After using Ableton for a year, I'm going back to Reason.

This forum is for discussing Reason. Questions, answers, ideas, and opinions... all apply.
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selig
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Post 25 Jan 2025

Pepin wrote:
24 Jan 2025
selig wrote:
14 Jan 2025


If you’re talking about the AAF exchange format, I’m all for it. It’s the first media exchange format that fulfills the promise of simple reliable file exchange between DAWs.
So far my experience has only been exporting from Logic and importing into LUNA, but so far it’s been flawless. It even gets audio clips placed correctly, muted clips correctly, and basic automation. Which means you don’t have to consolidate or otherwise “prepare” the audio for export as I have always done in the past.
I would use it ALL the time if Reason supported it, it would be a godsend for me and my current workflow starting in Reason and mixing in LUNA.
dawproject support was just added to Cubase in the most recent release. It's already in Bitwig and StudioOne, with 3rd party converters for a few others. It contains a lot more information than AAF (midi, plugin settings, etc) so hopefully continues to gain adoption.

I'd like to see it in Reason at least for importing projects. Export is trickier due to the rack, but a simple project with standard routings could theoretically be exported as a dawproject with a bunch of RRP instances.
Unfortunately, no DAW I use supports it, and nothing I do needs it. Between MIDI export and AAF I got everything I need!
I never need plugins when exporting/importing, which seems to be the biggest difference between these formats.

As for Reason support, there would have to be some major changes (in Reason and in the exchange format) to accommodate Reasons eccentrics. For example, I don’t think volume automation would ever translate since it’s not based on decibels (this applies to AAF too). Then there’s REs, which if you mix signal paths with REs and VSTs things won’t translate (RRP doesn’t load VSTs). Even in its current state you cannot export from Reason to RRP, which would come in handy IMO and would be a good place to start!
Selig Audio, LLC

Popey
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Post 27 Jan 2025

I think other than sebaudio I am the only weirdo that loves session view. I treat it as my exploratory playground, be it jamming on the push to create melodies or taking a walk through beatmap solely driving one element (high hat, perc etc) to accompany my programmed drums. I often move the cursor around beatmap recording midi on the fly and keeping the good bits, this can end up with long loops well over 64 bars and not something I would want in arranger. Duplicate chop to clip and I soon have lots of ideas. 100% arranger view for creating a song from the ideas though.


Saying that I am firmly entrenched in my view there is only a best daw for you, not overall in any daw wars. I predominantly use live with RRP but openly acknowledge reason does somethings better than live and vice versa.

avasopht
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Post 27 Jan 2025

I like the session view as well - especially with the Push or Novation device.

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jam-s
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Post 28 Jan 2025

Session view is still the best mode for live gigs. More so if you use it in combination with a hardware controller like an APC or Push.

Thousand Ways
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Post 29 Jan 2025

I was about to post a new thread, asking about microtuning in Reason. Before doing that, I found this:
huggermugger wrote:
09 Jan 2025
Reason's target audience wouldn't even be able to spell 'microtuning', let alone know what it is. And they certainly would have no use for it.
Having used Reason since 2005, I'm presumably part of its "target audience". I'm interested in microtuning.
selig wrote:
09 Jan 2025
That said, since Reason synths CAN do some forms of microtuning, what I’m guessing many folks here are talking about is things like just intonation, as you can already easily do “popular” microtunings such as 19 (63.15%), 24 (50%), and 31(36.85%) notes per octave on many Reason synths. :)
Giles, when you say that microtuning is possible on Reason synths, do you mean in incremental/percentage terms only? So if you want to set a synth up so that C is microtuned down a few percent, and D is microtuned up a little, is there any in-built means of doing this? I don't know of one.

This wee rack extension —



— is still available in the Reason store. I think that it was made available there around 2014. It's only £9. But are there microtuning capabilities that have been added as standard to Reason since then which render this extension obsolete?

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huggermugger
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Post 29 Jan 2025

It is impossible in any Reason synth to fine tune individual notes in the scale, i.e. microtuning. You can detune the entire synth by cents or whatever arbitrary value Reason offers, and you can detune the entire Reason project by cents. But you cannot, for example, "set a synth up so that C is microtuned down a few percent, and D is microtuned up a little".

The MicroTune RE fakes it by using the pitchbender in realtime to adjust the tuning of individual notes. I trialled it. It's buggy and unreliable. And it's useless on polyphonic material because pitchbend is a channel message, not a note message.

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huggermugger
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Post 29 Jan 2025

Thousand Ways wrote:
29 Jan 2025

Having used Reason since 2005, I'm presumably part of its "target audience". I'm interested in microtuning.
Reason is not unique in this. Logic has the same internal limitation - none of its stock devices can be microtuned. The limitation is not a function of the DAW, it is a function of the devices. MIDI-capable DAWs deal with MIDI note numbers, which bear no direct relationship to the tuning of the note. For example, Middle C, MIDI Note # 60, might sound like middle C on a piano, but if you change the tuning of the synth, it can sound like any other possible note. MIDI (and the DAW) doesn't know the difference, it just says "play Note #60".

The answer to a sincere interest in microtuning is to invest in a few VSTs that feature it. AAS comes to mind - Chromaphone, Lounge Lizard, UltraAnalog, String Studio, all have a set of built-in alternative scales, and all can load Scala files. Pianoteq is another, a killer combination of glorious acoustic piano modelling and microtuning.
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Thousand Ways
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Post 30 Jan 2025

Huggermugger, many thanks for the info. The only other microtuning route I could imagine in Reason was to use automated pitch bend lanes, and, if microtuned chords were to be used, to have duplicated synths, each with the same pad and each with an automated pitch bend lane, running simultaneously. Convoluted, admittedly, but might be interesting.

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selig
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Post 30 Jan 2025

Thousand Ways wrote:
29 Jan 2025
selig wrote:
09 Jan 2025
That said, since Reason synths CAN do some forms of microtuning, what I’m guessing many folks here are talking about is things like just intonation, as you can already easily do “popular” microtunings such as 19 (63.15%), 24 (50%), and 31(36.85%) notes per octave on many Reason synths. :)
Giles, when you say that microtuning is possible on Reason synths, do you mean in incremental/percentage terms only? So if you want to set a synth up so that C is microtuned down a few percent, and D is microtuned up a little, is there any in-built means of doing this? I don't know of one.
I mean alternative notes per octave (more than 12 notes per octave, thus “micro”), not alternate tuning per note with the same notes per octave.
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Thousand Ways
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Post 30 Jan 2025

Ah. I hadn't thought of that.

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selig
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Post 30 Jan 2025

Thousand Ways wrote:
30 Jan 2025
Ah. I hadn't thought of that.
To be clear, there are multiple meaning for “microtonal” but most mean more than 12 tones per octave. Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtonality
Selig Audio, LLC

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bxbrkrz
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Post 01 Feb 2025

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miyaru
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Post 01 Feb 2025

I had Reason 4, switched back to Cubase back then. After a while I discoverd Push2/Live9 and bought them (that is Live9 suite).

Still have my Push2 and Live10 suite, but hardly use it anymore. The Push2 was used with Reason 12 due to the PusheR2 software.

I liked the sessionview for building arrangements. Nowadays I own an Akai Force, which has session and arranger view too. I quit using my Music PC. Love to work with the Force, as it is so inspiring and easy to worrk with. And every day I discover new things and options.

Recording audio, sampling, recording MIDI, working with CV - the Force does it all effordless.

But my all time favorite DAW is, and will be Reason for the friendly way it works and looks - it's fun to work with if it has to be done by computer. Live has a boring interface, altough technally it works just fine.

I have amazed myself with this Akai, as in the nineties when I attended the SAE school in Amsterdam, I always struggled with Akai samplers we had at school, and I really hated these samplers. With the Force sampling is so easy, even making my own keygroups is easy, and almost automatic.

Another thing with the Force: it is dead silent - no fans etc. I like that. I had a company build my Music PC years ago, and I wanted the PC to be silent too, it is but at a financial cost of course for good and silent cooling and powersupply.

As this PC is no longer supported after october 2025 (Win 10 Pro), and not upgradable to Win 11 (Intel i-7700), I had to find or a new PC or some kind of hardware setup.

I sold my Status Graphite Bass a while ago, and that made it possible to buy the Force, which I do not regret.

I have some unfinished stuff in Reason and Live, which I have to finish for myself. That is importend for me, and is a nice job in the winter!

Anyway, Live or Reason? They both have strong and weak points, but the most fun and satisfaction is Reason. Easy!!!
Greetings from Miyaru.
Akai Force, Reason12, Live Suit 10, Push2, Presonus Eris E8 and Monitor Station V2, Lexicon MPX1,
Korg N1, Yamaha RM1x :thumbup:

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bxbrkrz
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Post 08 Feb 2025

The Ableton Move is beautiful, and feels like a baby monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. A rather hefty baby monolith that won't slide on your lap or table. 10/10 :puf_smile: :thumbs_up:
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