I think I'm done with Reason, should I sell my license?

[YeahYeahYeahNo]

This is somewhat off topic but also related, I think I'm done with Ableton Live, should I sell my license?

I'm so used to the reason workflow and think Reason is THE daw I don't even use Live at all anymore and find it really clunky, I only got Live because my favourite producers used it (I'm an idiot) and I thought I'd make use of the playing Live function which I doubt I'll ever do now maybe (I'm an idiot again). Has anybody else gone through this? anybody use Reason when playing Live? Is Ableton the T1000 of DAWs? Is Reason Studios gonna have a place in this post-pandemic world? Is the sky even blue anymore?

Considering your last and only 2nd post, you found your destiny.

How do you think Reason Studios is gonna function during the Great Depression we could potentially be spiralling towards?

[Loque]

Considering your last and only 2nd post, you found your destiny.

How do you think Reason Studios is gonna function during the Great Depression we could potentially be spiralling towards?

Great what?

Toward what?

Do we live on the same planet?

[splangie]

I have some extra pot I don't use. Should I sell it? Otherwise it just goes in compost pile. Just kidding. A little DC humor. I am nearly out of papers and Norwegian Shag. Jeez, times are tough.

[Oquasec]

Yeah the RE are locked to profiles which is GREAT FEATURE

[EnochLight]

It's funny cos my path to full time Reason'ing was basically that - I had it since version 2. Upgraded to Record, totally forgot about it until 8.something. Stuck with it ever since. I'd actually gone full time before it even had VST so by the time it did get it it was just a nice bonus (although I couldn't live without it now!). I'd say at some point I might start working seriously in Cubase again. I mean I've been on *that* since version 2 on the Atari in the 90s. It was black and white! It is a great DAW. I just don't find it as inspiring right now. But it definitely has some stuff I need.

I've long been considering picking up a Cubase license, but my only reason for doing so would be to also pickup Cubasis 3 on iOS so I can use it on my iPad and export projects to the desktop version. It's basically everything that I had hoped Reason Compact would have become. I just don't know if I have the patience to learn another DAW at this point.

[2chris]

I primarily use Live Suite, but Reason was my first daw and I’m still a huge fan. It’s worth keeping for the instruments and FX. I personally wouldn’t sell it, and the rack being usable in other daws was brilliant. I feel many aspects and the overall workflow in reason are dated, but so is an 808, sh101, prophet, juno 106, etc and yet people are making great music with them. Reason can be as good as you allow it to be if you can use the power it gives you.

[James Bermingham]

Definitely Keep.

Also some of Reasons "CPU heavy" rack extensions are pretty "CPU light" when you use Reason as a VST3 plugin in Ableton Live.

I was amazed at the difference, compared to when using them standalone in Reason. VST3 in Live is the way to go for you, I'm sure.

Anyhow always good to have a plethora of sounds for the artistic palette these days. What a truly amazing time it is to be alive in the music making world.

[Faastwalker]

No you shouldn't, EVER! Stick with ever. Trust us

[Heigen5]

Like lots of the people have said - keep it! I'm on R10 myself and probably will skip the R11. I am pretty sure that R12 (when it finally arrives) might introduce something very dope. Lets assume you start using Live. If you really think about it, then the RRP could be seen as a instrument and effect collection, that would otherwise cost 5000€.

[Oquasec]

Reason does a lot of stuff in a very small package so Id rather just keep it with FL and Cubase personally.
You can of course resell it somewhere else if you don't need it anymore.

[miyaru]

I was a LIve 10 Suite user before I bought Reason 11 Suite. I think the two complement each other, as they are complete different beasts. I wanted a single DAW setup too, but realized that you can have both and use both in a happy way. I use my Push2 Controller in Reason with PusheR2 and I like that a lot!!!!! So think twice before selling, you might regret it.......

[zero-13]

Listened to several tracks on your SoundCloud that sound amazing! I'm guessing many of them were made completley in Reason?

From my new guy perspective it would seem you have great skill and mastery of Reason... being as I'm very much in the midst of trying to attain some level mastery of Reason, is it just certain features that you need or could work faster if you had etc. or is it just a general preference for another DAW, just curious in a general sense?

[reddust]

Listened to several tracks on your SoundCloud that sound amazing! I'm guessing many of them were made completley in Reason?

From my new guy perspective it would seem you have great skill and mastery of Reason... being as I'm very much in the midst of trying to attain some level mastery of Reason, is it just certain features that you need or could work faster if you had etc. or is it just a general preference for another DAW, just curious in a general sense?

haha, sorry for the dumb GIF joke but I'm not completely sure if you mean my soundcloud songs...

If you mean my songs, yes, they're "completely" made in Reason but actually most of the sounds there are from VST instruments that could be used in any other DAW that supports VST as well. I think the only genuine Reason sounds I've used are some Drums from Umpf Club Drums and I think one of the Europa sounds in one of the songs that I actually replaced recently with another VST...

For my change to another DAW it's a mixture of both a faster workflow and some features I need and that unfortunately Reason doesn't offer yet or does in a way that slows down my work.

To name a few of the features I needed and Reason still doesn't have there is MPE support (I own a ROLI Seaboard so having MPE is really something I wished Reason have had), midi multichannel for VST since I use a lot of VST instruments and effects, VST3 support - this one I don't really need so far, but is also something Reason doesn't offer yet.

About personal preferences, I like a DAW that doesn't stay too much between me and my work, I mean, that lets me get my ideas done as quick as possible instead of making barriers for every idea that comes into my mind and recreate that idea on my PC.

Reason has unfortunately a lot of blockers for my personal way of creating music, starting by having three different main views - plus a fourth one if you think of the rack backside, mute and solo buttons aren't always synced so you sometimes have to search if you muted a track in the mixer or in the rack view... Reason doesn't have a real freeze option to save CPU usage either and you need to switch on/off VST instruments and effects manually every time you need to freeze or unfreeze a track to make changes...

Reason also has some things I really like but at the end I've seen that it stays to often between me and my creative process and very often has ended up consuming my time and taking the creative inspiration away because of these things so I decided to change to a DAW that is more direct and lets me work faster because at the end of the day I want to create music and not tweak buttons and controls in a DAW, so for me Reason is unfortunately not the best match, at least not the way it works now

[zero-13]

Listened to several tracks on your SoundCloud that sound amazing! I'm guessing many of them were made completley in Reason?

From my new guy perspective it would seem you have great skill and mastery of Reason... being as I'm very much in the midst of trying to attain some level mastery of Reason, is it just certain features that you need or could work faster if you had etc. or is it just a general preference for another DAW, just curious in a general sense?

haha, sorry for the dumb GIF joke but I'm not completely sure if you mean my soundcloud songs...

If you mean my songs, yes, they're "completely" made in Reason but actually most of the sounds there are from VST instruments that could be used in any other DAW that supports VST as well. I think the only genuine Reason sounds I've used are some Drums from Umpf Club Drums and I think one of the Europa sounds in one of the songs that I actually replaced recently with another VST...

For my change to another DAW it's a mixture of both a faster workflow and some features I need and that unfortunately Reason doesn't offer yet or does in a way that slows down my work.

To name a few of the features I needed and Reason still doesn't have there is MPE support (I own a ROLI Seaboard so having MPE is really something I wished Reason have had), midi multichannel for VST since I use a lot of VST instruments and effects, VST3 support - this one I don't really need so far, but is also something Reason doesn't offer yet.

About personal preferences, I like a DAW that doesn't stay too much between me and my work, I mean, that lets me get my ideas done as quick as possible instead of making barriers for every idea that comes into my mind and recreate that idea on my PC.

Reason has unfortunately a lot of blockers for my personal way of creating music, starting by having three different main views - plus a fourth one if you think of the rack backside, mute and solo buttons aren't always synced so you sometimes have to search if you muted a track in the mixer or in the rack view... Reason doesn't have a real freeze option to save CPU usage either and you need to switch on/off VST instruments and effects manually every time you need to freeze or unfreeze a track to make changes...

Reason also has some things I really like but at the end I've seen that it stays to often between me and my creative process and very often has ended up consuming my time and taking the creative inspiration away because of these things so I decided to change to a DAW that is more direct and lets me work faster because at the end of the day I want to create music and not tweak buttons and controls in a DAW, so for me Reason is unfortunately not the best match, at least not the way it works now

I really appreciate you taking the time to write this very detailed and thoughtful reply!

I'm not far enough along to have experienced or perceiced a lack regarding most of what you mentioned, although just last night I did run into having a mix channel in the SSL muted and being puzzled as to why this muting was not reflected in the sequencer.

One of the only other things I've witnessed in tutorials from other DAWs that caught my eye at this early stage is sequencer folders / groups, that would be killer.

Another thing I'd love that I have not seen anywhere else, is now we can draw multiple notes at whatever the grid size is... in addition to this, I'd love it if Reason remembered the last custom note length and via a modifier let you also draw multiple notes at the last custom size independent of the grid size.

This would make a great new feature multiples better, this being a default behavior might be better overall as you could quickly make notes of any length, draw multiple notes of the last length and not have to fiddle with the slowness of changing the grid size via the drop down or being forced to zoom out of your current view just to tweak the grid size.

I'm also 100% in the arrow tool, never switch over to pencil, I just add / remove notes by double clicking and draw multiple by using the modifier, all I need is a remember last note length for multi draw.
(holy heck, the feature request constant is real! Lol )

BTW, Is there a shortcut to change the grid size only?

Anyway, I love Reason but it's also the only DAW I've ever used, I'm hopeful though that by the time I get up to a level of needing many of these improved workflow features that Reason Studios will have implemented most of them and maybe even brand new features into Reason.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience and perspective.

[chimp_spanner]

Definitely keep! As much as I'm currently enjoying exploring Live 10 Suite + Push 2, I'm still reaching for the Rack for most of my sounds because I love (and know) the instruments I have there. Admittedly Live's instruments are great sounding, and easy to program on the Push but they are really not inspiring. I still love that feeling I get when I load up a rack. Just more pleasant to edit IMO. Also I don't think I could do everything I do in Reason, in Live. Especially not guitar based stuff. Without pitch editing or comping or proper cycle recording, the workflow is just too slow. Plus automation in Reason is still my favourite.

I've said it many, many, MANY times (sorry RS ) but the day Reason gets folders and about half a dozen other small features it will be the perfect DAW for me. But obviously everyone's gonna have different experiences and ultimately you gotta use what's right for you!