After using Ableton for a year, I'm going back to Reason.

[kitekrazy]

After reading 4 pages of the thread OP will go back to Live.

Every forum has a rally the fanboys posts.

[chimp_spanner]

It’s because Ableton is straight up ugly. It’s not fun to look at so it’s not fun to work in. Why would you want to spend any more time looking at that grey screen than you need to?

That's why I like it. I always think it was designed for laptops.

Not sure about tired at looking at a grey screen since that became a trend in software.

Tbh I don't necessarily mind if the general UI of my software is particularly exciting or not. I'm actually a fan of Reason's new UI. The rack is visually (over)stimulating as it is. The surrounding program should be simple and easy to decipher although some of the grey areas like the new browser and the editor tools look a little unpolished to me. The new dark mode, overall, is quite slick IMO.

My biggest problem with Live is that the flatness extends to everything, including its instruments and effects. So they end up having no discernible character that puts you in the mood to use that instrument. It's just another collection of very tiny orange check boxes, orange lines on a black screen, lots of text. A big part of what makes a synth or effect usable to me is the visual cues in the design as to what part of the 'circuit' the control is in, through panel shading or other graphical cues. That's totally missing in Live for me. Which is why when I was working in it more I would always opt for RRP, at which point Live kiiinda becomes what I imagined Reason eventually becoming.

[SebAudio]

Exactely my thoughts !

[jaeproduced]

It’s because Ableton is straight up ugly. It’s not fun to look at so it’s not fun to work in. Why would you want to spend any more time looking at that grey screen than you need to?

Agreed Ableton is like looking at a unfinished Beta Version that's meant for kids to play with...lol

[Mistro17]

I got Cubase a couple years ago and was glad I had RRP to bring with me. I have so many unfinished songs in Reason so that always gets me to pay a visit. But since R13.1, I find myself using Reason a lot more. Reason is just plain fun to work with. Felt that way since 3.0. I'm a visual person and Reason is very visual. Playing with hardware on the screen watching them all doing their thing at the same time is not something you experience in other DAWs.

[bxbrkrz]

After reading 4 pages of the thread OP will go back to Live.

Every forum has a rally the fanboys posts.

To be a Reason fanboy on Reason Talk is fair. Same for Cubase on a Cubase forum, etc.

I had to jump to Live because Reason Studios told me so. When I got the news I could open Reason inside other DAW I was like "OK, that's very smart. I get it. Not a fan of so much Live grey on their welcoming page, but fine. The next update will obviously be for the 100% Reason fanboys who are not asking much..." Reason Studios were right. Live was the best upgrade from Reason 11 for me.
I believe I only saw the grey theme the few seconds it took me to switch for something else the first time Live was running on my pc. OK, that was so bizarre I decided to switch back to the default grey, grey lite... It was horrible.
I think there is something about that grey that hit some people the wrong way, and I am one of them. It's a visceral reaction. Looking for years at Pro-24, then Cubase Atari ST, then Cubase on my old Mac Classic. Always very soothing. Still grey scale. Never a problem. I made sure I could switch the grey theme off forever before my purchase.

And as a bonus no need to reboot Live when trying them out over and over again depending on the mood (thank you Sonic Bloom for all your themes ).

[Ottostrom]

Speaking of Cubase. I was going through the "New in Cubase 14" list and although most of it was not very interesting, this one is something I hope RS is striving for with the new R13 browser:

[nebraskafire]

At the moment, because I record a lot of audio, I have the feeling that other DAWs are more suitable than Reason. Many workflows are simply quicker and easier. I like to start Reason when I'm looking for inspiration, but for the rest I prefer to work in other DAWs. I'm currently using an old version of Studio One Artist that I still had and I like it, but I still like to use Reason as a plugin for certain effects and instruments.

[kitekrazy]

Every forum has a rally the fanboys posts.

To be a Reason fanboy on Reason Talk is fair. Same for Cubase on a Cubase forum, etc.

I had to jump to Live because Reason Studios told me so. When I got the news I could open Reason inside other DAW I was like "OK, that's very smart. I get it. Not a fan of so much Live grey on their welcoming page, but fine. The next update will obviously be for the 100% Reason fanboys who are not asking much..." Reason Studios were right. Live was the best upgrade from Reason 11 for me.
I believe I only saw the grey theme the few seconds it took me to switch for something else the first time Live was running on my pc. OK, that was so bizarre I decided to switch back to the default grey, grey lite... It was horrible.
I think there is something about that grey that hit some people the wrong way, and I am one of them. It's a visceral reaction. Looking for years at Pro-24, then Cubase Atari ST, then Cubase on my old Mac Classic. Always very soothing. Still grey scale. Never a problem. I made sure I could switch the grey theme off forever before my purchase.

And as a bonus no need to reboot Live when trying them out over and over again depending on the mood (thank you Sonic Bloom for all your themes ).

There's a lot more honesty with criticism outside company sponsored forums.

I have most of the DAWs out there and the rounded corners on Cubase drive me crazy. Way too many GUIs are too dark.

[ltbrunt00]

I fall into this camp, will spend months in S1 and Nuendo and many times find myself moving the entire project over to Reason for better/quicker ideas. Reason needs to add that feature of exporting and importing projects from other DAW software that some are adding. I guarantee more people will either start projects in other DAW software and move it back to reason and export out of reason for the features Reason Studios don't have. I also hate Ableton, I find bitwig way more easy & fun to use.

[selig]

I fall into this camp, will spend months in S1 and Nuendo and many times find myself moving the entire project over to Reason for better/quicker ideas. Reason needs to add that feature of exporting and importing projects from other DAW software that some are adding. I guarantee more people will either start projects in other DAW software and move it back to reason and export out of reason for the features Reason Studios don't have. I also hate Ableton, I find bitwig way more easy & fun to use.

If you’re talking about the AAF exchange format, I’m all for it. It’s the first media exchange format that fulfills the promise of simple reliable file exchange between DAWs.
So far my experience has only been exporting from Logic and importing into LUNA, but so far it’s been flawless. It even gets audio clips placed correctly, muted clips correctly, and basic automation. Which means you don’t have to consolidate or otherwise “prepare” the audio for export as I have always done in the past.
I would use it ALL the time if Reason supported it, it would be a godsend for me and my current workflow starting in Reason and mixing in LUNA.