Reaper is really great. If it will be the daw for you depends on what you need in a daw. I've been playing around with Reaper on and off for some months so I think I have a good perspective of the potential "vs. Cubase" things.
It has so many great attributes it's hard to list them all. There are a few deal breakers for me but those are not a big deal if you have another daw and you're just doing the demo. I can honestly say that Reaper is a serious threat to many of the standard daws if it continues to develop at this pace.
Since this is a Cubase specific comparison and I use Cubase SX 3 I'll talk about some things you might miss from Cubase ...
For me, not being able to sync to incoming MTC or smpte is a deal breaker , and one reason I haven't really jumped in and tried to fully learn it. I also use a d8b as a control surface and Reaper doesn't support the HUI protocol so I'd have to go back to mixing with the mouse. Not a big deal but that's also holding me back as I have full control of transport, arming tracks, faders, pans, sends etc now from the console. Even when I demo Reaper in the studio I find myself hitting the d8b transport to play rewind etc... forgetting I can't.
The editing paradigm is different as there are really no tools per se, but it's users make do quite nicely and quickly with key commands. Tallisman is probably one of the most proficient Reaper operators I would think. He's posted a few very nice explanatory videos on the forum. If you are a tool nut like me you'll have to learn key commands or set some that you already know from another app. No big deal for many.
It added a Cubase style comping function but it needs some more work, splitting any item of any comps splits them all. Comping (tracking) is fine, editing the comps later is not quite as easy as in Cubase.
If you're accustomed (like me) to mixing multitimbral outboard midi devices with faders in the daw mixer you won't be able to do that in Reaper as it's faders and pans only control audio, not midi. I have lots of midi outboard hardware so that's not good for me. For people tracking bands or using all software instruments it's a non-issue.
One of the main things for me is not having a Cubase style range selection. You can select random items across tracks but not in quite the same way as you can do with the Cubase range tool. You'll see what I mean. It's automation facilities also need some more work, it's gotten much better recently though. In comparison it's a little klunky.
And you will certainly miss the Stenberg audio pool though I think similar is in the works.
There's a couple of other things that I would miss if I left Cubase like play order tracks and OMF support. I really also just much prefer the Cubase interface over most anything else. Although the new Reaper skins are quite nice and actually look better than Cubase in some ways, like the default mixer, the lack of true Inspector type functions and it's relative lack of (compared to Cubase) window customization are drawbacks for me. There are times in dense editing sessions when I only want to see audio and menus and nothing else. You can't yet hide everything in Reaper and maximize all of the screen space in that way.
Again... for many, many people that's also a non-issue, just a "what might I miss from Cubase" thing.
On the plus side (and there's tons on the plus side, much of it discussed earlier above by Tallisman and some other users) the routing is fabulous, the audio engine smokes and the price is unbeatable. Running it from a USB key on somebody else's PC is just plain ****ing fun.
Having a daw that's portable like that is unheard of. You can run it and use it on any PC with no installation. Even Win 98 I think.
Don't let the price fool you. Reaper is a serious professional audio tool.
Conslusion?
If you are recording yourself or others in a typical setting and you don't need to sync to outboard devices that can't sync to MTC or smpte themselves (it does transmit), Reaper cannot be beat in many, many ways. You won't lose any audio quality by switching... it sounds like any other pro daw. If you run a more complicated setup where you do require external sync or 9-pin control or OMF support then Reaper may not be for you ... yet. That's where I am with it. As soon as they make some of those changes I'll probably be switching or at least starting the transition.
The best thing is it won't cost you anything to legally find out if it is the daw for you.
