Reason CEO quits at RS

[cdbaksu]

So is there still no separate Reason Rack I can purchase to load into my Logic Pro sessions?

[jens]

Wishing for real people to get fired feels in very bad taste to me, especially since it’s focused on one person and I’ve seen people do it multiple times on this forum.

Do you really think so? The decisions of higher management can potentially greatly affect both subordinate employees and customers (i.e. it can also lead to (many) others losing their jobs), yet you think that wishing for their dismissal is generally (i.e in all cases) indecent?

Reason Studios is a company, you don’t know what goes on inside it and are targeting the only employees who have online presences.

We know in this case that Mattias as the product manager is basically the one who more or less single-mindedly presided over R13's development. The Reason development staff itself is on the - officially sanctioned - record about this. There is not much of a point in starting to debate this now.

[jens]

So is there still no separate Reason Rack I can purchase to load into my Logic Pro sessions?

Nope, so they don't even really know yet which part of their current customer-base is using Reason as a DAW and who's instead using it as a plugin in other DAWs. They treat both radically different use-cases/products as one single product. They thus also don't really know how many DAW customers they have lost and how many new plugin-customers they might have attracted. For me (having studied social sciences (i.e. also social statistics)), this seems like true a nightmare scenario, not least for the marketing team who have no real idea who they ought address in what way. Not to mention that they don't know what funds they should allocate to which branch of the development, which is all still done by the same single team.
Plus, of course, they also don't know which of both branches is more likely to sell what amount of Rack Extensions.

But since I assume that this is a decision the CEO is responsible for, I think at least this might change in the near future.

[LaLivre]

Let's hope so. At least Reason is still available as a product. Even if things look bad, they could actually be worse...

[Pepin]

So is there still no separate Reason Rack I can purchase to load into my Logic Pro sessions?

Nope, so they don't even really know yet which part of their current customer-base is using Reason as a DAW and who's instead using it as a plugin in other DAWs. They treat both radically different use-cases/products as one single product. They thus also don't really know how many DAW customers they have lost and how many new plugin-customers they might have attracted. For me (having studied social sciences (i.e. also social statistics)), this seems like true a nightmare scenario, not least for the marketing team who have no real idea who they ought address in what way. Not to mention that they don't know what funds they should allocate to which branch of the development, which is all still done by the same single team.
Plus, of course, they also don't know which of both branches is more likely to sell what amount of Rack Extensions.

But since I assume that this is a decision the CEO is responsible for, I think at least this might change in the near future.

I'm sure plugin vs standalone is part of the analytics collected by the program. As of Reason 12, the option to opt out was removed, so the data should be quite accurate for better or worse.

[jens]

I'm sure plugin vs standalone is part of the analytics collected by the program. As of Reason 12, the option to opt out was removed, so the data should be quite accurate for better or worse.

Oh, good point I guess - it does that? TBH I didn't even know...

[SebAV]

I don’t think CEO has anything to do with the sonic quality of Reason FXs and synths and samplers. They aren’t bad, just there are better ones in VST land. That’s why their Europa VST didn’t make it and they aren’t going to offer the rack only as a plugin otherwise people are going to tell the quality is just not there. With an inferior DAW, critics are on it only.

[D-Fusion]

I don’t think CEO has anything to do with the sonic quality of Reason FXs and synths and samplers. They aren’t bad, just there are better ones in VST land. That’s why their Europa VST didn’t make it and they aren’t going to offer the rack only as a plugin otherwise people are going to tell the quality is just not there. With an inferior DAW, critics are on it only.

Europa sound just as good as other vst synths.
They removed Europa because they moved over to the Reason rack so they saw no reason to spend time Releasing separate vst's after the Rack version was created.

[SebAV]

I don’t think CEO has anything to do with the sonic quality of Reason FXs and synths and samplers. They aren’t bad, just there are better ones in VST land. That’s why their Europa VST didn’t make it and they aren’t going to offer the rack only as a plugin otherwise people are going to tell the quality is just not there. With an inferior DAW, critics are on it only.

Europa sound just as good as other vst synths.
They removed Europa because they moved over to the Reason rack so they saw no reason to spend time Releasing separate vst's after the Rack version was created.

They moved over the RRP because attracting people with one average synth is harder than with a « bundle ». Arturia, NI, … a lot of companies are doing the « bundle » game.
If you listen carefully, you’ll discover the numerous artefacts that Europa exibits with extreme settings (on filter especially but also with some modifiers).

[sellyoursoul]

Europa sound just as good as other vst synths.
They removed Europa because they moved over to the Reason rack so they saw no reason to spend time Releasing separate vst's after the Rack version was created.

Europa just isn't very compelling to me. I'm not sure what all adds up to make that so, but on the surface it sure doesn't help that it's fugly. It's funny how much a skin can influence impression of a plugin, but I just don't like looking at that much red. It looks in bad taste, and not in a fun way. I also don't like flipping through multi-page interfaces. And I guess it's shapeshifting offers a lot of possibilities, but I don't hear anything attractive in the fundamental sound character to want to make use of it's shapeshifting. That said, I'm sure someone with solid sound design skills could make good use of it for a lot of different types of sounds.

[D-Fusion]

I am not saying that Europa is the perfect synth but it is just as good as other older vst's.

Sound and look is also very subjective so one person might like a synth while the next person might hate it

[apoclypse]

I am not saying that Europa is the perfect synth but it is just as good as other older vst's.

Sound and look is also very subjective so one person might like a synth while the next person might hate it

That could be the case but we are in an era of Massive X, Serum 1/2, Pigments, Vital, Phaseplant etc. If Reason Studios wanted to make a standalone VST succeed they needed to bring their A game, not just in-terms of interface but sound as well. There is a lot of really good competition out there, on top of competing with DAWs that already have really good synths included. If they wanted to grab people's attention they need something different, that sounds phenomenal, and is modern looking. That's just the market we are in nowadays.

[WolfKay]

That could be the case but we are in an era of Massive X, Serum 1/2, Pigments, Vital, Phaseplant etc. If Reason Studios wanted to make a standalone VST succeed they needed to bring their A game, not just in-terms of interface but sound as well. There is a lot of really good competition out there, on top of competing with DAWs that already have really good synths included. If they wanted to grab people's attention they need something different, that sounds phenomenal, and is modern looking. That's just the market we are in nowadays.

Synths like Complex-1, Friktion, and Objekt easily rank among the top 3 in their respective genres. Effects like BV-X, Ripley, and Polar also sound extremely good.
The people developing the instruments and effects at this company are incredibly talented. And as far as I know, they’re still around — continuing to release amazing stuff.
Complex-1, with its insane range of possible sounds and its great VAZ Modular-like interface (choosing modulation destinations from dropdown lists instead of pulling virtual spaghetti cables), still seems overlooked by many sound design enthusiasts.
Well, to be fair, now that GRM Tools Atelier is out and with Zebra3 on the horizon, a Complex-2 with even greater depth would make perfect sense…

[xmstkvr]

That's actually true, some of their synths (and FX) are awesome.

[jens]

I am not saying that Europa is the perfect synth but it is just as good as other older vst's.

Sound and look is also very subjective so one person might like a synth while the next person might hate it

That could be the case but we are in an era of Massive X, Serum 1/2, Pigments, Vital, Phaseplant etc. If Reason Studios wanted to make a standalone VST succeed they needed to bring their A game, not just in-terms of interface but sound as well. There is a lot of really good competition out there, on top of competing with DAWs that already have really good synths included. If they wanted to grab people's attention they need something different, that sounds phenomenal, and is modern looking. That's just the market we are in nowadays.

When Europa was released as a now discontinued VST back in 2018 there was no Massive X etc., so I'm not really sure what this discussion is about...