Basic DAW question re Reaper and type of computer

Adey

Hi chaps

I want to get into doing some recording of music. I started having a fiddle with Reaper pre-pandemic, but then everything got turned upside down and it wasn't really practical at home any more.

My home laptop is shared by the Mrs and so I want to buy something cheap that'll do the job otherwise it becomes a problem with both wanting to use the only laptop at the same time. I was thinking about getting a Chrome Book as you can get them for under £200.

Does anyone have any experience with using Reaper on Chrome Books?

If this is a stupid idea, are there any easier to use DAW programmes that will work on a Chrome Book? Otherwise, I'd go and by another windows laptop, but don't really want to spend a wad ...

Any advice appreciated. :-)

PetGerbil

I think you would be better going "...darling, it pains me to see you using that clunky old laptop. How would you like it if we bought you one of those spanky new chromebooks ? Don't worry, I'll use the old laptop..."

andy_k

My 1Q22 challenge is building a Reaper studio with a Raspberry Pi, I haven't made much progress yet, but I will be documenting it.
I don't think any decent recording stuff runs on a Chrome 
Hop Pole studio did a couple of vids on Reaper on a RPi, worth a look.

mudslide73

Chromebooks don't run conventional apps well - they're meant for web apps really, especially £200 ones. As per @PetGerbil I'd get something for your wife and requisition the laptop for Reaper use.

digitalscream

If you're going to run Reaper on a Chromebook, you're going to have to install Linux on it. It also won't deal with Windows VSTs particularly well without a lot of hackery - if you're familiar with Linux, go for it...but if not, you're asking for a world of pain. I mean...I use Reaper on Linux, but I've been using Linux as my daily driver OS for about 15 years. I can't imagine going down that road as a newbie to it.

As was suggested, get the Chromebook for the wife (assuming she's only using the laptop for browsing), and reclaim the laptop. It's by far the simplest approach.

Stratavarious

Can you use Bandlab’s browser based DAW on Chromebook?   Free and very good if you have good internet.

Danny1969

I wouldn't bother with a Chrome book, for £200 you could get a refurb Dell Latitude off Ebay with a years warranty that will run Reaper perfectly. 
Chrome books are complete junk electronically, awful failure rate, normally from the USB C handshake chip which writes the board off. 

Adey

Thanks all for the advice. I'll go looking for another laptop then, either new or a cheap refurbished one.

monquixote

I have a high end Chromebook, but it's absolutely no use for audio. 

Your best option is whatever windows box you can afford. 

midiman1962

I’m running Cubase 9 elements on a pre loved £115 windows laptop - the price included a ram upgrade to 8 gig . Daws like ram.

shufflebeat

I got a used Lenovo and bought a separate docking station with loads of USB 2/3 connections for interface and external drives that can stay wired while I take the laptop elsewhere.

Reaper tends to be less resource hungry than some other, more flashy DAWs, particularly if you use the stock VSTs where possible.

Fez

I bought a chrome book for my wife it lasted about 2weeks and died

andy_k

Despite the global chip shortage, you can still get a Raspberry Pi 400 on Amazon for a reasonable price.
I you have a spare TV, you will be able to run Reaper ARM version no problem.
As @digitalscream says, Linux is a different world, but the Raspberry people seem to be making it more accessible to all, and if you are only dabbling in recording there will always be something new to discover, why not make a new OS something else?
A cheap interface and mic is all that needs adding to this setup, or you could go down the never ending road of commercial VSTs and hardware / software, I would say a decent entry point would be a second hand MBP for £400 and up, with Logic, £150 last time I looked. I chose something similar around 5 years ago and the machine is still working well. Maybe I got lucky, but once you start doing it, there will always be things you 'need'.

Adey

I've just picked up a second hand 14" Dell Latitude E5470 with i5 chip 2.3GHz, 8MB RAM and SSD for £110 on eBay. It turned up the other day, so I'll have to go and relearn my Reaper basics again as I haven't done anything with it since having my first goes 2 years ago.

Going to use my Laney IRT Studio and Nexus amps as they both have USB connectivity from the back.

digitalscream

Adey said:

I've just picked up a second hand 14" Dell Latitude E5470 with i5 chip 2.3GHz, 8MB RAM and SSD for £110 on eBay. It turned up the other day, so I'll have to go and relearn my Reaper basics again as I haven't done anything with it since having my first goes 2 years ago.

Going to use my Laney IRT Studio and Nexus amps as they both have USB connectivity from the back.

Yeah, you'll be fine with that. I recorded our first album using Reaper on a Core 2 Quad CPU with 4GB RAM and a spinning rust drive I found in a drawer, and never had problems. People often forget these days that there's an awful lot you can do without a lot of CPU power, as long as you can get the latency down and avoid unnecessary software running in the background, even on Windows.