So I’ve been meaning to write a post about the latest release of Reason by Propellerheads. For those of you who don’t know, Reason is a music making software that has been written off as a “toy” when it was first released back in 2000-2001. It’s a virtual studio that has everything you need to make electronic music, drum machines, soft synths, effects boxes, etc. Another reason producers ignored it was it’s lack of support for VST plugins and it’s lack of ability to edit or record live audio (reason is midi based).
I’ve used Reason since it’s first version 10 years ago. There are a few things that make Reason shine. #1, It’s really easy to use. It looks like a virtual studio rack that you can touch, and when you want a new device, it’s added to the rack. #2, you can flip the rack and rewire or route any device how you like, which opens up insane possibilities to create something new and different. (which is what electronic music is supposed to be, right?) #3, is that you don’t need a powerful machine to run it. You have a full studio on your laptop, and it’s made to work on any computer that has Reason.
The latest version of Reason takes a huge leap forward from it’s previous version (or at least from version 4, which I had). Propellerheads has fused their “Record” Software with Reason, so now users can record vocals or audio straight into Reason. They also added a few more effects to the arsenal, a new distortion/compression unit and a filtering gate unit. I’m sure there’s other stuff that’s new, but I don’t want to write a novel.
These new effects modules that they’ve added have opened a new door, and Propellerheads has announced that in Reason 6.5 they’ve opened Reason to developers in something they’re dubbing “Rack Extensions”. So hopefully this will open the door to those VST plugins we’ve all wanted to use with Reason.
Lastly, Propellerheads have released an iPhone app called Figure. Which is a really fun/creative way to make music on your phone. Although, very limiting compared to it’s big brother, it’s powered by Thor and Kong synths of Reason and has a pretty good sound and an awesome interface. If you can’t get your hands on Reason, definitely try Figure out, its only .99 cents!
Happy Reasoning!
