Mimic: New Creative Sampler

[EnochLight]

On the contrary, offering it to 11 and earlier owners does decrease the value of 12 as an upgrade. That's why it's built-in to Reason 12 and you have to own 12 (or sub to 12+) if you want it. So, buy it in the shop for $129 - and you get R12 for "free".

I would buy Reason 12 but I can't run it! It requires Windows 10 or macOS 10.13. I have macOS 10.11 and can't run higher.

There are many in a similar boat to me (some stuck on Windows 7 for example) - Reason Studios are missing out on potential revenue from these sales. Obviously we'll all get newer computers with newer OSs eventually and buy the latest Reason then but for now Reason Studios are getting $0/£0 from us, when they could be getting $99/£99 given we want to play with their latest instrument creation - which is an RE built with an SDK that can run fine in Reason 11!

That's my point!

I get your point but - they’ve ran the numbers (they get user stats when you run Reason), and determined your scenario is the minority. Yeah it sucks for you, but it is what it is.

[Proboscis]

they’ve ran the numbers (they get user stats when you run Reason)

The 'can't opt out' pipeline masquerading as error reporting, so they can use our computers for bitcoin mining

[EnochLight]

The 'can't opt out' pipeline masquerading as error reporting, so they can use our computers for bitcoin mining

You might be onto something!

[Proboscis]

The 'can't opt out' pipeline masquerading as error reporting, so they can use our computers for bitcoin mining

You might be onto something!

That was eluded to in one of the many ridiculous posts made on the forum in the past week. It's the one that's stood out to me as being 'hilarious comment of the week'.

[rootwheel]

I would buy Reason 12 but I can't run it! It requires Windows 10 or macOS 10.13. I have macOS 10.11 and can't run higher.

There are many in a similar boat to me (some stuck on Windows 7 for example) - Reason Studios are missing out on potential revenue from these sales. Obviously we'll all get newer computers with newer OSs eventually and buy the latest Reason then but for now Reason Studios are getting $0/£0 from us, when they could be getting $99/£99 given we want to play with their latest instrument creation - which is an RE built with an SDK that can run fine in Reason 11!

That's my point!

I get your point but - they’ve ran the numbers (they get user stats when you run Reason), and determined your scenario is the minority. Yeah it sucks for you, but it is what it is.

Great to know they're putting the money before the customers. If I'm in the minority then there's even less risk that offering it would affect upgrade sales (i.e. the majority). Therefore it would be a nice act of generosity by Reason Studios to people like me within the customer base. I'm not asking them to give it away for free. I'm happy to pay.

I don't understand why they wouldn't be more inclusive given there are zero technical reasons they couldn't offer Mimic to Suite customers. Given they've now bumped the system requirements, they're locking some systems out of the core app which is currently the only way to get Mimic - but the Mimic RE's code itself is compatible with Reason 11.

If it's because Mimic is part of the carrot on a stick to get people to upgrade and they don't want it to be anything but a carrot, then to me the only thing that sucks is the way they do business.

[Heater]

I would buy Reason 12 but I can't run it! It requires Windows 10 or macOS 10.13. I have macOS 10.11 and can't run higher.

What Mac have you got?

[rootwheel]

I would buy Reason 12 but I can't run it! It requires Windows 10 or macOS 10.13. I have macOS 10.11 and can't run higher.

What Mac have you got?

It's a Mac Pro 2,1. Uses a Clovertown CPU which does not possess the SSE4.1 instruction set; therefore it cannot be upgraded beyond El Capitan (officially I think it's not supposed to go beyond Lion, but I found a way). I'm still more than happy with its performance, can run absolutely loads of REs and audio tracks and the DSP meter stays low. I know I'll need to buy a new machine eventually but right now it doesn't seem to make any sense.

If I was a glutton for punishment I could use Bootcamp and put Windows 10 on there and run Reason 12 that way but I refuse to do that as I absolutely cannot stand Windows.

Hence my campaign for Reason Studios, as one last hurrah for the older Mac users, to also make Mimic available as a standalone RE on the shop.

[Jackjackdaw]

Windows is fine man, it's just a screen to load apps from.

[rootwheel]

Windows is fine man, it's just a screen to load apps from.

It really isn't. I've used Windows in the past and it makes me hate my computer

[Jackjackdaw]

Ok, you do you. But you have identified your problem, and provided a solution to your problem. Either buy a new computer or run R12 on Windows. I don't think your crusade to get Mimic released as a Re is going to get you very far.

[rootwheel]

Ok, you do you. But you have identified your problem, and provided a solution to your problem. Either buy a new computer or run R12 on Windows. I don't think your crusade to get Mimic released as a Re is going to get you very far.

I do know that, I'm just very disappointed in Reason Studios. It's not like this is Reason 4 upgrading to Reason 5 and I'm asking them to backport and offer Kong and Dr Octo Rex to us older users. Those new devices were new core code inside the application binary.

Mimic already is just an RE. It's entirely separate from the main Reason 12 code. It's in a folder se.propellerheads.mimic just like a standalone RE would be. Mimic was developed using the RE SDK, just like Algoritm. They offered Algoritm in the shop. I don't know why they can't do the same with Mimic. They've artificially and deliberately decided to publish Mimic as an exclusive in Reason 12 to try and make a weak upgrade look more enticing. This isn't a customer-friendly approach in my opinion.

I'm free to criticise this approach on here if I want (even if it's in vain) and hope that as a result Reason Studios might perhaps change their minds and decide to look after their long-standing customers a bit better. The current approach is exclusionary and unnecessarily so - arbitrarily so even, given there isn't a technical problem stopping Mimic working in R11. I would even be willing to pay the full R12 upgrade fee if it meant I could access Mimic outside of R12 and from within R11. It would be a nice gesture by Reason Studios to let their paying customers do this, especially in light of yesterday's news about CodeMeter.

[MannequinRaces]

^^^^^ This guy, lol. Give it up man. Upgrade or fade into the background. This is how software and hardware work. It’s called planned obsolescence.

[DaveyG]

The truth is that of course they could add Mimic to R11, whether it's an RE or not. But that would discourage some people from buying R12 so there is no way they are going to do it. R12 has very few bullet points. They are not going undermine one of them.

If you wanna upgrade then you gotta upgrade man. <- sounds like a Ramones lyric brought into the 21st century

[EnochLight]

^^^^^ This guy, lol. Give it up man. Upgrade or fade into the background. This is how software and hardware work. It’s called planned obsolescence.

I mean, I feel their pain - I'm on a computer that's approaching a decade old and still haven't pulled the trigger to buy a new machine. But, I'm fortunate that on Windows these sort of software issues are extremely rare these days. That said, if Reason 12 didn't run on my computer because my hardware/OS combo couldn't handle it, I wouldn't campaign for an RE I wanted to be sold separately under (an inaccurate comparison of) inclusivity - I'd freak'n go out and buy a new machine! Or wait. Whatev's. It's only stuff.

[rootwheel]

Thanks guys, really appreciate your support

As if I'd buy a new computer for Reason 12 in the state it's currently in! It's bad enough Reason 11.3.5-11.3.9 has the bug with PDC and audio recording and Reason 11.3.4 and earlier have the terrible RAM leak bug.

I appreciate you think I'm wasting my time but the fact that it's so tantalisingly close and exists as an RE built with the same SDK that Reason 11 supports and Reason Studios could easily place it into the shop, but choose not to, is very frustrating.

[rootwheel]

^^^^^ This guy, lol. Give it up man. Upgrade or fade into the background. This is how software and hardware work. It’s called planned obsolescence.

I mean, I feel their pain - I'm on a computer that's approaching a decade old and still haven't pulled the trigger to buy a new machine. But, I'm fortunate that on Windows these sort of software issues are extremely rare these days. That said, if Reason 12 didn't run on my computer because my hardware/OS combo couldn't handle it, I wouldn't campaign for an RE I wanted to be sold separately under (an inaccurate comparison of) inclusivity - I'd freak'n go out and buy a new machine! Or wait. Whatev's. It's only stuff.

Why is my description of inclusivity inaccurate? If Reason Studios were a not-for-profit, they wouldn't be doing this. The only reason they're doing this is for profit - 100%. That's why I'm calling it out because it does effect me and others and it does seem like a cynical decision on their part to not make something, where incompatibility is not an issue, available to as wide an audience as possible.

[avasopht]

Why is my description of inclusivity inaccurate? If Reason Studios were a not-for-profit, they wouldn't be doing this. The only reason they're doing this is for profit - 100%. That's why I'm calling it out because it does effect me and others and it does seem like a cynical decision on their part to not make something, where incompatibility is not an issue, available to as wide an audience as possible.

Are you sure about that?

Are you 100% sure it doesn't use any features not found in the older SDK?

[Billy+]

Windows is fine man, it's just a screen to load apps from.

It really isn't. I've used Windows in the past and it makes me hate my computer

Actually even though I have exactly the same thoughts as you after giving it a try it's by far the best version since XP. The upgrade from 7 to 10 went very well and I don't have any performance loss which was the biggest concern I had with the i3 quad core intel laptop I was trying R+ on, in fact I would suggest it's actually performing a bit better and although it's only got 4gb of ram Reason works well enough for me to at least try version 12.

I also think I'm getting less issues with hires as the intel 4000 hd graphics chipset is using a lot lower dpi than most other devices, I wouldn't normally recommend giving windows a try but actually it's ok and worth a try

[guitfnky]

I mean, I feel their pain - I'm on a computer that's approaching a decade old and still haven't pulled the trigger to buy a new machine. But, I'm fortunate that on Windows these sort of software issues are extremely rare these days. That said, if Reason 12 didn't run on my computer because my hardware/OS combo couldn't handle it, I wouldn't campaign for an RE I wanted to be sold separately under (an inaccurate comparison of) inclusivity - I'd freak'n go out and buy a new machine! Or wait. Whatev's. It's only stuff.

Why is my description of inclusivity inaccurate? If Reason Studios were a not-for-profit, they wouldn't be doing this. The only reason they're doing this is for profit - 100%. That's why I'm calling it out because it does effect me and others and it does seem like a cynical decision on their part to not make something, where incompatibility is not an issue, available to as wide an audience as possible.

by this logic, we should be able to run Reason on a 386 running Windows 3.1, because “inclusion”, I guess?

[rootwheel]

Why is my description of inclusivity inaccurate? If Reason Studios were a not-for-profit, they wouldn't be doing this. The only reason they're doing this is for profit - 100%. That's why I'm calling it out because it does effect me and others and it does seem like a cynical decision on their part to not make something, where incompatibility is not an issue, available to as wide an audience as possible.

Are you sure about that?

Are you 100% sure it doesn't use any features not found in the older SDK?

I'm 100% sure Mimic was built with SDK Version 4.2.0 - Released May 20th 2020.
Rack Extensions created with this SDK require Reason 10.1 or later.

The decision to limit the availability of this RE is a cynical one that is ultimately quite exploitative of the Reason customer base, imho.

[Loque]

Are you sure about that?

Are you 100% sure it doesn't use any features not found in the older SDK?

I'm 100% sure Mimic was built with SDK Version 4.2.0 - Released May 20th 2020.
Rack Extensions created with this SDK require Reason 10.1 or later.

The decision to limit the availability of this RE is a cynical one that is ultimately quite exploitative of the Reason customer base, imho.

Its a decision by the company. Nothing less, nothing more.
I accapt you do not like it. Its ok. Thanks for letting us know.
I dont feel exploited.

[rootwheel]

I'm 100% sure Mimic was built with SDK Version 4.2.0 - Released May 20th 2020.
Rack Extensions created with this SDK require Reason 10.1 or later.

The decision to limit the availability of this RE is a cynical one that is ultimately quite exploitative of the Reason customer base, imho.

Its a decision by the company. Nothing less, nothing more.
I accept you do not like it. Its ok. Thanks for letting us know.
I dont feel exploited.

Well, this is a public forum. If enough people express a dissatisfaction then perhaps Reason Studios will offer more options to those who want Mimic. Currently you have one option. Get Reason 12. This isn't an option for everyone because of the increased system requirements.

I've demonstrated that there is no technical reason why Mimic couldn't be available to more of the customer base.

I don't understand why the attitude in response to this from my fellow reason users is one of apathy, contempt or ridicule.

Without customers Reason Studios wouldn't have a business. Why are we tolerating Reason Studios dictating a relationship that involves them sharing the fruits of their labour in the most narrow way possible as a means to extract as much profit from the user base? Surely that's not a healthy customer business relationship? Surely a slightly more relaxed and customer-friendly approach would win the day for everyone?

[guitfnky]

I've demonstrated that there is no technical reason why Mimic couldn't be available to more of the customer base.

the technical reason is that the code doesn’t exist in earlier versions.

[rootwheel]

I've demonstrated that there is no technical reason why Mimic couldn't be available to more of the customer base.

the technical reason is that the code doesn’t exist in earlier versions.

What code? Mimic is an RE, the code is self-contained in the RE's directory with the Mimic assets. It just so happens that RE directory is embedded inside the Reason 12 application bundle. There is no actual real dependency on Reason 12. All embedded devices from Reason 6 onwards are just Rack Extensions! They could either be published to the store or published as an embedded device into the Reason.app or sometimes both (as Beatmap was when it originally launched).

It's not for a technical reason that Mimic isn't available in the shop, it's for a profit-driven proprietarianism.

[Jackjackdaw]

Apathy, contempt and ridicule. The holy trinity of user group interaction.

Mimic is not a sampler worthy of even the mildest meltdown against society and the corporate evil. It's a shiny sticker on a sub par version release. Load up Kong or Dr. octorex or Grain and do your thing.