EnochLight wrote: ↑14 Jun 2021
Just wanted to chime in on this. I can't speak for adfielding, but I'll likely continue to use Reason in some capacity as time goes on.
Oh yeah - I haven't totally ditched Reason yet (though I'll get to that in a sec), I'm still using it for one-off ideas and sound design projects because it's still the environment I'm most familiar with, and it's also the environment I have the most fun working in when I can. That said, for all new projects going forward where I actually want to be able to use all of my stuff and not have to experience plug-in/wrapper hell I've been using Cubase for a couple of months.
Initially, the idea was to use the RRP as a bit of a safety net - I fully expected to use instances of the RRP all over the place, so that shifting away from Reason standalone would be easier. However, what's actually happened is that I've just found myself barely firing up the RRP - I'm just using VSTs instead. This made me realise that I've actually been pretty VST-heavy with my use of Reason over the past few years, so it's not really a big surprise that, instead of using the RRP, I'm just using other VST plug-ins in Cubase instead. Just to clarify: the availability of the RRP encouraged me to try Cubase, which made me realise that I'm actually ok with mostly not using the RRP in Cubase. It's a bit of an own-goal really, and I'm genuinely curious as to whether anyone else has experienced something similar. (just to clarify: I realise for a lot of people they're not going to have VST alternatives for everything, but I don't think it's much of a stretch to suggest that once someone makes the jump to another DAW they're going to be more inclined to stick with VSTs when looking at new plug-ins).
For me, this has cemented in my mind that Reason is greater than the sum of its parts. I know there are people who love it for the rack specifically, but for me it's how the rack, mixer, and sequencer all interact and work together that make Reason my favourite musical space. Maybe the new combinator will help there (though, no disrespect intended, I can't help but feel I'd have been more excited about that had it been introduced a decade ago), and maybe the new sampler will knock my socks off - but what I'm craving isn't new
stuff, it's basic quality-of-life improvements. Less stuff, more refinement.
edit: yes, I get that the graphical update is a massive QoL improvement for a lot of people, it's just that - from a purely selfish perspective - it makes no real difference to me. It's unfortunate that the one big QoL improvement that's being introduced is one I don't have any need for, but hey... that's life!