Mark Heimer of No-Fi Soul Rebellion is a gyrating Vesuvius of dance and singing screams. He gets in faces when he performs and spreads the sweat of his love. He is an explosion. He’s also a gear head. Mark and I sat in his jacuzzi, drank cold Strawberry Quick through looped straws, and he talked about recording and editing audio with a system called Reaper.

No-Fi Soul Rebellion: "Dark Arts"

What is Reaper?
Mark: Reaper is a digital audio workstation for Mac & PC. 'A multi-track audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing, and mastering environment' so they say. Using just your trusty computer and no other software, you can import any audio and MIDI, synthesize, sample, compose, arrange, edit, mix, and master.

Why do you like it?
3 main reasons: 1. The feature set is huge and is always being updated and expanded based on user suggestions and comments from Reaper's online forums. Version 3 came out a couple of weeks ago and there have already been three big updates since then not only fixing bugs, but adding more features. 2. The routing is super flexible and easy. You can have as many tracks as your computer can handle and any of the tracks can act as a bus. 3. The price. For a non-commercial product license (for users who make under $22,000 a year from music) the cost is $60 and that includes updates up to version 4.99. For commercial users the cost is $225, which is still way cheaper than a lot of industry standard programs with the same features. You can also download the installer (which is a ridiculously small file size considering the scope of the program) from their website and try it for thirty days with all the features. That’s a pretty generous amount of time to figure out if the program is up your alley.

How did you discover it?
Just nerding around the internet. A couple of years ago I was still using a hard disk recorder to record all my No-Fi stuff. Then I got into FL Studio and became obsessed with computer based audio and midi recording. It's amazing how much you can do recording and production wise on computers and how inexpensive it is.

If you were an animal, what would you be?
A tree sloth because they are super slow and always look strangely happy and self-satisfied.

Why should people use Reaper?
The workflow is really nice because it is based on a tool-less editing system and I really appreciate that the developer listens to what the user wants and is always seeking to stabilize and improve the program.

Who is it best suited for?
Reaper can be as simple as Garage Band or as complex as Pro-Tools all dependent on the user. And if you get confused they have a great Wiki page / manual and forums to help you along.

What are the advantages to using this Reaper?
The power, performance, flexibility, compatibility, and stability are all major advantages of using the program. Plus, you can customize the appearance and colors and themes, which is I think is pretty sweet, just because it is.

Sweet. What are the disadvantages to using it?
I have yet to find a disadvantage, but I am a sure by the time I do they probably will have fixed it based on user comments and suggestions.

Where do your instinctual dance moves come from? Do you rehearse them? You don’t move like a tree sloth when you are gyrating on people in the crowd.
All moves are improvisational. No rehearsing. My instincts stem from what I wished I looked like when I dance and what I actually look like when I dance.

No-Fi Soul Rebellion plays Saturday, June 20th in Tacoma at Hell’s Kitchen.