Make Reaper not look like trash?

[Randy]

Semi recently divested myself of my Mac setup, at least for home recording. Had Logic and it kicked ass. Had Cubase years back but gave my license over to my old band. Have a Cubase LE license that Steinberg is no longer honoring.

So, womp womp, back to Reaper I am for now but the default theme sucks balls, the controls are the total opposite of intuitive, etc etc. My friend sent my a usability mod some years back but I've long since lost it. Anything to make this program suck less? Grin and bear it?

[Chris]

I like the default layout, but I've been using it for ages and I'm used to it. I bought Logic and thought the same things about it that you're saying now.

Check this:

http://www.houseofwhitetie.com/reaper/imperial/wt_imperial.html

[Randy]

THIS I like.

[Mike]

There's a lot of themes (and I'm used to the default), but White Tie is probably the best.

[Chris]

i just stick with the default because I know it will always work. I've used White Tie and it does look awesome, but if an update breaks it and the developer stops giving a shit I'll have to go back to default anyway.

[Randy]

That's exactly why I've never tried any of the themes actually.

I've worked with Reaper a number of times, I just pickup literally any other DAW and instantly workflow better. I don't like the hotkeys, how things are labeled, the UI buttons, etc. Always feels so unintuitive even after using it on and off for probably 10 or 12 years

[RevDrucifer]

The look of Reaper is exactly why I never even gave it a second thought and just paid for Logic. It seemed like an arcade game or something and looked too busy.

[Randy]

The look of Reaper is exactly why I never even gave it a second thought and just paid for Logic. It seemed like an arcade game or something and looked too busy.

Yeah I had Logic (loved it, super powerful and very intuitive) as well, but I have programs I have to use for work that are Windows only and it's broadcast audio production based, I got tired of having my work audio production computer and my home audio production computer. So I had to ditch the Mac unfortunately.

I'll give Reaper another try, if I still hate it after my 'fun money' budget is refilled I'll prolly spring for another Cubase license.

As a side note, anybody have any experience with BandLab Cakewalk?

[RevDrucifer]

Yeah I had Logic (loved it, super powerful and very intuitive) as well, but I have programs I have to use for work that are Windows only and it's broadcast audio production based, I got tired of having my work audio production computer and my home audio production computer. So I had to ditch the Mac unfortunately.

I'll give Reaper another try, if I still hate it after my 'fun money' budget is refilled I'll prolly spring for another Cubase license.

As a side note, anybody have any experience with BandLab Cakewalk?

Ah that’s a bummer! Without going into the whole Mac VS PC thing, if I had to use a PC for anything but storing files and sending e-mails I’d fucking cry.

[Chris]

Ah that’s a bummer! Without going into the whole Mac VS PC thing, if I had to use a PC for anything but storing files and sending e-mails I’d fucking cry.

Without going into Mac vs PC as well - Fuck that shit, I wouldn't even want to send email on Windows.

[Randy]

Yeah it's been awful.

I've still got Mac at my office because I need Final Cut Pro for work, but just don't have one at home anymore unfortunately. With the pandemic thing, I shifted to doing most of my audio based stuff from home, so I need specific software to run the automation from there and it's tied my hands ugh.

The problem with Reaper seems to be "you can make it whatever you want!" so it comes out of the box as kind of a gelatinous mess.

[Mike]

That's exactly why I've never tried any of the themes actually.

I've worked with Reaper a number of times, I just pickup literally any other DAW and instantly workflow better. I don't like the hotkeys, how things are labeled, the UI buttons, etc. Always feels so unintuitive even after using it on and off for probably 10 or 12 years

Which is funny, because one of the things I really liked about it from day one was it made sense to me. Different strokes.

[Chris]

Which is funny, because one of the things I really liked about it from day one was it made sense to me. Different strokes.

Right? DAWs are super personal like that. I think Logic is god awful, but I'm sure if I started on it everything would be in the perfect spot.

[Randy]

Right? DAWs are super personal like that. I think Logic is god awful, but I'm sure if I started on it everything would be in the perfect spot.

That's prolly part of the problem, yeah. I use Final Cut Pro for work almost every day for like 8 years, and a lot of the controls and shortcuts in Logic are the same so it carried over easily.

[Budda]

Right? DAWs are super personal like that. I think Logic is god awful, but I'm sure if I started on it everything would be in the perfect spot.

I couldnt figure out audacity (lol) and reaper. GB and Logic were "aha" moments and I've actually gotten stuff done as a result.

[Randy]

I couldnt figure out audacity (lol) and reaper. GB and Logic were "aha" moments and I've actually gotten stuff done as a result.

That's my thing. I picked up Reaper about 12 years ago, maybe earlier and every time I've picked up any random DAW to "try", I was instantly more productive ton my first day, first session.

What I think I'm missing is that Reaper wants you to customize your controls and the UI to match your workflow, and I'm more inclined to default to "how does the program want me to do this" and then do it. IDK, I'm definitely spending some more time with Reaper this week to see whats to change to make it feel more home-ish.

[Budda]

Best of luck!

[Greg McCoy]

I like the default theme fine, but there are two others I use. It's highly configurable, you can even tweak stuff on your own. Just RTFM. Or in this case "Reaper User Guide".

White Tie used to be the most popular along with Dark Side Imperial and other variants, don't know if it still is.

Worth mentioning that the themes being broken for future updates usually only applies to the heavy duty ones using the SWS extender.

Many of the themes are essentially double monitor only, or at the very least highly optimized for running dual displays. So if you aren't running dual displays some of the more highly regarded themes aren't as useful.

I use the analog_api_v4r2 and Default_Analog_v1.8.

I find Reaper pretty intuitive. Though slightly more intensive stuff like pan law and shit like that is stuff you will have to look up coming from another DAW. Read the User Guide, can't say that enough. A lot of the stuff that qualifies as "themes" you can tweak on your own.

[Greg McCoy]

For the stuff you can tweak on your own go to the actions menu and search "theme". It isn't hotkey'd by default but the functionality is there. There is a shitload of stuff there. Background colors and text and all kinds of shit. Unless a theme is really intensive, most of the "REAPER power user" crowd also tweak themes they get from someone else to suit their needs. Some of the less intensive ones are just color scheme type mods people came up with by messing with stuff in those menus.

[Drew]

I've never had any issues with the look of Reaper, and as far as the workflow, there were only a couple tweaks I wanted t make that bothered me (the biggest was changing the defauly mouse scroll wheel behavior from side to side, to up and down) so I've just stuck with the default skin. It works, and I think a big part of Reaper's ethos is that something doesn't have to LOOK fancy to be very effective - see ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaDelay, etc.