Share your story why you upgrade/buy Reason 11 as rack plugin ?

[colonel_mustard]

I was late to the party. Started with Reason 10 on a cheap deal (€99) and loved it immediately. I tried juggling DAWs for a while but ultimately sold Ableton (Suite) because I needed to focus, and Reason is my happy place.

I'd only bought a couple of REs before Reason 11 came out, so upgrading to Suite 11 was a good spend for me. A bundle price for loads of great stuff in an environment I enjoy.

It's only since the rack became a plug-in that I picked up Bitwig, and that was for various reasons (clip launching, drum racks, longstanding curiosity, the integrated modulators - Bitwig's great) and I think that was definitely worth the money I paid. Very happy to have access to all my Reason stuff in The Other Place.

[Psuper]

Yes, thanks for sharing your story with me, Psuper. Actually, I am fine with just using Reason 11 Suite as a plugin within Bitwig as long as I can do something you just mentioned "Mindblowing things can be done with that Rack in Cubase, and the full-circle is complete."

Now, all I can think of are using say complex-1 (my Fav RE) with some kind of cool efxs within Reason 11 and form a contaminator then use it as a VST plugin (to be an alternative to U-he's Bazille). Or use the Drum sequencer/Quad Note Generator & PolyStep Sequencer to "Midi-out" to my fav VSTs. Anything missing that Reason 11 "as a rack plugin" can do more than the things I mentioned ?

Glad to Cowby, put a nice lid on my past Propellerhead adventure.

I'm fairly unconventional when it comes to how I approach things -- likely one of a handful of people who used Reason primarily for piano and vocal, definitely one of the few who can't stand working with other peoples samples or the beast that is Kontakt. Back when we only had SB cards, I killed it with the KX Project was a routing heaven if you dared dig in. Created a thriving community of live players in LOTRO with using glovepie and the game to push the tech to the limit. Even midiloopback, such a simple thing that offered so much if one was willing and able to work through. So I always am looking to discover ways to do things others haven't thought of, primarily because I'm a tinkerer at heart, love discovering things, and am quite good at it.

So Reason rack in a DAW is like opening a can of worms and discovering another can, and another... It's not so much specifics of what you can do or how, its the limitless ideas that are sprung from having a once closed-off ecosystem to suddenly being integrated with the rest of a well established yet still evolving world world of music production. The only thing that is limited is your imagination -- so if you have a strong ability to think outside the box and enjoy the process, Reason Rack isn't just a no-brainer, its an absolute must.

On a personal note, I'm a vocoding fiend, always have been its just something I've thoroughly enjoyed since the 80s. And when I say vocoding, I mean the gamut of vocal manipulation primarily with voice, in every aspect from a single traditional vocoder to what we have now -- which is heaps upon stacks of manipulation.

[VariKusBrainZ]

As with someone above, I got into Reason v10 with the $99 upgrade from lite or essential that came bundled with a controller.

VST integration changed the game.
Plus I wanted Complex1 since watching the DivKid video when it was released.
Then I saw Parsec was part of Suite.

Was waiting for a discounted upgrade, it came, Suite upgrade price compared to vanila upgrade looked so much more worth it for the few extra bucks.

Im just a bargain junky and refuse to buy anything at RRP.

[VariKusBrainZ]

On a personal note, I'm a vocoding fiend, always have been its just something I've thoroughly enjoyed since the 80s. And when I say vocoding, I mean the gamut of vocal manipulation primarily with voice, in every aspect from a single traditional vocoder to what we have now -- which is heaps upon stacks of manipulation.

Off topic but have you checked Image Line's Vocodex.
IMO ( and others) one of the best VST vocoders.

[codec_spurt]

fgh

[zvenx]

I used Reason around 2.5 and 3. I think i had it at 2, but I really started to use it at 3. For at least a year it was my main non acoustic/electric instrument sound source, so I built a 'relationship' with the sounds.
I then got more into vsti's and using Rewire became too cumbersome to be worth it, but for years I wished I still had access to some of my Reason sounds that I knew well.
I think by Reason 7 I give up expecting it to ever happen... then R11 was announced and I got excited.. still haven't upgraded yet but I plan to. But if I am being honest it is mostly for nostalgic reasons (see what I did there? ), as I haven't really used Reason as a sound source in probably 15 years?

rsp

[SebAV]

The one thing I will say is you can tell when a synth came out by the GUI. Some, like Grain, are clean and modern, so you know they are recent releases. Others look very dated.

We’ll see how they all look when Reason Hi-dpi is out

[antic604]

still haven't upgraded yet but I plan to. But if I am being honest it is mostly for nostalgic reasons (see what I did there? ), as I haven't really used Reason as a sound source in probably 15 years?

If you do decide, do it via JRR Shop - it's much cheaper, especially if you're in Europe or UK: $115 with code 'forum'

https://www.jrrshop.com/propellerhead-reason-upgrade

[antic604]

The one thing I will say is you can tell when a synth came out by the GUI. Some, like Grain, are clean and modern, so you know they are recent releases. Others look very dated.

We’ll see how they all look when Reason Hi-dpi is out

3rd party REs had to provide hi-res assets since the beginning (2014?). For example this is how Robotic Bean's Sequences looks like it all its glory:

https://forum.reasontalk.com/viewtopic. ... 88#p500488

[AdvancedFollower]

However, I can't justify to upgrade by spending around $199 to Reason 11 suite just to use it as a plugin or FX. And I may not use Reason 11 as my DAW to make music alone where I found I loved the workflow of Bitwig so even though Suite comes with some nice REs/FXs but I will not just make songs within Reason 11 alone. So please let me know if you have a primary DAW (cubase, live, FLstudio you name it) how do you justify to buy/upgrade Reason 11 ? Appreciated you to share your story.

I feel the same way about justifying the cost. It would be fun to gain access to the Reason rack in my DAW, but in the age of cheap plugins and constant sales, it feels like a lot of money to spend for what would essentially be a very big modular plugin. Every time a new paid update comes out, you'd also pay for a lot of features on the sequencer side that you'll never actually use.

[reusenoise]

Just bought during last BF Reason11 intro + Synapse bundle just 89 Euro and Synapse gave me for free The legend VST,so assuming only Legend vst cost around 99 Euro I'v got Reason intro 11 + All Synapse stuff at no cost.
I use it just in VST3 mode in Reaper,mostly drum stuff,like Redrum,Kong,and the players

[SebAV]

The one thing I will say is you can tell when a synth came out by the GUI. Some, like Grain, are clean and modern, so you know they are recent releases. Others look very dated.

We’ll see how they all look when Reason Hi-dpi is out

3rd party REs had to provide hi-res assets since the beginning (2014?). For example this is how Robotic Bean's Sequences looks like it all its glory:

https://forum.reasontalk.com/viewtopic. ... 88#p500488

Yes for the REs. I thought about the « old » Reason stock modules such as Sub and Malstroem. I wonder how they’ll look with crisp graphics. I’m sure Thor will show in all its glory !

[antic604]

Yes for the REs. I thought about the « old » Reason stock modules such as Sub and Malstroem. I wonder how they’ll look with crisp graphics. I’m sure Thor will show in all its glory!

Oh, I'm sure they're re-doing the graphics for them - and overall for Reason - right now

[cowby]

I finally upgrade from Reason 10 to Reason 11 suite and use it solely as a plugin in Bitwig. Complex-1, Parsec and those players are all good and inspiring. I am starting to think what else will the next release offers.

[cowby]

Yes for the REs. I thought about the « old » Reason stock modules such as Sub and Malstroem. I wonder how they’ll look with crisp graphics. I’m sure Thor will show in all its glory!

Oh, I'm sure they're re-doing the graphics for them - and overall for Reason - right now

I am not sure how they do the graphics in order to zoom the REs/synths/racks/effects to a certain % (100%-180% for instance). But I need it now.