not anymore… we converts (mostly) worship at the alter of THE WORD, according to KENNY 
http://www.kennymania.com/reaper-videos/
ps. just watch the videos, all of them.
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I absolutely concur with Vaughan. REAPER has an outstanding support community, development is constant. They release updates – stable updates – continuously.
It’s extremely stable, versatile, mature and respected. Check out this review by White Sea Studio. He does a several part series where he details his journey to review and settle upon the best DAW. Among others, he compares REAPER and ProTools, but also looks at Logic and all the major players. He was blown away by REAPER and that was his winner. For more of his vlogs on REAPER, go here.
Nice thing also about REAPER is it has a small footprint. It’s not bloated with all kinds of plugins you don’t need. As a result, comparatively it’s dirt cheap. I paid $40 for my license six years ago. It’s good for up to two major revisions, which I have not hit yet. And I’ve updated dozens of times.
Bottom line: do what Vaughan says!
Oh, and don’t get anything older than, say, 2018 or so for your Mac. Now, you’ll pay a lot more for the most recent MacMini, but from what I’ve read, it blows the doors off of previous versions. Get 16 MB RAM and at least a 250 GB HDD. But you’ll get the best performance by recording all of your stuff directly onto an external drive, esp with the new thunderbolt stuff.
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There is not debate. go with what you want that works for you and is in your price range. PC windows, PC linux, Mac. Why does it matter to anybody but you. i personally will never own a Mac but that does not mean it is the right decision for you. There is too much good stuff to be doing with your time. Screw the debate, get what you want and make music.
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yes thats an important caveat @Tesgin, The Thunderbolt I/O is the best way to interface your Mac, mine is a Resident Audio device, btw. But check out the I/O or whatever the latest mac I/O is BEFORE you buy (or especially bid on stuff) !
Personally I would prefer a refurb unit from Apple without Applecare (warranty extension), than an Ebay unit.
You have less chance of making a mistake.
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Yeah, y’know in spite of everything I just said, I do have to agree with Eric. The problem with switching to Apple from PC is that it really is an entirely different OS. Some like it, some don’t. Eric could never personally own a Mac, and I feel the same way about Windows. I hate it.
So who’s right? We both are. Really. That’s Eric’s point. Go with what you’re comfortable with and enjoy. You’ll be more productive. Both are solid platforms: I like the Apple way of doing things, but Windows has more plugin developers. However, that’s never been an issue for me, since “almost” all plugin developers have both Mac and Windows versions.
Please don’t take my enthusiasm for a system that works for me, and my desire to be helpful, as a dogmatic condemnation of people who love Windows/ProTools/etc.! May it never be!
Thanks, Eric, for keeping this thread from going in a direction of another turf wars “which-is-better-mac-or-windows” debate. Ugh. That wasn’t my intent.
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I think that no matter what I switch to though, there is going to be a learning curve so I just want to switch to what is a really great daw and be done with it.
Well, my own recommendation (Apple iMac, plus Reaper) was to help you get thru this simply with maximum plug n play benefit with totally minimum maintenance.
I didnt mention cost, but everything above is basically ALL INCLUSIVE in an upfront cost over the next ‘X’ (5 to 10?) years, with virtually NO downtime. Unlike protools etc. where they charge you for everything, all the time.
I have never had issues with viruses, I rarely can be bothered to update my OS, but usually I do eventually, (often six months later) without incident or disaster (for complete compatability with existing installed software… ).
So I’m lazy like that, it suits me for it to just WORK… ALL the time. 
And the OS is VERY similar to Windows (except that plug n play devices like hard drives simply show up on your desktop (how handy!).
Reaper is something else. I can build stuff (midi controllers) for it… USB DIY stuff just shows up (without drivers) and then works flawlessly. I can make it look however I want… Literally. It does Video. With Subtitles. For way under 100MB and $60?. The included plugins are awesome. I have never crashed it, it takes seconds to load.
Anyway, there it is.
Pay your Money - Take your Choice.
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The irony here is that I said I didn’t want to start the whole mac vs windows debate and low and behold…
I think we should take a poll and I will buy which ever machine gets the most votes. Let the games begin. 
Can I use Waves plugins with Reaper?
Absolutely. Almost all major plugin companies put out mac os versions (Waves, Fabfilter, Izotope, etc., etc.). I’ll occasionally come upon some decent freeware plugs that are Windows only, but not too often.
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I know you’ve already had enough preaching, but I’ll just chime in with another voice to say that reaper is my favorite DAW by far, and I have almost all of them (PT, Sonar, Studio One, DP, Logic, FL, Ableton). Reaper is the only one I use when I want to make music.
I should add however, that Reaper is also the DAW I’m most fluent in, so it’s just easier for me to use. There are lots of good daws out there, and Reaper is not perfect. But man I love that piece of software.
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I agree with Boz, and also with everything Vaughan said above in his last post.
Also, another thing that might interest you about REAPER is that it’s also cross platform. Files can be shared between Mac OS and Windows. So if I create a project in REAPER on my old Windows machine, I can open the same project on my Mac. I’ve never had problems with any of my plugins sharing perfectly either except for my S-Gear (guitar amp sim). S-Gear is not cross platform. Well, I mean that while S-Gear makes plugs for both platforms, the settings don’t transfer over. I have to load the Mac OS plug-in separately.
But yeah, it is a powerful, intuitive, INEXPENSIVE, DAW with excellent community support.
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That is a strong plus, I love that. 
Reaper it is, it has the Boz seal of approval. 
But will the Boz 432 hz plugin work with Reaper???
Its the 8 Hz plugin you need to worry about 
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Boz. are you a Mac guy or a WIndows guy?
@WeGotLost I am running Windows 7 8GB RAM (laptop) with Sonar and have no issues right now.
I am mainly on Studio One which runs solid as well. My practice studio PC is again Win7 and is with 4GB RAM running Studio One.
Latest one - I did the overdub tracking and edits for ME for this EP, no issues:
While I am not opposed to you getting a new system, I don’t think that’s the problem in this case. It is audio interface drivers.
Just to mention this - I am still running Win7 after I had Win10 installed on the rehearsal PC and the automated Windows updates, Creator Update it is called I think (which you can’t shutoff, only postpone) knocked off my firewire driver and since then I haven’t been able to get my firewire device to sync back with that PC. I also have a CS degree so it is not like I don’t know what I am doing on the hardware side
So I downgraded to WIn7 and won’t upgrade to Win10. Most likely when I can’t use Win7 I’ll have to move on to something else, probably back to Mac.
Anyway, I think you can probably still get a new PC with Win7/Win10 option, on Newegg.com
If I have to pick Sonar vs Reaper I’ll go Sonar. Reaper just feels to me like a big chunky log, although I’ve used it and actually have it installed on here.
Updating RAM if your system will take more might be a good way to go.
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Well that is an interesting analogy for sure. 
I feel like a women who has two men who are proposing to her at the same time, one is named Reaper and one is named Sonar. Each one steps in front of the other and in front of me and gives the reason why he is the best man for me. When one is finished, the other one steps in front of him yet again and begins why HE is the better man. This is the part where I cry out. “Oh, what shall I do, I do lovith BOTH of you!” 
The great thing about electronics is that there is no bigamy. 
