[RWP] I need all of your input, please. Abandoning Reaper vs. ProTools, should I stay or go?

[Hadi Rezaee]

Hi Jes
Although your points are debatable, but I think This is great that 
you've got reasons for a move. Some people don't do this and will head 
into ways that just make their life harder.

Maybe someone could help with the validity of your points, but I myself 
want to also move to mac and use apple logic, but i can't aford it anyway.

On 7/12/2014 2:59 PM, Jes wrote:
> Hello list.
>
> This is a very, very long post, so sorry about that but you have been 
> warned.
> A while back, as some of you may remember, we had a nice discussion 
> about the advantages of Reaper vs. ProTools and which one aparently 
> was better.
> Well, it's decision time for me. I have learned Reaper somewhat well, 
> at least well enough to get things done. I have talked about this with 
> my wife, as we are trying to get a music business going, and aparently 
> people liked what I contributed to the list as far as an audio sample 
> of my work. I really appreciate all of your feedback on that, by the 
> way! Well, long story short, I am beginning to do work for other 
> people and contributing music to a full-time radio outlet here in my 
> area. IT's purely a volunteer effort right now, something I look 
> forward to doing. Plus, I will probably start receiving payments for 
> my work, and this demands that I have a stable system that I can 
> immediately have working at a moment's notice. Just in the last five 
> minutes, I have come up with six reasons why ProTools, in the long 
> run, might be a better option for me for productivity sake. I'm not 
> trying to start any flames, I just need your help to make an informed 
> decision.
> So here are my six reasons, with an explanation for each. Are all of 
> these reasons bologna?
> 1. ProTools is accessible right out of the box, Reaper is not.
> Avid has done a heck of a lot of work to make ProTools accessible with 
> Voiceover right out of the box. From the minute you get things setup, 
> bam, you're ready to rock. Yes, Reaper is accessible on the Mac, but 
> there is a lot of footwork to do, even to get just the basic stuff 
> going, and this is something I really don't have the time to 
> undertake, no matter how easy it appears.
> 2. ProTools is the industry standard, Reaper has a long way to catch 
> up, if it ever does. To be honest, ProTools is out there, people use 
> it, and there is a lot of support for it by a company who is in 
> business for the professional audiophile. The result is you will get a 
> great deal of support for your product, and the product will continue 
> to evolve. After all, Avid has built up a rock solid customer base and 
> they have a responsibility to be loyal to their following. If they 
> aren't, it will be a huge loss of money and customers. On the other 
> hand, from what I have gathered from some of the posts on this list, 
> Reaper is basically a side-project, with very little interest in the 
> money. According to a contributor, the only support Reaper gets is 
> through message boards and mailing lists. Plus, the developers don't 
> enforce their customers to adhere to their thirty-day trial. I have 
> been using Reaper for over three and a half years and have never 
> gotten flagged for it. Thus, Reaper could become abandonware at any time.
> 3.  Reaaccess, like it or not, will one day be rendered useless.
> It's fine for some of us to say we don't care, and we will be able to 
> use Reaper 3 dot so and so, or 4 dot so and so. But one day, Reaaccess 
> will no longer be an option, and if the Reaper devs don't do 
> something, I will not be able to be a productive musician if I rely 
> solely on Reaper. Time and technology marches on, and with it, the 
> need to keep up-to-date with the latest versions of the products you 
> use. If you lag behind, it will eventually come back to haunt you. Let 
> me put in a disclaimer right here. I know some of you will say that 
> it's your choice to use an older version or move to a new one. With 
> ProTools, I would agree with that, seeing as how the product is 
> accessible right out of the box. With Reaper, however, if Reaper 3 and 
> 4 are accessible to us, but later versions are not compatible with a 
> screen reader, there is no choice. IT is a necessity that you remain 
> where you are for accessibility's sake.
> 4. I have no easy, accessible way to backup my internal hard drive on 
> my Windows machine.
> I have put in a lot of work getting this PC optamized for audio work, 
> from installing drivers to my USB audio interface, to installing sound 
> forge, to installing Reaper and konplete 9. Native Instruments product 
> was a bear to get going, and I had to spend two hours on the phone 
> with a merciful sighted person just to get the thing registered. When 
> my hard drive goes bye-bye, I will have no choice but go through that 
> painfully grooling task again, and I cannot afford to spend my days 
> trying to get this setup installed again. To my knowledge, on the 
> windows side there is no means of taking an image of my C drive and 
> being able to restore that image onto a new drive where the process is 
> able to be done totally with speech. I would have to have sighted 
> assistance at some point along the way. I'm not talking about 
> unattended installations, I want to be involved in every step of the 
> backup and installation process of my image. On the Mac, there are 
> plenty of ways to do this, and I have used them with great success.
> 5. I already have a Mac and am familiar with VoiceOver, and it is easy 
> to collaborate with sighted professionals on an audio project.
> 6. Windows is not made for audio work. There is a slight delay in when 
> you hit a key and when you get output from your instrument, even with 
> Asio. The Mac is made for audio stuff, and the core audio shows it. 
> Even if that is not Apple's primary focus, the Mac is just much more 
> stable and much more responsive and allows one to get audio stuff done 
> a lot quicker.
> So, am I just talking out both sides of my mouth, or do I have some 
> valid points? Any opinions will be appreciated.
>
>
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