of the plugins I have except some proprietary ones exclusive to Cakewalk. More to follow...

[Kevin CoulterParticipant]

There are a bunch of us already on the Darkside. My only DAW after doing some pretty deep analysis. I know ProTools is the industry standard, but the pricing, and cost for add-ons, and tools is pretty steep for my budget.

Right now I'm using Slate plug-ins with the standard default plugins. I try to us the default plugins for just about everything to see how creative I can get with them. I'll use Slate for the Master Bus on my final mixes.

Check out the following for some of the best tips and walk throughs on YouTube:
Kenny Gioia on ReaperMania - award winning Producer/Engineer from NY. I find his vids are some of the best. He does a whole walkthrough around navigation, keystroke shortcuts, quantizing, folders, buses, routing, etc.

ReaperTV - Paul C of Suicide Evolution Studios - I find he does a lot around themes, customization, plugins, and some thing you may or may not notice around the Reaper interface.

Reaper Blog - Jon Tidy from Canada- this was actually one of the first Reaper Youtube channels I followed. Again, some good indepth stuff here. He's a little laid back, but he shows some pretty good stuff especially around routing, customization, etc.

They all have some great stuff around use of plug-ins, some of their favorite plug-ins, FX busing, folder management, etc.

There are many others out there. One of the things I like most about Reaper is the community is very strong, helpful, and, for the most part, stays pretty positive.

Have fun!
Kevin

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Hi Kevin,

I know what you mean about the community. Lack of information, how to's etc was my biggest complaint when I started to use Reaper about 10 years ago but people have filled those gaps nicely. I tried using a few different DAWs back then and found Reaper to be the most intuitive for me. I really liked the idea that a Track can be anything you wanted it to be like WAV, MP3, Midi, Buss, Folder, Group etc. It makes my templates very visual and easy to follow on recall.

Regards Mark

[Not_HereParticipant]

But of course there are others who are on the Dark Side! But, what has happened? I think I just saw a tumbleweed rolling across my screen, and I think I hear some type of whistling like from an Eastwood movie.

Anyways, maybe things just need a little dusting off 'round here..

Peace

[Jonathan MarshallParticipant]

Very old thread I know but just in case someone else is reading this and wondering - Reaper works perfectly with Waves plugins. I had them installed in Pro Tools and when I installed Reaper they were just there in the list. Loving the stability and attention to minor details so far. Haven't yet mixed anything - just playing and testing - but not having to reboot the computer (or even reload the software) if the interface gets unplugged and then plugged in again is brilliant. Also appreciate other seemingly simple things like the mono button on the master and 'Save new version of project' that I had to do by hand in Pro Tools.

Jonathan

[Terry StambaughParticipant]

I'm another fan of the 'dark side'. 🙂 I tried most of the free and trial versions of the other DAWS over the last month or two, and was very impressed by the quick installation, flexibility, capability, customization, speed, and ease of use of Reaper. It runs faster than any of the others I tried - sometimes Pro Tools|First won't even load or gets stuck on a screen, or just errors off. So far no aborts at all with Reaper. This week I found out that one of the stock reverb plugins (ReaVerb) acts as a convolution reverb, so I can use IRs including the free Lexicon set. Pretty impressive for out of the box, especially at the price. I switched to the theme Default_Commala_5_2018 and find it very easy on my old eyes. Added some track icons and it's a joy compared to other DAWS.

Terry

[Not_HereParticipant]

[quote quote=51866]Very old thread I know but just in case someone else is reading this and wondering - Reaper works perfectly with Waves plugins. I had them installed in Pro Tools and when I installed Reaper they were just there in the list. Loving the stability and attention to minor details so far. Haven't yet mixed anything - just playing and testing - but not having to reboot the computer (or even reload the software) if the interface gets unplugged and then plugged in again is brilliant. Also appreciate other seemingly simple things like the mono button on the master and 'Save new version of project' that I had to do by hand in Pro Tools.
Jonathan[/quote]

It works well with most everything. In hanging out in the Reaper forums, what I see is that there are issues with plugins here and there. Even with Waves (of which I have a fairly nice collection building up - I love 'em) there have been crashes, but more than likely they are adding to probs with processor or memory of the box it's running in/on. No matter what, if I am running 100 instances of 50 different plugs, plus recording, and video to three monitors, my laptop might just freeze.. HAHAHAA

As far as Reaper and Waves though, I have had smooth sailing. If you see that you are using to much processor or running out of ram, then just freeze the tracks you're not working on.

[quote quote=52001]I'm another fan of the 'dark side'. I tried most of the free and trial versions of the other DAWS over the last month or two, and was very impressed by the quick installation, flexibility, capability, customization, speed, and ease of use of Reaper. It runs faster than any of the others I tried - sometimes Pro Tools|First won't even load or gets stuck on a screen, or just errors off. So far no aborts at all with Reaper. This week I found out that one of the stock reverb plugins (ReaVerb) acts as a convolution reverb, so I can use IRs including the free Lexicon set. Pretty impressive for out of the box, especially at the price. I switched to the theme Default_Commala_5_2018 and find it very easy on my old eyes. Added some track icons and it's a joy compared to other DAWS.
Terry[/quote]

I'm not all "fan-boy" nutty. However...
Reaper just keeps getting better and better the more I use it. I cannot see where it is limited. What I see/hear being done with it is amazing. I'm barely past crawling stage with it compared to some. It can be overwhelming for sure. The Kenny Video's are my go to reference for anything that I need to do. I haven't gotten anywhere near close to needing more info than in those vids. I find that watching the Pro's (like Warren here) using PT, I can directly apply what I'm seeing into Reaper nearly in an identical manner. Cool thing is there is TONS more after I (if ever) outgrow that level of knowledge and use in Kenny's Vids. Taking part in the Reaper Mix contest with only the Stock plugs for sure teaches a few valuable lessons. I understand 3rd party plugs and what they are doing after having to use the stock plugs and manually create functions and chains, as compared to the "magic one knob" of some other plugs.
I like that I don't feel like I have to learn Reaper, as much as I can make reaper fit what I want to learn. It allows my workflow and processes to grow organically as my skillsets increase. Reaper becomes my Custom DAW, and doesn't force me to be limited by some convoluted pretty colored signal path that makes no sense or resemblance to how I learned to do it on a FOH system.

Watch out for the tumbleweeds in here!

Peace!

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