Reason 12.2.9 Release Notes

[dvdrtldg]

Does "silent login" mean we never have to bother with authorising Reason to the computer again (i.e. no login necessary after the initial one)? Because I am very much here for that

[MrFigg]

Does "silent login" mean we never have to bother with authorising Reason to the computer again (i.e. no login necessary after the initial one)? Because I am very much here for that

Only if you don’t have an internet connection.

[chimp_spanner]

Oh the Pain of unwanted glitches in visual and sound are now gone. Like Selig and others, I am reaching 64 buffer size, sample rate 48,000 and Max Threads just on Default on a track that had weird glitch problems before this update.
Using a i7 3770 3.4Ghz Win10 - Behringer UMC404HD - It seems flawless at the moment and now I can say it is the best it has been since I jumped back on the Reason ship in version 10.
No weird browser search behaviour, all seems fine atm. Hope folks get their problems sorted and get to experience a very up to par Reason 12.

FWIW I can't seem to find anyone else with this problem atm. Good news for you all. Bad news for me lol

[LittleBoy]

Well, if this update is concerned with improving performance over Rosetta, I'm afraid that support for M1 is still missing. Why improve performance over Rosetta if in 1 or 2 months they were going to introduce native support for M1?

What I'm starting to fear is that Reason Studios is going to drop support for M1 and VST3 for Reason 13, and they're going to spend all of Reason 12 without fulfilling their roadmap. If by spring 2023 there is no support for M1 and VST3, I am sure that I will sell my license.

[avasopht]

Well, if this update is concerned with improving performance over Rosetta, I'm afraid that support for M1 is still missing. Why improve performance over Rosetta if in 1 or 2 months they were going to introduce native support for M1?

What I'm starting to fear is that Reason Studios is going to drop support for M1 and VST3 for Reason 13, and they're going to spend all of Reason 12 without fulfilling their roadmap. If by spring 2023 there is no support for M1 and VST3, I am sure that I will sell my license.

It's highly unlikely for them to drop M1 support.

The Rosetta performance improvement is:
1. An improvement they would have done when targetting M1 anyway (they were just selecting which cores to use as M1 has slow and fast cores).
2. A small improvement to make (it's just creating a high-priority thread unless there are some better methods ... in the past, your application code could happily run on default priority, ... this has changed now).
3. Something they'd have to do even if they were supporting M1, because you'd still need Rosetta support to use any of your VSTs that don't support M1.

The other performance improvements weren't necessarily Rosetta specific - they are things you'd want to do to improve scheduling as that is where you can easily lose critical (and available) CPU (and bad scheduling can cause dropouts even when you have low CPU usage).

There is nothing indicative of them dropping M1 support.

The ONLY reason they would drop M1 support in R12 is if they wanted to go bankrupt in the next 3 years.

The alternative is for them to have released this update without including a very simple change in how they create threads (even though they'd have known about it and it's a free gain).

And while they're working on VST3 and M1, they are also going to be fixing bugs, etc. As they (and every single software developer in the world) have always done.

Some developers are not working on M1 support (because too many developers could actually slow down development). Those developers will make changes, fixes and updates.

That is all you're seeing here.

[joeyluck]

New bug in the transport bar (look closely)?

R12.png

It's funny that the one thing many of us thought years ago would transition easiest to scaling (the transport) is one of the few things having graphical issues. Back when R8 introduced the flat transport, some users were missing the hardware look of the old transport, and came to terms with it based on the idea of it being easier to scale and the excitement of a scalable Reason...

I haven't noticed those issues here.

[deeplink]

Well, if this update is concerned with improving performance over Rosetta, I'm afraid that support for M1 is still missing. Why improve performance over Rosetta if in 1 or 2 months they were going to introduce native support for M1?

What I'm starting to fear is that Reason Studios is going to drop support for M1 and VST3 for Reason 13, and they're going to spend all of Reason 12 without fulfilling their roadmap. If by spring 2023 there is no support for M1 and VST3, I am sure that I will sell my license.

Literally zero chance of this stuff happening

[Jackjackdaw]

Well I dunno… I thought hd graphics would be a tidy little 11.5 update but it turned out 12 is just a big old beta test for it. The longer they take , the more the update cycle coffers are emptied.

[reasonwhy]

New bug in the transport bar (look closely)?

R12.png

It's funny that the one thing many of us thought years ago would transition easiest to scaling (the transport) is one of the few things having graphical issues. Back when R8 introduced the flat transport, some users were missing the hardware look of the old transport, and came to terms with it based on the idea of it being easier to scale and the excitement of a scalable Reason...

I haven't noticed those issues here.

You're right - one would think that drawing a grey rectangle would be simple enough.

The problem seems to go away and come back with no apparent pattern (except for it go away and then come back).

Cosmetic issues besides, performance seems to have improved considerably

[Jac459]

The silent login works great as RRP. It makes the songs faster to load, it is a pleasure.

[guitfnky]

well I hope others are seeing some performance improvements, because I'm sure as hell not. getting used to disappointment.

Have you tried other settings?

From the notes:

If you are experiencing performance problems in Reason 12.2.9, try selecting another Max Audio Thread number, starting from the highest number and going down one number at a time until you get the best performance.

yep. well, I hadn't tried all of them until you said that (thanks for the suggestion), but I did try a few, and those didn't work. just went back and tried them all and yeah, still a glitchy mess even with the DSP meter hovering just above halfway. 🥲

[LittleBoy]

I hope I'm wrong and see Reason 12 with support for M1 and VST3. I really hope I'm wrong.

[Neo]

On a more positive note, the same song that would crawl to almost a halt plays PERFECTLY at a buffer of 64 samples at the default CPU setting on my new M1 Studio Max. The previous version needed 1024 sample buffers and turning off Multi-Core Rendering to play without glitches. Impressive performance indeed.
I should note that I’ve never been able to get 64 samples to play complex songs on any previous systems I’ve owned or worked on!
[there is some minor glitching with fast scrolling @ 64 samples, but none at higher buffer settings]

Maybe I shouldn't post so soon lol. So far Ive noticed a significant performance improvement.
I'm currently enjoying lower buffers sizes for the first time myself, where as before a similar size project was really struggling even at higher settings.
(HT enabled in BIOS) / PC
Bring on VST3..

Edit. Can only imagine the performance on the M1...

[MrFigg]

Have you tried other settings?

From the notes:

yep. well, I hadn't tried all of them until you said that (thanks for the suggestion), but I did try a few, and those didn't work. just went back and tried them all and yeah, still a glitchy mess even with the DSP meter hovering just above halfway. 🥲

First time I fired up the newest build I also had the DSP sitting at half way. Restarted it and now I’m flying.

[EnochLight]

I hope I'm wrong and see Reason 12 with support for M1 and VST3. I really hope I'm wrong.

Yes, you're wrong. Again, Reason Studios have very publicly stated that they are working on VST3 right now, at this very moment, and it will (very likely) appear in Reason (12) before the end of this year (as recent as June 2022, their VST3 hosting could already load instruments and effects). And official M1 support is coming after - again - in Reason 12. Nothing to worry about. Actually, what you see in 12.2.9 is part of the M1 support that will come...

This re-write of audio-thread handling has long been in the works and has been necessary for a very long time, on Windows (at least Intel) just as much as Mac. Hyperthreading and core handling has always been the bane of Reason's existence, and this rights the ship. I'd argue it absolutely needed to happen for proper M1 support to occur. As they stated in June 2022:

Reason M1 native support development will start off with threading optimisations we believe will affect performance and battery life positively for all platforms including non M1-macs.

What you see in 12.2.9 is exactly that. ^^

So, nothing to worry about!

Source...

[EnochLight]

Hey just wondering if anyone is getting weird browser search behaviour? Specifically, mine has stopped working haha. Even searching Drum Supply for 'kick' nothing comes up. It just sits there. I'll try a restart maybe. Anyone else getting this?

Hey man - I just checked my Windows machine (that infamously had search indexing broken for several Reason 12 updates many moons ago). 12.2.9 d40 search/indexing seems to work fine for me. Sorry! Looks like you've got a unique issue.

[selig]

Well I dunno… I thought hd graphics would be a tidy little 11.5 update but it turned out 12 is just a big old beta test for it. The longer they take , the more the update cycle coffers are emptied.

I did not share your optimistic timetable thoughts since it was known at the time that this tidy little update required a top down (or is it bottom up) re-writing of the entire graphics engine of over 20 year old code. While it has taken longer than I had hoped, I am not surprised.
Similar to how a home renovation of an older home always reveals issues that were not obvious (or knowable) before ripping into the structure.

[Jac459]

I did not share your optimistic timetable thoughts since it was known at the time that this tidy little update required a top down (or is it bottom up) re-writing of the entire graphics engine of over 20 year old code. While it has taken longer than I had hoped, I am not surprised.
Similar to how a home renovation of an older home always reveals issues that were not obvious (or knowable) before ripping into the structure.

On that I fully agree with you ...

[Jac459]

I hope I'm wrong and see Reason 12 with support for M1 and VST3. I really hope I'm wrong.

You are wrong...

[chimp_spanner]

Hey just wondering if anyone is getting weird browser search behaviour? Specifically, mine has stopped working haha. Even searching Drum Supply for 'kick' nothing comes up. It just sits there. I'll try a restart maybe. Anyone else getting this?

Hey man - I just checked my Windows machine (that infamously had search indexing broken for several Reason 12 updates many moons ago). 12.2.9 d40 search/indexing seems to work fine for me. Sorry! Looks like you've got a unique issue.

All good! Deleting the index v4 and 5 on the advice of support helped. Although v4 still isn't rebuilt. Not sure if it's needed for something else that I'm not aware of at this point. But v5 was, and once it did, search worked again. Fast as anything too. Like really fast.

[Heigen5]

Very nice Props!! My i9 + this fast Reason = WIN!! Should be settled for the next 15 years now.

[MarkTarlton]

I have had a couple crashes, and have only opened up a few songs to test and make sure my older tunes are still working fine, I am a little nervous since I am in the middle of a project that is on a break til I get back from my tour.

[EnochLight]

I have had a couple crashes, and have only opened up a few songs to test and make sure my older tunes are still working fine, I am a little nervous since I am in the middle of a project that is on a break til I get back from my tour.

Oh man - that sucks! Yeah I'd never EVER update my software in the middle of a project. Burned too many times in the past before. Hopefully you can get things sorted.

[MarkTarlton]

I have had a couple crashes, and have only opened up a few songs to test and make sure my older tunes are still working fine, I am a little nervous since I am in the middle of a project that is on a break til I get back from my tour.

Oh man - that sucks! Yeah I'd never EVER update my software in the middle of a project. Burned too many times in the past before. Hopefully you can get things sorted.

Thanks, I know I usually never update either, but I was hoping it would fix another bug I have been having, unfortunately it didn't. The good news is I haven't had any other crashes today when I briefly played around with some ideas. It's been pretty stable other than those crashes yesterday.

[avasopht]

Well I dunno… I thought hd graphics would be a tidy little 11.5 update but it turned out 12 is just a big old beta test for it. The longer they take , the more the update cycle coffers are emptied.

It's not a little update.

It was very complex - hence why it had such elusive bugs.

I experienced issues like they had when I developed a hardware accelerated UI system (even when it had no bugs of its own, it could still be brought down). And working directly with the OpenGL API can sometimes be sketchy because its resources aren't managed on two key levels which can open the door to subtle and elusive bugs - especially when first porting code to it.

Plus it raised lots of conflicts they had to resolve in order to support UI and displays designed for lower resolutions.

To cut a long story short, it's a lot more involving than it looks.