Fretboard's DAW of choice is......

Beexter

.... Reaper based on a quick read through recent threads. It seems to be mentioned more frequently than other options. 

I'm looking at getting a DAW to start recording at home and the advice seems to be to learn one and stick with it. I have a PC, not Mac so
I was considering the basic level Cubase or Studio One options but Reaper seems to have a lot of fans.

Aside from cost, why is Reaper favoured over other options?

Anyone tried Reaper and ended up with something else?

I'd welcome your experiences

duotone

My interface came bundled with Studio One which worked fine until I wanted to use external (non-Studio One) plug-ins...I only had one Waves one that I use for pretty much everything at that time.

That’s where I hit a road block, to be able to ‘upgrade’ and use other plug-ins would cost me around £150.  So I jumped ship & started with Reaper after recommendations on here. I haven’t looked back, I find it really good, very customisable, excellent value & stable (rarely crashes). 

Once in a while I still mess around on Studio One if I’m just practising guitar, but now tbh I’m much speedier using Reaper, that I have no need to. Part of the reason I think is just out of curiosity to see if it still works!

octatonic

It is mostly down to cost and down to it mostly being people recording themselves.
A lot of the 'professional' capabilities & workflows are not needed so why spend more than you need to?

I need to know a large number of DAW's so consequently I've used Pro Tools HDX, Logic, Samplitude, Sequoia, Ableton Live, Cubase, Digital Performer, Acid Pro, FL Studio, Reaper and now Luna. 
Mostly I use Pro Tools and Logic.
Logic for arrangement and midi, Pro Tools for audio editing and finishing projects.

What do you want to do?
Record yourself playing along to midi drums?
Track bands?
Make EDM?

All the DAW's have different strengths and weaknesses.

spark240

I use the Presonus Studio One that came with my mixer, ...upgraded to Pro now and all good.

 Reaper is very popular.

octatonic

I'm actually writing a series of articles at the moment about how to move from one DAW to another.
Part of what I say in the article is we never really make an informed decision about which DAW to start with.
It is either bundled with our interface, or a friend uses it, or what you learn at school.

In my case I started with Logic because I worked in a music shop that sold it.
I had to become an expert and then start selling it myself.

That is 90% of the the reason why I prefer Logic to any other DAW, because I know it better than any other DAW.
That is the case for most people- they prefer X DAW because that is the one they learned to use the best.

mudslide73

I came from Cool Edit Pro/Audition so Reaper seemed the closest thing to me. Just really cost effective and easy to learn... I'm due to have a look at Luna on my mate's setup once we're allowed out properly.. maybe I'll change my mind then. 

octatonic

mudslide73 said:

I came from Cool Edit Pro/Audition so Reaper seemed the closest thing to me. Just really cost effective and easy to learn... I'm due to have a look at Luna on my mate's setup once we're allowed out properly.. maybe I'll change my mind then. 

Luna doesn't do some quite significant things.
It will happen but it really is a first release.

sweepy

Logic all day long for me, it’s stable, solid and is hugely powerful if you need it to be 

Beexter

@duotone - i'd read that about Studio One - you have to spring for the full fat version if you want VST plugin support.

@octatonic - thanks for your comments and insight. Initially,  i just want to try getting some basic songs down with guitar, bass, drums (loops) to create some backing tracks . Maybe vocals and keys (virtual instruments) too and to try to get a feel for mixing. I'm not into hip-hop or dance, I'm much more traditional rock and pop styles.
I think I've ruled out Studio One due to no VST plugin support with the basic version so I'm down to Reaper or Cubase Elements I think. 

Beexter

sweepy said:

Logic all day long for me, it’s stable, solid and is hugely powerful if you need it to be 

Logic seems to get a lot of love but isn't it Mac only? I only have a PC

octatonic

Beexter said:

@duotone - i'd read that about Studio One - you have to spring for the full fat version if you want VST plugin support.

@octatonic - thanks for your comments and insight. Initially,  i just want to try getting some basic songs down with guitar, bass, drums (loops) to create some backing tracks . Maybe vocals and keys (virtual instruments) too and to try to get a feel for mixing. I'm not into hip-hop or dance, I'm much more traditional rock and pop styles.
I think I've ruled out Studio One due to no VST plugin support with the basic version so I'm down to Reaper or Cubase Elements I think. 

Beexter said:

sweepy said:

Logic all day long for me, it’s stable, solid and is hugely powerful if you need it to be 

Logic seems to get a lot of love but isn't it Mac only? I only have a PC

Get Reaper.
At $60, it isn't much of a financial commitment if you choose to abandon it for something else at a later date.

blobb

I'm old school cubase, or was. It just did way more than I ever needed.  Every year the list of must have 'upgraded' features meant nothing for me, I was several updates behind and every year the same.

All I really need it to do is act as a tape recorder.  Compressors and stuff like that came along with the whole VST thing which was a good addition but every track, insert this / that. Fiddle endlessly, repeat.

I picked up Mixbus on a trial. Basic tape recorder front end - which you can get for free anyway - but attached to a mixing console! All the stuff you need on a proper channel strip. I know cubase bought in their own mix console but mixbus does it better for me (I'm not going to say it sounds better).

That's all I needed (+ a faderport), I occasionally open projects in cubase and use some features there but 90% on to console simulation now.

Match your DAW to what you want to do with it.

I did use reaper for a bit, thought it was very good. I like the idea of it.

fastonebaz

I used cubes for 10 years then changed to reaper as I didn't want to upgrade.  Haven't looked back.   I'm an amateur user. 

sweepy

Ah sorry, didn’t read the OP section about being PC only, blame night shift and tired eyes

McSwaggerty

octatonic said:

That is the case for most people- they prefer X DAW because that is the one they learned to use the best.

^ This is 100% bang on.
I have used Sonar /Cakewalk for about 10 years and been more than happy with it.
Sometimes l think l should change to another DAW, but don't think the time and energy l would spend learning another DAW would offer me any great benefits.....

I say, pick wisely, take time to learn it properly and you will probably stay with it forever. 

siremoon

McSwaggerty said:

octatonic said:

That is the case for most people- they prefer X DAW because that is the one they learned to use the best.

^ This is 100% bang on.
I have used Sonar /Cakewalk for about 10 years and been more than happy with it.
Sometimes l think l should change to another DAW, but don't think the time and energy l would spend learning another DAW would offer me any great benefits.....

I say, pick wisely, take time to learn it properly and you will probably stay with it forever. 

Whereas ...

I also started with Sonar/Cakewalk about 10 years ago but eventually got so frustrated with its bugs and glitches that I dumped it and started again with Reaper which has been rock solid.  I consider the time and energy expended to have been worth it solely for the reliability.

pintspiller

I started on Protools as the Lite version came with my interface. I bought the upgrade to full version a few years later. When I bought a new PC I couldn't afford anothe Protools upgrade for change of OS so I started using Reaper.

It's cost effective. Comes with loads of VSTs. Great support - type a query in Google and you are pointed to loads of places with th correct answer. Kenny Gioia tutorials on YouTube are a godsend.

Jalapeno

Yep Reaper is the usual recommendation.

I used Tracktion for a while, as it worked with Reason.  Then Ableton Live for titting about with loops, again with Reason.

Dabbled with Garageband & Logic (I had a PC licence before it went Apple only and upgraded on a Mac Mini).

Think I'll go back to Tracktion (now free) or it's sucessor Waveform, as I feel the need to record coming back.

stratman3142

My 1st DAW was Reaper version 1, which I started using around mid 2007.

It's the only DAW I've used as it did what I needed, so I can't compare it to other DAWs because I haven't tried any.

andy_k

I think it is wise to pick the best DAW for your own workflow, and with time you can see how others have their strengths.
I got started with Magix musicmaker a few years back, and then made the jump to Logic when it became affordable.
This suited me fine until I had to learn ProTools, for Uni, and with this background I eventually realised that Reaper was the best DAW for me, infinitely customisation, and cross platform compatibility is a strength that not many others offer.
I occasionally dip back into Logic, for its Drummer feature, but find the interface very hard to use-after Reaper, and similarly I dip back into PT, usually to just get a project stemmed out for working in Reaper, PT is not made for the mass market really and is more an industry standard due to the hardware integration in studios, a bit of a dinosaur these days really.
The modern version of Magix would be Ableton, which is the tool of choice for dance and synth / loop based production and is also heavily aimed towards the DJ, with its hardware integration. I envy the people at PointBlank when they do their deconstructions with the Live controller, it looks so simple, but is another investment I don't want to make.
The Reaper community is what you need to help grow your skills, and the ability of the software continues to surprise me-considering the size of the initial download, it is a no brainer to purchase the license, although you have plenty of time to decide without any limitations.
Time is your enemy here, I wish somebody could have shown me the options back when I started out, but the field was far more limited then, these days their is a larger choice, at a similar price point,  in this field- Reaper stands above all others, I give it 100% recomendation.

TheBigDipper

My first DAW, after several iterations of multitrack cassette machines and a Roland BR-something or other, was a £5 Garageband on my first iPad. It's free now, of course. 

If you're looking to record ideas, make demos and have some creative fun I'd say the current version is excellent. No it's not on a PC, but you can do much, much more with it than you'd think. Early results come quickly. It's easily portable, too. I used to write drum parts and play keyboards when sitting in a hotel room by myself when staying away on business. 

I changed from PC to Mac in 2015. Never used Reaper but I did buy a copy of Logic and put some effort into it before reverting back to GB for iPadOS. The effort required to learn enough about it to understand what I did need to know for my needs and what I could ignore started to swamp me. I wasn't getting any recording done - I was just learning Logic (IYSWIM). 

The problem with asking for opinions on a forum is you'll get everyones personal experiences and they'll be coming at it from a perspective of what they wanted to do and how well it worked for them.