Update – version 12 has arrived. The promised interface upgrade is hit and miss – some of the built in rack items are now larger than ants – but not all of them. The third party racks are not HD as described – you will see clunky pixellation. The new sampler seems to be for newbies. I haven’t yet looked at the new Combinator but I could not recommend updating from version 11 at this point.
Reason has existed for some time but has only recently become an instrument to be listed in the Man Cave. The makers (no longer Propellerheads) have pivoted it to become an advanced modular system quite unlike the plethora of virtual Eurorack Christmas trees that infest the market at the moment. I’ve never been particularly impressed by modular synthesis, but for reasons set out below I think Reason is an excellent instrument.
Why pivot? There’s never been any major fault with Reason’s own sequencing ability, but it always appeared redundant when rewired to more powerful scoring tools. Rewire itself was an overcooked business required in ProTools days of old – just make it a VST and get on with it.
Rather than be pretend Eurorack, Reason pretends to be entire 19 inch rack units. When it was first released hardware was quite pricey and having a whole virtual grid of units seemed very sweet. They were quality too – the oldest ones: Subtractor, NN-19, Malström et al are still solid tools. Like Eurorack there are virtual patch cables for audio signals, and ‘control voltages’ which allow units to be modulated by a zoo of sequencers, randomisers, flip flops and doodlebugs. Unlike Eurorack you do not have to constantly ‘roll your own’ and you benefit from the expert designs of complete synthesisers, which they call rack extensions so as to differentiate from modules.
A rack extension contains its own flow (unlike modules which are part of a flow). For example Europa is a complete additive instrument, and Thor is subtractive. The Complex-1 rack extension is a complete Buchla like modular system (with ‘CV’ cables at the front) patched inside the larger modular system of the Reason rack (with ‘CV’ cables at the back). You may if you like combine simple units – individual filters, oscillators and so on like Eurorack, that connect to fully developed synthesisers. This empowers you to work across macro and micro levels to get the results you need.
For example I might place a Thor synthesiser, and then patch a Randrome CV generator to Thor’s CV inputs to create semi-random adjustments to the sound. I could then patch an Analogue Sequencer to either, or both, to get sequence patterns going. Essentially the same work flow as modular but not demanding the often pointless slog of having to patch every tiny step of the flow.
There’s not the space to review all of the rack extensions on the Reason Labs site, except to say there are a wide variety of them, most are very good, but they can cost about as much as a complete VST instrument. Why would you buy a DX7 like rack extension when you could get a VST that doesn’t require buying Reason as a container? You do get the extra facility of the Reason rack system, control voltages – all that. But DAWs are starting to offer comparable patching and modulation sources – especially Ableton Live with their MAX for Live system.
One can see the growing strain at Reason Labs – they have allowed VSTs into their system and are currently holding a sale alongside announcing a subscription model. After many years there’s finally news of a high definition interface, a challenge when their skeuomorphic interface has been the sales point of the software.
Reason has a model that you won’t find elsewhere, and I find that I write different sounding music when I use it. They are in some major growing pains at the moment, but I think they have something that will keep them above the Eurobabble.