A digital audio workstation, or DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is a complete system dedicated especially to audio recording and editing. These can be hardware or software based, and can have a large number of functions and features, as well as being generally very expensive solutions. However, there are always options that, without losing professionalism, become affordable for all users. And one of them is REAPER.
REAPER is one of the most complete DAW programs for professional digital audio creation and production that we can find. This program has been developed by the original creator of WinAMP, the popular music player that, years ago, conquered millions of users.
Main features
Without a doubt, one of the main characteristics of this program is that it takes up very little. The program as such occupies only 100 MB , and can be run portable, so it does not need installation. This program, in addition, is one of the most stable on the market, which has meant that, in a short time, it has begun to be used in important recording studios.
It has a wealth of professional features and options, such as MIDI routing , multi-channel support, internal 64-bit audio processor, and many more features. In addition, it has hundreds of studio quality effects to process audio and MIDI, in addition to having a large number of tools to create our own effects. Of course, it also has support for a large number of third-party plugins and virtual instruments.
This program also allows users to record MIDI music both by hardware (if we have instruments to connect them to the PC) and by software, if we have sound generators or virtual instruments.
Although the interface of this program is quite successful and worked so that users can use it without problems, there are many “themes” that allow us to change it to be more similar to other popular tools, such as LOGIC or IMPERIAL.
Although mastering these types of programs is often difficult, the REAPER learning line is not too steep. Especially if we have previous experience with other similar programs. In addition, on YouTube we can find a large number of tutorials and guides that will help us learn how this program works.
Lastly, it should be noted that it has many possibilities for working with macros and it automates a large number of functions.
Download Reaper
This program is available for Windows, Linux (through Wine) and macOS, and we can download it free of charge from the following link . Although it is a paid program, its developers offer us a completely free 60-day trial version to experiment with the program. However, after that time, we will have to go through the box.
The license of this program has two prices according to the use that we are going to give it. If we are going to use it on a personal level, we are a non-profit or education related organization, or our small billing company has less than $ 20,000 in profit, we can get the license for $ 60 . Otherwise, we will have to pay the full price of it, which amounts to $ 225 .
Of course, these licenses are for a single payment, so we will not have to pay subscriptions or anything else.
Free license for REAPER
We cannot deny that the situation in recent days around the world is complicated. More and more users are being forced to work from home. This is something new for most and many may find themselves blocked at first and not knowing what to do. To help in this task, the big developers are carrying out initiatives such as offering free software licenses so that these users can use their programs for free until everything is over. And one of the last to join the initiative is REAPER.
In the following link we can find a temporary license valid until July 1, 2020. After that date, users who want to continue using the program will have to pay for the full license.
