Cockos Reaper DAW

Billed as a fully featured multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing, and mastering environment. Probably most comparable to Pro Tools than any other DAW.
Hated by many but dearly adored by some.

Alot of people look for alternatives to FL, maybe to advance their production, but can't afford the pricier DAWs. Reaper comes in at $225 or just $50 for non-commercial use (i.e. home use). It is my understanding that with the non commercial license you can't sell beats you've made using the program, but you can upgrade your license.

I came across Reaper in a search for an alternative to FL, as I was tired of the demo but didn't have the money for it. Reaper has a great demo with it, its completely unlimited, allowing you to save projects and render files. It has a trial period, but you can still use it after it has expired, you just have to considor making a purchase everytime you use it.

Right, enough about that, whats the DAW like.

Well first its a multitrack sequencer, different from FL which has a pattern and playlist model. You have an ongoing sequencer, which goes along with time. Whether this is better or not is up to personal preference, but it makes more sense to me than a pattern and playlist model. Reaper natively supports VST, VSTi, AU, DXi, DX and JS and comes with hundreds of JS mixing plugins (Reverb, EQ, Compressors etc) as well as a dozen or so of very good Cockos VSTs. It handles every type of media file imaginable, WAV, AIFF, OGG, FLAC, ACID, APE and wpm. Another advantage of Reaper is its size, the installer is just 4mb, and the program loads and runs very quickly, (I've been running it on a computer with Vista and 512mb :P), this also means you can run it off a USB stick, meaning you can carry it around with you (I don't condone taking it to school though :D). Its a very powerful DAW, allows many midi and audio editing features, has low latency, has a 64bit audio engine and has excellent midi support and audio recording.

Sounds great right? So why is it not so popular? Well its not easy to use, it claims to be intuitive and flexible, and it is, its skinable, you can dock windows and have it customised as you like, but its not easy to use. When I first got it, it tooks hours just to

get sound out of it, same thing happened to rocsta (who pointed me towards it btw), as well as problems getting midi set up at first.
Do not expect it to run like FL, you wont be able to make beats in it so quickly. For example, say u have a kick drum wav you want to use, and want to play a 2bar loop. You have to create a new track, add a VST to it (Sampleomatic), load your wav file up in that, configure the VST (change the pitch, make sure its playing on the midi note you want, make sure note off is off etc etc), then arm the track for recording data from your midi, then arm the track to monitor what your recording. Hit record and play your 2bar loop. Then go into your piano roll and trunctuate the peice to be exactly 2bars and then loop it as many bars as you want. Complicated right, just to record a kick pattern.
But, once you get used to it, its great. I use it to track into atm and mix with, so I'm mainly using it for audio and its great for it.

But its certainly not a great DAW for making a beat quick.

It does support ReWire, so I strongly recommend wiring FL into it, though I can't comment on this myself.

Strengths - Incredibly powerful DAW, with some great features that even some of the leading DAWs are missing.
Weaknesses - Not easy to use, you will have to learn alot and be very patient with it. Not easy to quickly make a beat in or get down an idea.

Conclusion - If you've spoken to me you'll know I love Reaper and hate it. I love working with it, then it'll bug me so much I want to throw my computer out the window. Certainly try out the demo, its a small program, leaves no mess in registry and is unlimited, but be patient with it. But if your just looking for something to make beats in quickly, then this probably isnt for you.

Rating - If your looking a DAW to handle audio as well as midi and have patience and no money- 8/10
 If you have no use for a multitrack recorder and don't work with audio much - 2/10

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/