# Reaper now has notation!



## d.healey

Well the latest beta version does.


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## AVaudio

So in time for me as I started using Notion to compose! Scores with scores better than trying to dechiper piano rolls.


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## Saxer

Is it a public beta?


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## germancomponist

AVaudio said:


> So in time for me as I started using Notion to compose! Scores with scores better than trying to dechiper piano rolls.


I think there is nothing wrong with the piano rolls, ... on the contrary. I always hated it to write music into notation.... .
I hated earlier at school, learning the Latin language. 
He he, let me joke, but there is some truth in my post.


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## Saxer

I's rare that I use the piano roll at all. I do most editing in the score and event editor. My main reason to use Logic. But I don't feel like an 'academic' composer at all. It's just easier to look at more music on less monitor space.


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## germancomponist

What works best for u is the best, Saxer!


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## d.healey

Saxer said:


> I's rare that I use the piano roll at all. I do most editing in the score and event editor. My main reason to use Logic. But I don't feel like an 'academic' composer at all. It's just easier to look at more music on less monitor space.


Reapers beta versions are always public. I can't link to the download site here (they ask us not to) so you'll have to head over to the Reaper pre-release forum to get the link.


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## Saxer

Ah, ok, thanks! I'll have a look...


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## wcreed51

Can you give a link to the pre-release forum? I don't see it on their site.


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## Saxer

http://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=37


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## wcreed51

I don't see any download links in that thread...


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## d.healey

wcreed51 said:


> I don't see any download links in that thread...


That's the pre-release forum. You need to go to the Reaper pre-release builds sticky - its about 7 items down at that link.
Here's a direct link to it: http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=22836


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## wcreed51

Thanks!


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## Hannes_F

d.healey said:


> Well the latest beta version does.



That is very, very good news, thanks.


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## MarcelM

i never understood the hype about reaper. it might be a good product under the hood, its very cpu friendly and has a ton of features.

still i cant understand why they dont improve the look of it and also give it a better midi editor instead of adding tons of new stuff. also i found the routing very difficult compared to cubase or studio one when i tried the demo.

i plan upgrading from cubase elements soon, and maybe i should have a second look... not sure though 

well my 2 cents


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## Erik

It says....


d.healey said:


> That's the pre-release forum. You need to go to the Reaper pre-release builds sticky - its about 7 items down at that link.
> Here's a direct link to it: http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=22836



But it says.....
*1. DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE ANYTHING FROM THIS WEBSITE*
*2. USE VERSIONS FROM HERE WITH CAUTION AND AT YOUR OWN RISK*
*3. DO NOT LINK TO THIS WEB SITE OR ANYTHING ON IT FROM ANYWHERE*
*4. PLEASE DISCUSS ONLY IN THE PRE-RELEASE FORUM*


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## d.healey

Erik said:


> But it says.....
> *1. DO NOT REDISTRIBUTE ANYTHING FROM THIS WEBSITE
> 2. USE VERSIONS FROM HERE WITH CAUTION AND AT YOUR OWN RISK
> 3. DO NOT LINK TO THIS WEB SITE OR ANYTHING ON IT FROM ANYWHERE
> 4. PLEASE DISCUSS ONLY IN THE PRE-RELEASE FORUM*


Yes? We haven't distributed anything, it's a beta so you should expect to use it with caution, we haven't linked to the site where you got this list of "rules", and number 4 relates to discussions on the Cockos forums.


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## d.healey

Heroix said:


> i never understood the hype about reaper. it might be a good product under the hood, its very cpu friendly and has a ton of features.
> 
> still i cant understand why they dont improve the look of it and also give it a better midi editor instead of adding tons of new stuff. also i found the routing very difficult compared to cubase or studio one when i tried the demo.



I was a long time Cubase user, started with Cubase VST and left at version 5. I like the look of Reaper, but you can always reskin it (completely) and even make it look like Cubase if you want.

Coming from Cubase I originally found the routing confusing and kept trying to do complex routings through the routing matrix, I have since discovered it's actually much simpler than I thought, and simpler than Cubase and I now have no need for the routing matrix - the groove 3 tutorials really helped me to understand how Reaper's routing works. It's very different to Cubase. One of the most basic things is in Reaper a folder is a bus, as soon as I realised that it made things very straightforward.

The addition of the notation editor is actually giving the devs an opportunity to update all of the MIDI editors, which is great! - the notation editor is a kind of alternate view of the piano roll editor, the two are inextricably linked as far as MIDI data is concerned.


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## Orchestrata

Heroix said:


> i never understood the hype about reaper. it might be a good product under the hood, its very cpu friendly and has a ton of features.
> 
> still i cant understand why they dont improve the look of it and also give it a better midi editor instead of adding tons of new stuff. also i found the routing very difficult compared to cubase or studio one when i tried the demo.
> 
> i plan upgrading from cubase elements soon, and maybe i should have a second look... not sure though
> 
> well my 2 cents



I think by "difficult" you mean "different"  And *Cubase* is the product that constantly adds new features and leaves bugs untouched for years, not Reaper. Reaper's updates are frequent, incremental and focused on bug fixes. Also, note that I just paid more for a 7 -> 7.5 update for Cubase a while back than I spent on a Reaper 4 license valid until 5.99!

I have Cubase 8 (been upgrading consistently since 6.5), and use it often, for various things. But Reaper is my workhorse, and as I customise and learn more about it I find myself reaching for Cubase less and less. The routing is actually infinitely more intuitive and simple than Cubase, and since Reaper 4 I've preferred its MIDI functionality to Cubase's. Cubase just happens to come with waaay more in the box (for massively more money) - though equivalents for most features are available from Reaper's user base for free. 

The thing is, Reaper is 100% customisable, where with Cubase you're stuck with its design philosophy and that's it. So, yes, a brief stint with Reaper will leave you thinking "ew, it's ugly and different". But once you dive in and make yourself at home... well, I could live without Cubase if I had to, but not without Reaper.

Download the 60 day unrestricted, fully-featured Reaper trial and the Groove 3 tutorials d.healey mentioned and give it a shot.


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## MarcelM

you can skin the main theme and that looks ok, but still alot of sub windows / plugins have that windows cheap shareware look... guess you know what i mean.

i had problems getting kontakt with multiple outs to work to be honest, but i might try it again.

i had a look on the reaper forums, and also there people complain about the look and cannot understand why the companys doesnt hire some gfx artist and such... well, but still they still stick with reaper.


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## Hannes_F

Heroix said:


> i found the routing very difficult compared to cubase or studio one when i tried the demo.



You have a point there, I remember I needed some time to figure the routing out when I started to use Reaper. However, once you have got it down you can really do everything with that Reaper routing, it is one of the strong points of it.


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## Jacob Cadmus

Damn, just when I switched out of Reaper, they got me interested again.


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## MarcelM

well, my opinion is that a DAW has to be easy or atleast easy to learn.

i know you can do alot things with reaper and its macros for example, but i wanna make music with a daw and not waste time programming scripts... though iam a programmer myself.

studio one for example was very easy to learn, but i had some problems with it under windows 10 and also i experienced pretty high cpu usage and cpu spikes.

i will take another look at reaper, but in the end ill probably just end up upgrading my cubase elements.


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## Matt Riley

Hannes_F said:


> You have a point there, I remember I needed some time to figure the routing out when I started to use Reaper. However, once you have got it down you can really do everything with that Reaper routing, it is one of the strong points of it.


Except for elegant routing using VEP or multi-channel VSTs. The workflow is pretty ridiculous. 
Check out this thread http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?p=1624094#post1624094


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## d.healey

Heroix said:


> well, my opinion is that a DAW has to be easy or atleast easy to learn.
> i know you can do alot things with reaper and its macros for example, but i wanna make music with a daw and not waste time programming scripts... though iam a programmer myself.


You don't have to script anything in Reaper - but you can (which is a big plus for me). But there is a learning curve coming from Cubase or Sonar because Reaper works in a different way to them (which is why we have Cubase for people who like to work in Cubase and Reaper for people who like to work in Reaper).



> i will take another look at reaper, but in the end ill probably just end up upgrading my cubase elements.


If Cubase works for you stick with it - I only went looking for an alternative when I found things lacking for me in Cubase.

Let's not turn this thread into a my DAW is better than your DAW because thread. This was intended to be about the new and improving notation feature of Reaper, if you want to shake your DAW at people go here: http://vi-control.net/community/forums/your-daw-digital-audio-workstation.47/


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## sig-ex

This is great news!

The animation showing multiple instrument staves looks promising. I used to use MuseScore to compose/arrange since piano roll does not allow me to see how the different instruments relate "vertically". I hope it's not just a mock-up.

http://forum.cockos.com/showpost.php?p=1637096&postcount=97

I'm a Reaper user myself. As with most DAWs, it will have tons of features that are not so useful for virtual acoustic orchestrations (like editing features more suitable for techno dance music, for example). I use Reaper primarily because it's lightweight and affordable.


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