Reason Rack Plugin FREE with any purchase at Plugin Boutique during July

[antic604]

I didn't know where to post it, because it's both instrument, audio & MIDI FX. It isn't a DAW though, because Reason itself seems to be absent from it:

https://www.pluginboutique.com/articles/1613

https://youtu.be/ArvESoGOte8

Which devices are included?

• Redrum
• Monotone
• Subtractor
• ID8
• MIDI Out Device
• Scream4 Distortion
• RV7000 Reverb
• DDL-1 Delay
• CF-101 Chorus / Flanger
• MClass EQ
• MClass Comp
• MClass Limiter
• MClass Stereo
• Scales & Chords
• Combinator
• Matrix
• Spider CV
• Spider Audio
• Line Mixer

Features

• Virtual rack of instruments and effects
• VST3/AU/AAX plugin for use in your favourite DAW
• 5 instruments, 8 effects, 6 MIDI effects and utilities included
• Full support for Rack Extensions

Why is this happening? My take on it is that Verdane - who bought Props in 2017 - saw the opportunity and got convinced when they saw the RE tech. It's been clear for 2+ years now that they're working hard on easy / automated porting of VSTs to & from REs (case in point for both: Europa and lately Autotune) and their plan is to build a centralised marketplace for VSTs or VSTs in RE format. The idea works something like this as a pitch to developers:

• come to us with your VST - we'll help you converting it to RE
• sell your 'new' RE in out shop - we'll take care of files hosting, anti-piracy measures, promotion, patches & updates process, unified login & passwords for users
• we already have rent-to-own and subscription mechanisms in our marketplace, so you can take advantage of those, too
• because your plugin is now an RE, it can be used - via Reason Rack plugin - in any DAW supporting VST, AU or AAX and - in near future - probably also in the web, in AU (iOS plugins) or in hardware, as was shown during that Juce presentation last year
• we'll make Reason Rack plugin FREE eventually, because we'll take a small fee from every sale (rent/subscription) of your RE, thus making it more widely available to people NOT having to have Reason DAW

The above sadly does mean Reason DAW might take a 2nd or 3rd seat in Reason Studios' products portfolio, which I guess is something to be worried about if you're a user/fan

[chk071]

Interesting. Bit of a shame that Thor or Europa is not in there, but, I guess it's worth it even for the reverb, distortion, and the MIDI plugins. Full support for RE plugins is great too.

Now I just gotta look for a $1 plugin I can purchase at PB.

P.S.: Obviously, the name of this plugin is "Reason Lite Rack Plugin", for those who wondered (like me).

[middle_color]

Subtractor, Monotone, Scream4 Distortion, Scales & Chords, Matrix it's HUGE value to get for free.

[Lotuz2019]

Can you use Codemeter to run it on a PC without Internet connection? Or does Codemeter only work with certain versions of Reason?

[Crossinger]

Now I just gotta look for a $1 plugin I can purchase at PB.

Any suggestions? I currently only found Hybrid3 by AIR Music as low as $4.76

[chk071]

Same here. Seems like there isn't anything lower than that.

Well, I just bought AIR 3 (again), and got the free Reason Lite. I was a bit obtuse, because, it is exactly that, Reason Lite. No special version of the rack plugin, as I believed. Simply Reason Lite, which can be used a rack plugin, like the higher versions. Unfortunately, that means I have to install the whole deal of course, thought it was installable as a VST plugin...

[gondii]

I got it with the NIMBUS upgrade. Not $1, but that had me pretty excited! Now I'm looking forward to the R4 next month.

[Psuper]

Why is this happening? My take on it is that Verdane - who bought Props in 2017 - saw the opportunity and got convinced when they saw the RE tech. It's been clear for 2+ years now that they're working hard on easy / automated porting of VSTs to & from REs (case in point for both: Europa and lately Autotune) and their plan is to build a centralised marketplace for VSTs or VSTs in RE format. The idea works something like this as a pitch to developers:

• come to us with your VST - we'll help you converting it to RE
• sell your 'new' RE in out shop - we'll take care of files hosting, anti-piracy measures, promotion, patches & updates process, unified login & passwords for users
• we already have rent-to-own and subscription mechanisms in our marketplace, so you can take advantage of those, too
• because your plugin is now an RE, it can be used - via Reason Rack plugin - in any DAW supporting VST, AU or AAX and - in near future - probably also in the web, in AU (iOS plugins) or in hardware, as was shown during that Juce presentation last year
• we'll make Reason Rack plugin FREE eventually, because we'll take a small fee from every sale (rent/subscription) of your RE, thus making it more widely available to people NOT having to have Reason DAW

The above sadly does mean Reason DAW might take a 2nd or 3rd seat in Reason Studios' products portfolio, which I guess is something to be worried about if you're a user/fan

No way. RE possibilities came and went, opportunity window lost by props.

The only way going forward is to get it into more peoples hands right now -- the audio marketplace is saturated in most areas. Oddly enough DAWS isn't one of them , and props for all intensive purposes abandoned the DAW aspect. There's a good handful lot of DAWS, but there's a billions Reverbs, Delays, Comps, etc).

Right now their best bet is to focus on what they already do with the rack which is somewhat still unique in the industry.. They can then get VSTs to load in, they can also focus on building devices which has *always* been their focus, and then the populace can have a tried-and-true psuedo eurorack as a plugin that does damn near everything, and a few things nothing else does. More hands now = more hands later, the product is solid.

That's the game if they were smart about it at this point.

[chk071]

I just realized how damn spoiled I am. The stuff in Reason Lite is all... not bad. But, there's nothing in there which I haven't better already in my other plugins. The RV7000 isn't bad though, I might get some use out of it. For the rest, well... some of those devices pretty much show that they've already been in Reason 1 or 2.

The basic idea of the rack plugins is great though. Actually, I'm surprised how well it works, and what they did to their framework to make it work.

[Lotuz2019]

I just realized how damn spoiled I am. The stuff in Reason Lite is all... not bad. But, there's nothing in there which I haven't better already in my other plugins.

I'm in the same situation. This free version does open the door to the Rack Extensions though. There's tons of stuff available, but are there Rack Extensions that are still worth buying?

[chk071]

I'm in the same situation. This free version does open the door to the Rack Extensions though.

True. Actually the combinator thing is very cool too (I messed with it a bit in the past, but hardly scratched the surface). Wished something like that would be possible with VST's.

[zoidkirb]

Interesting move. It's pretty barebones.
I actually think this is way more value for Reason users stuck on version 10 who can now very cheaply migrate their paid RE's to a new DAW , rather than new users.

[mheo]

REs are way too expensive IMO. Also, original Reason racks are too old (redrum, subtractor... 20 years old!) and so tiny for nowadays standards. Seems they are a bit late (they should have done all this "vst ready" thing "by popular demand" at least ten years ago).

[chk071]

Interesting move. It's pretty barebones.
I actually think this is way more value for Reason users stuck on version 10 who can now very cheaply migrate their paid RE's to a new DAW , rather than new users.

That's actually a very good point, didn't think of that.

[Lotuz2019]

Interesting move. It's pretty barebones.
I actually think this is way more value for Reason users stuck on version 10 who can now very cheaply migrate their paid RE's to a new DAW , rather than new users.

It could also be useful if you have sold or are thinking about selling Reason, but still have RE's that have or will become useless and worthless without Reason.