I have just started learning to use Reaper & it fucking kicks ass.
I started with protools but was dissatisfied, have been using Nuendo for a couple of years now, however there are a few things that shit me with it, most of which have been resolved in Cubase5, but
the price.
Then I stumbled across Reaper
& fuck me it does everything I want & other cool shit I hadn't thought of. A lot of things that you would rely on plugins for, it just does as standard operating options. It is encoded tight as fuck so you can run it off a usb as it doesn't install into the windows directory.
It is based on windows/Linux but will run on a mac.
It is open source design so it is constantly being developed.
If you install it on a usb key & your studio pc never goes online, you can just plug your usb onto your other online pc & it will auto look for any updates/fixes.
If you have a problem the developers also run the forum & being open source everyone on there gets cracking to fix whatever the bug is.
It will run most plugin formats.
It comes with some killer plugs as standard
You can upload a shitload of skins, so if you are used to say PT8 you can make it look similar to PT8 etc
It hasn't crashed
You can minimize Reaper whilst it is performing tasks & work on other shit & it won't crash or freeze.
It auto detects all 4 cpu's on a quad core & puts them to good use.
It has a cpu/ram/hard drive usage screen that can also propegate a list of all plugs in use & exactly how much cpu & ram they are individually eating up.
You can switch your plug graphics skins to a standard boring GUI skin, so you judge your plug by how it sounds not how cool it looks.
You can speed up/slow down the speed of a song without changing it's pitch with a simple slider bar.
The PDF manual is awseome & costantly updated.
You get Reaper free for 30days then it is $70 for a non commercial license & you never have to pay for any upgrades, unlike PT/Nuendo/Cubase. Which all cost a fortune & a small fortune again to upgrade.
Upgrades are constant not in bundles so things don't fuck up so much. If you have a problem with any of the upgrades they will get on it straight away.
The community forum is actually very helpfull.
Everything within this program can be acessed, so you can customise any aspect of it.
You can stem off an entire project into individual stems with one mouse click.
There are no track number restrictions
It has folder tracks to keep your page neat, which can be used as busses.
Audio routing is intense
It can do surround sound & video
The list is endless.