Musikmesse 2012: Propellerhead to share "exciting news"

[VitaminD]

From Page 3:

Plugin hosting Container

New SDK for creating Reason plugins to be used in the new container units

From Page 11, Elaborated Further:

One issue with the VST rack is that how to do you fit all kinds of vst interface into a no resizable rack?
Then it means that either developer needs to redesign just for PH or the rack has to stretch (Ace wish) to accommodate everything made out there or is something transparent and the vst do not mount inside Reason....

That is why you come out with your own SDK. Then you define (and force) the maximum GUI size as well as input/outputs to accomodate for the wiring capability in Reason.

Using VST SDK itself could never happen in Reason for the reasons (such as yours) already explained. However, A new Propellerheads instruments/effects SDK COULD as well as introduce other features not available in VST. Then you have something else like Recycle and Rewire that other DAWs integrate and still remain relevant as a company.

Anosou, You know you wanna.

[ford442]

Please let it be Rebirth 3. Please let it be Rebirth 3. Please let it be Rebirth 3. Please let it be Rebirth 3. Please let it be Rebirth 3. Please let it be Rebirth 3.

oh, it's not? darn...

[bmrzycki]

But one other question: if I buy Diva for Reason for example, does that let me use it as a rack extension in Reason AND as a VST in another DAW? What will licenses be like on cross-platform plugins. I wouldn't want to have to buy everything twice, that is not the case with VSTs.

The only answer I've seen so far on this is "it is up to developers to set pricing". I think it's still being worked out. But I'm with you, I have several plugs that I don't want to have to buy twice.

[braj]

I definitely don't want to see Reason development become a vortex that sucks in all the time and energy of VST developers

[Anosou]

I definitely don't want to see Reason development become a vortex that sucks in all the time and energy of VST developers

Said it before, will say it again - Softube took 15 minutes to port the DSP code.

Also MusicRadar posted two video interviews, while waiting for our complete video: http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/mus ... son-535469

[braj]

I definitely don't want to see Reason development become a vortex that sucks in all the time and energy of VST developers

Said it before, will say it again - Softube took 15 minutes to port the DSP code.

Also MusicRadar posted two video interviews, while waiting for our complete video: http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/mus ... son-535469

That is for an effect which I assume was virtually unchanged code-wise, but what about a synth, with CV/gate and the additional complexities that entails?

[filtide]

Next up was what we consider the bigger part of the news. Not a finished product yet, but a live technology preview of Rack Extensions, or 'Re'. This means that there were actually some live demos of both synth engines as well as sound processing components. Cool! Rack Extensions are Propellerheads interpretation of a plugin architecture. When designing Re, the Propellerhead people tried to answer to some fundamental questions, putting the user experience first, and letting technology follow. So they came up some answers, including, but not limited to features like:

plugins integrate with the Reason workflow (including copy/paste, undo, etc.), as well as
plugins have a 'backside', so their inputs and outputs can be linked with other Reason components
to improve collaboration between multiple musicians, Reasons songs with plugins, that are saved on one computer, can be loaded on another computer as long as the same set of plugins are availabe
plugins are multi-platform, so the same plugins are available for both Mac as well as PC
plugins run in a sandbox, which means that they cannot crash the host
This is not just talk, but a live demo was showing some of this stuff actually working with third party plugins. But what's more, and this is pretty revolutionary, Propellerhead also introduces a solution for distribution and sales. Meaning they are introducing a Rack Extension Marketplace.

This is actually a tricky one.

One one side, this means that as a user you know where to find your stuff, and Propellerheads claim that they keep your account with your own plugins available for eternity. It also means that the only place where you can get your plugins, is from Propellerheads, no means to install stuff outside their control.

On the other hand, as a developer, you must get Propellerhead's nod to be actually able to offer your own plugins to users. There is no way around this.



Offering yet another plugin architecture is a brave step to take, and only time will tell whether it will be smart and developer will accept another target platform. One thing that it definitely will do, is offer the user an optional way to expand its Reason experience to new levels that were not possible before. This is very good news to many people who want more!

The Rack Extensions architecture will become available in Reason 6.5 and Essentials 1.5, which are free upgrades scheduled to be released before the summer in Q2. At the moment, there are already a number of companies that will support the 'Re' architecture, among which are u-He, Softube, G-Force, Korg, Sonic Charge and Sugarbytes.

[braj]

I would guess if it were really easy to incorporate new synths into Reason we would have seen far more added through the years. Is this a 'Reasonable' assumption? I imagine the QA for any plugin would need to me thorough.

[Anosou]

I definitely don't want to see Reason development become a vortex that sucks in all the time and energy of VST developers

Said it before, will say it again - Softube took 15 minutes to port the DSP code.

Also MusicRadar posted two video interviews, while waiting for our complete video: http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/mus ... son-535469

That is for an effect which I assume was virtually unchanged code-wise, but what about a synth, with CV/gate and the additional complexities that entails?

They don't need to be complex but I won't go into detail about how Rack Extensions are developed and what options there are right now. We just announced this - a lot more info will come streaming. Thanks for being patient

[braj]

I worked as a QA manager and I know good QA often is the longest and most expensive part of a development process, that is what makes me concerned. And not because I'm a Reason user, but because I am a u-he user, I want to know this won't suck the life out of VST development.

[quayquay17]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/vid ... ios-535513

surely this cant be the news...

[liquid wind]

I worked as a QA manager and I know good QA often is the longest and most expensive part of a development process, that is what makes me concerned. And not because I'm a Reason user, but because I am a u-he user, I want to know this won't suck the life out of VST development.

I'd have to imagine that the economics of it should prevent this, Reason has a lot of users but it can't be more important than every other DAW combined, if it comes down to it where a developer can't keep up with both the VST side should have priority(selling VSTs also doesn't require going through a middleman who demands a 30% cut)

[zvenx]

but Reason may provide better prevention against piracy?
no?
rsp

[kmonkey]

The problem props face is although the concept is very good, Reason's RS7000 or whatever it is is simply not going to compete with Relab's LX480 or Breeze for example. Its compressors are not very good either, in fact no one part of Reason is as good or better than freeware in my opinion. Most of it is far below the competition.

Yes that's true but isn't it why Rack Extension is created for? So anyone like Relab, Aether or Valhalla etc.etc. can create their version in Reason format. Softube is already there and i can assume that we'll see more players like Cytomic etc..

[braj]

but Reason may provide better prevention against piracy?
no?
rsp

A 30% cut could be considered piracy all by itself and if it sucks the life from VST development, and therefore sales, it certainly could cause a small boat to capsize.