Reason 11 announced!!!

[krixa]

Ok, trying the Reason 11 Demo. Why the h*ll can't I find the Drum Sequencer and Umpf Club Drums devices? Is the Demo restricted to Standard edition and no Suite devices?

Have you tried just installing the demo of both Drum Sequencer and Umpf Club Drums to see if they show up in your trial? You're doing the free 30-day trial of Reason 11, right? Not "demo" mode?

Working fine! Thanks

[Broken]

Any word on when the plugin will see MIDI improvements?

[machinesworking]

Any word on when the plugin will see MIDI improvements?

It's broken in 2 out of four DAWs I use, Doesn't show up in DP10, and crashes Reaper on OS X. Then of course it isn't AU yet so it doesn't run in Logic.

Out of four DAWs it only works in Ableton Live here.

I often wonder how this happens? Reason 2.5 was solid. I come back at version 10 and it's still a tiny GUI, on a 1080P monitor, I couldn't imagine what it looks like on a 4 or 5K??? How did they go from this solid framework to ignoring the need for GUI improvements for years now?

Don't get me wrong, the FX and instruments are all nice, but why stall on important work like the GUI? Why put out a VST Rack version that's crippled by bugs?

[THE INTRANCER]

Any word on when the plugin will see MIDI improvements?

It's broken in 2 out of four DAWs I use, Doesn't show up in DP10, and crashes Reaper on OS X. Then of course it isn't AU yet so it doesn't run in Logic.

Out of four DAWs it only works in Ableton Live here.

I often wonder how this happens? Reason 2.5 was solid. I come back at version 10 and it's still a tiny GUI, on a 1080P monitor, I couldn't imagine what it looks like on a 4 or 5K??? How did they go from this solid framework to ignoring the need for GUI improvements for years now?

Don't get me wrong, the FX and instruments are all nice, but why stall on important work like the GUI? Why put out a VST Rack version that's crippled by bugs?

They took the approach of 'If it isn't broken, don't fix it', so they didn't fix it... doing so would have broke the eco system of the rack and it's this key thing that has held them back from doing any scaling for higher DPI support. Now they have stripped that away as a VST and elements of the SSL Mixer, it means that a future Reason version if there is going to be one will be free to evolve and scale. In the short term, it has meant that the Rack VST is crippled in functionality when compared to the native system where it's resided for 19 years.

They will call it 'Reason 2020' which is High DPI aware more than like ( for those that have 20 / 20 vision like myself ), and the rack will be gone. The SLL Mixer will be gone and will probably look something like a cross between Bitwig and Ableton.

That's my 2cents...

[antic604]

I come back at version 10 and it's still a tiny GUI, on a 1080P monitor, I couldn't imagine what it looks like on a 4 or 5K??? How did they go from this solid framework to ignoring the need for GUI improvements for years now?

Don't get me wrong, the FX and instruments are all nice, but why stall on important work like the GUI?

1st of all, people rarely use 4K screens at 100% scaling (in Windows), unless it's a huge 40+ inches TV and they sit right in front of it. Reason will scale along with Windows scaling factor and although it'll look like shit (because you're effectively zooming in into a low-res bitmap), it will be of usable size.

2nd, it's quite interesting how the complaints about high-res GUI ramped up in a recent year. When I started voicing my dissatisfaction about it in late 2017 very few people cared: on one end of the spectrum they were on 1080p (or even lesser) screens so obviously had no idea what I was talking about, on the other some would say "it's not a graphics program, why you need 4K?!" and such bull... It only picked up in 2018, when Live, S1 and Cubase finally added high-DPI suport and - presumably - more and more people could afford 4K screens and/or 4K laptops.

I can't impagine they're NOT working on it, it's just probably taking more time than they thought - it doesn't make sense to offer high-res, scaleable GUI without GPU acceleration nowadays and with Apple dropping OpenGL support it's more difficult to build a cross-OS solution. Luckily all the REs have been ready since 2016 (Props required high-res assets & even a 3D models for devices!), so it's "only" the core program and their own legacy devices that require updating, so I'm hopeful we're still gonna see this in 11.x

[SLiC]

It’s not just the props, many of the leading developers ignored the scaling issue and now have an awful lot of work to do for their product ranges..(NI for example). I am sure it must be a difficult and complicated issue, but you can only avoid it for so long...the trend is undoubtedly rewards higher dpi displays, and people expect things to scale in 2019.

[Anosou]

Any word on when the plugin will see MIDI improvements?

It's broken in 2 out of four DAWs I use, Doesn't show up in DP10, and crashes Reaper on OS X. Then of course it isn't AU yet so it doesn't run in Logic.

Please report these crashes to us via our support, that'll be very helpful. We don't have any currently open cases regarding crashes in Reaper, but we have several other bug fixes coming up that might help.

AU is currently in alpha testing and we still expect it to be released this year.

[machinesworking]

Any word on when the plugin will see MIDI improvements?

It's broken in 2 out of four DAWs I use, Doesn't show up in DP10, and crashes Reaper on OS X. Then of course it isn't AU yet so it doesn't run in Logic.

Please report these crashes to us via our support, that'll be very helpful. We don't have any currently open cases regarding crashes in Reaper, but we have several other bug fixes coming up that might help.

AU is currently in alpha testing and we still expect it to be released this year.

The part in bold. Yes you do, because I reported it as soon as I bought the upgrade last month, and it was acknowledged by your support system with a dozen emails back and forth and the logging version of Reason. It's a hanging style crash, it freezes Reaper, spinning cartwheel of death etc.

[Anosou]

Any word on when the plugin will see MIDI improvements?

It's broken in 2 out of four DAWs I use, Doesn't show up in DP10, and crashes Reaper on OS X. Then of course it isn't AU yet so it doesn't run in Logic.

Please report these crashes to us via our support, that'll be very helpful. We don't have any currently open cases regarding crashes in Reaper, but we have several other bug fixes coming up that might help.

AU is currently in alpha testing and we still expect it to be released this year.

The part in bold. Yes you do, because I reported it as soon as I bought the upgrade last month, and it was acknowledged by your support system with a dozen emails back and forth and the logging version of Reason. It's a hanging style crash, it freezes Reaper, spinning cartwheel of death etc.

OK, that's great then—the logs will help a lot! I was speaking to open cases in our development backlog (which I manage), so I'll make sure the support ticket also gets added to that backlog ASAP.

EDIT: Found it, thanks for that! We'll look into the logs but the latest beta build of RRP is running perfectly in Reaper 5.984 on Mojave on our test rigs (incl. my computer), so that's very promising. Expect a point update soon.

[EnochLight]

They will call it 'Reason 2020' which is High DPI aware more than like ( for those that have 20 / 20 vision like myself ), and the rack will be gone. The SLL Mixer will be gone and will probably look something like a cross between Bitwig and Ableton.

That's my 2cents...

Uh, no.

[THE INTRANCER]

It only picked up in 2018, when Live, S1 and Cubase finally added high-DPI suport and - presumably - more and more people could afford 4K screens and/or 4K laptops.

Hi-DPI support with Studio One was introduced in version 3.0 back in 2015 with toggle tick box. On the initial release on 4.0 it was absent but returned with many requests from users, (other than myself) with 4.1 in addition of support for scaling of HI-DPI aware VST plugins whilst using a certain and subsequent revision of Windows 10.

Whatever the display, resolution or operating system that is used, it's critical that this flexibility can be controlled by the user from the DAW itself whenever possible.

[machinesworking]

The part in bold. Yes you do, because I reported it as soon as I bought the upgrade last month, and it was acknowledged by your support system with a dozen emails back and forth and the logging version of Reason. It's a hanging style crash, it freezes Reaper, spinning cartwheel of death etc.

OK, that's great then—the logs will help a lot! I was speaking to open cases in our development backlog (which I manage), so I'll make sure the support ticket also gets added to that backlog ASAP.

EDIT: Found it, thanks for that! We'll look into the logs but the latest beta build of RRP is running perfectly in Reaper 5.984 on Mojave on our test rigs (incl. my computer), so that's very promising. Expect a point update soon.

This might be the first recorded time in the history of internet forums that online whinging helped push along a possible bug fix. Though it's kind of disappointing that the support request was somehow skipped over until I whinged online?

I will add this as a random aside. I think abandoning development on rewire is one of the saddest missed opportunities I've seen. I don't know about Windows, but on OS X there are a couple components you can tie together to make a sort of rewire. It's obvious that a more robust rewire on that OS, ( a sort of universal audio and MIDI routing and syncing hub that was easy to use etc. ) would be not difficult to implement.
I really could see a paid version even, imagine rewire as a way to route audio from anywhere on your system to your DAW, the only master slave relationship being sync etc. Those of us with multiple DAWs are now stuck I'm very much guessing with the fact that rewire will go away, and Ableton Link is a poor substitute.

[antic604]

It only picked up in 2018, when Live, S1 and Cubase finally added high-DPI suport and - presumably - more and more people could afford 4K screens and/or 4K laptops.

Hi-DPI support with Studio One was introduced in version 3.0 back in 2015 with toggle tick box. On the initial release on 4.0 it was absent but returned with many requests from users, (other than myself) with 4.1 in addition of support for scaling of HI-DPI aware VST plugins whilst using a certain and subsequent revision of Windows 10.

Whatever the display, resolution or operating system that is used, it's critical that this flexibility can be controlled by the user from the DAW itself whenever possible.

I mean PROPER support where plugins got separate scaling options. S1 v3 was like Live 9 - sharp GUI and blurry plugins

[zoidkirb]

Both the rack in the daw and the rack as vst are painfully small to look at for many (not all) users even at 1080p. I find myself frequently using windows magnify to comfortably use certain devices like Matrix, Thor, Complex-1. Europa, the players, and many other devices aren't too bad though.
What looks like the best solution to me at 1080p, 24" so far is using Ableton Live, set Windows to scale at 125% to get Reason VST a to a decent size but still not super blurry, and then simply use scale Live around that to a comfortable level.
As soon has rack vst has 2 out of these 3 features I'll be picking it up:
1:midi out
2:key commands/hotkeys
3:re-sizable hd gui

[imrae]

My trial ran out, and... I'm going to hold off a little longer. I've not played with Reason since version 4 I think? There's a lot to like but some of the omissions and inconsistencies are infuriating. I'd be leaning towards Intro as it has most of the stuff I'm interested in.

good stuff
- The workflow for on-the-fly sampling is brilliant; it's the fastest way I know of to grab sounds from my Eurorack and turn them into playable instruments. 80% of the time Europa does a perfect job interpreting timbral sweeps - it falls down when there is a low-frequency component and it would be better to use pairs of cycles as frames. Drum hits and long plucks fall effortlessly into redrum or nn-16 respectively.
- Europa is just a cracking synth in general. Easy to work with, covers a range of synthesis styles, good band-limiting. Thor still pretty neat too, especially with audio input.
- The three-window/pane setup works well when using a portrait monitor to view the mixer
- VST integration seems to be working fine and provides a fun environment for automating patterns and setting up macros for combinations. (I'm very interested in those Noise Engineering REs too...)
- Bouncing out loops to multiple files is really quick and easy, so you can sketch in Reason and go mix/develop the track elsewhere.
- Control surface integration is neato; it detected my X-Station and sent a sysex to create a pre-mapped program!

Bad stuff
The features I find most exciting (on-the-fly sampling, VST automation, VST combinators) don't work in Plugin mode. I can't whip up a quick NN-16 if I'm already in REAPER; realistically it'll be quicker to use Kontakt and comparably clunky vs:
- closing the session (because Rewire is gone so they can't both be open)
- opening Reason
- sampling
- doing the song-sample-export dance
- saving a preset
- closing Reason and re-opening REAPER
- opening a Reason plugin and within that an NN-16
- finding the preset

So really the only use I can find for the plugin mode is Europa, or maybe an instrument + RPG + Matrix combo

Rex stuff is meh, the inbuilt slicing works ok for a loop you just recorded at the right tempo but isn't usable for samples at other tempos. Octo rex a useful improvement on Dr Rex, but that was a long time ago...

It may not be obvious to Reason 10 users who got it for free, but the pricing for Drum Sequencer is way too high. The workarounds suggested for sequencing Kong with multiple Redrums are absurd; if anyone is going to use Kong, an NN or VST sampler for jamming with drums they need a proper sequencer. Too many times have I thought "this kit seems fun, how do I sequence it? Oh right, I have to use the MIDI roll..." and the spell of Reason's hardware-like toyland is broken.

The overall impression is that they dropped Rewire for the plugin, but the plugin only covers a handful of Rewire's use-cases. I'm tempted to let this mature a bit more...

...but the price of intro seems fair for Europa alone!