Reason 9: Scalable Rack? I don't think so :(

[supalurker]

Windows 10 has a screen scaling slider under graphics properties. It works perfectly with reason. I use it on the surface pro 4 all the time to zoom into the rack and twiddle the knobs with my finger. Erm....

No, it doesn't. Yes you can change scaling but Reason does not scale properly at all. On the Surface Pro 4 at the recommended 200%, everything to include text, menus, icons and racks are pixelated. At 175% everything is tiny and still pixelated.

I would attach a screenshot but not sure it would display at full size.

Edit: I 7-Zip'd a screenshot with Firefox, Excell and Reason. Look at its Actual Size to see how bad Reason looks compared to other apps on a high DPI screen.

[Mauricio Duarte]

Big shame that PH's seems to doesn't care about this tbh

[Orbit-50]

I got so sidetracked with re-scalability of the rack, that I forgot about the fact that the Reason mixer re-scalability would be awesome as well.

[Redster]

Edit: I 7-Zip'd a screenshot with Firefox, Excell and Reason. Look at its Actual Size to see how bad Reason looks compared to other apps on a high DPI screen.

Perhaps its just me but what is the problem here? Maybe my old eyes are knackered, maybe I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve, but it works fine on my SP4. Its not perfectly aliased yes, but are we more worried about usability and stability or pretty shiny things? Personally I turn off all the bells and whistles to maximise CPU to the important stuff anyway, its not a game after all.

[guitfnky]

Personally, the aliasing wasn't a problem for me, it was the functionality...

That said, I think I have to take back what I've said in this thread regarding the Windows zoom. It does work fairly well, provided you take a couple of minutes to play around with the settings to get it where you want it. It didn't work that well for me out-of-the-box, like the Mac zoom did, and it's not as pretty, but its functionality is only slightly less than the Mac zoom, I think, once you set it up.

For me, part of the problem was, for each level of zoom, it defaulted to 100% increase in zoom. I need to see what's going on a little bit better, but I'm not a bat; I don't need everything to be twice as large to be able to work. I set the increase to 25%, and it's much more usable now. Scrolling is more or less identical to the Mac zoom as well.

[Redster]

I think we all know that it would be better if it worked natively. But it's not a deal breaker at the moment because both os have an option or options to pretty much achieve the desired result and there is more important stuff to worry about. Like pdc for instance.

[Creativemind]

You can get that magnifying tool on Windows 10 as well. Pretty nifty. I only find this out now lol! Been on Windows 7 2 yrs!

[supalurker]

Edit: I 7-Zip'd a screenshot with Firefox, Excell and Reason. Look at its Actual Size to see how bad Reason looks compared to other apps on a high DPI screen.

Perhaps its just me but what is the problem here? Maybe my old eyes are knackered, maybe I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve, but it works fine on my SP4. Its not perfectly aliased yes, but are we more worried about usability and stability or pretty shiny things? Personally I turn off all the bells and whistles to maximise CPU to the important stuff anyway, its not a game after all.

I thought this thread was about scaling? Not once did I mention that Reason didn't work on an SP4, in fact, I have never had any issues with any version of Reason. This includes the original release many years ago on my very first PC.

To me it's distracting. In 2016, I think most would agree that one shouldn't have to screw around with magnifying tools to see what's on their screens. Sorry, I just expect a company that creates software to get their shit together. Don't get me wrong, though. I love Reason, I keep trying to leave it but always come back.

[Funkspace]

Thanks buddard (Robotic Bean Creative) and Selig for your developer insights. This is a completly bizarre coincidence, but with the May Madness Sale I purchased only two items that I had my eye on and they both happened to be Selig and Robotic Bean: Step (with the CV selector) and Leveler. Thanks to you guys for such beautifully awesome tools.

[Skullture]

Change the screen resolution? Maybe?

[Funkspace]

Change the screen resolution? Maybe?

Changing screen resolution affects everything you're looking at and throws away screen estate for other elements of reason, which isn't particularly desirable. In effect that is like time traveling to the past when the rack devices were more visible and losing the future benefits of better screen resolutions.

[challism]

I completely agree, zoom for the rack and mixer is so overdue.... it pisses me off they haven't fixed this yet. The rack devices are getting harder to see the older I get. This could EASILY be fixed. Get to it, Props! Take some of the money from the upgrades and RE sales and get to it. Fix this problem.

As far as the DCV-1 writing on the back is concerned, the developer has mentioned that it is just bunch of gibberish put on there for looks only. It isn't meant to be read.

[mark999]

Ok, here comes a brutally honest answer without any sugar coating. The graphics in Reason are outdated, pixelated, SMALL and hard to see and frustrating to use. If you're using a current monitor or laptop, the Reason Rack is TOO SMALL to see properly. The buttons are absolutely tiny and most of the tiny text is too blurry or pixelated to read. Just put your mouse cursor next to most of the knobs in Thor, or Subtractor and you'll see that the knobs are way smaller than your cursor. In Redrum, when you have a pattern playing, the little red dot on top of the sequence buttons is barely visible it's so tiny. There are many examples like this. The device "on/off/bypass" buttons are way too small and hard to click. Compare that to a plugin like Massive, Spire, Sylenth, or any other current and popular synth, and the Reason device graphics look and feel outdated, like they're from 2003 or from that era. Half rack devices like the old delay and reverb devices are annoying and frustratingly small to use.
Ableton Live has an option for scaling the graphics, Logic Pro also supports scaling of plugin devices, and more and more plugins support scaling also, it has become a necessity in this day and age because monitors and resolutions are becoming bigger and bigger. This is common sense, but whenever someone raises this issue In the Reason community, Reason users just "don't get it" like they're from some other planet or something
I've been a Reason user since version 1.0 and honestly, only back then were the graphics acceptable. Since then resolutions have been getting bigger and bigger and the Reason rack looks laughably small these days. Just watch the Dave Spoon interview with Future Music from a few years ago, he has a massive monitor and the Reason rack is super tiny and awkwardly small on his big monitor... and that was several years ago! Now it's much worse. Reason 10 should support scaling and if it doesn't, I'm gonna have the biggest rant on YouTube about it and won't let up until it's fixed.

[mark999]

I found the Dave Spoon interview on YouTube, and look how absolutely tiny and microscopic the rack is on that monitor, and this was 7 years ago! This has been, and continues to be a huge usability issue. Dave is sitting approximately 1 metre away from the monitor, and from that distance, the Reason text and buttons are smaller than a line of text from a book. Can you imagine reading a book from a metre away? It's not good for the eyes at all.

I understand that their developers are busy, but they should have hired extra staff to deal with this years ago. We are in 2017 now and it's still an issue. I'd be embarrassed to put out a piece of software in 2017 that looked like it came from 2003. I'm expecting version 10 to be a christmas present with this issue fixed. We will see I guess.

[EnochLight]

I found the Dave Spoon interview on YouTube, and look how absolutely tiny and microscopic the rack is on that monitor, and this was 7 years ago! This has been, and continues to be a huge usability issue. Dave is sitting approximately 1 metre away from the monitor, and from that distance, the Reason text and buttons are smaller than a line of text from a book. Can you imagine reading a book from a metre away? It's not good for the eyes at all.

What size is your monitor, and what is its resolution set to? I'm using dual 26" monitors that are 1920 x 1080, and while I agree that Reason's unscalable rack/GUI/UX is a pain in the ass in this day and age, it's easily addressed via your OS settings usually.

In Windows, all you need to do is go into your Display Settings and change the size of text, apps, and other items to 125% to 150%. Reason gets scaled larger, and looks actually quite decent. I know this is a work around, but really - if you're having that hard of time using Reason on a large/high res monitor, these are easy solutions that can help.

[aeox]

I found the Dave Spoon interview on YouTube, and look how absolutely tiny and microscopic the rack is on that monitor, and this was 7 years ago! This has been, and continues to be a huge usability issue. Dave is sitting approximately 1 metre away from the monitor, and from that distance, the Reason text and buttons are smaller than a line of text from a book. Can you imagine reading a book from a metre away? It's not good for the eyes at all.

I understand that their developers are busy, but they should have hired extra staff to deal with this years ago. We are in 2017 now and it's still an issue. I'd be embarrassed to put out a piece of software in 2017 that looked like it came from 2003. I'm expecting version 10 to be a christmas present with this issue fixed. We will see I guess.

I fixed it.

[Orbit-50]

I fixed it.

Yes! Thank you for the sneak peak of Reason 10

[mark999]

I found the Dave Spoon interview on YouTube, and look how absolutely tiny and microscopic the rack is on that monitor, and this was 7 years ago! This has been, and continues to be a huge usability issue. Dave is sitting approximately 1 metre away from the monitor, and from that distance, the Reason text and buttons are smaller than a line of text from a book. Can you imagine reading a book from a metre away? It's not good for the eyes at all.

What size is your monitor, and what is its resolution set to? I'm using dual 26" monitors that are 1920 x 1080, and while I agree that Reason's unscalable rack/GUI/UX is a pain in the ass in this day and age, it's easily addressed via your OS settings usually.

In Windows, all you need to do is go into your Display Settings and change the size of text, apps, and other items to 125% to 150%. Reason gets scaled larger, and looks actually quite decent. I know this is a work around, but really - if you're having that hard of time using Reason on a large/high res monitor, these are easy solutions that can help.

I'm using a 13" Macbook Pro (2015 model) with with the factory default resolution. If I sit very close to my laptop and tilt my head forward, then Reason rack is "ok" size on the screen but not great... as soon as I put a MIDI keyboard between me and my laptop, the laptop gets a little further away and the Reason becomes too small.

[EnochLight]

I'm using a 13" Macbook Pro (2015 model) with with the factory default resolution. If I sit very close to my laptop and tilt my head forward, then Reason rack is "ok" size on the screen but not great... as soon as I put a MIDI keyboard between me and my laptop, the laptop gets a little further away and the Reason becomes too small.

OSX has built-in zoom which works quite well, and might be a temp solution working on that tiny screen. Have you tried it?

http://heresthethingblog.com/2014/02/24 ... e-display/

I think you should also consider that a 13" screen might not be a practical solution when producing, especially when working with controllers that sit between you and the screen. Might be time to pick up a larger (say 26" or bigger) panel and connect it to your Macbook Pro when producing in your studio. You can find plenty of options for less than $300 USD...

[Tumble]

One of the main reasons (others being the dreadful sequencer/piano roll) why I've stopped using it.

Reason will fall of the map very quickly if PH don't get this sorted by version 10. I mean, it's already happening, from what I can tell.

[brand]

Granted, I have a 21" iMac, 4K, which is a very stunning display. (27 would be even better, but I had to stop somewhere...). But I use the zoom function as described above. I set it up for Control+Scroll. I find this to work fine. I am a new Reason user, and I knew I would want to zoom the rack, out of the box. I actually found a discussion on here somewhere, which clued me into the setup. Sure, if I go in really close, I'll start seeing some pixelation. But it's big enough for me before I reach that point, and I've got all sorts of kit between me and the monitor. I'm about 24" away from the screen, and I'll admit I really can't read the devices at 100%, so I need that zoom. 13" screen? I doubt I could use it, but I would really try the zoom setup, as EnochLight remarked. EnochLight is right: I think there's tons of big monitors out there for pretty cheap.

I haven't used every DAW out there. But I think they all take up a good bit of real estate on a monitor, let's face it. I'm not sure I would call this a flaw in Reason. If Props could somehow have a feature to automatically zoom a device, and possibly increase the depth of the displayed image, I'd love it. But to be honest, it's not really hurting me so much right now.

[Psuper]

Reason been needing a scalable UI for far too long.

People complain about the UI being tiny on huge resolutions, the problem in the past was it was too damn big took up too much screen and was impossible to easily navigate.

Reason's UI - The problems of the past, but now in reverse...

[mark999]

Thank you for the zoom suggestions for my 13" MacBook Pro, I've been using that on occasion, and I also realize that 13" is quite small and I may need larger monitors for producing. Having said that, I never felt the need to use OSX zoom in Logic Pro, or Ableton Live, or even Final Cut Pro, or any other program, except Reason.
Although 13" is small, it is very usable in most apps as they have kept pace with the times and have updated their graphics accordingly.

[aeox]

I'm on 1920x1080 monitors and they are about 2 feet from my head, I've never even thought about anything being too small. Seems perfect for my setup, but I understand that people like their high res monitors and also sitting really far away from them

[EnochLight]

A 13" screen is barely a few inches larger than an iPad. I commend anyone who can work on something that small with a controller between you and the screen, that's for sure!