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

Sat Jul 12 14:10:55 EDT 2014

Much depends on what u do, Jess. If u do a lot of midi work, then
ProTools may not be your daw of choice, as its midi capabilities are
lackluster, by all accounts. However, having said all that, I don't
think Reaper is truly ready for primetime. That's true for sighted
folks, & it's definitively true for those of us who are blind, givin
the access problems. The truth is, u may well need more than 1 tool to
get the job done.

I think, were I u, that I'd subscribe to the blind ProTools list & see
what successes & pitfalls the folks who r usin' it experience on a
daily basis. That might give u some info as to how to move forward.

On 7/12/14, Jonathan <jonathancandler_msa at q.com> wrote:
> Hello I am Jonathan Candler and I am a music producer and I would just
> like to say this... It would be better if you get pro tools in the long
> run because you will always have that support. Pluss, you have voiceover
> accessabillity out of the box.
> On 7/12/2014 3:50 AM, Hadi Rezaee wrote:
>> 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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>>
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