Reaper Features I Wish Reason Had

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Creativemind
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Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

13 Jun 2020

Hi All!

Been using Reaper now about a couple of months (although had it 6 months before that) and hardly feel like opening Reason now. It takes a bit of customizing and you need to get a decent theme (as in my opinion the default themes aren't great looking) but the amount of features I've discovered it has over Reason (I'm talking 100 seriously and it's 6yrs younger than Reason and not up to version 7 yet.)

Midi Editor

I've discovered you can quantize the note ends to the grid, it has remember last note length, remove note overlaps, note displays, chord painting (you hold ctr alt shift and it changes the tool to a paint brush and when you click and drag up that note column it continually puts in a note relative to the chord scale you have selected at the bottom of the midi editor) and you can paste 3, 4, 5, 6 or more notes in. You can even label the piano keys so put Snare on the key row where the snare is and it has a different note type (diamonds) that you can use for drum hits and CC Events, well, it has about 20 including velocity. All these things apart from some of the CC Events (I'd probably never use half of them) are things I've wished Reason had had for years now.

Arranger (Sequencer)

Pooled Clips (Aliased / Linked), Track Folders, Track Grouping, Track Freeze, Shortcut To Slice By Playhead (if that's what it's called), Envelopes (automation lanes) can be placed beneath the clip or within it and show / Hideable and again are pooled (aliased or linked), Time Markers and Regions. Even has a preference to stop items (clips) from moving horizontally when moving up or down to a new track so it doesn't move out of place timewise. Something that bugs me in Reason actually (why not have ctrl up / down arrow like is the case with moving horizontally with ctrl left / right arrow?).

Audio

Punch In / Out, Tansient Sensitivity, Scrub, Clip Gain can be altered using a volume parameter above the clip for quick easy adjustment, about 6 algorithims for the time stretch including Elastique etc, auto crossfades have multiple crossfade types (think there's about 7.) The automation has about 7 types, 6 curves + linear.

Everything is scalable too (the mixer, the track panel, the arranger, sadly not the vst's.)

It has video support, undo history a, full colour pallet, bypass effects button on the mixer and you can scroll the mute / solo buttons (and on tracks) which is something I thought was cool I saw on a Logic video a few months back. VST 3 support too and I'd guess midi vst support and you can scan the vst folders while the software is open fantastic, same with the themes (No restart required.)

Been using it with the Reason Rack Plug-In which is best of both worlds isn't it. The only grumble being is, it's a bit small. That's a Reason Studios issue isn't it, not Reaper?

So all in all, really enjoying it. It would take a good 30 odd features (audio, midi editing, sequencer, main mixer, vst and undo history, autosave and themes affect the mixer) to.go back to using Reason full time again.

So has anyone else switched to Reaper (or any other daw for that matter) using the Reason Rack Plug-In in it and what are your thoughts so far?
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

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Loque
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13 Jun 2020

A few features are on the Reason users wishlist quite a long time. But a lot of features i probably never missed and don't need and they would clutter my workbench.

I now realized, that for new users the amount of features could prevent them using a DAW or just making music. So many users out there just scratched the surface of Reason...

When i think about the first time i used Photoshop, i was just thinking "how the hell can i resize my picture?" or "how can i draw a freaking simple line?"...
Reason12, Win10

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Ahornberg
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13 Jun 2020

I switched to Ableton Live and now I use the Reason Rack as VST. Works fine for me.

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Creativemind
Posts: 4875
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Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

13 Jun 2020

Loque wrote:
13 Jun 2020
A few features are on the Reason users wishlist quite a long time. But a lot of features i probably never missed and don't need and they would clutter my workbench.

I now realized, that for new users the amount of features could prevent them using a DAW or just making music. So many users out there just scratched the surface of Reason...

When i think about the first time i used Photoshop, i was just thinking "how the hell can i resize my picture?" or "how can i draw a freaking simple line?"...
Yeah there is that argument. I was very perplexed with Reaper at first and a bit overwhelmed but luckily with a few years producing on Reason and dabbling on Logic and FL Studio and a tiny bit of Abelton and Studio One, I slowly got to grips with it. It's just a learning curve. Now it's working fine and just wish Reason had some of it's awesome features.

All's I need to do now is work out (sure it can be done) how to get the media browser to audition samples when I click them and create thumbnail pictures for all my plug-ins so that I can drag and drop them 'cause I think it can be done. Anything it seems can be done in Reaper. It doesn't seem to have a notepad built in though but using CodeFN42 VSTNotepad like I do in Reason and you can't do capture last recording / dump to midi. There is a way by opening up a new tab and leaving it recording with a midi track recording then copying it over but there's tempo issues with it even if the bpm's are the same.

I also need to get Chordgun working but I do have Scaler and Scales & Chords obviously.
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

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Jackjackdaw
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13 Jun 2020

I hope RS make good on the vague hints they made about some big core updates coming. I was ready to jump ship to using Cubase full time until some fatal stabilty problems hit me on my new laptop that Steinberg couldnt address. I couldnt face learning another DAW from the ground up again so i'm making the best of Reason. For all it lacks, it is solid as a rock for me.

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Creativemind
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Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

13 Jun 2020

Jackjackdaw wrote:
13 Jun 2020
I hope RS make good on the vague hints they made about some big core updates coming. I was ready to jump ship to using Cubase full time until some fatal stabilty problems hit me on my new laptop that Steinberg couldnt address. I couldnt face learning another DAW from the ground up again so i'm making the best of Reason. For all it lacks, it is solid as a rock for me.
Yeah I didn't want to for years, switch daws for the same reason but just too many niggly things. 20 small niggly things add up to 1 big thing. Take Linked Clips. The time it would save after working on a track for a couple of hours and you decide one chord needs shortening and made a minor instead of major but you have 20+ duplicated clips, you have to start remembering which bar it stops and then starts again when there's gaps. Anyway....

I know they said about the 4k GUI thing, presumably in the next update but when and where did they make the 'big core' hints?
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

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Jackjackdaw
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13 Jun 2020

Very vague hints along the lines of making the DAW users happy. Nothing concrete.

The trouble is, they have got so far behind the curve that everyone has their own set of "must have" improvements. They really need to hit the ball out of the park if they are going to please everyone.

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DaveyG
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Joined: 03 May 2020

13 Jun 2020

The high level of customisation that Reaper gives is the main thing that put me off it. I tried it for a while but every time I asked a question about how to do something I got 4 different replies from people who had 4 different ways to add or tweak the functionality. It reminded me a lot of the Linux world where you would ask how to do something in desktop X and some smartass would rock up and tell you a thousand reasons why desktop Y is better and how your choice of boot manager is wrong. That wouldn't be so bad but they usually didn't answer the bloody question.

I kinda want someone else to do all that and then give me the finished thing. Hard to argue with the price vs performance of Reaper though. They are most welcome in the DAW world I think.

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Creativemind
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14 Jun 2020

DaveyG wrote:
13 Jun 2020
The high level of customisation that Reaper gives is the main thing that put me off it. I tried it for a while but every time I asked a question about how to do something I got 4 different replies from people who had 4 different ways to add or tweak the functionality. It reminded me a lot of the Linux world where you would ask how to do something in desktop X and some smartass would rock up and tell you a thousand reasons why desktop Y is better and how your choice of boot manager is wrong. That wouldn't be so bad but they usually didn't answer the bloody question.

I kinda want someone else to do all that and then give me the finished thing. Hard to argue with the price vs performance of Reaper though. They are most welcome in the DAW world I think.
Yeah there is that in some cases. I get that sometimes on the Discord channel. I was asking the other day can you select everything after the playhead and someone said, why, for what purpose? lol!

So you're just sticking to Reason now?
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

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raymondh
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Joined: 15 Jan 2015

08 Jul 2020

Interesting thread! I'm still on Reason 10.4 and deciding whether to wait for Reason 12 (eventually) or to take the plunge with Reaper and Reason 11 plugin!

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Boombastix
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08 Jul 2020

Jackjackdaw wrote:
13 Jun 2020
Very vague hints along the lines of making the DAW users happy. Nothing concrete.

The trouble is, they have got so far behind the curve that everyone has their own set of "must have" improvements. They really need to hit the ball out of the park if they are going to please everyone.
My feeling is they won't. They spent a lot of time re-writing the engine to fix the 64 sample buffer issue, and then followed with bug fixes, and eventually a small DAW update.
My guess is that the GUI re-write is as massive of an update with plenty of bug fixes to follow that other/new DAW features will be few. So that is R12.
Maybe R13 is the lucky number for us R10.4 users :o

Cubase and RRP will be what I'll start to grow into. And RRP Lite is OK for me atm, not using Thor/Grain/Malstrom anyhow. Europa is a VST, so I still have that.

The audio chopping, I suspect, is better in the Reason sequencer, so I'll probably Rewire 10.4 and record it into Cubase when done.
I rarely use Dr Octorex, but have Serato Sample in case I need that stuff.

For those of you who do not have another DAW, I suggest to look seriously at Studio One 5 Artist together with RRP. Seems like a good $90 DAW that gives you plenty, plenty...
10% off at Waves with link: https://www.waves.com/r/6gh2b0
Disclaimer - I get 10% as well.

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MarkTarlton
Posts: 795
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Location: Santa Rosa, CA

08 Jul 2020

if you use reaper this free eq is really nice! it's similar to fabfilters, but with a few less features, but hey it's free!

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=213501

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raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

09 Jul 2020

MarkTarlton wrote:
08 Jul 2020
if you use reaper this free eq is really nice! it's similar to fabfilters, but with a few less features, but hey it's free!

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=213501
Thanks Mark - that's awesome - thanks for pointing it out!

cheers

jlgrimes
Posts: 661
Joined: 06 Jun 2017

09 Jul 2020

Creativemind wrote:
13 Jun 2020
Hi All!

Been using Reaper now about a couple of months (although had it 6 months before that) and hardly feel like opening Reason now. It takes a bit of customizing and you need to get a decent theme (as in my opinion the default themes aren't great looking) but the amount of features I've discovered it has over Reason (I'm talking 100 seriously and it's 6yrs younger than Reason and not up to version 7 yet.)

Midi Editor

I've discovered you can quantize the note ends to the grid, it has remember last note length, remove note overlaps, note displays, chord painting (you hold ctr alt shift and it changes the tool to a paint brush and when you click and drag up that note column it continually puts in a note relative to the chord scale you have selected at the bottom of the midi editor) and you can paste 3, 4, 5, 6 or more notes in. You can even label the piano keys so put Snare on the key row where the snare is and it has a different note type (diamonds) that you can use for drum hits and CC Events, well, it has about 20 including velocity. All these things apart from some of the CC Events (I'd probably never use half of them) are things I've wished Reason had had for years now.

Arranger (Sequencer)

Pooled Clips (Aliased / Linked), Track Folders, Track Grouping, Track Freeze, Shortcut To Slice By Playhead (if that's what it's called), Envelopes (automation lanes) can be placed beneath the clip or within it and show / Hideable and again are pooled (aliased or linked), Time Markers and Regions. Even has a preference to stop items (clips) from moving horizontally when moving up or down to a new track so it doesn't move out of place timewise. Something that bugs me in Reason actually (why not have ctrl up / down arrow like is the case with moving horizontally with ctrl left / right arrow?).

Audio

Punch In / Out, Tansient Sensitivity, Scrub, Clip Gain can be altered using a volume parameter above the clip for quick easy adjustment, about 6 algorithims for the time stretch including Elastique etc, auto crossfades have multiple crossfade types (think there's about 7.) The automation has about 7 types, 6 curves + linear.

Everything is scalable too (the mixer, the track panel, the arranger, sadly not the vst's.)

It has video support, undo history a, full colour pallet, bypass effects button on the mixer and you can scroll the mute / solo buttons (and on tracks) which is something I thought was cool I saw on a Logic video a few months back. VST 3 support too and I'd guess midi vst support and you can scan the vst folders while the software is open fantastic, same with the themes (No restart required.)

Been using it with the Reason Rack Plug-In which is best of both worlds isn't it. The only grumble being is, it's a bit small. That's a Reason Studios issue isn't it, not Reaper?

So all in all, really enjoying it. It would take a good 30 odd features (audio, midi editing, sequencer, main mixer, vst and undo history, autosave and themes affect the mixer) to.go back to using Reason full time again.

So has anyone else switched to Reaper (or any other daw for that matter) using the Reason Rack Plug-In in it and what are your thoughts so far?
Reaper is amazing but cumbersome at the same time. But some features i like:


1. Key commands - literally everything, anything, can be assigned a key command to the n-th degree. Reason doesn't even need to be this flexible but should evalutate functions that people could use alot like grid size changes and make those at least user assignable.

2. Highly configurable mixer - Reaper is probably just as flexible as Reason in routing, it is just a little more convoluted but certain things such as creating sends/buss tracks are dead simple in Reaper without having to right click and such. And Reaper doesn't run out of bus channels. Also scripts such as ReaConsole makes it possible to adjust fader settings with key commands and even possible to do some very "slick" functions such as turning down all channels by 6 db.

3. Configurable Pan Laws. Reaper is very open ended here giving each channel its own Pan Law setting. Reaper takes this level of meticulousness to the nth degree.

4. Automation. Reaper's automation isn't the prettiest but highly effective and well thought out. Reaper is the first program I saw that had Trim/Read mode which is very slick. You can automate volume fader and yet still have ability to easily offset volume fader later in the mix.

5. Non-destructive Quantize. Probably my favorite Reaper feature midi wise. Lets say I'm recording in a 32nd note pattern but forget that my Auto Quantize is set to 16th notes. No problem just go into the midi editor and change quantize to 32nd notes and it will be quantized perfectly. Lets say you want your original performance. Just turn Strength slider to zero, and your original performance is intact. The piano roll also adjusts to your settings. Even very expensive programs like Ableton lacks this level of flexibility.

6. Mouse Modifiers. Probably one of the reason's people run from Reaper's piano roll. By default Reaper's piano roll appears like it has extremely minimal options with no tools (or at least what most would consider useful). The tools are actually there, they are just in the form of Mouse Modifiers. It makes sense to study how the defaults are set up to find out how the paint tool works and what not. Reaper goes to an extensive degree to allow you to create very unique actions, midi Macros, and user customized scripts. This is convoluted though as Reaper's defaults are pretty horrid IMO and you will most likely need to customize this to your liking but in the end much of Reaper's piano roll editing can be done with a very minimal toolset utilizing Mouse modifiers and key actions for a blazingly fast workflow in theory.

7. Scripts/Macros. Reaper's biggest point is the level of users can modify the program to create features that probably would never get implemented by actual developers. Reaper for a long time lacked Track Freeze, but users quickly created Macros that actually created a clever form of Freezing that actually worked better than freeze functions in a standard DAW like Ableton. Reaper also have their own Plugin standard "JS" which is very crude but does allow clever little midi tools. They have a MegaBaby sequencer which works very similar to Reason's own Drum Sequencer which is pretty cool.

EdGrip
Posts: 2343
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09 Jul 2020

Once you've learned one DAW, the learning curve is definitely much faster when you open another one.

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Creativemind
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Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

12 Jul 2020

jlgrimes wrote:
09 Jul 2020
Reaper is amazing but cumbersome at the same time. But some features i like:
4. Automation. Reaper's automation isn't the prettiest but highly effective and well thought out. Reaper is the first program I saw that had Trim/Read mode which is very slick. You can automate volume fader and yet still have ability to easily offset volume fader later in the mix.
Yes there is a lot to Reaper, I think their philosophy (to me anyway) seems like a very "can do" attitude. There's only been one thing I've found it can't do (not that I've searched for everything obviously) and that's Dump To Midi / Capture Last Recording. You can however, open another Reaper, set the bpm the same as your current project, add a track and arm it for recording and hit record in the new blank project and it will record everything you do on your midi controller in the other project. Apparently though, even with the bpm set the same, there can be timing issues. There is an action for it though but when I looked it up, it seemed complicated. This feature will probably be implemented in Reaper 7, we're on 6.12 now so that must be just around the corner.

I don't think the automation looks that bad in Reaper, Abletons doesn't look great, FL Studio's and Logic's looks good. I like how in Reaper you can decide where you want it too, within clip or beneath it. What did you mean offset the volume fader later?

Today I used Pooled Automation for the first time. Something I've needed in Reason countless times. Ok, you can just copy the automation clip in Reason and paste it further along but if you were to want to change something about that automation later, you're gonna have to delete the others and re-paste them. Pooled /Aliased / Linked Clips and Automation would be a godsend in Reason. I'm just gonna look into how to group them now.
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

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Creativemind
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14 Jul 2020

I subsequently found out that the pooled automation automatically groups or attaches to the clip in Reaper. Brilliant.
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

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fieldframe
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15 Jul 2020

Ahornberg wrote:
13 Jun 2020
I switched to Ableton Live and now I use the Reason Rack as VST. Works fine for me.
Same here. Live 10 + RRP has shortened my Reason feature wishlist to one, which is already confirmed (hiDPI UI).

Of course, I now have a growing wishlist of Ableton features instead. :lol:

avasopht
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29 Jul 2020

fieldframe wrote:
15 Jul 2020
Ahornberg wrote:
13 Jun 2020
I switched to Ableton Live and now I use the Reason Rack as VST. Works fine for me.
Same here. Live 10 + RRP has shortened my Reason feature wishlist to one, which is already confirmed (hiDPI UI).

Of course, I now have a growing wishlist of Ableton features instead. :lol:
That's exactly where I'm at. Been using Live for a few weeks now and really loving the workflow I can get with clips and hardware controllers.

My only gripe is that some VSTs can't be controlled well enough with just the hardware controllers, which is a shame because they're more than capable - they just need the integration.

jlgrimes
Posts: 661
Joined: 06 Jun 2017

11 Aug 2021

fieldframe wrote:
15 Jul 2020
Ahornberg wrote:
13 Jun 2020
I switched to Ableton Live and now I use the Reason Rack as VST. Works fine for me.
Same here. Live 10 + RRP has shortened my Reason feature wishlist to one, which is already confirmed (hiDPI UI).

Of course, I now have a growing wishlist of Ableton features instead. :lol:


Ableton has a pretty good track record of fixing their glaring ommisions.

I started on Ableton 6. It lacked many things. And Ableton like Reason had a huge list of things that needed improvement. Each major update has pretty cool stuff that satisfy workflow issues and add new devices.

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