Reason Rack extension

[Meffy]

This makes the plugin think it's being controlled by you with your mouse but in reality it's being automated! Clever, eh?

Clever enough that I used the same technique back in the late 1980s in a DOS medical imaging application. :-}

Not tooting my own horn, just pointing out that it's not always apparent who first came up with a nifty idea or implementation. I'm sure many other programmers did the same kind of trick before it ever occurred to me.

Instead of "who had this feature first?" I'd rather play "what can this do for me?" My answer in the case of REs: rather a lot.

[BMoore]

Just hope the Rack Extensions wont be crippled or light versions of the VSTs.
Or that the most popular and flagship VST wont be released as REs.

[the tone ranger]

Just hope the Rack Extensions wont be crippled or light versions of the VSTs.
Or that the most popular and flagship VST wont be released as REs.

i wouldn't mind lighter versions if they had some interesting routing options around the back.

[bmrzycki]

I'm just happy there will be diversity in the Reason rack. I've always enjoyed the rack metaphor and the tab-to-the-back wiring potential. Sound can be so wonderful.

[Mechanought]

If the Props can keep the cost down on REs and keep the functionality and the "it just f**king works" philosophy, I might just hop back over the fence to Reason.

Seeing Rough Rider really shocked my system for some reason.

It's like "oh, it's not just going to be giant devs. It's going to be devs who make my favorite independent Plug-ins, as well. Awesome!".

[Aiynzahev]

Just hope the Rack Extensions wont be crippled or light versions of the VSTs.
Or that the most popular and flagship VST wont be released as REs.

No I don't think that will be the case. I think developers will go all out if the money can be secured. They will be more free to create than ever before and I think it will increase their sales alot. Just release a product and suddenly every reason user will be aware of it. And anything you make is 100 times more interesting because its not just another synth, its like a new module in a modular synth with 100's of possible uses.

I might actually have fun and be amazed again like when I was a kid with Reason 2.5!

[xh3rv]

I'm sure many other programmers did the same kind of trick before it ever occurred to me.

I'd even re-raise that a more ideal design would've been envisioned before then as well, with some theoretical abstractions. Specifically, undo as a restoration of object/environment state, rather than a step-wise reversal of operations at the level of input devices. Something like prototypical SmallTalk GUI stuff at Xerox late 70s/ early 80s would be functionally capable of the former. In some ways I really see that stuff as more ideal design-wise than anything since, although I'm a Mac zombie and would claim NeXT, OS X, and most of all iOS really shine.

One could get behavior of either design to converge, or equate them since objects are really just abstractions ... but in terms of the resulting code - IMO a case where the object-oriented way starts to look more and more elegant while the more low-level way starts to look more and more ugly. (Which is why my initial reaction to the FL Studio way of things is sort of, horror, but I'm sure they're capable of doing it well.)

This is superficially off-topic but I think on-topic about some ways RE might be great that won't be immediately obvious to users, but exciting for developers. If it lets developers avoid writing ugly code to deal with all sorts of things that just aren't in the domain of VST specifications, one can certainly speculate that users will end up with better, more consistent software as a direct result. And, just a lot more opportunity for innovation.

[kae]

Just hope the Rack Extensions wont be crippled or light versions of the VSTs.
Or that the most popular and flagship VST wont be released as REs.

No I don't think that will be the case. I think developers will go all out if the money can be secured. They will be more free to create than ever before and I think it will increase their sales alot. Just release a product and suddenly every reason user will be aware of it. And anything you make is 100 times more interesting because its not just another synth, its like a new module in a modular synth with 100's of possible uses.

And from what I understand it will be future proof and you only have to make one version. Not 32/64 bit Win/Mac and so on. That part will be done by Reason itself. Make a device today and earn money on it even in 10 years from now.
The concept seem brilliant.

[eXode]

...

No offence but FL Studio doesn't even let you control your VST plugins from the modwheel by default (yes there are work arounds, but still, wtf?).

[eXode]

My point is that many DAW's have their short comings and I don't understand all the critique towards marketing lingo, everyone does it (more or less). Just look at many of the plugin descriptions on this very site! :)

[pc999]

If the Props can keep the cost down on REs and keep the functionality and the "it just f**king works" philosophy, I might just hop back over the fence to Reason.

+1

[kmonkey]

...

No offence but FL Studio doesn't even let you control your VST plugins from the modwheel by default (yes there are work arounds, but still, wtf?).

No you are not right. I know because i was the one fighting with gol on that (at their forum). That is now i think three mouse clicks. That is hardly a workaround IMHO..As is pitchbend (for which i also needed to make little laborate to convince gol to do it just as any other host)

However i still want some things to be different in that area (actually same as any other host out there - like you said it should be default for every synth right out of the box and there is automation kinda issue).

To make it on topic - does anyone know when ca nwe expect at least some official info from these guys at softube? Does anyone know will Urs port any of his flagship synth to RE? (is there hope for zebra?)

[eXode]

To make it on topic - does anyone know when ca nwe expect at least some official info from these guys at softube? Does anyone know will Urs port any of his flagship synth to RE? (is there hope for zebra?)

Softube I suspect will make an official statement once Reason 6.5 is finished (afaik, beta is still underway, according to props homepage). But I guess that the devices you saw in the latest video (if you saw it) would be a pointer to which devices they are working on for Reason.

Regarding u-he synths, this and that have been said so far.

Maybe Urs can comment on how much distraction the Ubric plug conversion was from his "regular" work with vsti's.

Clemens: A week or two to get Uhbik A dsp running. An hour to port Uhbik-F after that.

Me: A few hours to figure out how to convert single frames to filmstrips in Photoshop. A day to redesign both A and F in Cinema. 2 hours to edit the script files for the GUI with correct positions.

However, we also have to do 3D files for the final, scalable version. I started on this, but I didn't make it to the final version within a day. We'll see once their final toolset arrives.

There's a lot more to this format, and it boils down to developing a workflow. It might require doing a special gui (for the rack...) but this is much, much easier than your normal plugin format.

OTOH we couldn't do Zebra, ACE or even Diva just yet. But we've got a close wire to Props to work out ways to port a few things.

I'm still kind of not allowed to talk technical details, so bear with me if I'm being vague.

While doing Uhbiks is a no brainer and astonishingly easy to do, we couldn't quite comprehend how to do the dynamic user interface of Zebra, Diva and ACE in these early stages of the platform.

OTOH I talked to many Props today and everyone stressed how much they'd like us to also port the synths. So I do believe that it's just a matter of time till we can at least do ACE or even Diva, and maybe one day also Zebra. We will need to establish a workflow, and we'll need to get Propellerhead to help us with some stuff.

After all this is a mind boggling concept from a developer's point of view, and once the SDK goes public... all I can say is, we've been drooling over this for quite a while ;)

[kmonkey]

Thanks. That's really tempting..

[liquidsound]

Thanks. That's really tempting..

Yes. With u-he stuff it would turn my Love-Hate relationship with Reason to pure love