[dkh]

Unfortunately you’ve just hit upon one of the biggest arguments used against Reaper — it has a pretty limited set of good effects and only a couple “instruments” like a very barebones synth that I would never use.

But that’s not why Reaper users love Reaper. It’s in its performance, flexibility, customization, etc. In another league as far as these things go. But you get almost nothing for free as far as instruments.

I’m fine with this and wished it weren’t a deterrent for folks like it often is. The best effects and instruments are not baked into any DAW, they’re the ones you have as VSTs that are portable to whatever DAW you want.

Reaper is a fraction of the cost of Ableton. The only other “tier” is that for just $60 they’ll sell you Reaper with a personal use license only. No limitations or changes in the software itself.