• Welcome to the General Discussion forum for UAD users!

    Please note that this forum is user-run, although we're thrilled to have so much contribution from Drew, Will, and other UA folks!

    Feel free to discuss both UAD and non-UAD related subjects!

    1) Please do not post technical issues here. Please use our UAD Support Forums instead.

    2) Please do not post complaints here. Use the Unrest Forum instead. They have no place in the the General Discussion forum.

    Threads posted in the wrong forum will be moved, so if you don't see your thread here anymore, please look in the correct forum.

    Lastly, please be respectful.

Cheaper to REAPER

billybk1

Shareholder
Edit: post was corrupted with a bunch of gibberish....... :(
Let me try again later........
 

billybk1

Shareholder
This is a bit of a testamonial on a new VST host app called REAPER. REAPER is an acronym for Rapid Recording for Audio Prototyping
and Efficient Recording
. I have been basically \"testing\" REAPER out off & on now since last MARCH and basically following it's
development. I think I even got a real early alpha/beta to look at, last January. I have been impressed and amazed with the many
refinements & improvements over the past 8 months. But had not really committed to really finishing (begining to end) anything with
it until recently, when some last remaining UAD-1/EZdrummer issues were addressed in recent updates.

There were a few specific REAPER \"Preferences\" tweaks that I had to figure out, to make it work with my UAD-1's & E6300 Duo Core/ASUS
P5B-E DAW optimally. I would expect these same configuration tweaks to be needed by anyone using UAD-1's with REAPER.

There are however, a number of caveats to consider. At least, on my system:

1) Native CPU munching is very prevalent at higher latencies. I have found that if you mix at very low latencies (128 samples/2.9msec
or less) the chronic native CPU munching is non-existant. Since I use a E6300 Core Duo I can easily mix 20+ audio tracks (including a
multi-out VSTi) and 12-18 DSP heavy UAD-1 plugins (80% or more DSP on 2 cards) and I rarely ever get out of the single digits
(peaking in the low teens), in native CPU. Disabling/re-enabling the PPI's from the PM hardly budges the native CPU usage! If I raise
the DAW latency to 1024 (23.2msec), due to the inevitable native CPU munching (at higher latencies) the CPU use jumps up to 30%-35%
playing back the same project. So when using REAPER and UAD-1's it is actually less native CPU intensive to use extremely low latencies. Go figure! But, I like it. :)

2) When rendering/exporting, the REAPER Render Buffer Size must be the same size, as the REAPER/UAD-1 project latency. In my case, it
is 128 samples (2.9msec). I think it defaults to 256, at initial install. Otherwise, your rendered audio will not export correctly and can be distorted.

3) On rare occasions, I will get a brief spike in the native CPU usage when I first press play. Then after a few seconds it settles back down to normal levels.

4) On rare occasions, I will experience a brief crackling in the audio when I first start playback, even though the native CPU usage is only in the single digits or teens.

Once I changed a few REAPER specific Preferences, from their defaults to UAD-1 friendly ones, lowered my project latency to 128 samples (2.9msec) everything has been pretty much hunky dory. No showstopping gotchas! During playback, REAPER is very smooth, responsive & gapfree even when heavily using & editing UAD-1 plugins, doing track editing (moving, slip-editing, fading tracks/clips, etc.), project looping or doing most anything when mixing a project. Overall, I am quite pleased with how my UAD-1's work with a $39 audio host like REAPER. Much better in fact than most DAW's costing ten or twenty times that amount! There is still some features & refinements that need to be added on the MIDI side. I would like to see the ability to create & save drum maps, for instance.




Mixing with EZdrummer & UAD-1 plugins:



(20) track project using EZdrummer VSTi, in multi-out mode, (12) UAD-1 plugins (96% DSP on 2 cards) @ 128 samples (2.9msec) project latency. Average total native CPU usage 7%-12%. After making a few UAD-1 friendly performance tweaks in REAPER's \"Preference's\", playback using UAD-1 plugins is nearly flawless. Project renders are perfect and you can even burn MP3's from the timeline after you drop the free lame_enc.dll into REAPER's application folder. There is native control surface support for various devices. My Frontier TranzPort wireless DAW controller works perfectly with it.









I created a little Optimizing guide for using the UAD-1 with REAPER (v1.41 and above):



http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Gro ... REAPER.jpg


If you are interested, here is the link to the REAPER website & forums:

http://reaper.fm/
 

billybk1

Shareholder

daverich

Active Member
reaper is going to be amazing.

It's still a little buggy but it's definately going to shake up the DAW industry when it becomes mature.

Kind regards

Dave Rich
 

macmusic78

Active Member
sorry - i didnt quite understand what reaper Is? Waht does it do?
 

billybk1

Shareholder
macmusic78 said:
sorry - i didnt quite understand what reaper Is? Waht does it do?
In a nutshelll:

REAPER is a powerful Windows application for multitrack recording and editing of audio. REAPER provides a flexible but easy to use interface that is suitable for amateurs and professionals alike.

For a more detailed feature set list:

http://www.reaper.fm/features.php


For technical specifications:

http://www.reaper.fm/feat-techspecs.php
 

billybk1

Shareholder
wishingwell said:
Does reaper support rewire?
Yes


Will it be available for mac?
It is Windows only right now. I don't know about
Mac development.
 

wishingwell

Active Member
I like that it has very flexible routing, that's impressive. It is however not $39 for commercial version but $199. I've been doing some reading on it and yes it appears as a nice program that is growing more competitive rapidly.
 

billybk1

Shareholder
wishingwell said:
I like that it has very flexible routing, that's impressive. It is however not $39 for commercial version but $199. I've been doing some reading on it and yes it appears as a nice program that is growing more competitive rapidly.

If you are making a good living then a $199 business expense is not a lot to pay, for tools of your trade. Anyway, the rules for non-commercial vs. commercial is quite liberal. Most people should start with the non-commercial license, until which time their business is viable. You can always upgrade later. Check out this thread where Justin Frankel (2nd post), REAPER's developer anwers the question.

http://www.cockos.com/forum/showthread. ... er+license


There is a thirty day free trial. Even after that, REAPER will still be
fully functional. Every 7 days or so a brief nag screen will appear
reminding you to purchase a license. But, other than that, it always stays fully 100% functional. I've got a non-commercial license, if & when I ever start making the big bucks, I'll be more than happy to get a commercial license and sing REAPER's praises to all who'll listen. :p
 

ambrose

Member
The compressor in Reaper, \"ReaComp\" is excellent: you get feedback/forward controls and variable rms times. So, with some tweaking you have an ssl-style fast buscomp or a nice relaxed and pumpy comp. Very, very good sound! (forget the windows-style gui and just listen)

Plus, there is what sounds *very* much like a dbx-160 emulation in the form of \"majortom\" (a \"js\" effect).

You'll also notice some other old favourites there too, plus the whole damn audio pathway runs at 64 bits internally.

I think this is one amazing piece of software.
 

wishingwell

Active Member
billybk1 said:
wishingwell said:
I like that it has very flexible routing, that's impressive. It is however not $39 for commercial version but $199. I've been doing some reading on it and yes it appears as a nice program that is growing more competitive rapidly.

If you are making a good living then a $199 business expense is not a lot to pay, for tools of your trade. Anyway, the rules for non-commercial vs. commercial is quite liberal. Most people should start with the non-commercial license, until which time their business is viable. You can always upgrade later. Check out this thread where Justin Frankel (2nd post), REAPER's developer anwers the question.

http://www.cockos.com/forum/showthread. ... er+license


There is a thirty day free trial. Even after that, REAPER will still be
fully functional. Every 7 days or so a brief nag screen will appear
reminding you to purchase a license. But, other than that, it always stays fully 100% functional. I've got a non-commercial license, if & when I ever start making the big bucks, I'll be more than happy to get a commercial license and sing REAPER's praises to all who'll listen. :p
You posting the link to that thread may lead me to buying Reaper and further exploring it. And yes you are right $199 for tools to your trade are not much at all, actually when i look at all that i bought this year, last year, and the year before, it averages out to alot more then $199 per month, wich is huge when you don't have much of an income comming in. My studio is number one expense in my life. But because i have spent so much and have about a $5000 credit debt due to studio expenses i would not spend $199 on a mixing app, especially since i already have another powerfull mix app to work with. I could not justify the cost for the few different features Reaper offer, but if i could get Reaper for $39 bucks now and pay the difference later when i have some real money comming in then i'll buy more then likely. Thanks for the info!
 

billybk1

Shareholder
Hmmmmm interesting, it looks that there will be a Mac port coming soon, afterall. Apparently there has been some on-going development for several months now. Post #63 near the bottom:

http://www.cockos.com/forum/showthread. ... 852&page=2

There is even alpha pic, of work in progress:

 

macmusic78

Active Member
thanks for the info - looks interesting
 

wishingwell

Active Member
billybk1 said:
Hmmmmm interesting, it looks that there will be a Mac port coming soon, afterall. Apparently there has been some on-going development for several months now. Post #63 near the bottom:

http://www.cockos.com/forum/showthread. ... 852&page=2

There is even alpha pic, of work in progress:

I hope the Mac version comes in the next couple months, cause i'd definitely buy it for my brother and also get PC version for self.
 

billybk1

Shareholder
wishingwell said:
I hope the Mac version comes in the next couple months, cause i'd definitely buy it for my brother and also get PC version for self.

It seems Justin may have a beta preview by Christmas. :wink:

FWIW, I just added (2) new UAD-1 PCIe cards to my P5B-E MB. Now that I have four UAD-1 DSP cards (2 PCI & 2 PCIe) on a Core Duo equiped MB, I have been taking her for a little test spin to see what she can do. So far, using REAPER, I have been able to max out total DSP utilization in the low to mid-nineties (93%-94%), before I start getting crackles and distorted audio. Here I have (20) PPI's (many of the DSP intensive plugins too) and the DSP is maxing out at 94%. If I add another PPI (even a lowly EX-1) playback will begin to crackle & distort. I guess (4) cards peaking @ 94% is not too bad. :)

 

rdolmat

Member
I've tried the demo, but almost every few miinutes, my computer freezes for about 30 seconds. Almost like a CPU munch. I've tried different settings etc...but no change. Although the Reaper CPU meter is 0.

I'm also waiting for Broadcast Wavefile support for the recorded audio. So if anything goes out of sync, you can just right-click and select \"move to origin\".
 

billybk1

Shareholder
rdolmat said:
I've tried the demo, but almost every few miinutes, my computer freezes for about 30 seconds. Almost like a CPU munch. I've tried different settings etc...but no change. Although the Reaper CPU meter is 0.

Is this with UAD-1 plugins in the mix or just playback of a project sans plugins? Does this happen playing back REAPER demo projects, like the Brad Sucks-lookandfeel demo:

http://www.reaper.fm/samples.php
 
UAD Bundle Month
Top