What I love about Reason in general:
- cables!
- the unique way to work with the rack, which doesn’t feel like I work with plugins. I look at rack extension as „devices“, which no other DAW manages to do for me.
- the powerful and comfortable mixer UI
- the sequencer workflow and approach to automation
- the concept of rack extensions and their central and well integrated store
- Reason rack as a plugin
Why I loved Reason during version 3 - 7.5:
- rock solid stability. Not a single crash or even bug that I could notice in all those years.
- the entire project is contained in a single file, that opens reliably in future versions of Reason.
- tons and tons of great presets shipped with Reason, it was enough material for me to make music for 10 years without the need for external content!
- a very fair and consumer friendly way to handle the demo, trials and the shop
- a super likeable presentation in videos and the website
- knowing that each major version of Reason will bring well designed features, fun, inspiring and powerful new rack devices and improvements. During these years, I had full trust in Reason and looked forward with excitement to new versions. I loved the way they were introduced on Youtube, and new versions were always stable, reliable and fun to explore.
- ReWire
What went wrong from there on:
- I truly despise the new UI that came with Reason 8 (I believe). It copied the awful „modern flat“ design trend. UI elements that can be interacted with are no longer distincly visible as a „button“, but are just presented by a simplified icon that could as well be background decoration or a non-interactive notification. The color schemes are unpleasant. That includes the way too saturated and „playful“ colors for new mixer inserts etc.. The slapped-on, non detachable browser annoys me. The design of the bottom bar with that „bend“ is just weird.
- the introduction of VST to Renoise was exciting, but the execution is not. I understand that it must be a huge challenge to develop this part. But just from my perspective as a user, VST plugins are inserted into the rack with a really ugly device that looks out of place. The VST rack device is also an additional und uncomfortable step to access the VST UI. Other DAWs allow you to access the plugins from first glance, in Reason, you’ll need to have the rack open, go to the specific rack device and click it to get there. I hate this implementation.
The next issue was performance. In other DAWs like REAPER or Studio One, VSTs were much less heavy on the CPU.
Some plugins had rendering issues in Reason. No VST3 support. As a Mac user, no AU support.
- with the introduction of VST to Reason, the pretty much perfect stability and reliability was of course no longer.
- The rack and its devices like players became visually more and more colorful, more like toys than serious production software.
- while I absolutely love Rack Extensions and fully stand behind the concept and execution of it, I feel like the really desirable plugins and developers out there did not support the format. While there is some great stuff to be found as RE, there are way better VST plugins out there. I wish that more „big“ plugins would get a RE version.
- since the narrator for the Youtube videos left, I really miss his voice and the absolute perfect intonation and atmosphere he brought to the presentation. Every Propellerheads video made me feel good and excited.
- … and then came REASON+.
I am all for making Reason more accessible to a wide range of people. And a way to pay for Reason in smaller chunks is great - IF it were done with the already existing, fair and consumer-friendly RENT-TO-OWN model in the store! But a pure subscription?
First, although you do offer a great product, twenty bucks a month is expensive.
Second, there is no cheaper way to just pay for Reason without third party content, if you are - like me - absolutely not interested in it.
Third, at the time I tried it, you could only pay via credit card. Surprise, here in Germany, it is not the norm to have one. Offering PayPal or Amazon Pay or Apple Pay etc. would make that subscription more accessible and pleasant.
But most importantly, and this is the part that upsets me: You don’t get to own anything. You can literally pay for years, hundrets and thousands of <money>, but stop paying and you are left alone with all your useless project files. This is especially incomprehensible, since you already have the Rent-to-own model right there, in the store! It’s all set up to be fair and a low barrier of entry into your ecosystem.
- with Reason+ you also completely changed the website to the worse. All focus is on that stupid subscription. Finding useful information about Reason itself is really difficult! Seriously, what the heck, guys. The website used to be amazing and informative. Please overhaul this subscription-funneling trap soon.
- MIMIC is an absolute disappointment in terms of presets. They are few and lazy and re-use old Factory Soundbank content (which is clever, but doesn’t sound modern)
What I’d like to see in the future:
- A better, more „adult“ / „serious“ UI without the „flat“ design and with a detachable browser that can also be positioned on the right side
- Retrospective recording
- turn Reason+ into a Rent-to-own model
- introduce Reason+ Light, which is DAW and rack extensions only, without third party soundbanks / content
- put a major focus on rock solid stability, performance and releases with as few bugs as possible
- VST3 and AU support
- a better integration of VST (and then also AU) plugins that allows much quicker and easier access to plugin UIs
- more high quality presets that come directly with Reason, and not as subscription content. I think especially of Mimic here.
So, Reason Studios wants feedback.
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loopeydoug
- Posts: 149
- Joined: 11 Oct 2018
Just yesterday I was thinking to myself that, since the introduction of players, it seems a major focus has been put on visual design, to the detriment of functionality. I'll be working with something and think, "That's weird, why wouldn't they have added this or that functionality to such and such." The only answer I can come up with is that it would force more buttons or knobs, and that would busy up the "simple and inviting" look of the device. Right of the top of my head I think of Note Echo as an example. It always seemed goofy that they wouldn't allow for individual control over pitch and velocity of each echo. And follow that all the way to Mimic, which oddly has no mod matrix.
100 ways to a better reason:
I agree on the non detachable browser, browser had issues and propellerhead just ignoring the feedback on email. they could have just used the OS browser, simple and effective with search and everything. it's a joke they even dare to use the browser as a selling point now. many thing has truly gone wrong. the worst thing now is they left support for the older windows os, the userbase of win7 is still huge, and the few new features like a few extra buttons on the combinator (which is the only interesting thing they added imo) is just not worth the hazzle or pay for that matter. and certainly not when overwhelmed by issues reported etc. i mean the ssl mixer looked nice when it came, but too many issues with delays when using it in a normal fashon, and had to do all kinds of special routing for the sidechain of compressor to work correctly and dont use the sends to external mixer channels etc. Not using the sends or even the built in eq. the features just are not good enough compared to vst plugins like pro-q3 with 24 bands, a different league of tools in compared to reason is already very dated. Also all the synth in reason has unhandled aliasing issues and no options for oversampling. Only few file formats supported. Could do a huge overhaul of the mixer with built in stereo widening for example and saturation. Remove all the unnessescary rotaries and buttons from the mixer and use the visual interface to set them. Poor monitoring tools in reason compared to competition and a very limited set of preferences. Why does it not remember output and bounce settings or give us options to predefine things like that. Issues with slow scrolling when dragging cables in the rack. You need more issues ? The list can go on for days. propellerheads should focus on things like this first. instead they changes the whole design base for windows 10 and leaving their users and stability behind. a huge bummer. they forgot the propeller and kept only the head in which was always worse. to be fair, adding the vst was great but a few or many years too late. they were always behind other daw's in tools and they still are. it went wrong already when they introduced rack extensions. they should have given vst at that point. the company trying to behave like apple, too much head and not enough propeller. and reason+ lol flush it down the toilet and give us lifetime free updates like the competition does. fl studio did this for years. not ripping off their users several times to get a few minor extras which should have alredy have been included many years ago. they deserve big critique and they can have it.
I agree on the non detachable browser, browser had issues and propellerhead just ignoring the feedback on email. they could have just used the OS browser, simple and effective with search and everything. it's a joke they even dare to use the browser as a selling point now. many thing has truly gone wrong. the worst thing now is they left support for the older windows os, the userbase of win7 is still huge, and the few new features like a few extra buttons on the combinator (which is the only interesting thing they added imo) is just not worth the hazzle or pay for that matter. and certainly not when overwhelmed by issues reported etc. i mean the ssl mixer looked nice when it came, but too many issues with delays when using it in a normal fashon, and had to do all kinds of special routing for the sidechain of compressor to work correctly and dont use the sends to external mixer channels etc. Not using the sends or even the built in eq. the features just are not good enough compared to vst plugins like pro-q3 with 24 bands, a different league of tools in compared to reason is already very dated. Also all the synth in reason has unhandled aliasing issues and no options for oversampling. Only few file formats supported. Could do a huge overhaul of the mixer with built in stereo widening for example and saturation. Remove all the unnessescary rotaries and buttons from the mixer and use the visual interface to set them. Poor monitoring tools in reason compared to competition and a very limited set of preferences. Why does it not remember output and bounce settings or give us options to predefine things like that. Issues with slow scrolling when dragging cables in the rack. You need more issues ? The list can go on for days. propellerheads should focus on things like this first. instead they changes the whole design base for windows 10 and leaving their users and stability behind. a huge bummer. they forgot the propeller and kept only the head in which was always worse. to be fair, adding the vst was great but a few or many years too late. they were always behind other daw's in tools and they still are. it went wrong already when they introduced rack extensions. they should have given vst at that point. the company trying to behave like apple, too much head and not enough propeller. and reason+ lol flush it down the toilet and give us lifetime free updates like the competition does. fl studio did this for years. not ripping off their users several times to get a few minor extras which should have alredy have been included many years ago. they deserve big critique and they can have it.
Last edited by mbs on 11 Sep 2021, edited 2 times in total.
Some very valid points and I agree with a lot of your criticism. Particularly on the aesthetic side where things aren't what they used to be (although unfortunately this is part of a wider trend of interface design; fashionable, flat and soulless) and also that the marketing materials don't feel like they're for us older users any more (definitely miss Frank and don't enjoy the new videos and marketing messages at all).whitewolfmusic wrote: ↑09 Sep 2021What I love about Reason in general:
- cables!
- the unique way to work with the rack, which doesn’t feel like I work with plugins. I look at rack extension as „devices“, which no other DAW manages to do for me.
- the powerful and comfortable mixer UI - the sequencer workflow and approach to automation
- the concept of rack extensions and their central and well integrated store
- Reason rack as a plugin
Why I loved Reason during version 3 - 7.5:
- rock solid stability. Not a single crash or even bug that I could notice in all those years.
- the entire project is contained in a single file, that opens reliably in future versions of Reason.
- tons and tons of great presets shipped with Reason, it was enough material for me to make music for 10 years without the need for external content!
- a very fair and consumer friendly way to handle the demo, trials and the shop
- a super likeable presentation in videos and the website
- knowing that each major version of Reason will bring well designed features, fun, inspiring and powerful new rack devices and improvements. During these years, I had full trust in Reason and looked forward with excitement to new versions. I loved the way they were introduced on Youtube, and new versions were always stable, reliable and fun to explore.
- ReWire
What went wrong from there on:
- I truly despise the new UI that came with Reason 8 (I believe). It copied the awful „modern flat“ design trend. UI elements that can be interacted with are no longer distincly visible as a „button“, but are just presented by a simplified icon that could as well be background decoration or a non-interactive notification. The color schemes are unpleasant. That includes the way too saturated and „playful“ colors for new mixer inserts etc.. The slapped-on, non detachable browser annoys me. The design of the bottom bar with that „bend“ is just weird.
- the introduction of VST to Renoise was exciting, but the execution is not. I understand that it must be a huge challenge to develop this part. But just from my perspective as a user, VST plugins are inserted into the rack with a really ugly device that looks out of place. The VST rack device is also an additional und uncomfortable step to access the VST UI. Other DAWs allow you to access the plugins from first glance, in Reason, you’ll need to have the rack open, go to the specific rack device and click it to get there. I hate this implementation.
The next issue was performance. In other DAWs like REAPER or Studio One, VSTs were much less heavy on the CPU. Some plugins had rendering issues in Reason. No VST3 support. As a Mac user, no AU support.
- with the introduction of VST to Reason, the pretty much perfect stability and reliability was of course no longer.
- The rack and its devices like players became visually more and more colorful, more like toys than serious production software.
- while I absolutely love Rack Extensions and fully stand behind the concept and execution of it, I feel like the really desirable plugins and developers out there did not support the format. While there is some great stuff to be found as RE, there are way better VST plugins out there. I wish that more „big“ plugins would get a RE version.
- since the narrator for the Youtube videos left, I really miss his voice and the absolute perfect intonation and atmosphere he brought to the presentation. Every Propellerheads video made me feel good and excited.
- … and then came REASON+. I am all for making Reason more accessible to a wide range of people. And a way to pay for Reason in smaller chunks is great - IF it were done with the already existing, fair and consumer-friendly RENT-TO-OWN model in the store! But a pure subscription? First, although you do offer a great product, twenty bucks a month is expensive. Second, there is no cheaper way to just pay for Reason without third party content, if you are - like me - absolutely not interested in it. Third, at the time I tried it, you could only pay via credit card. Surprise, here in Germany, it is not the norm to have one. Offering PayPal or Amazon Pay or Apple Pay etc. would make that subscription more accessible and pleasant. But most importantly, and this is the part that upsets me: You don’t get to own anything. You can literally pay for years, hundrets and thousands of <money>, but stop paying and you are left alone with all your useless project files. This is especially incomprehensible, since you already have the Rent-to-own model right there, in the store! It’s all set up to be fair and a low barrier of entry into your ecosystem.
- with Reason+ you also completely changed the website to the worse. All focus is on that stupid subscription. Finding useful information about Reason itself is really difficult! Seriously, what the heck, guys. The website used to be amazing and informative. Please overhaul this subscription-funneling trap soon.
- MIMIC is an absolute disappointment in terms of presets. They are few and lazy and re-use old Factory Soundbank content (which is clever, but doesn’t sound modern)
What I’d like to see in the future:
- A better, more „adult“ / „serious“ UI without the „flat“ design and with a detachable browser that can also be positioned on the right side
- Retrospective recording
- turn Reason+ into a Rent-to-own model
- introduce Reason+ Light, which is DAW and rack extensions only, without third party soundbanks / content
- put a major focus on rock solid stability, performance and releases with as few bugs as possible
- VST3 and AU support
- a better integration of VST (and then also AU) plugins that allows much quicker and easier access to plugin UIs
- more high quality presets that come directly with Reason, and not as subscription content. I think especially of Mimic here.
Some great suggestions too but I'm not entirely sure if Reason Studios truly do want the kind of feedback you've provided. The CEO message seemed to me like it could just be a token gesture. Having said that, I would love to be proved completely wrong and see some real change in the way Reason is developed and ideas like some of your best to actually be implemented for us end-users
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Rising Night Wave
- Posts: 1219
- Joined: 03 Sep 2019
- Location: Vransko, Slovenia
- Contact:
i love the simplicity of GUI - simulating phisycal rack mount devices. from that point it is very simple to use Reason.
it is notlike other DAWs where the GUI is messed - not intuitive. let's say for instance CakeWalk i DLed yesterday.
there is a thread named Reason vs. CakeWalk where i found the news that CW is for FREE. okey. super!
but when i installed it... and tried it for the first time... it is so unintuitive. so i closed CW.
i must say i was using CW a lot of time before Reason. but that were other times.
anyway... Reason is so simple to use it is almost banal and pathetis compared to other DAWs i came across for now.
really. so simple. and the whole GUI of Reason si so simple and logic and intuitive that makes me smile and pround owner of Reason DAW.
so, so much thanks to you guys and girls at Reason Studios for making this great and also so mature program.
superb!
PS: for all lovers and users of CakeWalk i apologise for saying what i said because in case i made you angry that was not my intent. i solely mentioned it because i got so excited because CW was FREE to DL but then i found it pretty hard to use. back in times when i was young and using pirated CW to explre it i found it somehow simple to use it. but, please, do not understand this wrong - that Reason is dumb from that point of view. it is not dumb. Reason is very intuitive and very simple to use. and life should also be simple and intuitive and not complicated. ... so, all thanks from me to Reason Studios crew. thank you! i love you! hehe (i must say i enjoy using Reason DAW a lot).
PS2: only one thing - i would use this opportunity to say: i only miss a bit of moer FX REs. really! make things even more simpler. why? becasue of work flow. make it simpler! please!
it is notlike other DAWs where the GUI is messed - not intuitive. let's say for instance CakeWalk i DLed yesterday.
there is a thread named Reason vs. CakeWalk where i found the news that CW is for FREE. okey. super!
but when i installed it... and tried it for the first time... it is so unintuitive. so i closed CW.
i must say i was using CW a lot of time before Reason. but that were other times.
anyway... Reason is so simple to use it is almost banal and pathetis compared to other DAWs i came across for now.
really. so simple. and the whole GUI of Reason si so simple and logic and intuitive that makes me smile and pround owner of Reason DAW.
so, so much thanks to you guys and girls at Reason Studios for making this great and also so mature program.
superb!
PS: for all lovers and users of CakeWalk i apologise for saying what i said because in case i made you angry that was not my intent. i solely mentioned it because i got so excited because CW was FREE to DL but then i found it pretty hard to use. back in times when i was young and using pirated CW to explre it i found it somehow simple to use it. but, please, do not understand this wrong - that Reason is dumb from that point of view. it is not dumb. Reason is very intuitive and very simple to use. and life should also be simple and intuitive and not complicated. ... so, all thanks from me to Reason Studios crew. thank you! i love you! hehe (i must say i enjoy using Reason DAW a lot).
PS2: only one thing - i would use this opportunity to say: i only miss a bit of moer FX REs. really! make things even more simpler. why? becasue of work flow. make it simpler! please!
Rising Night Wave & Extus at SoundCloud
HW: Asus ROG Strix G513QM | Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen | M-Audio M3-8 | M-Audio Uber Mic | Shure SRH1840 | Shure SE215 | LG 49UK6400
SW: Windows 11 Pro | Reason 10 | Reason+
HW: Asus ROG Strix G513QM | Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen | M-Audio M3-8 | M-Audio Uber Mic | Shure SRH1840 | Shure SE215 | LG 49UK6400
SW: Windows 11 Pro | Reason 10 | Reason+
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whitewolfmusic
- Posts: 23
- Joined: 09 Sep 2021
I must admit, I am a bit torn when I keep reading the frustrated demands for Reason DAW improvements and features. I have used Reason exclusively for 10 years and the only feature I was missing was proper track freeze / unfreeze, but only because my projects grew in scope and ate my CPU for breakfast. Other than that, I kinda still think that Reason offers everything you truly NEED to make music quickly and even comfortably. After trying and buying way too many DAWs during the last few years, the only new addition to my wishlist would be retrospective recording. Since I learned about this feature in Ableton Live 10, I want it everywhere.
The point is, when I made music with Reason from version 3 to 7.5 for a decade, I wasn't missing any feature to create music. I had so much fun, I was laser focused and "in the zone". And after having worked with the likes of Cubase, Studio One, Reaper, Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio... I still honestly feel like Reason's sequencer was the fastest and most intuitive experience I had. Only Logic Pro is as fast and comfortable to me in terms of the sequencer.
Most demands I read about for Reason DAW are either no real game-breaker in my eyes, or can be simply solved by making use of the now available VST support. For example:
Yes, track folders are nice, and they improve comfort in projects with a high track count a lot. But do you NEED them? I'd argue that you can use track colors and order to keep a good overview over your project. Then, for single songs / titles, if you use SO many sequencer tracks that you NEED folders to manage them, maybe you should condense them into fewer tracks, use bouncing and in the rack, combinators and routing to simplify your song. People from the analog era used to say that if you use more than 8 tracks, you are doing it wrong and every kind of music can fit into 8 tracks. (That is not MY argument, but something that I kept in the back of my head.)
Or saturation, stereo widening, a more powerful EQ, more sophisticated monitoring tools... all of that, taking from a post above, can be done with VST plugins. Would it be more comfortable to have it in a mixer channel? Maybe. Do you NEED it there? No. Using rack extensions and plugins, creating song templates for your workflow and combinator presets, you can put all the tools you need into Reason in a way that you have them prepared when you open it up.
I totally agree that there are many DAWs out there with a really complex and rich feature set. But I've been with Reason from version 3 on, and back then, before Propellerhead Record and the later integration into Reason, Reason defined itself as an INSTRUMENT. And this philosophy never truly left. What we now have, is a product in the middle of the seats between DAW and instrument. Making Reason Rack a plugin was a clear move back to "we are an instrument". But exclusive users keep demanding to become a truly competitive DAW, standing head to head with Cubase and others. It's a weird situation. I don't mind Reason to be simpler than other DAWs. They should however decide whether or not they want to be a fully competitive DAW and announce their decision publicly, so people's expectations meet reality.
The point is, when I made music with Reason from version 3 to 7.5 for a decade, I wasn't missing any feature to create music. I had so much fun, I was laser focused and "in the zone". And after having worked with the likes of Cubase, Studio One, Reaper, Ableton Live, Bitwig Studio... I still honestly feel like Reason's sequencer was the fastest and most intuitive experience I had. Only Logic Pro is as fast and comfortable to me in terms of the sequencer.
Most demands I read about for Reason DAW are either no real game-breaker in my eyes, or can be simply solved by making use of the now available VST support. For example:
Yes, track folders are nice, and they improve comfort in projects with a high track count a lot. But do you NEED them? I'd argue that you can use track colors and order to keep a good overview over your project. Then, for single songs / titles, if you use SO many sequencer tracks that you NEED folders to manage them, maybe you should condense them into fewer tracks, use bouncing and in the rack, combinators and routing to simplify your song. People from the analog era used to say that if you use more than 8 tracks, you are doing it wrong and every kind of music can fit into 8 tracks. (That is not MY argument, but something that I kept in the back of my head.)
Or saturation, stereo widening, a more powerful EQ, more sophisticated monitoring tools... all of that, taking from a post above, can be done with VST plugins. Would it be more comfortable to have it in a mixer channel? Maybe. Do you NEED it there? No. Using rack extensions and plugins, creating song templates for your workflow and combinator presets, you can put all the tools you need into Reason in a way that you have them prepared when you open it up.
I totally agree that there are many DAWs out there with a really complex and rich feature set. But I've been with Reason from version 3 on, and back then, before Propellerhead Record and the later integration into Reason, Reason defined itself as an INSTRUMENT. And this philosophy never truly left. What we now have, is a product in the middle of the seats between DAW and instrument. Making Reason Rack a plugin was a clear move back to "we are an instrument". But exclusive users keep demanding to become a truly competitive DAW, standing head to head with Cubase and others. It's a weird situation. I don't mind Reason to be simpler than other DAWs. They should however decide whether or not they want to be a fully competitive DAW and announce their decision publicly, so people's expectations meet reality.
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whitewolfmusic
- Posts: 23
- Joined: 09 Sep 2021
Well, looks like they heard you, because they announced to increase the price quite a bit. I just hope they actually deliver in return for the money.
You can already see it, what is in Reason 12 plus the promised finished features in the roadmap, that is to be a US $200 upgrade.whitewolfmusic wrote: ↑17 Sep 2021Well, looks like they heard you, because they announced to increase the price quite a bit. I just hope they actually deliver in return for the money.
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whitewolfmusic
- Posts: 23
- Joined: 09 Sep 2021
I am sorry, but I am not the kind of person that believes in promises anymore. I am a gamer, and early access and kickstarters are a curse that barely ever delivers. Instead most projects end up in development hell, get released in a rushed and underwhelming state or are downright scams. I am willing to pay the price they are asking here, but I want to see them deliver FIRST before they take my money. I pay for products, not for roadmaps.
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CaptainBlack
- Posts: 124
- Joined: 24 Mar 2015
I entirely agree with your premise that Reason 8 was where the rot set in. It was the first update where I thought "Is that it?". That became the norm rather than the exception in the following years, with only the introduction of VSTs being a showstopper (but that was half-arsed). Now they want 50% more money for unfinished releases. I miss the Propellerheads of of 1 to 7.5.
I started getting into making music again just like a few weeks ago. I was still on Reason 7 at that point simply because I didn´t upgrade due to a few things that changed from version 8 on I wasn´t really happy with, like the mentioned UI-designchange, the hard-tied browser and the device sorting by developers in the dropdownmenue. Also I opened the door into modularworld, shifting the focus over there.
I got every upgrade from Reason 1 to 7 except for Reason 5 which I refrained from buying because the upgrade was personally less important featurewise while I wasn´t making much music at that point anyway.
Reason 7 actually felt like the greatest upgrade here simply because it offered some essential corefeatures like mixing-busses, parallel channels, an analyser with built-in Mixer-EQ, Midi-Out, bascially Recycle integration, Audiomatic Retrotransformer on top and all that with RE being fresh along a growing devicepool, so it was truely an exciting playground opened. In combination with the forum and thanks to the contribution of its people I learned tons of audioengineering stuff, which I had mostly ignored up to that point. It also felt like it was similar for many just getting into engineering zone with the arrival of RE plus the new features in 7.
Then came the time I shifted to modularworld interestwise and went down the rabbit hole. So Reason was mostly a companion to the modular work, the less a reason not to upgrade due to the mentioned less pleasing changes.
Livingsituationwise I cannot setup the modular currently, so since having gotten back into making music after several months of hardly doing anything in that regard, I´m accordingly focussed on Reason for now.
A few days after I started, Reason 12 was being released. Along with all the new features I only had to think about upgrading because of the UI changes etc. yet finally took the step. Btw, coming from Reason 7 it´s basically 21 new devices + the softtube amps + the Combinator/RV-7000 overhaul on the "hardware" side alone, thus an average of around 4 devices per payed upgrade release plus the two major overhauls, though you might consider the rackintegration of the mixer dynamics/eq/masterbuscompressor not as much as new devices as others, yet very handy to now be able to use especially the masterbuscompressor in the rack.
I feel like I can cope with the less pleasant UI-changes for the most part quite well in terms of being less bothered by and there is so much new stuff to explore, let alone all those new free RE + two new RE I bought along an advanced SDK. Even Spire finally got released
Saying, at least here it´s mostly quite an enormous leap forward. Then yes, I know, it´s the first updgrade in 5 versions
So I imagine the feeling can be quite different for people upgrading regularely over the years with the youngest development of things on top. It´s just s how I can enjoy Reason 12 from an individual perspective because I upgraded over such a big gap. Still, because the regular upgraders were being fed bit by bit more than ever because of the point upgrades, I could think aswell of a psychological effect enhancing the feeling of getting less per upgrade. Just a thought. I cannot tell for sure because I´m more on the other side of the subjective perceptive spectrum and cannot even grasp the scale of development since Reason 7 because there´s actually quite a lot to explore first.
I aswell cannot tell what the development could look like in the years to come and where Reason is going with the new owner.
Even if some say it´s going into a full profit direction without proper development of the features being asked for by the community, I still find there is the possibility for the company to evolve Reason properly along an according revenue, saying while there apparently is a trend in the signs leaning towards more profitability, it can still be combined with quality work on Reason itself, making it more expensive in the end yet still enjoyable because it´s aswell being developed properly.
Wheresoever we are for now with Reason, only its further development is being able to tell where it´s going.
I´m gonna adjust along the way based on how I feel about steps being taken.
Regarding further upgrades I feel like I got quite a pleasant package to work with after all (except for the dropdownmenue) and don´t feel like having to necessarily upgrade every version anyway, especially after having left out four upgrades in between. I still would get every upgrade being interesting enough for the new price and that I can also afford at that point.
Since I already got the Reason 12 upgrade I´m relaxingly looking foward to the updates in terms of the roadmap to come. No hurry here.
Yes, Reason 12 is as is a little buggy (not dramatically, at least here), then, after big under the hood steps like the graphics engine have been dealt with, I can indeed imagine a lot of ressources being free now for fixing and furthermore for diving into development of sequencer/UI/browser-improvement along new features + devices, like they announced.
The greatest issue I now have is the sorting of devices by developers in the dropdownmenue, because it´s just a mess with 234 Rack Extensions spread across 74 developers. (Opening a new thread on that topic, not going into detail here).
Though I occasionally checked on Reason´s development, I mostly just worked with Reason 7 since its release, saying, in terms of the development of the company since 2014 I´m pretty new to the party.
Yes, I also got the feeling like things have changed over the years compared to what they were back in the days, yet, still tolerable I so far find, especially in regards to being able to make music with Reason the way I feel comfortable while being inspired simoultaneously.
Reason itself still feels like home even though the paint might have changed not to the better and someone sorted the cutlery by manufacturers.
Regarding Reason+, in general I don´t really mind it exists. I always feel like offering options to customers suiting their individual situation is a plus even if I don´t know at all where the advantage for most people in the reason community, should be given if they basically pay 240 Euros per year for Reason alone (plus potential RE subscriptions) and not owning it afterwards, so they neither can continue to work with Reason nor access any already done files/tracks at all without paying during not so good times.
Bascially, no advantageous featureset beyond the paywall could truely justify such a disadvantage because if I cannot work with the software itself, the greatest featureset wouldn´t change that. If anything, rent-to-own is the way better companion here.
I´ve already experienced the downside of subsrciption-only models with Autodesk + Adobe. Luckily I still got the latest buyable versions there were, so I can continue working with both for now, going to alternatives if needed otherwise. Yet if I didn´t still have the perpetual licenses, if I traded my perpetual license for a few years of lower subscription payment back in the days like when there was the swap from CS6 to CC-only e.g or how it has been with Autodesk lately, I would have been without the software I work with since corona contributed to a financial down here.
And again of what use is even a potentially more affordable solution over a certain period of time, which it wasn´t, especially not in Autodesk´s case, when a situation like corona makes it just not possible to maintain a subsrciption thus not being able to access the software at all and everything done with it anymore, often being a necessitiy to keep going or to get back on feet. And corona is just an example on a global scale while there are many individual scales that could lead into such a situation.
Anyway, can I continue buying perpetual licenses on a voluntary level everything is ok.
Regarding the actual state coming from Reason 7 I´m happy with what I got to work with in Reason 12. Here it´s about creating music and the force behind it is musical energy. Reason is simply an instrument and tool helping and supporting its expression. Sure, better instruments can potentially create better music,, then like said, Reason already delivers a lot the way it is, especially since it opened up to VST, so the urge to necessarily upgrade has declined here.
Of course industrywise certain workflow efficiencies can make a great improvement on working speed and thatfor improve business. For the hobbyist I feel like it doesn´t make thaaat much of a difference though it would naturally be more comfortable and also pleasant to work with especially with a new approach to the dropdownmenue
This is less to sooth the pain some are most likely feeling. It´s just a little reminder, once again, it being about the music and the musician, and less about the flashiest newest bling bling the softwareindustry has to offer making it roll and as long as we are able to decide for ourself when to upgrade I´m pretty calm.
Even if that changes I could still be making music with the version I got and/or go somewhere else though I love Reason from the start and haven´t seen any potential viable replacement around softwarewise (even got Live without having used it much).
This might be less in touch with the criticism regarding the pricechange and the latest happenings and got less to do with it indeed, yet possibly shows a way to see things from an indiviual perspective almost regardless of how Reason or the company could develop. At least that´s how I experienced it during the phase of upgradingabstinence because I still had Reason to work with and that´s all that mattered in the end.
I got every upgrade from Reason 1 to 7 except for Reason 5 which I refrained from buying because the upgrade was personally less important featurewise while I wasn´t making much music at that point anyway.
Reason 7 actually felt like the greatest upgrade here simply because it offered some essential corefeatures like mixing-busses, parallel channels, an analyser with built-in Mixer-EQ, Midi-Out, bascially Recycle integration, Audiomatic Retrotransformer on top and all that with RE being fresh along a growing devicepool, so it was truely an exciting playground opened. In combination with the forum and thanks to the contribution of its people I learned tons of audioengineering stuff, which I had mostly ignored up to that point. It also felt like it was similar for many just getting into engineering zone with the arrival of RE plus the new features in 7.
Then came the time I shifted to modularworld interestwise and went down the rabbit hole. So Reason was mostly a companion to the modular work, the less a reason not to upgrade due to the mentioned less pleasing changes.
Livingsituationwise I cannot setup the modular currently, so since having gotten back into making music after several months of hardly doing anything in that regard, I´m accordingly focussed on Reason for now.
A few days after I started, Reason 12 was being released. Along with all the new features I only had to think about upgrading because of the UI changes etc. yet finally took the step. Btw, coming from Reason 7 it´s basically 21 new devices + the softtube amps + the Combinator/RV-7000 overhaul on the "hardware" side alone, thus an average of around 4 devices per payed upgrade release plus the two major overhauls, though you might consider the rackintegration of the mixer dynamics/eq/masterbuscompressor not as much as new devices as others, yet very handy to now be able to use especially the masterbuscompressor in the rack.
I feel like I can cope with the less pleasant UI-changes for the most part quite well in terms of being less bothered by and there is so much new stuff to explore, let alone all those new free RE + two new RE I bought along an advanced SDK. Even Spire finally got released
Saying, at least here it´s mostly quite an enormous leap forward. Then yes, I know, it´s the first updgrade in 5 versions
So I imagine the feeling can be quite different for people upgrading regularely over the years with the youngest development of things on top. It´s just s how I can enjoy Reason 12 from an individual perspective because I upgraded over such a big gap. Still, because the regular upgraders were being fed bit by bit more than ever because of the point upgrades, I could think aswell of a psychological effect enhancing the feeling of getting less per upgrade. Just a thought. I cannot tell for sure because I´m more on the other side of the subjective perceptive spectrum and cannot even grasp the scale of development since Reason 7 because there´s actually quite a lot to explore first.
I aswell cannot tell what the development could look like in the years to come and where Reason is going with the new owner.
Even if some say it´s going into a full profit direction without proper development of the features being asked for by the community, I still find there is the possibility for the company to evolve Reason properly along an according revenue, saying while there apparently is a trend in the signs leaning towards more profitability, it can still be combined with quality work on Reason itself, making it more expensive in the end yet still enjoyable because it´s aswell being developed properly.
Wheresoever we are for now with Reason, only its further development is being able to tell where it´s going.
I´m gonna adjust along the way based on how I feel about steps being taken.
Regarding further upgrades I feel like I got quite a pleasant package to work with after all (except for the dropdownmenue
) and don´t feel like having to necessarily upgrade every version anyway, especially after having left out four upgrades in between. I still would get every upgrade being interesting enough for the new price and that I can also afford at that point.Since I already got the Reason 12 upgrade I´m relaxingly looking foward to the updates in terms of the roadmap to come. No hurry here.
Yes, Reason 12 is as is a little buggy (not dramatically, at least here), then, after big under the hood steps like the graphics engine have been dealt with, I can indeed imagine a lot of ressources being free now for fixing and furthermore for diving into development of sequencer/UI/browser-improvement along new features + devices, like they announced.
The greatest issue I now have is the sorting of devices by developers in the dropdownmenue, because it´s just a mess with 234 Rack Extensions spread across 74 developers. (Opening a new thread on that topic, not going into detail here).
Though I occasionally checked on Reason´s development, I mostly just worked with Reason 7 since its release, saying, in terms of the development of the company since 2014 I´m pretty new to the party.
Yes, I also got the feeling like things have changed over the years compared to what they were back in the days, yet, still tolerable I so far find, especially in regards to being able to make music with Reason the way I feel comfortable while being inspired simoultaneously.
Reason itself still feels like home even though the paint might have changed not to the better and someone sorted the cutlery by manufacturers.
Regarding Reason+, in general I don´t really mind it exists. I always feel like offering options to customers suiting their individual situation is a plus even if I don´t know at all where the advantage for most people in the reason community, should be given if they basically pay 240 Euros per year for Reason alone (plus potential RE subscriptions) and not owning it afterwards, so they neither can continue to work with Reason nor access any already done files/tracks at all without paying during not so good times.
Bascially, no advantageous featureset beyond the paywall could truely justify such a disadvantage because if I cannot work with the software itself, the greatest featureset wouldn´t change that. If anything, rent-to-own is the way better companion here.
I´ve already experienced the downside of subsrciption-only models with Autodesk + Adobe. Luckily I still got the latest buyable versions there were, so I can continue working with both for now, going to alternatives if needed otherwise. Yet if I didn´t still have the perpetual licenses, if I traded my perpetual license for a few years of lower subscription payment back in the days like when there was the swap from CS6 to CC-only e.g or how it has been with Autodesk lately, I would have been without the software I work with since corona contributed to a financial down here.
And again of what use is even a potentially more affordable solution over a certain period of time, which it wasn´t, especially not in Autodesk´s case, when a situation like corona makes it just not possible to maintain a subsrciption thus not being able to access the software at all and everything done with it anymore, often being a necessitiy to keep going or to get back on feet. And corona is just an example on a global scale while there are many individual scales that could lead into such a situation.
Anyway, can I continue buying perpetual licenses on a voluntary level everything is ok.
Regarding the actual state coming from Reason 7 I´m happy with what I got to work with in Reason 12. Here it´s about creating music and the force behind it is musical energy. Reason is simply an instrument and tool helping and supporting its expression. Sure, better instruments can potentially create better music,, then like said, Reason already delivers a lot the way it is, especially since it opened up to VST, so the urge to necessarily upgrade has declined here.
Of course industrywise certain workflow efficiencies can make a great improvement on working speed and thatfor improve business. For the hobbyist I feel like it doesn´t make thaaat much of a difference though it would naturally be more comfortable and also pleasant to work with especially with a new approach to the dropdownmenue
This is less to sooth the pain some are most likely feeling. It´s just a little reminder, once again, it being about the music and the musician, and less about the flashiest newest bling bling the softwareindustry has to offer making it roll and as long as we are able to decide for ourself when to upgrade I´m pretty calm.
Even if that changes I could still be making music with the version I got and/or go somewhere else though I love Reason from the start and haven´t seen any potential viable replacement around softwarewise (even got Live without having used it much).
This might be less in touch with the criticism regarding the pricechange and the latest happenings and got less to do with it indeed, yet possibly shows a way to see things from an indiviual perspective almost regardless of how Reason or the company could develop. At least that´s how I experienced it during the phase of upgradingabstinence because I still had Reason to work with and that´s all that mattered in the end.
So I'm using the "virtual microphone" to ask for theses improvments :
For the DAW
* snap setting : absolute or relative by default in the Preferences
* snap offset "handle" to fix a point in the audio clip where the snap occurs (not only the beginning of the audio clip as it is now)
* low-res option for old computer that can't handle the hi-res
* to be able to quantize the note end too (or the note lenght)
For Reason Rack plugin :
* fix something so that Cakewalk by Bandlab is able to give all keystrockes to RRP
For the DAW
* snap setting : absolute or relative by default in the Preferences
* snap offset "handle" to fix a point in the audio clip where the snap occurs (not only the beginning of the audio clip as it is now)
* low-res option for old computer that can't handle the hi-res
* to be able to quantize the note end too (or the note lenght)
For Reason Rack plugin :
* fix something so that Cakewalk by Bandlab is able to give all keystrockes to RRP
In terms of feature suggestions besides a new dropdownmenue I would really like to see a new UI-design aswell where the buttons are buttons not just letters like it is in the sequencer for example now. It´s not even very obvious what track I´m currently on compared to Reason 7 because the marked/unmarked states are closer together greywise. As in general the colours and contrast should be used to improve the easy readability of the UI like it was in Reason 7. Also I´m missing the coloured meter aswell as the more out standing timecode display.
Nameable and horizontally foldable rack columns would be a charm, because I´m usually using one channel per column only, so with a lot of channels the rack becomes super wide and the scrolling with a cable "in hands" can become a longer trip even more so since increased movement speed by moving towards the borders of the screen has been taken away for whatsoever reason.
Edit: And yes I know I can right-click a socket to choose a connecting device then the list of devices is almost endless thus not easy to find the proper device éven if I already looked up what devicename it is to connect to which also is an additional step needed with that method. Also where is the fun in connecting like that besides the improved concious workflow and increased learning effect of the cable method?
Nameable and horizontally foldable rack columns would be a charm, because I´m usually using one channel per column only, so with a lot of channels the rack becomes super wide and the scrolling with a cable "in hands" can become a longer trip even more so since increased movement speed by moving towards the borders of the screen has been taken away for whatsoever reason.
Edit: And yes I know I can right-click a socket to choose a connecting device then the list of devices is almost endless thus not easy to find the proper device éven if I already looked up what devicename it is to connect to which also is an additional step needed with that method. Also where is the fun in connecting like that besides the improved concious workflow and increased learning effect of the cable method?
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