Making the switch after 8 years....

J

jubnoske08

New member
i've been using FL studio since the days of Fruity Loops 4. i know it like the back of my hand and work within the DAW without even thinking. however, i've become fed up recently with the program's lack of organizational ability, the way it clutters your project with dozens of "tracks" for automation, and mostly the MESS of a mixer. it's a perfectly capable DAW, and in fact is probably the one most conducive to creativity, but i'm interested in moving on to something more streamlined.

That being said, i'm making the switch to Reaper 4 this week. i'm windows user, and from what i've seen it looks most similar to Logic (i'm a big fan of this daw, but i'm i'm unwilling to dish out the big bucks for a macbook pro, which is what i'd need to run the CPU intensive plugins i use). what can i expect in the transitional phase? anything major which might bother me right away? any newbie mistakes to shy away form in the transition? thanks for any comments!


ALSO, any ideas on Reaper vs Cubase? which one would transition easier? tradeoffs?
 
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Reaper will probably choke on some of your free VST(i)'s. It's very fussy about that. And on my system it require a bigger soundcard buffer than my other DAW programs. Also, it might choke on some DirectX plugins. You might want to disabled both scanning for DirectX plugins and enabling them in the preferences.

I'm starting to use Reaper too, but I won't rely upon it as my master DAW until I'm confident that all the kinks have been worked out. And I've been trying to use various incarnations of Reaper since about version 2. That's a lot of versions and none of them worked on my systems and various operating systems until this recent version. And even recently with this new version I've had to fuss around with eliminating certain plugins that my other DAW's work just fine with--Like I said, Reaper is fussy with certain plugins.

Also it's worth mentioning that Reaper has a lot of features for people who do a lot of multitrack recording and mixing. But if you do computer generated MIDI music composition and editing, some say it's weak in that department.
 
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i used FL since 3 and recently decided to switch over to reaper, i only really started using it from version 3.76 too but now on 4. the one thing i found hard to get used to was the piano roll and finding a way to sequence drums. i had one or 2 problems with vsts crashing reaper but i found out proteus was the cause of that so now everything runs fine for me. i still use both FL and reaper but when i learn what i need to in reaper then ill switch over fully.
 
astroid, are you referring to the VST's bundled with the DAW giving you trouble? or ones from third parties?

i'm starting to think i might want to look in the direction of cubase..
 
Reaper is a "minimalist" approach program while Cubase doesn't know the meaning of minimal. Go with Reaper if you only need small editing ability and nex to no bells and whistles. That's how they advertise the product on their website and that's exactly what it's like. Go with Cubase is you don't want to ever look around and find that you can't do something without loading up another program or doing 300 workaround steps. Cubase does it all and does it all without compromise. Features go deep, no dabbling. Whatever Steinberg decides to touch, they go deep. Pick any aspect of Cubase and see just how seriously Steinberg has implemented it. The worst part about Steinberg is that they make it difficult for people to try out their products. They all require a dongle, even the freakin demos. You have to buy a dongle. LOL Apparently they're only after people who are really serious or people who already know what's up with Steinberg, like me.
 
If reaper crashes it is a plug ins fault. I love it and use it for 100% of my music production now.
 
You should take a look at Presonus Studio One. It doesn't get nearly as much mention as it should. It's the ultimate definition of streamlined. Workflow is amazing.
 
I'm surprised Reaper isn't more popular when you look at the functionality and price. It's not limiting in any way.
 
ObiK said:
If reaper crashes it is a plug ins fault. I love it and use it for 100% of my music production now.
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Funny you say that -- my Reaper (OS X) crashes with a bunch of IK Multimedia plugins. Everything from the total workstation bundle except for SampleTank.

It doesn't crash upon loading, but it does when I remove a track with that VST loaded.

Must be something with their compatibilities with OS X Lion?
 
been using the demo of Reaper the past two days, and i have to say, ITS AMAZING. i'm producing primarily house, so by way of functionality, the primary necessity is useable, organized automation, and in this regard it excels. my one complaint is that i'm not a huge fan of the Send and routing functions. i wish they had some distinction between instrument channels and sends, and also dedicated Bus channels. but that being said, using one channel format for all still works, its just a tad less convenient than i'd like. regardless, the program's clean interface more than makes up for this. i'll see if i can test out Cubase at all (seems like they don't really have a demo ugh) and report back.
 
CPhoenix said:
You should take a look at Presonus Studio One. It doesn't get nearly as much mention as it should. It's the ultimate definition of streamlined. Workflow is amazing.
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Agreed. I am using Studio One, and will never look back. I still use Ableton for clip arranging, but the full arrangement goes to Studio One.
 
jubnoske08 said:
been using the demo of Reaper the past two days, and i have to say, ITS AMAZING. i'm producing primarily house, so by way of functionality, the primary necessity is useable, organized automation, and in this regard it excels. my one complaint is that i'm not a huge fan of the Send and routing functions. i wish they had some distinction between instrument channels and sends, and also dedicated Bus channels. but that being said, using one channel format for all still works, its just a tad less convenient than i'd like. regardless, the program's clean interface more than makes up for this. i'll see if i can test out Cubase at all (seems like they don't really have a demo ugh) and report back.
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There is a demo, but you have to buy a dongle (conveniently from Steinberg store). LOL Steinberg either really knows what they're doing or they're crazy. But the demo is definitely available on Steinberg website.
 
jubnoske08 said:
astroid, are you referring to the VST's bundled with the DAW giving you trouble? or ones from third parties?
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Sorry it took me so long to respond. I was referring to a few DirectX plugins bundled with some DAW programs. AND also many many freeware VST(i)'s from all over the place. Over the years I've downloaded tons of freeware goodies. I've never had any trouble with the plugins native to my DAW's. But also, most native DAW plugins are not portable into other DAWs and I'm not silly enough to try to accomplish that.

Also there are some VST instruments that I bought. Some of those give me some trouble.

But anyways, I recently reduced the number of VST(i)'s I have so there is less risk of crashes.

But anyways I'm rambling. Cubase is presumably a very very powerful DAW. I used to have Cubasis VST years ago and it was very powerful. I could pretty much do whatever I wanted with audio or MIDI or plugins. I wish I still had it actually.
 
CDotF said:
Funny you say that -- my Reaper (OS X) crashes with a bunch of IK Multimedia plugins. Everything from the total workstation bundle except for SampleTank.

It doesn't crash upon loading, but it does when I remove a track with that VST loaded.

Must be something with their compatibilities with OS X Lion?
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We sent out a mailing saying none of IK's plugs are compatible with Lion yet. We're working on updates now and some already have been released for AmpliTube.
 
ObiK said:
We sent out a mailing saying none of IK's plugs are compatible with Lion yet. We're working on updates now and some already have been released for AmpliTube.
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Yeah, I didn't receive an email, only got an announcement for the Mega Group Buy around the time Lion was released.. I searched the net and saw the post on the IK forums though. Thanks anyway.
 
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