Seeking Wisdom From Other ProTools Expats

[JRTaylorMusic]

TLDR: What should I carry over from ProTools vs adapting to Reaper?

I know ProTools like the back of my hand. It has been rock solid and virtually transparent, allowing me to just get work done. I started with Emu/Ensoniq PARIS (that dates me), then used Digital Performer for nearly 10 years. I purchased an M-Audio version of ProTools to take sessions from clients. It instantly felt intuitive and I found the workflow vastly superior. When they opened it up to using 3rd party hardware, I switched and haven't even considered anything else until the last year or two.

After hearing so many good things about Reaper (to the point I've recommended it to colleagues and greenhorns), I thought I'd watch a few hours of KG's videos over spring break. I found Reaper to be capable of things I have only imagined (not to mention I can work from my new MacBook Pro without a dangling dongle!). And the greatest impetus has been the headaches caused by lack of ADC in side chains..

I decided to give it a serious go over the past couple weeks and have done several client mixes. But while there's so much to love, I keep getting hung up and bogged down on the complexity. In my second week, I was working on something requiring enough editing for me to get frustrated. I had a deadline so I didn't have time to review more videos, so I gave in and bought the full suite from ProToosToReaper.com, which helped me finish the project in time.

However, I already began to miss some of the Reaper workflow. And since PTtoReaper is not 100%, thus requiring me to adapt anyway, I feel I should give more consideration to changing my habits. That said, there are some things about PT where I simply can't imagine a more efficient way to do things.

So here is my quandary, for which I seek wisdom/guidance of those whom have already been here: If I can find Reaper to be as transparent as I have found ProTools, I'm willing to invest more time. But how much should I impose PT actions/workflow upon Reaper? Any? None? Am I heading down a path of inevitable frustration so I should cut my losses and turn back now?

Thanks!

[Tone Ranger]

Hello there - I switched from Pro Tools (20 years) to Reaper this past year, and am very happy with the decision. Like you, I started out trying to bring over a lot of my Pro Tools work flow to make the changeover less stressful, but I'm finding more and more that I'm readjusting my work flow and enjoying new ways of doing things as I get more used to Reaper and what it can do. What was initially slow and a bit frustrating (gotta break that muscle memory!) is really starting to flip around - I had to go back to Pro Tools for a session not long ago and to be honest I hated it....and really missed Reaper (for many reasons). As time goes on, I've been moving my key commands away from a lot of the Pro Tools ones to others I actually find more convenient....and finding new ways of doing things with custom actions and work flows that aren't possible with Pro Tools....

So after that long winded explanation, I'd suggest bringing over the stuff you need for now - don't try and overthink where you might decide to go in 6 months or a year when you're more comfortable with Reaper. Get yourself in a comfortable place for now, and you'll probably end up refining and changing things when you're ready! I tried to anticipate what I'd want down the line from Reaper and in a lot of cases I was wrong. So don't overthink it too much!! You'll hone things down naturally as you go, change things you don't like little by little, and most likely will never want to touch Pro Tools again once you're in the swing of things here. Best of luck man!!! 🍻

[tdc]

Hi JR,

I am in a similar boat as you but I think I am a few months further down the road. I tried moving from PT about 8 months ago but like you found the stress too much as I learnt more about Reaper whilst delivering projects. Faders and tactile controls are important to me and back then Geoff's CSI Project had some ways to come, so I would not only be losing the familiarity of Pro Tools, but also my control surface (S3 and transport).

With the challenges of COVID-19, I decided to resurrect my interest in moving to Reaper, and was so pleased to find the the CSI project had made leaps and bounds. After a week of total absorption into the Reaper world, I think I am almost committed to migrating. Last up is trying out a full 2-3hr 180ch mix with 4K video proxies. But, initial tests suggests this is completely fine.

I LOVE the efficiency of Reaper, it seems to offload all DSP through a wormhole to another dimension, as the app often shows its using less resources that Apple Notes.app. insane. And how the hell has Cockos made all this in a 20mb download? Nuts!. I LOVE the almost complete accessibility of actions and scripting. If you think of a workflow, you can probably make it! And, you can get into coding your own plugins. I am ambivalent about the GUI.... I know this is personal, but its important to me. My resistance to spending time modding a theme to my needs is reducing, and I know it will pay dividends.

During this week of deep diving into Reaper, Avid released the long awaited update to Pro Tools 20.3, which of course finally adds folders to Pro Tools. Downloading and installing this update I felt sad as I felt potentially resigned to returning to the old familiar workflow, and to forget about the new freedoms found in Reaper. Yes, PT is familiar and the interface makes me feel less stressed, but opening it up and trying out the new features, I was struck by a sense of constraint.

During my week of testing with the 180ch session, Reaper never crashed, stopped, complained or even raised a sweat at this project. However, opening up and playing this session in PT 20.3 , it wasn't long before the session stopped and complained of the occasional CPU, or disk issues. Not a quantitive study of course, but just a day in the life of PT in my experience.

Thats a long rant sorry.

At the end of the day, I feel that we are part of a growing movement of folks who are looking for something different in our Tools. My view is that Reaper and its insane extensibility, coupled with the CSI Project, is an amazing production workflow option for those who are open to getting their hands dirty. I thinks its important we don't down-play the very steep learning and configuration curve, as this present a significant barrier to entry for a lot of folks.

Best of luck!

[JRTaylorMusic]

Thank you!! Especially with all the quarantine isolation, I've been feeling particularly alone here ;p so this helps tremendously!

@Tone Ranger – yours is exactly the "voice from the other side" I needed – thank you!!

@tdc – I didn't realize it was out yet! That's great since I still have to finish an EP for a client in PT. Downloading now... of course it still doesn't have ADC for sidechaining, which is one of the main reasons I dove into Reaper.

I'm feeling better already.

[Tone Ranger]

Glad to be of help man, I didn't know many people using Reaper when I was making the switch, so this forum was an incredible help. A lot of fantastic people here who go out of their way to help....hopefully you'll find it as great a resource as I did/do!

Funny you mention sidechaining in PT with no ADC, one of the first things to really start to piss me off with Pro Tools. Feels so much better here with developers who actually listen to what the users want...Avid has gone completely off the rails LOL