# Who has changed their DAW from Cubase to Reaper?



## Santuzzo (Mar 1, 2012)

Hi,

I have been using Cubase for quite some years now, and I have to admit, I do like it a lot, but what bothers me is that there are still some bugs (even if minor, they are still annoying) that Steinberg either does not care to fix or does not even acknowledge, or maybe they just can't fix them.

I keep paying a lot of $$ for their upgrades (just purchased the Cubase 6.5 upgrade today), and still I see some issues that me as well as other users had been complaining about on the Steinberg forum, unresolved with no little to no input from Steinberg on the matter.
That really frustrates me and makes me consider getting Reaper at some point.

TLTR: those of you who switched from Cubase to Reaper: what are your experiences? Did Reaper do the job as well as Cubase? How about bugs in Reaper?

another thing: is it easy to work with MIDI in Reaper? I use MIDI quite a bit, for drums, bass and synth programming.

I do know I can download a free Reaper trial, but before installing a new DAW on my PC I wanted to ask some other users on their experience with it and their opinions on it.

Thanks,
Lars


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## Larcher (Mar 1, 2012)

it's the other way around for me, I have not found "bugs" yet in cubase 5, and I went from reaper to cubase because reaper could not handle odd time signatures very well (like 7/8 and 9/8) 

Reaper is excellent if you stick with like 4/4 or 5/4 even 6/4, nothing too crazy, I liked it alot.


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## GunpointMetal (Mar 1, 2012)

really? I use reaper on a daily basis with all sorts of odd time signatures that change all the time, sometimes each next measure is in a new time signature, and I've never had any problems with Reaper not being able to handle it. In my experience, Reaper is great for MIDI, I especially like that you can gradually decrease or increase your tempo over a series of measures and it seems to be able to handle that well also. I've never made it past the LE stage with Cubase so I can't do a straight comparison, but I remember having to refer to the Help file a lot to do basic stuff and with Reaper, I still don't think I've used the Help button in that menu up there.


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## Santuzzo (Mar 1, 2012)

Thanks guys!

Well, odd time signatures and signature changes would be very important to me, since I use that a lot as well, also sometimes changing form one measure to the other.

@Larcher: in what way was Reaper not so good at handling odd time sigs or time sig changes? Does it not allow to enter a new time sig per measure?


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## KingAenarion (Mar 1, 2012)

Presonus Studio One is something else you should consider.

I use it alongside Pro Tools for my own music creation. It does great midi stuff, but it does lack a score editor if you need a score to work on (but it's piano roll is really easy to work in)

Most importantly, Presonus really does listen to the use community and fixes issues and adds features that are requested.


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## Larcher (Mar 1, 2012)

Santuzzo said:


> Thanks guys!
> 
> Well, odd time signatures and signature changes would be very important to me, since I use that a lot as well, also sometimes changing form one measure to the other.
> 
> @Larcher: in what way was Reaper not so good at handling odd time sigs or time sig changes? Does it not allow to enter a new time sig per measure?



Well I remember one song went like this:

4/4 (4 bars) 5/4 (1 bar) then 7/8 (2 bars) and in this 2 bars it would not play the riff completely, it would stop at say 6/8 rather than do the full 7/8. It's hard to explain, and it was not the first time it did this to me. I also tried asking on the reaper forums and some other users had the same problem, so I went to cubase from there


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## Phalanx (Mar 1, 2012)

Larcher said:


> it's the other way around for me, I have not found "bugs" yet in cubase 5, and I went from reaper to cubase because reaper could not handle odd time signatures very well (like 7/8 and 9/8)
> 
> Reaper is excellent if you stick with like 4/4 or 5/4 even 6/4, nothing too crazy, I liked it alot.



i have no problem throwing odd time signatures at reaper.


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## Larcher (Mar 1, 2012)

that's odd as fuck :/ I've gotten use to cubase however, but there is still MUCH I need to know, I really liked reaper for its simplicity


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## Dark_Harvey (Mar 1, 2012)

I use Superior Drummer 2.0 in Reaper regularly. Reaper's MIDI editor is a breeze to use for tracking drums and synths. I haven't encountered any issues at all after a couple years using them together.


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## Santuzzo (Mar 1, 2012)

Thanks guys!

I still like Cubase a lot, like I mentioned, but I am not so sure about their customer support, so that would be the only one thing driving me away form Cubase.

I might download the Reaper 30day trial and see if I like it better than Cubase, but I am a bit afraid of the mess I will have running two DAWs on my PC. That and having to re-learn a new DAW.


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## ThePhilosopher (Mar 1, 2012)

I switched from Cubase to Reason; I've not looked back. I tried Reaper, didn't like it tbh.


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## HOKENSTYFE (Mar 1, 2012)

Santuzzo said:


> Hi,
> 
> I have been using Cubase for quite some years now, and I have to admit, I do like it a lot, but what bothers me is that there are still some bugs (even if minor, they are still annoying) that Steinberg either does not care to fix or does not even acknowledge, or maybe they just can't fix them.
> 
> ...



Glad you brought this up, as I narrowed down my first DAW to these two. Steinberg showed me the Cubase 6.5 yesterday with the new & improved Vst's, was just about sold...until this. What exactly are your problems, bugs, etc.?

Planning on recording some Djent/darkstep, if your curious. So odd time signatures will be a constant with this.

Thanks for more insight into your situation!


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## pattonfreak1 (Mar 1, 2012)

I used SX3 forever then switched to reaper mainly for stability reasons. Then I had gotten cubase 4 essentials for free and tried it... Then went running back to reaper. Last week I received a copy of cubase ai 6. Now I'm seriously thinking of switching back to cubase. This time around it just clicked for me. And I swear its easier for me to get better sounding mixes with cubase. I had noticed this when I first switched from sx3 too. I had to do a lot more work in reaper to get the mixes right. Cubase was/is nearly effortless it seems (for me at least). Anyways REAPER is a more than capable host and extremely powerful. You'll do fine with it.


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## Santuzzo (Mar 1, 2012)

HOKENSTYFE said:


> Glad you brought this up, as I narrowed down my first DAW to these two. Steinberg showed me the Cubase 6.5 yesterday with the new & improved Vst's, was just about sold...until this. What exactly are your problems, bugs, etc.?
> 
> Planning on recording some Djent/darkstep, if your curious. So odd time signatures will be a constant with this.
> 
> Thanks for more insight into your situation!



The bugs/issues are not really anything major, but the way Steinberg's support handles (or ignores them) bother and annoys me.

First there was this ongoing problem with their VST bridge, many other users had problems too trying to bridge 32-bit plugins in a 64bit Cubase host. This went on forever, in the end I got jBridge which works great.

Then there is the issue that maybe one out of ten times Cubase crashes/freezes when exiting it. Also here there are many users who have the same issue, there is a long thread of about 12 pages and one year old on the Steinberg forum, yet they don't seem to care enough to solve it.
I am not expecting an immediate fix, but I do expect thme to acknowledge the issue and to at least show that they are taking it serious and that they are working towards a solution.

To sum it up, what drives me away form Cubase is not the product itself, but the customer support of Steinberg (or the lack thereof).


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## HOKENSTYFE (Mar 1, 2012)

So your pretty happy with Cubase, it's just the support team suck's ass? I hear that! Though it does seem a bit drastic to just go to another DAW, no? 

I keep having this saying go through my head, the grass is always greener on the otherside, until you get there. I'm just worried if I pick the wrong one that it would be a waste of a couple hundred dollars. It's not the functionality that pauses me, but the application when it's go time. 

Both seem simply enough & people on both sides seem to make it work. What to do...what to do...

Thanks, man!


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## KingAenarion (Mar 1, 2012)

HOKENSTYFE said:


> So your pretty happy with Cubase, it's just the support team suck's ass? I hear that! Though it does seem a bit drastic to just go to another DAW, no?
> 
> I keep having this saying go through my head, the grass is always greener on the otherside, until you get there. I'm just worried if I pick the wrong one that it would be a waste of a couple hundred dollars. It's not the functionality that pauses me, but the application when it's go time.
> 
> ...



That's what demos are for


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## Larcher (Mar 1, 2012)

ThePhilosopher said:


> I switched from Cubase to Reason; I've not looked back. I tried Reaper, didn't like it tbh.



I would love reason but, no mac :/


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## SpaceDock (Mar 1, 2012)

I used cubase for a few years. Reaper is much simpler and faster for everything I've ever done. Cubase wasn't very intuitive. I was using sx3 I think? The price dif is everything for me.


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## HOKENSTYFE (Mar 1, 2012)

KingAenarion said:


> That's what demos are for



Ah....curious. With those demos, are all options available? If not, thanks anyway! I don't want to sort of know how to use something that won't let me use everything. Figuring I already thought about that. The idea is to minimize complex issues. For that,"it gives you an idea theory", yeah all ready figured that. Thanks


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## Santuzzo (Mar 2, 2012)

HOKENSTYFE said:


> Ah....curious. With those demos, are all options available? If not, thanks anyway! I don't want to sort of know how to use something that won't let me use everything. Figuring I already thought about that. The idea is to minimize complex issues. For that,"it gives you an idea theory", yeah all ready figured that. Thanks




You can get Reaper for a free 30 day trial period, IIRC. And it's a full version with all functions and features. Once that period is over it will still work, but a message will keep popping up reminding you that if you keep using it you should purchase the license.

A couple years ago, when I first got into recording my very first DAW was Cubase LE which I got bundled with a ZOOM fx pedal. At that time I also got Reaper and tried it, but but for some reason I found Cubase easier to use then so I stuck with Cubase. But I am wondering how I would like Reaper now.

I was working with Cubase last night, and I do have to say, the program is great and I do live it.

About the support: I don't know if the Steinberg support sucks in general, I can only talk form my own personal experience, and that has not been that great so far. But maybe other Cubase users have had good experience with them, I dunno.

In your situation, since you are about to choose a DAW, I would download Reaper and try it for the 30 day period, if you like it then buy the license, if not, get another DAW.


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## MobiusR (Mar 2, 2012)

Santuzzo said:


> You can get Reaper for a free 30 day trial period, IIRC. And it's a full version with all functions and features. Once that period is over it will still work, but a message will keep popping up reminding you that if you keep using it you should purchase the license.
> 
> A couple years ago, when I first got into recording my very first DAW was Cubase LE which I got bundled with a ZOOM fx pedal. At that time I also got Reaper and tried it, but but for some reason I found Cubase easier to use then so I stuck with Cubase. But I am wondering how I would like Reaper now.
> 
> ...



Actually even after the 30 day period you can still keep using it with its full features. The developers tend to also keep updating Reaper all the time and fix bugs and issues. Once you learn how to use Reaper it becomes the best thing you will ever use. The envlope on Reaper is one of its best features and is one of the reasons i use it. You can always change Skins on Reaper (Check the forums or look for the RADO Skin). Even with the SWS Extension it becomes even more powerful. All in 50mb of space.


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## ThePhilosopher (Mar 3, 2012)

Larcher said:


> I would love reason but, no mac :/



I'm using Reason 6 on a Win7 Pro x64 machine; 16gb ram, 3.2GHz hexcore, Reason is on my SSD drive and I never have any issues with it. I did turn off the silly cable animations though.


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