Try em both out - the toughest thing (I found anyways) when I was starting with a DAW was workflow - What I regard as a structured approach to getting consistent results. I started on Ableton, went over to Reaper and then back to Ableton. And now I'll use either depending on what I'm trying to accomplish - I'm still learning how I like to work though.
- For a quick sketch and idea jam, I think the "Session" view in Ableton is genius.
- But on Windows, Reaper is a rock solid performer, especially on lower end hardware & \has a slightly lower RTL (on my setup). - Ableton just isn't as stable and can munch resources
- Ableton comes with a lot of builtin sounds/effects/etc and the ease of integrating a midi controller takes some beating. But Reaper + Bedroomproducer blog nets you a lot of cool toys and a few hours of reading and experimenting can get Reaper to play nicely with midi too.
- Stretching/warping a clip/sample is Ableton's "thing" and when you start getting into it, it can be rrrreally creative tool, not just a DJ thing - Reaper has similar functionality, but it's (imho) much tricky to use
The one thing I wish Reaper would do is something similar to Ableton's Session view, being able to set it up like a live looper and jam with your idea's. It is possible in Reaper apparently, with a fair amount of setup and hacking...
The two things I wish Ableton would do is : Work like Reaper when it comes to takes in clips - it's really nice to be able to lay in 5 takes spontaneous and then choose which one was the keeper.. Crashes less often on Windows (Though I'm using a few dodgy plug-ins...But I also use em in Reaper and it crashes far less).
