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For what it's worth, Justin Frankel continues to produce great software. He founded Cockos Incorporated, which produces REAPER; I think it's pretty widely accep

For what it's worth, Justin Frankel continues to produce great software. He founded Cockos Incorporated, which produces REAPER; I think it's pretty widely accepted in the audio recording community that REAPER is the best value in the multitrack recording DAW market, and among the best overall tools for the purpose. He's obviously wealthy enough to never need to work again. It's clear Frankel just loves music, and wants to make meaningful contributions in the field. So, I think that's pretty cool. (I've also been a very happy REAPER user/customer for many years.)

hardwaresofton 10y ago
Also, don't forget Licecap, one of the easiest to use and most consistent cross-platform gif-screen-capture tools: http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ I said a very audible "holy shit, this is that guy?" when the link to jesussonic took me to Cockos.
- koolba 10y ago
  Wow I didn't know he made licecap as well. As far as gif recordings go, it really whips the llamas ass!
  - hardwaresofton 10y ago
    Licecap definitely changed how I worked. If you want the rest of your frontend development team to think you're a god, include licecap or other gifs of features/bugfixes on code reviews. It's a thing most developers don't even think of doing (at least most didn't in my experience). Makes it easy for stake holders (if they're allowed near your code reviews/tickets/whatever), devs, qa, to easily see how functionality has changed. I first learned of it from a young QA at a company I previously worked at, and I am so grateful I met him and was able to learn from him.
    - Terr_ 10y ago
      I'd like to give an honorable mention to Debugmode Wink [0] which for a long time was my go-to freeware application for recording and presenting screen-activity on Windows. [0] http://www.debugmode.com/wink/ http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
    - gknoy 10y ago
      At one point licecap stopped working for me (MPB, using an external screen). The Giphy capture tool is also a good one. I wholeheartedly agree that including screenshots are a great way to show things :)
      - hardwaresofton 10y ago
        Yeah, I had a periodic issue with new installs (or would see colleagues have this problem): you'd record something but the gif would be all black. I think there was a fix but I've long forgotten :)
    - gknoy 10y ago
      At one point licecap stopped working for me (MPB, using an external screen). The Giphy capture tool is also a good one. I wholeheartedly agree that including screenshots are a great way to show things :)
    - EliRivers 10y ago
      If you want the rest of your frontend development team to think you're a god, include licecap or other gifs of features/bugfixes on code reviews But if you do, for the love of God make it as short as possible. When I'm browsing through the tickets using some stock web browser, and the anigif runs for five minutes before reaching the point, it is such a pain to have to grab the gif and either dig out a tool than can track through an anigif, or have to cast it into some other format and then track through that. Then, I'm stuck either doing that every time, or attaching another file to the ticket; the same animation, but in a format that we can track through so I don't have to watch the entire five minutes.
    - jest3r1 10y ago
      Is there a Licecap equivalent for Android mobile?
  - majkinetor 10y ago
    cinst licecap
mastazi 10y ago
I agree, REAPER is very highly regarded in music production circles. Anecdotically, I have been producing electronic music as a hobby for many years now, and while I own much more expensive programs (e.g. Ableton Live Suite which cost a staggering AU $999) I find REAPER to be an extremely enjoyable piece of software and I have found myself using it often.
- SwellJoe 10y ago
  I wouldn't really consider it a competitor to Ableton Live, though there's some overlap. But, as a competitor to Pro Tools, it's hard for me to think of anything even in the same ball park as REAPER (and REAPER costs a fraction of what Pro Tools costs, as well). I use FL Studio or Renoise for the stuff that people use Ableton for; but, REAPER blows them all away for recording live musicians and then mixing the resulting tracks. The term "DAW" has too many uses, and it can be confusing. REAPER is a Pro Tools competitor (and a good one). Ableton can be used for multitrack recording of live musicians, but I don't know of any studios that use it for that, unless their focus is on electronic production with some live music added on top. And, REAPER can be used for electronic productions and loop-based composition and live performance (and there's even a UI for REAPER that makes it act more like Ableton), but it's not its raison d'être. If you're composing and performing predominantly electronic music in-the-box, then Ableton or others might be a better choice. But, if you're recording live musicians, REAPER is amazing. There can be some useful interoperation between them, as well. Live can plug into REAPER, so you can sync up your Live performance with your REAPER tracks, and produce a hybrid work. REAPER may be stronger for mastering, as well, depending on how you like to work. Traditional recording engineers, who learned in a studio with tape and hardware mixers and patch bays, will be quickly comfortable with REAPER. The same can not be said of Ableton Live (or FL Studio, etc.). But, musicians who grew up on synths, sequencers and beat machines with sequencers (like 303, 808, etc.), may find the Ableton approach more intuitive. Both are high quality tools doing a very good job in their niche. REAPER just happens to be so good at such a low price that it stands out as exceptional and worth praise, IMHO.
  - jdietrich 10y ago
    I'd argue that REAPER is the Vim or Emacs of DAWs. There's a steep learning curve, getting the best out of it requires a lot of memorisation and customisation, but nothing matches its speed and power in the hands of an expert.
abecedarius 10y ago
He was a regular in #c on IRC back in the 90s. Pleasant, fun guy. I kind of miss those days.
- Hydraulix989 10y ago
  Me too, back then, programming was more about having fun and less about striking it rich building walled garden commercial software that tricks more people into clicking on ads.
- bluedino 10y ago
  He used to come on #winprog - I think Winamp was his first windows app, he was always asking about GUI elements how he was planning on making it skinnable. Everyone was trading mp3's and I couldn't figure out why you would want to spend 15 minutes downloading a song...

hardwaresofton 10y ago

Also, don't forget Licecap, one of the easiest to use and most consistent cross-platform gif-screen-capture tools: http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ I said a very audible "holy shit, this is that guy?" when the link to jesussonic took me to Cockos.

koolba 10y ago
Wow I didn't know he made licecap as well. As far as gif recordings go, it really whips the llamas ass!
- hardwaresofton 10y ago
  Licecap definitely changed how I worked. If you want the rest of your frontend development team to think you're a god, include licecap or other gifs of features/bugfixes on code reviews. It's a thing most developers don't even think of doing (at least most didn't in my experience). Makes it easy for stake holders (if they're allowed near your code reviews/tickets/whatever), devs, qa, to easily see how functionality has changed. I first learned of it from a young QA at a company I previously worked at, and I am so grateful I met him and was able to learn from him.
  - Terr_ 10y ago
    I'd like to give an honorable mention to Debugmode Wink [0] which for a long time was my go-to freeware application for recording and presenting screen-activity on Windows. [0] http://www.debugmode.com/wink/ http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
  - gknoy 10y ago
    At one point licecap stopped working for me (MPB, using an external screen). The Giphy capture tool is also a good one. I wholeheartedly agree that including screenshots are a great way to show things :)
    - hardwaresofton 10y ago
      Yeah, I had a periodic issue with new installs (or would see colleagues have this problem): you'd record something but the gif would be all black. I think there was a fix but I've long forgotten :)
  - gknoy 10y ago
    At one point licecap stopped working for me (MPB, using an external screen). The Giphy capture tool is also a good one. I wholeheartedly agree that including screenshots are a great way to show things :)
  - EliRivers 10y ago
    If you want the rest of your frontend development team to think you're a god, include licecap or other gifs of features/bugfixes on code reviews But if you do, for the love of God make it as short as possible. When I'm browsing through the tickets using some stock web browser, and the anigif runs for five minutes before reaching the point, it is such a pain to have to grab the gif and either dig out a tool than can track through an anigif, or have to cast it into some other format and then track through that. Then, I'm stuck either doing that every time, or attaching another file to the ticket; the same animation, but in a format that we can track through so I don't have to watch the entire five minutes.
  - jest3r1 10y ago
    Is there a Licecap equivalent for Android mobile?
- majkinetor 10y ago
  cinst licecap

mastazi 10y ago

I agree, REAPER is very highly regarded in music production circles. Anecdotically, I have been producing electronic music as a hobby for many years now, and while I own much more expensive programs (e.g. Ableton Live Suite which cost a staggering AU $999) I find REAPER to be an extremely enjoyable piece of software and I have found myself using it often.

SwellJoe 10y ago
I wouldn't really consider it a competitor to Ableton Live, though there's some overlap. But, as a competitor to Pro Tools, it's hard for me to think of anything even in the same ball park as REAPER (and REAPER costs a fraction of what Pro Tools costs, as well). I use FL Studio or Renoise for the stuff that people use Ableton for; but, REAPER blows them all away for recording live musicians and then mixing the resulting tracks. The term "DAW" has too many uses, and it can be confusing. REAPER is a Pro Tools competitor (and a good one). Ableton can be used for multitrack recording of live musicians, but I don't know of any studios that use it for that, unless their focus is on electronic production with some live music added on top. And, REAPER can be used for electronic productions and loop-based composition and live performance (and there's even a UI for REAPER that makes it act more like Ableton), but it's not its raison d'être. If you're composing and performing predominantly electronic music in-the-box, then Ableton or others might be a better choice. But, if you're recording live musicians, REAPER is amazing. There can be some useful interoperation between them, as well. Live can plug into REAPER, so you can sync up your Live performance with your REAPER tracks, and produce a hybrid work. REAPER may be stronger for mastering, as well, depending on how you like to work. Traditional recording engineers, who learned in a studio with tape and hardware mixers and patch bays, will be quickly comfortable with REAPER. The same can not be said of Ableton Live (or FL Studio, etc.). But, musicians who grew up on synths, sequencers and beat machines with sequencers (like 303, 808, etc.), may find the Ableton approach more intuitive. Both are high quality tools doing a very good job in their niche. REAPER just happens to be so good at such a low price that it stands out as exceptional and worth praise, IMHO.
- jdietrich 10y ago
  I'd argue that REAPER is the Vim or Emacs of DAWs. There's a steep learning curve, getting the best out of it requires a lot of memorisation and customisation, but nothing matches its speed and power in the hands of an expert.

abecedarius 10y ago

He was a regular in #c on IRC back in the 90s. Pleasant, fun guy. I kind of miss those days.

Hydraulix989 10y ago
Me too, back then, programming was more about having fun and less about striking it rich building walled garden commercial software that tricks more people into clicking on ads.
bluedino 10y ago
He used to come on #winprog - I think Winamp was his first windows app, he was always asking about GUI elements how he was planning on making it skinnable. Everyone was trading mp3's and I couldn't figure out why you would want to spend 15 minutes downloading a song...