Reason+ Sound Packs releases slowing down....

[WaxTrax]

When R+ was introduced, one of the major selling points was the release of 5 or more new sound packs each week. This has slowed down dramatically to just a couple each week for the past several weeks. It's not really a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but it does feel a little bit like a bait and switch at this point.

Just something else to complain about, I guess

[bxbrkrz]

Maybe there was never a goal or a promise to have 5 packs released each week? I don't know if this is a bait, then a switch. Switching to what?

[DaveyG]

I don't recall a promise of 5 packs per week, just a promise of weekly releases.

Are you plussers not completely overwhelmed by all the packs though? I'd probably end up spending more time evaluating each pack than I spend making music.

[jonnyretina]

I don't recall a promise of 5 packs per week, just a promise of weekly releases.

Are you plussers not completely overwhelmed by all the packs though? I'd probably end up spending more time evaluating each pack than I spend making music.

We’re starting out with a bunch of great packs of patches and intend on releasing ~10 packs a week.

Source: https://reasonstudios.com/blog/crew/int ... ason-plus/

[joeyluck]

I haven't paid close enough attention to know how many packs are released per week recently.

I wish not every patch was a Combi. Every single one of the Chord Sequencer patches are Combis.

Why not device patches? Or why not include device patches in addition? I just want to put the player patch on an instrument I am using. Instead we get a bunch of "run" Combi patches. Reserve the "demo" for this stuff, not the patches we actually load and use. Real workflow killer to actually use the Chord Sequencer chord sets.

Speaking of, I still don't know why packs are still so poorly organized and including demos in the downloads. So many subfolders just to get to patches and very unnecessarily including audio demos that take up disk space. They talked about addressing this back when it launched. What happened?

[bxbrkrz]

Could a plusser update this thread in the future, once the number goes down to one pack a week? Thanks in advance.

[shropshirelad]

3 packs dropped today.

[Aosta]

It was obvious the soundpacks would become an issue in time due to the size of each individual pack. The only way around not having to sift through hundreds of packs for patches is to create a fave folder. Should have released a large pack per week or even per month.
Another 'great idea' that hasn't translated into real world practicality.
They will probably be quietly dropped at some point.

[LongFist]

Well, to be fair, somebody (somewhere, at some time) has to assemble those things, test them, and finalize them for release. At first, there was a lineup of people wanting to get their releases in, and it seemed like a really 'happening' event. Then, as excitement wore down and those people decided to go back to doing what makes profit (for themselves and others) that line of producers thinned out.

Any day now, I expect a Reason post to come out showing us how to make our own "Plus Packs" and submit them for release in the Reason+ queue. They've been unfairly vague about how to accomplish that since the beginning, but to keep the flow going they may have to.

Not complaining - my time is already scheduled out for the next eight months. But it doesn't appear to be too much of a stretch, especially if it helps everybody else, too. Just my $0.02USD, YMMV.

[Auryn]

Seemed from the start to me that Reason+ subscribers would end up being inundated with hundreds of middling sound packs after a year or two. Unfortunately R+ also pretty much destroyed the market for 3rd party refills...

[joeyluck]

I don't see how R+ packs can destroy the market for ReFills. Seems like very different approaches and markets.

I myself prefer ReFills. I prefer more content to explore in a single product. R+ packs only offer a blip and often I only like one or two patches, if any. R+ packs also rarely ever offer any sample content—you are certainly never going to find a new sampled instrument in a R+ pack.

That and R+ packs are an overuse of combi patches IMO. All of the current Chord Sequencer packs are combi "run" patches. I'd prefer to have device patches.

I feel like the strongest competition for ReFills in the Reason world are REs. For instance, if someone is looking for release a Rhodes ReFill, they will be competing with S73, not R+ packs.

I wish R+ packs were more similar to Spitfire LABS, where you get new content unique and well thought out sample content. Not reuse of NN-XT samples, etc.

[QVprod]

There's some misconceptions. Being a pack creator, if there’s anything holding up pack releases, it’s the fact that they’ve evolved over time. Since the release of R12 you’ll notice everything is now a combinator which is not only more time consuming to create than say a Europa patch but has also has more QA involved in testing/fixing.

With that in mind, it’s unlikely that they move to “make your own R+ packs”. Packs are very much aimed at ease of use (hence the combinator) so that would go against their philosophy. They also mentioned they’d start making some packs themselves which up til now has been entirely 3rd party.

Far as it killing the 3rd party Refill market. Not at all. That was long dead from REs. If anything I’d say the R+ packs serve as an advertisement for the creators who make them. 10 patches is really not much to really dig deep into. And as many packs exist, not every pack is going to appeal to everyone, and even then, you may or may not even like the packs that are in the genres/categories you care about.

[WaxTrax]

even then, you may or may not even like the packs that are in the genres/categories you care about.

I started to feel that way after the 400th trap release

[QVprod]

even then, you may or may not even like the packs that are in the genres/categories you care about.

I started to feel that way after the 400th trap release

It felt like 90% of the content at one point.

[joeyluck]

I started to feel that way after the 400th trap release

It felt like 90% of the content at one point.

[QVprod]

It felt like 90% of the content at one point.

[WaxTrax]

Not trying to beat a dead horse here, but unless they release something later today, it will have been more than a full week since any packs were released. Again, it's not so much about the packs themselves or the perceived value of their content, but more about how R+ is not living up to its own marketing now that they have everyone's money. We've gone from 10+ per week, to just "new packs every week", to perhaps not even that anymore.

I just personally find it interesting, and even though I am a R+ subscriber, I also grabbed a R12 perpetual license earlier this year via jrrshop just in case things don't improve by the time my subscription runs out.

[avasopht]

Not trying to beat a dead horse here, but unless they release something later today, it will have been more than a full week since any packs were released. Again, it's not so much about the packs themselves or the perceived value of their content, but more about how R+ is not living up to its own marketing now that they have everyone's money. We've gone from 10+ per week, to just "new packs every week", to perhaps not even that anymore.

I just personally find it interesting, and even though I am a R+ subscriber, I also grabbed a R12 perpetual license earlier this year via jrrshop just in case things don't improve by the time my subscription runs out.

This is the problem with putting the marketing-cart before the horse.

Getting marketing right is key, and getting it right can involve a lot of trial and error to figure out what the most profitable and viable value proposition is.

But a fundamental sin committed far too often by MBAs and executives is to almost disregard everything else entirely.

Get that wrong and you lose trust, which means you lose the most valuable asset - the brand, for it is by the mere virtue of the brand that anyone gives a toss about their plugin SDK and/or sample pack ecosystem, and why most of their customers bother to upgrade rather than jump ship.

Unfortunately, the predicted growth of this market is exceptionally high, and if they can get the marketing right they could make a hell of a lot more money than they have ever seen. And I say "unfortunately" because it's a lot easier to lose it all by eroding trust than it is to strike oil.

[arnigretar]

There are Reason pack creators on this forum. Maybe they can shed a light on it. Why there is a drop in outcome/release of the packs. Maybe they know, but maybe they don't. "As you might know, we continuously release weekly Sound Packs with curated patches for our Reason+ subscribers." - Reason blog. But this was in March, so maybe everything has changed. I also wonder what to the Reason pack creators get for each pack? But that's just wondering--I'm sure there is a NDA contract. There are many great soundpacks out there though.