Reaper seems to be the standard DAW - is that right?

andy_k

Stuckfast said:

Well the key difference between PT and most other DAWs is that in PT you work with areas rather than clips. So you use the tool to make a selection that covers a particular area of the Edit (arrange) window. That selection can include blank space, parts of clips, entire clips, multiple clips on the same track, etc. You don't need to do that tedious thing of selecting a scissor tool and then chopping clips up, just place the edit cursor and hit B. 

As I understand it, this is also how you work in Reaper, the tool is the R click, which you can select a single item, a lassoed region, and then it is a matter of using either the r-click menu, or an action from the list, or a personalised series of actions, via a keyboard shortcut.
I did the PT 101 coarse, which is the first one in Avid's training, so I am fairly familiar with the basic operations, I think this made it easy to move onto Reaper, it all depends on what you are trying to do.
The problem I had with PT was the strict keyboard shortcut memorization, which I understand WHY it is like that-to make the platform universal, but I could not get into it, beyond some basic stuff.
Initially, Reaper seemed overwhelming, with far more menu items, but when I realised I could create any shortcut, to perform any action, I could see the advantages.
I guess, when you are doing repetitive stuff, the shortcuts will stick, but when you are using the DAW for everything from midi composition, audio recording, mixing, mastering and post, it takes a lot to become a PT ninja.
Some of the stuff that has only recently been added to PT, has been a part of Reaper for a long while, folders, and more recently skins for example.
Logic is similar, in the way you have to LEARN where everything is, and have to work in that way, the mixer is fixed for example.
I have been using Reaper for about 3 years now, and stlill am amazed how un-flexible the other 2 feel when I try and use them for anything.
Also, the SWS extensions, and Reapack add considerably more functionality to Reaper, if the standard install isn't enough.
It is an amazing piece of software.
I also have Ableton, Mixbus, Bandlab and even Akai's recent one on my system, but would rather do everything in Reaper, it just feels more intuitive these days and it is easy to find out new stuff from the forum or Kenny's vids.

Stuckfast

Yes, it does seem that almost anything is possible in Reaper. I just never get past the stage of trying to remember how to assign an input to a track...

andy_k

One of my own personal annoyances, is that when working on a single 13 inch macbook screen, there is a lot of information to see.
I am continuously hitting opt S to save, and cmd D to switch out the mixer. sometimes I forget that the icons visible on the TCP vary depending on the width it is set to. There are options in the theme manager to change some of this, but in my case, the pan knob is only visible if the header is dragged out wide, and the input and phase buttons are dependant on the height of the track.
I learned early on, to not get too fussed by the appearance, as these can be altered as you go-depending on zoom levels, and in an ideal world I would have it on a fixed desk with multi monitors. In that case I would be using a more fixed approach to layout, but on a laptop, I don't even really bother with screensets ( more shortcuts to remember ), as it is easy to just use the menus and mouse.
Some of the settings are only visible if the track is set to record mode, but these are preferences set in the theme manager ( if you are using the most current version), I got very familiar with a certain theme in V5, and had to relearn a lot of stuff when it went to V6, since then, I have tried to stay vanilla with my settings as this remains more constant across OS, which is a bit ironic because of my earlier criticism of PT, spmetimes you can have TOO MANY options.