I might be able to offer some insight on that perspective, because I'm one of the users that may have moved on if they hadn't introduced audio recording, pitch editing, and VST support. I've been using Reason since 1.0, and although I always used a secondary DAW for the audio recording part, VST, etc - I've never been a fan of having to ReWire. So, I can attest - at least from my perspective - that adding features like these and reinventing Reason as an actual DAW (instead of just a collection of plugins that happened to have a sequencer) - was necessary to cater to us long-term users... and entice others who stayed away because those features were missing.chk071 wrote:IMO, the biggest mistake they made is actually listening to the people... at least the people who are never satisfied, and always expect a product to be more than it originally was intended to. I think, they should have concentrated on the basic application, keep it closed, and step by step update the included devices, hire some really skilled DSP guys, do a Thor v2, which is on one level with Spire, or whatever similar is out there, do a big GUI overhaul, even implement resizing capabilities, purge the program, so that it keeps things simple, like they were in version 5, step by step improve the fx, because, frankly, those could be better too, and maybe bring some more functionality to the sequencer itself. Frankly, the way i always read it, on Reason user forums, there weren't too many which really claimed that they NEED VST support desperately, and Reason always was more of a all-in-one-box solution. I remember when it came out, the biggest appeal, and what they most marketed it for was a "whole studio for less than a hundredth of the price of a whole studio" or similar. And THAT'S what Reason always has been about for me. Unfortunately, that concept was somehow left along the way, or the developers didn't consequently followed it, so Reason ran in a dead end (for me). I believe, that, even if they only had released Thor v2 at some point, there would have been a much more tempting reason for people who moved on to stick to Reason. I don't want to claim that a lot of people DID move on, but, some surely did.
I think Propellerhead are still in a unique situation, and it's only gotten more complicated due to the past product course change, which garnered more users, and in return - brought the ire of more people at their doorsteps when X, Y, and Z feature isn't implemented at every major version update.
I dunno - I'm glad they took it to where it is today. Are there a metric shit ton of features I'd rather have, and rather have NOW compared to 2-5 new devices and bunch of sample content? Absolutely. But it's not that big of a deal, IMHO. I've got Studio One and access to plenty of other stuff in the meantime.