I started learning how to use a DAW more intently about 5 years ago and have moved between Cakewalk by Bandlab - Cakewalk Sonar - Reaper. I recently ditched Cakewalk because all their previous core plugins disappeared - it might be an issue at my end, but I am highly suspicious that I am being moved from their free tier into a subscription. Being a retiree, I am on a tight budget, so these were a good fit. As I’ve gone in deeper, I am finding Reaper has a lot of standard plugins that I don’t need to buy elsewhere - not sure if they’re top shelf quality but they do the job for me …
  • ReaTune - I use for manual pitch correction - don’t have to pay for Melodyne
  • JS De-esser- just yesterday, I needed to de-ess for the first time, and Reaper has it!
  • LUFS - Reaper’s render feature has click and LUFS monitoring built in, so when I have my first draft mix done, I do a dry/trial render to see where everything is.
  • Stretch markers - for alignment of vocal and guitar phrasing

As I learn or become aware of new techniques or issues to address, I am finding Reaper usually has something on hand.
Andrew

Regards,
Andrew D
Adelaide, Sth Aust
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