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Cockos Reaper Review

Flexible, powerful audio editing for less

4.0 Excellent

By Jamie Lendino

Updated April 6, 2022

THE BOTTOM LINE

Reaper offers nearly all the features and flexibility, if not the ease of use or visual appeal, of

powerhouse digital audio workstations like Pro Tools, at a fraction of the cost.

MSRP $60.00

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PROS

Multi-channel audio recording, mixing, and mastering at a bargain price

Heavily customizable

Fast

Extremely light memory footprint

CONS

No built-in instruments or loops

Uninviting, unintuitive interface

 COCKOS REAPER SPECS

Free Version

Subscription Plan

Audio Tracks Unlimited

ALL SPECS

Reaper, the digital audio workstation (DAW) from a tiny California company with big dreams, has

come a long way since its 2006 launch. Reaper delivers live audio and virtual instrument recording,

a full mixing console, real notation editing, and support for scoring for video. Unlike many

competing DAWs, Reaper lets you build your own menus, toolbars, and macros, as well as change

the entire look and color scheme of the interface. It's a complex program that requires study—

making it perhaps the opposite of something like Apple's GarageBand. But put in the time, load it up

with some free (or paid) third-party plug-ins, and it pays real dividends in power and flexibility.

Reaper covers nearly all the bases of a Pro Tools or Cubase-equipped workstation at a fraction of

the price.

Versions and Installation

A personal, school, or small business license for Reaper costs $60. If you plan to use it for

commercial music purposes and you are grossing more than $20,000 per year from your audio

work, it's $225. Reaper is available in both PC and Mac versions, and a Linux version is currently in

beta. The program is a paltry 15MB download for Windows, 25MB on the Mac, and 11MB for Linux.

You can even run it from a portable or network drive, Cockos says. Reaper is free of copy protection,

and you can download the 440-page manual in PDF format from the company website. There's a

60-day unlimited trial version, and, if you buy it, you get free updates through the next full point

version. Say you buy 6.5 today; that means you get free updates through 7.99, which should keep

you current for several years. Reaper also has a seriously dedicated online community, and it seems

the developers are always hard at work providing updates, bug fixes, and notes. All of this is very

consumer friendly.

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For this review, I tested Reaper 6.52 on a MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021, M1 Pro) with 16GB RAM, a 1TB

SSD, a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 (2nd Gen) audio interface, a Nektar Impact GX61 MIDI controller, and a

27-inch monitor. Both versions have feature parity, and the Mac version was rock-solid in testing.

When you first get started, you'll need to go to Options > Preferences to set up your audio interface

and MIDI controller. I had no problem getting my audio interface and MIDI controller up and

running for this review.

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Interface

The first time you open Reaper, you're greeted with…not much. The opening screen indicates what

is arguably the biggest roadblock to getting started with this program; it's essentially a blank slate.

The left side shows your track list, and the main arranging window is to the right. Along the bottom

is the mixer, with the transport sitting above it and to the left; so far, so good. But a large part of the

window is completely empty.

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It turns out creating tracks is simple; you can just double-click the left side, or press CTRL-T

(Command-T on Macs), though you'll need to hit the Track menu to make virtual instrument tracks.

The dated feel extends further as you start digging into the menus and customization options; you're

faced with dialog box after dialog box, all of which contain system-font-like text, plenty of sliders,

and extraneous white space. All tracks you create are record-armed by default, which creates quite

a cacophony if you set up multiple virtual instruments and forget to turn off the extra red recording

lights. You can adjust to these things, but it's quite a bit to get your head around at first.

The stock plug-ins, like the compressor and EQ, look like Settings dialogs instead of tools you use to

shape sound. Naturally, the tiny installation size means there's no room for fancy graphics. On the

plus side, version 6 added Retina-class display compatibility and UI scaling on the Mac, along with

some much-needed code improvements to speed up the interface and overall performance. Other

additions include a patchbay-style routing diagram, MIDI CC envelopes, and the ability to embed FX

plug-ins.

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The good news: If looks matter to you or help boost your creativity, you can enhance the UI with

skins and layouts. Reaper includes plenty of layout examples in the program, and you can download

free themes from the company site. Installing a new theme is just a matter of downloading a file and

dragging it into an active Reaper project. I gave Apollo4 a whirl, and it's a nice improvement over

the stock look. It doesn't affect the dreary built-in plug-ins, but it does change up the main UI in

surprisingly thorough ways otherwise. There are themes that make Reaper look like analog mixing

consoles, as well as some that come as close as possible to duplicating the UIs of popular DAWs

like Pro Tools, Cubase, and Logic. A new Theme Adjuster lets you modify the default UI theme to

include in-channel metering, the size of the track names, and different icon layouts, but not for any

of the third-party themes.

Recording and Editing

Eventually, as you spend more time with Reaper, the fog begins to clear, and you'll find you can get

real work done. Whether it's for audio or a virtual instrument, you make a track, click the red button

on the left to arm it for recording, and press the master Record button to begin. You can set up

monitoring effects, such as if you want to hear reverb in your headphones while recording a vocal.

Unlike FL Studio, Reaper is suited for recording multiple audio channels of live instruments

simultaneously, and from multiple interface inputs; recording a five-piece band is no problem with

Reaper if you've got the microphones and enough preamps on your audio interface.

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Reaper's tiny download footprint is wonderful in and of itself, but it belies a key limitation: The

program doesn't come with any usable virtual instruments or loops, which is not only a bummer but

also adds to the complexity for novices. It's pretty much assumed you'll go out and add your own

third-party plug-ins; Reaper supports VST, VST3, AU, DirectX, or JS (Cockos's own Jesusonic

format). There are tons of free plug-ins available on the web to stock up Reaper with sounds, and

you can also buy professional-level packages like Native Instruments Komplete or IK Multimedia

SampleTank if you've got the cash. Once installed on a track, the VSTs are hidden behind the FX

button (even though they're instruments too, and not just effects). Aside from that quirk, it's easy to

populate your project with many virtual synths.

Once you've recorded some material, Reaper's tools for editing both audio clips and MIDI data are

powerful and flexible. The piano roll is quite easy to use, and unlike the smart grid-style complexities

you'll find in more mature DAWs like Logic Pro, Reaper's grid is simple and works exactly as you'd

expect.

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A few unusual interface conventions: You can't quantize MIDI data until you open the piano roll.

When recording, each time you stop you must tell the app to stop popping up a save dialog (of

course I want to save it; I need to hear it first before I decide what I think, and besides, using the

delete key when necessary is faster than asking me every single time). You must also tell it to route

to stereo outputs every single time you open an instance of a multitimbral instrument; otherwise,

you'll end up with 32 sends and 16 stereo outputs for a single kazoo track.

Mixing and Mastering

The mixer view seems inflexible at first, but, as with everything else in Reaper, there's a ton you can

do with it. First up, hover the cursor just above the mixing board near the Mute/Record/Solo

buttons, and pull the border up so that you can see the channel inserts (where you would put the

compressor, EQ, reverb, and so on). All the standard controls are there for muting, soloing, and

panning tracks, and you can group tracks or track parameters together anywhere in the signal

chain, as well as implement any complex routing scheme you can think of. The included Rea VST

effects are surprisingly comprehensive, in contrast to the complete lack of bundled instruments;

you even get ReaTune (for correcting vocal pitch) and ReaVerb (for realistic convolution reverb).

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Reaper includes full automation capabilities for tracks as well as instrument and effect parameters.

While working, you can freeze or bounce tracks to free up memory and CPU cycles. There's a

powerful scripting engine underneath the surface called ReaScript that lets you code

improvements to the program in three languages: Python, Lua, or EEL. I didn't test this last part,

because my programming chops are rusty, and—holy cow—that's really getting into the weeds!

In testing, I built a new full arrangement using sounds from Korg Collection 3, one of many great

virtual instrument packages available if you need something to fill out Reaper with thousands of

sounds quickly. The built-in compressor sounded good on individual tracks and across the mix bus,

and I was able to get some good levels going even without a dedicated limiter added. The

parametric EQ offers suitable precision as well, and at least has a prominent visual aid.

It should go without saying these days, but just to be clear, Reaper sounds just like any other

modern DAW. The microphones, mic preamps, instruments, and plug-ins matter more than any

internal differences in the summing or mix bus between DAWs, especially at Reaper's 64-bit level.

You can achieve fully professional results with this program, full stop, and it will feel fast even on

older hardware.

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Don't Fear the Reaper

Despite its difficult-to-grasp interface, Cockos Reaper is an excellent value. On a PC, it's almost a no-

brainer. It's still one of the least expensive ways to get a full-featured DAW for recording live

instruments, running VSTs, and making finished recordings without limitation. Alternatives include

the low-cost versions of big-name DAWs, such as PreSonus Studio One Artist, Cubase Elements, FL

Studio Fruity Edition, and so on. These generally have more mature interfaces, much more in the

way of included sounds, and (in my opinion) clearer and easier workflows. But they're all purposely

feature-limited in a way Reaper isn't, to get you to spend more money on the top-of-the-line editions.

And most don't run as well as Reaper on older PCs.

Reaper's dedicated online community, combined with all the features, the lack of copy protection,

and the low entry price, make this program a tempting proposition, particularly if you're tired of the

bloat from other DAWs or just want something affordable that realizes your creative vision. It's a

question of how important the ability to tune the tool itself is before you get onto the business of

making music, or while doing so; if that concept appeals to you, you'll find a lot to like in Reaper. It's

the underdog DAW, but it's also not much of a sacrifice at all to use it.

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On the Mac, Reaper is a bit less of a sure thing. Apple's free GarageBand comes with lots of

instruments, loops, guitar effects, amp simulations, and even smart instruments that can play their

own parts to help you get writing quickly. GarageBand is no toy anymore, as it's derived from Logic

Pro—the interface is largely the same, and you can record dozens of live audio tracks

simultaneously with it—and it also provides a seamless upgrade path to Logic. That said,

GarageBand lacks a proper mix console view, which is a serious omission, and has little of Reaper's

UI customizability and routing flexibility. Importantly, Reaper doesn't need an upgrade path, as you

get the whole thing for $60. Look at it that way, and it's still tough to go wrong with Reaper.

Cockos Reaper

4.0
 See It

Visit Site at Reaper

MSRP $60.00

PROS

Multi-channel audio recording, mixing, and mastering at a bargain price

Heavily customizable

Fast

View More

CONS

No built-in instruments or loops

Uninviting, unintuitive interface

THE BOTTOM LINE

Reaper offers nearly all the features and flexibility, if not the ease of use or visual appeal, of

powerhouse digital audio workstations like Pro Tools, at a fraction of the cost.

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About Jamie Lendino

Editor-In-Chief, ExtremeTech

I’ve been writing and reviewing technology for PCMag and other Ziff Davis publications since 2005,

and I’ve been full-time on staff since 2011. I've been the editor-in-chief of ExtremeTech since early

2015, except for a recent stint as executive editor of features for PCMag, and I write for both sites.

I’ve been on CNBC and NPR's All Things Considered talking tech, plus dozens of radio stations

around the country. I’ve also written for two dozen other publications, including Popular

Science , Consumer Reports , Computer Power User , PC Today , Electronic Musician , Sound and

Vision , and CNET. Plus, I've written five books about retro gaming and computing:
Adventure: The Atari 2600 at the Dawn of Console Gaming

Attract Mode: The Rise and Fall of Coin-Op Arcade Games

Breakout: How Atari 8-Bit Computers Defined a Generation

Faster Than Light: The Atari ST and the 16-Bit Revolution

Starflight: How the PC and DOS Exploded Computer Gaming 1987-1994

Before all this, I was in IT supporting Windows NT on Wall Street in the late 1990s. I realized I’d

much rather play with technology and write about it, than support it 24/7 and be blamed for

everything that went wrong. I grew up playing and recording music on keyboards and the Atari ST,

and I never really stopped. For a while, I produced sound effects and music for video games (mostly

mobile games in the 2000s). I still mix and master music for various independent artists, many of

whom are friends.

Read Jamie's full bio

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