Reason vs. Live

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 5:46 pm

My $.02 is that alot of people that have had rack gear somewhat gravitate to Reason at some point because it is familiar to them but, when I gave up alot of my rack gear I wanted to give up that method of making music in a whole. So, although I own Reason i never really use it and tend to have alot more fun in Live. Have Fun!

robtronik · Post by **robtronik** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:00 pm

my take is that with the combinator in Reason 3.0, Reason is a very good sound generator on par with some of the things you can do in Reaktor (albeit limited to the synths and effects on hand). But damn, that is one powerful addition to the program.

It's definitely the best, I believe, to work with both programs and have them rewired to each other (and some key VST synths or whatnot in Live) and you are pretty much good to go...

.02,

rob.

forge · Post by **forge** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:36 pm

Former Pharaoh wrote:
sqook wrote:I wish that propellerheads would just spilt up all the instruments in Reason and distribute them all as individual VST's. Most reason users are at the point now where they only like 1-2 machines but hate everything else about that programe. They'd probably make a bunch more money that way, too.
I agree with this 100%. It is true that Reason and Live compliment each other nicely, but i just can't stand switching between 2 apps.
What I do is create drum loops in Reason, render them as 24bit wav files and piece em together, mangle them, basically have fun with them in Live.
For synths, i like to create loops in Energy XT or within Live depending on my mood. I only use Reason synths as percussive blips and bleeps that accent a drum groove.

this is basically why I got rid of reason - when they put out version 3 it annoyed me so much that they hadn't made rewire more useful - you will find it very limiting down the line that while it's just one plug-in you cant actually use it that way and pipe audio IN to it.

I actually find Live5 + operator in a whole different league anyway, then add Native instruments and waves and I've never wanted for more.

Plus if you want an outstanding drum synth Microtonic is designed by the same guy who did reason's maelstrom and is only $69 US

The only thing I would use reason for now would be to load up old song files, and most of them have been stripped for wavs anyway, so it got sold.

wazzlez · Post by **wazzlez** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:20 am

sqook wrote:I wish that propellerheads would just spilt up all the instruments in Reason and distribute them all as individual VST's. Most reason users are at the point now where they only like 1-2 machines but hate everything else about that programe. They'd probably make a bunch more money that way, too.

Word. Seriously the instruments and modules in Reason are sick but the idea that you'd want to base your GUI off of a make-believe rack is ridiculous, not to mention the whole "drag the cable with your mouse" nonsense on the back of each module. Stuff like that makes sense for the retro instruments where you can transition from hardware to software, but not for a whole system.

Captain Screwbarb · Post by **Captain Screwbarb** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:20 am

Imo Reason's Combinator is worth the price of the whole program alone. There are so many awesome things you can do with that thing, and it's sooo easy to use. Nothing really compares with it (yeah Reaktor can do more, but just takes soo much energy and time).

DJSK · Post by **DJSK** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:52 am

The one thing that is missing from Live right now is Live packs that are made for it's instruments and effects. Right now you can find hundreds of Reason Refills that offer tons of sound clips and settings that really get you going quickly in reason. Live being fairly newer than Reason just doesn't have the availability of Refills or Live Packs as of just yet. In my honest opinion that is the only thing that Reason has over Live right now is it's popularity and availability of third party refills. Other than that you just can't beat the sequencing capabilities of Live's mixer. Reason's sequencer is just not as user friendly as Live's. That and Live's capabilities to remix on the fly are so much better.

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:17 am

You better get demos and try yourself. reason and Live integrate very well but is it what you want, only you can answer that, after trying and experimenting. forge is fine with Live and operator, for him Reason sucks. I use Reason with Live and reason does what i use it for, what it doesnt I can get from Korglegacy or Arthuria, or real instruments. Someone else may get it from NIs. I personally wouldnt use Operator if it was free or I was even paid for using it. There is no the best or even good that works for everyone. No one is stupid or ignorant either, different tastes different needs. Dont waste money on what is the best for someone else, get what you like. I have same approach to instruments /software i, like to girls if I dont fall for them on the first sight , I forget about them. I must love, adore, get high by the very sound of it, if it does not hit me in the face, it is useless, like arranged marriage.

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:30 am

Reason's REX Player is a very handy tool for chopping/rearranging
breakbeat stuff.... very cool.

-Ben

stereomike · Post by **stereomike** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:38 am

I've been playing with the Reaktor Demo and man that thing has some serious sounds! Live Refills would be great. Not to mention a built in Live Vocoder. Reasons got one, how about it Abletons? Oh as an update, yes thank you.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:44 am

MrYellow wrote:Reason's REX Player is a very handy tool for chopping/rearranging
breakbeat stuff.... very cool.

-Ben

did someone say clip envelopes?????

forge · Post by **forge** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 5:08 am

AdamJay wrote:
MrYellow wrote:Reason's REX Player is a very handy tool for chopping/rearranging
breakbeat stuff.... very cool.

-Ben
did someone say clip envelopes?????

well yeah, exactly. one of the things I miss least is having to use a 3rd party app (recycle) to make loops usable in reason.

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 5:17 am

Reason causes impotence.

kramer · Post by **kramer** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:21 am

I started out with Reason. I didn't even know what a softsynth or VST was at all until I got bored one day and popped in this neat looking orange demo CD that came with my M-Audio soundcard. I remember thinking "You mean I just connect the MIDI jack from my Alesis QS to this card and I can play this fake rack thing?...WTF" I had purchased the soundcard just to do simple multitracking with CoolEditPro....what a surprise. I went out the next week and bought Reason 2.5

Anyway...I've gone completely for Live5 now and I don't find the Rewire to function good enough. The only way I'd go back to using Reason at all is if there was more integration between the programs. If I could just bring Reason up like a regular VST in a regular Live MIDI channel I would feel a lot better about Reason.

As of right now...I would trade my Reason 2.5 for Operator.

FaX-01 · Post by **FaX-01** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 8:55 am

The two have the best rewire intgegration of any host / app combo I've seen.
I keep stripping my VST folder back I must confess and now only use Kubik as a VST instrument.
Currently saving for Pluggo (I have pluggo Jnr).
When I finally have the cash for it

(seems to be taking for ever).
I'll pretty much ditch my VSt's altogether.
For me.
Live + Reason3 + Reaktor + Pluggo is really more than enough for all my needs.

Reason - covers all my REX , Maeltsrom , Subtractor duties + standard S&S playback via NNXT and all sorts of Rompler Styled Combi's via the Combinator. It's also stupendously CPU lite for what it does and is a solid back bone application with very good too extremely excellent 3rd party pro-end refill support.

Reaktor - physical modelling ,fm ,subtractive ,modular ,granular ,beatboxes ,groovemachines and esoteric audio processing and sample mangling hardcore style.

Pluggo - ditto for experimental effects routings and pretty much all my other oddball and more standard delays, comps , phasers ,spring reverbs etc.

Live - DAW, arranger ,improv ,recording and compositional environment.
The added internal effects are more than sufficient for bread and butter duties and great for clip envelope modulated effects and the like.
Not to mention all the resampling and warp marker abuse my little brain can muster + extra routing and processing tricks.

All adds up to a well rounded set IMHO I'm not using P5 much at the moment I must confess but Dimension is the shit for pads , strings , piano's eps , rhodes , clav's , acoustic bass patches and the like with more ooomph than alot of Reasons stock FSB IMHO.

Pretty happy with this selection myself.
The facty that the VSTi's have gone and Reason still finds a place alongside Reaktor is IMHO testament too it's staying power as an application.

MrYellow · Post by **MrYellow** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 8:57 am

AdamJay wrote:
MrYellow wrote:Reason's REX Player is a very handy tool for chopping/rearranging
breakbeat stuff.... very cool.

-Ben
did someone say clip envelopes?????

Yeah played with clip offsets a fair bit.... but Reason works for me better
visually when it comes to moving hits around....

-Ben