Get to Know Reason's Combinator (new Reason Studios video)

[stratatonic]

I mean they’re not so bad that they look like absolute crap, but you’ve gotta admit they do look pretty low-effort, at least in the skins department.

Yeah ok, maybe not ABSOLUTE crap, but still a pretty sh*tty effort. The problem is using that weird color wheel logo on the right which is fine and balanced for the original Combi, but forces the comical misalignment of those bigger knobs, that make it look like children put it together in a pre-kindergarten class, and not a professional software company known for its graphics. They didn't need the same logo from 3 versions ago. They maybe didn't need one at all. That one takes up too much space especially if you're cramming so many knobs and sliders on the front panel.

I just think it’s low-effort to slap the existing backdrop on everything and cram a bunch of new controls into it.

bringing what they’re charging into it doesn’t make things any better. for $130, considering the wasteland of actual features in 12, they should’ve at least made it look like they didn’t just throw shit together to say “hey, here look at these updated patches. please pat us on the back”. now that they want $200 for an upgrade, they would’ve had to completely reskin their combis (individually), for it to be worth that price.

and that’s the sad bit—they made it easy to add some controls, but didn’t make it easy on themselves or anyone else to actually create new skins. same controls—just more of them, and placed where you want—and we’re supposed to ooh and ahh like it’s somehow groundbreaking, despite the fact that it’s still super limited, and a pain in the ass to make skins for. some of us are oohing and ahhing, which is sad, but predictable.

[QVprod]

I mean they’re not so bad that they look like absolute crap, but you’ve gotta admit they do look pretty low-effort, at least in the skins department.

Yeah ok, maybe not ABSOLUTE crap, but still a pretty sh*tty effort. The problem is using that weird color wheel logo on the right which is fine and balanced for the original Combi, but forces the comical misalignment of those bigger knobs, that make it look like children put it together in a pre-kindergarten class, and not a professional software company known for its graphics. They didn't need the same logo from 3 versions ago. They maybe didn't need one at all. That one takes up too much space especially if you're cramming so many knobs and sliders on the front panel.

I just think it’s low-effort to slap the existing backdrop on everything and cram a bunch of new controls into it.

bringing what they’re charging into it doesn’t make things any better. for $130, considering the wasteland of actual features in 12, they should’ve at least made it look like they didn’t just throw shit together to say “hey, here look at these updated patches. please pat us on the back”. now that they want $200 for an upgrade, they would’ve had to completely reskin their combis (individually), for it to be worth that price.

and that’s the sad bit—they made it easy to add some controls, but didn’t make it easy on themselves or anyone else to actually create new skins. same controls—just more of them, and placed where you want—and we’re supposed to ooh and ahh like it’s somehow groundbreaking, despite the fact that it’s still super limited, and a pain in the ass to make skins for. some of us are oohing and ahhing, which is sad, but predictable.

I think we're oversimplifying just a little. I agree making skins for combinators at this point is fairly complicated. Requires some graphics skill, though it seems to be a relatively common skill amongst Reason users who post here and previously on the PUF. I think it would be nice to have a built in way of creating dividers to easily differentiate sections of controls. That would've made a huge difference for us patch makers. The Logo on the right side did limit space a bit, but since it can expand down to 5U, it's not really that much in the way.



However, I think we're selling combi2 short if saying the extra controls don't add much. There's considerably more flexibility than was achievable in the past. You can quite literally design a new synth from devices and have complete control over all parameters. I think the only thing that really competes with that at this point is Reaktor. Ever wanted a stereo Subtractor? It's pretty close to completely doable such as with this patch. The patches I did for R12 only scratch the surface.