Open letter to Reaper developers

Dear Reaper Development team, Firstly, I liked to thank you for creating such a great tool as Reaper. I am totally converted to using Realer now and am trying to spread the word. I do however have some thoughts which I'd like to express regarding the rapid development life-cyle of the product. Since buying my personal Reaper licence I have received up to 20 version updates. When I look at the changes included in a given release many seem to be bug fixes with very few functional enhancements. Of course we all want a stable and bug free application but when are we gong to get functional enhancements? There seems to be consensus among users that the midi features in Reaper are not as powerful as other DAWs (I speak of editing capability, groove quantization, sequencing and arpegiators). I know other users would point to the JS tools which can workaround these problems but I think many users would prefer native tools). Of course you can't please all the people all the time but I was wondering if there was a long term plan for some any new functionality. Personally, I'd prefer less frequent updates so long as the updates included new features rather than just bug fixes. I'd also appreciate some outline of what features are in scope for future releases. Regards, Mark Walsh

"Personally, I'd prefer less frequent updates so long as the updates included new features rather than just bug fixes." You're joking, right? Are you really saying that you would prefer bugs to go unfixed for months or even (as with some DAWs) years? Besides which, functional enhancements brought into REAPER in the last few months include the following (and the list is not comprehensive): Importing audio from CD. New option to reverse media item. New buttons to open Item Properties dialog box. Importing Scripts Customizing REAPER Menus Use Alt Click to toggle a track's Master/Parent send status on and off Drag and drop from I/O button of any track to I/O button of another track to create a send Snap Relative to Grid Smart (armed) tools Control Panel Help Ctrl Drag to draw envelope in freehand mode Ctrl Alt Drag to finely adjust envelope point Specify Plug-in Run Mode Set default track height for new projects. Media Explorer enhancements, including Start on Bar option and waveform preview. TCP – drag and drop to create sends quickly. TCP - New bulk track mute/solo feature . MIDI Editor: Enable Filter window now has option to toggle filter on/off. MIDI Editor: New command on View menu to Show Velocity Numbers on Notes. MIDI Editor custom keyboard shortcuts and actions can now be used inside the In-Line MIDI Editor. MIDI: Middle mouse button sets play cursor in MIDI editor MIDI: Alt N Cycles when multiple items open in one MIDI Editor Change in method for adjusting envelope points vertically only (while locking horizontal position) or horizontally only (while locking vertical position). Option to copy automation with items. Floating custom toolbars. Batch file rendering Numerous new actions, inc split items at project markers. FX: wet/dry FX mix button Numerous enhancements to Mixer right click FX menu. That's about as much as you get with some DAWs once a year or so! By all means ask for more emphasis on MIDI if that's what you want, but you won't help your argument by gilding the lily! :)

Speaking for myself....none of those features are going to change my life. I probably wouldn't notice if I didn't upgrade to the new version. I am simply asking (and still asking) what is the long term plan/vision for new features for Reaper. It seems the rapid incremental development cycle yields very small changes (i.e the low hanging fruit). Don't get me wrong I still think Reaper is great value for money and the developers have done a great job so far (Reaper has never crashed on me). I just want to know what big features are in scope for the future.

Jeez, 20 revisions has seen a plethora of improvements and new features. If you don't care about them you don't have to upgrade. It's in the settings dialog, check the box to not check for updates. Then you can just goto the website now and then instead. Me, I'm glad these guys do it this way. I have a more "commercial" and expensive DAW program, and they never give a free update. No names mentioned to protect the guilty parties. :-) I also have a license for a once-competing shareware DAW program which I had to abandon because the development was ridiculously flaky. Not so with Cockos IMO. Just my take. -frog

people were screaming for months for bugfixes/stability, and we eventually got them - i think reaper as a whole is tremendously improved from where it was at 3.0, and i'm really happy with the way its going. i'm sure there's more features coming round the corner, but the stuff in there at the moment is starting to feel really solid. plus, the features that did get in there are pretty damn good (BATCH RENDERING!!!)

Guys...I guess the 'desirability' of certain features is in the eye of the beholder. Let us not aruge over that. I guess you guys are all content with status quo and as the majority rules I will shut up.

Ummmmm...sssht! Isn't any post in a public forum an open letter? Don't tell anyone. This is a personal post that can be seen only by you. Yes, you. Please eat your screen after reading this message. Thanks. :)

Can we have groove quantize for Christmas please. I'll be waiting by the download chimney for Justin Claus now.

Wait a second... Is the issue Reaper's development cycle, or its release cycle? I would think that development (no matter what on) goes on all the time. Why can't you just upgrade when you want to, and make your own cycle? Personally, the nearly realtime update rate of Reaper IS one of the "big features." I've been updating more or less as they come out, but I've fallen way behind on what's actually in the things. When I get back into active-use mode, I'll have all kinds of new goodies (and not one of them will be an "included" plugin.)

Dear devs An open FR I moan about Reaper all the time and have become an avid Realer moaner, during the release life cycle i have noticed that you make me moan less and less When are we going to receive more useless releases so that i can moan even more NAS