Reaper or NON DAW

Hello!

I’ve ordered and received PiSound a while back but haven’t yet found the time to really dig into the world of possibilities in patchbox OS etc.

I know that there is the Audacity DAW. Which IMHO is a bit weak (in lack for a better word).
However I would really like to see the Reaper DAW (https://www.reaper.fm/download.php#linux_download) getting included in the patchbox OS. My experience of it (PC version) is in general positive.

Otherwise maybe the NON DAW is interesting?
(http://non.tuxfamily.org/)

My experience of all things Linux is even less than newbie level. So I’m unable at the moment to install any of them myself into patchbox OS.

Hey,

Reaper is commercial software, I doubt it can be redistributed like that.
On top of that I don’t think it runs on ARM processors (like the RPi). It’s intended use is desktop/laptop PCs, not mini PCs.

It looks like NON DAW can be compiled for RPi, but I have yet to try it.
Looks interesting.

Audacity can be quite powerfull on a small computer like the RPi. Don’t overdo it, and It might get the job done. If you need more than what audacity has to offer, chances are that the RPi can’t handle it properly anyway.

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Ardour could be a viable option too.

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Thanks for responding so far.

First. Reaper being commercial shouldn’t be any more different than PianoTeq (trial version) being commercial and distributed as it is in Patchbox OS.

Secondly there are actually an (experimental/unsupported) ARM version available of Reaper.

Thirdly, I’ve seen an youtube video of a guy installing and running Reaper ARM version on RPi4 so it seems to be able to at least run a fairly simple project (looks like 10 something tracks and at least hearing 5 playing at any time). Question is of course how many tracks (if any) can I record and play at once?

My initial interest in Reaper on PC were mainly the low price considering the features available.
But also the vast potential of the scripting possibilities it allows (although I can’t write any script… yet). On top of that… it is now even possible to have wireless OSC control/connection of Reaper.

Combine these features with PiSound (+ RPi4) and the size of this setup in hardware. Lots of potential for low money. Big initial stage in setting all up but the rewards are equally big IMHO…

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I can just confirm that Reaper (the linux armv7l verision) runs really well on the RPi3,4 and Patchbox OS (and standard Raspbian Buster).

I’ve recorded hour+ jams with the Pisound running @ 24bit, 48khz, 512 byte (block size) without hick-ups and edited/mixed the takes on the pi. The stock plugins in Reaper also get you quite far in the post prod.

I can not confirm any maximum track count, but for my use (mainly stereo recordings + a few overdubs/ambience tracks) it runs incredibly smooth, rarely over 30% cpu. Fantastic for a minimalist recording setup.

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Thanks r.p!

I had a hunch that it would function quite well on the RPi. Thanks for confirming that! Do you know if it is possible or even have experience of moving Reaper projects back and forth between RPi and a PC/Mac? I think/suspect that it should work but haven’t seen that being clearly stated anywhere…

Yes, it works :+1:

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Thanks for confirming that!

Hi!

Just to second that Reaper runs wonderfully in Rpi! I’ve recorded, mixed/mastered 2 full lenght albuns only with Pisound + Raspbian + Reaper (2 albuns in a Rpi3B+ / 2 albuns in a Rpi4 4GB). I cannot say I noticed a real performance “upgrade” between Rpi3 and Rpi4 under reaper.

For my professional purposes it is just a dream! I can’t recommend this enough. Give it a try :slight_smile:

Best and take care!

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Based on your experience in general, how many tracks have you been working with at the same time in any/most of your recorded music with this setup?

And has it been both audio and midi tracks?

Hi Mike!

I work mostly with solo or duo music; I record mostly acoustic steel string instruments with dynamic mics (I have a deep love for professional omnidirectional mics for that purpose). My recent experience was recording, through mics, 5 violas (brazilian ten string guitar) and some background effects. My max number of tracks was around 12 tracks.
I am very minimalistic plugin person, so I use simple EQ, sometimes a subtractor (very rarely) and a limiter for mastering purposes.

I use pisound exclusively as a ADC / DAC interface, never used the midi at all – I cannot figure out how to use it for my acoustic musician / producion purposes :sweat_smile:

Best and take care!

Thanks for the info. Sounds like you are having some cool stuff going!

There are quite a lot possibilities available with MIDI, perhaps even for minimalistic purposes.
Most people doesn´t dig deeper into it than its common use (playing keyboard with it connected to a computer or a sound module). Others (i e guitarists) are using it more as remote controllers for their gear. So they can have totally different sounds at different parts in a song and just one or few pressing on a footswitch to make it all happen. It is more powerful than that of course, but then you need to dig in to understand it. So you know what can and can´t be done with it (it is still an protocol from 1983). Many are using it in production as well (automation, especially if it is external gear involved).

Do you have any of your music available online somewhere?
You got me intrigued when you mentioned that you are mainly using acoustic instruments…

Hi mike! Sorry for the late reply.

Yes, most of my pi-made music is online. But only 2 of these 4 albuns are available now; the other 2 are waiting better a release date.

You can listen to my viola here: www.aspero.site
EDIT: Sorry, I did not explain that all the music is played by a brazilian viola (brazilian ten string guitar); it is a folk “guitar”, a very very old instrument with many tunings, repertoires and so on.

My last album (A Casa de Héstia) is 100% pisound/rpi3b+/reaper made. I used a mic called “bartlett mic” for that whole album. One of my EPs also was made under pisound/rpi3 too.
For my next album (already recorded, I am mastering it right now; maybe a release for next months) I did use only dynamic omnidirecional mic (a shure sm63, my secret weapon). You can listen to it in the preview video – for the video it was recorded to a tascam portable recorder, but prepared and mastered under a rpi4/reaper/pisound.

Best and take care!

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Reaper has had an ARM/Linux version for a while.
You can’t possibly miss it.
https://www.reaper.fm/download.php
You can also run the Reaper server and remote to it.

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