The little playing around Ive done so far it seems Reaper is more intuitive, easier to figure out how to do things in.

I really want to just do basic recording and mixing, nothing fancy.

Is my initial experience correct or should i give Real Band more of a chance..............


The short version of this question:

What is easier to use for Basic Recording? Real Band Or Reaper?

Thanks,

BBB

BBB,

Came out of the Power Tracks Pro world into BIAB with RB.
Gave me RB edge.

But never knew anything about VSTi's and only little bout
VST plugins. With help from the forum folks was/am able to
make decent music using RB.

If you listen to folks on the showcase forum, many are using
RB.
I have a decent ear for music, but no serious audio recording background.

If you haven't purchased Reaper yet, I'd give RB a whirl.
Look into the tutorials and training video's some on YouTube I think.

Do believe the audio quality and results within BIAB are very good.
For professional studios, other products "May" be better, don't know.

Go with the one that seems more attractive to YOU.

It is far more important to get in there and get your feet wet, start creating stuff, and repeat that process.

Keep RB around, though, for there may come a day when it can do something Reaper can't do as readily and then you will be able to go for that as well.


--Mac

Remember also that you will not be able to generate Real Tracks inside Reaper, so all of your material has to be 'ready to roll' before you import it into Reaper. Whereas, in Real Band you can change all of part of a track, regenerate etc, right from within the program.

It all depends on you and what you're experience is and how you work. Years ago Power Tracks was the first DAW I ever worked with and I found it pretty easy to learn so now I'm totally familiar with Real Band because it's based on PT.

If you already know how Reaper works then you probably feel the same about that, you know it, you're familiar with it so why bother with something new unless you think you're missing something.

Keep reading this forum about RB and if someone here is doing something that sounds cool to you and you can't do it in Reaper then try RB.

Bob

My view; try both.

If you like one better than the other, enjoy it.
You already have RB and Reaper has a free unlimited trial version.

In my experience; for simpler, as mentioned above, I already knew PT so RB was very intuitive. If you cut your teeth early on in the computer recording timeline RB/PT should be pretty intuitive. Also you can continue to work in a BiaB mindset (generating tracks, or portions of tracks and even multiriffs). This has a huge benefit for small project studios. However, if you cut your teeth on Adobe (for instance) another software may be much more intuitive for you.

For me, if and when I find I need to move from RB I do, but until then I find the features available in RB too inviting to move to something else before I need to.
Many of my requests for work/help come from PGMusic based projects, so RB is the right choice. When a request comes in for something done in another DAW, I adapt and keep moving on. The differences are often just in personal preference, so try them both and decide for yourself. Which is better/easier/simpler depends on the need and your personal history.

If you know BiaB, there is a good chance you'll appreciate RB more. Without a knowledge of your previous workflow it is impossible to guess which is better for you, really.

If you've never used any other DAW to begin with, I'd suggest RB simply because many features of BiaB can be accommodated. Moving to Reaper, then realizing you can't generate the same drum sound for another 8 measures can be frustrating.

You may have answered your own question already.

Speaking only for myself, the hardest part of using software to record music has been the software learning curve. Few things are more frustrating than knowing what you want to do, but you can't figure out how to make the software do it.

On the "intuitive" part of your question, my experience has been exactly the opposite of yours. I bought Reaper and have tried to wrap my brain around it several times, but it doesn't seem intuitive to me at all.

RealBand, on the other hand, was a breath of fresh air for me from the very first version... to me, it just made sense...

Software is definitely not a "one size fits all" product. If you wear what fits YOU, you'll always be comfortable.

That is somewhat like saying what is easier to drive a ford or a chevy. Really depends on what your used to.

"Easy" and "Multitrack Recording" can become mutually exclusive terms in half a heartbeat...


--Mac

There is not and will never be a right answer to a question asking about opinions. Any question like that has to have "for you" at the end of it. Some people love Protools. I think its among the worst and most complicated pieces of software ever. Some say the same of Sonar, which I prefer.

What is best and easiest FOR YOU? This is like asking what kind of strings to use on your guitar. Use what YOU like.

Some people refuse to experiment and learn new things. They still use Bob's DAW from 1986.

Use what YOU like. They all do the same thing. They mix tracks of music into a finished product.

"Bob's DAW from 1986"

I like that.

But, having lived through it, Bob's DAW from 1986 was ALL MIDI, no audio, and it wasn't even called a DAW yet, if anything they called 'em, "sequencers" or "sequencing software"...

Still love the old "Bars 'n Pipes" program from that era, though, as MIDI sequencing goes, that one could do literally anything.


--Mac

How about Dr. T's KCS? A classic old MIDI editor I used on the Amiga back in the day.

Hey,
Am I being blamed somehow?

Signed,
Bob

Depends on which DAW you were using in 1986...

I finally paid Bob the last payment on that great software deal.


In 2003.


The boyz he sent down from michigan were real nice.

Last visit, they mentioned something about tuning me up.


What service.

Well, as usual, it IS your fault.....

Hey, I wrote Bob's DAW in 1982 what are you guys talking about? It was cool, way ahead of it's time or my time or somebody's time. Whatever, my cat liked it. You could do anything you wanted with that one track as long as you didn't break the string...

Bob