This is addressed to somewhat experienced users who worked with both softwares:
What made you choose one over the other on the long run?
I have been with Reaper for quite some time but considering mixing and mastering my next project in Ardour. Not sure if it’s worth putting in the time to learn it from the ground up.
Please don’t make this about free vs. paid software.
Thank you!
I’m using Ardour on a daily basis and looked into Reaper for a while. Reaper has some very nice stuff IMO:
I think Reaper is a great DAW, however (ymmv) i find it more complicated in almost every aspect. I have used Cubase, FL Studio, Nuendo, Qtraktor, Ableton and bitwig in the past and started using Ardour a year ago. Everything was very easy to understand, the only time i had to read the manual was when I wanted to integrate a midi controller that had no bindings avaible. The Mixer is great. It’s intuitive, has a good UI and many features like pre and post fader plugins. Routing is super easy for me.
The only thing that’s a bit clunky is programming midi. At least for me.
Reaper on the other did not had such a welcoming beginner expierence for me. I looked into it a few months ago despite being very satisfied with Ardour (because of fomo i guess), and it was not that easy to set up a project in the way i wanted to. Maybe i was to much into the Ardour workflow by then, dunno. But my final verdict was “Looks nice but I pass”.
Hope this is of any help to you.
Valuable insights. Thank you.
I gave Ardour an hour today. It doesn’t come across as polished looking as Reaper but has everything layed out in a very straight forward fashion. I like that a lot. I will mix my next project there and see…
Good luck! Would really appreciate an update when you’re done.
Thank you. Will do.
I really like it! When I started out in Reaper I watched lots of tutorials because I felt overwhelmed by all the stuff you can tweak. In Ardour everything feels much more down to earth, less polished, very straight forward. I didn’t miss anything and will definitely keep working there. Maybe switch over to Reaper in a few months or so…
This track is my first result in Ardour:
https://dontoverthinklife.bandcamp.com/track/infin8y
Thanks for letting me know! So it’s not worth it for me to invest more time to get familiar with Reaper, is it?
Nice work, ain’t exactly my jam, but I can dig the sound. Especially when the ultra warm bass comes in… i really need a tape machine lol.
You mention that you used LSP Plugins for mixing and mastering? What’s your take on them? To me they seem very professional and well made, but I’m not confident enough to trust my judgements.
Anyway, here is a recent song from me (you can also find me on bandcamp but I haven’t got around to upload my newest stuff there): https://open.spotify.com/track/4mqpCr5l65NN1flCevEjdv
I think it comes down to how much you want to live in your DAW. If you work with MIDI too and want eye candy, Reaper probably has the edge. Plus their stock plugins are great. I also think the tutorials for Reaper are excellent! My use case is mixing & mastering only, so I don’t need a lot of what Reaper has to offer. The fact that Ardour is open software plays a big role for me too.
Regarding LSP plugins: I was blown away! Very deep, clean UI, okay documentation, LV2 and for free??? I use their stereo EQ, m/s EQ, and compressor. Plus, still being developed. They just released new plugins and fixed bugs. I am 100 % happy with them.
I’ve tried Reaper here and there and the workflow seemed a bit intimidating to work around. I’ve gotten so comfortable working in Ardour over the past few years and recent major updates have done a lot to improve things and add useful tools. Doesn’t have as polished of a feel overall compared to Reaper but its quite cohesive.