{"id":134,"date":"2021-08-12T02:58:01","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T02:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/?page_id=134"},"modified":"2022-01-07T03:13:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T03:13:25","slug":"reason","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/reason\/","title":{"rendered":"Reason \ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb\ud83e\uddfb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reason<\/em> has existed for some time but has only recently become an\u00a0instrument 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<\/a> that infest the market at the moment. I\u2019ve never been particularly impressed by modular synthesis, but for reasons set out below I think Reason<\/em> is an excellent instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why pivot? There\u2019s never been any major fault with Reason\u2019s<\/em> own sequencing ability, but it always appeared redundant when rewired<\/em> to more powerful scoring tools. Rewire<\/em> itself was an overcooked business required in ProTools<\/em> days of old \u2013 just make it a VST and get on with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than be pretend Eurorack, Reason<\/em> 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 \u2013 the oldest ones: Subtractor, NN-19, Malstr\u00f6m<\/em> et al are still solid tools. Like Eurorack there are virtual patch cables for audio signals, and \u2018control voltages\u2019 which allow units to be modulated by a zoo of sequencers, randomisers, flip flops and doodlebugs. Unlike Eurorack you do not have to constantly \u2018roll your own\u2019 and you benefit from the expert designs of complete synthesisers, which they call rack extensions so as to differentiate from modules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rack extension contains its own flow (unlike modules which are part of a flow). For example Europa<\/em> is a complete additive instrument, and Thor<\/em> is subtractive. The Complex-1<\/em> rack extension is a complete Buchla like modular system (with \u2018CV\u2019 cables at the front) patched inside the larger modular system of the Reason<\/em> rack (with \u2018CV\u2019 cables at the back). You may if you like combine simple units \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example I might place a Thor<\/em> synthesiser, and then patch a Randrome CV<\/em> generator to Thor\u2019s<\/em> CV inputs to create semi-random adjustments to the sound. I could then patch an Analogue Sequencer<\/em> 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s 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\u2019t require buying Reason<\/em> as a container? You do get the extra facility of the Reason<\/em> rack system, control voltages \u2013 all that. But DAWs are starting to offer comparable patching and modulation sources \u2013 especially Ableton Live<\/em> with their MA<\/em>X for Live system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One can see the growing strain at Reason Labs \u2013 they have allowed VSTs into their system and are currently holding a sale alongside announcing a subscription model. After many years there\u2019s finally news of a high definition interface, a challenge when their skeuomorphic interface has been the sales point of the software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reason<\/em> has a model that you won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[10,8,7,13,4],"class_list":["post-134","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","tag-drum-machine","tag-modular","tag-sampler","tag-spectral","tag-virtual-analogue"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilamox.com\/mancave21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}