{"slug": "reaper", "name": "Reaper", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "Digital audio workstation (DAW) for recording, editing and mixing audio.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 8, "warners": 0, "score": 5.235, "rising": 2.35, "first": "2025-12-06", "latest": "2026-10-02", "why": "HN commenters use Reaper as their main DAW and value its Linux support and generous try-before-you-buy license.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 2, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Linux support", "Main DAW"], "caveat": "Overdub workflow", "short_quote": "a few open source applications that are already perfect (and free) like Reaper (DAW)", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.reaper.fm", "pricing": "paid", "aliases": ["Reaper", "REAPER"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters use Reaper as their main DAW", "cites": [{"id": 742375806, "item_id": 46398487, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46398487", "by": "metasaval", "date": "2025-12-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "REAPER - daw of choice", "excerpt": "Hey! I guess I'll get some conversation started, this interests me too and I've been doing the same the last few years. I added a page to my site [0] to keep updated with all the tech I use so I'll do some copy-pasting of some standouts. Note that I use Linux and Android, no Apple products here. - EndeavourOS - easy to install arch-based linux distro - KDE - desktop environment - Framework 13 - repairable laptop - Pi", "context": "", "use_case": "digital audio workstation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Is Your 2026 Personal Software Stack?"}, {"id": 792792993, "item_id": 49549562, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549562", "by": "ch_fr", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use REAPER for most things", "excerpt": "I have used old audacity and musescore-owned audacity, and I have to say it's a massive glow-up. I use REAPER for most things, but audacity has found a nice little niche when it comes to recording voice clips because it just does it with less hassle. It's in good hands.", "context": "", "use_case": "general audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Audacity 4.0"}, {"id": 798941264, "item_id": 49933829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49933829", "by": "spottedmarley", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few open source applications that are already perfect (and free) like Reaper (DAW)", "excerpt": "Nobody will pay (well, i guess some will still pay) I've already spent the past several months systematically replacing every piece of software I can with my own, better, custom versions. Desktop apps, AI-tools, Android apps, I even replaced all of my chrome extensions with one extension that does all the things I used to use all of the old extensions for, and it does all the things better and none of the things I ne", "context": "", "use_case": "audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anyone Can Build an App Now, but Who Is Going to Pay for It?"}]}, {"text": " and value its Linux support", "cites": [{"id": 748854611, "item_id": 46803413, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46803413", "by": "shams93", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "bitwig, renoise and reaper all support linux for those who want or need commercial audio applications on linux", "excerpt": "This is a nice resource. Personally I use linux vst plugin on bespoke synth. But bitwig, renoise and reaper all support linux for those who want or need commercial audio applications on linux. With pipewire and new kernel changes everything is coming together for linux to perform much better than windows + asio.", "context": "", "use_case": "commercial audio on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Native Linux VST plugin directory"}, {"id": 743542345, "item_id": 46471396, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471396", "by": "Alupis", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Flatpaks to install many GUI apps, such as FreeCAD, KiCad, Darktable, Steam, Reaper, and a lot more.", "excerpt": "I've used Fedora on my laptop for over a decade. I switched my main home workstation to Fedora in 2023, and haven't looked back since. My workstation runs Kinoite[1], an immutable/atomic version of Fedora. I started with Fedora 38, and now am running 43. Flawless major-release upgrades. I develop using distrobox[2] (pet containers) on podman. It \"Just Works\". Nearly 99% of my Steam library is playable on Fedora too. ", "context": "", "use_case": "audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop"}]}, {"text": " and generous try-before-you-buy license.", "cites": [{"id": 792795217, "item_id": 49549701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549701", "by": "Forgeties79", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "excerpt": "2 reminders that I find always need to be mentioned in audacity threads: 1) Audacity is not a DAW. I love it, it\u2019s an incredibly robust tool. But I would not use it like a fully fledged DAW. 2) Reaper isn\u2019t free. They have an incredibly generous \u201ctry before you buy\u201d license, and you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "context": "", "use_case": "DAW", "switched_from": "", "story": "Audacity 4.0"}]}, {"text": " Caveats are that overdubbing with take lanes gets cumbersome", "cites": [{"id": 755498593, "item_id": 47218662, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47218662", "by": "elijahlucian", "date": "2026-03-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "For the overdub thing, Reaper is the closest it gets, but it easily becomes super cumbersome.", "excerpt": "[audio nerd heavy post] A couple weeks ago, my friend let me borrow his Teenage Engineering OP1 field. I started playing with their destructive tape looper and drum samplers. And then I started to look for cheaper hardware or VST alternatives - seriously nothing. Nothing that lets you easily overdub takes in a multitrack view. And no \"immediate\" samplers that let you record a blob of audio into them, and then chop th", "context": "software architect, making digital music for 20 years", "use_case": "overdubbing takes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WaveLoop \u2013 A destructive-first looper suite I built in 8 days"}]}, {"text": " and that it is paid software, not free as some assume.", "cites": [{"id": 792795217, "item_id": 49549701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549701", "by": "Forgeties79", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "excerpt": "2 reminders that I find always need to be mentioned in audacity threads: 1) Audacity is not a DAW. I love it, it\u2019s an incredibly robust tool. But I would not use it like a fully fledged DAW. 2) Reaper isn\u2019t free. They have an incredibly generous \u201ctry before you buy\u201d license, and you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "context": "", "use_case": "DAW", "switched_from": "", "story": "Audacity 4.0"}, {"id": 798941264, "item_id": 49933829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49933829", "by": "spottedmarley", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few open source applications that are already perfect (and free) like Reaper (DAW)", "excerpt": "Nobody will pay (well, i guess some will still pay) I've already spent the past several months systematically replacing every piece of software I can with my own, better, custom versions. Desktop apps, AI-tools, Android apps, I even replaced all of my chrome extensions with one extension that does all the things I used to use all of the old extensions for, and it does all the things better and none of the things I ne", "context": "", "use_case": "audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anyone Can Build an App Now, but Who Is Going to Pay for It?"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Linux support", "summary": "Runs on Linux as a commercial DAW, including via Flatpak or Wine.", "quotes": [{"id": 748854611, "item_id": 46803413, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46803413", "by": "shams93", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "bitwig, renoise and reaper all support linux for those who want or need commercial audio applications on linux", "excerpt": "This is a nice resource. Personally I use linux vst plugin on bespoke synth. But bitwig, renoise and reaper all support linux for those who want or need commercial audio applications on linux. With pipewire and new kernel changes everything is coming together for linux to perform much better than windows + asio.", "context": "", "use_case": "commercial audio on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Native Linux VST plugin directory"}, {"id": 743542345, "item_id": 46471396, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471396", "by": "Alupis", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Flatpaks to install many GUI apps, such as FreeCAD, KiCad, Darktable, Steam, Reaper, and a lot more.", "excerpt": "I've used Fedora on my laptop for over a decade. I switched my main home workstation to Fedora in 2023, and haven't looked back since. My workstation runs Kinoite[1], an immutable/atomic version of Fedora. I started with Fedora 38, and now am running 43. Flawless major-release upgrades. I develop using distrobox[2] (pet containers) on podman. It \"Just Works\". Nearly 99% of my Steam library is playable on Fedora too. ", "context": "", "use_case": "audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop"}, {"id": 738824642, "item_id": 46176540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176540", "by": "marttt", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "using the (now obsolete?) Non DAW or Reaper via Wine", "excerpt": "I like using old hardware, and Tiny Core was my daily driver for 5+ years on a Thinkpad T42 (died recently) and Dell Mini 9 (still working). I tried other distros on those machines, but eventually always came back to TC. RAM-booting makes the system fast and quiet on that 15+ years old iron, and I loved how easy it was to hand-tailor the OS - e.g. the packages loaded during boot are simply listed in a single flat fil", "context": "", "use_case": "radio audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}]}, {"label": "Main DAW", "summary": "Commenters name it their DAW of choice and use it for most audio work.", "quotes": [{"id": 742375806, "item_id": 46398487, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46398487", "by": "metasaval", "date": "2025-12-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "REAPER - daw of choice", "excerpt": "Hey! I guess I'll get some conversation started, this interests me too and I've been doing the same the last few years. I added a page to my site [0] to keep updated with all the tech I use so I'll do some copy-pasting of some standouts. Note that I use Linux and Android, no Apple products here. - EndeavourOS - easy to install arch-based linux distro - KDE - desktop environment - Framework 13 - repairable laptop - Pi", "context": "", "use_case": "digital audio workstation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Is Your 2026 Personal Software Stack?"}, {"id": 792792993, "item_id": 49549562, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549562", "by": "ch_fr", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use REAPER for most things", "excerpt": "I have used old audacity and musescore-owned audacity, and I have to say it's a massive glow-up. I use REAPER for most things, but audacity has found a nice little niche when it comes to recording voice clips because it just does it with less hassle. It's in good hands.", "context": "", "use_case": "general audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Audacity 4.0"}, {"id": 798941264, "item_id": 49933829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49933829", "by": "spottedmarley", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few open source applications that are already perfect (and free) like Reaper (DAW)", "excerpt": "Nobody will pay (well, i guess some will still pay) I've already spent the past several months systematically replacing every piece of software I can with my own, better, custom versions. Desktop apps, AI-tools, Android apps, I even replaced all of my chrome extensions with one extension that does all the things I used to use all of the old extensions for, and it does all the things better and none of the things I ne", "context": "", "use_case": "audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anyone Can Build an App Now, but Who Is Going to Pay for It?"}]}, {"label": "Generous trial", "summary": "Its try-before-you-buy license lets people use it before paying.", "quotes": [{"id": 792795217, "item_id": 49549701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549701", "by": "Forgeties79", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "excerpt": "2 reminders that I find always need to be mentioned in audacity threads: 1) Audacity is not a DAW. I love it, it\u2019s an incredibly robust tool. But I would not use it like a fully fledged DAW. 2) Reaper isn\u2019t free. They have an incredibly generous \u201ctry before you buy\u201d license, and you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "context": "", "use_case": "DAW", "switched_from": "", "story": "Audacity 4.0"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Overdub workflow", "summary": "Overdubbing gets cumbersome as take lanes take up space and routing grows complicated.", "quotes": [{"id": 755498593, "item_id": 47218662, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47218662", "by": "elijahlucian", "date": "2026-03-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "For the overdub thing, Reaper is the closest it gets, but it easily becomes super cumbersome.", "excerpt": "[audio nerd heavy post] A couple weeks ago, my friend let me borrow his Teenage Engineering OP1 field. I started playing with their destructive tape looper and drum samplers. And then I started to look for cheaper hardware or VST alternatives - seriously nothing. Nothing that lets you easily overdub takes in a multitrack view. And no \"immediate\" samplers that let you record a blob of audio into them, and then chop th", "context": "software architect, making digital music for 20 years", "use_case": "overdubbing takes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WaveLoop \u2013 A destructive-first looper suite I built in 8 days"}]}, {"label": "Not free", "summary": "It needs a paid license after the trial, though some assume it is free.", "quotes": [{"id": 792795217, "item_id": 49549701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549701", "by": "Forgeties79", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "excerpt": "2 reminders that I find always need to be mentioned in audacity threads: 1) Audacity is not a DAW. I love it, it\u2019s an incredibly robust tool. But I would not use it like a fully fledged DAW. 2) Reaper isn\u2019t free. They have an incredibly generous \u201ctry before you buy\u201d license, and you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "context": "", "use_case": "DAW", "switched_from": "", "story": "Audacity 4.0"}, {"id": 798941264, "item_id": 49933829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49933829", "by": "spottedmarley", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few open source applications that are already perfect (and free) like Reaper (DAW)", "excerpt": "Nobody will pay (well, i guess some will still pay) I've already spent the past several months systematically replacing every piece of software I can with my own, better, custom versions. Desktop apps, AI-tools, Android apps, I even replaced all of my chrome extensions with one extension that does all the things I used to use all of the old extensions for, and it does all the things better and none of the things I ne", "context": "", "use_case": "audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anyone Can Build an App Now, but Who Is Going to Pay for It?"}]}, {"label": "Quick voice clips", "summary": "One user finds Audacity less hassle for recording quick voice clips.", "quotes": [{"id": 792792993, "item_id": 49549562, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549562", "by": "ch_fr", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use REAPER for most things", "excerpt": "I have used old audacity and musescore-owned audacity, and I have to say it's a massive glow-up. I use REAPER for most things, but audacity has found a nice little niche when it comes to recording voice clips because it just does it with less hassle. It's in good hands.", "context": "", "use_case": "general audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Audacity 4.0"}]}], "who": [], "tags": ["for Linux users", "for music production"], "use_cases": ["audio production", "daw", "general audio production", "overdubbing takes", "commercial audio on linux", "digital audio workstation"], "compared": [{"slug": "audacity", "name": "Audacity", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "bitwig", "name": "Bitwig", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ableton-live", "name": "Ableton Live", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49548395", "title": "Audacity 4.0", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49933300", "title": "Anyone Can Build an App Now, but Who Is Going to Pay for It?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47218537", "title": "Show HN: WaveLoop \u2013 A destructive-first looper suite I built in 8 days", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46800737", "title": "Native Linux VST plugin directory", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471199", "title": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46392642", "title": "Ask HN: What Is Your 2026 Personal Software Stack?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"compare": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 798941264, "item_id": 49933829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49933829", "by": "spottedmarley", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a few open source applications that are already perfect (and free) like Reaper (DAW)", "excerpt": "Nobody will pay (well, i guess some will still pay) I've already spent the past several months systematically replacing every piece of software I can with my own, better, custom versions. Desktop apps, AI-tools, Android apps, I even replaced all of my chrome extensions with one extension that does all the things I used to use all of the old extensions for, and it does all the things better and none of the things I ne", "context": "", "use_case": "audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anyone Can Build an App Now, but Who Is Going to Pay for It?"}, {"id": 792795217, "item_id": 49549701, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549701", "by": "Forgeties79", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "excerpt": "2 reminders that I find always need to be mentioned in audacity threads: 1) Audacity is not a DAW. I love it, it\u2019s an incredibly robust tool. But I would not use it like a fully fledged DAW. 2) Reaper isn\u2019t free. They have an incredibly generous \u201ctry before you buy\u201d license, and you should reward them by paying $40 if you use it and decide it is a tool you want to continue to use!", "context": "", "use_case": "DAW", "switched_from": "", "story": "Audacity 4.0"}, {"id": 792792993, "item_id": 49549562, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49549562", "by": "ch_fr", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use REAPER for most things", "excerpt": "I have used old audacity and musescore-owned audacity, and I have to say it's a massive glow-up. I use REAPER for most things, but audacity has found a nice little niche when it comes to recording voice clips because it just does it with less hassle. It's in good hands.", "context": "", "use_case": "general audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Audacity 4.0"}, {"id": 755498593, "item_id": 47218662, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47218662", "by": "elijahlucian", "date": "2026-03-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "For the overdub thing, Reaper is the closest it gets, but it easily becomes super cumbersome.", "excerpt": "[audio nerd heavy post] A couple weeks ago, my friend let me borrow his Teenage Engineering OP1 field. I started playing with their destructive tape looper and drum samplers. And then I started to look for cheaper hardware or VST alternatives - seriously nothing. Nothing that lets you easily overdub takes in a multitrack view. And no \"immediate\" samplers that let you record a blob of audio into them, and then chop th", "context": "software architect, making digital music for 20 years", "use_case": "overdubbing takes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: WaveLoop \u2013 A destructive-first looper suite I built in 8 days"}, {"id": 748854611, "item_id": 46803413, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46803413", "by": "shams93", "date": "2026-01-28", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "bitwig, renoise and reaper all support linux for those who want or need commercial audio applications on linux", "excerpt": "This is a nice resource. Personally I use linux vst plugin on bespoke synth. But bitwig, renoise and reaper all support linux for those who want or need commercial audio applications on linux. With pipewire and new kernel changes everything is coming together for linux to perform much better than windows + asio.", "context": "", "use_case": "commercial audio on Linux", "switched_from": "", "story": "Native Linux VST plugin directory"}, {"id": 743542345, "item_id": 46471396, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471396", "by": "Alupis", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Flatpaks to install many GUI apps, such as FreeCAD, KiCad, Darktable, Steam, Reaper, and a lot more.", "excerpt": "I've used Fedora on my laptop for over a decade. I switched my main home workstation to Fedora in 2023, and haven't looked back since. My workstation runs Kinoite[1], an immutable/atomic version of Fedora. I started with Fedora 38, and now am running 43. Flawless major-release upgrades. I develop using distrobox[2] (pet containers) on podman. It \"Just Works\". Nearly 99% of my Steam library is playable on Fedora too. ", "context": "", "use_case": "audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop"}, {"id": 742375806, "item_id": 46398487, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46398487", "by": "metasaval", "date": "2025-12-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "REAPER - daw of choice", "excerpt": "Hey! I guess I'll get some conversation started, this interests me too and I've been doing the same the last few years. I added a page to my site [0] to keep updated with all the tech I use so I'll do some copy-pasting of some standouts. Note that I use Linux and Android, no Apple products here. - EndeavourOS - easy to install arch-based linux distro - KDE - desktop environment - Framework 13 - repairable laptop - Pi", "context": "", "use_case": "digital audio workstation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Is Your 2026 Personal Software Stack?"}, {"id": 738824642, "item_id": 46176540, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46176540", "by": "marttt", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "using the (now obsolete?) Non DAW or Reaper via Wine", "excerpt": "I like using old hardware, and Tiny Core was my daily driver for 5+ years on a Thinkpad T42 (died recently) and Dell Mini 9 (still working). I tried other distros on those machines, but eventually always came back to TC. RAM-booting makes the system fast and quiet on that 15+ years old iron, and I loved how easy it was to hand-tailor the OS - e.g. the packages loaded during boot are simply listed in a single flat fil", "context": "", "use_case": "radio audio production", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tiny Core Linux: a 23 MB Linux distro with graphical desktop"}]}