Idea: Reason Target

Want to talk about music hardware or software that doesn't include Reason?
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bitley
Posts: 1673
Joined: 03 Jul 2015
Location: sweden
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25 Apr 2019

This is an idea I hereby put out there for Propellerhead and those who recycle old Apple computers. And I would of course like to deliver sounds to this. The idea is to recycle old Mac computers as they are awesome for Reason and as they have Firewire. So therefore the idea is simple but extremely effective:

1. Create a perfect installation of MacOS X 10.5 (for the mountains of G4s and G5s out there) / 10.7 (for the first Intel Macs)

These computers are excellent for music making and nobody wants them today, so they need a new life.

2. Install Reason and some cool sound libraries, I would of course like to contribute here.

3. Minor software development would be cool such as an intro page for the first time it boots up and a language selector, but that's it.

4. Lock the Admin account permanently. The user must only be able to add sound libraries and save song files & export to audio, nothing else. No other software installations (other than what is included with these MacOSes) should be allowed, ideally. Sound card drivers? No. These machines have perfect built in audio so sell it together with a USB midi keyboard which is working with the setup and doesn't need a driver. Almost 0% support needed.

5. Create a disk image on this and create a webpage that sells the entire kit including every installation - and it's installed by putting the computers in target mode so any Mac with a FW interface can be used to install the Reason Target package.

6. Start the old abandoned Mac in Target mode and just format all of the drives on it & drag & drop the entire shababoom to it.

7. Finished, a Reason Target computer is made and could be sold to aspiring musicians for just $199 including everything (including a refurbished Mac) or for just $99 for those who already have an old Mac to inject life into.

8. Create a truckload of inspiring Youtube clips on how to use Reason Target. It's meant to be a computer dedicated for music and no internet browsing etc.

Reason 4 would be the perfect choice and a whole range of template tracks could be created.

Environmentally friendly - well this could be discussed but it's a small step to take and it's very easy to do all this, would take a week of work and that's it - and a cool kit for anyone wanting to start out producing music.

Apple, Propellerhead and some other parties should be involved just to say OK to this and approve all licensing questions etc. Apple could help out with creating the installer, and the MacOS X versions could be custom made to include some stuff that would be cool for musicians such as fun apps like Say for instance (where you can export computer speech as audio clips).

Well folks that's the Greta Thunberg inspired idea of the day!

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bitley
Posts: 1673
Joined: 03 Jul 2015
Location: sweden
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25 Apr 2019

Furthermore. Distribution and installation: Competent Mac users over the world who has newer machines with FW could be assigned installation help work, so they are meant to help out with finding old Macs and installing Reason Target on them. For this they could earn $29 for each computer they fix, add $50 for purchasing the hardware on all of the craigslists, ebays and blockets out there. This could become a cool movement with guerilla marketing and all the finished Reason Target machines should be added to a database so that all buyers could locate where they could pick up their machine. After ordering they would get a google code for instance and then it would come down to chatting with the person delivering the machine about details on when & how it would be appropriate to pick it up. Grass root & meet and greet possibilities added as extra bonus here. Question: does money even have to be involved? I'm not sure but this can be discussed as well. ;-)

sleep1979

25 Apr 2019

bitley wrote:
25 Apr 2019
This is an idea I hereby put out there for Propellerhead and those who recycle old Apple computers. And I would of course like to deliver sounds to this. The idea is to recycle old Mac computers as they are awesome for Reason and as they have Firewire. So therefore the idea is simple but extremely effective:

1. Create a perfect installation of MacOS X 10.5 (for the mountains of G4s and G5s out there) / 10.7 (for the first Intel Macs)

These computers are excellent for music making and nobody wants them today, so they need a new life.

2. Install Reason and some cool sound libraries, I would of course like to contribute here.

3. Minor software development would be cool such as an intro page for the first time it boots up and a language selector, but that's it.

4. Lock the Admin account permanently. The user must only be able to add sound libraries and save song files & export to audio, nothing else. No other software installations (other than what is included with these MacOSes) should be allowed, ideally. Sound card drivers? No. These machines have perfect built in audio so sell it together with a USB midi keyboard which is working with the setup and doesn't need a driver. Almost 0% support needed.

5. Create a disk image on this and create a webpage that sells the entire kit including every installation - and it's installed by putting the computers in target mode so any Mac with a FW interface can be used to install the Reason Target package.

6. Start the old abandoned Mac in Target mode and just format all of the drives on it & drag & drop the entire shababoom to it.

7. Finished, a Reason Target computer is made and could be sold to aspiring musicians for just $199 including everything (including a refurbished Mac) or for just $99 for those who already have an old Mac to inject life into.

8. Create a truckload of inspiring Youtube clips on how to use Reason Target. It's meant to be a computer dedicated for music and no internet browsing etc.

Reason 4 would be the perfect choice and a whole range of template tracks could be created.

Environmentally friendly - well this could be discussed but it's a small step to take and it's very easy to do all this, would take a week of work and that's it - and a cool kit for anyone wanting to start out producing music.

Apple, Propellerhead and some other parties should be involved just to say OK to this and approve all licensing questions etc. Apple could help out with creating the installer, and the MacOS X versions could be custom made to include some stuff that would be cool for musicians such as fun apps like Say for instance (where you can export computer speech as audio clips).

Well folks that's the Greta Thunberg inspired idea of the day!
Sounds interesting but reason version 4 ? No audio recording! No rack extensions no vst

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bitley
Posts: 1673
Joined: 03 Jul 2015
Location: sweden
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25 Apr 2019

1. None of that should be interesting really for someone just wanting to start out recording electronic music and as for audio recording Reason has been able to import audio ever since 1.0 so you can actually make sounds with "vocal tracks" on every version (the vocals can be in the ReDrum for instance).

2. The idea is to recycle old machines so therefore old software is completely perfect.

Lov2sing
Posts: 278
Joined: 15 Nov 2015

25 Apr 2019

I had a similar idea months ago where there were three versions of Reason
1. Legacy which only had The basic elements with no RE’s.
2. Reason Advance which had all of legacy plus RE’s ( they also gives you 7 extra RE’s to choose from) beside PH RE’s at the time of purchase.
3. Reason Studio which has the 1 & 2 plus VST’s, a new balance interface, updated NNxT, super Combinator and 7 refills you choose. Also 3 buss stations to pick from maybe British SSL, American Neve, Japan Sony.
The cool thing if you purchase the Reason Studio then on the transport there are three buttons if you want to drop back two 1 or 2 which already there but now you have to go in the drop down menu to cut off VST’s or RE’s.

My thought was to give the musician the choice of how big their studio need to be.
We make music for a reason

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bitley
Posts: 1673
Joined: 03 Jul 2015
Location: sweden
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25 Apr 2019

Not bad at all and with the current awareness about the climate seeking out creative ways to use old stuff should be done in all areas really. (Yesterday I built my new double bed from 7 old Ikea Expedit shelves and it became awesome!)

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esselfortium
Posts: 1456
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
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25 Apr 2019

Lov2sing wrote:
25 Apr 2019
I had a similar idea months ago where there were three versions of Reason
1. Legacy which only had The basic elements with no RE’s.
2. Reason Advance which had all of legacy plus RE’s ( they also gives you 7 extra RE’s to choose from) beside PH RE’s at the time of purchase.
3. Reason Studio which has the 1 & 2 plus VST’s, a new balance interface, updated NNxT, super Combinator and 7 refills you choose. Also 3 buss stations to pick from maybe British SSL, American Neve, Japan Sony.
The cool thing if you purchase the Reason Studio then on the transport there are three buttons if you want to drop back two 1 or 2 which already there but now you have to go in the drop down menu to cut off VST’s or RE’s.

My thought was to give the musician the choice of how big their studio need to be.
There are already three versions of Reason, though. In a world with lots of capable options in the affordable DAW market, Reason Intro is probably about the best entry-level version that Propellerhead could have made. I wouldn't expect a VST-less version of Reason to capture any significant segment of the market in 2019. People looking for an affordable DAW to start out with would just go for another inexpensive DAW that's more compatible rather than paying to immediately lock themselves into a more niche ecosystem.

(Also, keep in mind that not supporting all of Reason's feature set and devices means not knowing which ReFills you can buy and actually be able to use, unless you're getting antique refills from 2005. Your proposed Studio features would make Legacy and Advance effectively worthless at their intended tasks very quickly.)
Sarah Mancuso
My music: Future Human

sleep1979

25 Apr 2019

esselfortium wrote:
25 Apr 2019
Lov2sing wrote:
25 Apr 2019
I had a similar idea months ago where there were three versions of Reason
1. Legacy which only had The basic elements with no RE’s.
2. Reason Advance which had all of legacy plus RE’s ( they also gives you 7 extra RE’s to choose from) beside PH RE’s at the time of purchase.
3. Reason Studio which has the 1 & 2 plus VST’s, a new balance interface, updated NNxT, super Combinator and 7 refills you choose. Also 3 buss stations to pick from maybe British SSL, American Neve, Japan Sony.
The cool thing if you purchase the Reason Studio then on the transport there are three buttons if you want to drop back two 1 or 2 which already there but now you have to go in the drop down menu to cut off VST’s or RE’s.

My thought was to give the musician the choice of how big their studio need to be.
There are already three versions of Reason, though. In a world with lots of capable options in the affordable DAW market, Reason Intro is probably about the best entry-level version that Propellerhead could have made. I wouldn't expect a VST-less version of Reason to capture any significant segment of the market in 2019. People looking for an affordable DAW to start out with would just go for another inexpensive DAW that's more compatible rather than paying to immediately lock themselves into a more niche ecosystem.

(Also, keep in mind that not supporting all of Reason's feature set and devices means not knowing which ReFills you can buy and actually be able to use, unless you're getting antique refills from 2005. Your proposed Studio features would make Legacy and Advance effectively worthless at their intended tasks very quickly.)
Yeah i agree with you sarah i use intro and some vst and a couple of refills ( ones which work in intro ) and i cant see not having recording audio , it would just be a pain to record audio in another daw the load it in reason for me now , and not have any vst , and for that reason im out 😂

ps on a serious note it may be a good idea for kids or poor areas maybe to teach poor kids music production to get them off the streets . In that case maybe some people could donate it could be the bitley foundation, u could get a lot of other music people on board .

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ljekio
Posts: 962
Joined: 21 Jan 2015

25 Apr 2019

This is almost what I did some days ago: I bought an old MacBook specifically for Reason. Plays normally without problems, latency is good, you can take with you for live performances.
After dullness and retiring my younger and more powerful (and heavy) Sony Vayo than this MacBook, this switch looks vigorous and viable. :)

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bitley
Posts: 1673
Joined: 03 Jul 2015
Location: sweden
Contact:

25 Apr 2019

yeah great machines are waiting for creators :)

bitley foundation - hehe cool idea :)

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6502
Posts: 147
Joined: 18 Nov 2015

26 Apr 2019

I thought of something similar:

Reason + compute stick embedded in a keyboard with a combinator hardware controller on the keyboard.

It boots up running Reason and loads a song with a single combinator. You cycle through and waggle combinator patches using the combinator hardware controller. Hook up a monitor keyboard and mouse to create new combinator patches.

Another idea is to create a hardware clone of the subtractor with 1 to 1 knobs and sliders. Embed Reason + compute stick inside that boots up to a Reason song with a single subtractor. Since subtractor is the most awesome analogue synth ever designed (as far as user interface goes) that would be way cool. They should modernize the modelling of the sub and collaborate with someone to make a hardware sub!

If I win the lottery I will buy a soldering iron and spend the time doing both of these things. I hope props gets that hardware RE thing going because I've switched to mostly hardware and microphones now and would love to "plug out" Reason (to steal from Roland's idea).

Sorry to hijack your thread! :lol:

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