Reason updates (11.3.7 / 11.3.8) and Reason+

[Ermitage]

@jamespember - can you confirm there will always be an option to upgrade Reason and not to go to subscription route?

This is confirmed

https://www.reasonstudios.com/blog/intr ... eason-plus

Don’t like subscriptions?
As excited as we are about Reason+, we understand that subscription services aren’t for everyone. If you want to buy a full Reason license outright, we’ll still offer it as a perpetual license purchase. To simplify our lineup we will discontinue Reason Intro and Reason Suite—the software will continue to function, and you will still be able to upgrade to the full version of Reason. All of our Rack Extensions will still be available a la carte in our Add-On Shop. REs will work in Reason and Reason+ forever, including the ones you already own.

That doesn't necessarily mean that they will stay committed to provide that option, or that the price of Reason or updates will stay the same. There has actually been a slight increase in price for some REs, which, again, is most likely due to them wanting to make Reason+ a more attractive proposition.

[Billy+]

Another Synth RE!!!!!
I've got tears of joy streaming down my face!!!!!

What will it be, maybe an FM synth? it's about the only one they haven't got (that's just dedicated to that synthesis type, sorry they did, PX7 but...

Subtractor - Subtractive
Thor - Everything
Malstrom - Graintable
NN-19 / NN-XT - Samplers
Parsec - Additive
Europa - Spectral Morphing / Wavetable
Friktion - Physical Modelling

Maybe it's be a really top class Rompler akin to Nexus or FL's FLEX?

https://www.reasonstudios.com/blog/what ... for-reason

We've also got Rack Extension releases planned. There's a brand new synth just about to enter beta that I think you'll love. Here's a hint: it'll make you miss PX7 way less. It will show up in Reason+ as soon as it's released (with exclusive Reason+ sound packs!), but also be available for purchase for non-subscribers.

[Marc64]

If I use subsciption and get the free upgrade to Reason12 do I still have Reason12 if I stop the subscription or do I need to pay for it?

AFAIU, you get access to R12 if it is released. You do not buy anything, you subscribe to use it for a fee. So, if you stop using R+, you will fall back to what you already own. So you cannot get cheap a R12 upgrade by subscribing for a month, if that is your question.

Ok, thanks. I will save my money for the upgrade later on then
I don't want to pay a fee every month getting R12 when it comes out and loose it if I cancel subscription and have paid pretty much the amount the upgrade will cost to keep it.

[guitfnky]

just ran a couple of numbers out of curiosity...

-assume a new major version comes out every 1.5 years
-assume a standard $130 upgrade fee for existing users
-assume sound packs/refills isn’t a major selling point for most users

look at costs over 5 years...

license purchase:
3.33 major upgrades in that time * $130 = $433.33

Reason+ subscription:
$20 * 12 months * 5 years - $120 discount for existing owners = $1080

cost difference: $646.67 savings

that’s almost $650 you can save by sticking with a normal license purchase, and of course you can then pick and choose whether you need that shiny new RS player or synth.

[chimp_spanner]

Things are definitely changing. Increasingly I find I'm using "services" more than buying licenses. I guess I look at this from a musician's perspective. When I started out, everything was all about the album. You beaver away quietly at your material for a year or so, then you run the hype campaign, drop an album, maybe tour it, then go back into musical 'hibernation' until the next release. As the model for music consumption has shifted towards streaming and instant access, this approach has basically become untenable for any musician that wants to actually make (or supplement) a living with their music. The only people I know who are doing well right now are the ones who have re-tooled to become content creators, or service providers. They have one, or ideally several small trickles of constant revenue. Streaming, teaching, patreon, whatever. Constant activity. They do small, frequent releases. Song a month or two. Hell even I recently made the decision to abandon the idea of doing one big album release and I gotta say...I made more on two singles in a month than I did on my entire back catalogue last year. Go figure huh?

I imagine it's largely the same for software development. Reason, for the longest time, was all about long periods of silence and secrecy and then a big update + new device drop. But the time in between those releases is basically wasted, because nobody who isn't already using it is gonna hear about it or care about it. It's just us - the die-hards - waiting on those big version updates, and RS have to hope that enough of us like what we see to pull the trigger and pay to keep the lights on for another year+ of development.

So from *their* perspective, I think R+ was always an inevitability. It fills those big spaces between releases with regular content drops (sound packs, new instruments/devices) but also brings the potential for more frequent updates and development on the main software.

The challenge, of course, is gonna be standing out in a crowd of services and platforms. Eventually we all have to pick and choose what we can afford to subscribe to. But as a platform I do think R+ is exciting. I can't think of many (any?) other plugins that have the potential to deliver a constant stream of new synth and effect patches, signal chains, templates, *and* a standalone DAW too. All in one package. Plus a portal to expand with a huge selection of third party REs and new first party devices, of which I imagine they have more than a few planned. New sampler with time stretching please!!

I will say I do hope that this works out well for RE devs though because you have all helped make Reason what it is to me today, and it'd be a shame to see any of you go anywhere. Especially you Buddard! Not playing favourites but I love your stuff <3

[WasteLand]

When they got the RRP out, I though, my DAW is reason nothing for me here, I don't like other DAWs as they are, but now I think I have to jump ship and find the most suitable for me. RS said now you can opt if you are license owner or subscriber, but as in other companies that have done the same in my experience with other SW companies and subscription, it is 1 to 2 year reallity. After that they'll cut the license upgrades and we are stuck with our reason 12 or 13 latest update and if we want to get 14 15 etc we'll be forced to subscribe. Happened to me with Octane Render and a couple more and I've learnt my lesson, them too were saying they will keep permanent not subscription updates too, but then it is not quite so. The marketing kool-aid they are selling now it is to not have massive ship jumps. Thanks, but no thanks.

yes unpredictabiliy is the main problem. and reason is shooting in the dark... ok, perhaps not that dark.. but still...

it makes people uncomfortable. even if nothing really changes for existing owners. at this moment in time....

[drk73]

It was fast!

https://www.reasonstudios.com/en/reason ... ease-notes

[Creativemind]

When will we get fully supported vst2 midi, that's all I've wanted since Reason 9.5?

Is it even on the list of todos

It's definitely on the list of todos, but I can't say when. Got a lot of stuff lined up for Reason!

[boesOne]

Ask yourself if you are willing to pay $240 a year to a company that lives in its own bubble and has had no real direction or identity since the Founder Lord Ernst abandoned ship to go fight anti-Trump wars on Twitter.

No, but is it mandatory? I cannot imagine Reason will be subscription only. I guess that's the main concern over here?

[Billy+]

This is confirmed

https://www.reasonstudios.com/blog/intr ... eason-plus

Don’t like subscriptions?
As excited as we are about Reason+, we understand that subscription services aren’t for everyone. If you want to buy a full Reason license outright, we’ll still offer it as a perpetual license purchase. To simplify our lineup we will discontinue Reason Intro and Reason Suite—the software will continue to function, and you will still be able to upgrade to the full version of Reason. All of our Rack Extensions will still be available a la carte in our Add-On Shop. REs will work in Reason and Reason+ forever, including the ones you already own.

That doesn't necessarily mean that they will stay committed to provide that option, or that the price of Reason or updates will stay the same. There has actually been a slight increase in price for some REs, which, again, is most likely due to them wanting to make Reason+ a more attractive proposition.

I've not seen an increase in the cost of RE's above the normal, but I see your point. My last upgrade was more expensive but I did buy suite.

[Nielsen]

Reason will still offer paid standalone upgrades for future major releases. Isn't that all that should matter to veteran users?

Which point am I missing in all the disappointed comments?

[MattiasHG]

And we think Reason's BIG superpower, compared to say, Splice or Arcade is that Reason is a sound design machine.

I suspect most users who love Reason would disagree, and would say its BIG superpower is that it’s an INSPIRATION machine.

having lots of sounds and devices sure plays a part in that, but at the end of the day, I think what we love most is that Reason is intuitive and only as complicated as you need it to be (sometimes it could stand to be slightly more so, given missing basic features, but you get my drift). it stays out of your way until you need it. that’s what makes Reason really special, IMO.

I think those are in fact similar. Part of why it feels like an inspiration machine is the rack and device design. It's not necessarily about the NUMBER of them, but about their uniqueness and quick way of working. I think James compared it directly to another content offering, and there I think he's right—Arcade and Splice don't give you nearly the control that a combinator does.

For Reason at larger, I totally agree that Reason's thing is being an inspiration machine. In fact that's been my guiding star as Product Manager, what we want to focus development on, and why I truly believe more people should try it, be that as a DAW, plugin or subscription.

you'll find no straight up Moog clones or an LA2A here!

I wouldn’t tout not having an LA2A as a plus, now that the Cakewalk one isn’t available in the shop anymore.

I would, actually. Like many, many of you have said already: "there are so many plugins out there". I don't believe any one offer or product will have everything you could ever want. So instead, you focus what you do and let people easily use all the things they want to . Our focus is on unique, original, inspirational devices and features all about making music. If you want to add an LA2A to that, there are so many options that releasing "yet another one" wouldn't really help any musician make more music. Hope that thinking makes sense!

[Marc Swing]

I have to say, that I dont like the subscription model. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but if you listened more to the user base, maybe Reason would not had struggled so much to attrct new users. New and old users want to have a good WORKFLOW in the DAW and not more and more sounds, refills and synths. You can get that stuff so easy for free, record it on your own, I DONT WANT MORE & MORE, I need to have a rest of that mentality and I need music to break out of "consumism"

Why is this so hard to understand? I mean, Behringer for example listen to their userbase and their business explode, they need no extra investors or fancy strategies to attrct new users. OK even some things are maybe a bit to "copied" from a morality perspective.

All what reason needs is one thing: no more extra fancy Sounds and Players in masses, because Reason is great as it is. Reason needs just more DAW featueres, a dedicated controller, better recording flow, better MIDI implementations and stuff like this ... technically improvements to inspire and fasten workflow.

But its like talking to a wall here, its all the years like 75% the opposite what is requested and so its clear that there is a struggle.

Greets & stay healthy!

Yupp i've couldn't have said it better, that is why you "have struggled to attract new users"

For example if I'm going to invest in a new program, it's hardly "ooh how many soundpacks and synths does it have"
I look for how well does the program work and how good workflow does the program have to get the job done?

[Billy+]

It's definitely on the list of todos, but I can't say when. Got a lot of stuff lined up for Reason!

Thought you would like that, would be nice to see if included before the next major upgrade but I doubt it's going to happen

[Ottostrom]

Well said! Getting access to more sounds and more devices isn't the most important thing when making music. Sure, a cool patch can inspire a song but can you just keep chucking more sounds on it until it's a full song?

I also never really understood this whole sound-chasing thing. isn’t there some plugin that’s advertised to have millions or billions of presets? having a great sound palette is important, but if you spend so much time looking through sounds, you’re not doing the important thing—making music.

I teach a very basic digital music production course to a couple fifth graders (we only use garageband) and the worst thing that can happen is that they start looking through the loop section. Because of the vast selection they always feel like they can find something better, and it leads to A LOT of wasted time. For a beginner it is much better to keep the selection of sounds limited and instead focus on learning all the different parts of production. Maybe I should go teach my course to the Reason Studios team? (lol just kidding please don't beat me up Mattias)

[Skimrok]

I be blunt I have no desire in a subscription model and the fact Reason Studios say they find it hard for new customers is perfectly clear to me a lot of past users will most likely jump ship in due course , for me i was happy with my studio suite 11upgrade and it was clear if users of suite want to sell it they can as a suite package to a third party , its on this forum stated by a Reason Studio staff when talked about it , if this changes down the line I will find it hard too see people taking that on the chin , a lot of people started to upgrade to it from xy and z because of this information , I have nothing more to add at this time because I'm off to try and make beats now he!he!

[WasteLand]

just ran a couple of numbers out of curiosity...

-assume a new major version comes out every 1.5 years
-assume a standard $130 upgrade fee for existing users
-assume sound packs/refills isn’t a major selling point for most users

look at costs over 5 years...

license purchase:
3.33 major upgrades in that time * $130 = $433.33

Reason+ subscription:
$20 * 12 months * 5 years - $120 discount for existing owners = $1080

cost difference: $646.67 savings

that’s almost $650 you can save by sticking with a normal license purchase, and of course you can then pick and choose whether you need that shiny new RS player or synth.

indeed, and as more european or american or UK brands do, the same prices in dollars & euro's... o i am forgetting VAT, perhaps, the euro price isn't that bad, in that case?

5 years! (david bowie).. the song is entering my mind...

i am glad some people of reason are present here. unpredictability makes existing customers restless..

i do something about those rewards, that are meaningless!

[MattiasHG]

just ran a couple of numbers out of curiosity...

-assume a new major version comes out every 1.5 years
-assume a standard $130 upgrade fee for existing users
-assume sound packs/refills isn’t a major selling point for most users

look at costs over 5 years...

Haha, hypothetical math! I love it! For fairness you're not assuming any hypothetical Rack Extenions, though, and we have released and will release more of those. But again, and this is worth reiterating since it was perhaps unclear, the normal perpetual license is not gone. You can still stay with that.

[rorystorm]

so I subscribed. afterI downloaded the couple of devices I didn't already have, pattern mutator was supposed to have installed but it's not in the list of players in Reason. I've opened a ticket but if anyone has any wise words............

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling a couple of times and nothing. I've also uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of other devices just to see if the issue happens with anything else. it doesn't.

[Billy+]

Yeah I like the idea of combinator chains weekly, but sample packs bores me silly...

[Loque]

just ran a couple of numbers out of curiosity...

-assume a new major version comes out every 1.5 years
-assume a standard $130 upgrade fee for existing users
-assume sound packs/refills isn’t a major selling point for most users

look at costs over 5 years...

license purchase:
3.33 major upgrades in that time * $130 = $433.33

Reason+ subscription:
$20 * 12 months * 5 years - $120 discount for existing owners = $1080

cost difference: $646.67 savings

that’s almost $650 you can save by sticking with a normal license purchase, and of course you can then pick and choose whether you need that shiny new RS player or synth.

You need to consider the RE from RS in your calculation, if you are interested in them for sure...

[guitfnky]

I suspect most users who love Reason would disagree, and would say its BIG superpower is that it’s an INSPIRATION machine.

having lots of sounds and devices sure plays a part in that, but at the end of the day, I think what we love most is that Reason is intuitive and only as complicated as you need it to be (sometimes it could stand to be slightly more so, given missing basic features, but you get my drift). it stays out of your way until you need it. that’s what makes Reason really special, IMO.

I think those are in fact similar. Part of why it feels like an inspiration machine is the rack and device design. It's not necessarily about the NUMBER of them, but about their uniqueness and quick way of working. I think James compared it directly to another content offering, and there I think he's right—Arcade and Splice don't give you nearly the control that a combinator does.

For Reason at larger, I totally agree that Reason's thing is being an inspiration machine. In fact that's been my guiding star as Product Manager, what we want to focus development on, and why I truly believe more people should try it, be that as a DAW, plugin or subscription.

I wouldn’t tout not having an LA2A as a plus, now that the Cakewalk one isn’t available in the shop anymore.

I would, actually. Like many, many of you have said already: "there are so many plugins out there". I don't believe any one offer or product will have everything you could ever want. So instead, you focus what you do and let people easily use all the things they want to . Our focus is on unique, original, inspirational devices and features all about making music. If you want to add an LA2A to that, there are so many options that releasing "yet another one" wouldn't really help any musician make more music. Hope that thinking makes sense!

yep, the thinking makes sense. as someone lucky enough to have the Cakewalk RE, it just makes me very sad that there isn’t currently an LA2A clone available as an RE for those who are late to the party. yeah, you can grab a VST, but there’s something about having this one as an RE that’s just...comforting. (yes, I’m weird )

[MattiasHG]

so I subscribed. afterI downloaded the couple of devices I didn't already have, pattern mutator was supposed to have installed but it's not in the list of players in Reason. I've opened a ticket but if anyone has any wise words............

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling a couple of times and nothing. I've also uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of other devices just to see if the issue happens with anything else. it doesn't.

You can install/uninstall and manage your Rack Extensions in the Companion app

[Loque]

so I subscribed. afterI downloaded the couple of devices I didn't already have, pattern mutator was supposed to have installed but it's not in the list of players in Reason. I've opened a ticket but if anyone has any wise words............

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling a couple of times and nothing. I've also uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of other devices just to see if the issue happens with anything else. it doesn't.

You have checked that you have the latest Reason version installed? You can check it in the Companien app too.

[loui]

Reason 11.3.8 released.

The 11.3.8 update for Reason and Reason Suite fixes a bug where Windows users with French language setting got a crash upon opening Preferences.

/Loui