Ableton Forum

Just wondering if anybody uses Reason, and if you do what version. I have Reason 4, I don't use it very much but after experimenting with the user remote scripts in Ableton and then stumbling upon the midi implementation documentation for Reason I became more interested in figuring out practical ways to map my midi controllers for Reason. I do think that devices and racks are a bit more pleasing to look at compared to Ableton, and I do really like some of the devices. I really like using redrum for creating beats, however it would be 1000% better if I could actually use my own samples. Since I already own live suite and m4l, I was thinking of upgrading my Reason 4 to 6 and I was wondering if it's really worth it.

I use 5 sometimes, mostly just for patches I used in reason before I got ableton. I should mention though, since there seems to be some confusion on your part, that you are able to use your own samples in ReDrum, this article explains it, though it's quite simple.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep10/a ... e-0910.htm

Live and Reason are different beasts. I use and love both. If you are making music and will be in Reason you should upgrade. There are enough productivity enhancements and unique effects processors and KONG drum sampler, to name a few to make an upgrade worthwhile. They also rolled in Record, a sophisticated mixing console, in Reason with Reason 6. There will be some other goodies rolled out with the free update this summer to Reason 6.5

heisenberg9 wrote:Live and Reason are different beasts. I use and love both. If you are making music and will be in Reason you should upgrade. There are enough productivity enhancements and unique effects processors and KONG drum sampler, to name a few to make an upgrade worthwhile. They also rolled in Record, a sophisticated mixing console, in Reason with Reason 6. There will be some other goodies rolled out with the free update this summer to Reason 6.5

Reason 6 looks insane. Reason three was a yawn, and 4 didn't interest me. Then Record, through me for a total loop. But Reason 6 looks off the charts... I might have to upgrade my 3.0 I'm going to wait to see this 6.5 release. I haven't used Reason in 6 years.. LOL, since I started producing. But this version six.. haha. I'm glad I rarely transfer licenses to things I have, even if I'm not using...

Reason 6.5 supports Rack Extensions (Re) a new SDK for third party developers to add new rack Effects and Instruments to Reason. Reason 6.5 will be free to existing Reason 6 owners.

Yeah, I think Reason is doing really well right now and is only going to get way better, especially with rack extensions.

And FWIW, I made a combi of Redrum and Kong so I can get the best of both worlds. Beat programming in Redrum. Sound design in Kong. I could see that as being nice for working with your own samples as there is a mini-nnxt in Kong (or you could just import them into Redrum).

I should mention though, since there seems to be some confusion on your part, that you are able to use your own samples in ReDrum, this article explains it, though it's quite simple.

Really?! Thanks for the link antarktika! You are right this sounds incredibly simple, totally just made my day!

I'm probably upgrading to 6 soon, I found some guy who upgraded from 4 to 6 who found he didn't get on well with 6, and is going to trade his licenses for my 5 license. I'm quite excited, pulling my hair out though waiting for the propellerhead support team to email me all the info I need to negotiate the transfer.

I used Reason for years, going back to 2.0, before I made the jump to Ableton. I'm much more comfortable ginnin' up synths in Subtractor or Thor than, say, Operator or Analog. However, after jumping to Ableton a few years ago, I'll never, NEVER return to Reason's sequencer. Shit drives me insane and leaves me amazed how I used this for two full length albums.

Had a frustrating experience running Reason 4.0 with reWire to Ableton... Reason insists on having the PC plus(+)key hard mapped to the tempo setting. In Abe I use this key all the time to enlarge the arrangement view and found that when I was viewing the Reason component I was often changing the tempo without knowing it. And I couldn't override this key assignment either. Serious pain.

Does Reason 6 still insist use this key mapping?

phonographiq wrote:I'll never, NEVER return to Reason's sequencer. Shit drives me insane and leaves me amazed how I used this for two full length albums.

This is the part of Reason, they refuse to rework, and the major downfall of the software.

I'm bewildered by Reason 6...do people actually LIKE having a mixer that effin' huge on their screen? on my 17inch MPB you have to scroll all over the place to view different channels, it's literally impossible to view a full mixer at once, even just *vertically* for a single channel. Add to that the fact that you have to page between not two but three main screen sections -- mixer, sequencer, rack -- and basically you spend all your time mousing around the globe. and the rack always has a bunch of screen space wasted with big black areas for where you don't have anything loaded, but you can't minimize this to make room for actually useful visible stuff.

in sum i just think the UI is a total nightmare. I'm glad I stuck with Reason 5 and didn't upgrade, the demo had me absolutely baffled.

-M

wow

I bought Reason 2.5 back in 2005 and have never upgraded. I've never had Combinators, let alone Thor and the other newer features. I was disappointed when I found out that I can't rewire it to Live on my MacBook (need 3.0 or later to work on Intel-based Macs) . Although the upgrade is only $129 I don't think it's worth it for me.

I sold it back around version 2.5 or 3. I couldn't see anything about Reason that I couldn't just do the same thing in Live a little more efficiently & not have to bother with rewire. I thought that there was a lot of scrolling/waste of screen space as well, the comment about the empty racks dominating/occupying your screen made me LOL. The virtual cable eye candy was just a mess to follow each cable with your eye & see what was going on with your routing when you could just be reading or selecting the destination instead. I dread untangling & following all the cables in the back of my hardware rack straining to see what it's connected to, why should I have to do that with software? I echo another poster that the arrange page seemed cumbersome/clunky as well.

You can use your own samples with Reason but I noticed it was not so elegant to do so.

Midi controller support was pretty limited/basic back then, not sure it's any better now.

Probably the most annoying thing about it was the random prompts to insert the install DVD's, it was the last nail in the coffin for me at that time. I think they might have stopped that, but who wants to carry around DVD's (and perhaps even an optical drive!) all day with their laptop just so they can use the software.

The only advantage over Live I could find was that it's extremely CPU efficient. Some of the effects were nice, maybe if you have Live & don't have something like Guitar Rig/Amplitube it could come in handy as an FX rack compliment. I can't say it was any more stable than Live because if you run Live without any 3rd party plugins & just use the suite it will probably be just as stable.