Reason 8.3 on Ultra HD screen (Dell XPS 13)

[nubicurio]

Hi there,

I'm about to get a new laptop (specifically Dell XPS 13), which comes with an Ultra HD display. Has anyone got any experience running Reason on a really high screen resolution? Is it usable? Or do you have to scale your Windows environment?

Does anyone run Reason on XPS 13? What are your thoughts?

By the way I'm completely new to Reason; this is my 5th day on my 30 day trial...still scratching my head trying to figure things out. Thanks guys!

[JiggeryPokery]

There's no guarantee a scalable Reason will appear in 2016, though it's a decent bet, given UHD is fast approaching mainstream now, and more to the point, PH need a way to encourage an upgrade to R9 while killing off Line6, and scaling will be seen as "kewl!" USP factor.

So Reason 8.3 on the XPS13 will be rather fiddly. Reason 9 I'd expect to be fine, depending on how the zoom is implemented.

I doubt it will be smooth zoom of the rack, unless decent GFX becomes a minimum requirement. So I'm still guessing it will be pre-rendered zoom levels. It might even be the rack stays the 754px width and we can blow up the selected unit individually to fill the screen, although that would be crappy for Combinators, so I'd think that less likely.

[Kategra]

The highest resolution I tested was 1920x1080 on an 17" laptop and it was OK. I think that max 2560 x 1440 would be the limit for a good experience of current Reason GUI on a 17" display.

3200 x 1800 on a 13" ... I don't think you will be able to see anything. But I guess you could always lower the resolution to 1600 x 900 on that 13" laptop when firing Reason

[nubicurio]

Thanks for the heads up! XPS 13 does have have a model with a 1.920 x 1.080 (matte!) display; albeit with 8GB RAM instead of 16GB. Since RAM is not upgradable on XPS13, 16GB seems a lot more future proof. Assuming there are no DAWs at the moment that are natively compatible with UHD/4K screens, I would probably need to reconsider my laptop choice:(

[JiggeryPokery]

. I think that max 2560 x 1440 would be the limit for a good experience of current Reason GUI on a 17" display.

That's what I run on my 30" (well, 2560 x 1600, back when computer monitors were a proper size) ... and that's quite small enough!

[EnochLight]

Assuming there are no DAWs at the moment that are natively compatible with UHD/4K screens

Actually, Imagine Line's FL Studio 12 is completely natively compatible with UHD/4K and any other screen resolution, for that matter. That said, it's fruity loops. Reason is a much better DAW imho.

[JiggeryPokery]

I would probably need to reconsider my laptop choice:(

It comes down to future proofing.

There aren't that many alternatives to the XPS if you want a PC version of the Macbook, i.e. small screen, ultra light form factor, no connectivity

[nubicurio]

It seems Studio One 3 might also support UHD/4K out of the box; but I read somewhere that with Reason you can create any sound you want that no one has even heard of before. Is that true? No other DAWs could do that?

Sad but true about lack of ultra light PC alternatives....perhaps I'll have to invest in a 40 monitor after all

[chimp_spanner]

Even on a regular 1080 screen it's a bit difficult at times. I run a laptop setup with an external monitor (so it's basically a base unit when it's on the desk, and a laptop when it's not). I put the on screen magnifier on the laptop screen off to the side, full screened it and set the magnification to x2. A little offputting, admittedly, to see everything you do on one screen duplicated on the other in giganto-vision, and it's probably not great for system performance. But otherwise it's kinda useful.

As others have said though, UI scaling is massively important. I mean Reason is a very visual program. Not good if you can't actually see it

[joeyluck]

Can you not adjust resolution as you can on Retina MacBooks?

[EnochLight]

Can you not adjust resolution as you can on Retina MacBooks?

Absolutely. But even better, you can adjust the app zoom/text size independant of your monitor resolution in Windows. Both of the following pics were taken at a resolution of 1920 x 1080. The first is app zoom set at 100%:

100 percent text and app zoom.jpg (510.32 KiB) Viewed 5286 times

And here it is set at 125%:

125 percent text and app zoom.jpg (457.78 KiB) Viewed 5286 times

So, at this point one could reasonably use an UltraHD/4K monitor and still use Reason just fine, though it may seem a bit low res compared to if it was actually written for UltraHD/4K monitors...

[EnochLight]

I will say that the rack does seem to scale reasonably well, though - even at their small resolution.

[Vince-Noir-99]

Here's how it looks @4K on a 42" monitor. I included a screenshot (3840*2160) so you get an idea of how much fits in there.

[chimp_spanner]

Dude how did you choose the scale factor for the app in Windows? I'm only on 1080 and I'd love to do that. I don't actually *need* high res. I need to be able to see, but I don't wanna scale my entire display. Just Reason.

[EnochLight]

Dude how did you choose the scale factor for the app in Windows? I'm only on 1080 and I'd love to do that. I don't actually *need* high res. I need to be able to see, but I don't wanna scale my entire display. Just Reason.

In Windows 10, right-click on your desktop and select "Display Settings". Slide the lever to (say) 125%, log out and log back in. Instant awesome:

Capture.JPG (126.77 KiB) Viewed 5260 times

[chimp_spanner]

Booo mine's greyed out. Think it's cos I'm using an external monitor over HDMI?

[EnochLight]

Booo mine's greyed out. Think it's cos I'm using an external monitor over HDMI?

Weird. I doubt that's the issue, as I'm doing it on an external monitor over HDMI. Perhaps it's a video card supported thing? Not sure. I'm using a Radeon HD 6450 on the computer pictured above. I think it's an old Geforce 8800 GTS on my home studio machine (the option is there as well).

Have you tried upgrading your video card drivers?

[chimp_spanner]

Ugh. Scourge of my existence my graphics card is. Built in HD4600 with a GeForce 740m strapped on the back. All sorts of problems with one or both of the adapters causing CPU spikes and it's impossible to get at the nuts and bolts to fix because you have to use manufacturers drivers. Tower next time. Screw laptops!

[shropshirelad]

Several plugin devs are now being thoughtful enough to include scaleable interfaces for people like me with hi-res monitors and less-than-perfect eyesight! Heres a shot of Spire at 200% on my 27" retina iMac. Brilliant. I hope that something like this coming in Reason 9 - I've almost stopped using Reason as I find it hard to see.

Screen Shot 2016-02-12 at 10.00.51.png (5.5 MiB) Viewed 5217 times

[stfual]

I have a 4K screen as my primary monitor with a 1920 as my secondary running Windows 10 and I'm surprised how well it works with Reason. Both screens scale appropriately after adjusting in Windows. The only glitch ive seen was one of the setup popups (Asio driver I think) displayed in a tiny font.

Adobe products however are a complete mess.

[EnochLight]

I've almost stopped using Reason as I find it hard to see.

I don't know why you would stop using Reason on OSX - even with a Retina display. Just ZOOM into the rack or wherever you need to using your OS zoom function! As I demonstrated above, on Windows you can even use App Zoom (if your hardware supports it) to permanently zoom into Reason...

[shropshirelad]

Just ZOOM into the rack or wherever you need to using your OS zoom function!

But I can't get either the Command + or the double tap on the magic mouse to work in Reason! I know that I can change the resolution in prefs but it's a faf. The solution provided by Spire, Pianoteq etc is much better for me.

[EnochLight]

Just ZOOM into the rack or wherever you need to using your OS zoom function!

But I can't get either the Command + or the double tap on the magic mouse to work in Reason! I know that I can change the resolution in prefs but it's a faf. The solution provided by Spire, Pianoteq etc is much better for me.

To be clear, I totally agree that plugin specific resolution scaling (in Spire's new GUI among many other VST) is clearly the best solution - Spire fills up my entire second monitor on my box in glorious HD! I'm jut suggesting that there are plenty of options right now that will get you zoomed in satisfactorily in Reason - right now.

If you're having issues with your mouse, you can always replace it. OSX zoom worked fine with Reason on my (wife's) old Macbook when I was using it, and this was years ago. I can't imagine it has changed or gotten worse.

Have you tried the scroll wheel zoom option here?

..Or any of these?

http://www.wikihow.com/Zoom-in-on-a-Mac

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH11488?locale=en_US

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18385?locale=en_US

[shropshirelad]

Thanks for the scroll wheel video EnochLight - that does work with the magic mouse so I'm much happier about Reason today!

[EnochLight]

Thanks for the scroll wheel video EnochLight - that does work with the magic mouse so I'm much happier about Reason today!

No problem; glad to have helped!