What features does Reason DAW have that others don't?

This forum is for discussing Reason. Questions, answers, ideas, and opinions... all apply.
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EdwardKiy
Posts: 760
Joined: 02 Oct 2019

15 Sep 2020

chaosroyale wrote:
15 Sep 2020

Recommendations
Sophie is some avantgarde stuff man, thanks for sharing. I'll check out the OXF in a bit.
chaosroyale wrote:
15 Sep 2020
Anyway - one can use any DAW to make cutting edge music. They all have perfect sound and access to VSTs so there is no limit. The only important thing is what you enjoy using. I love starting tracks in Reason because of the fun factor, but because of all the workarounds I get fed up quickly and finishing them becomes a chore. For big projects like soundtracks that is sometimes a dealbreaker. It's a shame because Reason is...almost...my perfect DAW. I hate the look and feel of Live (shame - because it has great features), and Reaper is kind of amazing but just something about it is boring. But they can all do lots of things that Reason should be able to do in 2020.
This is it. How is it fun? How is it that it's good that applies to you(us) specifically?
chaosroyale wrote:
15 Sep 2020
It's also rather worrying seeing so many replies in this thread saying "only reason can do (really common and basic thing that all other DAWs can do)" - I feel like Reason Studios and Reason users are stuck in a bubble where they think that an "SSL compressor" is somehow special or cool in 2020, or that the Reason EQ window is anything other than a janky embarrassment that was mediocre even when it was released in 2011...jeez, 9 years ago!!! and still no updates...
that's a fair point. Could've had a more robust EQ built in if it has pride of place on the keyboard.

chaosroyale
Posts: 728
Joined: 05 Sep 2017

15 Sep 2020

In my case, it is that the Rack, the sequencer and the DAW are integrated. I find it very easy in Reason to put together large and complex chains of instruments and FX that are not just a "plug in", but have a direct connection to all parts of the sequencer and automation. I have heard that StudioOne has even more advanced routing these days, so when I have time I will check that out. Most of my problems with Reason are not the fundamental concepts - those are great - it's the lack of workflow updates. The lack of device updates really used to bother me too, but I moved all my sound designing to VST, so these days I just watch the old Reason devices growing dusty with a minor sense of disappointment. The new ones have been mostly terrible so I don't use any of the optional content, and just try not to look at the menu where horrible toy instruments like rytmik and monotone are wasting space alongside poor neglected redrum and subtractor.
EdwardKiy wrote:
15 Sep 2020

This is it. How is it fun? How is it that it's good that applies to you(us) specifically?

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Creativemind
Posts: 4875
Joined: 17 Jan 2015
Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

16 Sep 2020

EdwardKiy wrote:
15 Sep 2020
Creativemind wrote:
15 Sep 2020


:lol:

I suggested ages ago that there should be a preference to have it swing or stationary.
I'd like it to make a different single farting sound each time you press it and then at one point it becomes a little melody.
Well that would be annoying wouldn't it?

:lol:
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

glass-puppy
Posts: 40
Joined: 08 Feb 2019

17 Sep 2020

chaosroyale wrote:
15 Sep 2020
In my case, it is that the Rack, the sequencer and the DAW are integrated. I find it very easy in Reason to put together large and complex chains of instruments and FX that are not just a "plug in", but have a direct connection to all parts of the sequencer and automation. I have heard that StudioOne has even more advanced routing these days, so when I have time I will check that out. Most of my problems with Reason are not the fundamental concepts - those are great - it's the lack of workflow updates. The lack of device updates really used to bother me too, but I moved all my sound designing to VST, so these days I just watch the old Reason devices growing dusty with a minor sense of disappointment. The new ones have been mostly terrible so I don't use any of the optional content, and just try not to look at the menu where horrible toy instruments like rytmik and monotone are wasting space alongside poor neglected redrum and subtractor.
EdwardKiy wrote:
15 Sep 2020

This is it. How is it fun? How is it that it's good that applies to you(us) specifically?
Why dont you use subtractor? I think it still sounds good sometimes.

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antic604
Posts: 1134
Joined: 02 Apr 2020

17 Sep 2020

Absence of sequencer folder tracks - this one's a very unique and stand-out feature :D

But seriously, I don't think there's anything at this point, unless one really wants to be very particular in how a feature is implemented (e.g. CV cables vs. a more abstract modulation systems in Bitwig or Live). If I were pressed to come up with something, I'd say Blocks are it - they're conceptually similar, but not the same as e.g. scenes in Live/Bitwig or patterns in Renoise or FL and with just a few tweaks they could be a defining feature, next to Rack and Mixer.
Music tech enthusiast.
DAW, VST & hardware hoarder.
My "music": https://soundcloud.com/antic604

Arjanders
Posts: 131
Joined: 30 May 2019

17 Sep 2020

stratatonic wrote:
06 Sep 2020
A metronome icon that doesn't do anything when you click it.
What's the story behind that lol

chaosroyale
Posts: 728
Joined: 05 Sep 2017

17 Sep 2020

I do sometimes use subtractor! I said in an earlier post that I think Subtractor is the best-designed subtractive synth of any DAW. However, it aliases like a motherfucker, and the filters are very limited, so recently I reach for VSTs most of the time. If RS added an oversampling HQ mode I would use it a lot more. I probably didn't explain myself well, but I meant to say that it makes me disappointed to see terrible, lazy new instruments like the R10 romplers or rytmik being added to the Rack when the really good instruments like Subtractor are left un-updated.
glass-puppy wrote:
17 Sep 2020
chaosroyale wrote:
15 Sep 2020
In my case, it is that the Rack, the sequencer and the DAW are integrated. I find it very easy in Reason to put together large and complex chains of instruments and FX that are not just a "plug in", but have a direct connection to all parts of the sequencer and automation. I have heard that StudioOne has even more advanced routing these days, so when I have time I will check that out. Most of my problems with Reason are not the fundamental concepts - those are great - it's the lack of workflow updates. The lack of device updates really used to bother me too, but I moved all my sound designing to VST, so these days I just watch the old Reason devices growing dusty with a minor sense of disappointment. The new ones have been mostly terrible so I don't use any of the optional content, and just try not to look at the menu where horrible toy instruments like rytmik and monotone are wasting space alongside poor neglected redrum and subtractor.

Why dont you use subtractor? I think it still sounds good sometimes.

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MannequinRaces
Posts: 1543
Joined: 18 Jan 2015

17 Sep 2020

Reason has mojo and swagger. I’ve dabbled with other DAWs and I don’t get the same playful / experimental vibe. When I’m in Reason I’m happy and I smile. If Reason was never updated beyond this point (okay maybe after the 4K update) I’d still enjoy using it for years to come.

jlgrimes
Posts: 661
Joined: 06 Jun 2017

20 Sep 2020

chaosroyale wrote:
17 Sep 2020
I do sometimes use subtractor! I said in an earlier post that I think Subtractor is the best-designed subtractive synth of any DAW. However, it aliases like a motherfucker, and the filters are very limited, so recently I reach for VSTs most of the time. If RS added an oversampling HQ mode I would use it a lot more. I probably didn't explain myself well, but I meant to say that it makes me disappointed to see terrible, lazy new instruments like the R10 romplers or rytmik being added to the Rack when the really good instruments like Subtractor are left un-updated.
glass-puppy wrote:
17 Sep 2020


Why dont you use subtractor? I think it still sounds good sometimes.
I think at this point though, its probably best to leave it alone. Props have made Europa and Monotone which somewhat builds off of Subtactor and are more flexible and generally better sounding.

Kind of like NI keeping Massive and creating Massive X. Massive still has uses. But Massive X generally does more.

I think at this point if they improved it too much, it would be a different instrument. It is amazing that a 20 year old softsynth is still being used. At this point folks probably will use Subtractor to get the sound of older softsynths.

chaosroyale
Posts: 728
Joined: 05 Sep 2017

20 Sep 2020

Monotone is not even half the synth that Subtractor is. Monotone is banished to the corner of shame alongside Rytmik. Horrible low-effort thing. I hate it so much (I need to chill out).

Europa is a completely different kind of synth, and cannot do a lot of what Subtractor can do. They are very different beasts altogether. Europa is probably the best built-in modern-style wavetable synth in a DAW, I sometimes don't give them credit for that because I don't personally like those kinds of synths, but for lots of users I am sure it's very welcome.

Your Massive > Massive X analogy: fair enough, I'd be happy with a "Subtractor X". And of course the NN-NeXT. And Kong..kong...konger? Kongest? Konger eel? Can't think of a good name there.. All 3 of those are *almost* great, but stuck in the past. And nothing else in Reason fills those gaps properly. Grain should ideally have been one of the engines in a new main sampler. Maybe that will come, who knows.

jlgrimes wrote:
20 Sep 2020
I think at this point though, its probably best to leave it alone. Props have made Europa and Monotone which somewhat builds off of Subtactor and are more flexible and generally better sounding.

Kind of like NI keeping Massive and creating Massive X. Massive still has uses. But Massive X generally does more.

I think at this point if they improved it too much, it would be a different instrument. It is amazing that a 20 year old softsynth is still being used. At this point folks probably will use Subtractor to get the sound of older softsynths.

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Creativemind
Posts: 4875
Joined: 17 Jan 2015
Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

20 Sep 2020

EdwardKiy wrote:
15 Sep 2020
chaosroyale wrote:
15 Sep 2020

Recommendations
Sophie is some avantgarde stuff man, thanks for sharing. I'll check out the OXF in a bit.
chaosroyale wrote:
15 Sep 2020
Anyway - one can use any DAW to make cutting edge music. They all have perfect sound and access to VSTs so there is no limit. The only important thing is what you enjoy using. I love starting tracks in Reason because of the fun factor, but because of all the workarounds I get fed up quickly and finishing them becomes a chore. For big projects like soundtracks that is sometimes a dealbreaker. It's a shame because Reason is...almost...my perfect DAW. I hate the look and feel of Live (shame - because it has great features), and Reaper is kind of amazing but just something about it is boring. But they can all do lots of things that Reason should be able to do in 2020.
This is it. How is it fun? How is it that it's good that applies to you(us) specifically?
chaosroyale wrote:
15 Sep 2020
It's also rather worrying seeing so many replies in this thread saying "only reason can do (really common and basic thing that all other DAWs can do)" - I feel like Reason Studios and Reason users are stuck in a bubble where they think that an "SSL compressor" is somehow special or cool in 2020, or that the Reason EQ window is anything other than a janky embarrassment that was mediocre even when it was released in 2011...jeez, 9 years ago!!! and still no updates...
that's a fair point. Could've had a more robust EQ built in if it has pride of place on the keyboard.
It has had some updates (bussing, parallel processing, ganged faders) but I agree, in 9yrs I think at least another few should have been added - collapsible subgroups and retractible channels, dB reading on faders, labelling the actual send channels and re-ordering them easily, bypass all FX buttons, stereo to mono interleave buttons (like Cakewalk has) if that's do-able in Reason, more EQ bands and filter slopes, saveable channel settings and VCA faders. That would finish it off. That equates to along with the 3 they've added to still less than 2 features added to it a year.

As for Kong, no fancy names just Kong 2 will do. 🙂
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

groggy1
Posts: 466
Joined: 10 Jun 2015

23 Sep 2020

My favorite aspect/feature of reason is being able to do 99% of tasks without having to access menus or dialogue boxes

When I used to use sonar, I was deep in menus daily. There was a customizable button-bar, but the default button-bar layout was overwhelming for me, so I never explored it

The only feature in reason I use in a dialog box is setting quantize %. That’s it. Everything else is beautifully laid out in the sequencer window, or rack/mixer

jlgrimes
Posts: 661
Joined: 06 Jun 2017

27 Sep 2020

groggy1 wrote:
23 Sep 2020
My favorite aspect/feature of reason is being able to do 99% of tasks without having to access menus or dialogue boxes

When I used to use sonar, I was deep in menus daily. There was a customizable button-bar, but the default button-bar layout was overwhelming for me, so I never explored it

The only feature in reason I use in a dialog box is setting quantize %. That’s it. Everything else is beautifully laid out in the sequencer window, or rack/mixer
A few other DAWS sort of have this workflow.

Ableton
Bitwig
Studio One
FL Studio (somewhat)


That said Reason has one of the best sequencers IMO for getting ideas down fast. Ableton is good here too but its learning curve is a little steeper. I'd say Reason was one of the few (probably the only) DAWS I used where I pretty much instantly knew all of the basic functions.

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Creativemind
Posts: 4875
Joined: 17 Jan 2015
Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

25 Nov 2020

Was tryna do.something in the Reaper midi editor CC area the other day and as far as I've found, you can't do it in Reaper, then I thought, does any daw apart from Reason do this? must add it to that thread on Reasontalk and forgot to till now. If somebody would let me know if any other daw does this but d'you know that line you can get when you hold (I think) ctrl down that will chop / slice the tops of the velocities off in Reasons midi editor, well that could be a feature unique to Reason.
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

Goriila Texas
Posts: 983
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27 Nov 2020

Reason's bounce midi to audio is superior to that of Studio One and it's not even close. All midi rather it be vst or stock plugins will bounce accurately on the timeline, not so with S1.

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antic604
Posts: 1134
Joined: 02 Apr 2020

28 Nov 2020

Goriila Texas wrote:
27 Nov 2020
Reason's bounce midi to audio is superior to that of Studio One and it's not even close. All midi rather it be vst or stock plugins will bounce accurately on the timeline, not so with S1.
What are you talking about?? Never had this problem (with S1).
Music tech enthusiast.
DAW, VST & hardware hoarder.
My "music": https://soundcloud.com/antic604

madmacman
Posts: 786
Joined: 18 Jan 2015

28 Nov 2020

antic604 wrote:
28 Nov 2020
Goriila Texas wrote:
27 Nov 2020
Reason's bounce midi to audio is superior to that of Studio One and it's not even close. All midi rather it be vst or stock plugins will bounce accurately on the timeline, not so with S1.
What are you talking about?? Never had this problem (with S1).
I was about to write the same when you already answered. Bounce midi clips into audio clips is the most basic "duty" task of all DAW's. And I cannot remember of a single DAW within the last decade which failed on this.

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tallguy
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28 Nov 2020

I spent some time recently trying out other DAWs to see how green the grass is at the other side. First thing that struck me is the absence of the SSL mixer. I found myself searching quite a few minutes for the SSL mixer in Ableton before it hit me. I take it so for granted to have it there all the time.

I never understood all this fuss about channel strips VSTs. But yeah, if you haven't got a mixer like Reason does, sure, now it makes sense.

Goriila Texas
Posts: 983
Joined: 31 Aug 2015
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28 Nov 2020

When you bounce midi to audio the audio will not be aligned with the midi in S1 it's a known issue that the people at Presonus told me to just capture the midi on an audio track. Reason's midi will be 1:1 with audio while S1 will be ms off.


antic604 wrote:
28 Nov 2020
Goriila Texas wrote:
27 Nov 2020
Reason's bounce midi to audio is superior to that of Studio One and it's not even close. All midi rather it be vst or stock plugins will bounce accurately on the timeline, not so with S1.
What are you talking about?? Never had this problem (with S1).

Goriila Texas
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Location: Houston TX
Contact:

28 Nov 2020

Program drums in the step sequencer and bounce to audio, then stretch it you will see midi and audio is not 1:1 in S1

madmacman wrote:
28 Nov 2020
antic604 wrote:
28 Nov 2020


What are you talking about?? Never had this problem (with S1).
I was about to write the same when you already answered. Bounce midi clips into audio clips is the most basic "duty" task of all DAW's. And I cannot remember of a single DAW within the last decade which failed on this.

Goriila Texas
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Location: Houston TX
Contact:

28 Nov 2020

S1 Bounce.png
S1 Bounce.png (85.94 KiB) Viewed 1704 times
Reason bounce.png
Reason bounce.png (104.05 KiB) Viewed 1693 times








Goriila Texas wrote:
28 Nov 2020
Program drums in the step sequencer and bounce to audio, then stretch it you will see midi and audio is not 1:1 in S1

madmacman wrote:
28 Nov 2020


I was about to write the same when you already answered. Bounce midi clips into audio clips is the most basic "duty" task of all DAW's. And I cannot remember of a single DAW within the last decade which failed on this.

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antic604
Posts: 1134
Joined: 02 Apr 2020

29 Nov 2020

Goriila Texas wrote:
28 Nov 2020
Program drums in the step sequencer and bounce to audio, then stretch it you will see midi and audio is not 1:1 in S1
I understand what you're saying, just don't understand why because it's not true.
I used the same MIDI clip & same plugin - Kong with Critical Condition Kit.
Order: full sequence, kick, snare.

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Music tech enthusiast.
DAW, VST & hardware hoarder.
My "music": https://soundcloud.com/antic604

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zoidkirb
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29 Nov 2020

madmacman wrote:
28 Nov 2020
I was about to write the same when you already answered. Bounce midi clips into audio clips is the most basic "duty" task of all DAW's. And I cannot remember of a single DAW within the last decade which failed on this.
Ableton Live says hi :)

Goriila Texas
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29 Nov 2020

Bro it's already been confirmed by multiple people at Presonus and the forum. You're not even stretching the audio all the way out lol. If you play the midi in Reason it's 1:1 with audio I haven't tried midi clips from another DAW. If you play midi in S1 it won't be 1:1 period it's not debatable it's been confirmed. The only issue I've seen with Reason is when you copy midi to track from Redrum. Some have said that certain vst's don't report delay as to why they are off a little. I've tried most of Reason's stock plugins and it's 1:1 when bounced. In S1 playing stock plugins will not bounce 1:1 period.






antic604 wrote:
29 Nov 2020
Goriila Texas wrote:
28 Nov 2020
Program drums in the step sequencer and bounce to audio, then stretch it you will see midi and audio is not 1:1 in S1
I understand what you're saying, just don't understand why because it's not true.
I used the same MIDI clip & same plugin - Kong with Critical Condition Kit.
Order: full sequence, kick, snare.

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cymek74
Posts: 72
Joined: 06 Nov 2018

29 Nov 2020

Goriila Texas wrote:
29 Nov 2020
Bro it's already been confirmed by multiple people at Presonus and the forum. You're not even stretching the audio all the way out lol. If you play the midi in Reason it's 1:1 with audio I haven't tried midi clips from another DAW. If you play midi in S1 it won't be 1:1 period it's not debatable it's been confirmed. The only issue I've seen with Reason is when you copy midi to track from Redrum. Some have said that certain vst's don't report delay as to why they are off a little. I've tried most of Reason's stock plugins and it's 1:1 when bounced. In S1 playing stock plugins will not bounce 1:1 period.
antic604 wrote:
29 Nov 2020

I've had this problem with SO, and looked into it and apparently, it's still not fixed. I had problems with midi sequencers also, everything out of whack, using the same sequencers in Reason, even with having to run them through the DDMF plugin to get midi in/out, lined up perfect and all on time.
Reason 12, Bitwig 4, Win 10 :recycle: :reason: :re:

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