dannyF wrote: ↑04 Sep 2019
Yep. No upgrade for me either.
I have a feeling its over over for this application.
I wonder what will happen to all our REs ?
That is a very good question. Anyone who actually bought extensions should be thinking about that.
I'm just going to dump the majority of my thoughts as one mega-rant. Feel free to skip if that's not your thing.
I should also say up front that I don't use Reason anymore. I debugged the remaining quirks in my control surfaces recently, so I had to open the app to do that. But I find the app so defiantly contrarian to getting work done in the way I want to work that I just close it without writing anything. That out of the way, here we go.
In the event that RS gets in enough trouble that they can't continue operating, what would happen to everyone's investment? If they released a final patch to deactivate their authentication, this would also effectively remove the purchase confirmation of their DLC. Everyone would equally have full access to every unit ever listed in the shop. But, in order to actually have those units, you have to download them from the servers. The servers are already rather anemic when downloading a new update, let alone a lot of devices. So the traffic jams of people trying to grab devices before the servers get taken offline would mean everyone loses. Then once the servers are yanked because there's no capital to keep them running, what you have is what you managed to download. Also, you could never uninstall your copy or you would effectively wipe all of those devices from it. That also goes for transferring to a new computer, etc. Obviously you could technically do it in some way, the files would be there, but it would require a lot of DIY technical stuff with no guarantee of success. Plus, if RS were to close shop, that puts all of the third party people out of work as well.
It's a bit of an all encompassing mess.
I have never purchased a single RE because when they announced the format it sounded like a desperate move to shore up the brand while deflecting away from much needed improvements to the core product. Also, I didn't have faith in the future of the company and didn't like the way any of their modules sounded after hearing what other hosts were providing out of the box. I only upgraded to 9.5 because I would be able to collaborate with someone I wanted to work with, but considering most of that never ended up taking place I actually regret the purchase. But I'm not the only one.
Right now, every video I can find about the announced 11 update is portraying it for what it objectively is: "not that much is new, the changes are too little too late, and/or the only reason I'll buy it is so I'm not out the money I put into the extensions." They're not buying the spin.
A general storm cloud of being unimpressed, confused, betrayed, concerned, indifferent, or having already moved on a long time ago is brewing across KVR, Reddit, this forum, and even places I can't talk about. It's universal at this point; everywhere you look. I have never seen this community so singularly unified in its rejection of a brand direction for PH/RS as I have this past couple of weeks -- with the exception of when the PUF first closed.
So, given all of these things piling up, those heavily invested in RE should be thinking about this rather carefully and should be invested in what the future holds. I don't think it's a matter of "at least I can salvage my spending by getting 11", but a matter of "how can this product be saved when everyone leaves".
Take a breath and imagine Verdane's perspective.
This product is 20 years old, basically. Things look, feel, and sound "old" as some have said. I agree. Many who used to use it and even some who developed for it have left. Business partnerships have fizzled out over and over to the point that ReWire, a format the company helped pioneer, has been completely deprecated in favor of Ableton Link.
Providing a VST wrapper for the rack is a bold move, but that has some serious flaws too. The use of the rack in any modern DAW currently presents an immediate halt to progress in a track when compared to the tools and workflow that exist in those packages. Tedious cabling that is mandatory to accomplish any sound design, or manual parameter adjustments that have no text input of values, unscaled rasterized graphics that are (in some cases) the same as when they first appeared on Windows 98, and so on. These are things that are limitations to how a person works instead of limitations to how a person creates.
In the time that phones have gone from XT9 Nokia bricks to all-glass Samsung waterproof smartphones, and visual displays have gone from leaded glass beige CRTs that weigh 100 lbs to feather light flat screens you can hang on your wall, and the internet has gone from barely broadband to broadband wifi, and batteries have gone from charging all day to 40W fast charging... the stock devices carried over from the first four releases of Reason have not changed at all.
With those other products, you know what you're purchasing because the value is clearly there. Things are improving and changing, sometimes in innovative or distinctive ways. Backward compatibility is great and all, but do you really want or need to take
20 years to finish songs? It's nice, but impractical and underscores the fact that Reason is meant for people who never intend to finish anything, while other more modern packages are used by people intent on publishing their work.
Imagine making calls on a phone that didn't prioritize clear communication, or seeing visuals on a display that didn't care about refresh rate or color accuracy. A product that knows it's just kinda sorta a thing, like shoes without soles -- meant for standing, not walking -- and likes it that way. But I digress.
I can pretty much guarantee that the first wave of major complaints will be from users of other DAWs saying they're seeing a massive hit in their song project performance when the rack is loaded in. If history has taught us anything, it's that the optimization is total garbage.
All of this stuff can be debated, of course, and I know people will. But the subjectivity of the music a person creates has to be separated from the objectivity of what the product of Reason is when comparing with other packages that it can now be loaded directly into.
Simply put, Reason will not stack up to what is out there. It will get eaten alive. People who explore other hosts will eventually grow to see all the stuff they bought in RE format to be effectively obsolete once they master their new tools. Not everyone, but a lot of people will eventually get to that point.
People will lose their investments anyway. Whether they take it along or not.
But back to Verdane's perspective. Look at everything that's going on, look at these challenges facing the brand image and the product at its objective face value for what it is in these modern times, then pretend you're one of those VC guys and ask yourself "who would want to buy this to take it off my hands".
You're not buying the name, just look at the state of the reputation right now. Plus, the name people know is being retired. That would be the only reason to purchase it, knowing full well that you will have to pour a ton of funding into bringing the idea behind the product up to speed with what's out there. It's a non-starter. Now, purchasing it is purely an investment in taking on a lot of distrust, bad blood, ill will, etc., and who wants to deal with that.
I think that Verdane is holding a lemon and I think by how rushed this announcement has been it signals an even bigger rush to sell. PH had 20 years and did nothing. I think Verdane is just as unimpressed as everyone else. The name change is damage control so the buyer will be more receptive to the unfamiliar brand name. Just my analysis.
What will happen to all the stuff people bought from the shop, indeed.
How about: where has all of you guys' and gals' money been going this whole time? How about that one.
That's the question driving so many to say "thanks, I think I
will leave". And that's terrific!
Only by getting out of a bad relationship can you begin to heal. I can't wait to hear all the music people will actually finish in their next DAW(s) of choice! Seriously, I really am happy about everyone branching out and moving on. (You know who you are)
The good thing is everybody can make their own choices and think how they want. This has all been what I think so I'm done talking about it now.