Reason 9 officially announced!

[Sailor16]

1. Synapse Audio Antidote (!!!)
2. Blamsoft Zero
3. Propellerhead Parsec

Thanks, they look nice. Just purchased Antidote. Also got Korg Polysix (it wasn't on sale though).

The Jiggery-Pokery Bucket Brigade Bundle is an absolute no-brainer at €29.00.

Thanks for the suggestion. Just grabbed them.

[stroker_ace]

It's not just that the recent Reason updates have been mediocre; it's that they're piecing out devices to essentially charge 3x what they used to. Back in the day, you'd get 3 new AAA devices for your $129. Now, they offer up a couple of utilities/replacements, and some "workflow improvements", and charge full upgrade price for that. Then they charge another $80-$100+ per device as they release their own rack extensions.

Then they take the proceeds and spend it on developing products most Reason users don't care about, imo. I know I certainly don't.

They have dramatically rewritten their business model, and when people started to notice and started to grumble, what did they do? They closed their forums!

They're just not sending great messages to their longtime users. And they seem to love to drag their heels. I've heard basic complaints go unaddressed for several years.

And at the end of the day, Reason is just not up to snuff. This is from Greg Boyd in the Rack Extensionists Facebook group:

"Had the pleasure of talking to Steve Duda over the weekend at Imsta! I asked some questions concerning Serum, and why it hasn't made its way to Reason. He told me Propellerhead approach him twice at NAMM, and really wanted Serum! He said he was game, but the only problem was that you can't port wave tables into serum like the vst version, it had to be preset based. Steve had to turn it down..."

I know you're never going to make everybody happy, and I know that a company has to look out for itself first, but I've never seen anything like this.

Reason has its good points, and I'll continue to use it as a sketchpad, but I'll never invest any more serious money in it, barring a miraculous change of attitude and approach.

[kae]

And at the end of the day, Reason is just not up to snuff. This is from Greg Boyd in the Rack Extensionists Facebook group:

"Had the pleasure of talking to Steve Duda over the weekend at Imsta! I asked some questions concerning Serum, and why it hasn't made its way to Reason. He told me Propellerhead approach him twice at NAMM, and really wanted Serum! He said he was game, but the only problem was that you can't port wave tables into serum like the vst version, it had to be preset based. Steve had to turn it down..."

That part is just sad. PH need to get moving with their SDK. They can't use years to implement even the most basic stuff. 4 years has passed and it's still in its infancy.
Serum is one of the most popular and best sounding synths in the market. And the developer even is interested in porting it. Then they need to sit down with Duda (& other devs) and ask them what they need and begin to meet those requests/demands.

[eXode]

It's not just that the recent Reason updates have been mediocre; it's that they're piecing out devices to essentially charge 3x what they used to. Back in the day, you'd get 3 new AAA devices for your $129. Now, they offer up a couple of utilities/replacements, and some "workflow improvements", and charge full upgrade price for that. Then they charge another $80-$100+ per device as they release their own rack extensions.

Then they take the proceeds and spend it on developing products most Reason users don't care about, imo. I know I certainly don't.

They have dramatically rewritten their business model, and when people started to notice and started to grumble, what did they do? They closed their forums!

They're just not sending great messages to their longtime users. And they seem to love to drag their heels. I've heard basic complaints go unaddressed for several years.

And at the end of the day, Reason is just not up to snuff. This is from Greg Boyd in the Rack Extensionists Facebook group:

"Had the pleasure of talking to Steve Duda over the weekend at Imsta! I asked some questions concerning Serum, and why it hasn't made its way to Reason. He told me Propellerhead approach him twice at NAMM, and really wanted Serum! He said he was game, but the only problem was that you can't port wave tables into serum like the vst version, it had to be preset based. Steve had to turn it down..."

I know you're never going to make everybody happy, and I know that a company has to look out for itself first, but I've never seen anything like this.

Reason has its good points, and I'll continue to use it as a sketchpad, but I'll never invest any more serious money in it, barring a miraculous change of attitude and approach.

I'll continue to use Reason because it works for what I do.

However, I admit that I have been disappointed at the slow rate in which the RE SDK have been developed. This is somewhat surprising to me because I thought that RE's would be an excuse for propellerhead to focus more on Reason itself, and that there would be more frequent releases of both. The fact that we 5 years after the initial release of RE still can't do KONG or Thor as RE is troublesome to say the last.

But instead of growing angry about it I tend to just detach myself emotionally, and simply not care that much (anymore).

[eXode]

And at the end of the day, Reason is just not up to snuff. This is from Greg Boyd in the Rack Extensionists Facebook group:

"Had the pleasure of talking to Steve Duda over the weekend at Imsta! I asked some questions concerning Serum, and why it hasn't made its way to Reason. He told me Propellerhead approach him twice at NAMM, and really wanted Serum! He said he was game, but the only problem was that you can't port wave tables into serum like the vst version, it had to be preset based. Steve had to turn it down..."

That part is just sad. PH need to get moving with their SDK. They can't use years to implement even the most basic stuff. 4 years has passed and it's still in its infancy.
Serum is one of the most popular and best sounding synths in the market. And the developer even is interested in porting it. Then they need to sit down with Duda (& other devs) and ask them what they need and begin to meet those requests/demands.

Not only Serum, Reveal Sound with Spire have also showed interest in the RE platform but decided that they have to put it on hold because of current SDK limitations.

[Numanoid]

I think Nebulae is a no brainer refill at less than £8

http://www.jiggery-pokery.com/nebulae.html

Made by the great Hollow Sun (RIP), the Kontakt version costs £25, so Reason users is getting it for 1/3 of the price

[DJBuddhaBear]

One developer I know offers a free converter that will take wave & aiff files and make them presets for loading into their drum RE. And it works quite well so far.

No, it is not an elegant solution but it does offer one possible way to go beyond the RE SDK as it is today until changes are made tomorrow. I wonder if Duda have considered this option for the importing of wave tables into Serum.

[kiezum]

I read that Predator 2 won't be released in RE format due to SDK limitations.

@Numanoid
Great find! Are there more must buys? The PolyModular bundle from Blamsoft is very cheap at $25.

[DJBuddhaBear]

1. Synapse Audio Antidote (!!!)
2. Blamsoft Zero
3. Propellerhead Parsec

Thanks, they look nice. Just purchased Antidote. Also got Korg Polysix (it wasn't on sale though).

The Jiggery-Pokery Bucket Brigade Bundle is an absolute no-brainer at €29.00.

Thanks for the suggestion. Just grabbed them.

Korg Mono/Poly is excellent as well.

I can also recommend the following:

Instruments --

1) AudioRealism ReDominator
2) Blamsoft Zero Hybrid Synth & their PolyModular Bundle
3) Rob Papen Vecto
4) Sononics Revival

FX --

1) Blamsoft Distortion Trifecta
2) Both D16 RE's
3) iox AudioWare Onyx Limiter
4) Kuassa EQ & Amp Bundles (all on sale now)
5) McDSP Compressors Bundle (also on sale now)
6) Red Rock Sound C1-L1 Vintage Compressor
7) All three Selig Audio RE's
You can't go wrong with the Soft Tube RE's either

Refills --

1) Anything by Pink Noise
2) Anything by Jiggery-Pokery
3) Bitley's Beyond Fairlight & Beyond Synclavier (currently running a summer bundle sale!)
4) Anything by Soundcells
5) I can also recommend Xode, Impact Soundworks, and Softphonics refills as being very high quality.

[chk071]

Does Serum have a single window GUI management? If not, that's another limitation they won't be able to work around in the RE SDK...

[Numanoid]

Refills --

1) Anything by Pink Noise

Amen to that, Pink Noise Studio is the best, either for Reason or Kontakt

[ezelkow1]

Id just recommend the synthrig. Buying things piecemeal might just have you regretting it later unless they are small purchases. Their rig bundles are such a rediculous discount that nothing can beat them. So for the usages that most people ask around here Id say the synth rig. You get an awesome collection of synths and effects

Buying stuff like antidote, predator, etc at ~70$ a piece, after 3 of those your past the cost of synthrig anyway and previous purchases will not discount a rig. So if you find a rig that has a good amount of stuff you would want, just grab that

[DJBuddhaBear]

Yeah, the rigs are a great deal. I had already purchased so many individually before they came out with them that it won't work for me.

[D-Fusion]

BTW Did anybody miss a sale at Reason, it just came on with up to 70% off Rack Extentions and Refills

Time to get some Rack Extensions then! Any suggestions for "must-haves"?

I only have these right now in Reason 7:

- Pulsar Dual LFO
- Softtube Saturation Knob
- Audiomatic Retro Transformer
- PX7 FM Synthesizer

My favorites are:

Instruments:
The Korg Re's
Antidote
FXpansion tres
Redominator
Predator
And the one you already have PX7

[Flandersh]

I think what it really boils down to is that people love the program SO much, and are so loyal to it, that they just want it to be their best imagined version of it.

Just what I am thinking. The perceived hate can in fact be about a love for the software one point in time and a wish to see it at its fullest potential. The Reason before Record age was to me, at least, a very special age. Reason was a simple software with the potential to let the creative make it far more advanced, and the way it did it was rather unique. And such an age made up for wishes for the future of the software, wishes I do not really expect more, but will welcome if it turn in that direction.