Why is it people that dont use Reason always refer to the "sound drivers"

[BDee]

Everytime I speak with people who don't use Reason they always refer to the Propellerhead sound drivers not sounding right, what does this actually mean and if so is this actually true or at any point was true?

[ScuzzyEye]

If they say "driver" just ignore them, they don't know what they're talking about.

If they say "engine", that might be more accurate, but still likely they've never actually listened to Reason, and are just repeating something they heard a long time ago.

But Reason doesn't have a "sound". Maybe the stock devices, all being coded by the same team had a certain way of processing audio that had a character. Or maybe packed-in Rex loops made a lot of music made with those sound the same. But now that Reason has audio tracks, and instruments and effects being coded by people from all over the world, there's nothing similar about the audio coming out of one person's session vs. another.

The only possibly valid complaint, when Reason first got audio tracks, back in 6.0, if the imported audio was at a different rate than the export, the resampling for rate conversion wasn't very clean and could produce artifacts. That was fixed with 7.0.

[MikeMcKew]

On a related note, it is the case that DAWs can sound different from each other. This has always been a big debate in the digital world, and I'm sure everyone has heard a lot of noise around Reason (the infamous "Reason sound") in particular.

In purely static terms and all settings being equal, renders from different DAWs should null (the standard test to see how equal two audio files are). This means the same pan law settings (if they're interpreted the same way or if you can even change the settings), no automation, etc.

The problem is that this almost never occurs naturally and nobody really works like that. When it comes to automation for example, different DAWs can have audible differences to the point that something could even be construed as broken. I've done a few of these tests myself, and Reason doesn't fare as well as us fans might hope. But for a more comprehensive look, check out this series (this is the first post but it's worth checking the whole series, and the accompanying videos are very illustrative as well): https://admiralbumblebee.com/music/2019 ... iffer.html

You'll notice that I used (let's say "cited") some of the points in the articles. I bought fairly heavily into the arguments against these things until recently. These types of tests have generally changed how I think about these things, and you don't have to take my word or Rob's word for it - you can test it yourself.

[reggie1979]

Depends on if you use a mac or a pc. Also crystals play a very important role in USB signals, so, there's that.

And of course always tune to 432.

[Timmy Crowne]

I’ve only experienced “the Reason Sound” insofar as I failed to gain-stage or EQ my tracks properly. I was running all my instrument tracks way too hot and either clipping the outputs or slapping a mastering preset over the whole mix, which would simply add pumping to the clipping. Stock instrument patches usually load far too loud by default and if a user isn’t aware it’s very easy to ruin a good composition with bad mixing. I think this contributed to the myth of “the Reason Sound.”

[Biolumin3sc3nt]

Depends on if you use a mac or a pc. Also crystals play a very important role in USB signals, so, there's that.

And of course always tune to 432.

Lol

[reggie1979]

Despite my funny comment, I've had zero percent luck in trying to get any host to sound different than any other*

*live can depending on time stretching

[Loque]

I remember the time ppl complained about not-real-music when techno and house came up and they didn't knew that all their rock and pop stuff rarly had seen a real band. Nothing beats funny opinions

[Boombastix]

When the coyotes howl in our backyard my left channel flips the phase - is that the Reason sound y'all talking about ?

[Loque]

When the coyotes howl in our backyard my left channel flips the phase - is that the Reason sound y'all talking about ?

wile-e-coyote-wallpapers-26328-440056.jpg (114.51 KiB) Viewed 2261 times

[sleep1979]

Come on please stop all this drivel talk , when i first started making music this is the sort of bollox that stops you in your tracks stop listening to the whinings of these dumbass people that have nothing better to do than batch , its like the guy that can shred a million chords , saying the guy that can strum an acoustic aint a musician its bullshit , just dont listen please

[Creativemind]

It's quite obvious where the Reason sound term came from. Everything before 2012 (before Re's) had to be constructed from stock synths apart from loading sounds into one of the samplers so that is where it must have derived from. Before 2012.

Once Re's came it must have somewhat changed and since VST's were introduced into Reason, so long baby.

There's a good section in the FL Studio Manual that explains audio myths in daw's:-

https://www.image-line.com/support/flst ... _audio.htm

[sleep1979]

It's quite obvious where the Reason sound term came from. Everything before 2012 (before Re's) had to be constructed from stock synths apart from loading sounds into one of the samplers so that is where it must have derived from. Before 2012.

Once Re's came it must have somewhat changed and since VST's were introduced into Reason, so long baby.

There's a good section in the FL Studio Manual that explains audio myths in daw's:-

https://www.image-line.com/support/flst ... _audio.htm

Preach

[PhillipOrdonez]

I remember the time ppl complained about not-real-music when techno and house came up and they didn't knew that all their rock and pop stuff rarly had seen a real band. Nothing beats funny opinions

Sorry Loque, if it was when house and techno came up, chances are that their rock and pop did see a real band, though.

[Loque]

I remember the time ppl complained about not-real-music when techno and house came up and they didn't knew that all their rock and pop stuff rarly had seen a real band. Nothing beats funny opinions

Sorry Loque, if it was when house and techno came up, chances are that their rock and pop did see a real band, though.

Yea, that is what ppl think

[PhillipOrdonez]

Sorry Loque, if it was when house and techno came up, chances are that their rock and pop did see a real band, though.

Yea, that is what ppl think

I don't know if you don't know when house and techno started or if it is a matter of what you consider to be a real band or not ‍♂️

[selig]

On a related note, it is the case that DAWs can sound different from each other. This has always been a big debate in the digital world, and I'm sure everyone has heard a lot of noise around Reason (the infamous "Reason sound") in particular.

In purely static terms and all settings being equal, renders from different DAWs should null (the standard test to see how equal two audio files are). This means the same pan law settings (if they're interpreted the same way or if you can even change the settings), no automation, etc.

The problem is that this almost never occurs naturally and nobody really works like that. When it comes to automation for example, different DAWs can have audible differences to the point that something could even be construed as broken. I've done a few of these tests myself, and Reason doesn't fare as well as us fans might hope. But for a more comprehensive look, check out this series (this is the first post but it's worth checking the whole series, and the accompanying videos are very illustrative as well): https://admiralbumblebee.com/music/2019 ... iffer.html

You'll notice that I used (let's say "cited") some of the points in the articles. I bought fairly heavily into the arguments against these things until recently. These types of tests have generally changed how I think about these things, and you don't have to take my word or Rob's word for it - you can test it yourself.

Though I'm not clear what your conclusions are based on your above comments, I don't see any of these issues as a problem.

When I've done the tests myself, there's no difference (at least when comparing PT/Logic/Reason). The link above shows you things that SHOULD sound bad, but I simply cannot hear (talking about the "automation" part specifically). A sine wave faded in Reason, either with automation or the fade tool, sounds perfectly clean to me . Plus, the spectrum display (in Reason and in Signal Scope) reveals no artifacts either, indicating that if they ARE present they are too low in level to be either heard or seen with these tools.

[Loque]

The answer is as simple as this:

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