Reaper is a digital audio workstation: a complete multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing, and mastering environment.

Is Reaper good for recording live instruments?

Yes, Reaper is a fully featured digital audio workstation (DAW) that lets you record live instruments, but also features multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing and mastering toolset. In other words, Reaper is a complete recording studio.

Is Reaper a free DAW?

No, Reaper offers a free trial which lasts for 60 days. This trial is an unlimited and unrestricted version of Reaper. After the trial period is over you can buy Reaper for $60 for home use.

Is Reaper good for beginners?

Reaper is a good option for beginners because of its simple yet customizable layout. There are also a lot of video tutorials online to follow as well.

Another plus is that Reaper is very stable and has low computing requirements on all operating systems, Windows, macOS, or Linux, so you don't have to invest much hardware wise to start your digital studio.

Does Reaper come with plugins?

Reaper comes with a variety of plugins and DAW effects such as compression, EQ, reverb, delay, pitch correction, and more. Reaper also supports thousands of third-party plug-in effects and virtual instruments, including VST, VST3, LV2, AU, DX, and JS.

Features

Fast, Powerful Editing

  • Drag and drop to import, arrange, and render
  • Freely mix audio, MIDI, video, still image media on any track
  • Easily move, split, glue, resize, trim, loop, time stretch, pitch shift, fade, crossfade, slip, snap to grid, without switching tools
  • Intuitive zoom, scroll, scrub, jog, tab to audio transient, MIDI navigation
  • Simple and powerful nested folder system allows group editing, routing, bussing, all in one step
  • Full automation recording, playback, and editing support for track controls and plug-ins
  • Easily manage tempo, time signature, and varispeed changes
  • Separate audio or MIDI into freely arrangeable takes and lanes for easy comping
  • Easily copy or move regions, to quickly try out alternate arrangements

Plug-in Support

  • Insert almost any third-party audio or MIDI plug-in: VST, VSTi, DX, DXi, AU (OSX only), JS
  • ReWire (audio and MIDI) any capable application for even more flexibility
  • Fully automatic plug-in delay compensation (PDC)
  • Sidechain any plug-in, even if the plug-in does not natively support sidechaining
  • Apply FX in real time, or non-destructively render FX output
  • Real-time network FX processing: use other local machines as an FX farm

What's New

Lanes

  • improve behavior when lanes contain multiple copies of the same source media with different take envelopes •
  • click unsynced media item button to copy edits to a new source lane (existing behavior)
  • ctrl/cmd+click (or right-click) unsynced media item button to copy media items back to original source lane
  • alt/opt+click (or right-click) unsynced media item button to discard edits and replace with source lane media
  • improve behavior when comping looped media items with per-take automation •
  • action to comp into a new copy of lane automatically copies edited media items to new lane and re-comps
  • action to minimize lane usage respects track edit grouping
  • add action, menu item, mouse modifier to refresh out-of-sync comp areas
  • add actions to exit fixed lane view, show only one lane, set small lanes, or set big lanes for all fixed lane tracks in the project
  • add action to remove empty comp areas
  • add selected-tracks versions of actions to delete comp areas, delete empty comp areas, delete comp areas including media
  • add support for copying all edited media items back to source lanes, or discarding all media item edits and replacing from source lanes
  • comping button on a razor edit in the comping lane containing no items will choose a suitable source lane rather than creating an empty lane
  • delete unsynced comp areas before running action to minimize lane usage
  • fix behavior of action to select item under mouse when lanes are collapsed •
  • fix comping into a new copy of lane with MIDI media •
  • fix re-syncing multiple media items when some items have source media in the lane immediately below and some do not
  • fix some edge cases where comp areas un-sync when edges barely overlap •
  • respect track grouping when running action from unsynced comp area right-click menu •
  • support "Add comp area at time selection" when right-clicking existing comp area on track showing only one lane
  • support comping media items with "auto-stretch at tempo changes" enabled •

MIDI editor

  • account for media item left/right trim when sizing to fit contents
  • display lane information in track list
  • display media item position in track list if multiple media items share the same name
  • display MIDI take names in Contents submenu
  • do not list media items in non-visible, non-playing lanes in MIDI editor track list
  • fix tooltip for "CC selection follows note selection" button •
  • sort media items in track list by lane
  • when editor follows track selection, follow lane selection as well
  • when switching active MIDI source, ensure the source is visible in the editor

ReaScript

  • action to open ReaScript documentation defaults to Lua view
  • add support for GetSetMediaTrackInfo("P_LANENAME:n")
  • fix TakeFX_Show container support •
  • GetSetMediaItemInfo("C_LANEPLAYS") returns -1 if media item is on a non-visible, non-playing lane on a non-fixed-lane track
  • GetSetMediaItemInfo("I_FIXEDLANE") always returns 0 for non-fixed-lane tracks
  • support GetSetMediaItemTakeInfo("I_TAKEFX_NCH"), to get/set the number of take FX channels •

FX containers

  • fix loss of pin names and parameter mappings when pasting FX •
  • fix behavior of single-FX-chain mode when moving FX out of container
  • fix various action support for FX in containers •
  • preserve mappings, parameter links, envelopes etc when moving FX to/from containers

Actions

  • add action to move edit cursor to left edge of visible arrange view or MIDI piano roll
  • add action to toggle preference to limit media item edge edits to source media content
  • improve logic of GR/LUFS metering toggle actions when tracks have mixed states

Linux

  • add drag/drop preview •
  • improve support for ini files which are symlinks •

Metadata

  • clarify that MPEG 7.1C channel layout is equivalent to SMPTE 7.1
  • correct descriptions of MPEG 7.1 channel layout metadata
  • improve descriptions of channel layout metadata •

ReaSurroundPan

  • add 7.1 non-SMPTE channel layout •
  • support up to 128 inputs

Toolbars

  • restore support for customizing both icon and tooltip
  • restore previous tooltip behavior for various actions

Tracks

  • always change track selection when clicking lane buttons, unless modifier keys are down
  • fix moving tracks above spacers when the spacer is above the first track in the project •
  • when preference enabled to change track selection when clicking track controls, ignore modifier keys when processing track selection

Actions window

  • reset/copy actions in alternate sections also reset/copy global override states

ARA

  • improve retaining edits through undo/redo

Automation items

  • improve edge point shapes and loopability for sine and parametric LFO types •

CLAP

  • prevent misbehavior when preference enabled to flush FX on loop •

Default theme

  • layout updates

Display

  • improve cursor paste location indicator on free item positioning and fixed lane tracks •

Dynamic split

  • add action to immediately dynamic split items based on most recent settings

Editing

  • add preference to limit edge/crossfade edits to source media content for unlooped media items (checkbox in mouse modifiers preferences)

Empty items

  • improve performance with 'stretch to fit' and large amounts of text

FX

  • preserve parameter linking if applicable when copying/pasting FX

macOS

  • improve system memory use/free statistics in performance meter

Markers/Regions

  • support importing markers with negative time positions •

Normalization

  • retain separate target values for peak vs loudness normalization in various dialogs

Preferences

  • improve help text for "automatically color" settings in Preferences / Appearance / Peaks/Waveforms

Razor edits

  • add action to select media items within razor edit areas

Regions

  • improve description of menu item to set loop points to region

Render

  • respect source track render channel request when rendering via master

WALTER

  • support setting/clearing custom controls via wildcards e.g. 'clear tcp.custom.*' or 'clear tcp.*'

Windows

  • use new authenticode certificate

API

  • allow plug-ins to register default-global keyboard assignments via gaccel_global or gaccel_globaltext