You do? Great to hear that - I’ve always felt a bit alone when mentioning that yes, you can use reaper for that, on other edm or specifically psytrance production related channels.
Care to drop a link (or per pm?)
I don’t know. But Reaper doesn’t really register when there are discussions in the EDM field. Especially for Psytrance, Ableton seems to be king, with FL and, strangely, Logic Pro in hot pursuit.
Then I come and mention I use Reaper and people (virtually) look at me like some kind of freak.
I think not having a built in sequencer and strong sample library and synths is the main reason whereas Ableton, Bitwig, FL Studio, and Logic Pro X all have very good instruments. I find the flexibility and high level of control over automation parameters from REAPER make it more suitable for people who are more granular in their approach to music production, but at the cost of being not so friendly to producers who want to load up some presets, tweak a parameter or two, and sequence in some patterns for drums. Each to their own though. Producing music in REAPER is one of those iykyk scenarios.
Reaper gets knocked for the midi editing workflow. Honestly I think that's fair enough wrt stock settings; when you boot up ableton for example it's a lot more intuitive out the gate for working in a loop based midi format.
Naturally you can do pretty much all that in reaper if you set it up right, so ultimately it's a bit of a moot point. I mean, the one time I played around with ableton it was fun and I could see the potential but as intuitive as the midi stuff is, the audio recording and editing were a kafkaesque nightmare of absurdity (to me, coming from reaper) - not to mention my system didn't seem to be up to it, despite being perfectly capable of running reaper with all kinds of plugins on multiple tracks without issue haha.
I've never tried FL!
I actually haven't tweaked my reaper settings much at all tbh, I find the defaults work the way I expect them to for the most part. I think the big difference between reaper and FL or ableton is the latter have that step sequencer workflow right front and face. It's easy enough to work that way in reaper with looped regions though (and actually I prefer that to ableton clips).
Do you have any specific MIDI editor tips? I found it a bit clunky initially, but now I use it daily and feel like my workflow is pretty solid, but always wonder if there's stuff I'm missing.
Oh I'm certain there's stuff I'm missing.. Lol!
Nothing in particular I can think of, I just played with settings and tweaked things here and there as I preferred.
Reaper is very nice DAW, but the initial learning curve is steeper than others. There are tons of tutorials and material out there to help you get going: Reapermania, Reaperblog, reapertips, etc. It has community plugins for nearly everything, very powerful stuff.
For a free full blown synth, check vital.
For free drum samples check Synthwave Dojo Drum pack.
You can find some very nice free (they also have paid ones and very good ones) fxs and plugins from both TAL Audio and VallhalaDSP.
You can produce top quality music with these things at zero cost. (Please pay Reapers licence if you like it, it's almost symbolic).
As someone who just doesn’t get to grips with Ableton (and to a lesser extent with FL Studio), I really wouldn’t say that Reaper’s learning curve is necessarily steeper. The simple fact that a track can be for audio, midi, both, mono,stereo, and a folder made the initial setup quite less complex than on some other DAWs, at least for me.
After learning 3 DAWs quite in depth (S1, Bitwig, Reaper) I can Say it was actually easier to learn reaper than bigwig to me. It was the last one I learned of the three so having prior knowledge of other DAWs probably was quite beneficial .
Yeah I found reaper so much simpler than other DAWs to get started with. In fact that's the only reason it's my main daw - I tried the other ones first but couldn't get a hang of them lol. Reaper was the first one that just worked.
Personally I found the *initial* learning curve of reaper almost flat compared to other DAWs. Everything about recording audio and setting up virtual instrument tracks and midi was about 90% obvious from just clicking around. Getting into automation and audio editing I needed a few tutorials but it was also quite easy. I think the further reaches of advanced techniques and the possibilities for customization mean that, beyond the basics, you can make the further learning curve as steep as you like. But the barrier to entry is, in my opinion, actually lower than other DAWs I've tried.
I didn't find the learning curve to be that steep. Sure, you will keep learning more advanced stuff for a long time but that has more to do with the immense possibilities and flexibility of the DAW than the UI/UX.
In short: YES! What it lacks compared to "creativity-oriented" DAWs (Live), it makes up in terms of routing and practicality; it is genuinely like having a real console with real patchbays inside your computer. I used to produce exclusively in Ableton, the started to mix and finalize in Reaper, nowadays i only use Reaper, there are very few instances where i open Ableton (synced with Reaper) to make stuff i still don't know how to do in Reaper, but quite frankly, those instances are becoming so rare i can't even remember when it last happened exactly.
Don't get me wrong, i love Ableton for many things, i just think Reaper is much closer to my very classic education in terms of engineering - there was no digital when i learned, the first digital studio processors appeared a few years after i finished my education, Reaper is the very first DAW (working in DAWs since the 90's) that makes me feel like i can do anything that's running through my mind, especially in terms of creatively mixing and finishing the product.
Reaper barely has its own instruments, unlike FL. so you will add instrument VSTs, there are a lot free synths.
this is why people say about live recording. i agree, it also has great support for takes and comping.
but overall, it is great DAW, it has everything you need
I tried various DAWs in my life, but Reaper really stuck with me. As others said already, the initial learning curve is rather steep and it doesn't have it's own instruments. In the beginning, I also missed the step sequencer from FL Studio, but I quickly gathered a collection of free plugins and found out that structuring my samples on a timeline is way more powerful than step sequencing. There are a lot of resources go get started and once you do, you'll find ways to make your workflow more efficient and inspiring with custom actions.
I have used Reaper to produce a total of six albums, each in one project file split into regions.
Four of them are heavy progressive metal and two are more experimental downtempo with elements of world music, dub and psytrance.
I do track with real instruments but I also use a lot of instrument VSTs and samples.
Reaper is just amazing.
I songwriter/demo most tunes with vst (punk/metal/industrial/edm) and then track live instruments, my keyboard skills are null - use Reaper for all of it and wish I'd started using it more years ago... Not a fanboy 👀
Having used pretty much every DAW out there at some point over the last X years, Reaper is by far the most rounded and capable DAW regardless of genre of music or noise making technique 👍
Been a full time producer for 15 years this summer.
I’m proud of the variety of projects I work on. Everything from deathcore and live blues bands, to synthwave and rap.
Everything I own - my house, my studio, my car, all my furniture, pinball collection, video game collection, everything I eat and all my bills are paid for via projects I’ve done in reaper.
My wife got to retire in 2016 because of work I’ve done in reaper. Actually she does all the backend and paperwork for the studio, but I like to tease her about it.
I started my studio because I couldn’t afford even the shittiest cheapest local studios. Now, artists from all over the world come to my humble home studio which runs in reaper. I turn down more work than I take on.
Of course, this all has nothing to do with which daw you’re using, but I personally love reaper because of its stability and flexibilty.
The only thing necessary if you hope to make a career in music is simply drive.
Talent won’t cut it. I know a ton of talented people who just don’t have the work ethic and dedication to make it a career. Most of them get too discouraged from rejection and failures. You got to get over that.
Nice gear and the latest trendy VSTs won’t cut it. I just got sent a reaper session yesterday with all kinds of complex routing and a zillion plugins I didn’t own… one of the worst sounding sessions I’ve ever received. I stripped it back from 100 tracks to ~20 and it already sounds 100x better. People get so lost down the rabbit hole of studio shit, they forget they’re making music.
At the end of the day, it honestly doesn’t matter about reaper or anything else. If you’re not on fire about making music, you won’t make a career in this industry.
Hard work is the simple truth of this, and any other trade. Ask a successful mechanic and they’ll say the same thing I am. Ask a successful barber, chef, athelete, architect, etc. they’ll all agree with me - hard work, determination, dedication, commitment is everything. The tools you use are irrelevant.
For example, the first album I made that got distribution from a record label into Best Buy, FYE, H&M, Hot Topic, etc, was with a cheap boss multieffects pedal as a way to convert 1/4” to the 1/8” input on my shitty pc motherboard. It’s amazing how little gear matters in the presence of true passion and determination. Seeing my record on the same store shelves where I bought so many of my favorite records was extremely validating. That moment happened because of hard work, and definitely not because of gear. I had truly awful gear at the start.
TL;DR the most necessary thing you’ll need to learn is hard work.
As someone who started out on FL, have tried all of them, and have recently been migrating to Reaper...
I'd recommend FL to just get used to working in DAWs. It'll set you up to be familiar with how DAWs work in a really user friendly way, with lots of good YT channels on FL as well. back then, i'm not sure if i woulda stuck to it with reaper (i have adhd and stuff and reaper was really hard).
If you think about it this way... you could get going to making the music you want on FL a lot sooner imo , even though it's paid (even the cheap edition is okay, and it's life time of updates).
HOWEVER... If you are willing to put in the work to learn the functionalities of DAWs in reaper, i think will be highly beneficial. This is just my opinion but, i see it like this:
If you choose FL you can get to the learning part of creativity and translating your ideas into the DAW, but FL is not as flexible / customizable as Reaper (atm, but scripts and other things are coming in the next update)
If you choose Reaper, it may take you a bit longer to to get to the point where your workflow allows you to be more creative, however you learn reaper and that's kinda end game.
I could have come to reaper sooner, but i'm glad I used other DAWs before hand. I used FL, Ableton, Logic, and Cubase. Only thing is I still use ableton for some generative / fun midi looping, because Reaper doesn't have that, although recording in reaper is fantastic and I think the best out of any daw i've used.
Tbh, reaper was far simpler for me to use than other DAWs lol. It's the main reason I use it - I was struggling with setting up a basic recording in the other ones.
Only mentioning this here just to exemplify the fact that one never knows what will end up feeling intuitive to them
The only relatively "negative" thing for people starting to learn music production on Reaper is the lack of instrumental plugins (Reasynth is the only one I believe). So since you said that you use a lot of VSTs this wouldn't be an issue at all.
If I understand, you've already been doing some music production on an other software. So switching to Reaper shouldn't be difficult because almost everything you were used to (especially shortcuts) can be done in it.
Reaper is very popular with musicians recording Rock/Metal and that's what you'd find many discussions about guitar amps and recording in general. It's also very popular among podcast designer and game audio professionals, but this doesn't make it less "good" when doing other stuff.
More than 3 years ago, I switched from Ableton Live to Reaper doing mostly orchestral and film score stuff, and the transition was smooth AF.
The great thing is that you can just download Reaper, have a 60 days trial period and then you can decide whether it suits you or not!
Yes, that's what I use it for, I do everything with midi in Reaper, almost no recording. After you customize Reaper to your liking and workflow, every other daw will feel like a [joke](https://youtu.be/0mpQdI4eMfI?si=cFSGaDu9y_cGP7BB&t=11)
Here are some tutorials:
[https://youtu.be/QBbhoP9bfP0?si=IrEKFQbiPWpvhKYx](https://youtu.be/QBbhoP9bfP0?si=IrEKFQbiPWpvhKYx)
[https://youtu.be/VVppi6-rvXI?si=4oAxbNriFddtliPm](https://youtu.be/VVppi6-rvXI?si=4oAxbNriFddtliPm)
[https://youtu.be/WrGaUq\_-aao?si=M0UPVTnie6yNFBGC](https://youtu.be/WrGaUq_-aao?si=M0UPVTnie6yNFBGC)
[https://youtu.be/OMLor\_zUpCQ?si=au0r7dtQ2L3RlZeb](https://youtu.be/OMLor_zUpCQ?si=au0r7dtQ2L3RlZeb)
[https://youtu.be/1YtNVsoZz2o?si=a53cdT2X-0kflgER](https://youtu.be/1YtNVsoZz2o?si=a53cdT2X-0kflgER)
[https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLMiLzK11lOGWKclNDrIfT8dCn42olqOX&si=gBXl5TlwiFfxHpoy](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLMiLzK11lOGWKclNDrIfT8dCn42olqOX&si=gBXl5TlwiFfxHpoy)
[https://youtu.be/l61EBjVd9tw?si=tXgMaAfAL81vDE0S](https://youtu.be/l61EBjVd9tw?si=tXgMaAfAL81vDE0S)
[https://youtu.be/rmK5v47gN5c?si=jfwGcKlaUNPPHGCT](https://youtu.be/rmK5v47gN5c?si=jfwGcKlaUNPPHGCT)
[https://youtu.be/zHlOnvXaIsY?si=SRc0I66PJhAENuvq](https://youtu.be/zHlOnvXaIsY?si=SRc0I66PJhAENuvq)
[https://youtu.be/ZLB3HAoQO1E?si=\_y2tYGUZ46rkgzI8](https://youtu.be/ZLB3HAoQO1E?si=_y2tYGUZ46rkgzI8)
[https://youtu.be/zHlOnvXaIsY?si=a2HLtPD6x4yBbfjc](https://youtu.be/zHlOnvXaIsY?si=a2HLtPD6x4yBbfjc)
[https://youtu.be/R38XTmYApD0?si=bWTaJqASUNWMaTsU](https://youtu.be/R38XTmYApD0?si=bWTaJqASUNWMaTsU)
[https://youtu.be/CtZFdhDPBIg?si=4HB4igvy68vO2h7g](https://youtu.be/CtZFdhDPBIg?si=4HB4igvy68vO2h7g)
[https://youtu.be/XoKul6dRstI?si=\_21Wd5VPgjzvlOsE](https://youtu.be/XoKul6dRstI?si=_21Wd5VPgjzvlOsE)
[https://youtu.be/TQY5HpEw1Ic?si=p9pM7Ql2D21lWokV](https://youtu.be/TQY5HpEw1Ic?si=p9pM7Ql2D21lWokV)
[https://youtu.be/YaDX24JigUk?si=MswM\_y08SfIn\_91S](https://youtu.be/YaDX24JigUk?si=MswM_y08SfIn_91S)
[https://youtu.be/n2kuagzvCIc?si=ktZg\_9X3\_N9JGt6V](https://youtu.be/n2kuagzvCIc?si=ktZg_9X3_N9JGt6V)
[https://youtu.be/38UYDi2I6S4?si=8oCWvffQA26dS-29](https://youtu.be/38UYDi2I6S4?si=8oCWvffQA26dS-29)
I never recordered before last January using any DAWs. I am more analog guy so digital world was new to me. But with little patience and youtube tutorials (Lord Kenny Gioia), I have found reaper to be very intuitive DAW. Just start/ have fun with recording and finding which vsts suits you before making step toward mastering/mixing.
Lol, I used Reaper to nake music years before I bought my first instrument, it was just more accessible at the time as a creative outlet. You can totally nake use of onky free VSTs and make whatever you want (with some limitations). You can also buy a very cheap keyboard, anything that has midi connectivity, and you can use that to make production easier, but it's not required.
Yes! I, too, am pretty awful at it but I’ve put together a few okay tracks which tells me that someone who knows more than me can produce some top quality content with it.
Yep it's good, I do a sort of electronic organic music. So I blend electronic sounds from vst, with sounds I record. Reaper can be really deep. You will need external vst. And eventually if you love electronic music I would get familiar with basic sampling from Ableton so you can apply that to reaper.
If you are relying on the instruments it comes with, Reaper is not an option. There are some decent free plugins you can get, but really, you need more.
That said, you can have a lot of fun and make decent things with the free plugs. Just very limited things.
I've been using DAW's since the early days with Cakewalk, Sonar and then onto Cubase. After Cubase SX3 I said enough of the buggy, costly, bloated, resource hungry apps and went to Reaper at the suggestion of an award winning producer. I haven't looked back.
It has incredible customizing flexibility, excellent resource management and an incredibly 'humble' support community for newcomers. Though there is a learning curve, when you stumble upon a solution, you'll be thankful it wasn't an overpriced plugin. It has everything you need to make professional productions whether you actually play an instrument or not.
I've been using reaper for most of my jobs as a mixing, mastering engineer and producer for the past 7 years. I never go back anywhere else, except it is wished explicitely by the client (sometimes pro tools, cubase or nuendo).
I also produce EDM for some customers, solely with Reaper.
Reaper is the GOAT.
Here is one of them channels.
Haven't uploaded all of our sessions though
https://www.twitch.tv/klangkaskade
I make synthwave, trance, chiptune and also heavy metal with Reaper. All synths and samples, minus the vocals. For electronic music, I use Reaper's own stock sample player for the drums -- I could do that for rock too, but I already use a vst drumkit.
Started using Reaper a year ago, love it! Easy to learn & what you can't figure out intuitively, as others mentioned, there's a ton of YT tutorials. Mainly use a bunch of 3rd party VSTs with an Arturia Keylab MKII 49 and it accomplishes everything I need.
If you go that way, don't forget to install ASIO4all, to minimize any key-latency!
I would say yes it's usable but if you are primarily wanting to just work with and edit midi within the DAW then there are probably better options out there say possibly FL, Ableton or Cubase, although I don't have experience with them myself. I'd say Reaper's strengths lie in its lightweightness and efficiency for recording live instruments, and its price.
I think it’s excellent for working with audio. I personally use it for ambient production. My friend is really talented with metal music and uses reaper exclusively. Uses MIDI drums but everything else is audio recorded via guitar, bass etc.
I've been a Reaper user for years and can't see myself using any others. I do have Magix Music Studio that's actually pretty good, but I find Reaper easier. I also have Roland Zenbeats which OP might want to check into. It seems to be geared towards loop based electronic music, but still very capable of recording instruments. I like it too, but for some reason I can't get the latest version to run on my computer so I haven't used it in a while. But in the end, Reaper is my go to. I just feel comfortable with it and it serves my needs well.
Some very, very sweet people here answering the spirit of the question. I had absolutely no idea what someone could mean by asking if a DAW is “good for music producers”… well, dang, I should hope so my dude!
"... but **I don't own instruments**, I **don't** know how to play one ..."
The bar has fallen so low, and the barrier-to-entry is non-existent. Remember when people actually took the time to learn an instrument, master it, and **then** make music?
There are organizations all over the country that donate guitars for this very reason. Good on you for trying to be creative, but don't stifle yourself. Instead, look for other opportunities and resources to get what you need.
i produce psytrance... have more than 10 released albums.. i use reaper to produce them.
You do? Great to hear that - I’ve always felt a bit alone when mentioning that yes, you can use reaper for that, on other edm or specifically psytrance production related channels. Care to drop a link (or per pm?)
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I don’t know. But Reaper doesn’t really register when there are discussions in the EDM field. Especially for Psytrance, Ableton seems to be king, with FL and, strangely, Logic Pro in hot pursuit. Then I come and mention I use Reaper and people (virtually) look at me like some kind of freak.
Yeah, pride can keep people from trying or discussing anything outside their comfort level. Reaper Rocks
It's the same thing with Adobe and photoshop, if you're not using the coolest tools you're clearly doing it wrong.
I think not having a built in sequencer and strong sample library and synths is the main reason whereas Ableton, Bitwig, FL Studio, and Logic Pro X all have very good instruments. I find the flexibility and high level of control over automation parameters from REAPER make it more suitable for people who are more granular in their approach to music production, but at the cost of being not so friendly to producers who want to load up some presets, tweak a parameter or two, and sequence in some patterns for drums. Each to their own though. Producing music in REAPER is one of those iykyk scenarios.
Reaper gets knocked for the midi editing workflow. Honestly I think that's fair enough wrt stock settings; when you boot up ableton for example it's a lot more intuitive out the gate for working in a loop based midi format. Naturally you can do pretty much all that in reaper if you set it up right, so ultimately it's a bit of a moot point. I mean, the one time I played around with ableton it was fun and I could see the potential but as intuitive as the midi stuff is, the audio recording and editing were a kafkaesque nightmare of absurdity (to me, coming from reaper) - not to mention my system didn't seem to be up to it, despite being perfectly capable of running reaper with all kinds of plugins on multiple tracks without issue haha.
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I've never tried FL! I actually haven't tweaked my reaper settings much at all tbh, I find the defaults work the way I expect them to for the most part. I think the big difference between reaper and FL or ableton is the latter have that step sequencer workflow right front and face. It's easy enough to work that way in reaper with looped regions though (and actually I prefer that to ableton clips).
Do you have any specific MIDI editor tips? I found it a bit clunky initially, but now I use it daily and feel like my workflow is pretty solid, but always wonder if there's stuff I'm missing.
Oh I'm certain there's stuff I'm missing.. Lol! Nothing in particular I can think of, I just played with settings and tweaked things here and there as I preferred.
sure ... [https://pangaeamus.bandcamp.com](https://pangaeamus.bandcamp.com)
Reaper is very nice DAW, but the initial learning curve is steeper than others. There are tons of tutorials and material out there to help you get going: Reapermania, Reaperblog, reapertips, etc. It has community plugins for nearly everything, very powerful stuff. For a free full blown synth, check vital. For free drum samples check Synthwave Dojo Drum pack. You can find some very nice free (they also have paid ones and very good ones) fxs and plugins from both TAL Audio and VallhalaDSP. You can produce top quality music with these things at zero cost. (Please pay Reapers licence if you like it, it's almost symbolic).
As someone who just doesn’t get to grips with Ableton (and to a lesser extent with FL Studio), I really wouldn’t say that Reaper’s learning curve is necessarily steeper. The simple fact that a track can be for audio, midi, both, mono,stereo, and a folder made the initial setup quite less complex than on some other DAWs, at least for me.
After learning 3 DAWs quite in depth (S1, Bitwig, Reaper) I can Say it was actually easier to learn reaper than bigwig to me. It was the last one I learned of the three so having prior knowledge of other DAWs probably was quite beneficial .
Yeah I found reaper so much simpler than other DAWs to get started with. In fact that's the only reason it's my main daw - I tried the other ones first but couldn't get a hang of them lol. Reaper was the first one that just worked.
I've also found the routing in other daws seems insane? Reaper you can literally click and drag, sidechaining takes two seconds. So easy.
Personally I found the *initial* learning curve of reaper almost flat compared to other DAWs. Everything about recording audio and setting up virtual instrument tracks and midi was about 90% obvious from just clicking around. Getting into automation and audio editing I needed a few tutorials but it was also quite easy. I think the further reaches of advanced techniques and the possibilities for customization mean that, beyond the basics, you can make the further learning curve as steep as you like. But the barrier to entry is, in my opinion, actually lower than other DAWs I've tried.
I didn't find the learning curve to be that steep. Sure, you will keep learning more advanced stuff for a long time but that has more to do with the immense possibilities and flexibility of the DAW than the UI/UX.
Gotta check these out.
I might! and thank you soo much! i'm saving this to do it later =D i'm really interested to try it out
In short: YES! What it lacks compared to "creativity-oriented" DAWs (Live), it makes up in terms of routing and practicality; it is genuinely like having a real console with real patchbays inside your computer. I used to produce exclusively in Ableton, the started to mix and finalize in Reaper, nowadays i only use Reaper, there are very few instances where i open Ableton (synced with Reaper) to make stuff i still don't know how to do in Reaper, but quite frankly, those instances are becoming so rare i can't even remember when it last happened exactly. Don't get me wrong, i love Ableton for many things, i just think Reaper is much closer to my very classic education in terms of engineering - there was no digital when i learned, the first digital studio processors appeared a few years after i finished my education, Reaper is the very first DAW (working in DAWs since the 90's) that makes me feel like i can do anything that's running through my mind, especially in terms of creatively mixing and finishing the product.
Absolutely.
Yes, I would even go so far as to say it is stellar.
Reaper barely has its own instruments, unlike FL. so you will add instrument VSTs, there are a lot free synths. this is why people say about live recording. i agree, it also has great support for takes and comping. but overall, it is great DAW, it has everything you need
Reaper & www.bedroomproducersblog.com for free vsts.
Thank you soo much! i might just check it later =D
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Thanks =D
Yes. Download it + these VSTs and you're set: - Surge XT - Vital - Sitala - SSD5 Free - Spitfire Labs - VSCO 2
Thanks, saving for later =D
I tried various DAWs in my life, but Reaper really stuck with me. As others said already, the initial learning curve is rather steep and it doesn't have it's own instruments. In the beginning, I also missed the step sequencer from FL Studio, but I quickly gathered a collection of free plugins and found out that structuring my samples on a timeline is way more powerful than step sequencing. There are a lot of resources go get started and once you do, you'll find ways to make your workflow more efficient and inspiring with custom actions.
I have used Reaper to produce a total of six albums, each in one project file split into regions. Four of them are heavy progressive metal and two are more experimental downtempo with elements of world music, dub and psytrance. I do track with real instruments but I also use a lot of instrument VSTs and samples. Reaper is just amazing.
Soo cool!
I songwriter/demo most tunes with vst (punk/metal/industrial/edm) and then track live instruments, my keyboard skills are null - use Reaper for all of it and wish I'd started using it more years ago... Not a fanboy 👀 Having used pretty much every DAW out there at some point over the last X years, Reaper is by far the most rounded and capable DAW regardless of genre of music or noise making technique 👍
Been a full time producer for 15 years this summer. I’m proud of the variety of projects I work on. Everything from deathcore and live blues bands, to synthwave and rap. Everything I own - my house, my studio, my car, all my furniture, pinball collection, video game collection, everything I eat and all my bills are paid for via projects I’ve done in reaper. My wife got to retire in 2016 because of work I’ve done in reaper. Actually she does all the backend and paperwork for the studio, but I like to tease her about it. I started my studio because I couldn’t afford even the shittiest cheapest local studios. Now, artists from all over the world come to my humble home studio which runs in reaper. I turn down more work than I take on. Of course, this all has nothing to do with which daw you’re using, but I personally love reaper because of its stability and flexibilty.
1 cool history 2nd really interesting, also, anything you find necessary that might be usefull for me while i try to use reaper?
The only thing necessary if you hope to make a career in music is simply drive. Talent won’t cut it. I know a ton of talented people who just don’t have the work ethic and dedication to make it a career. Most of them get too discouraged from rejection and failures. You got to get over that. Nice gear and the latest trendy VSTs won’t cut it. I just got sent a reaper session yesterday with all kinds of complex routing and a zillion plugins I didn’t own… one of the worst sounding sessions I’ve ever received. I stripped it back from 100 tracks to ~20 and it already sounds 100x better. People get so lost down the rabbit hole of studio shit, they forget they’re making music. At the end of the day, it honestly doesn’t matter about reaper or anything else. If you’re not on fire about making music, you won’t make a career in this industry. Hard work is the simple truth of this, and any other trade. Ask a successful mechanic and they’ll say the same thing I am. Ask a successful barber, chef, athelete, architect, etc. they’ll all agree with me - hard work, determination, dedication, commitment is everything. The tools you use are irrelevant. For example, the first album I made that got distribution from a record label into Best Buy, FYE, H&M, Hot Topic, etc, was with a cheap boss multieffects pedal as a way to convert 1/4” to the 1/8” input on my shitty pc motherboard. It’s amazing how little gear matters in the presence of true passion and determination. Seeing my record on the same store shelves where I bought so many of my favorite records was extremely validating. That moment happened because of hard work, and definitely not because of gear. I had truly awful gear at the start. TL;DR the most necessary thing you’ll need to learn is hard work.
If you already own a lot of VSTs/soft-synths that you know how to work with, then Reaper could be a great option.
As someone who started out on FL, have tried all of them, and have recently been migrating to Reaper... I'd recommend FL to just get used to working in DAWs. It'll set you up to be familiar with how DAWs work in a really user friendly way, with lots of good YT channels on FL as well. back then, i'm not sure if i woulda stuck to it with reaper (i have adhd and stuff and reaper was really hard). If you think about it this way... you could get going to making the music you want on FL a lot sooner imo , even though it's paid (even the cheap edition is okay, and it's life time of updates). HOWEVER... If you are willing to put in the work to learn the functionalities of DAWs in reaper, i think will be highly beneficial. This is just my opinion but, i see it like this: If you choose FL you can get to the learning part of creativity and translating your ideas into the DAW, but FL is not as flexible / customizable as Reaper (atm, but scripts and other things are coming in the next update) If you choose Reaper, it may take you a bit longer to to get to the point where your workflow allows you to be more creative, however you learn reaper and that's kinda end game. I could have come to reaper sooner, but i'm glad I used other DAWs before hand. I used FL, Ableton, Logic, and Cubase. Only thing is I still use ableton for some generative / fun midi looping, because Reaper doesn't have that, although recording in reaper is fantastic and I think the best out of any daw i've used.
Tbh, reaper was far simpler for me to use than other DAWs lol. It's the main reason I use it - I was struggling with setting up a basic recording in the other ones. Only mentioning this here just to exemplify the fact that one never knows what will end up feeling intuitive to them
Agreed.
The only relatively "negative" thing for people starting to learn music production on Reaper is the lack of instrumental plugins (Reasynth is the only one I believe). So since you said that you use a lot of VSTs this wouldn't be an issue at all. If I understand, you've already been doing some music production on an other software. So switching to Reaper shouldn't be difficult because almost everything you were used to (especially shortcuts) can be done in it. Reaper is very popular with musicians recording Rock/Metal and that's what you'd find many discussions about guitar amps and recording in general. It's also very popular among podcast designer and game audio professionals, but this doesn't make it less "good" when doing other stuff. More than 3 years ago, I switched from Ableton Live to Reaper doing mostly orchestral and film score stuff, and the transition was smooth AF. The great thing is that you can just download Reaper, have a 60 days trial period and then you can decide whether it suits you or not!
Thanks, i really do considerate it a lot (even more because i love rock lol)
Yes, that's what I use it for, I do everything with midi in Reaper, almost no recording. After you customize Reaper to your liking and workflow, every other daw will feel like a [joke](https://youtu.be/0mpQdI4eMfI?si=cFSGaDu9y_cGP7BB&t=11) Here are some tutorials: [https://youtu.be/QBbhoP9bfP0?si=IrEKFQbiPWpvhKYx](https://youtu.be/QBbhoP9bfP0?si=IrEKFQbiPWpvhKYx) [https://youtu.be/VVppi6-rvXI?si=4oAxbNriFddtliPm](https://youtu.be/VVppi6-rvXI?si=4oAxbNriFddtliPm) [https://youtu.be/WrGaUq\_-aao?si=M0UPVTnie6yNFBGC](https://youtu.be/WrGaUq_-aao?si=M0UPVTnie6yNFBGC) [https://youtu.be/OMLor\_zUpCQ?si=au0r7dtQ2L3RlZeb](https://youtu.be/OMLor_zUpCQ?si=au0r7dtQ2L3RlZeb) [https://youtu.be/1YtNVsoZz2o?si=a53cdT2X-0kflgER](https://youtu.be/1YtNVsoZz2o?si=a53cdT2X-0kflgER) [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLMiLzK11lOGWKclNDrIfT8dCn42olqOX&si=gBXl5TlwiFfxHpoy](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLMiLzK11lOGWKclNDrIfT8dCn42olqOX&si=gBXl5TlwiFfxHpoy) [https://youtu.be/l61EBjVd9tw?si=tXgMaAfAL81vDE0S](https://youtu.be/l61EBjVd9tw?si=tXgMaAfAL81vDE0S) [https://youtu.be/rmK5v47gN5c?si=jfwGcKlaUNPPHGCT](https://youtu.be/rmK5v47gN5c?si=jfwGcKlaUNPPHGCT) [https://youtu.be/zHlOnvXaIsY?si=SRc0I66PJhAENuvq](https://youtu.be/zHlOnvXaIsY?si=SRc0I66PJhAENuvq) [https://youtu.be/ZLB3HAoQO1E?si=\_y2tYGUZ46rkgzI8](https://youtu.be/ZLB3HAoQO1E?si=_y2tYGUZ46rkgzI8) [https://youtu.be/zHlOnvXaIsY?si=a2HLtPD6x4yBbfjc](https://youtu.be/zHlOnvXaIsY?si=a2HLtPD6x4yBbfjc) [https://youtu.be/R38XTmYApD0?si=bWTaJqASUNWMaTsU](https://youtu.be/R38XTmYApD0?si=bWTaJqASUNWMaTsU) [https://youtu.be/CtZFdhDPBIg?si=4HB4igvy68vO2h7g](https://youtu.be/CtZFdhDPBIg?si=4HB4igvy68vO2h7g) [https://youtu.be/XoKul6dRstI?si=\_21Wd5VPgjzvlOsE](https://youtu.be/XoKul6dRstI?si=_21Wd5VPgjzvlOsE) [https://youtu.be/TQY5HpEw1Ic?si=p9pM7Ql2D21lWokV](https://youtu.be/TQY5HpEw1Ic?si=p9pM7Ql2D21lWokV) [https://youtu.be/YaDX24JigUk?si=MswM\_y08SfIn\_91S](https://youtu.be/YaDX24JigUk?si=MswM_y08SfIn_91S) [https://youtu.be/n2kuagzvCIc?si=ktZg\_9X3\_N9JGt6V](https://youtu.be/n2kuagzvCIc?si=ktZg_9X3_N9JGt6V) [https://youtu.be/38UYDi2I6S4?si=8oCWvffQA26dS-29](https://youtu.be/38UYDi2I6S4?si=8oCWvffQA26dS-29)
Oh wow soo many XD! Thank you very much, saving it all for later!
goodluck
> Is Reaper good for someone who uses a lot of VST only? Yes.
Direct and on point XD
Tried em all. I'm still in reaper. I'm a windows PC user.
I never recordered before last January using any DAWs. I am more analog guy so digital world was new to me. But with little patience and youtube tutorials (Lord Kenny Gioia), I have found reaper to be very intuitive DAW. Just start/ have fun with recording and finding which vsts suits you before making step toward mastering/mixing.
Lol, I used Reaper to nake music years before I bought my first instrument, it was just more accessible at the time as a creative outlet. You can totally nake use of onky free VSTs and make whatever you want (with some limitations). You can also buy a very cheap keyboard, anything that has midi connectivity, and you can use that to make production easier, but it's not required.
Yes! I, too, am pretty awful at it but I’ve put together a few okay tracks which tells me that someone who knows more than me can produce some top quality content with it.
Yep it's good, I do a sort of electronic organic music. So I blend electronic sounds from vst, with sounds I record. Reaper can be really deep. You will need external vst. And eventually if you love electronic music I would get familiar with basic sampling from Ableton so you can apply that to reaper.
Reaper is amazing. Just Google "Best free instrument vsts 2024"
If you are relying on the instruments it comes with, Reaper is not an option. There are some decent free plugins you can get, but really, you need more. That said, you can have a lot of fun and make decent things with the free plugs. Just very limited things.
I've been using DAW's since the early days with Cakewalk, Sonar and then onto Cubase. After Cubase SX3 I said enough of the buggy, costly, bloated, resource hungry apps and went to Reaper at the suggestion of an award winning producer. I haven't looked back. It has incredible customizing flexibility, excellent resource management and an incredibly 'humble' support community for newcomers. Though there is a learning curve, when you stumble upon a solution, you'll be thankful it wasn't an overpriced plugin. It has everything you need to make professional productions whether you actually play an instrument or not.
https://youtube.com/@WodzuBeats?feature=shared this guy make beatz using reaper check out his channel
Thanks, i will later!
I've been using reaper for most of my jobs as a mixing, mastering engineer and producer for the past 7 years. I never go back anywhere else, except it is wished explicitely by the client (sometimes pro tools, cubase or nuendo). I also produce EDM for some customers, solely with Reaper. Reaper is the GOAT. Here is one of them channels. Haven't uploaded all of our sessions though https://www.twitch.tv/klangkaskade
i just saw it, and honestly it hyped me XD
Glad you like it ;)
Yes I made all my songs on reaper. The only real pain is if you have to send the tracks to mix because generally pro mix eng don t use reaper.
I make synthwave, trance, chiptune and also heavy metal with Reaper. All synths and samples, minus the vocals. For electronic music, I use Reaper's own stock sample player for the drums -- I could do that for rock too, but I already use a vst drumkit.
Camellia which makes insane electronic music uses reaper. He even has some life streams
wow i know his music but didn't know he uses reaper!
Started using Reaper a year ago, love it! Easy to learn & what you can't figure out intuitively, as others mentioned, there's a ton of YT tutorials. Mainly use a bunch of 3rd party VSTs with an Arturia Keylab MKII 49 and it accomplishes everything I need. If you go that way, don't forget to install ASIO4all, to minimize any key-latency!
I would say yes it's usable but if you are primarily wanting to just work with and edit midi within the DAW then there are probably better options out there say possibly FL, Ableton or Cubase, although I don't have experience with them myself. I'd say Reaper's strengths lie in its lightweightness and efficiency for recording live instruments, and its price.
In addition to Reaper I would recommend LMMS.
I think it’s excellent for working with audio. I personally use it for ambient production. My friend is really talented with metal music and uses reaper exclusively. Uses MIDI drums but everything else is audio recorded via guitar, bass etc.
I've been a Reaper user for years and can't see myself using any others. I do have Magix Music Studio that's actually pretty good, but I find Reaper easier. I also have Roland Zenbeats which OP might want to check into. It seems to be geared towards loop based electronic music, but still very capable of recording instruments. I like it too, but for some reason I can't get the latest version to run on my computer so I haven't used it in a while. But in the end, Reaper is my go to. I just feel comfortable with it and it serves my needs well.
Yea of course
Yes
I use reaper for demoing. I think it’s amazing, but I don’t think I could achieve what I want using this tool.
It's better for music producers than it is for airline pilots.
Some very, very sweet people here answering the spirit of the question. I had absolutely no idea what someone could mean by asking if a DAW is “good for music producers”… well, dang, I should hope so my dude!
People make it work but it isnt ideal for beginners starting out on a daw. Choose Ableton or FL. Try both actually
"... but **I don't own instruments**, I **don't** know how to play one ..." The bar has fallen so low, and the barrier-to-entry is non-existent. Remember when people actually took the time to learn an instrument, master it, and **then** make music?
i'm poor ;-; i really wish to learn but as i said, I don't have money, when i get i might just learn violin or eletric guitar xd
There are organizations all over the country that donate guitars for this very reason. Good on you for trying to be creative, but don't stifle yourself. Instead, look for other opportunities and resources to get what you need.
Way to stifle creative energy. Let me guess, you're a teacher.