LANDR acquires Reason Studios (DAW/Plugin)

[Funky40]

btw. someone "could" buy up Yamaha Music one day.

What´s next to Gibson and Fender ? META ? haha

[IvyBirds]

btw. someone "could" buy up Yamaha Music one day.

What´s next to Gibson and Fender ? META ? haha

Sure but since it's so huge probably not anytime soon

[softska]

After SyncronArts aquired LANDR auth changed for the worse and paid updates (Repitch in particular) had been... Poor to say the least.

This saddens me greatly

[SebAV]

And Reason, as a DAW, has felt like it's fallen far behind in recent years, especially now that there are more DAWs on the market than there were with Studio One & Bitwig.

Our user stats for our synth plugins confirm this. Reason is slightly more popular than Bitwig:

1. FLStudio
2. Ableton
3. Studio One
4. Reaper
5. Logic
6. Cubase
7. Cakewalk
8.Reason
9. Bitwig
10. ProTools

Yes, but this is actually a point for Reason being a terrible DAW.

Reason was released in November 2000. Bitwig was released in 2014. It's a 14-year advantage over Bitwig, and they are worse than the currently completely absurd Cakewalk with their own shenanigans.

If I understand correctly the chart, it comes from the owners of a specific brand of VSTs which limits its result at that.
It’s not surprising that Reason, which comes with a lot of its own devices and has a specific « rack extension » marketplace is not at the top of a list based on specific vst owners.
And ProTools is last in this list, what to think ?

[parma]

There's a LANDR blog post from a week ago with the 10 best DAWs for 2026 and Reason isn't included:
https://blog.landr.com/best-daw/

Lol

[Funky40]

btw. someone "could" buy up Yamaha Music one day.

What´s next to Gibson and Fender ? META ? haha

Sure but since it's so huge probably not anytime soon

i was not super serious, but then, ....sort of, kinda, i was.

Not any time soon ?
nobody can know that


my vision of the future vs. this whole market is to the bigger part that we will end up with 3-4-5 major players, each having a "Full Package Deal" at hand.....for rental.
No pay,.....NO access. That simple (for "them")
( i had this vision/idea long bevore AI creeped in though.)


By then, DAWs might even have been turned into mostly AI based production tools with completly new ways to work. But with whatever "vision" i can come up with vs. "that", i don´t see fit vs. Reason.

Would be fun to see into the minds who went for that deal

[IvyBirds]

btw. someone "could" buy up Yamaha Music one day.

What´s next to Gibson and Fender ? META ? haha

Sure but since it's so huge probably not anytime soon

i was not super serious, but then, ....sort of, kinda, i was.

Not any time soon ?
nobody can know that

Yamaha's own statements in October of 2025 indicate a deeper integration between Steinberg and Yamaha proper, and the Steinberg is making 38 million a year

Yamaha would want 100+ million to buy it if they were even interested in selling it

While a Google, or Amazon would have the cash for that, to support their AI market share war not many players would, especially when their are much smaller players they could acquire for far less, or use open source tools like Ardour to merge with their AI

Not to mention they could just make their own DAWs to deeply integrate their AI for a hundred million kess

[machinesworking]

Frankly IDGAF about reason, or who owns them. Only a handful of DAWs are privately owned, Ableton, Renoise, Bitwig, Reaper....

Owned by others-
Cubase
Studio One
Pro Tools
Logic
Reason
FL Studio
Sonar


Independant-
Ableton
Bitwig
Digital Performer
Reaper
Renoise

So I would think it's not that uncommon to be independent.
Pretty much all the ones smaller than these are independent.

[Winstontaneous]

I dunno, I've been using Reason since 2007, while I still miss the original mad-genius Propellerheads crew...
I really love the Rack plugin and the Players are some of my favorite sequencing tools ever.
The plugin within Ableton Live gets a lot of use here!
If any meaningful development was done to the DAW in the last decade I didn't notice it.

At least LANDR looks to be independent, they've been around for more than 10 years, and focus on audio and production tools. And they're Canadian so they must be nice people in denim suits who love beer.

Verdane just seemed like suits holding the purse strings, their website says: "Verdane is the preferred growth partner for European companies that will thrive in a more sustainable future. Our cycle-tested track record, thematic investment approach, and proven value-creation engine have helped Verdane cement European mid-market leadership."
Doesn't sound like they gave AF about DSP or anything.

[chimp_spanner]

I know Reason gets a lot of sh*t for being behind the competition. Honestly I don't think it's that bad. I did a lot of great, paying work in Reason. And there was very little that stopped me from doing the things I needed to do. Namely; record and edit MIDI and audio, and mix/master. Where I found it most lacking was in QoL stuff.

- No track folders
- Sense of disconnect between the three views
- Not enough keyboard shortcuts and no way to set them (beyond using MacOS)
- Missing sequencer functions like audio pitch envelopes, step sequencing, note chance
- No MIDI note chase, no punch in, etc.

Just to name a few. Ended up going to Live and using RRP but I do still miss (and sometimes use) Reason DAW. I love its clip based automation. I like how Players and patterns are integrated. I like blocks. It even has something I wish Live had; full audio pitch editing.

Personally...I think the thing holding Reason back is that so much of the 'logic' behind the rack and sequencer is a leftover from Reason 1. If they were coding it from scratch I suspect they might opt for a more conventional workflow. Where you could mix the whole track from the arranger, and a sequencer track would incorporate the fader and channel strip and plugins like literally every other DAW out there. Free MIDI routing, with multi-timbrality. And the Rack could be an entirely optional view for tinkerers. Every sequencer track would be represented by a named rack column, with device order mirroring the plugin chain order in the track inspector in the arranger. Meaning you could still cross mod and do CV stuff between devices.

Bus tracks that are folders (and are collapsible in both views ala Logic). Etc. etc. etc.

That's the level of redesign/change I'd LOVE to see in Reason. But I know it'd make a lot of people mad. And I think that's why they haven't done it. That and lack of resources.

[9headshydra]

Will Reason users be respected?

one day ... perhaps ... it will be the case ... perhaps ... but only if I take a reason+ sub

[v1o]

As far as I can see most of the Reason userbase are the old timers that started using it ~20 years ago. I don't think kids these days (lets say 16-25 age range) are using Reason to make beats or electronic music.

I really dont see what Landr would benefit from buying Reason. Its not a high growth business that will bring in large revenues. Unless they're doing it purely for the prestige, similar to Canva buying Serif simply to give away the Affinity Suite free to everyone.

[SLiC]

As far as I can see most of the Reason userbase are the old timers that started using it ~20 years ago. I don't think kids these days (lets say 16-25 age range) are using Reason to make beats or electronic music.

I really dont see what Landr would benefit from buying Reason. Its not a high growth business that will bring in large revenues. Unless they're doing it purely for the prestige, similar to Canva buying Serif simply to give away the Affinity Suite free to everyone.

The Reason instruments and FX/players are very good and there are some cool RE's. There is a market for people who have not had access to these devices as they were locked in to a full subscription/purchase of Reason DAW. There is a business opportunity selling these devices (possibly through a free rack plug in)- its the same model as VCV Rack etc...especially with the combiner etc, it could work.

[jwd606]

Changes afoot.

Screenshot 2026-01-08 at 22.16.15 copy.png

[RickyP3000]

There's a LANDR blog post from a week ago with the 10 best DAWs for 2026 and Reason isn't included:
https://blog.landr.com/best-daw/

That is funny! I just checked with Web Archiver and you are right, it wasn’t even there. They just added Reason to the list as best sound design DAW.