Revisit, revise and reuse

[wikholm]

I'd like to see some Reason Devices revisited and revised, mainly by code reuse. I think PH are sitting on a treasure trove of code that can be made more useful, and thus more profitable. Thor, for example, can probably be upgraded with more oscillator and filter types by reusing existing stuff. While it wouldn't mean "no effort required", it would likely be cheaper than building new things from scratch.
A SubTractor oscillator has "Phase", "Mode" and "Waveform" and seems like it could mesh fairly well with the existing Thor oscillators. While Thor already has a wavetable oscillator, the ID8, with its 36 sounds and two parameters could likely be reused as a "ROM" type sample based oscillator, and a Malström oscillator, with "Graintable", "Index" and "Motion" could probably be made to fit too. There isn't a sampler simple enough to drop into a Thor oscillator slot, but some existing devices can load or record a sample. Reasonably that code could be reused to create a simple sample based oscillator, with just like two parameters for loop points.
By and large there are many small modules in Reason, half-racks, Kong effects, Thor oscillators and filters. Many of those could reasonably be cross-adapted. Many of the half-racks could be made to fit Thor "filter" slots or Kong effect slots, while the Thor oscillators, filters and Kong effects could be made into half-racks.
Much of what this would add can indeed be achieved today by routing things into and out of Thor or Kong, but having to use an entire Kong just to use, say, the "Tape Echo" is a lot messier than if we could have it as a half-rack. By adding those blocks into Thor, it would be easier to save a sound as a patch. Right now, one would have to make a Combinator, which then (for good reason) can't go inside another Combinator.
Since neither the Thor app nor the Thor or Kong in Figure can use the rear side routing of Reason, more oscillators and "filter" (effect) types would likely make even more sense there. Since there's a Kong (sans UI) inside Figure, I hope there will be a Kong app too. To be useful, it would need a pattern sequencer section, which can be borrowed from existing devices and then reused by adding it to the Reason variety of Kong too.

This is getting long, but I think you get the point. There are a lot of existing bits and pieces that I think could be used for more things than they are.

[lowpryo]

I think half the fun of Reason is getting inspired by the tools as they work now, complete with all of their limitations. It's fun to manipulate and work around all of these different synths that all have modules and quirks that are unique to them. I think if you were to add the ability to use Kong modules in Thor, or add Subtractor or Malstrom oscillators to Thor, you're kinda clouding up your workflow with too many options. that's just a personal preference for me and how I work, though.

[tiker01]

I would like to have the Kong effects as half rack devices.

[SebAudio]

Props have shown over time that they rarely update their devices. And with the RE business I don't think they change that policy.

[wikholm]

Props have shown over time that they rarely update their devices. And with the RE business I don't think they change that policy.

Overall I think it's a reasonable policy for devices that are supposed to kind of look and work as if they were physical items, but updates such as those mentioned wouldn't, I think, break the "hardware" feel. Those that would sit well with the mobile offerings would seem like a good return on investment too, especially if much of the DSP code already exists, but you're quite likely right. PH doesn't seem to look back much.
While I can agree with lowpryo that some of the appeal is that the Reason devices are a bit quirky, I tend to end up with more clutter than I'd like. For me as an amateur, that's pretty much a first-world problem. If I'd be using Reason in some business capacity, I think I'd find it rather frustrating though.