I see people who desire official VST support in Reason frequently referencing how long it took for Propellerhead to do MIDI-out and audio recording, as if this equates to the likelihood of VST support happening at some time in the future. Perhaps it might be helpful to point out Propellerhead's stance on the aforementioned features that
have appeared, from back in the day when Reason was in its early stages.
Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser wrote a technical guide (or two) for Reason many years ago (this would have been the 1.0/2.0 days), and reviewed Reason for SOS back for version 2.0. They put it pretty succinctly:
So far we've not mentioned three features that many Reason users are still asking for: audio recording, VST plug-in support, and MIDI output.
Propellerhead have their reasons (sorry!) for not providing these most-wanted facilities. Regarding audio recording, you might sum up their stance as not wanting to do the job by halves and, if they do it at all, wanting to formulate an approach to audio recording that is as unique as the rest of Reason. As Propellerhead co-founder Ernst Nathorst-Böos puts it, "I don't want to just do a 'me too' thing for adding hard disk tracks to Reason. We'd just be an inferior Cubase, and why would we want to be that?" However, they haven't totally ruled out at some time producing an audio application to run alongside Reason.
As for VST plug-in support, Propellerhead say they don't want Reason to become a product that is a VST host, "and particularly for VST plug-ins that might not be as efficient as Reason." They instead favour Rewire for accessing VST plug-ins. The plan is to upgrade Reason's effects at some time, and if they do we will personally have no problem with lack of VST support -- it's not something we're desperate for, though some users are.
Lastly, there's MIDI Out, which Propellerhead (after all, still a small company whose 16-strong staff is in stark contrast to their international status) say is not as easy to implement as it might seem, since things like SysEx handling, a MIDI mixer, and various other complications would need to be accommodated. The company say they also still see Reason as "an accessory product to the major sequencing programs", and that they value the support of the other major music software houses.
These features seem like a big deal, in that they're requested so often, but the fact is that we Reason users are still Reason users without them, and we've never actually seen anyone say they won't buy the program, or will stop using it, if they don't get them. To be fair, Propellerhead have never even hinted that they're on the agenda for Reason, Rewire works, and Reason offers a fantastic environment for making music just as it stands. Still, we can hope!
Now, one could argue that becoming an "inferior Cubase" was exactly what Record was, and fusing Record into Reason 6 only solidified that notion - though it did give us the long desired audio recording feature. But they did do it on their own terms, and offer features that were arguably catered towards Reason and/or unique to Propellerhead (comp rows, at least). And then we landed MIDI-out with version 7, again done on Prop's own terms.
VST was addressed in 6.5 with Rack Extensions, on Props own terms, no matter how much people think otherwise. But, I'm beginning to sound like a broken record at this point...
One thing is certain: since Reason 6.0/6.5, it has officially become a DAW instead of a suite of plugins/virtual synths/effects
that was meant to be ReWired to another DAW (should you need that). Whether you feel it's an "inferior Cubase" (Props own words, mind you) or not is entirely up to the user. From many perspectives, one could easily say it is inferior. From many other perspectives, one could say that it is superior. YMMV..
(original 2.0 review where that quote was taken from:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep02/a ... reason.asp )
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