Enabling Tech (The Reason version)

[Billy+]

Enabling Tech has been mentioned a few times over the last couple of blog post and although not much actually detail has been made clear about the vision I'm definitely interested in what this might mean for us.

With the release of Reason 12 we are adding a new development track into the game – Enabling Tech. Wikipedia describes enabling technology as an invention or innovation that can be applied to drive radical change in the capabilities of a user or culture.

We are really thrilled about this. If we would translate Enabling Tech into what we would like to achieve at Reason Studios, I would say it means that our Enabling Tech will turn our exciting ideas and vision for music making into reality, faster.

Putting a development team on this, working in parallel to product development, means that we are ensuring that we can work long term on the technical feasibility to make Reason the most creative music making environment - ever.

Could enabling tech turn into something more like Max or Reaktor but for Reason that enables us a more simplified route into the SDK with an ability to share the scripts and alternate interface and device designs?

With that said does this mean the end users are getting something new or is this just an in house developer toolset?

Are we part of the discussion about enabling tech, what do you think about it.....

[Tweak]

Enabling tech could be:

The creation of a whole new sequencer application, intended to replace the current sequencer, with workflow improvements galore.
The development of a macro recorder and playback tool to accelerate the creation of complex multi-device rack connections as an alternative to housing in a Combinator.
The creation of a schematic view, allowing for all devices to be visible more easily than up/down scrolling, and to allow quicker understanding of audio/cv flow and connectivity. Think Delta player for all devices.

[guitfnky]

pretty sure it’s just a developer toolset, not a new feature or device. it theoretically should allow them to deliver that stuff more quickly. I remain skeptical, but we’ll see.

[selig]

It could also mean:
"…that our Enabling Tech will turn our exciting ideas and vision for music making into reality, faster. "

"Enabling Technology" is such a broad and generalized term that it includes everything from the printing press and eye glasses to the WWW and AI.

But is sounds more like they are describing some sort of in-house tech that will enable them to get features delivered quicker, not so much the features themselves.

[EDIT - guitfnky beat me to the post!]

[Tweak]

So then enabling tech is the less glamorous, but oh so needed:

Code Test Automation
Continuous Integration & Delivery Pipeline

[deigm]

I kind of thought they were using 'enabling tech' as fancy marketing lingo for what's already on the roadmap, like M1 support and VST3. As in, technology enabling us to use VST3 and M1 macs..

But it is super vague. It could be anything. At this point all they've revealed is the buzzword.

[jam-s]

"Enabling tech" could also be new features for REs aka an updated SDK.

[nickb523]

I kind of thought they were using 'enabling tech' as fancy marketing lingo for what's already on the roadmap, like M1 support and VST3. As in, technology enabling us to use VST3 and M1 macs..

I thought the same. I didn't think it suggested anything that was directly exciting.

[selig]

I kind of thought they were using 'enabling tech' as fancy marketing lingo for what's already on the roadmap, like M1 support and VST3. As in, technology enabling us to use VST3 and M1 macs..

I thought the same. I didn't think it suggested anything that was directly exciting.

I don't think that's what "enabling tech" means. VST3 or M1 support isn't "enabling technology" itself. It's exactly what it says: support for a standard/hardware. Enabling technology, as I understand it, is the technology behind the features, the tech that allows the features but is NOT the features. Block chain is a good example of enabling technology IMO, because it's not a feature itself but can be used to add features to existing or new products/concepts.

But I agree that on whole, enabling technology is not directly exciting, like block chain or AI isn't necessarily exciting until you start to actually do stuff with it (and even then depends on what you do with it).

Reminds me of the Combinator, which although not a literal example of enabling technology is still one of the least exciting devices ever released in Reason, but that was used to build some of the most useful and interesting devices in Reason.

[avasopht]

Rampant Game's 2004 article, Black Triangles is a brilliant illustration of how to think of enabling tech.

[Breach The Sky]

Well, the last couple off years they did extensive rewrites/updates to enable multi-core CPUs/better performance, a new graphics engine that can utilize GPUs. The coming VST3 and M1 update require a lot of groundwork too, I'm sure. The way combinator 2 works is pretty cool also, we certainly haven't seen anything like that before, in Reason. I don't know if that's a result, or a part of said tech-enabling.

[selig]

Rampant Game's 2004 article, Black Triangles is a brilliant illustration of how to think of enabling tech.

That's awesome, a perfect example.
Reminds me of many things in life, the latest of which would be my new studio setup. This setup involved getting all my cabling, physical+software routing, and drivers working for a setup that's quite complex. Th room looks pretty much exactly like it did before I started getting all of that behind the scenes stuff started, it's mostly behind the scenes.
But what it allows me to do is the point, which is to quickly connect ANY source/instrument to Reason. This includes a full drum kit, vocal station, guitar station (including pedals/amp AND ReAmp), percussion station, and multiple hardware synths. They each have a dedicated microphone (where applicable), mic pre-amp, and physical input into the system so all are only a few clicks away at any given time.
When I'm working in a creative "flurry" I can move quickly between any instrument and not have to connect any cables or set any levels etc. BUT, it took me almost a full month to conceive, purchase, install, learn, and troubleshoot the fairly complex setup.

Building black triangles isn't glamorous at all, but IMO totally worth it if it continues to pay dividends long into the future.