Calling Reason Users

[sphelan]

I'm just getting into Reason 4 and was wondering are many people here using it.

If so, do you guys complete tracks in Reason or do you do stuff up to transfer to another DAW? Is it considered good enough to complete tracks?

[e-vinyl]

Me and my cousin use reason, we make complete the tracks on reason then export or rewire it with another DAW so i can record my rapping vocals and scratches

[sureno]

Originally Posted by sphelan

I'm just getting into Reason 4 and was wondering are many people here using it.

If so, do you guys complete tracks in Reason or do you do stuff up to transfer to another DAW? Is it considered good enough to complete tracks?

i haven't owned Reason since 2.5, i started out on this and had to stop abruptly many moons ago. but what i can say is a lot of producers i know use reason to create drums as re:drum is so efficient then re wire it into another D.A.W like Logic for instance i have thought about upgrading my reason 2.5 for the hell of it but haven't as of yet as there is always something else coming up

[Failed Muso]

I've been a big reason fan for a long time and recently upgraded to V4. What I love about it is it's reliability. It never crashes, is always ready for me to get my ideas down, it has every sound I need from the get go and it's sequencer is a joy to use when constructing a song from scratch.

Many people bemoan the fact that it is a "closed" environment, that you can't host VST's or track digital audio into it, but I can't see the issue. I get my song down in Reason, get it where I want it, and if I need vocals, or I want to use a specific VST, I just ReWire it into one of any number of other DAW's (I tend to use Live or Reaper) and do that stuff in there. Or, on occasion, I just export the MIDI data from Reason into whatever and rebuild from there.

No other DAW allows me to get my ideas down with the minimum of fuss. I used to be a massive Cubase fan, but it got to the point that I was spending more time setting the application up to support my style than I was making music, and let's face it, that's not ideal.

Everyone will have their own favourite, which will suit their own particular workflow, but Reason is an absolute corker and it is totally possible to complete a track in there.

The best thing for me is that no matter where I am, at home in my studio or on the road with my laptop, I can fire up Reason and be putting down my ideas in seconds, and that to me is absolutely vital.

Hope that helped

[sphelan]

Originally Posted by Failed Muso

I've been a big reason fan for a long time and recently upgraded to V4. What I love about it is it's reliability. It never crashes, is always ready for me to get my ideas down, it has every sound I need from the get go and it's sequencer is a joy to use when constructing a song from scratch.

Many people bemoan the fact that it is a "closed" environment, that you can't host VST's or track digital audio into it, but I can't see the issue. I get my song down in Reason, get it where I want it, and if I need vocals, or I want to use a specific VST, I just ReWire it into one of any number of other DAW's (I tend to use Live or Reaper) and do that stuff in there. Or, on occasion, I just export the MIDI data from Reason into whatever and rebuild from there.

No other DAW allows me to get my ideas down with the minimum of fuss. I used to be a massive Cubase fan, but it got to the point that I was spending more time setting the application up to support my style than I was making music, and let's face it, that's not ideal.

Everyone will have their own favourite, which will suit their own particular workflow, but Reason is an absolute corker and it is totally possible to complete a track in there.

The best thing for me is that no matter where I am, at home in my studio or on the road with my laptop, I can fire up Reason and be putting down my ideas in seconds, and that to me is absolutely vital.

Hope that helped

I had left Reason aside as I was trying to get into Sonar but having watched the videos at Refills for keyboard Players video I was impressed again by the sound Reason produces. I agree that it's quick to do up something and I really should look at it more.

This week I bought macProVideo.com - Download Tutorial Video & DVD Training for Reason 4 101: Core Reason 4 and am going through it. Basic enough but it is giving me a good overview of Reason.

[OJB]

I have been a reason user for many many years.

I love it. I do 90% of my production work from within reason, then I usually rewire it into Cubase 4 and do what needs to be done in there.

Very simple, very quick.

I too don't get the gripes about VST and audio input support... Reason is what it is, it isn't a DAW and people need to understand that.

I love the new features and sequencer that came out with 4... took a while to get my head around but now I know how it all works it makes making tracks a sinch.

[Khazul]

I used to use it and have keep it with the updrages so have Reason 4, but about all I use it for is that some material is provided to me in Reason format.

As an all-in starting point it is excellent - its what I started my girl friend with.

Depending on your background, some people find it very quick and simple to use whereas others can get very confused with it very quickly. I think the division is between those who have used all school hardware and are therefore allready very familar with the concept of wiring up lots of devices and cross wiring control signals all over the place etc.

The reason I stopped using it very simple boils down to the fact its a closed system - you cannot expand it at all with new devices, or get sound into it for processing etc. The only thing you can do is create or get new patches for it - granted within that strictly closed world is has enormous scope.

But to illustrate - i wanted something really really different on the synthesis front - so got a v-synth years ago, I also started recording some guitar parts etc - that immediately meant I had to buy a regular DAW to record the audio.

Other than loading short samples of recorded material into reason's samplers - there was actually no way to complete a mix entirely within reason - while its easy to get audio out throuigh rewire into another rewire compatible DAW (Cubase/Tracktion/Live etc etc), I found that I needed to start buying plugins for the DAW to get something approaching the mix down ease and quality I could acheive in Reason - over time - more plugins, less reliace on reason sound sources and I could use its effects for processing anything from my guitar or hardware synths parts and in the end - it just became more trouble than it was worth.

To this day - the best feature of reason is its redrum drum module - I wish there was a hardware version of it. As for the rest of it, well - while very good I also tired of its sound character.

I actually rate V3 as the best combination of quick simple use and power fx. Thor and the new additions in V4 are to me mind somewhat offset by the considerably more fiddly workflow - its seems to have lost something of its simplicity of use. As for Thor - yes - its ok, but too little too late for many people - I have yet to actually really play with it beyond quickly knocking of demos for my girlfriend to play with to help her learn etc.

Even she has moved onto Ableton Live 7 now as well and much prefers its workflow even if out of the box the kind of wacky signal chains you can crate in Live 7 are far more limited than Reason 4. He favourite aspects of Live - audio handling (ie what Reason is useless for except for chopped loops and small samples) - she can load of an existring track of mine, or someone else and chop it up and mess with it.


The one thing that would get me using it again like a short would be if they ever provided a means to wrap a combinator into a VST plugin so I could get audio into its signal processing and directly drive its CV signals from DAW automation etc.

I think alot of people might start using it again if they did that and starting playing in the real world again. Sadly Propellerheads seem very anti everything else - DAWs, Hardware and especially audio. It would be a real shame if it never get the VST/AU DAW integration it deserves.

[Benjy]

I've been using Reason for just coming up to three years & created hundreds of tracks; not all completed & some as simple experiments which have taught me something, but go no further. I've heard some say that Reason's sounds aren't quite pro (as more proffesional, more expensive programmes sound) but really, many of the hundreds of patches are beautiful, coupled with the Mastering suite/s and good effects units one can get proper quality out of it. It's very "intuitive" and easy to learn & I've invested, probably thousands of hours, into it. I'm expecting a delivery tomorrow of Trackion-2 to enable me to record vocals etc. which I'm greatly looking forward to. I don't have experience of Cubase/Logic etc. but I'm content with what Reason offers; it's enhanced my life, to have the opportunity to be creative, & I wake up with my music/go to bed with my music & I know I've got a lot to learn but I'm getting there...Good luck!

[sphelan]

Originally Posted by Khazul

The reason I stopped using it very simple boils down to the fact its a closed system - you cannot expand it at all with new devices, or get sound into it for processing etc. The only thing you can do is create or get new patches for it - granted within that strictly closed world is has enormous scope.

Originally Posted by Khazul

Other than loading short samples of recorded material into reason's samplers - there was actually no way to complete a mix entirely within reason - while its easy to get audio out throuigh rewire into another rewire compatible DAW (Cubase/Tracktion/Live etc etc), I found that I needed to start buying plugins for the DAW to get something approaching the mix down ease and quality I could acheive in Reason - over time - more plugins, less reliace on reason sound sources and I could use its effects for processing anything from my guitar or hardware synths parts and in the end - it just became more trouble than it was worth.

I agree with you there Khazul and find it cumbersome to go out of Reason to record guitar parts for later use as samples in NN-XT or NN-19. If I want to record guitar, it's as easy do that and everything else in Sonar 7.

I do like Redrum and am getting a taste of what Thor can do. Anything I do in Reason, tends to be a mock up which I later do "properly" in Sonar. However, I do also export some material from Reason to import into Sonar. I've never really got into rewiring it into Sonar though.

I'd like to get to know Reason better as I find it easy to work with but I also have Sonar to contend with and I suppose if I am going to invest a lot of time learning one or the other, I should be sure which one is worth doing that and which isn't.

The jury is still out on that question!

[peavley]

No one's mentioned this.You can download a demo which has an intermittant sound about every minute.It's costs approx £50.00.
Hammer is an audio input tool for Propellerhead's Reason. It finally lets you route ASIO audio inputs into Reason rack for live processing: just adding a reverb, doing cool voice vocoding or guitar distorsion.
What is Hammer?

Technically speaking, Hammer is a standard ReWire application.
It hooks to Reason via the ReBirth Input Machine device so that creating such a device results in creating an instance of Hammer Device. Then, connecting the Hammer Input Panel opens the selected ASIO input and routes its signal into Reason's rack.
Peter Tools Software

[sijarvis]

Of course Reason can be used to make finished tracks with. I should think it's on at least 10% of the music we hear come out of our speakers.

As Peavley rightly says, it can be used to process live audio using the Petertools Hammer plug, however, it still cannot record audio, so the output from this has to be re-directed back into a DAW that can, invariably this ends up causing extra latency, which means there could be a noticeable delay between your performance and its perceived playback, so far from ideal.

Also, Sample libraries and such, can never compete with a physically modelled instrument for playing realism. To me, this is another reason why Reason falls short of the competition. You can make great sounding organs, electric piano's, flutes etc with Reason but they are far more cumbersome to use than say Native Instruments B3 or Pianoteq's modelled Piano plug-in.

However, I digress. As i state from the beginning, Reason is perfectly capable of making high quality backing music, perfectly good enough to be released commercially.

I tend not to use it anymore as there is other software that does things better, faster and just as intuitively.