The choice of digital studio environment is almost religious for many producers, musicians, and DJs — even though, in reality, most programs today can do more or less the same things. Here is a DAW overview from Morten Vammen:
Flashback: I jumped on Reason 1.0 around the millennium because I was hooked on Propellerhead’s REX format — which liberated loops from fixed time and pitch and was the cornerstone of drum & bass — and their small, raw ReBirth 303 emulator.
I chopped a LOT of samples, and it was a pretty cumbersome affair back then, with external Akai, Emu, and Roland samplers with Jaz drives and exports back and forth to the Mac — plus sloppy triggering and dodgy swing via MIDI, especially when I used a lot of controller data. On top of that, I added layers of saucy, unstable analog classics that had to be tracked live. It was hell to gather and control everything from a Mac.
So Reason was a relief. My hardware started gathering dust because every knob in Reason could be grabbed, recorded, and drawn into place. The whole thing felt like an infinite MIDI 2.0 rack where you could patch in whatever you needed:
A synth with lots of live tweaks through a compressor into a reverb with the bottom sucked out, sidechained into a vocoder with distortion? No problem. It was just a click away, and it did not weigh down the machine. Reason was a fun virtual MIDI workstation, and it was fast to throw beats together even on a laptop in a café without any external gear. And reason was the sound of early dubstep…I quickly forgot about the MPC, analog dinosaurs, and all that jazz. However, there were no audio tracks or control of external MIDI synths until version 6, and VST instruments only arrived in version 9.5.
Users included A Guy Called Gerald, Beastie Boys, Mix Master Mike, Rockwilder, DJ Toomp, DJ Khalil, Preditah, Jakwob, Mala, KOAN Sound, Kill The Noise, INFEKT, Herobust, Gentlemens Club, FaltyDL, DJ Pierre…
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Cut to the present: Ableton has changed everything, even classical music is micro-edited, FL Studio has defined the trap genre, and there is Auto-Tune on everything. So can Reason still do anything relevant today? Is it not just nostalgia for people who grew up with CV/gate and MIDI racks?
After a long period of stagnation, Reason Studios has been bought by LANDR — the Canadian company behind AI mastering, distribution, samples, plugins, and music tools — so now something is happening. Primarily because, as part of Reason+, they include online mastering, stem separation, and distribution. A pretty complete package.
Reason 14 itself is a thin upgrade for us old users. It is mostly a cosmetic update that addresses obvious shortcomings, such as folders for tracks, MIDI chase, and automatic audio-to-tempo. These are things other programs have been able to do for decades, but are nice and speed up your workflow. The only real new star is the new reverb — the first in 11 years — which has ducking, EQ, plus granular, spectral, and convolution models. It sounds great, and it almost invites you into wierd sound design. Version 14 should have been a free update.
But Reason’s strength is still as a plugin, because the modules and the possibilities for freely patching them absolutely work.
Among the newer instruments included in Reason+ is a wonderfully, extremely tweakable piano — Radical Piano — plus a processed version and an instrument dedicated to electric pianos. There is also Europa, a grand, very lively wavetable 2.0 synth that sounds “epic-trancey” but is as deep as a Blofeld.
There are three sample players that, to my ears, are somewhat limited, featuring choirs and almost hyperreal ethnic instruments that will likely be recognizable in many tropical trap-pop and Cashmere Cat-inspired tracks soon.
My favorite, however, is the Grain Table Sampler/Synth, where you can playfully create the soundtrack to Blade Runner 3or something that smashes Roland’s LA synths. Take a boring sample and let it zap through tons of microloops and modulations independently of pitch and tempo in real time. Instant Monolake & Murcof ambience.
You will never run out of sounds. Then there is the advanced sampler Mimic — a mix of granular sampling and the classic Dr. Rex chop sampler. Complex-1 can handle your modular withdrawal symptoms. Algorithm is the easiest but most advanced FM synth Yamaha never made. Friktion is strong for very expressive solo violin and for creating acoustic mutants. Layers is like a whole stack of romplers. BV-X Multimode Vocoder is the easiest and best-sounding vocoder I have tried. Reason is a pure cornucopia of sound modules.
Add to that a lot of banks with new, punchy, modern, release-ready, radio-ready, glossy, pre-cut beats — some generic and dull, others with more personality — but remember: you can easily pick out particles for further refinement. They are just layers for the cake.
If you are starting out, missing VST instruments, or using an old version, consider a Reason+ subscription, which offers a lot for relatively little money, along with a steady stream of new sounds every week.
A new — old — feature I have started using is CV/gate. Reason is way out front here, so you can control, for example, Eurorack modular systems externally. Top nerdy/modern stuff. There are many CV/gate controllers, and you can then route the resulting audio back into the program.
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PRO
Can now be used as a VST instrument inside other DAWs.
Good for sound design.
A cool, large package of sounds, functions, effects, and instruments.
Enormous creative patching possibilities, both internally and externally.
CV/gate control of, for example, Eurorack.
Not demanding on the computer — and stable.
A brilliant virtual emulation of a hardware studio. Short learning curve for older studio musicians; steeper learning curve for the post-MIDI Splice generation.
No hassle with plugins, licenses, and updates that do not play together.
CONS
The screen can feel a bit cramped — works best with a large external monitor.
No advanced polyphonic audio-to-MIDI like in Melodyne.
No sync with film or QuickTime import — so not ideal for film composers.
Not as easy as Live for remixes, mashups, DJ jobs, or live improvisation.
Not as many traditional sounds as Logic.
Not optimal for audio editing — not great for post-production or podcasts.
No stem separation.
No dynamic eq.
ALTERNATIVES
Pro Tools:
An engineer’s tool. Great for recording and mastering, less cool for composition and MIDI. Quite a lot of hassle with keys and licenses… and expensive.
GarageBand has changed the industry since it became free with every Mac in 2005. Try it — it is already on your Mac and iPhone — and then move on to something better. Plenty of hits, for example Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” have been made with free loops from GarageBand. A free first DAW fix, a gateway drug. That said, their guitar, bass, and koto instruments — where you can bend the strings on the screen — are insane.
Logic:
Cheap, huge, all-round, and well-functioning. It has a superb sampler, stems, and can now work with clips à la Ableton. Apple is behind it; they have basically harvested the whole clip part from Ableton, it can make Dolby Atmos masters, which feel pretty 3D on two speakers… plus you can use your iPad and iPhone as controllers.
Cubase:
Classic, but expensive — with advanced surround and score functionality.
Live:
The techno crowd’s favorite. Feels like one big sampler where you can work in clips and loops. Best for dynamic live performance — in principle, you can play DJ with it. The Push hardware controller is also tempting, and Note on iPhone captures your ideas on the move.
Beyond that, there are other good programs. For example, FL Studio — the trap/crack favorite with boosted low-end — Bitwig — the new Live? — and Studio One, which is cost-effective.
VST-alternatives: if you just want vintage hardware emulations for your trusty seqencer, try Roland Cloud, Komplete or Atruias V synth. Can tax your wallet and proccesor.
Conclusion
If you grew up with hardware and MIDI — rather than cutting audio and playing DJ — and primarily use a sequencer rather than recording instruments, Reason 14 is a hit. Especially if your keyboard controller fits. I use a Panorama P6, which means I use the mouse and keyboard much less, and there are automatic live-control knobs that fit each instrument and effect.
If you are a remixer, Reason is not completely at the front of the race when it comes to the newest features. But it is still a stable, processor-friendly toolbox that is easy, yet infinitely deep if you want it to be. Many people run Reason into, for example, Live or Logic as a giant VST instrument — simply for the sounds.
I still think Reason is a fun program that can do more or less everything. However, I would recommend getting a controller with lots of knobs, so you can play and tweak more, and click less. I can very quickly chop out a hook that sounds finished — and then pick at it and dub it until I get dizzy — endlessly, before mastering and exporting the master for streaming or vinyl pressing.
EPILOGUE: THE FUTURE
My guess is that OS X and iOS will merge — inspired by Windows 10. Imagine a 28-inch screen where you simply play all the knobs. The PC crowd has been playing with this — it will be wild when it works.
AI integration – a taboo now…but it will come.
But Reason’s audio recorder/editor section also needs inspiration from Ableton Live, Pro Tools, and Melodyne. No matter what, Reason is clearly my best all-round screen-based beatmaking environment. I am looking forward to Reason 15.
Future ideas for Reason:
A. Split any master recording into stems.
B. Teach Reason an isolated noise and remove it from a file — Pro Tools can do that.
C. Audio-to-MIDI chords, please.
D. QuickTime import.
E. The ability to scroll frame by frame, with user-defined size, using the keyboard as in a video editor — ideal for finding attacks in vocals, etc.
F. A DJ-style template — a possible gateway drug for a new potential target user group.
G. A podcast and video editor template.
H. A more visible key mode.
I. An updated block mode.
J. Audio scrub. K. MIDI Polyphonic Expression support.
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