What is the best Reason version ever?

[scotward57]

What I mean is ... what version of Reason did you find the most satisfying when it was announced? The version where you felt Reason checked off a bunch of stuff off your wishlist.

For me, it was version 6. Reason had dropped all the silliness of Record as a separate app and added Echo, Pulverizer and the Alligator Pattern thing. I wasn't interested in MIDI out or 3rd party plugins. Happy with Reason's self-contained universe. From there, Reason changed to playing catch-up and started being viewed as a DAW behind the times. There was something magical to me about Reason doing it's own thing.

What was your favorite version?

[Loque]

R12

But my list is still long...

[aeox]

R12 is the best version of Reason EVER

[Benedict]

R12 in many ways like Combi II which is a revolution in itself.

R11 in that R12 has not been the easiest ride for me whereas R11 was just a glassy ride in iced satin sheets polished by babies' bottoms lightly dusted with powder ground by fairies.

I have finally let R11 leave my drive and along with Win 11, R12 is my reality.

[Neo]

I understand your Reason-ing for 6 though i have to say R12.
Lucky Props introduced VST back when with v9.5 (wasn't?) when they said never.

[TritoneAddiction]

I quite liked R7 when I got it. At the time it had everything I needed. It just felt light, no unnecessary bloat. Quick and easy to use. The focus was on music rather than stuff/gear.

I also enjoyed R10 when it came out. Europa, Grain and most of all the ability to add Favorite lists. Gone were the days of constantly scrolling through devices I never used. Still one of my favorite features.

[challism]

I'm going to have to say Reason 13.

[aeox]

I'm going to have to say Reason 13.

Wisdom grows from experience

[MrFigg]

6.5, 7, 10.

[scotward57]

I understand your Reason-ing for 6 though i have to say R12.
Lucky Props introduced VST back when with v9.5 (wasn't?) when they said never.

I'm somewhat surprised that many people answered R12, given all of the complaints about bugs, R+, etc. I think some people are confused by the question I asked. On one hand, yes R12 would be the best version based on features available. That's obvious.

But really what I was asking is which version announcement made people the most excited at the time it was announced. I wouldn't say that about R12 based on what people actually said. In fact, I don't think there ever was a Reason release announcement that sparked more hatred and whining.

[Arrant]

Easy, Reason 6.5 which introduced rack extensions. Excitement was off the charts back then.

[Billy+]

I'm going to have to say Reason 13.

That's what I'm hoping for to....

With any luck all the current teething problems will be sorted CMBv2 will have the extras and won't need a separate program to skin, vst will be fully capable including midi pass through and routing while the enabling tech should stop us having to worry about macOS upgrades.

[Kilsane]

I never had any particular expectations suddenly each version is a lot of good surprise, otherwise I would say version 12 (hi res, mimic and combinator 2)

[Neo]

I understand your Reason-ing for 6 though i have to say R12.
Lucky Props introduced VST back when with v9.5 (wasn't?) when they said never.

I'm somewhat surprised that many people answered R12, given all of the complaints about bugs, R+, etc. I think some people are confused by the question I asked. On one hand, yes R12 would be the best version based on features available. That's obvious.

But really what I was asking is which version announcement made people the most excited at the time it was announced. I wouldn't say that about R12 based on what people actually said. In fact, I don't think there ever was a Reason release announcement that sparked more hatred and whining.

Indeed.

[dakta]

Reason 2.5 had a pretty cool (flash based?) teaser movie produced for it which iirc was quite hardcore particularly the vocoder and Unison devices

sort of lost track of things after v5 so whilst it wasnt an announced thing the migration to r12 was...substantial. I was going to ask when record got merged/lost and from the above it was v6, im proper out of touch!

[lowtom]

Reason 5.

[guitfnky]

whichever one they added pitch editing in (9?). that's when I thought they really meant business with getting the DAW rolling. too bad that turned out to be wrong.

[scotward57]

Reason 2.5 had a pretty cool (flash based?) teaser movie produced for it which iirc was quite hardcore particularly the vocoder and Unison devices

sort of lost track of things after v5 so whilst it wasnt an announced thing the migration to r12 was...substantial. I was going to ask when record got merged/lost and from the above it was v6, im proper out of touch!

2.5 was the first version I ever bought. I read about it in a Sound on Sound article and then saw a copy of Peff's book at a bookstore a short time later. I was endlessly fascinated by Peff's idea of CVing Redrums together with different rates and steps.

[huggermugger]

When I made jump from R3 to R10, it was mind-blowing. Players, RE's, VST's, the "SSL" Mixer, tons of CV/Gate control, the Browser, etc. And it cost me $129 CAD.

[jam-s]

Easy, Reason 6.5 which introduced rack extensions. Excitement was off the charts back then.

I agree. 6.5 was the most ground breaking one. Sadly they did not push the SDK further along fast enough to gain the traction the format should have gotten. (A free "empty" Rack would also have been a smart move back then and would still be today.)

[motuscott]

ReCycle
ducks

[loopeydoug]

Reason 2.5 had a pretty cool (flash based?) teaser movie produced for it which iirc was quite hardcore particularly the vocoder and Unison devices

sort of lost track of things after v5 so whilst it wasnt an announced thing the migration to r12 was...substantial. I was going to ask when record got merged/lost and from the above it was v6, im proper out of touch!

2.5 was the first version I ever bought. I read about it in a Sound on Sound article and then saw a copy of Peff's book at a bookstore a short time later. I was endlessly fascinated by Peff's idea of CVing Redrums together with different rates and steps.

Power Tools for Reason 3.0 is some of the best teaching anyone has offered up on the subject of Reason, to this day. I can only wonder at the things he might teach us with an updated version!

[scotward57]

2.5 was the first version I ever bought. I read about it in a Sound on Sound article and then saw a copy of Peff's book at a bookstore a short time later. I was endlessly fascinated by Peff's idea of CVing Redrums together with different rates and steps.

Power Tools for Reason 3.0 is some of the best teaching anyone has offered up on the subject of Reason, to this day. I can only wonder at the things he might teach us with an updated version!

I totally agree! I'd pay more for a Peff Power Tools update than a new version of Reason.

[WOO]

6.5 and 8. Because of the racks and they never crashed. I love 11 suite but now and then I have problems with it locking up, slow start ups and sync issues during playback.

[ShelLuser]

What I mean is ... what version of Reason did you find the most satisfying when it was announced?

When it comes to announcement and the excitement surrounding it then I too vote for Reason 6. In fact, I still have the Youtube video somewhere on my NAS and still sporadically play it because I enjoy the music behind it so much! I also appreciated the underlying message which the video carried.. heck, that was the opening: "When it comes to self-expression there are no rules; no right or wrong... ". I was actually quite impressed by that. I also heavily appreciated the - for me - near to perfect interaction between Live (= my main DAW) and Reason which I always used through ReWire.

Of course when it comes to the version I use today then that's still Reason 11. I kinda stopped keeping track of versions because I don't see the need anymore; all I use today is the rack (and much less frequent than before). I don't need to because if there is something interesting being released, like for example the bassline generator player, then I can also use that in previous versions (I use this on Reason 11).

And it also doesn't help that Maschine took over Reason's 'role' in my setup of being the second sequencer.

I still enjoy Reason (11), but 6 was also very special for me.