Create Digital Music » REAPER: Free/Cheap Windows Audio Software from WinAMP Creator

Jan 02 2006

REAPER: Free/Cheap Windows Audio Software from WinAMP Creator

Related: cheap, editing, free, Software, Windows & more

“I just want to record and edit audio tracks — what do I need?” A lot of the software for recording and editing multiple tracks of audio is, admittedly, overkill for the basic user. That could make the new creation from WinAMP creator Justin Frankel appealing. (More bizarrely, he also created a cross-shaped effects processor called the Jesusonic CrusFX, mixing blasphemy with music production.)

Right now, REAPER is free (at version 0.42); when it hits 1.0 it’ll be “inexpensive” shareware. (No pricing is out yet.) The interface looks a lot like Sony’s ACID, but “lite” versions of ACID often strip out critical features, so it could still be competition.

So does Windows need another audio editing program?

I’ve been skeptical, but Brad Sucks, Music thing, and even my former Keyboard mate Carl Lumma have weighed in. Why should we care? These features caught my eye:

Lightweight design, simple interface

Select by BPM or ms for easy loop slicing

High-quality 64-bit float sample pipeline

Easy recording and monitoring of buses

Templates and smart project file management

Coming soon, but not yet: VST, DirectX, markers, envelope curves, public plug-in API, OGG support

Sounds good, but Justin is entering an awfully crowded field. Basic versions of Ableton Live (which does pretty much all of this and plenty REAPER can’t) ship with most audio interfaces, and Mackie’s Tracktion has a more elegant interface at a pretty low price. I also expect some of the Linux-based software to make the leap to either Mac or Windows or both very soon, meaning more free competition is on the way.

A revolution in the making? Or just a rip-off of other editors we’d have ignored if it didn’t come from the guy who made WinAMP? I’m waiting until it gets closer to 1.0.

Now, you may commence singing Don’t Fear the REAPER.

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6 Comments

darjama

What I’d love is something like this that’s cheap and cross-platform. I guess I’d like to see a little more functionality, like midi & vsti’s, but it looks like this will be close to what I want. Audacity doesn’t quite have the functionality.

January 3, 2006 @ 1:14 pm

admin

I agree wholeheartedly. There are plenty of free and cheap platform-specific alternatives; what we need is a cross-platform tool that could become the lowest common denominator. I’m betting this app won’t become that; look instead to Linux tools like Rosegarden, LMMS, MusE, or Ardour. These should appear on Mac first, but given the migration of other Linux tools to Windows, it doesn’t seem out of the question that one app could cover all three OSes. At least if it were Linux/Mac, PC users could dual-boot into these environments.

Peter

January 3, 2006 @ 2:18 pm

MattmaN

This looks promising.
The version of Live that ships with audio interfaces is crippled,so this would be a better free choice than that.
There really arent very many free windows midi sequencers out there.
Frieve music studio producer,and ….ummmmm yeah other than trackers like Buzz,Psycle,Skale,ect that about it.
It’s definantly worth keeping an eye on.

February 1, 2006 @ 7:43 am

Art Evans

I hope you good people are still keeping an eye on this one - development since the last comment here back in February has been enormous and this still-free application can now hold its head up with the big boys - and with a c.1Mb download and an installation that takes seconds, it’s no drama for anyone to try, even using Win98SE or, they say, ‘wine’.