Why ??
Reaper already has a user made commercial extension (Playtime) that does everything Live does and more.


To the OP
If you are on Windows then S1 just cant compete with Reaper in terms of pound for pound features, some of the workflow is a bit quicker for some people in S1, and S1 is definitely prettier, but at the same time some of the features that are missing in S1 are so basic and annoying that after using it for anything more than a bit of band tracking it starts to become a bit obvious that it is missing so much.

If you are on OSX just do yourself a favour and avoid both
S1 CPU and stability issues
Reaper just lacks 1:1 parity with its Windows version, simple things like having a huge media browser on screen that allows only one column view, very very painful, lots of OSX niggles like that in Reaper (For the record, there are reasons given by the devs for these issues, but that doesn't fix them)

S1 CPU usage is higher quite some than Reaper even on Windows.

1st it costs $60 for the discounted licence, not $50
2nd a lot of people "Whine" as you put it about features that are missing because they have been asked for for 10 years, all the while things get added that nobody asked for, this is not a problem as such, but the same people who "Whine" about the "Whining" also tend to be the same people who straight up lie across various sites online and proclaim that the developers at Cockos listen to their fanbase, they do not, they get feedback and listen on pre releases and that is all.
That is not guesswork or trying to disrespect the developers (I can guarantee i have been using Reaper longer than most and still do) it is a fact, go look at the joke that is the FR forum.

For 2 years I mainly work in Studio one. Piano is my instrument, so the point is, I really like the workflow in Studio one, this is the main reason to use it. But, and this is not nonsense, Studio one from version 2 to 3 has bugs. I have desktop PC strong enough for every task in music production, but if I load more then two piano VST (VSL imperial) it took almost one minute to close the program, or its just freeze sometimes. NEVER happened in REAPER. Second, on my weak laptop (i3, 4gb ram) there is no chance to load and record more then one serious Piano VST(The Hammersmith pro or something else big), even with one there is CPU overload when I start to record, and crash in Studio one 3. NEVER happened in REAPER. Even with 4 multisamples beast piano VST Reaper has no problem at all, to play it, or to record it. Just to mention, I have Presonus Audiobox 22vsl usb card, so I expected it is excellent combination with Studio one 3, but it isnt. So, the point is, if you have strong PC go for any program you want. If you have weaker pc, then Reaper all the way.

That's exactly my experience with Reaper. I get the impression Reaper is more of a vanity project for the developer where making a profit is not a big factor.

That said, I'm using Studio One because most things are done quicker. Better workflow for my taste, better-looking interface. But the truth is that they both get the job done without problems and it's merely a matter of personal taste and familiarity with certain routines.

If I had to absolutely pick one, though, it would be Studio One. It just looks and acts more polished.

What's your argument here really?

Are you saying the development team at Reaper haven't been generous and competent? Are you saying they're simply willfully turning a blind eye to all the so-called crucial bugs because they simply want to piss everyone off for 10 years? Are you saying for $60 you aren't getting your your money's worth?

Here's what's likely. The development team at Reaper focuses their attention on the things that matter the most, that are feasible from a productivity and cost standpoint, and that don't screw with the one key feature Reaper has going in comparison to every other daw - it runs lean and it runs well.

How anyone can demand anything else for their $60 is beyond me. I'm paying $20 per month just to use Adobe Premier - per month!

No argument, no demands, correcting you thats all, get excited much haha

I've never had Reaper crash on me. The S1 demo on the other hand...

I was a little over the top now that read that again....all good.

I dont know, im not sure about that man. At home on my small rig i mess with Studio One and Reaper some. Studio One mostly because i got it for $80 and Reaper was my first "back-up program" that i never really got full on with.

That said, the only thing really keeping me from Studio One V3 IS the look. Im no reaper expert, but this doesnt look bad at all to me compared to ANY version of S1 ive seen.

Ive seen others do some REALLY beautiful things with reaper, and if you arent already aware, you can use themes in Reaper, to make it look like Pro tools if thats what you want. My personal opinion, that Reaper has a big edge on S1 as far as the look goes.


As for S1 "acting more polished"...i dont know..Its a bit of a blanket statement IMO. Ive never seen a side by side comparison of the two programs, but i cant imagine S1 doing THAT much more than Reaper up until this latest version 3 - that most people will ever use.

Im with ya in some aspects...I really want to full on like S1. It has a bit more of a modern vibe associated with it i guess, but IMO the GUI was the weak point up until 2.6. Id definitely like to hear anything you want to add about the version 3 GUI.

I prefer Studio One 's workflow because of the 1-screen interface and the extensive drag-and-drop features. Studio One's media/fx browser is pretty good, too.

Like I said before, it's a matter of taste/familiarity, because both get the job done. I'm very familiar with Reaper and themes, but still prefer Studio One's interface overall (even though some numbers are definitely smaller than they should be).

I use both Studio One V3.x and Reaper. They are a good compliment to each other. I like the workflow in S1 better as it seems to fit my line of thinking better than Reaper does. With S1 If I want to perform some task I have never done before I just try it the way I think it will work and it usually does. Not always, but usually.

FWIW over the years I have tried them all and S1 and Reaper IMHO are the best ones out there OVERALL. At least for me.

it will of course depend on the amount and character of the actual exchanges, but i'd say if you're collaborating with s1 guys, you should probably have s1, if for no other reason than easy exchange. you can move stuff into reaper from there if you want to. it's been common practice for non-PT folk to keep a small PT rig around for exactly that purpose.

I also vote for S1, despite loving Reaper as well.

In my opinion, S1 is way more intuitive in terms of workflow. Everything is right there where it's supposed to be. It's the kind of software you can actually learn from scratch without ever consulting a manual or forums.

Reaper, on the other hand, can do everything S1 does and more, but it's also way more complex. Its workflow can be quite disruptive and annoying sometimes.

I think S1 is more tuned to the future in terms of user interaction. Very intuitive, no hidden configurations and overall very pleasant workflow.

You know, when I was at design school, one of my teachers said to me that the best interface is the one you don't even notice it's there, in the first place. That's how I feel about S1.

Just my two cents.

If you want smooth workflow with a fast learning curve: S1. If you want better low latency performance and much better CPU usage: Reaper.

I just could never get into Reaper. Here is how I see it. If the developers couldn't bother to makea decent Ui for users to use then why do I have to go through the trouble of fixing it? I don't have the time or inclination to go through all of that. I just want to make music not not learn how to script or program. In that respect S1 is imo the best DAW out there. It just gets out of the way. There are very little pain points UI wise for me. I rarely get the pounding headache that I get when I;m starting to get frustrated by some badly designed UI.

As many updates as Reaper gets you would think someone would take the time to actually modernize and improve the UX.

Long time Studio One user here. I am now looking seriously at Reaper. I've set up everything for OTB mixing and I will check how this holds up as the tracks add up.
My major gripe with Studio One is now that the support for MCU (like my newly acquired Behringer X-Touch) seems like an afterthought. Reaper's support via plugins for control surfaces is 10000 times better.

In Studio One the X Touch's faders are moving in a jerky fashion when playing back automation.
I can't map more than max 8 parameters, and they seem only to be mapped to v-pots. This is not good enough.
I was expecting paging, range setting etc from such expensive software as Studio One, but no. Just.... 8... parameters...

So this with all the other flexibility Reaper brings, I am more inclined to drop $60 on Reaper, than a hefty > $150 upgrade to Studio One 3. I like Studio One's workflow, but I just have to get into Reaper I guess...

Just a warning to you folks with a control surface....

Also, the CPU usage (or the CPU metering is different) shows that Studio One is a lot heavier on the CPU, just doing nothing. Like loading Arturia Spark hogs > 10% doing nothing. In Reaper it's ~1-2%.

The generic UI is fine - I'll take performance and stability over a pretty UI any day of the week. In my opinion, Reaper's development has the best Daw for basic use because they've focused they're attention on what actually counts - PERFORMANCE!

No what actually counts is making music. If I can't make heads nor tails of the interface and I have to actively mod it to something it should do out of the box then it gets in the way of the process imo. Performance is important yes, but it's not the only thing that matters nor is it the most important to be honest. Otherwise no one would use Ableton Live which has probably the worst performance out of any DAW in-terms of cpu usage. However it's interface makes it very easy to prototype and come up with new ideas which is why it's so popular. It's workflow.

Reaper may work for some folks and some are even willing to put up with it's UI quirks because it's only $60 bucks. That's fine but I do this to make music not fix something that the developers should have addressed themselves. I don't want to hunt for skins on the internet nor download mods to fix the menus to something more usable. That's just me.

S1's interface is not just pretty it's very functional and easy to use. It's very intuitive so that using it involves very little googling or reading the manual. Most things for the most part work as you would expect them to work. Does it perform as well as Reaper in-terms of cpu usage, no but it works well enough for me. I have a fast enough machine that it's not really an issue for me anyway.

All the workflow shortcuts in the world don't mean a thing when you can't add another track or plugin or run at a low enough buffer to track without crippling latency.

If you don't have stability and performance, you don't have anything except a headache, and you certainly aren't making music during the inevitable troubleshooting sessions .

Possibly but Live's performance is far worse than Reaper and yet it's used heavily in music that makes heavy use of VSTi and effects. At that point people are choosing workflow over price and performance.

I've hit a brick wall yet again. The MIDI timing issues I described before don't seem to visually show up when you drag items around but notes are still screwed up i.e. if the same note is repeated with another and they are snapped up against each other, sometimes the earlier note will cut off the next note.

I've had to abandon Reaper about five times and move back to Logic because of issuer after issue. Really fundamental things that go wrong in Reaper that never go wrong in Logic. You could never use Reaper in a studio, in particular the MIDI end of it. I'm making the assumption the audio end is better but there are lots of buggy issues with that in terms of inserting outboard hardware. Logic works flawlessly for this type of thing. As much as I hate things about Logic and would prefer to use Reaper, I've never had to abandon work in Logic or spend hours trying to work out something that is a fault in the app.

Reaper shouldn't try to be live. It's much more of a standard type DAW. Fix all the problems first. This should be the first priority. Reaper can't sync loop to any other gear. There is a problem with that so it's screwed up right on the fundamental from square one before even discussing trying to make it like Live.

My opinion about DAW software is this. They are all crap for various different reasons. I use a lot of different software and you'd never get away with all these bugs and problems in other areas of software. DAW developers keep adding new features and not fixing bugs while introducing others. This is why I hate Logic now. Apple simply don't fix bugs while adding nonsense. Reaper has some problems yet adding video features was a priority.

It always amuses me how defensive people get if someone doesn't agree with their choice of DAWs. What works for and is import to one is not necessarily the same to another. Of course, that is the same for people's interfaces, preamps, mics, etc. People try and rationalize their choices.

OK. I've been trying to do MIDI in Reaper 5 for a while now. Reaper MIDI is useless. Always has been and Cockos aren't fixing it. The MIDI is not tick perfect accurate. It seems like the UI now shows it to be perfect but it still isn't right. This is fundamental and is clearly broken at root level. There is something wrong with the way Reaper plays back MIDI. Maybe something to do with how it syncs to audio time, I don't know but it's no good at all.

Studio One may lack some things but I can tell you that it works. It's no good for me due to some MIDI deficiencies but if the cost isn't an issue, I'd go with Studio One over Reaper any day. It's simply better. Cockus need to rename themselves to Cockup. The MIDi part of Reaper is no good.

If you snap items together and notes are next to each other you'll get cut off notes in the next item. It used to be that these items would show how they were slightly out of time. You'll find lots of people complaining about this going back many years. You'd chop an item and tiny fragments of notes would be there that shouldn't be. Notes would get cut off because of tiny overlap where there shouldn't be. loops would go out of sync etc. It seems the UI is now showing that the items have snapped cleanly but the notes are still overlapping. It's useless.

I am just begging that this is not true. Because I really want to like Reaper now, lol. But this is why I chose S1 in the first place: Easy, rock stable, and great MIDI timing support etc for hardware.

I'v always found the CPU efficiency in Studio One a lot worse than any other DAW. I use Mac so maybe i'm just spoiled by Logic's great CPU usage on a Mac, it beats even Reaper for that. Although i must say Reaper is much better for Windows than Mac and Reaper for Windows is the most efficient out of anything on either Windows or Mac.

I've just found with Studio One that no matter how good my setup is, it seems to not be able to handle as much as other DAW's which is a total shame because i like everything about it. At the start i thought it might be a problem they could iron out but we're on V3 and it seems as bad as ever.

But in terms of workflow and features and the whole mastering part of it, i think it's really excellent.

I've had it with Reaper now. This MIDI timing issue is absolutely no good. I've ranted before about it on the Reaper forum because nothing bass been done from years back.

I've wasted a lot of time configuring various things in Reaper as well. Luckily the license isn't much otherwise I'd be kicking up hell.

Go with Studio One. I never came across a single problem with it. There are certainly none of these MIDI issues. Also, unlike Reaper, Studio One can actually import my Logic MIDI without it messing up - the Logic MIDI import in Reaper ends up with notes getting chopped off. It actually imports the notes and truncates what it appears to analyse as overlapped notes. Similar to issues within it's own playback. Useless. I used the Studio One demo and learnt it but I have to use Logic due to some other MIDI things.