Reason Financials 2021

[electrofux]

Imho there are two areas where Reason can improve heavily.

1.) the outdated sequencer (Workflow, Clip Launcher, Arranger)

2.) the kinda lost focus on supporting Remote Controllers via the superb Remote. I just checked a few Remote Maps (in R11) of controllers and the newest supported device was Pulverizer. Not sure if they have been updated for R12 since R+ offers all Reason devices but i doubt it.

[MuttReason]

Look at the difference between Reason and Logic. In Reason you can send sync data to ONE port and ONE port alone. In Logic I can choose where and how to send my sync data. Kind of important when you have multiple hardware devices.


sync.jpg

Yeah Live has some similar options. Can't remember Cubase's off the top of my head. Also I may have already mentioned it but yeah the LoopMIDI/MIDI OX solution uses the MIDI port up for any given device so you can sync it and sequence in hardware but not trigger from Reason. Or you can trigger from Reason but not sync its onboard sequencers. Basically just makes my entire hardware setup unusable in that way. I can of course do hardware sessions where *everything* is triggered from Reason but it defeats the purpose of having standlone drum machines and grooveboxes with their own sequencers. I could just use samples instead.

The basic problem with using Reason DAW and hardware is it isn’t possible to adjust MIDI latency on a per-device basis. My TR8S needs to be nudged 10ms ahead of clock to lock into the grid. The Hydrasynth is 8ms later than clock and the Cobalt8 is 7ms later than clock. I know this because I tested each bit of kit against the grid in Live 11 and tweaked each External Instrument track using channel Track Delay until each device was bang on the grid with no timing drift.

AFAIK there is no way to make that kind of adjustment per device in Reason, even when using a third party MIDI loopback app. Net effect is Reason isn’t a great option for hardware setups which is a shame.

[buddard]

AFAIK there is no way to make that kind of adjustment per device in Reason, even when using a third party MIDI loopback app. Net effect is Reason isn’t a great option for hardware setups which is a shame.

While you can't easily nudge the MIDI timing, there are ways to adjust the audio latency, either in samples on the channel device, or in ms using (shameless self promotion warning!) the TS-1 Time Slider RE by Robotic Bean.

[Carpainter]

Don't forget that all of their plugins are tied to Reason since they refuse to release VST versions. I'm wagering that there are a decent amount of people who stick with Reason simply because they've sunk so much money into RE's.

Honestly, I’m not sure why this is still an argument. RRP solves this… and there’s pretty much no reason to upgrade again afterwards. Possibly ever. It’s quite literally a way out.

There's already precedent for older versions of Reason not running on newer versions of Windows running AMD processors, so I would never assume that Reason will always work. The solution, according to support: "To solve this, we recommend that you update to the newest version of Reason/Reason Essentials."

Not that old VSTs are immune to backwards compatibility issues, but I'm still running VSTs that haven't been updated in 10 or 15 years with no issues.

[jlgrimes]

Imho there are two areas where Reason can improve heavily.

1.) the outdated sequencer (Workflow, Clip Launcher, Arranger)

2.) the kinda lost focus on supporting Remote Controllers via the superb Remote. I just checked a few Remote Maps (in R11) of controllers and the newest supported device was Pulverizer. Not sure if they have been updated for R12 since R+ offers all Reason devices but i doubt it.

Yes at one time Remote was thoroughly supported and almost every major midi controller had Remote support.

That said I think once around the time REs hit, it started feeling like less newer controllers supported Reason remote. Last time I saw there document (several years ago), I saw devices mainly from the 2000s that were supported. That said I think now there are users who makes codecs for most controllers.

[QVprod]

Honestly, I’m not sure why this is still an argument. RRP solves this… and there’s pretty much no reason to upgrade again afterwards. Possibly ever. It’s quite literally a way out.

There's already precedent for older versions of Reason not running on newer versions of Windows running AMD processors, so I would never assume that Reason will always work. The solution, according to support: "To solve this, we recommend that you update to the newest version of Reason/Reason Essentials."

Not that old VSTs are immune to backwards compatibility issues, but I'm still running VSTs that haven't been updated in 10 or 15 years with no issues.

As you say there's risk with any plugin. I think the question would be whether the R11 rack works on Windows 11. Barring that, the only place I saw where it doesn't work well is on M1 Macs, but that's an anomaly of a situation being a whole type of processor transition that affected literally everything. But in the worse case you have to upgrade once every 10 years, is acceptable to me for something I'm actively using.

[MuttReason]

AFAIK there is no way to make that kind of adjustment per device in Reason, even when using a third party MIDI loopback app. Net effect is Reason isn’t a great option for hardware setups which is a shame.

While you can't easily nudge the MIDI timing, there are ways to adjust the audio latency, either in samples on the channel device, or in ms using (shameless self promotion warning!) the TS-1 Time Slider RE by Robotic Bean.

Self-promotion gratefully received, that is a proper top tip - thank you! I'm assuming if I advance or delay the audio signal that comes back from the hardware in response to a MIDI signal that is effectively no different to delaying or advancing the outbound MIDI signal in the first place? Thinking about it, I guess the Ableton Live per-channel Track Delay slider essentially does the same thing as your RE, yes? In other words, the Ableton Live Track Delay delays or advances the audio coming into the channel from the hardware by a few ms? The Live 11 manual isn't super clear on that point IIRC, it essentially says 'tweak this setting until all sounds good'.

If I'm right and your magic device does the same job as the Ableton Live Track Delay slider then your RE is added to my wish list right now..... first I just need this economy to stop being utterly shite and consuming my savings and will to live in equal measure and you will have another sale...

[DaveyG]

While you can't easily nudge the MIDI timing, there are ways to adjust the audio latency, either in samples on the channel device, or in ms using (shameless self promotion warning!) the TS-1 Time Slider RE by Robotic Bean.

Self-promotion gratefully received, that is a proper top tip - thank you! I'm assuming if I advance or delay the audio signal that comes back from the hardware in response to a MIDI signal that is effectively no different to delaying or advancing the outbound MIDI signal in the first place? Thinking about it, I guess the Ableton Live per-channel Track Delay slider essentially does the same thing as your RE, yes? In other words, the Ableton Live Track Delay delays or advances the audio coming into the channel from the hardware by a few ms? The Live 11 manual isn't super clear on that point IIRC, it essentially says 'tweak this setting until all sounds good'.

If I'm right and your magic device does the same job as the Ableton Live Track Delay slider then your RE is added to my wish list right now..... first I just need this economy to stop being utterly shite and consuming my savings and will to live in equal measure and you will have another sale...

I guess the problem is that Reason was never really about driving external synths. Reason was about replacing all those pesky cumbersome synths with software equivalents. In the meantime the wheel has turned full circle and many of us now have a handful of hardware synths again. Reason is, once again, suffering from being the laggard. I loved someone's observation that Reason has always been a slow train ride. These days it feels like we can get off the moving train, do some shopping, pop round to a mate's house for coffee and still get back on the train before it passes the end of the street.

[MuttReason]

I guess the problem is that Reason was never really about driving external synths. Reason was about replacing all those pesky cumbersome synths with software equivalents. In the meantime the wheel has turned and many of us now have a handful of hardware synths again. Reason is, once again, suffering from being the laggard. I loved someone's observation that Reason has always been a slow train ride. These days it feels like we can get off the moving train, do some shopping, pop round to a mate's house for coffee and still get back on the train before it passes the end of the street.

Yep, you're right, I was that guy (and there are quite a lot of us on this board I think) who tried Reason v1, thought "wow it's like my actual hardware studio but without ground hum, MIDI latency, crappy Hosa cable rat-nests and divorce-inducing levels of expenditure", sold all those pesky old-fashioned SH-101s and Junos (sob, gasp, no really I'm OK now...) and went ITB with Reason.... then years later thought "oh why not, just the one little hardware synth, it'll be fun" and.... bang... back to the future.

So, yes, we have software emulating hardware that we're trying to use to control new hardware that mimics the old hardware we sold because we discovered software that emulated hardware. Or something like that. Mad, really. But hey, 30+ years on it's still fun every day, so all good.

[Popey]

In my opinion one easy way for rs to make more money is include a blank rack vst which just has the devices needed for a rack extension to work in another daw (eg. Midi out etc). They could then give this free with any rack extension purchase (all not just rs devices) . That way if someone is on live, studio 1 etc they could just buy for example friktion without having to sub or buy a full version of Reason. This should also benefit rack extension developers as it opens the customer base (rs still make money from these sales too). This always seemed so obvious to me as it drives traffic to the shop and more people are likely to buy individual items if they are not interested in renting all the other devices through subscription. I am pretty positive this would mean extra sales from people who would never consider subscribing for a few devices. Future rack extensions and players then have a wider audience and potential customers.

[Jac459]

In my opinion one easy way for rs to make more money is include a blank rack vst which just has the devices needed for a rack extension to work in another daw (eg. Midi out etc). They could then give this free with any rack extension purchase (all not just rs devices) . That way if someone is on live, studio 1 etc they could just buy for example friktion without having to sub or buy a full version of Reason. This should also benefit rack extension developers as it opens the customer base (rs still make money from these sales too). This always seemed so obvious to me as it drives traffic to the shop and more people are likely to buy individual items if they are not interested in renting all the other devices through subscription. I am pretty positive this would mean extra sales from people who would never consider subscribing for a few devices. Future rack extensions and players then have a wider audience and potential customers.

Good idea actually... I ++ this one.

They could have a blank rack or even still a few stuffs like Subtractor and thor, some effects also like scream and the echo, to give appetite and for the people really being able to test....

And then again more patches using this raw power with combinator 2.
It is good to have a rack but if I only use it to load one synth at a time... Well, it is almost as good as a normal vst synth... But less good.
If I use my rack as a rack, to chain effects, players, synths, then it really is better than many other synths.
But to do that they need much more demos of that with easy to access combinator patched.

[Popey]

In my opinion one easy way for rs to make more money is include a blank rack vst which just has the devices needed for a rack extension to work in another daw (eg. Midi out etc). They could then give this free with any rack extension purchase (all not just rs devices) . That way if someone is on live, studio 1 etc they could just buy for example friktion without having to sub or buy a full version of Reason. This should also benefit rack extension developers as it opens the customer base (rs still make money from these sales too). This always seemed so obvious to me as it drives traffic to the shop and more people are likely to buy individual items if they are not interested in renting all the other devices through subscription. I am pretty positive this would mean extra sales from people who would never consider subscribing for a few devices. Future rack extensions and players then have a wider audience and potential customers.

Good idea actually... I ++ this one.

They could have a blank rack or even still a few stuffs like Subtractor and thor, some effects also like scream and the echo, to give appetite and for the people really being able to test....

And then again more patches using this raw power with combinator 2.
It is good to have a rack but if I only use it to load one synth at a time... Well, it is almost as good as a normal vst synth... But less good.
If I use my rack as a rack, to chain effects, players, synths, then it really is better than many other synths.
But to do that they need much more demos of that with easy to access combinator patched.

They originally had a reason lite rack plugin that was free with purchases from plugin boutique but they pulled this (possibly as it had a few devices and maybe could have affected r+ sales if I had to guess). That's why I thought a blank rack that just came with free devices to make the rack extension work with any daw would be more suitable without impacting r+ etc may work.

[thx]

I only check a few threads now and then, but reading about all these endless DAW wants, does anyone ever make the argument that RRP = DAW ENHANCEMENTS?

It's literally all the DAW enhancements you could ever wish for. From Propellerheads! That is incredibly generous and efficient. Here, have your session view, your REAPER jsfx, here's your Bitwig grid integration, there's your Studio One blueyness...

I mean, Rewire was basically the same thing too. Maybe everything has always been ace.

[chimp_spanner]

I only check a few threads now and then, but reading about all these endless DAW wants, does anyone ever make the argument that RRP = DAW ENHANCEMENTS?

It's literally all the DAW enhancements you could ever wish for. From Propellerheads! That is incredibly generous and efficient. Here, have your session view, your REAPER jsfx, here's your Bitwig grid integration, there's your Studio One blueyness...

I mean, Rewire was basically the same thing too. Maybe everything has always been ace.

It's true in some ways. But as I've said in other comments, for me, I lose out on things I like/need:

- Player integration
- Reason's automation clips
- Ease of remote assignment vs other DAWs
- Interconnectivity between instruments (using gates in my drums, for example, to trigger things like ducking, arp resets, envelope triggers)
- Audio pitch edit (Live is the best candidate for a Reason DAW replacement but it doesn't have this yet)

I suppose whichever DAW you use you're gonna compromise on something. Live doesn't have everything that Cubase has, and Cubase doesn't have everything Studio One has, etc. It's frustrating. But it is what it is.

[ShelLuser]

I'm late to the discussion but... first...

@JiggeryPokery
I apologize for (briefly!) going fanboy mode into this dicussion but ... I cannot resist. I basically stopped using Reason frequently but at the same time I still often use RE's like your modulation oscillators, ... errr: your Ammo 400R, 1200BR, JPS (= personal favorite) and I sometimes still use your amazing Shimmerverb (= also personal favorite).

You're "only" competing with the full set of Komplete UC which I now also have and I still often favor your RE's. Yeah.... had to share.


My take on all this?

What did you expect? I can only reflect on my own situation... Ableton Live has always been the main center of my home studio, now for well over 10 years. But a few months after I picked up on Live 8 I discovered Reason 4. I was almost immediately sold. I even grabbed a "not so legal" copy because the demo feature sucked big time and I bought a full license the next day.

From there on my "power combo" was Live + Reason, and it has been this way for almost 10 years.

The rack plugin never covered it for me because I became really accustomed to using 2 sequencers. Both Live & Reason. When that no longer worked... I started looking for other solutions to fill in this gap. At first I decided to focus on NI's Maschine, considering that it also had a sequencer, and while I still use Maschine quite heavily (in combination with the previously mentioned Komplete UC) it never was that Reason substitute I was looking for.

Then I (re)discovered FL Studio. A full DAW; instruments, sequencer, mixer.. the works. Fully working in Live. And Reason's block mode (I had so much fun with that!) that's pretty much a standard here.

IMO part of the whole problem here was turning Reason into something it was not. Reason was always a full DAW + an option to support other environments. For almost 10 years this was THE thing, and I used and abused it to no end. Heck, people even found ways to "abuse" ReWire and get MIDI out of Reason through the use of Thor as interface and using some Javascript code (powered by the freely available ReaJS plugin) and... RPG8 within Live? OMFG!!!

Reason was all about sound, experimentation and "doing stuff" and then all of a sudden it got degraded - from my point of view - to a mere instrument rack. I started looking for "other options" and ended up pouring a lot of money into Maschine, Komplete, U-HE (through NI), SoundIron (through NI) and I kinda stopped looking back.

Also... I think Reason Studios are well aware... why is it that their latest Rack extension tells you that it'll work with Reason 10 and up? At this time I cannot help but be convinced that the lack of RE upgrades is caused by both VST support, but also a need for more revenue.

I'm actually demo'ing that player as we speak because the players ... once again from my POV .. are one of Reason's most underappreciated yet awesome features. I still cannot wrap my head around it... why is it that only AFTER we had several Reason players that "other companies" (<cough> NI <cough>) also started to add sequences to their instruments?

For the record... this is NOT a sneer or anything like that, please don't pick it up in a way it's not intended. Looking back... I'm honestly just sad to see the way things turned out. From my POV the Prop's were way ahead of their time. Yet now... I dunno anymore.

Thanks for reading...

[SebAudio]

Good idea actually... I ++ this one.

They could have a blank rack or even still a few stuffs like Subtractor and thor, some effects also like scream and the echo, to give appetite and for the people really being able to test....

And then again more patches using this raw power with combinator 2.
It is good to have a rack but if I only use it to load one synth at a time... Well, it is almost as good as a normal vst synth... But less good.
If I use my rack as a rack, to chain effects, players, synths, then it really is better than many other synths.
But to do that they need much more demos of that with easy to access combinator patched.

They originally had a reason lite rack plugin that was free with purchases from plugin boutique but they pulled this (possibly as it had a few devices and maybe could have affected r+ sales if I had to guess). That's why I thought a blank rack that just came with free devices to make the rack extension work with any daw would be more suitable without impacting r+ etc may work.

These ideas are good and somewhat « logical » when thinking (rightly) that REs are on part with VST. But RRP makes things more complicated : it’s a shell for instruments and or FXs and there’s no way to « move » from one device to the other except using the mouse. With VSTs you use the « native » DAW navigation scheme and so hw controllers just allow you to use buttons, knobs to go from one device to another. And there’s what seems to be a bug in that the name of the automated parameters are not stored correctly : they’re named « param100x » instead of « filter cutoff ». And the names are prefixed with the device name to sort parameters with the sam-y names (the shell…). That’s making automation as bad as using CC numbers. An internal Remote or kind of inside RRP is much needed.
And then there’s the fact that RE can’t be transferred. 99% of VST can.

[Popey]

They originally had a reason lite rack plugin that was free with purchases from plugin boutique but they pulled this (possibly as it had a few devices and maybe could have affected r+ sales if I had to guess). That's why I thought a blank rack that just came with free devices to make the rack extension work with any daw would be more suitable without impacting r+ etc may work.

These ideas are good and somewhat « logical » when thinking (rightly) that REs are on part with VST. But RRP makes things more complicated : it’s a shell for instruments and or FXs and there’s no way to « move » from one device to the other except using the mouse. With VSTs you use the « native » DAW navigation scheme and so hw controllers just allow you to use buttons, knobs to go from one device to another. And there’s what seems to be a bug in that the name of the automated parameters are not stored correctly : they’re named « param100x » instead of « filter cutoff ». And the names are prefixed with the device name to sort parameters with the sam-y names (the shell…). That’s making automation as bad as using CC numbers. An internal Remote or kind of inside RRP is much needed.
And then there’s the fact that RE can’t be transferred. 99% of VST can.

Yeah fair points i would agree. Perhaps they could give it for free as it is now and work on improvements and updating it . The parameter naming I especially find a pain at times.

[SebAudio]

These ideas are good and somewhat « logical » when thinking (rightly) that REs are on part with VST. But RRP makes things more complicated : it’s a shell for instruments and or FXs and there’s no way to « move » from one device to the other except using the mouse. With VSTs you use the « native » DAW navigation scheme and so hw controllers just allow you to use buttons, knobs to go from one device to another. And there’s what seems to be a bug in that the name of the automated parameters are not stored correctly : they’re named « param100x » instead of « filter cutoff ». And the names are prefixed with the device name to sort parameters with the sam-y names (the shell…). That’s making automation as bad as using CC numbers. An internal Remote or kind of inside RRP is much needed.
And then there’s the fact that RE can’t be transferred. 99% of VST can.

Yeah fair points i would agree. Perhaps they could give it for free as it is now and work on improvements and updating it . The parameter naming I especially find a pain at times.

When I think how great and unique it was in 2000 to have _names_ within Reason in automation lanes when every other sequencer was dealing with CC numbers and now, 22 years later with RRP they want us to go with parameter names such as 1000, 10001, etc it’s sad !

[jam-s]

These ideas are good and somewhat « logical » when thinking (rightly) that REs are on part with VST. But RRP makes things more complicated : it’s a shell for instruments and or FXs and there’s no way to « move » from one device to the other except using the mouse. With VSTs you use the « native » DAW navigation scheme and so hw controllers just allow you to use buttons, knobs to go from one device to another. And there’s what seems to be a bug in that the name of the automated parameters are not stored correctly : they’re named « param100x » instead of « filter cutoff ». And the names are prefixed with the device name to sort parameters with the sam-y names (the shell…). That’s making automation as bad as using CC numbers. An internal Remote or kind of inside RRP is much needed.
And then there’s the fact that RE can’t be transferred. 99% of VST can.

The most usable workaround to this imho is to just always use a combinator inside the RRP. This way you can have a consistent mapping of parameters across tracks and also easily setup hardware controllers to work with the RRP.

[SebAudio]

These ideas are good and somewhat « logical » when thinking (rightly) that REs are on part with VST. But RRP makes things more complicated : it’s a shell for instruments and or FXs and there’s no way to « move » from one device to the other except using the mouse. With VSTs you use the « native » DAW navigation scheme and so hw controllers just allow you to use buttons, knobs to go from one device to another. And there’s what seems to be a bug in that the name of the automated parameters are not stored correctly : they’re named « param100x » instead of « filter cutoff ». And the names are prefixed with the device name to sort parameters with the sam-y names (the shell…). That’s making automation as bad as using CC numbers. An internal Remote or kind of inside RRP is much needed.
And then there’s the fact that RE can’t be transferred. 99% of VST can.

The most usable workaround to this imho is to just always use a combinator inside the RRP. This way you can have a consistent mapping of parameters across tracks and also easily setup hardware controllers to work with the RRP.

Thank you, but it's the same with the combinator : the names are there when you create the mapping for remote / automation (yes, the labels of the combo are there !) but when reopening the song, names are gone, replaced by the 100x numbers ! I've created a specific thread viewtopic.php?f=66&t=7529029 because it's not the subject of this one.

[mcatalao]

Such beauty has 0 content, no instrumenta, odd effects and 0 appeal. And this is only valid if you're running your daw from a 128 gb or less surface. And on a side note, it's quite easy to redirect refills and Re folders to a second hard drive, at least on windows.

this is absurd. we’re musicians. it’s literally our job to create the content. I feel sorry for anyone who thinks they need a huge suite of digital instruments before we can work.

0 content, means not even a freaking piano. I am a musician, and i could use reaper as a midi recorder with my keyboards, but heck, not everyone has an arsenal of sounds outside the box, and Reaper is the exception to the norm. Every daw has content so that it can get you going from Reason, to cubase, Ableton, and so on. The last time i opened reaper? You spend 60 usd on a DAW and if you're starting, 0 content for composing.

[guitfnky]

this is absurd. we’re musicians. it’s literally our job to create the content. I feel sorry for anyone who thinks they need a huge suite of digital instruments before we can work.

0 content, means not even a freaking piano. I am a musician, and i could use reaper as a midi recorder with my keyboards, but heck, not everyone has an arsenal of sounds outside the box, and Reaper is the exception to the norm. Every daw has content so that it can get you going from Reason, to cubase, Ableton, and so on. The last time i opened reaper? You spend 60 usd on a DAW and if you're starting, 0 content for composing.

cool. it’s a DAW. if you don’t like it, use another. just because you feel like you need a bunch of curated patches or some nonsense doesn’t make it any less useful. you’d know that if you’d—you know—used it.

[QVprod]

0 content, means not even a freaking piano. I am a musician, and i could use reaper as a midi recorder with my keyboards, but heck, not everyone has an arsenal of sounds outside the box, and Reaper is the exception to the norm. Every daw has content so that it can get you going from Reason, to cubase, Ableton, and so on. The last time i opened reaper? You spend 60 usd on a DAW and if you're starting, 0 content for composing.

cool. it’s a DAW. if you don’t like it, use another. just because you feel like you need a bunch of curated patches or some nonsense doesn’t make it any less useful. you’d know that if you’d—you know—used it.

I think you’re thinking of this from a guitarist angle. In which case you’d be right. But for those of us non guitar people, the sounds have to come from somewhere. That’s why literally every other DAW comes with stock sounds. In this case it would be less useful, particularly for someone who doesn’t yet have a plug-in collection.

[guitfnky]

cool. it’s a DAW. if you don’t like it, use another. just because you feel like you need a bunch of curated patches or some nonsense doesn’t make it any less useful. you’d know that if you’d—you know—used it.

I think you’re thinking of this from a guitarist angle. In which case you’d be right. But for those of us non guitar people, the sounds have to come from somewhere. That’s why literally every other DAW comes with stock sounds. In this case it would be less useful, particularly for someone who doesn’t yet have a plug-in collection.

I'm thinking of it from the angle of being a musician. if someone wants to make music, there is no excuse not to, period. and you seem to have ignored both the part where I pointed out there are tons of great free VSTs out there, and the part where I suggest if you don't like what it has to offer, don't use it.

but more importantly, the point (as I've stated) is that it's dumb to act like a piece of software is useless for everyone just because it doesn't suit you in particular.

[Jac459]

I think you’re thinking of this from a guitarist angle. In which case you’d be right. But for those of us non guitar people, the sounds have to come from somewhere. That’s why literally every other DAW comes with stock sounds. In this case it would be less useful, particularly for someone who doesn’t yet have a plug-in collection.

I'm thinking of it from the angle of being a musician. if someone wants to make music, there is no excuse not to, period. and you seem to have ignored both the part where I pointed out there are tons of great free VSTs out there, and the part where I suggest if you don't like what it has to offer, don't use it.

but more importantly, the point (as I've stated) is that it's dumb to act like a piece of software is useless for everyone just because it doesn't suit you in particular.

I don't see the link between willing to have instruments ready and being a musician.
Do you considere than people doing their own presets are more musician than people who don't? Did you sculpt your guitar out of a tree yourself or did you went for the lazy way of buying one ready?

On the other hand, Reaper choosing to not integrate instruments out of the box because they have an aggressive approach on pricing absolutely makes a lot of sense for me. They prefere reduce on instruments and not on feature it is perfectly logical to me.

Yet, some people (musicians!) will prefere to have instruments out of the box, good for them, it is their choice and that's why there are many different DAW (as you said rightly).