Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login

Cubase VS Reaper

Compare Cubase VS Reaper and see what are their differences

Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

Cubase logo Cubase

Cubase is one of the world’s most powerful music creation software packages. From first idea to finished recording, Cubase helps you to make outstanding music.

Reaper logo Reaper

Reaper is a focused digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by Cockos. In the creation of the software, the digital audio technology company intended to make audio editing accessible to the masses.
  • Cubase Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-12
  • Reaper Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-06

Cubase features and specs

  • Feature-Rich
    Cubase offers a vast array of features and tools for music production, including advanced MIDI editing, a large selection of VST instruments and effects, and comprehensive mixing and mastering capabilities.
  • Stability and Performance
    Cubase is known for its robust performance and stability, making it a reliable choice for professional studios and large-scale projects.
  • High-Quality Plugins
    Cubase includes a range of high-quality VST plugins, such as VST Amp Rack and REVerence convolution reverb, which enhance its built-in sound design capabilities.
  • Excellent Workflow
    The software offers an intuitive and highly customizable workflow with advanced tools like the MixConsole for seamless navigation and project management.
  • Comprehensive Support and Community
    Steinberg provides extensive support through documentation, tutorials, and a user community, making it easier for both beginners and advanced users to solve problems and learn new techniques.

Possible disadvantages of Cubase

  • High Cost
    Cubase can be expensive, particularly the Pro version, making it less accessible for hobbyists or beginners on a tight budget.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive array of features and deep functionalities, new users might find Cubase challenging to learn and navigate initially.
  • Resource Intensive
    Cubase can be demanding on computer resources, requiring a powerful and well-equipped system for optimal performance.
  • License Management
    The eLicenser dongle required for Cubase's licensing can be inconvenient and presents an additional cost and point of hassle for users.
  • Limited Compatibility with Some Plugins
    Although Cubase supports VST plugins extensively, compatibility issues can sometimes arise with certain third-party plugins, requiring additional troubleshooting.

Reaper features and specs

  • Affordable
    Reaper offers a full-featured digital audio workstation at a fraction of the price of many competitors, with a very reasonable one-time licensing fee.
  • Customizable
    Reaper is highly flexible and customizable, allowing users to script their own features and modify the interface to suit their specific workflow needs.
  • Lightweight
    Reaper is known for its low resource usage, meaning it can run efficiently on both older and less powerful computer systems without sacrificing performance.
  • Frequent Updates
    The developers of Reaper frequently release updates, ensuring the software remains current and packed with new features and bug fixes.
  • Strong Community Support
    Reaper benefits from a strong, active user community that provides tutorials, scripts, plugins, and other resources to extend its functionality.

Possible disadvantages of Reaper

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Beginners may find Reaper challenging to learn due to its extensive set of features and customization options, which can be overwhelming at first.
  • Less Industry Standard
    While powerful, Reaper is not as widely recognized and used in professional studios compared to industry standards like Pro Tools and Logic Pro, which could be a drawback for collaborative projects.
  • Limited Native Plugins
    Reaper comes with fewer high-quality native plugins compared to some other DAWs, which might require users to rely more on third-party plugins.
  • Complex Customization
    While customization is a strength, it can also be a downside for users who prefer a more straightforward, out-of-the-box experience, as the initial setup and tweaking can be time-consuming.
  • Interface Design
    The default interface design of Reaper is often considered less polished or modern compared to other DAWs, which might affect the user experience for some.

Analysis of Cubase

Overall verdict

  • Cubase is a highly regarded DAW with a strong reputation for its features and reliability. It is particularly praised for its extensive toolset and workflow efficiency, making it a popular choice among musicians and producers.

Why this product is good

  • Cubase is considered a robust and versatile digital audio workstation (DAW) with a comprehensive set of features that cater to both beginners and professional music producers. It offers a wide range of virtual instruments, effects, and a user-friendly interface that supports various music production tasks such as recording, editing, and mixing. Additionally, its advanced MIDI capabilities and audio engine provide flexibility and high-quality sound production.

Recommended for

  • Professional music producers looking for an all-in-one DAW
  • Beginners who want a comprehensive yet accessible DAW
  • Composers working with MIDI and virtual instruments
  • Audio engineers who require powerful mixing tools
  • Any music creator who values stability and extensive features

Analysis of Reaper

Overall verdict

  • Reaper is considered a highly capable digital audio workstation (DAW) that provides excellent value for money. It is particularly well-suited for users who desire a powerful yet customizable tool for music production.

Why this product is good

  • Reaper is praised for its flexibility, affordability, and lightweight performance. It offers a comprehensive set of features for audio recording and editing, supports a wide range of plugins, and is highly customizable. Furthermore, it has a strong user community and receives regular updates.

Recommended for

    Reaper is recommended for musicians, audio engineers, and producers who need a flexible and efficient DAW without a high price tag. It is ideal for those who are comfortable configuring and customizing their workflows and for users who predominantly use Windows, although it is also available on macOS.

Cubase videos

+ Add

🔴 Cubase 10.5 New Features & Review - Is It Worth It?

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Cubase 10.5 Review, New features, Tutorial, Tip - The Protools Killer
  • Review - The New CUBASE 10.5 - Is it worth it? A look at my TOP NEW FEATURES!

Reaper videos

+ Add

Reaper DAW review - best free daw software for music production?

More videos:

  • Review - Why Reaper? | pros and cons
  • Review - Why I love Reaper with Glenn Fricker - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Cubase and Reaper)

Cubase

Reaper

Audio & Music
32 32%
Audio & Music
68% 68
Audio
32 32%
Audio
68% 68
Audio Recording
30 30%
Audio Recording
70% 70
Music
40 40%
Music
60% 60

User comments

Share your experience with using Cubase and Reaper. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Cubase and Reaper

Cubase Reviews

15 Best LALAL.AI Alternatives 2023
Cubase users can use MediaBay to examine and edit projects, events, and tracks and search and arrange content. Cubase pricing starts at $128.38 per feature.
Source: rigorousthemes.com
5 PRO TOOLS ALTERNATIVES FOR RECORDING AND MIXING AUDIO
Cubase – Cubase is another popular DAW among music producers and sound engineers. It has a wide range of features for audio recording and mixing, as well as a powerful plugin ecosystem.
Source: audioblogpros.com
Best FL Studio Alternatives In 2022
Thanks Chris.. I want to access orchestral instruments to work with my input.. I have Cakewalk and an intro Cubase and v5 of REASON along with interactive VSTs and a Akai mini.. but the Akai hasn’t been easy to get along with.. any suggestions.. ? Thanks for a great page, Jaye
Source: keyboardkraze.com
10 Best Audacity Alternatives for Audio Recording and Editing
From the house of Yamaha Corporation, Steinberg Cubase audio editor is flooded with impressive features such as MIDI editors that allow creating beats and score layouts, etc.
Source: www.fossmint.com
Top 12 Audacity Alternatives You Could Use
Owned by none other than the Yamaha Corporation, Steinberg Cubase comes with a truckload of impressive features. It includes a variety of MIDI editors (e.g. Key, Score, Drum, and List), that let you create chords, score layouts, beats etc. in no time. Not only that, its award winning audio engine delivers 32-bit/192 kHz resolution audio, with true surround capability. Then...
Source: beebom.com

Reaper Reviews

Top 18 Free Music Making Software for Beginners [2023]
Launched by Cockos in 2006, Reaper has grown into a robust, feature-rich DAW, offering full audio and MIDI recording, sound editing, mixing, and mastering functionalities.
Source: www.animotica.com
5 PRO TOOLS ALTERNATIVES FOR RECORDING AND MIXING AUDIO
Reaper is a low-cost digital audio workstation with many features. It is available for Windows and Mac and can record, mix, and master audio. It has many features, including multichannel recording, surround sound support and a powerful effects engine. Reaper is a good option for home recording and mixing, and has many features that make it an alternative to Pro Tools.
Source: audioblogpros.com
9 Adobe Audition Alternatives That Do More Than Cleaning
Not as recognized as rivals like Ableton, Pro Tools, and FL Studio. If your employer or client requires you to have access to these tools and you’re only using Reaper, that could be a problem.
Source: blog.appsumo.com
Best FL Studio Alternatives In 2022
Reaper puts its stamp in the conversation as it offers users an incredibly active community as well as everything you need in a DAW. Speed is one of the selling points with Reaper as it loads up extremely fast compared to certain DAWs. This is mainly due to its lightweight size, with its downloader being less than 20MB. In making Reaper, the software devs also did a...
Source: keyboardkraze.com
Top 12 Audacity Alternatives You Could Use
Lastly, you can also check out Reaper, which features multi-track audio editing, processing, and more. Plus, it supports a wide range of hardware and plugins, and also comes baked with some pretty neat features such as the ability to record and edit musical notations with support for key signatures, multiple clefs, and more. What’s more, Reaper also supports scripting, so...
Source: beebom.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Reaper seems to be a lot more popular than Cubase. While we know about 80 links to Reaper, we've tracked only 4 mentions of Cubase. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Cubase mentions (4)

  • Can I upgrade to Pro 11 from Elements 8?
    You should be good. It is included in that list. Source; https://new.steinberg.net/cubase/. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Steinberg Summer Sale - 40% off Cubase 11 Updates, Upgrades and competitive crossgrade. New users can buy Cubase Artist and get Pro until 1 August. eLicenser Required (for now)
    - Go to Steinberg's Cubase site and click the "Buy Cubase" button. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Upgrade from Cubase Elements 11 to Cubase Artist 11
    Click here on get it Https://new.steinberg.net/cubase/. Source: about 4 years ago
  • [GEAR] recording software
    If you are wanting to make complete tracks the answer gets a lot more complicated. You could still go with something like Reaper but I'm going to make two recommendations for DAWs to try based on personal experience. The first I'd recommend trying is Cubase which is the DAW I currently use and have been using for a decent amount of time. I love it for a vast number of reasons but I think that Cubase is great... Source: about 4 years ago

Reaper mentions (80)

  • Extensible Control of Reaper via OSC and Scripts
    REAPER is a powerful Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) with enormous customization possibilities. Its scripting support, external control capabilities, support for many DAW plugin formats, and compatibility with MacOS and Windows make it an obvious choice for building all sorts of integrations and automation. At Sonarworks, we use REAPER as a plugin host as part of our DAW plugin test automation framework. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Ask HN: Is There a Blender for Music?
    Almost free. https://reaper.fm It's cheap enough for almost anyone to buy and you can play around with the free version. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Best DAW for putting E-drum tracks on PC
    I'm a big fan of Reaper (reaper.fm). It's technically not free, but $60 is totally worth it, plus you can trial it full featured, indefinitely. Source: over 1 year ago
  • What Is the Future of the DAW?
    If you use the Linux port, you may want to use Yabridge to load Windows VSTs in a transparent way. http://reaper.fm/ https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Where do I start designing my own audio for my games?
    My recommendation would be Reaper from reaper.fm Reaper is used in the video game industry due to it's customization, routing, batch processing and scripting capabilities. It's very customizable and has small CPU footprint. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Cubase and Reaper, you can also consider the following products

FL Studio - Image-Line's FL Studio, now on it's 12th version, is a well-known music production suite and the most popular beat processor on the market, due no doubt to its longevity. Read more about FL Studio.

Audacity - Audacity is a free and open-source audio production software suite that includes a surprising array of editing tools and recording systems.

LMMS - Make music with a free, cross-platform tool

GarageBand - GarageBand is a fully equipped music creation studio for Mac

Ardour - Record, edit, and mix on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

Reason - Reason is a program that you can use to create music.

Loading...