The "people" have spoken...Reason is 7th best

[Mint]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-bes ... pc-and-mac







[Caveat] Polls and stats mean little...

[BRIGGS]

Reason is more than just a DAW so.... meh.

[Faastwalker]

FL Studio wins every year! :-/

[chimp_spanner]

Having tried it...I don’t get it. Not hating. But it’s clearly very subjective. Damn thing gives me a headache.

[howtobecalm]

Having tried it...I don’t get it. Not hating. But it’s clearly very subjective. Damn thing gives me a headache.

im with u chimp ,
its like walking backwards down the road for me

[Busta US]

Yeey my DAW of choice wins ! Sad to see Reason in 7th place...hopefully this year they will step it up!

[EnochLight]

LOL! Yeah, FL Studio wins #1 in that "poll" year after year, and strangely Studio One beat out Ableton Live (which just seems... weird). That poll makes for fun reading and all, but I don't buy into it one bit, personally.

[kitekrazy]

Having tried it...I don’t get it. Not hating. But it’s clearly very subjective. Damn thing gives me a headache.

I love it for EDM type of stuff. If it were a poll for film composers FL or Reason wouldn't be in the top 5.

Some people get butthurt over these popularity polls.

Still waiting for a sale on that Reason upgrade. I guess the VST thing isn't that popular.

Not surprised about Studio One.

Bitwig is almost a subscription.

Tracktion didn't make the list. Not surprised since they are starting to follow the Reason model of spending more time creating instruments. Buy a license and after two updates they want you to buy a new version.

[kitekrazy]

LOL! Yeah, FL Studio wins #1 in that "poll" year after year, and strangely Studio One beat out Ableton Live (which just seems... weird). That poll makes for fun reading and all, but I don't buy into it one bit, personally.

I've had a Studio One license ever since it came out. I was looking to ditch Sonar because of it's cluttered GUI. S1 is probably one of the easiest DAWs to transition to.

[motuscott]

Some people get butthurt over these popularity polls.

Butthurt DAW ranking pretty high these days, since they added Rounder Flounder app, cloned MIDI reductions, and "Take my wife" functionality. Got half a mind to jump ship myself. Hope the nimrods at RS wake up
That said, Reason 4eva...

[reddust]

For me the winners are Ableton Live and Reason, no matter what other people choose

[chimp_spanner]

Having tried it...I don’t get it. Not hating. But it’s clearly very subjective. Damn thing gives me a headache.

I love it for EDM type of stuff. If it were a poll for film composers FL or Reason wouldn't be in the top 5.

Some people get butthurt over these popularity polls.

Still waiting for a sale on that Reason upgrade. I guess the VST thing isn't that popular.

Not surprised about Studio One.

Bitwig is almost a subscription.

Tracktion didn't make the list. Not surprised since they are starting to follow the Reason model of spending more time creating instruments. Buy a license and after two updates they want you to buy a new version.

I'm not shitting on FL at all - I know plenty of people who get great work done in it but to me it just makes no sense. It feels like every good idea anyone ever wrote in with, got added, and they just stuffed it wherever there's room. Every little popout has its own menus until it becomes a rabbit warren of interesting but inconsistent features. That was my impression anyway. But it's not like there's a shortage of tutorials out there explaining how it all works so, maybe I'll dive into that one day.

Studio One is great. I picked up a crossgrade deal on that for Pro late last year. It has some incredibly forward thinking features BUT...it probably won't get a lot of use from me until they come up with a replacement for that crusty old Melodyne plugin. Not feeling that at all.

[2chris]

This is a popularity and feature contest. The fact that Reason even made the list is pretty good, when neither of those things are it’s strongest areas. MOTU didn’t even make the list. I have Cubase pro and Ableton Live Suite (and Reason 10), and I would have argued both are better than FL Studio, but FL gets free updates, added Mac support and features, and a lot of people are using it professionally - so it’s fair. I could say similar things for Logic, and argue it’s also better than its ranking.

I think Reasons’s place is fair even though I like it way better than FL. The rack is an innovative feature. The problem is that as a daw, Reason has that, patch cables, and hardware UI that makes it interesting. The rest of its features beyond the great but aging instruments aren’t super novel. It has fallen behind in the feature war because that isn’t their focus. Studio 1 is going down an opposite path and is developing feature after feature but not creative creative FX or instruments. I’m one of the odd ones out probably, because at this point I don’t care anymore what they do with the DAW if they can update the rack and keep adding creative stuff that made me first use Reason 1.0.

[demt]

its the same with miss world pretiest last

[chimp_spanner]

Yeah like, ultimately being on the list is still good visibility. I can't speak for everyone, obviously. But I'd say 75% of the time when I mention Reason to people their impression is positive, in as much as they know it's powerful. But they think it's "confusing". So I absolutely understand why RS have made the push towards the VST and also towards Players. Gotta admit I was skeptical of them at first but they're such an integral part of my workflow. Players actually fill a lot of the gaps in terms of sequencer functionality (step sequencing, ratcheting, theory assistants). And if I'm totally honest I prefer having them as devices that I can run live/non-destructively, as opposed to processes I apply to notes in the sequencer. I'd love to do a video on the power of players. Just knock out a whole track in x minutes using players, blocks, and like...no cabling. Shake off this idea that it's JUST for cable nerds.

[jlgrimes]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-bes ... pc-and-mac







[Caveat] Polls and stats mean little...

Fl Studio is a very popular DAW. Most younger Trap beatmakers I know use FL Studio.

That said it doesn't seem that popular at all for mixing.

I never fully grasped the workflow although I know its step sequencing is great. Many people I know who use it compose entirely with piano roll. Most DAWs I have used, I would cringe at the thought of that but apparently FL has functionality that makes that smooth. Apparently it is known as having the best piano roll for any DAW.

Studio One is constantly improving. It works great for tracking and mixing and its midi sequencing workflow is the most similar to Reason. Unlike Reason, Studio One puts more heavy focus in functions/features workflow and less in built-in instruments, audio effects (although Studio One stock devices are decent and great GUIs). Studio One while a fairly new DAW has a very sophisticated midi editor while still decently usable.

I use Ableton alot more than any other DAW. Quite funnily about 10 or so years ago Ableton used to get bad reviews for its limited DAW functionality. There were plenty of things it lacked (no VST3, No comping, No PDC, No multiclip midi editing, very limited automation). Ableton has been very effectively improving its basic DAW functionality (somewhat slowly but nonetheless effectively). They still lack Comping and ARA support but what Ableton lacks as a DAW it makes up for great creative workflow. Session View is great for nonlinear composition and even with markers, its Arrange View still allow similar functionality of the Session View pattern sequencer style workflow. Its Instruments and effects are great, and its Instrument Racks took Reasons Combinator approach and built from it and Drum Racks kicked it out the park. Probably the most complete drum approach I've seen in any DAW. Max4live is similar to REs although more open ended than REs but yet not as cool as REs but at the same time has a thriving free M4L device community. And Ableton's controller support has been superb. It is not a perfect program though (still lacks some basic DAW functionality like comping, (no traditional automation support), and midi editor takes a more streamlined approach and while pretty effective can be cumbersome for someone who writes music solely in piano roll.


Reaper is entirely different. Its basic DAW functionality is superb and decently thought out. In many ways it is the most powerful DAW as it can be customized like no other DAW. For the price, its is the best value in any DAW. For large projects, Reaper has sophisticated track management, flexible (although convoluted) routing, decent (although utilitarian) stock plugins, it is the perfect DAW for a beginner. Its midi while powerful is kind of convoluted and probably not the most thought out. Its piano roll while seeming very basic is extremely customizable. It comes with almost no toolbars (or at least the stock tools seem almost useless) but upon investigation you will find you can create your own tools, mouse modifiers, macros, even scripts. It is so customizable a beginner will probably get easily overwhelmed on the midi side of the program as you will find thousands of actions. Reaper comes with very little instruments and the included ones are laughable but for the price of the program, Reaper could easily be paired with any VSTs. Its works well with plugins too as it is efficient and stable. It isnt the prettiest DAW but it isnt necessarily ugly either and its functionality/price kind of overshadows its warts.


Bitwig though has made steady improvements on this list. More popular than Pro Tools now. Haven't used Bitwig though.

Sonar is rated pretty high as well although I haven't tried it lately as I have it installed but it gave my PC the BSOD too many times for me to want to stick with it. I used to used it alot though back in the 2000s.

[Proboscis]

LOL! Yeah, FL Studio wins #1 in that "poll" year after year, and strangely Studio One beat out Ableton Live (which just seems... weird). That poll makes for fun reading and all, but I don't buy into it one bit, personally.

Agreed. Although maybe it's a good barometer of DAW marketshare.

One would assume that most voters are not so much as voting for true 'best', rather 'I own it, therefore I vote for it'.

Or, the results could be directly proportional to the amount of advertising dollars each company spends with Future Publishing Group.

[Yonatan]

Nothing unexpected in the order. As always, EDM fans dominate online. And nr 7 for Reason is where expected too.

[jlgrimes]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-bes ... pc-and-mac







[Caveat] Polls and stats mean little...

Number 7 is pretty good though. Reason is more popular than Pro Tools, Bitwig, Digital Performer.

They cut the list down as well this year as well so it is great that Reason made the cut.

The results aren't too surprising though. Most surprising was Studio One moved up to take Abletons typically number two spot. Studio One do tend to be a well liked DAW though once someone starts using it.

[danc]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-bes ... pc-and-mac







[Caveat] Polls and stats mean little...

Number 7 is pretty good though. Reason is more popular than Pro Tools, Bitwig, Digital Performer.

They cut the list down as well this year as well so it is great that Reason made the cut.

The results aren't too surprising though. Most surprising was Studio One moved up to take Abletons typically number two spot. Studio One do tend to be a well liked DAW though once someone starts using it.

Studio One rocks.

When R11 was launched... I moved from Reason to create all my tracks in Studio One. I run lots of Reason rack VSTs inside S1. It's the best of both worlds.... A professional and powerful DAW, with the fun and creativity of Reason.

TBH... I just got bored waiting for Reason DAW to catch up and it was clear it wouldn't ever get the (basic) features I was after. Whereas... The rack has always been stunning and invaluable inside other DAWS. Looking forward to MIDI out and allowing me to host VSTs inside the rack and it will be close to perfect. No doubt they'll string these over two or 3 paid for updates to maximize their money out of me.

[kitekrazy]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-bes ... pc-and-mac







[Caveat] Polls and stats mean little...

Number 7 is pretty good though. Reason is more popular than Pro Tools, Bitwig, Digital Performer.

They cut the list down as well this year as well so it is great that Reason made the cut.

The results aren't too surprising though. Most surprising was Studio One moved up to take Abletons typically number two spot. Studio One do tend to be a well liked DAW though once someone starts using it.

Reason was #4 last year. They gave away some nice stuff like Europa between 9-10. There was also an upgrade sale back then. They made some nice improvements back then. I don't think Reason as a VST is a wow among users. I've has a license since 4 and this one just doesn't scream to pay $129 for it. I can't imagine someone paying $400 just to use it as a VST in their DAW.

[aeox]

Other peoples opinions don't affect mine, but it's nice to see a consensus like this.

Always kind of liked Reason being the underdog anyway

[Micha1973]

Reason and Fl Studio and some Ableton to warp something

[aeox]

I can't imagine someone paying $400 just to use it as a VST in their DAW.

People buy one eurocrack module that costs 5 times that much

[Jackjackdaw]

Price is in the same ballpark as Arturia V , Halion 6, NI , UVI falcon etc... Most vanilla DAWs suck for sound design and need a fat synth package.