REAPER
Cockos Incorporated
REAPER is a cross-platform digital audio workstation (DAW) for multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, mixing, and mastering, with a small footprint, scriptable interface, and broad plug-in format support (VST, VST3, AU, LV2, CLAP, JSFX). Multichannel routing throughout the signal chain and a per-track channel count up to 128 make it widely used as a host for spatial-audio plug-in suites in Ambisonic, immersive, and multichannel sound installation work.
History & Background
Developed by Cockos Incorporated, founded in 2004 by Justin Frankel (creator of Winamp and Gnutella). First public release in December 2005. Distributed as uncrippled shareware: a 60-day evaluation with full features, followed by a USD 60 discounted licence (private use or annual revenue under USD 20,000) or a USD 225 commercial licence. Updates are free within a major version cycle (REAPER 7 includes free updates through v8.99).