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Old 02-15-2010, 11:55 AM   #1
Beneficial
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Default Considering switching to Reaper and have a few questions

I'm getting really sick of Steinberg and Cubase and have read a lot of great things about Reaper. I was wondering about a few features.

- Can you record audio into a reaper track... chop it into parts... and drag and drop the parts as wavs into a VST plugin like Battery, Guru, etc (or maybe Reaper comes with it's own sampler type plugin)?

- If my audio interface operats at 24bits... and I record audio into Reaper... does Reaper automatically upsample it to 32 or 64bits for internal processing... then downsample it again when passing it into a plugin? I'm looking for a DAW with minimal conversions in the audio path. I feel like Cubase imparts a sound on my stuff that I don't like, and I think it's due to a lot of unnecessary conversions (could be wrong).

- Can you make device panels to control external midi hardware in Reaper? What about VST type device panes that let you save presets... then when you load those presets Reaper sends them out to reset the midi devices?

- Can you create and store midi groove templates?

I'm sure I'll have more questions. I need to get my hands on the manual and start figuring stuff out. Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Old 02-15-2010, 02:53 PM   #2
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I wouldn't worry about bit conversions, it's just like allowing decimal points in decimal maths. Not to be mixed up with SRC...

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Old 02-15-2010, 03:14 PM   #3
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Your best bet must be to try it out for free, REAPER is winning a lot of converts but only you can make up your own mind - which you can do in the trial period.

REAPER does things other daws don't do - and you can't really leave that out of the equation. If you are wholly reliant on certain features like groove quantize you may find it lacking. However, it all depends on how you like to work.

I was a serious Cubase and FL Studio user before trying REAPER. FL Studio still comes in handy much more than Cubase though, which was deleted long time ago, it just used to screw up to often.

REAPER is rock solid, and incredibly flexible - and powerful!
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Old 02-15-2010, 04:35 PM   #4
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Hey,

I recently moved over to Reaper after years of working on other software, including Cubase, Nuendo, Logic etc...

Firstly, I have to agree with Tedwood when he says that the only way to evaluate it is by trying it out. It is a very non-invasive installation (a few Mb and no system files) and so can easily be deleted without any pain. Reaper does offer a very different take on Audio production and its full capacities have to be explored to be appreciated.

In terms of your questions, I can only answer a couple of them.

1/ Sampler. Yes Reaper does come with its own sample player. You can read about it here: http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php...mplomatic_5000. As for drag 'n' drop...it has an "import a selected sample from arrange" function rather than drag and drop.

2/ Upsampling and conversion: My impression of Reaper is that it reads the file format directly without conversion. I might be wrong but it reads directly from a source file. So if you record in 24bit, it will read in 24bit. If you record in 192kbps mp3 (but why oh why would you want to?) it will read that format directly. The 64bit processing path applies to the way the audio is treated in the rest of the programme, through plugins etc. So no useless conversion there...

3/ Device panels...Can't help you there...

4/ Groove templates, I don't think so. At least I have not yet come across one but there may be an equivalent. However, considering the frequency of the updates from the developers there is nothing stopping you asking for one.

Reaper, thus far, has performed admirably. It does require a certain amount of adaptation in order to get around the routing and some of the more detailed options. But it is light, stable and powerful.

Lastly, and on a slightly more personal note (if I may) their licence is admirable.

I am sure that I will find things in time that I might wish for, but I will not hesitate to put them on the wishlist for future versions. However, the user forum is a strong one and there are a lot of users who are suggesting many constructive improvements. An excellent asset to the development team.

Anyway, try it and see. Costs nothing and you have a lot of time to figure it out!

Hope this helps...
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Last edited by Eden-X; 02-15-2010 at 05:04 PM. Reason: Spelling...duh! and new info.
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Old 02-15-2010, 06:07 PM   #5
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The groove thing isn't happening in reaper that I can see. I've put out a couple of feelers about it and have not gotten any responses.

Check this out though

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.p...ht=midi+groove

I'm too new to understand what is going on (and didn't get a response, maybe because it's a dev forum) but I feel someone somewhere is working on it.
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Old 02-15-2010, 06:49 PM   #6
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I think you'll be OK with everything but the groove template. MIDI is not Reapers strongest suit, audio routing, effiency, and stability is (IMHO). Coming from cubase you'll notice a lack of tools. They are all there, you just use KB shortcuts. Once you get use to the work flow you'll like it. Give it a try.
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Old 02-16-2010, 04:15 AM   #7
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Plus, speaking from my own experience, when you really get stuck trying to figure out how to do something you can just search this forum or ask and get a friendly reply usually within minutes. You can't underestimate the value of this forum as a resource.

I came from Cubase as well because I got sick of the error messages and instability interrupting my workflow. There's none of that in Reaper, it just works.
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Old 02-16-2010, 05:46 AM   #8
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With holding control and alt, you can drag and drop straight into kontakt from the arrange or out of reaper too

Search for threads by a user called "fingers" to find his groove extension.

Also, go to resource page and get the sws extension, it's a one file install and doubles reaper's ability!
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Old 02-16-2010, 05:51 AM   #9
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Also, right click a track and enable "reacontrol" to get a midi plug that allows sysex to be stored and output when song loaded i think you can assign and create alias names to track control panels (knobs directly on your mixer and arrange tracks) and then save this as a track template for easy loading later
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