Reason 13 has arrived: Release Notes

[evolve187]

I have a small request - I'd like the option in the 'Window' menu to hide this bar (in the below image). It's a small thing. But, after close to a quarter of a century of hitting the Tab key to flip the rack. It kind of feels like having a 'Flip Rack' button is the Reason equivalent of having to be told how to breathe in & out!! Likewise with the 'Mixer', 'Rack', and 'Sequencer' buttons - F5, F6 & F7 have had me navigating the Reason windows at close to light speed for as long as I've been flipping the old rack. I need buttons for this like I need another arsehole!! And there's precious screen real estate in that there bar Reason > Window > Hide Beginner Bar

I agree 100%. what you can do to GAIN 3 times the amount of that real estate we lose with the flip rack banner is to hide the transport bar from the window tab. Not ideal, but if ya need that space....

[Mattvank]

Hello,

after install the reason 13 demo. i can´t open r12 anymore. reason.rpcp is lost. Install again

Any solutions?

[Faastwalker]

Robin Vincent covers Reason 13. Pretty much agree. It's an upgrade! It is what it is.

I did LOL on his comment about the new tag system though

[mimidancer]

Robin Vincent covers Reason 13. Pretty much agree. It's an upgrade! It is what it is.

I did LOL on his comment about the new tag system though

I love Robin. He is too funny. Whenever I am buying gear that does things I can already do with Reason I justify it with something he said, "Sometimes you just want the thing that does the stuff." Words to live by.

[Chi-Individual]

Robin Vincent covers Reason 13. Pretty much agree. It's an upgrade! It is what it is.

I did LOL on his comment about the new tag system though

The fact that he referred to them as Propellerhead the entire segment made it that much more epic.

[stratatonic]

Robin Vincent covers Reason 13. Pretty much agree. It's an upgrade! It is what it is.

I did LOL on his comment about the new tag system though

The fact that he referred to them as Propellerhead the entire segment made it that much more epic.

Thx for time stamping that. Pretty much agree with his take on tagging. (though I get that some people love/need tagging)

Whenever I am buying gear that does things I can already do with Reason I justify it with something he said,
"Sometimes you just want the thing that does the stuff." Words to live by.

A concept every good salesman/influencer knows.

[joeyluck]

Pretty much agree with his take on tagging. (though I get that some people love/need tagging)

I always wanted tagging mainly for devices. I just wanted to be able to search and browse types of devices like "reverb" and see all my reverb devices and not just those with "reverb" in the name. So I'm happy to have tags for that now.

In terms of patch tagging, I've always just loaded a device and then browsed patches for it. And category folders in the device's home folder help. But then after trying to new Browser, I've been having fun discovering sounds and using devices I might not have used because of browsing by tags.

The other big thing is browsing All Locations for a device, so now all those ReFills I've gotten for various devices aren't forgotten and I don't have to navigate to them separately—which was the reason before that I would forget about them.

[PhillipOrdonez]

I never cared for tagging until i tried this new browser. Now I love/need it.

[stratatonic]

Pretty much agree with his take on tagging. (though I get that some people love/need tagging)

I always wanted tagging mainly for devices. I just wanted to be able to search and browse types of devices like "reverb" and see all my reverb devices and not just those with "reverb" in the name. So I'm happy to have tags for that now.

In terms of patch tagging, I've always just loaded a device and then browsed patches for it. And category folders in the device's home folder help. But then after trying to new Browser, I've been having fun discovering sounds and using devices I might not have used because of browsing by tags.

The other big thing is browsing All Locations for a device, so now all those ReFills I've gotten for various devices aren't forgotten and I don't have to navigate to them separately—which was the reason before that I would forget about them.

Well, I did post "some people" would appreciate tagging I'm definitely on the other side. I just don't have so much content that I'm being swamped, I guess, but I can see if you're getting new content constantly via the Soundpacks the tags could work well as well.

I'm unsure what you mean about Refills. I have Refills externally in one folder. How would the new system be helping me in that situation?

[joeyluck]

I always wanted tagging mainly for devices. I just wanted to be able to search and browse types of devices like "reverb" and see all my reverb devices and not just those with "reverb" in the name. So I'm happy to have tags for that now.

In terms of patch tagging, I've always just loaded a device and then browsed patches for it. And category folders in the device's home folder help. But then after trying to new Browser, I've been having fun discovering sounds and using devices I might not have used because of browsing by tags.

The other big thing is browsing All Locations for a device, so now all those ReFills I've gotten for various devices aren't forgotten and I don't have to navigate to them separately—which was the reason before that I would forget about them.

Well, I did post "some people" would appreciate tagging I'm definitely on the other side. I just don't have so much content that I'm being swamped, I guess, but I can see if you're getting new content constantly via the Soundpacks the tags could work well as well.

I'm unsure what you mean about Refills. I have Refills externally in one folder. How would the new system be helping me in that situation?

Well in this case, I was also someone who didn't feel I needed tags for patches, so I was in the same boat, until I started browsing using them.

In R13 when you give a device browse focus, you can browse "All Locations" (which happens to be the default browse location now). So then any patches you have for that device, such as folders and ReFills you have added as shortcut locations in the left column, you will see those patches all together when browsing All Locations for that device. So now you don't necessarily have to navigate to those patches separately. Just start browsing patches for a device and they are there.

[Faastwalker]

Pretty much agree with his take on tagging. (though I get that some people love/need tagging)

There's an idea, a dream of organising the glut of information we are all overwhelmed with.

I might get there ............ one day!

[Pepin]

Does anyone else notice that deleting an instrument from the rack no longer deletes the corresponding mix channel?
I can't launch Reason 12 to check, but wasn't the default to delete all devices in the "group"? That seems to be gone.

Edit: Never mind. I forgot "Auto-group tracks and devices" was an option. Somehow it got got disabled.

[aeox]

I can't figure out how to get rid of that "Edit Area" that is taking up half my screen For this Reason, I'm sticking to 12

In Reason 12 the "Edit Area" took up your entire screen though

You can open/close it with F9 or shift+tab. It also auto opens when you double-click a clip or hit Enter with a clip selected. It can also be closed with Escape.

I'll have to check it out again sometime

In hindsight, my comment was whine-y

[ColdSkoolBeatz]

It's funny, and I guess speaks to every user's unique needs/interests, but mixing is the thing I actually enjoy most about Reason.

I make fairly normal guitar/bass/drums rock-adjacent music, and I find Reason to be an intuitive and efficient DAW for doing that - I sketch out ideas and demos quickly in Reason at home; render out scratch tracks, record multi-track takes in reaper at my rehearsal space; and then drop the comped takes back into Reason where I can mix and mangle them to my heart's content, and build out "finished" "songs" with easy access to great sounding synths with useful presets and generally good-enough effects.

I think I'm doing something very different with the software than those folks working at the deep end of the EDM pool, but it's interesting to me that someone would pick luna for basically the reasons I like reason. De gustibus etc

To be clear, the reasons I mentioned for moving away from Reason is: “frustration with missing features or lack of progress” (this from the post above mine when I posted). So I don’t think this is the same reason as you…

Things I wanted/needed: Automation in decibels, accurate automation scaling (Reason is not), direct typing in values, system wide tape emulation, summing simulation (Neve is amazing), full fader automation modes (touch, trim, absolute, off), “session data import” to share settings from the previous song with the next, AAF import, “Versions” support, track show hide, channel grouping of all controls, edit grouping with control for phase correlated quantize, “inline” note editing (no separate edit mode/screen), being able to apply changes across multiple channels such as adding a plugin,/changing outputs assignments/adding sends, track freeze, track versions, pre/post roll for editing (I can keep the selection but play from the bar before the selection), deactivate tracks, custom labels for inputs/outputs, etc.

These are just the things off the top of my head I’m using every day, I’m probably forgetting something here.
I do more rock/pop/ambient/indy/folk/Afrobeat these days than EDM or related genres, fwiw…

I can think of one you may have forgotten. Solo Defeat/Solo Safe. I've been asking for this since forever, as well as the other features you mentioned like being able to type in values.

[ColdSkoolBeatz]

I think they were just taking a guess from overall forum activity. Personally I have never seen anyone, not even one person, ask for a floating browser and not to be able to dock it anymore, so I would also guess the majority don't like it in that case. Could be wrong, and maybe they had thousands of requests via email for it from people who aren't on the forums, but all we can do is guess to our best knowledge.

OK, agreed - but how many users asked for Ripley, Polytone, or any of the other tools? How many asked for a separate MIDI editor? How many asked for removal of device favorites?
The “majority” of users never asked for any of these things, and yet here we are.

The Removal of Device favorites feels like a stab in the back. I've updated, grudgingly the last few updates, every year since v6.5. This year, I just can't do it for that reason.

[selig]

To be clear, the reasons I mentioned for moving away from Reason is: “frustration with missing features or lack of progress” (this from the post above mine when I posted). So I don’t think this is the same reason as you…

Things I wanted/needed: Automation in decibels, accurate automation scaling (Reason is not), direct typing in values, system wide tape emulation, summing simulation (Neve is amazing), full fader automation modes (touch, trim, absolute, off), “session data import” to share settings from the previous song with the next, AAF import, “Versions” support, track show hide, channel grouping of all controls, edit grouping with control for phase correlated quantize, “inline” note editing (no separate edit mode/screen), being able to apply changes across multiple channels such as adding a plugin,/changing outputs assignments/adding sends, track freeze, track versions, pre/post roll for editing (I can keep the selection but play from the bar before the selection), deactivate tracks, custom labels for inputs/outputs, etc.

These are just the things off the top of my head I’m using every day, I’m probably forgetting something here.
I do more rock/pop/ambient/indy/folk/Afrobeat these days than EDM or related genres, fwiw…

I can think of one you may have forgotten. Solo Defeat/Solo Safe. I've been asking for this since forever, as well as the other features you mentioned like being able to type in values.

Good one, how could I forget? If they added this then we could more easily use Mix Channels for FX returns (I love to put reverb on my delays). It's a feature of the original SSL for goodness sake…
Along those same lines, pre fader sends need to be PRE MUTE, which is also another difference between the real SSL and the Reason version.

[Theo.M]

I reinstalled V12 and now have the latest 12 and 13.01 side by side, and I am sadly hating (ughh I dislike that word) Reason 13 more and more. I have attached two screenshots to show what I mean about seeing which tracks are selected being so much more difficult now.

But seeing V12's beautiful browser and "less in your face" fonts, really rubs it in. Reason 13's dark scheme actually causes me so much eye strain that I can't use it, but that's the only theme that clearly shows highlighted tracks. As you can see, it was never OTT to begin with and already much harder to see than all other DAWs that have a very strong track and clip selection gui scheme, however it's as if Propellerhead wanted to make us perpetually squint and keep double checking. I mean it's just silly.

So yes, my main issues with Reason 13 are the visuals and that God awful browser.

The whole ethos with this release seems to be "make everything messier and harder to find" and take the GUI a step back, not forwards.

I am still absolutely stumped as to why RS did this and refuse to offer at least a docked option for the new browser, even if they want the new browser as it is and that's how it always will be. But I keep having to move it NON STOP, depending on where I am in rack or arranger page, as I often need access to things that are not IN the browser, WHILST I am browsing. Just one example of this is tweaking a preset quickly then moving to the next one. Yep, got to close browser now, then reopen when ready. 100 times for 100 presets vs not one single time with V12 as it was always just there, snapped to the left side. Did RS really believe that some of us if not many of us, never tweak a filter or amp attack time or output volume of a patch as we browse presets? Just think about all the extra work involved now and the constant moving of the browser on top of that, depending on the synth parameter we may want to edit in between browsing patches. Wow.

I would say that with the new browser, my workflow has slowed by about 4x "overall", and I am avoiding the browser totally for audio files and using ADSR. Since the Reason browser is so bad and forced floating anyway, I might as well use a plugin with the same limitations that at least has time stretch to project tempo preview and a much nicer traditional, "folder hierarchy on left, files on right".

See, even for synth patches it's ruined for me. Every patch prior was already in its own subfolder category so why was it so bad to begin with?
And once again, for those who love it, then why not at least offer us a left or even right docked option?

And what an ordeal to find the factory drum loops. They used to be right there on the left, one click. I mean it's just ridiculous.

I love the new Polytone synth but thankfully I have plugins that sound just as good, although I never lie and have to give kudos where deserved, as I don't think I have a third party vst that sounds as good *whilst* also being so cpu efficient.

All the other new for v13 plugins I can live without, and I much prefer the free pump tool that we already had as an RE rather than Reason's new factory one. I presume that must have some extended use though as an external side chain? Haven't gone into that yet.

Do you know what would have actually added to the workflow? If they are going to insist on the browser being floating, they could have at least added a mix tab to the plug in browser, so when you click on a track you can have a portable overview of level with a fader and inserts. THAT would have been a game changer. Or ARA 2. How about that? What we got was mostly nonsense, mostly, except for Polytone. Hey Reason Studios, here's another good one for you - how about fixing the VST3 memory leak on Windows that makes a project with only VST3 plugins impossible to do?
Or how about a simple built in high pass detector on the master bus comp we all know and love. They made a rack version, they could have added one knob. It's only something that's been talked about for 15 years lol.

BTW I also drastically prefer Selig's gain tool to the new gain tool. I also don't see the point of the new stereo tool, it's just more of the same thing.

I don't need tiny real time meters like RS's gain tool provides, a peak hold that is large is way more useful. We already have meters on the mixer and track in the rack.

I don't like the modulator as it only goes to a max of 8 bar sync LFO rate, so I can't do the long 16 and 32 I love doing. So I use Predator FX for that which has the best flanger and phaser I ever used in a plugin anyway, which is funny as I prefer it to 100's of dedicated modulation plugins I have tried.

Sure, for shorter things the new mod tool will be nice, but we already had a great ensemble chorus. and I am sure all of us, if not all, most of us, would had had alternative good phasers and flangers already?

All this said, I will watch this video now

so as to at least not be ignorant, and learn the new gain and sidechain properly

Going back into Reason 12 feels SO good, almost like that "home" feeling as so much of it is just so right. Then going into 13, of which I have spent many an hour in now, feels like the home is being ripped away from me. I feel so uncomfortable in it and just with basic navigation, it's now become my equal worst DAW with Reaper in that regard.

Anyway, I am out. As much as I love Selig's Leveler, I can't keep spending 25 USD or 40 AUD a month (that is the total cost with conversion fee) to use one rack plugin as an insert in pro tools and Nuendo, as everything else I actually have alternatives for in AAX format. Even the chord player, as I have Scaler 2 on AAX/VST.
I thought about it and it's also ludicrous to spend 500 USD for a perpetual license for that one plugin. The closest I can do is use Blue Cat's Dynamics which has full and extensive control over upwards and downwards compression and gating, and with judicious use of both, I may be able to minimise noise, which is what Leveler is so good at. Yes, upwards compressor plugins have been around a long time, but Leveler is the only one I know of with a super easy to use, streamlined interface where all the magic is under the hood already and designed to increase low level wanted audio, NOT noise. Kudos for that Giles, forever and ever and then some! To infinity and beyond!

I'll hang around here till the sub ends in September and I'll say goodbye when the time comes, I am not going to torture myself and use a beloved app that has been butchered. I am really quite emotional about it, and I am not over dramatizing, nor am I on meds like I used to be when I had bad behaviour. This is just coming from the heart and how I feel, as I feel I have had my hand forced to stop using something. On a side note, I have to count my lucky stars right now that I have only spent a total of $70 USD on REs since I started using reason again at the end of March lol. Also very happy now that the rig bundle was the only RE item not available to buy in my account and that I never chased it up. Phew

You've all been so amazing to me since I came back, and I was so excited when I came back and saw how far R12 had come vs the last one I used which was R8, and I have noticed that this is THE best audio plugin/daw community group of people on the web.
This is THE kindest, most non elitist, caring, HELPFUL audio forum, period. It will never cease to amaze me, the quality of the people here vs some of the not so quality at places like Gearspace. So thank you all for that. Love you heaps.

[selig]

Hey Theo, I'm confused by your graphic - I don't have any issue seeing which track is selected in either view, they are almost the same. What am I missing?
I am not affected by any changes to dark mode, overall I prefer it fwiw...

As for a "mix tab" in the browser (or anywhere for that matter) not sure how that works. What if you select a ReDrum track that is split out to 10 Mix Channels - which fader should be shown?
They are working on the memory leak from everything I've noticed, so hopefully we'll see something soon on that front.

There are some cool features in the new Gain Tool, such as a cross fader (useful for building your own dry/wet control on any FX chain), and a "cross-selector" which is like a modular CV "Sequential Switch" and can be used to build a cool little transient processor device (I'll have to put together a video showing that trick). It still lacks a peak hold display, which is one of my most used feature of Selig Gain (plus the ability to control CV signals or convert automation to CV!).

[Pepin]

As you can see, it was never OTT to begin with and already much harder to see than all other DAWs that have a very strong track and clip selection gui scheme, however it's as if Propellerhead wanted to make us perpetually squint and keep double checking. I mean it's just silly.

If you're visually scanning for the darker shade of gray to check which track is selected, then I can see it being rather hard to see. The contrast is reduced in Reason 13.
I'm not going to defend the change, but there are other visual cues that you might be able to use. I think I generally look for the "record enabled" icon, since it's bright red and stands out easily. There are also colored "handles" on the far left and on MIDI lanes that are darkened when selected, with significantly more contrast than the gray background.

I don't think clip rendering has changed, apart from an even thicker outline appearing while editing. So I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about there.

[Theo.M]

As you can see, it was never OTT to begin with and already much harder to see than all other DAWs that have a very strong track and clip selection gui scheme, however it's as if Propellerhead wanted to make us perpetually squint and keep double checking. I mean it's just silly.

If you're visually scanning for the darker shade of gray to check which track is selected, then I can see it being rather hard to see. The contrast is reduced in Reason 13.
I'm not going to defend the change, but there are other visual cues that you might be able to use. I think I generally look for the "record enabled" icon, since it's bright red and stands out easily. There are also colored "handles" on the far left and on MIDI lanes that are darkened when selected, with significantly more contrast than the gray background.

I don't think clip rendering has changed, apart from an even thicker outline appearing while editing. So I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about there.

Yes, that. The darker shade of grey. It's the only DAW which does this now, in such a weak manner, and Giles must have better eyes than me, that's for sure.

Clip selection was always poorly highlighted in reason, it needs a much stronger black outline or a colour inversion. Logic and PT and Cubase, you always know what's selected, can tell you that much.

I can't do black GUIs on any DAW, this isn't Reason specific. Logic is as dark as I can go, which is a grey.

They removed the blue theme which was the perfect compromise for me. Remove, remove, remove.

That's what this update has been to me.

The more I use it, the more I dislike it. It's as if the fun has been sucked out for me. That browser change when auditioning synth presets and wanting to do mild edits on the fly, that in itself is so egregious that I can no longer work the way I usually work, I have to now commit to a patch before editing, otherwise I'll be opening and closing the browser a literal thousand times per session.

Why do I HAVE to now do edits in the lower dock? I hated this in PT, Logic and Nuendo, but I can choose a different option with them so it's not even remotely an issue. constantly dragging up and down and changing the size of the editor window in Reason now.. sigh...I loved opening a midi window exactly as it was.

So the one thing I want docked, they force undocked, and vice versa.

I found editing a midi notation sequence before to be borderline torture. I wanted my little pop up note processes window, that's gone too, and been dumbed down in its integration.

As I keep using it, I keep liking it less. To me, it's as if someone came along and specifically ruined the ergonomics.

Does anyone else think it's weird that every time reason opens to a default blank project (same in v12), and you open a different project, you have to literally minimize the new project, then close the old one, and then say no to saving changes to the old one, rather than it just open the new project in place? And you can't close the default project when the app opens, as it closes the entire app.
It's things like this, it's just so illogical.

all it needs is a simple option in preferences to only allow one project open at a time. That's it.

And so on, and so on.

I think the simplest way to put it is this:

"Absolutely nothing I was hoping for and features I have wanted as far back as V8, have been implemented in V13, and they've only taken things away that I DID want and loved just as they were".

Hope that makes sense. They've added NOTHING I wanted.

If the browser is fixed, it may be enough for me to persevere and get used to the other issues, but I know what RS are like, they'll be stubborn about it , just like plugins, then RE, then no VST ever, then VST, so this will be "no browser change", then if ENOUGH people keep asking for it, they might do it in 5 years. That's how they roll. I don't even know if I will be able to still make music in 5 years, so I'd rather enjoy whatever time I DO have to make music, to the absolute fullest. I believe that's quite normal to think that way.

[Pepin]

Does anyone else think it's weird that every time reason opens to a default blank project (same in v12), and you open a different project, you have to literally minimize the new project, then close the old one, and then say no to saving changes to the old one, rather than it just open the new project in place? And you can't close the default project when the app opens, as it closes the entire app.
It's things like this, it's just so illogical.

If you haven't modified the empty project, then opening an existing project immediately after launching Reason should automatically close it. This works in both Windows and macOS for me.

I do think it's generally annoying to switch between multiple existing projects in Windows though, because (unlike macOS) there's no way to keep Reason open without a project open. DAWs like Cubase have a "launcher" window that helps to avoid this.

[Theo.M]

Does anyone else think it's weird that every time reason opens to a default blank project (same in v12), and you open a different project, you have to literally minimize the new project, then close the old one, and then say no to saving changes to the old one, rather than it just open the new project in place? And you can't close the default project when the app opens, as it closes the entire app.
It's things like this, it's just so illogical.

If you haven't modified the empty project, then opening an existing project immediately after launching Reason should automatically close it. This works in both Windows and macOS for me.

I do think it's generally annoying to switch between multiple existing projects in Windows though, because (unlike macOS) there's no way to keep Reason open without a project open. DAWs like Cubase have a "launcher" window that helps to avoid this.

That has never happened here that way, maybe because I have it load my default template on startup.

[Theo.M]

Here are 4 pics, 2 of Reason 12 with just one synth and one little chord progression I just did on the laptop keyboard.

Then opening same project in Reason 13.

In Reason 13., the browser's width is at its absolute minimum, and it just so happens the synth I am using is tiny, but even in this best case combo scenario, you can see how much worse it is.

Then look at the gorgeous room we had to edit our midi, and no, dragging the bottom up to the top in Reason 13 and obscuring everything above is not the same thing and having to resize it all the time depending on circumstance.

If these two pics don't perfectly say what I am trying to convey, then nothing will, and we can just agree to disagree. I have no issue with any one who loves R13 just the way it is, as we are all entitled to our own opinions

[Pepin]

If you haven't modified the empty project, then opening an existing project immediately after launching Reason should automatically close it. This works in both Windows and macOS for me.

I do think it's generally annoying to switch between multiple existing projects in Windows though, because (unlike macOS) there's no way to keep Reason open without a project open. DAWs like Cubase have a "launcher" window that helps to avoid this.

That has never happened here that way, maybe because I have it load my default template on startup.

For me it works even with templates. It's possible something in your template is causing new songs to immediately be flagged as "changed." This has happened to me when a template contained an older version of a VST plugin than the version I had installed. It might also happen if the template is saved with an older Reason version, though I haven't checked myself.

[Theo.M]

and next 2 pics