Regarding REAPER
After my misadventures with Linux and Adobe Audition 2.0 a few years ago, I figured it would be worthwhile to write about the ultimate solution I found to my problem.
The problem was finding a cornerstone piece of software that wasn’t actively trying to make itself worse (like Audition), that I wouldn’t have to spend a lot of money on/pirate (FLStudio, Cubase), and that wouldn’t force me to find new alternatives to every single piece of software I use (Ardour). The solution to my problem is REAPER, an affordable, flexible, and supremely capable multi-tracker, whose creators have a similar philosophy to mine when it comes to software.
I started out with REAPER just trying to do the things I used to do with CoolEdit/Audition. This was mostly just getting used to new landscape. The biggest complication I ran into was integrating Fruity Loops for drums the way I had gotten used to doing. When I was first trying out REAPER, it didn’t have ReWire support, which was an issue. Luckily, they added it before too long. But then Fruity Loops itself started to bug me – mainly because I was pirating it, and with new versions, it was doing a better and better job of making pirating a pain. For a while, I was having to change my computer’s date whenever I wanted to work on music.
And this is where my relationship with REAPER so far has been most fulfilling, because it’s sent me out in search of new VST plugins to use. My first stop in this search has been the Song Fight message board thread about Free Plugins. I decided to replace Fruity Loops, so I scoured this thread, as well as the rest of the internet for the best free drum sampler plugins. I found some promising candidates, but the final solution was also the simplest. REAPER comes with a free sampler plugin, which can be told to listen to input only from certain MIDI notes. So you can create a chain of these plugins – one for each drum – that listens to your MIDI track and triggers the appropriate sample.
And speaking of MIDI, once I got into editing MIDI tracks to program drums as opposed to using Fruity Loops’ proprietary format, it opened up a whole new world of softsynths for me. Especially after I bought my electronic drum kit and learned something about recording MIDI. So now when whip out my synthesizer, I only use it as a MIDI interface to control the collection I’ve been building of badass free VST instruments. Later on, I’ll post a list of my favorite VSTi’s.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Very cool. Once my album’s done I’m gonna take a shot at recording some full-length things in Reaper. It’s a very nice program and I’m really looking for any excuse to ditch Cubase these days.