I agree with this assessment as well. REAPER totally has the power of vim or emacs, but when I started out and knew almost nothing about multitrack recording,

I agree with this assessment as well. REAPER totally has the power of vim or emacs, but when I started out and knew almost nothing about multitrack recording, I stuck with REAPER because its defaults were so easy and I didn't feel handicapped. The UI is so logically laid out and it really helped me understand routing and signal path in a way I didn't before, when I was trying to use other DAW's with less success.