Gotta love Reason's back compat.

[tobypearce]

I was just listening to a track I made in 2006 (or possibly earlier). I thought I'd search for the original rns file, and when I found it the project opened up immediately. No missing plugins, no missing anything - it sounded the same as it did over 15 years ago.

It didn't even have Thor back then - everything in the track was ReDrum, Subtractor and Malstrom. Whilst the track sounds pretty poor by my standards today, I'm currently musing on how much this has to do with all the fancier plugins -vs- my skills. No doubt it's a bit of both.

I enjoyed the trip down memory lane, enjoying a time when those who used Reason simply enjoyed it. There seems more for folk to moan about these days, but since a track from 15 years ago still opens perfectly, I'd say the core of Reason remains brill!

The track is rough around the edges, but the main trance hook is still nice, so I tried attaching it to this post. It was a little too big, so I put a copy here, just in case someone wants the fun of opening a 2000s trance project:
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/7ac45a ... 004/cdb874.

[mimidancer]

I was just listening to a track I made in 2006 (or possibly earlier). I thought I'd search for the original rns file, and when I found it the project opened up immediately. No missing plugins, no missing anything - it sounded the same as it did over 15 years ago.

It didn't even have Thor back then - everything in the track was ReDrum, Subtractor and Malstrom. Whilst the track sounds pretty poor by my standards today, I'm currently musing on how much this has to do with all the fancier plugins -vs- my skills. No doubt it's a bit of both.

I enjoyed the trip down memory lane, enjoying a time when those who used Reason simply enjoyed it. There seems more for folk to moan about these days, but since a track from 15 years ago still opens perfectly, I'd say the core of Reason remains brill!

The track is rough around the edges, but the main trance hook is still nice, so I tried attaching it to this post. It was a little too big, so I put a copy here, just in case someone wants the fun of opening a 2000s trance project:
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/7ac45a ... 004/cdb874.

I love rediscovering old pieces too. They are like old pictures of you. Admittedly I was scared of your link, but if you throw it on SoundCloud I will listen.

[avasopht]

I love rediscovering old pieces too. They are like old pictures of you. Admittedly I was scared of your link, but if you throw it on SoundCloud I will listen.

It's just a Reason 12 project.

[Aquila]

now try to open a project with a Line6 amp and see how it sounds

[avasopht]

now try to open a project with a Line6 amp and see how it sounds

Many of my tracks from that era suffer from this - especially if you used the full range of Line6 effects such as its compressors and mix console emulations.

[dakta]

I have folders on spare hard disks full of projects (almost all incomplete) and half baked ideas from those days

I sift through and yeah, the quality can be terrible (what was I thinking?) but I can totally see the memory lane value

and yes, it all works!

[fullforce]

I have folders on spare hard disks full of projects (almost all incomplete) and half baked ideas from those days

I sift through and yeah, the quality can be terrible (what was I thinking?) but I can totally see the memory lane value

and yes, it all works!

Yeah it can be pretty cool, I made some sick basslines back in the day.

[MuttReason]

Finally took the plunge yesterday and installed R12. So far.... surprisingly bombproof. Haven't managed to crash it at all, and everything works as advertised. Way better than I expected after the stability problems since launch last year (when I tried R12 first time round and dumped it because.... well, bugs... it was infuriating). Now it feels like the old Reason is back... and I'm having a blast. Fingers crossed R12 remains this stable cos right now I'm a happy camper.

Best thing today has been opening a bunch of Reason user songs I've kept from back in the day when the old Props User Forum allowed us all to publish Reason tracks that everyone could download. The oldest song I have is by Peff ("Eyes Inside") from 2000 using Reason 1.... dropped it into R12 and, bang, there it is... perfect and still sounding great 22 years later. That's pretty bloody awesome.

[Faastwalker]

I'm usually missing audio files on old stuff. If the tracks had any audio, it's usually missing! Not Reason's fault so much as my crap file organization ability. I always thought it would be something I was good at doing. Turns out I'm totally crap at it! Files everywhere!!

[avasopht]

I'm usually missing audio files on old stuff. If the tracks had any audio, it's usually missing! Not Reason's fault so much as my crap file organization ability. I always thought it would be something I was good at doing. Turns out I'm totally crap at it! Files everywhere!!

Oh man, I get that a lot. Especially tracks I made with a friend who had Zero-G refills.

There was also this one time I used a sample from a poorly organized sample library that made it hard for Reason to search for the samples when placed in a different location because it had the same file names in different folders.

So I had to go through every horn sample with the same filename (for every sample) to restore it. Not cool.

[EnochLight]

now try to open a project with a Line6 amp and see how it sounds

Many of my tracks from that era suffer from this - especially if you used the full range of Line6 effects such as its compressors and mix console emulations.

Same. To this day, it still irritates the hell out of me. I’ve resorted to opening those projects in Reason 8 and bouncing those tracks to stems just to keep their sound. The Softube replacements just don’t sound as good IMHO, or sound too different from my original intent.

[dioxide]

I opened up an old Record document from 2010 this evening to create a pre-master export without master compressors etc. Sounded exactly the same as it did then and opened without any missing anything. The original song is probably even older than that, perhaps 2003? Anyway, Reason is the best for this, incredible. (and yes sometimes my music does take this long to find a home!).

[Oberlai]

I guess we can't say for sure if there's now a built-in converter that handles old project files, but if there isn't, Reason must have been really well built from the start

[kitekrazy]

I'm not sure why some think this really stands out. I can still load old projects in Bandlab that were made in Sonar 2 and Gigastudio.

[Oberlai]

I'm not sure why some think this really stands out. I can still load old projects in Bandlab that were made in Sonar 2 and Gigastudio.

Because in the world of software (and Apple) there are plenty of examples on the opposite - when an update hits, shit stop working or loading. Reason not only opens old projects but they sound exactly the same, yeah i absolutely love it too

[Eprom]

I'm not sure why some think this really stands out. I can still load old projects in Bandlab that were made in Sonar 2 and Gigastudio.

Because in the world of software (and Apple) there are plenty of examples on the opposite - when an update hits, shit stop working or loading. Reason not only opens old projects but they sound exactly the same, yeah i absolutely love it too

You could also argue, that Reason didn't innovate enough over the last years but other companies did.

[avasopht]

I'm not sure why some think this really stands out. I can still load old projects in Bandlab that were made in Sonar 2 and Gigastudio.

I guess you'd have to go back to the mid-late 00s. Reason was very unique in backwards compatibility

[djsmex]

I feel reasons backwards support is a good thing not only for memory lane but for colabs with people using older versions. Can this be said for other DAWs like Ableton, ProTools, Cubass etc?
There are a few issues like the discontinued line amps but for those using VSTs, what are the chances of loading a 20 year old project and it still working let alone sound the same?
Just think how difficult it is to share a project that has used old 32bit VSTs you don't own and compare that to sharing a Reason 1 project file with a R12 user.
I still have Reason 4 with ReBirth on an old XP laptop and can load these in R12, without issue.

[kitekrazy]

I'm not sure why some think this really stands out. I can still load old projects in Bandlab that were made in Sonar 2 and Gigastudio.

I guess you'd have to go back to the mid-late 00s. Reason was very unique in backwards compatibility

These were projects made in 2002. This is nothing unique. Where Reason stands out is the instruments were proprietary and weren't removed.

[kitekrazy]

I'm not sure why some think this really stands out. I can still load old projects in Bandlab that were made in Sonar 2 and Gigastudio.

Because in the world of software (and Apple) there are plenty of examples on the opposite - when an update hits, shit stop working or loading. Reason not only opens old projects but they sound exactly the same, yeah i absolutely love it too

Because Reason was a proprietary DAW. Usually 3rd party plugins is what causes old projects to fail. Anything I made in Reason 4 will open up unless I used NNXT and moved refills to another directory.

My Oxygen8 v1 is still recognized in Reason.

[jlgrimes]

I'm not sure why some think this really stands out. I can still load old projects in Bandlab that were made in Sonar 2 and Gigastudio.

Yes.

Most DAWS have backwards compatibility.

Its really the VSTS or poor Wave file management that gets people in a bind.

Reason does make the Wave file management pretty easy though but i have often forgot to embed the Wav files.

[fullforce]

Because in the world of software (and Apple) there are plenty of examples on the opposite - when an update hits, shit stop working or loading. Reason not only opens old projects but they sound exactly the same, yeah i absolutely love it too

Because Reason was a proprietary DAW. Usually 3rd party plugins is what causes old projects to fail. Anything I made in Reason 4 will open up unless I used NNXT and moved refills to another directory.

My Oxygen8 v1 is still recognized in Reason.

That's midi. Duh.

[tobypearce]

I'm not sure why some think this really stands out. I can still load old projects in Bandlab that were made in Sonar 2 and Gigastudio.

It stands out to me (as the op) because yes, I can load an old project in Logic, but I can be fairly sure that it will have VSTs which are outdated (e.g. 32 bit) and therefore won't load. Of course, if you only used Logic's built in devices then it might open, but who does that? On the other hand, Reason's built in devices are, and will continue to be stellar.

[kitekrazy]

Because Reason was a proprietary DAW. Usually 3rd party plugins is what causes old projects to fail. Anything I made in Reason 4 will open up unless I used NNXT and moved refills to another directory.

My Oxygen8 v1 is still recognized in Reason.

That's midi. Duh.

No it's not just midi. It's hardware via USB which has it's own driver before most were class complient. It's not unusual for older hardware to be recognized by a DAW.

[mcatalao]

Many of my tracks from that era suffer from this - especially if you used the full range of Line6 effects such as its compressors and mix console emulations.

Same. To this day, it still irritates the hell out of me. I’ve resorted to opening those projects in Reason 8 and bouncing those tracks to stems just to keep their sound. The Softube replacements just don’t sound as good IMHO, or sound too different from my original intent.

Yes, still, the projects are not broken and you still can open them without issues.