Hey folks, i wrote a Mail to Reason Studios with things i think people (or at least i) would love to see in reason. I thought, i share it here to see, what others think of it. And sorry for some complicated explanations. I‘m not a native english speaker. Let me know if you like these ideas. Dear Reason team,
at first, sorry for two things: my english (not a native speaker) and the length of this mail. I don‘t know if this is the right place for this message. If it isn‘t, i hope the one who receives it, can pass it in to the right person. Basically this are ideas to make reason better. Maybe there are some that you already heard and maybe there are some that you not thought of. But i think some of them are important and would benefit you as a company and also a large part of the user base. So here are my ideas for future updates:
1. Analyzer Update
The Fact that you can open the analyzer for the channel you‘re tweaking by simply pressing F2 is one of the most time saving things in Reason. Now it would be cool to have some more options with the Analyzer. I would love to see an Average-Mode like in Voxengo Span for example (i don‘t know any standard-analyzer in a DAW that does this, but i find it often very useful) and a Peak mode as well. A multi-channel-view for all 3 modes would be useful too. Imagine just pressing F2 and choose the second channel to see where things clash. This would be so much faster than in any other DAW.
2. Mclass EQ Update
The current Mclass EQ could be a huge workflow improvement with the right upgrades and i think it should be possible without breaking backwards-compatibility. An EQ is one of the most used tools for sound design AND mixing. Currently the MClass EQ has 2 bells and 2 shelfs. I think it lacks more flexibility. How about doubling the height and put the display that shows the curve in the upper half. This way you can put the double amount of knobs underneath it and you could lay it out like this: lo cut / low shelf / 4xbell or tilt or notch (switchable) / high shelf / high cut. If i load a file with an old Mclass EQ in it, only the shelfs and first two bells are activated and represent the curve of the old patch/device. I am definitely not a programmer but in my non-programmer-brain, i think this should be possible to do.
3. Multi-Out CV/Audio
Here‘s the scenario: i got a synth and a sweeper and audiomatic after that. Now i want do modulate the transform knob on audiomatic and the filter frequency of the synth via envelope follower of the sweeper device. I can‘t. I can only choose one. If i would do it for both, i have to drag a CV-splitter in the rack an split it manually, which makes the rack more cluttered/confusing AND it‘s time consuming. For audio it‘s the same thing. If i want to send an audio signal to different destinations, i have to split it first. A good way to solve this problem would be to copy the way Complex-1 works. In the Complex-1 interface i can send one source to multiple destinations and it still has the cable/rack-workflow. This is also what makes Complex-1 so fun for experimentation. Now imagine how much faster you could experiment inside a Combinator/the rack. The splitter devices should stay in Reason because of backwards compatibility.
4. Combinator Modulation
Another scenario: I have a combinator with a LFO routed to the CV-input 1 of this combinator. Now i want to modulate a parameter of an effect which has no CV-inputs on the back. So i choose CV1 to modulate this parameter in the combinator menu. Unfortunately it can’t modulate as i can choose a Max- and Min-value (which is useful too). How about an additional modulation-mode in the combinator matrix, which deactivates the Min-/Max-values and instead modulates the parameter around it’s base value by the choosen amount dialed in. This way i can dial in a modulation for almost everything. And if i want to change the base value for a parameter later, i can do it without having to open the Combinator matrix and change the Min- & Max-values there.
5. Drop Sample to new…
Sometimes you‘re browsing samples for inspiration. When you find something you like, you usually know, which device/sampler you want to use it in. Let’s say i found a sample i want to use with grain. After i found it, i first have to create a Grain device, then navigate back to the sample and drop it into grain. What i would love to see, is the ability to right-click a sample in the browser. The browser then shows a dropdown menu which says „Drop sample to new…“ and the list of the devices in Reason, that can load samples. I’m choosing Grain and a new grain device with the sample already loaded is created in the rack. A nice time saver.
6. Mimic Tempo-Sync & Slots
One of the cool things about Mimic is that you can timestretch samples how you want and that they are not automatically synced to the tempo. But „Sync to Tempo“ is still an essential feature. If i have a drumloop in Mimic and i decide later, that i want to change the BPM of my track i have to manually fiddle around on the speed knob or use a calculator to get the new speed/timestretch amount. I think looking at Logic‘s Quick Sampler is a good idea. There you can set a start and an end point and click „Derive tempo from Loop Length“. And then i can choose the musical length of the selected section. I basically tell the sampler „This looped or marked section is two quarter notes long. Based on that, please sretch the entire Sample to the BPM of the song.“ This would be a super useful tool for Mimic.
Second thing i (and i guess many others) would love to see in Mimic is the ability to copy slots.
7. Send & Return
Scenario: I want to send different Parts of a drumkit to a send-effect and then send the return of that also to the drum bus. I can do that by connecting a mix channel to the send and put the effect in that mix channel and connect the channel to the drum bus. But this causes two problems:
1. Depending on the effect, it causes audible phase shift. I know this is happening because of an introduced delay to prevent feedbacks, because i can send the return mix channel to itself in the mixer. How about giving us a „no feedback mode“ in the preferences, that gets rid of the delay and instead greys out the send knobs in the mixer, that would cause the feedback? In my non-programmer-brain this should also be possible.
2. If i make that routing i can‘t solo the return channel to hear it individual to check for things that need a bit of processing/eqing etc. The possibility to do that would really be nice.
PS: A selctable second row with another 8 sends would be nice
8. Parallel Channels
I love the parallel channels in terms of simplicity. Just right-click, choose parallel channel and it‘s there. However, the parallel signal is only the input of the initial mix channel. This can sometimes be exactly what i want and sometimes not. If i have some processing on this initial channel and i want that to be „baked in“ in the new parallel, i have to copy the effects and mixer setting to the new parallel channel and then process it further. This means the double amount of RE‘s, Fx or VST‘s and so the double amount of CPU usage (and extra clicks). It would be cool to have the option to decide where the parallel channel gets the signal from („Create Parallel Channel“ > „From Insert“ or „After Effects/Pre-Fader“. This would mean more possibilities, less clicks and saved CPU.
9. Combinator Automation
Scenario: I have a combinator instrument patch that includes an instrument and an effect. Now i want to automate a parameter of the effect in the midi clip. To do that, i woul have to map this parameter to a new knob in the combinator and then choose this knob in the clip automation. The best solution in my opinion would be that the clip automation shows alle the automatable knobs and buttons of the combinator but also all devices/effects that are in the combinator and their automatable buttons etc.. The same for automation tracks: if i want to automate a device inside a combinator, it would be cool to have the automation lane tied to the combinator track. This would result also in less clicks and a less cluttered sequencer.
10. Combinator Gate-Trig
I would love to see some CV/Note/Gate/Random-Outs on the backside of the combinator based on the midi Input the combinator receives to trigger things inside it quickly. Now i have to drag in an extra device that receives this information and passes it on as cv-signal (for example RPG-8).
11. Sample editor - processing and saving a copy
Scenario: I have a snare drum on a kong pad. I copy that snare over to another kong pad. This copy i want to edit in the sample editor to adjust for example the start point or edit parts out. I can‘t save the edited sample without replacing the original, even if i give it a new name. My dream is a „Save as new sample“ button in the editor.
To take it a bit further: How cool would it be to have a rack inside the sample editor, so that i can quickly process/alternate the sound of a sample and then save it as new sample. This would save cpu and also allow more creative freedom, especially for designing drum sounds/kits.
12. Audio clips connect
Scenario: I have a loooong sample and i only need some parts of it and cutted them out in the sequencer and deleted the rest. Now those parts are far away from each other. If i want to connect them, i have to do it manually and move the start of clip two to the end of clip one, the start of clip three to the end of clip two and so on. How about selecting all these clips, right click and choose „connect clip edges“ (or something like that) and the start and end points of the clips are connected. So i can join them after that and have what i want from the sample.
13. Midi Ideas
Now that the editor window moved to the left side of the midi editor, i (and others) would love to see some things.
1. Probability for single notes (super useful for drum hits) and/or a group/sequence of notes (super useful for random bass fills or other phrases for example)
2. Strumming
3. Scale highlight and fold
4. Flam
Even if this is added, the players don‘t lose their purpose. They are still great „Jam-Machines“.
14. Updated Scream4
I love the sound of the scream4 device. I only wish i could use it in parallel. Yes i could save me a combinator patch for this (which i already did), but thats still more time consuming than a simple mix knob. I know the tape saturation causes phase shift and thats not ideal for parallel processing, but maybe you could add a new tape saturation and include a „legacy-mode“ to maintain backwards compatibility.
15. MIDI-COMPING
Please add comping of midi recordings just like for audio. Please, Please, Please.
That‘s it. I hope some of the things are useful for you and maybe i can have some feedback on my feedback
Thanks.
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