Reason or Ableton

[MuttReason]

Push2 is fully integrated with Live. It’s a super powerful bit of kit, miles ahead of any other DAW controller. It is at its most effective in Session view IME but still offers a bunch of controls in Arrangement view. The ability to control any device using hardware rotary controls with visual feedback on the Push2 display is outstanding. The pads are also really good, easily in the top 3 in the market alongside Maschine and MPC.

You can’t control absolutely everything in Live from a Push (eg you still need mouse and keyboard to edit the content of clips for example) but you can do quite a lot with it without even looking at the computer screen.

I’m a big fan of creating complex Combi 2 devices in the RRP and then mapping the controls to the Live 11 macro controls which are then automatically mapped to the Push2. You can have up to 16 macros mapped like that which turns any Combi 2 into a monster performance beast with 16 hands-on controls (ie the 8 x Push2 rotaries with a bank button to access the second bank of 8 controls). You can do the same thing with any Reason device BTW, assigning a knob/fader/button on any device to a Live macro is v simple and fast. For example, I’ve mapped the most important 16 controls on The Legend RE to the Push2 rotaries… so easy to create Moog-ish sounds from scratch using just the rotary controls.

Melodies and chords are pretty simple, you use the Scale button to select a key and scale or mode, then the pads will map to that scale or mode with root notes highlighted in a different colour. There are YT vids of people playing amazingly intricate piano solos on Push2 which will give you an idea of what it can do.

Thanks for the info really handy to know. I watched a few videos on you tube and was surprised how versatile the display was and most things seemed to be easy to understand. Maybe a bit of a learning curve early on perhaps with the modes (clip, device) etc but it would definitely be a massive upgrade on my 25 key midi keyboard. Worth saving for me thinks

It’s probably my single most used piece of musical equipment apart from my bass guitars. Ableton were pretty smart to go down the dedicated hardware route because once you’ve got into the Push workflow it’s pretty hard to think about moving to another DAW without the same level of hands-on control IME. Only ProTools and StudioOne (Presonus controllers are pretty good) get close in that respect.

I wish RS hadn’t dropped the ball with the whole Remote thing (eg kind of crazy that the world’s best selling MIDI controller, the Akai MPK Mini Mk3, still isn’t natively supported in R12). If the Reason DAW supported controller hardware to the extent that Ableton Live integrates with the Push2, it would be so powerful. I know that Nektar gear is quite good with the Reason DAW and I know there’s third party software to get a Push running in Reason, but it’s not nearly as deep as Live with Push.

[jlgrimes]

I use both programs.

Ableton more for sequencing and DAW work and Reason for its instruments.

I must be in the minority but I actually like Abletons piano Roll. I find it very fast to do most things and use it often for drum programming.

I think the main thing its missing from Reason is the scissors tool but most everything else is there with key commands. That said Abletons piano roll probably is its biggest weakness compared to other DAWS, but that said while minimally featured, it is pretty ergonomical.

I think Abletons arrange view is a bit more smoother than Reasons, which helps for arranging large songs.

I think both programs are somewhat minimally featured compared to something like Cubase, Reaper, but alot of functions in Ableton are straight to the point and quick to get to.

I think Reason has better synths, but I like Abletons samplers better (overall).

Effects they are pretty close but i like Abletons basic EQs, and compressors more, as they are more featured than Reasons stuff but Reason has alot of cool distortion/character effects like Pulverizer, Scream

[Aosta]

Reason all the way. Hopefully at some point soon some form of clip launcher or real-time quantisable input will be available within the Reason environment. Once that happens, one of Ableton's major unique selling points (the Session View), should hopefully be easily fully replicable within Reason.

This is something I have wanted in reason for years. The ability to record live into the arrangement and then edit but the closest I've come is to use a midi controller (nanokontrol) and assign each fader/solo/mute in the mixer or the volume on each device which is time consuming then fill the entire arrangement with midi clips for say 10 minutes worth and record my 'jam session' and edit from there.
Super clunky and pretty irritating to do so I usually don't bother.

[Stamatz]

Reason all the way. Hopefully at some point soon some form of clip launcher or real-time quantisable input will be available within the Reason environment. Once that happens, one of Ableton's major unique selling points (the Session View), should hopefully be easily fully replicable within Reason.

This is something I have wanted in reason for years. The ability to record live into the arrangement and then edit but the closest I've come is to use a midi controller (nanokontrol) and assign each fader/solo/mute in the mixer or the volume on each device which is time consuming then fill the entire arrangement with midi clips for say 10 minutes worth and record my 'jam session' and edit from there.
Super clunky and pretty irritating to do so I usually don't bother.

I too would love to see a sessions view in Reason with proper support/integration for the latest launchpads. What do you mean when you say "The ability to record live into the arrangement and then edit"? Isn't that the same as having your arrangement playing in the background and then record from the track you want to record from? As far as controlling your mixer components, you can map them to a Nektar P1 or something similiar and change almost any aspect then save as a template for future use. You can also almost emulate clip launching by using either several Dr. Octo Rex's mapped to say a Launchpad Pro or the RE Grid-PO Player https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... rd-player/

Either way gets you pretty close.

[michael.jaye]

Reason is the only DAW that 'clicked' with me. It's possible that the simplicity of the sequencer has something to do with it too.

I have Ableton Lite as well. I only use it to warp/quantise tracks. Everything else I do is in Reason.

[Aosta]

What do you mean when you say "The ability to record live into the arrangement and then edit"?

I'll try and explain further,
It's like a bootleg version of session/arrangement recording live in Ableton except all the midi data is already there (Think of it as a full up midi block of channels in the arrangement window say from bar 1 to 300 (10 mins), then I use automation lanes in the mixer and the instruments in the channels to record whatever actions I do like muting channels, fader levels etc on the fly and then going back into the arrangement and chopping out the bits I don't want to build the track. It's an old school method some of the detroit techno pioneers used but they did it with an audio recording of them jamming with their 303s. I just find it easier than slowly building the track bar by bar in the arrangement window. It is a quick way to lay down the structure and then tidy it up on the back end.
With Ableton it seems you can just clip launch and it automatically records all data and builds the track in the arrangement window in real time, this is what I'd love to be able to do in Reason without the workarounds.
Hope that makes it clearer though it might make it more confusing?

[stratatonic]

Kickback may be shifting her allegiance to Ableton. More views. Or maybe working both sides of the fence with Ableton and RPP.
Damn shame there is no "Send to Track" feature in the RPP for the Players. Is that even technically possible for Reason Studios?

[EnochLight]

I mean, it's not surprising I suppose. Pretty sure Ableton Live is like the most popular DAW on the planet, still running (or maybe that's Fruityloops - honestly I can't remember).

[chimp_spanner]

I flip between the two these days. For big/complicated projects, Live makes more sense as it’s a lot easier to group things together and keep your arrangements manageable. But for quick inspiration and a more ‘fun’ writing environment, Reason makes perfect sense to me. I also generally prefer its timeline (clips, audio pitch editing and comping). I really can’t say I’d ditch Reason and switch to Live though. Plenty of small gripes and annoyances there too. But both excellent and with tonnes going for them in their own ways.

[arnigretar]

I have Reason and been here since v1.0. Most of my work is done in Reason and in standalone. Best DAW imo I also have Ableton Live (10 suite) and there I do most of my collab. And that is because most of the people I work with are using that. Live is a great program. I also use that when playing live. Then RRP comes in very handy. I also love rewire (when doing collabs) and then I use Reason 10 on one of my old machines. And that's because I can then open up old projects I have written in Reason and use them in Ableton Live. You can't do that in RRP. Most people like Ableton Live because of the sequencer/arranger, but I am happy with Reason since I work mainly in the cv area and my sequences are done inside the rack (matrix, thor, re's).

[avasopht]

I enjoyed Ableton/Push, but Maschine integrates with a much stronger library and offers a good enough clip experience.

I can't remember how Push 1 differed from Push 2, which either means they're both equally excellent so any difference didn't matter, or the differences weren't pronounced enough to make anything stick out enough.

I feel like I might have applied more force to Push 1.

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I find the Ableton workflow makes a lot more sense with a hardware controller.

But the workflow wasn't enough for me, and I found I still needed to use my mouse just as much, my drums took ages to load (even after putting in an SSD), and importing multiple drum samples was clunkier than it needed to be (or am I thinking of importing sound fonts or something?).

It worked great with RRP. Especially comparing it to the ReWire experience.

[djsmex]

Tried live some time ago but couldn't get the hang of its midi mapping for controllers. Also live costs more and back when I tried it, the upgrade costttttttttt was higher. Both DAWs are not screen reader friendly and although the push is a good controller, to my knowledge there is no voice output of digital displays.
I've been able to use Reason Remote to custom map midi controllers which only needs doing once and doesn't get tied to a single project file, allowing new projects to use the same midi maps across all rack devices.
However, have found the NI Komplete Kontrol with voice assist useful. Perhaps if I win the loto or Ableton give me live with push for free, I'll give it another look but at a cost of 1.4k I'll be leaving it for now.
Quick tips for midi rooting in reason, there's the midi out device and free player cv player tap by lectric panda, which can root notes over cv and I'm sure she meant monophonic audio for reasons pitch edit

[Reminiscence]

Sold my license of Ableton Live 11 Suite today - fell in love with Reason again.