Matt hit the main points for RealBand: integration, and ease of use. As with any tool, it's as powerful as the user.

I don't really think of other DAWs as competing with RealBand, because they sort have different audiences in terms of the level of detail that they're trying to get down to.

In addition to being a great program for the price, Reaper also has got a very responsive development team, a great community, and some really nice documentation. It's also got a great evaluation policy, where you can use it with no restrictions other than the initial nag screen. So there's no cost or risk if you want to try it out.

I don't really have any experience with Sonar, so as far as Sonar vs. Reaper, I think you'll have to wait until the latest version of Sonar gets out for people to evaluate. There's a lot of excitement over it, and the lower price will certainly be an incentive for people to have another look.

The ReaMix book was well written for its target audience: Reaper users who want to understand the mix process. It takes a "newbie" through the process of mixing down tracks, explaining what the goals of each step are, and what tools can be used to get various results. Some of the examples get complicated - like splitting vocals using the EQ and applying different effects - but there are lots of pictures and it goes through the process step by step. If you're a Reaper user without a lot of mixing experience, it's a great purchase. The downloadable version is $13.50, which is what I bought.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?