POLL - Do you still you use the old Reason synths? (Thor, Subtractor, Malström)

This forum is for discussing Reason. Questions, answers, ideas, and opinions... all apply.

Do you still you use the old Reason synths? (Thor, Subtractor, Malström)

Yes I still use Thor.
97
34%
Yes I still use Subtractor.
93
32%
Yes I still use Malström.
65
23%
No I've moved on to other synths.
33
11%
 
Total votes: 288
User avatar
ksniod
Posts: 125
Joined: 05 Jan 2019

06 Oct 2020

exxx wrote:
06 Oct 2020
I am curious about the most used built-in synthesizer.
I guess it is Europa

User avatar
MannequinRaces
Posts: 1543
Joined: 18 Jan 2015

06 Oct 2020

TritoneAddiction wrote:
06 Oct 2020
MannequinRaces wrote:
05 Oct 2020
Why not a ‘use all’ option, lol?!
I thought about it, but thought this was better, simpler and showcases what synths are the most popular in a clear way.
If I had an "use all option" would people select all the individual synth options as well? Just seemed a bit messy and unnecessary. So I decided to keep things as simple as possible with just a few options.
I figured people can always comment if they want to be more specific.
And I’m an idiot, lol. Unless you changed the poll I now see you can select multiple options... I think it might be time for glasses!

User avatar
esselfortium
Posts: 1456
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Contact:

06 Oct 2020

I still use Thor a lot. Subtractor and Malstrom I occasionally grab for certain sounds. There's a certain kind of brassy analog monosynth sound that Subtractor still excels at.
Sarah Mancuso
My music: Future Human

sdst
Competition Winner
Posts: 896
Joined: 14 Jun 2015

06 Oct 2020

I keep using it especially in combinetor

what I never use are the player

jlgrimes
Posts: 661
Joined: 06 Jun 2017

06 Oct 2020

Use subtractor for Basses sometimes.

I have a love for Malstrom as well. Still a very unique synth.

Thor I haven't used in awhile. I loved it when it first came out though but don't know if it aged well.

chaosroyale
Posts: 728
Joined: 05 Sep 2017

06 Oct 2020

"Still use", yes. "Regularly use"..not really.

I use Subtractor sometimes because damn that thing is so fast to work with and so well-designed.

Very occasionally I might use Europa, although when I need a boring WT synth I often reach for Expanse instead because of its nicer unison. Europa does have that excellent easy-to-use MSEG interface, I'm just not a big WT synth fan.

When doing any contemporary "cutting edge" sound design the only native synth I use is grain, which is a nice simple granular workhorse: not quite as powerful as other granular synths but very quick for patch making. I'd use the Mangle or the Granular engine in a supersynth like Avenger for more intricate work, but for basic pads and soundscapes, 2 grains in a combinator with the free Xmorph crossfader and some long reverbs, and Bob's your uncle. by the way, I just saved you wasting 100 bucks on "Scenic", or any of those Kontakt "drone" libraries, you're welcome.

Used to like Malstrom a lot, it was my most "fun" synth in Reason, but I haven't actually used it in a track for over 5 years now. Another device in the "release it then forget it" Reason graveyard, along with Thor.

User avatar
MattiasHG
Reason Studios
Posts: 488
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

07 Oct 2020

I'm probably biased since I always work on the next big thing, but I do load up Subtractor quite often. I'm always surprised how quick it is to work and the range of sounds you can get from that oscillator section.

User avatar
chimp_spanner
Posts: 2907
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

07 Oct 2020

Subtractor, almost all the time. It’s still such a great little synth that costs virtually nothing in DSP and sounds incredible through even a basic fx chain. Slow attack saw tooth with a delayed LFO2 pitch mod into a DR-1 is instant Bladerunner 2049.

User avatar
MannequinRaces
Posts: 1543
Joined: 18 Jan 2015

07 Oct 2020

chimp_spanner wrote:
07 Oct 2020
Subtractor, almost all the time. It’s still such a great little synth that costs virtually nothing in DSP and sounds incredible through even a basic fx chain. Slow attack saw tooth with a delayed LFO2 pitch mod into a DR-1 is instant Bladerunner 2049.
I’m gonna try this when I get the chance!

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

07 Oct 2020

You needed the option for 'Still use but not as often' for all 3 synths too, which applies to me. I use Thor but only sometimes now as I have loads of vst's which I go to first but SubTractor still gets used a fair bit. Hardly ever touch Malstrom, if at all these days.
:reason:

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

User avatar
Billy+
Posts: 4157
Joined: 09 Dec 2016

07 Oct 2020

I've never stopped using any of them, but I would say my most used is probably subtractor, however monotone has started being my goto for bass just lately

User avatar
ShelLuser
Posts: 358
Joined: 25 Aug 2019

07 Oct 2020

Malstrom was the main reason I got Reason 4 in the first place 😎
--- :reason:

ltbrunt00
Posts: 532
Joined: 10 Jan 2017
Contact:

07 Oct 2020

Thor is a must have I use this all over the place. I use subtractor more when loading up old songs. I respect Malström but have many better tools I use instead. With saying that my kinds use Malstrom in their own separate copies of reason since they have no where near the amount of plugins I have. When Malström first came out I was using it in everything.
Reason, Nuendo, Studio One
https://soundcloud.com/user-404930848

User avatar
dvdrtldg
Posts: 2386
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

07 Oct 2020

Billy wrote:
07 Oct 2020
I've never stopped using any of them, but I would say my most used is probably subtractor, however monotone has started being my goto for bass just lately
I've been surprised by how good Monotone is. I mean it's not feature-packed or particularly groundbreaking, but very fast to work with and sounds great. Stack a couple in a combinator and you're up & running in minutes.

glass-puppy
Posts: 40
Joined: 08 Feb 2019

08 Oct 2020

I'm still on reason 4 so I try to get the most out of everything in that version. Which means I might take Malstroms osc outputs and run through thors filters chorus and delay. I try to think of the entire software as one big modular synthesizer. I think that's sort of a carryover for alot of us from earlier on pre vsts and rack extensions.. and really I like that way of thinking. I make use of the control voltages fairly often.

I also have live 7 and some native instruments plugins and free vsts like synth1, zebrallette, cobalt and so on I dont think in all of these years. Have ever really mastered any of the stock synths in reason 4 because I'd usually find a starter preset and tweak it to taste or just use it as is. So right now I'm basically dating subtractor hahaha. I'm spending alot of time on just it, even thought it's what? 20 years old now? I never quite loved it until about a year or so ago i downloaded a newer reason demo, version 10 i think, loaded up an analog pad combinator and thought it sounded amazing. I looked in to see what new devices just had to be responsible certainly for this analogy sound.. it was just a subtractor with a couple effects.. since then I decided to put away my prejudice lol.. I'm not a synth expert or anything, but i know what i like hearing.

Malstroms cool, i always tried to make it not sound too malstromy and force it to sound unrecognizable but these days I'm experimenting with it heavily and seeing it can do alot I didn't fully know. Letting it be weird and not only an airbrushed pad or whatever.

Thor I'm just getting comfortable with it finally.

Still use em all and about evenly. Anxious to eventually upgrade but I want to master all three a bit more definitely.

False Mirror
Posts: 14
Joined: 12 Sep 2020

08 Oct 2020

MattiasHG wrote:
07 Oct 2020
... since I always work on the next big thing
couldn‘t be more excited!

User avatar
Boombastix
Competition Winner
Posts: 1929
Joined: 18 May 2018
Location: Bay Area, CA

08 Oct 2020

The Thor MultiOsc at around a 33 setting is useful, and so are the CZ oscillators. The CZs ones are actually very good.
The SV filter is ok, the Ladder is meh.
The envelope curves are meh.
The FX are meh, and missing many basic FX.
Missing Unison and stereo.

Subtractor is useful at slow envelope settings and half closed filters together with a Juno style chorus. Good for that type of 80 big pad/chorus sound actually. But the digital behavior of the envelopes are thrash. However if you replace them with Blamsofts Movement if gets MUCH better.

I'm just not into these cumbersome work arounds, more important for me is song creation than doing CV routings and Combinator stuff just to get the basics going, something even free VSTs often provide.

Hence, I don't use them much. Probably more so because the patch browsing and favorite tagging sucks. I don't wanna sit and go through a few hundred patches and have no way way to easily tag them for later use.
10% off at Waves with link: https://www.waves.com/r/6gh2b0
Disclaimer - I get 10% as well.

User avatar
BRIGGS
Posts: 2132
Joined: 25 Sep 2015
Location: Orange County California

08 Oct 2020

The older synths are more cv oriented. The newer synths are more midi oriented. Just look at the back panels.

I'm a cv guy, so the older synths are my workhorses.
r11s

ltbrunt00
Posts: 532
Joined: 10 Jan 2017
Contact:

10 Oct 2020

There should be a poll about what third party tool your using the most. My projects these days have more kontakt devices the exception being synths. I almost only use Rack Extensions and native reason devices for synths. I haven't used the Rex player in Ten years except when loading up old songs and eventually removing as they get updated. Kong hasn't been used in 5 years. Haven't used Redrum since Kong came out. My kids use all these in their projects.
Reason, Nuendo, Studio One
https://soundcloud.com/user-404930848

User avatar
TritoneAddiction
Competition Winner
Posts: 4219
Joined: 29 Aug 2015
Location: Sweden

13 Oct 2020

ltbrunt00 wrote:
10 Oct 2020
There should be a poll about what third party tool your using the most. My projects these days have more kontakt devices the exception being synths. I almost only use Rack Extensions and native reason devices for synths. I haven't used the Rex player in Ten years except when loading up old songs and eventually removing as they get updated. Kong hasn't been used in 5 years. Haven't used Redrum since Kong came out. My kids use all these in their projects.
That's an interesting idea. The problem is a poll like that is pretty much impossible to do. The number of third party plugins available would be way too many. Can't remember what number of options one is able to have here at RT when creating a poll, but I know it's pretty limited. Also, even if more options were available, who's gonna have the time to write down every third party plugin there is?

User avatar
TritoneAddiction
Competition Winner
Posts: 4219
Joined: 29 Aug 2015
Location: Sweden

13 Oct 2020

Must say I'm both a little sursprised by the results and in another way not surrpised.
The order in popularity between the synths was something I expected, Thor and Subtractor first and last Malström. But I thought the option I went for "No I've moved on to other synths" would have a slightly higher percentage. After all with so Europa, Grain, all REs and also the whole VST world availbable I thought more people had forgotten about the old Reason synths.

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

13 Oct 2020

TritoneAddiction wrote:
13 Oct 2020
Must say I'm both a little sursprised by the results and in another way not surrpised.
The order in popularity between the synths was something I expected, Thor and Subtractor first and last Malström. But I thought the option I went for "No I've moved on to other synths" would have a slightly higher percentage. After all with so Europa, Grain, all REs and also the whole VST world availbable I thought more people had forgotten about the old Reason synths.
I would thought we'd have more than around 250 votes. We have nearly 10, 000 users on here. Where are they all and how come hardly anyone ever votes in these polls?

Just looked at another poll - 100 votes. Not many people use this site then I can take from it.
:reason:

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

tanni
Posts: 213
Joined: 19 Jul 2015

13 Oct 2020

Creativemind wrote:
13 Oct 2020
TritoneAddiction wrote:
13 Oct 2020
Must say I'm both a little sursprised by the results and in another way not surrpised.
The order in popularity between the synths was something I expected, Thor and Subtractor first and last Malström. But I thought the option I went for "No I've moved on to other synths" would have a slightly higher percentage. After all with so Europa, Grain, all REs and also the whole VST world availbable I thought more people had forgotten about the old Reason synths.
I would thought we'd have more than around 250 votes. We have nearly 10, 000 users on here. Where are they all and how come hardly anyone ever votes in these polls?

Just looked at another poll - 100 votes. Not many people use this site then I can take from it.
yes, thats often the problem because developer like ReasonStudios dont know in this case the real opinion of majority. Most people are too lazy to write or wrote.

User avatar
moneykube
Posts: 3447
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

13 Oct 2020

tanni wrote:
13 Oct 2020
Creativemind wrote:
13 Oct 2020


I would thought we'd have more than around 250 votes. We have nearly 10, 000 users on here. Where are they all and how come hardly anyone ever votes in these polls?

Just looked at another poll - 100 votes. Not many people use this site then I can take from it.
yes, thats often the problem because developer like ReasonStudios dont know in this case the real opinion of majority. Most people are too lazy to write or wrote.
never voted because the option to use them all is not there... I use them all
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
Proud Member Of The Awesome League Of Perpetuals

User avatar
Bloma
Posts: 724
Joined: 06 Sep 2015
Location: Melbourne
Contact:

13 Oct 2020

moneykube wrote:
13 Oct 2020
tanni wrote:
13 Oct 2020


yes, thats often the problem because developer like ReasonStudios dont know in this case the real opinion of majority. Most people are too lazy to write or wrote.
never voted because the option to use them all is not there... I use them all
I used to use all of them like you... then I took an arrow to the knee.

Post Reply
  • Information
  • Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: chimp_spanner and 18 guests