Cockos REAPER 7.4.8 — Mac version

REAPER is a complete multitrack recording and production environment that turns your Mac into a capable studio. You get the same set of tools whether you are capturing a live band, arranging MIDI, editing a podcast, or mastering a record — there are no separate track types or tiered versions to trip over. Plug in an audio interface and a microphone and you can start tracking straight away, with support for up to 512 channels of hardware input and output alongside 128 MIDI devices.

Who it works for

A single download covers everything: audio, MIDI, and even basic video editing under one roof. Folder tracks keep sessions tidy — drag one track above another and hit the folder button to group them, then record the folder output to freeze drum processing without printing the effect permanently. The routing is deep but stays out of the way until you need it. Because it handles so many hardware and plugin formats, you are not locked into one way of working. Musicians, sound designers and post-production folk all lean on the same build, which keeps the community knowledge and custom setups portable across machines and jobs.

The practical bit

REAPER works on macOS 10.15 and up, running natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon hardware. The installer is a small, quick download and the application itself stays lean while letting you build out a toolkit with the plugins you already own. A handy thing to know: you can record the output of any folder track, which means you can commit a processed drum bus to a new stem while keeping the original multi-track and all its effects intact underneath.

Between‑studio portability on a single installer

If you move between setups — a home corner one evening, a rehearsal room the next, then a borrowed desk at a community studio — REAPER earns its keep. The single installer works on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs without fuss, and a portable config file means your custom actions, colour-coded tracks and key bindings travel with you on a USB stick.

Engineers who blend live recordings with sequenced parts find it fits naturally. Drop a rough multitrack from a gig into one folder, MIDI-programmed strings into another, then route both through the same reverb bus without creating special track types. Podcast editors tap into the ripple editing and scriptable batch processing to knock out episode cuts fast, while sound designers lean on the open-ended routing to feed one sound through chains that other DAWs would push back on.

Anyone who has been burned by software that splits features across paid tiers settles in quickly. There is one version, one feature set. If you are learning, the sixty-day evaluation window gives you real time to build a workflow before you commit.

Loopback audio grabs from Safari or Music

REAPER plays well with the tools already on your Mac. Audio from Safari, Music, or QuickTime routes straight in using the loopback audio channels — up to 512 of them — so grabbing a reference track or a YouTube tutorial snippet requires no extra hardware. Core Audio devices appear the moment you plug them in, and Aggregate Devices set up in Audio MIDI Setup show up in the device list without restarting the session.

On the plugin side, AU, VST and VST3 formats sit alongside each other on the same track if you want. That means an old favourite 32-bit effect wrapped with a bridge utility can live next to a fresh Apple Silicon-native synth. REAPER's own ReaJS loads Jesusonic effects, and ReaRoute sends audio between REAPER and another application on the same machine — handy if you compose in a notation program and want to hear everything through your mix bus in real time.

Export options cover what you need for a hand-off. Render stems and selected tracks to WAV or FLAC for sharing with a collaborator who uses a different DAW, or bounce a rough MP3 reference straight to Voice Memos for a quick listen on earbuds the next morning.

A drum-stem workflow from start to finish

Say you have recorded eight drum mics and want a processed stereo stem to share, without losing the raw takes or the effects chain. Here is one way through it.

1. Group the drum tracks. Drag the kick, snare, overheads and tom tracks into a single folder track. Click the folder icon on the parent and REAPER routes all child audio through it automatically.
2. Build your processing chain. Insert an EQ to clean up mud on the folder, add a compressor for glue, and maybe a tape sim at the end. Because the effects sit on the folder rather than individual tracks, every mic gets the same treatment.
3. Balance and check. Solo the folder and dial in the blend. The child faders still control individual levels, so you can nudge the snare up without touching the bus processing.
4. Record the folder output. Right-click the folder track's record-arm button, choose Record: output and pick stereo. Arm the track and hit record. REAPER prints the processed mix to a new take on the folder while the original multitrack and all effects stay intact underneath.
5. Export the stem. Select the newly recorded take, open the render dialog and choose Selected tracks via master. You get a clean stereo file ready to drop into a collaborator's session — and your raw mics and processing chain are still there if the snare needs retuning next week.

If you grabbed a reaper mac torrent to try this out, the same steps work on any supported Mac. The routing does not hide anything version-locked away, so a reaper daw torrent from a community source still opens the full toolkit.

• macOS 10.15 or later
• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac