Product Reviews by KVR Members

Reaper is a really great DAW, especially for a couple of thing where it is better than its competition. For recording/tracking of audio and editing of audio it is the best and extremly fast and efficient when you learn the workflow. The program also has a really small footprint, can be customised and is very flexible. The fact that all channels can be routed to everywhere and receive anything is great. Very very powerful, but might not be super easy for beginners.

Some of the stock plugs are pretty good and a lot of functionality can be added if you dig a bit deeper, but they will be pretty basic right out of the box. So beginners might find them a bit underwhelming.

I would advice all new (and old) users to learn from the videos at https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php to get a better understanding of the possibilities within Reaper.

PS: I now use Reaper mainly for tracking when I have recording-sessions with bands and artists, and when I do audio-editing. Production I now do mostly in Bitwig, but I have done a lot of production earlier in Reaper.

I have owned BitWig since the first day of its release and must admit it was love at first sight. (So you might already see how this review is gonna conclude...).

What BWS provided me was what I had not found in Ableton, a fast workflow that bridged the way I worked in other my other DAWS (Cubase and Reaper) and live performance.

After some time I also found that the native plugs and instruments is really powerful with a lot of functionality and sounds good.

I still use Reaper for tracking (Since its by far the fastest DAW I ever worked with for tracking), but all production, mixing and performance I now do in Bitwig.

I also love the fact that you get three licenses when you buy it so that you can have the Software both on a desktop machine in your studio and on a laptop (plus av bkup-laptop for redundancy) for live performance.

(And a big plus for giving the Linux crowd a really good pro DAW.).

Conclusion:

+ Super fast intuitive workflow.

+ Very good for production, mix and live performance (I still use another DAW for tracking).

+ A lot of good native plugs and instruments. The sampler upgrade in 2.4 as well as the addition of the Phase-4 from 2.3 is great.

+ Good multi-platform support (big plus for Linux).

+ Very good support for a wide variety of controllers and open-source API for scripting new controllers.

+ Plus for giving three licenses for three PCs/MACs when you buy it.