Reaper (DAW)

I've been using Raper for a while now,
and I'm impressed..

Reaper is a DAW (the software of an Digital Audio Workstation) and handles audio and midi in a very good way. It's cheap, and there's a good community-feeling around it.

To me Reaper shows some times of being younger than the established Daws (as Sonar, Cubase and so on), but has some really nice functions in it like:
- Queed Rendering. Line up all tracks/mixes you want to mix down/freeze. Hit "render all", go for a cup of tea, and there it is, finished.
- Routing matrix
- Nested folders
- Deep action menu with customized shortcuts.
- Long list of keyboard-shortcuts, with full customization.
- And a lot small this and that, that just makes life easier :)

The midi editor

So, many DAW's can do somthing similar. Why should I try Reaper? Well, to me it's three main reasons:

• It's cheap, and has a discount for small business/personal use
• Cockos, the small company that makes Reaper, seems very nice to me. So, as example, the demo you can download is not crippled in any way. Technically you can use the demo-version for ever.
• The development of Reaper is in very close contact with their users. So, it's a little less "they and us".

ReaXComp, one of the plugins in Reaper

The only thing I really miss at this moment is full support for making audio time-stretch to advanced tempo-changes. But I believe this is coming soon. And, there is a workaround..

Reaper: ReaDynamicEq

I've made a preset/fx-chain for a Dynamic Equalizer in Reaper
-ReaDynamicEq.

What it is:
A Dynamic equalizer are used instead of an ordinary Eq when the chosen frequency needs to be tamed only at certain levels. So, it's sometimes less Eq, sometimes more.

Download here:

ReaDynamicEq -1band
ReaDynamicEq -3band

Download and installation:

• Download the above files (save link as)
• Copy to your "FxChains" -folder
  (Example: "C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\Application Data\REAPER\FXChains\Dynamic Eq\")

Now, in Reaper, on desired track:
(This part is explained for the 1Band-version)

• Right-click fx-button, navigate "add Fx Chain > Dynamic Eq > ... "

This opens the Track fx Window. You'll see two ReaEqs, ignore the first (it operates in slave-modus).

To adjust settings.
On the second ReaEq:

• Frequenzy/Bandwidth: Adjust as desired
• Gain: Gain works only in slave-modus here, see below..

Click on Gain, then "Param > Parameter Modulation". This will open the "Parameter Modulation for ReaEq"

• .. baseline value: Adjust fixed band-gain here
• Attack/Release: Adjust to taste
• Min volume: Sets the Threshold (low) for when the gain-reduction should be applied
• Max volume: Sets the Threshold (high) for when max gain-adjustment is reached
• Strength: Sets the amount of gain-reduction (20% typically gives 4.4db reduction above Thres-high)

Tips:

1. Set Min and Max volume to zero and adjust Strength to get a clear view of how much gain-reduction a certain Strength-setting gives. 
2. If you're used to tweaking with added gain, do that with ".. baseline value".
3. Leave Max Volume at 0db for a more normal mode, or adjust downwards to give the compressor a more range-character. Adjust Strength accordingly.
4. Add bands in the Eq to combine the dynamic band with normal EQ-bands.
5. If you want to use shelving bands, you'll have to set the corresponding slave eq-band to "high/low-pass"

Enjoy!

A vocoder :)

My favorite audio-instructional-video: