Life after Rewire

[spacepluk]

I've been away from Reason for a couple of years and I'm trying to sync Reason with a Pro Tools session with video. Is there any way to achieve decent synchronization now that there is no Rewire?

I doesn't have to be sample accurate but enough for me to be able to scrub the video from reason and place notes/fx in the right places.

[QVprod]

If this is for an older reason song you made, the simplest way is if you have a license for Reason 10 or earlier, to use one of those versions.

Otherwise best way to use Reason 12 with another DAW is to use the rack plugin.

[spacepluk]

Got it, this is for a new project. I want to make and arrange the music with Reason but I need a way to sync the video.

[joeyluck]

Is it only to sync video? There's VidPlayVST which works alright. It's got some quirks when using in Reason, like the video not updating in realtime when scrubbing... It plays ok (aside from the occasional hiccups), but when dragging the playhead, it only updates after you release it (this isn't the case when using it in other DAWs). Makes it pretty cumbersome when trying to sync precise events in the video.

[selig]

Got it, this is for a new project. I want to make and arrange the music with Reason but I need a way to sync the video.

Ableton Link is supported by Reason and Logic, so syncing the two should be no problem (I have NOT tested this myself, but Link is pretty fool proof in my experience).

[spacepluk]

Is it only to sync video? There's VidPlayVST which works alright. It's got some quirks when using in Reason, like the video not updating in realtime when scrubbing... It plays ok (aside from the occasional hiccups), but when dragging the playhead, it only updates after you release it (this isn't the case when using it in other DAWs). Makes it pretty cumbersome when trying to sync precise events in the video.

Syncing with the whole Pro Tools session would be preferable because some of audio stuff is a lot easier to do there. But I'll give that a try thanks for the suggestion!

[spacepluk]

Got it, this is for a new project. I want to make and arrange the music with Reason but I need a way to sync the video.

Ableton Link is supported by Reason and Logic, so syncing the two should be no problem (I have NOT tested this myself, but Link is pretty fool proof in my experience).

I tried Ableton Link but it doesn't sync the timeline positions which is necessary to scrub for specific frames from both sides. And also it looks like Reason doesn't support Start/Stop
So it doesn't really work for this purposes unless I'm doing something wrong.

[DaveyG]

As long as you are not wanting to open an existing Reason project your best bet is probably to load Reason as a plugin within ProTools.
That gets you one or more instances of the Reason Rack inside ProTools but not Reason's sequencer or mixer.

[spacepluk]

As long as you are not wanting to open an existing Reason project your best bet is probably to load Reason as a plugin within ProTools.
That gets you one or more instances of the Reason Rack inside ProTools but not Reason's sequencer or mixer.

Yeah, I think I might end up doing that. But it's a shame because I really like how the devices integrate with Reason's sequencer.

[QVprod]

There’s one other option but the audio for both programs would be separate. You could try to sync the two programs with midi time code. Not quite sure how well that works with video scrubbing though. Maybe if Reason is the master it works better.

[DaveyG]

As long as you are not wanting to open an existing Reason project your best bet is probably to load Reason as a plugin within ProTools.
That gets you one or more instances of the Reason Rack inside ProTools but not Reason's sequencer or mixer.

Yeah, I think I might end up doing that. But it's a shame because I really like how the devices integrate with Reason's sequencer.

I know what you are saying. I've made good use of Rewire in the past.

[spacepluk]

There’s one other option but the audio for both programs would be separate. You could try to sync the two programs with midi time code. Not quite sure how well that works with video scrubbing though. Maybe if Reason is the master it works better.

I think separate audio should be fine! I tried to set it up like that but it looks like Reason doesn't support MTC

[djadalaide]

You are better off just using reason as a plugin within protools, and using protools' sequencer

[ShelLuser]

I've been away from Reason for a couple of years and I'm trying to sync Reason with a Pro Tools session with video. Is there any way to achieve decent synchronization now that there is no Rewire?

Apologies up front, but this topic kinda hit me hard because before the Propellerheads deciced to dump Rewire and turn the company into a "studio" I heavily relied on ReWire as well. Hacked the heck out of it too: (ab)using Thor to push MIDI data over audio channels out of Reason into Live? (disclaimer: this was not my original design!)

Oh right... I'm a Live user first and foremost, I've used Reason ever since version 4 which I picked up to extend on my Live setup (8 back then). For most of the past decade it's been Live + Reason for me.

To answer your topic: there is no life after Rewire, not if you also relied on the Reason sequencer. Totally offtopic but I replaced Reason with FL Studio which can be used in other DAW's courtesy of their VSTi. And not just a part of it: the whole deal, including the sequencer (which is a huge deal for me; it may sound crazy but using 2 sequencers in parallel? I never want to miss out on that!).

This also brings me to the next point: the reason rack itself, though heavily reduced in its functionality, can be used in other DAW's using the Reason rack plugin. I sporadically still use it but hardly as often as I used to, because next to the sequencer I also relied on the "multi rack" option, and that's not supported by the VST either, it's basically going back to Reason 4.

I hate to say this but if you were like me, relying on 2 sequencers in parallel, then Reason can no longer provide.

And to be perfectly honest I just don't get it. That "other DAW" also switched to a VSTi in answer to the drop of ReWire but they focussed on the full DAW, including the sequencer. And I don't get it, also considering that the Propellerheads were - in my perception - way ahead of their time. (edit) : The players are still huge to me. Fun fact: Live added MIDI generation in their latest release (Live 12), yet this still doesn't come close to the stuff that the Reason players can do.

I own a lot of rack extensions. Some of which like The Legend and Antidote I kept as is, others I now also have as a VSTi so that I can use 'm directly in Live or FL Studio. So about that.... it's intruiging I think: if I use a device in FL Studio as a plugin (edit: while using 'FLS' as a plugin as well!) or in the Reason rack plugin as a rack extention then the latter will gobble up a lot less resources than its VST counterpart.

Making me even more sad about the loss of ReWire

"Sorta", because I also kinda moved on. Still can't help thinking back at times though :/

(edit): I still miss Frank's voice on YouTube

[crimsonwarlock]

I'm a Live user first and foremost

So you can use Ableton Link. Should be able to get you close to rewire functionality, maybe with the help of some virtual audio loopback.

There's also BlueCat's Connector: https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/P ... Connector/

[spacepluk]

hehehe, thanks for sharing all that! It is indeed a sad situation.

I tried to do it with Ableton Link but Reason doesn’t respond to start/stop and you have to wait for the beat when you hit play which I think would get a bit unnerving hahaha

I managed to slave Reason to Pro Tools using Midi Beat Clock (different from MTC), but then if you hit play in Reason you get a popup that tells you it doesn’t control the transport… And there is no MMC support as far as I can tell…

So yeah, it went from having the best solution with Rewire to not working at all for these purposes. I did some testing with Cubase+Protools and Live+Protools and you can get something decent going with MTC/MMC, hopefully they’ll add support for that in Reason at some point.

In the meantime I think I’ll just sequence in Pro Tools and use the plugin but it’s a bummer!

[selig]

hehehe, thanks for sharing all that! It is indeed a sad situation.

I tried to do it with Ableton Link but Reason doesn’t respond to start/stop and you have to wait for the beat when you hit play which I think would get a bit unnerving hahaha

I managed to slave Reason to Pro Tools using Midi Beat Clock (different from MTC), but then if you hit play in Reason you get a popup that tells you it doesn’t control the transport… And there is no MMC support as far as I can tell…

So yeah, it went from having the best solution with Rewire to not working at all for these purposes. I did some testing with Cubase+Protools and Live+Protools and you can get something decent going with MTC/MMC, hopefully they’ll add support for that in Reason at some point.

In the meantime I think I’ll just sequence in Pro Tools and use the plugin but it’s a bummer!

I don't know if this helps, but the transport is controllable via Mackie Control, I have a button controller that does this (Stream Deck).

[spacepluk]

I don't know if this helps, but the transport is controllable via Mackie Control, I have a button controller that does this (Stream Deck).

it does! all the ideas are welcome!
I actually thought about controlling Pro Tools directly via MMC... but knowing myself I'm going to have a really hard time overcoming the muscle memory for hitting the spacebar to play while I'm editing stuff.

[spacepluk]

hmm wait.. maybe I can rebind the spacebar while reason has the focus

[avasopht]

IIRC Reaper can run as a ReWire client. It's a bit of a stretch, but you could export your Reason tracks to MIDI, put them in a Reaper file, and then make an RRP patch for each instrument (assuming you have complex tempo changes and whatnot).

If you can easily match the tempo and its changes in Reason, you can bounce them to separates.

[ljekio]

I used this tool once for video sync with Reason
https://retouchcontrol.com/resync/