Who is the designer behind Reason workflow?

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Gulale
Posts: 485
Joined: 22 Feb 2015

14 May 2017

I have never talked about it before but it is freakin annoying. You import your track and three of them, the Rack, sequencer and mixer are not synchronized. It is just a mess. When I fix the mixer order, why is it not also re order the Rack and the sequencer? Only the color applies properly but the order is a mess. Is there a solution?
Gulale aka Bereket

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stratatonic
Posts: 1563
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Location: CANADA

14 May 2017

I think the designer was Henrik Lundqvist.

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stratatonic
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14 May 2017

Gulale wrote:I have never talked about it before but it is freakin annoying. You import your track and three of them, the Rack, sequencer and mixer are not synchronized. It is just a mess. When I fix the mixer order, why is it not also re order the Rack and the sequencer? Only the color applies properly but the order is a mess. Is there a solution?
As far as I can see, you have to:
*click the last track in sequencer to highlight it,
*press shift to
* select the first track (to highlight all the tracks in the sequencer),
*and then right click
*and click to select Sort Selected Device Group.
This should rearrange everything in the mixer and rack to what you have in the sequencer.

It's only five steps. What's the problem? :lol:
Last edited by stratatonic on 14 May 2017, edited 3 times in total.

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Carly(Poohbear)
Competition Winner
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14 May 2017

In the mixer select them all (or just the ones you want to sort), right click and select "Sort Selected device groups".

This changes the order in the rack and Seq view to match that of mixer view.

Note you can do this in any view, Mixer, Rack or SEQ and the sort applies to the other views you are not actively in..

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pjeudy
Posts: 1559
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

14 May 2017

This is what I mean when I say that VST will not get me back into REASON. The DAW needs a serious rewrite and update.
Once I am done looking at the pretty SSL Mixer and when I'm done routing ten thousand CV cables in a combinator ....I'm left working with the DAW which is a click/right click and more clicks festival.

2 weeks ago I opened REASON and wanted to raise the velocity of some midi notes to 127...so I highlighted the Midi notes then dragged upwards the vertical velocity bars that are displayed underneath the each notes, then nothing happened..!? I tried dragging them a second time, then nothing. The issue in True REASON form..is that you first need to highlight the notes,then move up to the Midi editing window, then hit the = sign, then and only then can you raise the velocity of all the notes at once :-(. That's just one reminder (to me) why I don't work in REASON outside of wanting to route CV and hitting Ctr/z 300 times. there are other things that Props needs the DAW to be capable of.

When I worked in REASON I made sure that My Mixer was clean...everything was grouped by instrument,color etc...and it was always a cat and mouse game getting the SSL to know what was going on the Rack, the different parts of REASON really don't talk to each other much..unless you click and right click to coerce them into understand that they are supposed to be part of the same software :D

Reason is basically 3 pieces of a software patched to work together. When they introduces players I was exited, they are very good, powerful and helpful...but I did wonder why not have them embedded in the Midi editing window? the way it is now..you always have to have the RACK up in front if you are editing MIDI notes while working on chords or Arpeggiator which takes up a huge amount of screen Real Estate just to have access to the one device in this case the Chord Player :shock: .

VST is good step to get REASON on another level...but REASON the DAW needs to be much smarter and forward thinking for me, in order to take any sort of best DAW crown...(again for me) She's on the right Track <--pun ;) .....for example *One button sync,300 undos of all changes,Unique to any DAW routing options...etc..you guys know the rest* are all forward thinking features.
My opinion is that Propellerhead REASON needs a complete rewrite!
P.S: people should stop saying "No it won't happen" when referring to a complete rewrite of REASON. I have 3 letters for ya....VST
Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:53 pm

xbitz
Posts: 154
Joined: 28 Apr 2017

14 May 2017

don't even have to select the notes, ctrl+alt and u can draw a line directly in the velocity area without any note selection (dont kill me you're right ofc. :puf_smile: Reason MIDI editor is PITA )

cables are part of the fun, I'm using
http://zvork.fr/audio/product/volt-sl-1/
Image
to keep the controls in a common place
:reason: :recycle: :re: :record: :refill: :rt:

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pjeudy
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14 May 2017

Right, to make up for REASON basic deficiency..you always need to have your wallet at the ready...NO! that's not my mind set...Also the function that REASON needs are not beyond the realm of possibility...they are extremely basic and should be built in.

There are devices that you can absolutely purchase that's not built in a DAW of course..but individually we have to decide for our selves what's worth it and what's not. If all I need is a shorter way to say ...raise a Midi note velocity faster..the solution to me is not Purchase an external device and have it loaded just for that task. you may have no issues with that..it's all good..But to me, those small inconveniences when combined with the others makes for a less then stellar workflow (to me)

....I have used REASON for 7 years exclusively with no experience with any other DAW, I enjoyed many,many hours with routing CV they are fun as hell...but I don't wear Propellerhead Reason on my sleeves and I call REASON poor workflow environment like it is (to me) poor. Until then I'll keep an eye out on the Progress of REASON for any improvements that are of interest to me...But she will not get a single red cent from me until she can internally compete workflow wise, with something as basic as one sliding movement to raise all velocity's.
My opinion is that Propellerhead REASON needs a complete rewrite!
P.S: people should stop saying "No it won't happen" when referring to a complete rewrite of REASON. I have 3 letters for ya....VST
Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:53 pm

Gulale
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Joined: 22 Feb 2015

14 May 2017

Thanks guys, at least there is a solution.
Gulale aka Bereket

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theshoemaker
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14 May 2017

I for example would love to have a more keyboard (as in computer keyboard with letters and numbers, not master keyboard) centric workflow, where I can type in all values, reassign keycaps globally and not in the a .remote file. There is nothing wrong with that, as I'm a software developer on my own, but that's the point. I want to do music, not software development. Let's see how they use the capital from Verdane. I'm really looking forward to see Reason land on iOS and improve the UI and its workflow on the desktop.
:PUF_figure: latest :reason: V12 on MacOS Ventura

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stratatonic
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14 May 2017

Gulale wrote:Thanks guys, at least there is a solution.
It would be nice, to have an option in Preferences, to have it just route automatically when you shift a track.

Heck forget the option, just have this as standard! I can see no advantage in workflow to have it like it is currently.

When I work in Logic, everything just shifts in the mixer as you move tracks around in sequencer.
And you can grab 80% of the sequencer track to shift it -- in Reason, I have to target a 1mm x 5mm target on the left of the track. Sucks on a laptop, especially, lol.

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normen
Posts: 3431
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14 May 2017

stratatonic wrote:
Gulale wrote:Thanks guys, at least there is a solution.
It would be nice, to have an option in Preferences, to have it just route automatically when you shift a track.

Heck forget the option, just have this as standard! I can see no advantage in workflow to have it like it is currently.

When I work in Logic, everything just shifts in the mixer as you move tracks around in sequencer.
And you can grab 80% of the sequencer track to shift it -- in Reason, I have to target a 1mm x 5mm target on the left of the track. Sucks on a laptop, especially, lol.
Yep, a simple checkbox "always keep order in rack, mixer and sequencer the same".

Btw, actually the "workaround" works from all windows to all windows. If you arrange your rack so that each mixer channel is a column its also included in the ordering. So you can order in any of the windows (sequencer, mixer, rack) and apply that order to the other windows.

mfavila
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Joined: 13 Feb 2017

14 May 2017

Totally agree. Would love to figure out how to be able to type in more values.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

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chimp_spanner
Posts: 3016
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

15 May 2017

I too have suggested a track/rack/channel synchronise option. Would be really cool! I think if enough of us ask for it, we might get it. :)

Ostermilk
Posts: 1535
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

15 May 2017

I think the original design behind Reason's workflow was a thing of absolute genuis.

However as any application matures, additional functionality and features arrive and some of those things don't fit as well and even sometimes conflict with the original specification and the overall original concept has to be bent a bit to accomodate these additions.

Since Reason 6 we've seen major changes to the original concept, audio capabilities, midi out, a whole new plugin subsystem and development platform for those we're still only on version 9 and now VST's are arriving, something else substantial that is a long way from the intent of the original workflow.

So yeah, over time some things do seem to be a strangely fitted together, but regardless, to me it's still Reason at it's heart and in just the last 3 versions it has come a heck of a long way, but I'd agree a period of some finessing of how everything currently works together as a whole would now be welcome.

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normen
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15 May 2017

Ostermilk wrote:I think the original design behind Reason's workflow was a thing of absolute genuis.

However as any application matures, additional functionality and features arrive and some of those things don't fit as well and even sometimes conflict with the original specification and the overall original concept has to be bent a bit to accomodate these additions.

Since Reason 6 we've seen major changes to the original concept, audio capabilities, midi out, a whole new plugin subsystem and development platform for those we're still only on version 9 and now VST's are arriving, something else substantial that is a long way from the intent of the original workflow.

So yeah, over time some things do seem to be a strangely fitted together, but regardless, to me it's still Reason at it's heart and in just the last 3 versions it has come a heck of a long way, but I'd agree a period of some finessing of how everything currently works together as a whole would now be welcome.
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Ostermilk
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15 May 2017

Yep, I particularly like the picture captioned "How the software is advertised".

:D

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dioxide
Posts: 1827
Joined: 15 Jul 2015

15 May 2017

It makes sense to me, coming from a hardware background where your Sequencer, Mix and Instruments are three different things. Maybe the traditional DAW concept is aimed more at recordings audio for bands in a studio so synchronising mixer channel and sequencer (tape) makes more sense?

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normen
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15 May 2017

Ostermilk wrote:Yep, I particularly like the picture captioned "How the software is advertised".

:D
Being a software dev myself I actually like the "how much time has to be spent" one. It shows how much work seemingly simple things can really mean because you kind of cause an avalanche of needed changes, some of which might be completely invisible but take soo much time.

The advertising.. Well we pretty much know thats the cancer of society right? ;)

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artotaku
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15 May 2017

Ostermilk wrote:Since Reason 6 we've seen major changes to the original concept, audio capabilities, midi out, a whole new plugin subsystem and development platform for those we're still only on version 9 and now VST's are arriving, something else substantial that is a long way from the intent of the original workflow.
Opening Reason by providing a plugin interface/API seems quite natural to me, a lot of systems do this to give the software a development boost and the users more choice who always asked for MORE. In Reason, to choose the rack as a point to be extended has been a quite sensible decision from a software architecture perspective. Before REs I always thought they´d do something like that at some point in time.

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miscend
Posts: 1956
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15 May 2017

Gulale wrote:I have never talked about it before but it is freakin annoying. You import your track and three of them, the Rack, sequencer and mixer are not synchronized. It is just a mess. When I fix the mixer order, why is it not also re order the Rack and the sequencer? Only the color applies properly but the order is a mess. Is there a solution?
Some of us want the mix order to be independent of the sequencer and the rack.

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satyr32
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15 May 2017

miscend wrote:
Gulale wrote:I have never talked about it before but it is freakin annoying. You import your track and three of them, the Rack, sequencer and mixer are not synchronized. It is just a mess. When I fix the mixer order, why is it not also re order the Rack and the sequencer? Only the color applies properly but the order is a mess. Is there a solution?
Some of us want the mix order to be independent of the sequencer and the rack.
yep, me too. but it is nice to know that it is possible to sort. i did not know that.
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Gulale
Posts: 485
Joined: 22 Feb 2015

15 May 2017

miscend wrote:
Gulale wrote:I have never talked about it before but it is freakin annoying. You import your track and three of them, the Rack, sequencer and mixer are not synchronized. It is just a mess. When I fix the mixer order, why is it not also re order the Rack and the sequencer? Only the color applies properly but the order is a mess. Is there a solution?
Some of us want the mix order to be independent of the sequencer and the rack.
cool let them fix it for us and you guys will drop it all over the place. You know since it doesn't take time to mess things up.
Gulale aka Bereket

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MattiasHG
Reason Studios
Posts: 523
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

15 May 2017

stratatonic wrote:I think the designer was Henrik Lundqvist.
Who the hell is that? :D

We've had a couple designers and people influencing that but the most important people are: Ludvig Carlson, Ernst Nathorst-Böös, Marcus Zetterqvist, Pelle Jubel. And Andreas Karperyd and Mats Karlöf for devices. :reason:

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Wook
Posts: 293
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

15 May 2017

Haha. Dude just randomly said a generic Swedish name. Thanks for the laugh. Oh, Johan Andersson was in charge of cable colours. True story.
   

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kuhliloach
Posts: 881
Joined: 09 Dec 2015

15 May 2017

I often wonder if developers at Propellerheads start with functionality then build a UI on top to support it, in that order. But if that's the case could it be beneficial to start with a User Interface concept, draw it, then build backwards to make the functionality match?

This post is right on the money. Only two days ago I found myself struggling with these issues--even the basic naming being sync'd doesn't even work. Change the track name and the mixer channel automatically changes to match--but not the other way around. In general the situation is completely infuriating. I'm really glad I have a deep understanding of Reason at this point because I could see a lot of people deciding it has a very non-intuitive UI. I'd go as far as to say Reason is the least friendly DAW I have ever used. It seems to cater to the needs of engineers more than producers or musicians. All that said Reason is still my favorite DAW and it will probably remain that way especially now that I've gotten over the steep learning curve.

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