The new GUI could be a make-or-break chance for Reason

Have any feature requests? No promise they'll get to Reason Studios, but you can still discuss them here.
DougalDarkly
Posts: 193
Joined: 31 Jul 2019

08 Dec 2020

chaosroyale wrote:
08 Dec 2020
However, I think the hugely positive user reaction to the EKSS designs proves my main point.
Nonsense - I don't like the EKSS designs (apart from those that are Yamaha's design ofc) - the last one was so bad he had to put important controls on the back.

I have never used a device because I like the way it looks - that would be stupid right? There are plenty of really bad designs - designs that compromise the devices usability (Turn2On anyone?) - that I have avoided though.

Function is key, thats all, the 'look' I couldn't give a fuck about.

chaosroyale
Posts: 728
Joined: 05 Sep 2017

08 Dec 2020

I'm certainly not the only person who has suggested user themes/skins. I think parts of the user community have been requesting access to make skins for many years now. There were some famous conceptual re-renders going around years ago, some of which were in this thread.

Check out this render of the Subtractor. This is more like the kind of presentation I think RS should be going for - with one important change. This render uses a "wide-angle lens" which shows too much depth effect on the knobs and sliders (especially on the left and right sides). They could not be rendered in 2D like the current GUI. This could be fixed with a long lens type of render, for a direct top-down perspective with no distortion. Then the knobs can rotate cleanly without weird perspective effects.
92f212d60614edd7caff8e673dc7a84b.jpg
92f212d60614edd7caff8e673dc7a84b.jpg (582.63 KiB) Viewed 987 times


Marc Swing wrote:
08 Dec 2020
chaosroyale wrote:
07 Dec 2020
how about if they opened up the whole thing to be themed/skinned by the community?
Wow! That's Awesome idea !!!

chaosroyale
Posts: 728
Joined: 05 Sep 2017

08 Dec 2020

I appreciate that you don't care as much about the look, but if the only important thing is function, why use Reason at all? Live, Bitwig and Studio One are much better functionality-wise, more macro controls, easier modulation, more sequencing tools, etc.
DougalDarkly wrote:
08 Dec 2020
Function is key, thats all, the 'look' I couldn't give a fuck about.

DougalDarkly
Posts: 193
Joined: 31 Jul 2019

08 Dec 2020

chaosroyale wrote:
08 Dec 2020
I appreciate that you don't care as much about the look, but if the only important thing is function, why use Reason at all? Live, Bitwig and Studio One are much better functionality-wise, more macro controls, easier modulation, more sequencing tools, etc.
That's a joke right?

User avatar
guitfnky
Posts: 4408
Joined: 19 Jan 2015

08 Dec 2020

more functions ≠ better functionality
I write good music for good people

https://slowrobot.bandcamp.com/

DougalDarkly
Posts: 193
Joined: 31 Jul 2019

08 Dec 2020

guitfnky wrote:
08 Dec 2020
more functions ≠ better functionality
Agreed - case in point:

Image

User avatar
visheshl
Posts: 1235
Joined: 27 Sep 2019

08 Dec 2020

DougalDarkly wrote:
08 Dec 2020
guitfnky wrote:
08 Dec 2020
more functions ≠ better functionality
Agreed - case in point:

Image
i don't know why but this gives me rebirth vibes, the layout style, not the colors

User avatar
guitfnky
Posts: 4408
Joined: 19 Jan 2015

08 Dec 2020

DougalDarkly wrote:
08 Dec 2020
guitfnky wrote:
08 Dec 2020
more functions ≠ better functionality
Agreed - case in point:

Image
hoo-boy! 😅

yeah, I don’t think I’d even want to touch that one. 😆
I write good music for good people

https://slowrobot.bandcamp.com/

chaosroyale
Posts: 728
Joined: 05 Sep 2017

08 Dec 2020

I'm not sure how to take your comment here... Studio One for example is light years ahead of Reason for workflow, speed, sequencer features, etc. I just recently used the new version at a colleague's Studio and the sheer speed of working was night and day compared to Reason. Each persons mileage may vary, but for me at least..

Let's start with a really embarrassing one; the "combinator" controls in Studio One are better than in Reason! 8 knobs, 8 switches, and 2 XY pads. Exactly the kind of thing Reason used to be the leader at.

Everything is Studio One was right there in one simple click or drag. Editing, arranging, adding fx sends, etc was super fast. Anything can be selected and copied/generalized to multiple tracks at a time. All the tools from the clumsy F8 box in Reason can be done simply by drawing with the mouse or hitting keys, plus there are long-overdue functions such as instantly drawable compression/expansion/modification of MIDI and automation, which are still not available in Reason (unless you pay extra for a CV utility or player to -you guessed it- workaround!). In Reason, the most basic things are very simple and quick, but anything beyond that becomes tedious and laborious very quickly. In Studio One, everything was very efficient, at least as far as I saw.

And of course, there are a ton of things you can do in Studio One that you simply cannot do in Reason, such as video playback and switching between "sequencer" style and musical score. The integration of the main sequencer window, transport section, browser and so on, seem more logical and less fiddly than Reason. The different parts all "talk to" each other. Infinitely better metronome also lol. None of these things by themselves seems very big, but its everything together that makes the difference.

The one-and-only saving grace of Reason for my particular workflow - and the thing that keeps me using Reason, and mostly enjoying it, is that in Reason all of the instrument and FX devices in your track are visible right there, wired together in their groups, showing instant feedback with meters and VUs and lights, not needing to be popped up, or opened and then pinned somewhere. It's very tactile and satisfying.

I love that part of the Reason experience, and it has kept me using it regularly since Reason 2.5. (It's also why I don't care to use the RRP. I don't use Reason as a collection of "plugins", I use it like a studio). If they could get the quality of life stuff right, it would be such a joy to write music in Reason. However, I have actually had to stop working on projects in Reason a couple of times and switch to another DAW, because it simply was too limited to handle them. And it was stupid little things that should have been fixed years ago, like not being able to zoom out to show the whole project.
DougalDarkly wrote:
08 Dec 2020
chaosroyale wrote:
08 Dec 2020
I appreciate that you don't care as much about the look, but if the only important thing is function, why use Reason at all? Live, Bitwig and Studio One are much better functionality-wise, more macro controls, easier modulation, more sequencing tools, etc.
That's a joke right?

User avatar
miscend
Posts: 1955
Joined: 09 Feb 2015

08 Dec 2020

They should bring back the original GUI designer for Reason 1.0 to do the reskin. Whoever that person was he's a genius. I hope they also put in native HDR support for more vivid colours and contrast.

KGB
Posts: 87
Joined: 22 Nov 2016

18 Dec 2020

antic604 wrote:
07 Dec 2020

I'll bite. So what does?

Because everything else that Reason does there are 5 DAWs doing it better, faster & more elegant.

*For me* what drew me to Reason was its distinctive look, resulting from virtual hardware studio paradigm. So I don't mind that devices take 4-10x the screen space they do in Bitwig, because I love to look at (most of) them. It doesn't bother me I need to drag cables around & use splitters, instead of just clicking on modulation source, selecting multiple destinations & dragging the amounts; because Reason's way feels rewarding and "real". I love the big wall of knobs in mixer, even though I actually use parhaps 20% of them, because I sculpts the sounds in the rack. I can stomach separate tracks in sequencer for each automated insert FX or mix channel (unlike any other DAW, that keeps stuff together), because real world hardware would actually require that as well.

In a way one could say I tolerate most of Reason's faults and shortcomings, precisely *because* I love the look & paradigm. If it stops *looking* like it does and *feeling* like it does, there's very little to keep me using it.

It's a bit like with vintage cars, instruments, books - new & modern stuff is faster, more convenient and efficient, but it doesn't have a soul. Perhaps for you DAW doesn't need a "soul", because it's just a tool? That's fine, but for me, it's a source of inspiration and its look & feel is big part of that.

If for you Reason devices can look whatever, then lat us ask for them to look like Reason devices and have both sides happy :) :thumbs_up:
This this and only this.

I will add that I am going to be 95% happy with the graphics update. I want my Reason to feel exactly like it does today, I just need the graphics to look cleaner. I just bought a 4k TV for my studio and it is waiting for this update so I can upgrade INSTANTLY.

User avatar
visheshl
Posts: 1235
Joined: 27 Sep 2019

18 Dec 2020

for me, reason as evolved as it should. it retains its past and has matured like scotch.
as reason rack plugin it has given me exactly what i needed. a seperate daw, and a separate instrument rack.
i love reason and its evolution. it tried to become a proper DAW but couldn't so it played on its strength, that is the rack.
my setup now is almost complete.
i use ableton as a daw, i use reason rack plugin for sounds. its magical. its beautiful.

as for gui skins, the best thing would be to open it up to the userbase, they will do as they please with it. reason should provide the default skin, if users like a new skin for a device, let them buy it and put that particular skin on that particular device.
its as simple as that. however all this skin business will take away from one major aspect and that is making music. which is why i prefer the default skin as is. even though its not homogeneous, the software's main purpose is not to look good but to be able to produce good music. and anyway i personally love that reason has a personality of its own....i love the look of all devices like the subtractor, the old fx, maelstrom. etc. its supposed to be a rack filled with gear old and new. you can't expect a juno synth to look modern...but it still has a place in the studio (if you have one), it is vintage. similarly subtractor is old, why should it look new? in fact if it does look new it will be jarring as the look does not complement how it sounds like. so yeah i prefer how subtractor looks and sounds like, and i prefer how the newer devices look and sound like. at least theres no dissonance between how it looks and how it sounds. if reason were to get a homogeneous look like Ableton live, it will be the death of reason.
but i prefer live not to look like reason either...i prefer live to look like what it does.
reason mimicks a hardware rack.
that is its usp.
that is what differenciates it from the others.
however i would welcome it if reason studios were to open a skin functionality to the usebase. id be amused to look at all the different gui skins that users come up with for reason. maybe someone does come up with a skin that make the entire software look modern and stylish...who knows....it rather that reason studios concentrate on building newer devices than concentrating on this whole gui buisness.
id prefer if they'd concentrate on getting the cpu usage of readon rack plugin down so that we'd have more RRP tracks in the daw

User avatar
visheshl
Posts: 1235
Joined: 27 Sep 2019

18 Dec 2020

my point is what would you do if an old old old car sounds like the latest ferrari or a lamboghini ? that is why subtractor should look old

Post Reply
  • Information
  • Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests