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Reaper has the look and feel of a high-end music production app.

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Conclusions

We don’t have enough space to cover every detail of all Reaper’s features, but what we can tell you is that Reaper has come on in leaps and bounds since its initial release. It isn’t perfect, though.

One problem is that in-depth audio editing still requires an external audio editor, while the MIDI functions aren’t as comprehensive as we’d like. Furthermore, the smattering of included instruments seems like an obligatory afterthought (the drum machine has a whopping four sounds on board), and we’d love to see a score editor, too.

The interface can seem clunky at times, and we encountered the occasional audio dropout, but we didn’t suffer any of the stability issues that some users have reported.

What’s more, any shortcomings are made up for by such niceties as the included ReaPlugs and Jesusonic effects, and the staggering number of supported formats and customisability.

So, while still a work in progress, Reaper is already a powerful and useable DAW. Considering its more-than-reasonable pricing, no PC-based musician could have any reason not to at least try it out.

For a more detailed review of Reaper 2.0, check out issue 123 of Computer Music.