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What’s New in Reason 5, Record 1.5, in a Nutshell

by Peter Kirn

Octoloopy: a new Dr. Rex allows loading multiple loops, at last. But drum synthesis, sampling in Reason may steal the show.

As I mentioned earlier today, the big news story in the Reason and Record announcements is that you don’t need Record to record; Reason now does sampling. Here’s the full look at what’s new from Propellerhead’s software music workstations.

Highlights:

  • A new drum designer. Drum synthesis, sampling, REX loops, physical modeling, and effects modules drive a 16-pad drum instrument, so you’re no longer limited to faux 808s or samples – you can make your own drum sounds. This alone could help Reason find its way back into some workflows, I’d guess.
  • Everywhere there’s a sample, there’s sampling. Propellerhead have told me in the past that they really focus on consistency in engineering; in this case, I think they deliver. Anywhere you now see a sample waveform, in Reason 5 you can click to sample from an input. It’s simple, it’s in a way somewhat obvious – but that’s also why it matters.
  • Multi-core optimization. Reason and Record are already pretty light on system resources for what they can do; multi-core optimization is good news for newer CPUs.
  • Neptune pitch adjustment / voice synth: I’m still waiting on how this can be used in ways other than the generic-sounding, AutoTune-style correction and harmonization. Formant shift and other features look like they could be abused for more creative sound deign. Imogen Heap covers, also likely.
  • Dr. Rex Plus Eight. The “Octo” version of Dr. Rex makes it easier to load multiple REX audio loops, the Props’ format for beat-sliced audio. I’m assuming you’ll be able to use this in conjunction with sampling, but will confirm that. You actually can’t sample into Dr. Rex, unfortunately; it seems to me that the Rex workflow is an area that could use revisiting in Reason, generally. Let me know what you think, particularly if you use this aspect of the tool.
  • Block pattern sequencing. The sequencer continues to mature with arrangement features.

Other, more subtle features are improved, too, in each. It looks like some focused updates, at least, for current users.

The Record update is free for current users; Reasons upgraders will spend US$129 regardless of version. All other information:
http://www.propellerheads.se/

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Piano Chord Tutorial

Maw,

You are a moron

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yer maw

Doesn't matter what propellerheads do, until they have full vst support, all reason is good for is sequencing, end of!

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cyber sequencer

Yes Neluka it works flawlessly on windows 7

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cyber sequencer

I've been a huge fan of Reason since 2001 as someone stated above I've never had the program crash on me. It's stability is amazing The sound quality is incredible and the workflow is to die for.

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Swan

I agree with some of the comments here. I'm surprised they haven't made the whole GUI expandable. You can detach the editing window, which helps, but having to work the smaller interface is tedious if you produce a lot. Also, since Reason 4, I'm not enchanted with the changes to the editor window. It's hard to edit older songs, especially since I've done a lot of MIDI recording without auto quantizing. I'll miss Reason, and may still use it, but I think it's time to move on; I prefer more fluid control, and many of the plugins designed for progs like Cubase will be suitable as sequencers and drum machines.

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JamesS

I've got no idea how the  Reason/record duo stack up against other software, but I do know that neither reason 4, nor reason 5, nor record 1.5 has EVER crashed on me. Come to think of it, I haven't even seen it hang momentarily.... EVER.

I think it is an incredible software achievement, and in terms of what you can do with it, I think the limitations are with the user, not the software.

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Neluka

shall we use this on win 7 ???????

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Hiphop Production Tr

Everyone has to cry about something why is this?

Ok some people like using the Mpc for beats therefore the Kong unit won't do much for them... Ok but there are those that do soo... Take away Kong and you have Reason 4... Ok take a way the combi/mastering suite and you have reason 2 .. big deal.

I have templates that do exactly what the combi unit does so does that mean the combinator is worthless? The object of the game is work smarter not harder. I don't know about you but i do this for a living so if im payng a silly 130 for a couple of upgrades owell its going to pay for itself not to mention i can just write it off. You can make great synth sounds with just the sub and some fxx simple as that. I've done sound design for Linplug with nothing but Malstrom or Subtractor and a bunch of eq's and fx

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Isaac

@salamanderanagra No, you can tune each sample individually, but since each sample is used by more than one note, tuning a sample affects all the notes that triggers it. Other programs allow you to tune the note itself.

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Suresh de Silva

Somthing Like a Spool Recorder May Be 8 Track

Recorder Then withaut Using Any other We Can Finish a Final Song Just a odia Only many Thanks

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drno

Reason 5 could have been much better considering how long it took. Its like they aren't paying attention to the competition at all. I'm a huge fan of reason, its how I make my music. After trying the demo, for me the multi core support is the ONLY reason I updated to 5. I needed that bad. Had to get a new quad machine for it since it doesn't work with p4 hyperthreading. 5 takes a lot more cpu now, which is fine if you have a quad. Kong is nice of course, but was it really necessary? Not everyone makes drums with mpcs. Programming great drums was never a problem with redrum n the nn-xt with individual outs. If you take Kong out of the picture, your left with Reason 4 really, with a couple odds n ends thrown in. The new REX is more steps to use than needed. I made a combinator that does the same thing with 4. You have outdated effects (its a pain routing synths to the kong fx), the same synths. THOR makes the other synths sound like toys unless you combinate them to death. Now you have to wait another 3 years for what? An updated Subractor? The mixer should have been updated without the need to get Record. Recycle should have been integrated into 5. I have too much invested in Reason to move to something else, but I could see how people who have used Reason in previous versions would try something else after using 5 vs the competition. Its a disappointing release. Thanks goodness it has multi core support or I would have skipped this version.

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Mefimabit

Why o Why must The latest Bloat called Reason 5 not allow me to asign synths to an imported midi file instead of racking up however many combinators.. Like it used to.. Bloat Bloat, just as well I never payed for it, but downloaded it.. Thank god I tried the full version first..

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Kenny S

Engaging in debates that try to "prove" the superiority of one's music software of choice over other programs simply demonstrates your insecurity. Why does anyone need to believe that the software they use is so much "better" than anything else? When I'm getting good results (i.e. producing good music!)with the tools I'm using, I have no interest in trying to disprove the usefulness of other tools, which many others manage to find useful. The idea that any particular software (or hardware) product is fundamentally lacking because I couldn't be productive with it or simply because I wasn't inspired by it, seems absurd on the face of it! I mean how the hell do I know what thousands of other folks might be able to accomplish with Reason or even some 20 year old tracker program? The fact that I can't get something out of it, does NOT prove that it CAN'T be done.

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Kev

The saddest part is that Propellerheads described this update as being "all about beats". If this was the beat-oriented update and they still haven't added slicing capabilities, I think Reason users are going to be SOL on the slicing front for quite some time.

Most of the producers I knew who used Reason already abandoned it for Ableton and FL Studio, primarily due to this issue. I can't see anyone but the hardest fanboys sticking around after this knowing the update most likely to include this functionality once again failed to provide it.

There is nothing Reason can do that can't be done in any other package but there are hundreds of things that can be done in any other package that can't be done with Reason.

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Mark

Reason fails to deliver once again. It's funny watching how desperate Reason fanboys will come up with the most far-fetched arguments in order to defend their software of choice.

ReCycle being the most "efficient" way to slice loops? Are you people insane? Most music packages have all the functionality of ReCycle built-in to the software. You can do everything ReCycle does right inside your DAW witthout having to load another program and mess around with opening/saving of files.

I especially like the user who argued that Reason + Record + Recycle is better beacause it costs $1 less than Ableton, even though Ableton does everything all those of programs do and it does it without needing external software.

$1 is well worth having all that functionality integrated into a single package without needing to constantly load/save files into Reason after modifying them in ReCycle.

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Niko

It is absurd when people say Reason has "thin" sounding synths. This says more about the user than it does about Reason. It's an urban myth. Synthesis 101 people: An Analog modeling synth is an analog modeling synth. Period. Oscillators use pretty much the same wave forms-square,saw, sine(Subtractor uses many more than most). Layer 3 graintable patches in a Combi and it's still "thin" and I say you know nothing about synth programing. Thor? Now you can layer three analog synths together. Still "thin"? Plz Bottom line on all this banter is this: if you can't make some sweet,amazing, creative, mind blowing electronic music with Reason(far more than Brian Eno ever had when he made some of the best electronic music ever)than you might not want to quit your day job.

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tree

ps. the reason i say this is because i like using reason but rewiring is an outdated pain in the ass!

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tree

@loopDuplicate, record may not be a "daw" and props describe it as "a whole new take on music recording". But facts are is does most of the things that a daw does in the same price range except you can't use 3rd party plugins and there's no midi out, which makes it (in my opinion only) a retarded daw. Don't get me wrong, I really do like alot of things about reason and have used it alot over the past few years BUT the only advantage to record over rewiring to say cubase or ableton, is that there are a few nice features like say "select all in pitch range" which is useful for cutting up loops and processing individually etc., otherwise its layout is clunky and it's audio editing methods are adequate at best. I understand that 3rd party plugs could seriously compromise stability and hence workflow which would diminish one of its best features but lack of midi out i'll never understand. I think it's purely a financial decision on props behalf not to release it now and it WILL be a feature of Record 2. Thats my two cents :)

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Ludocavic

Argggg. No update on rex workflow.... Arggggggg

What a pain it is to have to cut in recycle, without midi triggering in it :o

I mean, you place markers with your mouse and cannot even jam with your keyboard to see if the slicing is ok... No, you have to load it in Reason, check if it sounds good or not and come back to recycle, change the markers....

This is quite a shame and such a loss of time for people working with samples ...

Please, Props, please, include the G*d damn Recycle capability in Reason... :o

For the rest, well, it's funny to insiste on the "sample" capabilities, as they are just coming to other DAWs standards... A sampler where you cannot actually sample is not really a sampler :) Meaning Reasons samplers are just becoming samplers :) Wouuuuhouuuu!!

;)

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loopDuplicate

@tree

It's not a DAW.

@Dad

Sad but true.

"I would recommend Reason Record to newbies everytime, and experienced recording musicians already have it…"

Me too. I started with computers and music in 1988 working with Cakewalk on Windows 2.1 on a 386. My friends were jealous because they had 286s :)

Ever since then, I wanted what Reason has. Having Reason/Record is seriously a dream come true. I just can't believe when people say they don't like it.

Making music is easy? No way. Doesn't matter what software you have. Making noise is easy, I guess.

Reason doesn't crash for me either. I've used versions 1, 2, 2.5, 3, and 4. I'm eagerly awaiting August 25th so I can get my free Reason 5 upgrade.

Peace

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Andy J

@ Troublemaker - it always amazes me that people like you still make the effort to display arrogance... go and yawn infront of a mirror.

@Dad - LMAO

I get on well with Reason Record and bought at just the right time to get the free upgrade to R5/R1.5. I get on well with the workflow, visual gimmics, stability and support. Yes out of the box some sounds sound staid... but that's why we tweek... I also agree that less is more... so if you learn Reason Record well this is more than a stable foundation for other DAWs...

I've already produced a track for TV using Reason/Record within the first month... The only thing I'm wanting at the moment is the ability to warp transients in my audio clips to tidy up the audio I record...

I would recommend Reason Record to newbies everytime, and experienced recording musicians already have it...

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project b

reason 1, 2, 2.5, 3, 4. Used them since the beginning. Never crashed once. Bring on 5. It doesn't matter what equipment you use. If you havnt got talent then your gonna fail anyways. Thinking they're making it too easy to make music these days......? Strange. Maybe they should over complicate things, that would be better.

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drno

So happy. The way I have my rack set up, I lose alot of processing power and end up using nx-xt's for a lot of sounds since they barely use any cpu. Now I can stack thors and combi's. I'll get a i7 4 core machine when this comes out. Happy joy.

Those new additions are sweet, but I think they are making it way to easy to make music these days.

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Me

At the end of the day, making good music has little to do with which software's you use or which instruments you play but has a lot more to do with how you use them.

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pdxborn

@phattfoniks... Reason has always had the ability to use the dr rex and the MPD24, triggerfinger, anything with pads as a faux MPC. Just load up your dr Rex, Adjust your ADSR A=0 D=127 S=variable R=127 and POW, you've just created an MPC.

you can youtube it and get some examples if you want to.

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Phattfoniks

Loving this update. I have a MPD24 and im thinking if i just bind that to kong ive basically got an mpc right? :D i can live sample my decks straight into the kong and SHAZAAM beats time. Thanks Props! Cant wait.

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Dad

Perhaps a little perspective is in order: If you all took half the time Propellerheads devoted to making this program, and put it into learning how to use Reason & honing your own craft, you'd have a kick-ass album done. Instead, you're just a bunch of dudes I've never heard of, crapping on some small feature that wasn't included in the upgrade. Crap on your own small feature, dude. Love, Dad

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Dave

Propellerheads used to produce innovative software.

today, their software is lackluster compared to the competition.

Props have a lot of catching up to do, starting with a new version of Recycle imo.

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Andy

@bliss, integrating ReCycle functionality into Reason required one major hurdle - audio input. Now in version 5 we have audio input and the ability to record into any sample-ready rack device, as well as the multi-tracking of Rercord. The chances of getting a ReCycle-like device in Reason (or Record) just went way up.

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bliss

Of course, I realize that Dr. Rex wouldn't be called "Dr. Rex" without it referring to .rex/rx2 files -- but that's quite limiting when Propellerheads' own homegrown tech is capable of doing more.

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bliss

It's been 10 years and Propellerheads still haven't integrated ReCycle's ability into Dr. Rex, or at least Dr. OctoRex? WTF? I mean, when I bought Reason 1.0 - still have the CDs and everything - it was easy to wish that Dr. Rex would slice AIFF and WAV files automatically. So, I know Propellerheads have considered the same thing all these years. And for each subsequent release to v. 1.0, there's been a choir of Reason users looking for that added functionality as the first point of consideration to upgrade; as just happened with me here.

ReCycle must be a cash cow. There seems to be no other good reason why that old tech isn't a feature of Reason's current implementation.

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ifthenwhy

would anyone care to comment on a couple of points:

how steep is the leaning curve if you’re new to reason/record.

I would maintain that if you are new to Reason/Record AND are fundamentally comfortable with "Old School" recording, then the physical UI metaphors that Propellerheads use (racks, patch cables etc) will have you feeling less confused/intimidated than say Live or even Pro Tools? At least I was.

Some people hate the cables. Man I love em.

and i read a prophedz interview in tape op and they CLAIM their sw doesn’t crash. true?

Yep. Remarkably true. In my experience (in both live shows and paid studio gigs) no one touches Propellerheads in terms of bug crushing stability.

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Romain

Recycle is a pain un the ass to use. Not to mention the fact that proprietary rex files are a good thing as long as they don't get in the way of the workflow. I am hoping for some integration of recycle within reason or at least some way to transform a generic aiff or wav file effortlessly into a rex file within the reason browser. Also, recycle 2 has been around for ages and it is a bit dated now. The new "recycle", integrated in reason of course, should propose parameters such as "16th note slicing, transient slicing, manual, etc".

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johan

REASON NEVER EVER CRASHES!!!! at least for me..in 8 years. i swear to god. its true.

Ableton 8.1.1 (which i also love) crashed like.. halfanhour ago..probably due to a vst-plug though. but still...

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Andy

Been using Reason since version 1. Has never crashed on my Macs.

ReCycle...considering the investment in Octo Rex, they obviously see a future in the format/file type. I would not be surprised to see a ReCycle device in a future update to Reason.

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salamanderanagram

@isaac, you can already tune each note individually in NN-XT. or maybe you're looking for something more complex?

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Isaac

Can you apply different tunings with Reason 5 samplers? I mean, does it allow you to tune each note individually to any pitch? If not Reason is no good to me. Why offer 'octave stretching' but no way to try alternative tunings? I think it's a serious mistake in previous versions.

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xonox

@nick: i'm back to Reason after a few years of using something else. Back in the days, Reason 1.0, 2.0 and 2.5 must have crashed about once a year on me. Very rarely they did crash.

So, i think it is safe to assume the software very rarely crashes.

The learning curve back in Reason 1.0 was not too high. I tried the demo for quite a while and decided to spend the money on it.

Perhaps you should try the demo and see how you like it.

@Jack: I remember the subtractor aliased at high resonance and high cutoff frequency when running at 44khz. Maybe this is fixed now. I would think that Thor is better but haven't checked...

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Jack

People complain about the quality of the Reason synths, saying there is lots of aliasing. I amn't really in a position to comment, except to say that Thor is my favourite synth!

My feeling is that Reason is being judged unfairly in this regard. Any thoughts?

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aje

I would like to see them update ReCycle to version 3.0, and include more audio editing features, plus the ability to open it up within Record/Reason.

Peter - if this is their plan anyway, I doubt they will answer your question, ... but let us know if they do!!

Otherwise, I suspect they will make it free sometime soon and discontinue support.

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salamanderanagram

@nick i've been using reason for 3 years now and it has *never* crashed. not once.

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nick

would anyone care to comment on a couple of points:

how steep is the leaning curve if you're new to reason/record. i have a lot of "old school" studio experience and would like to return to that workflow which reason/record seems to represent(more than live, logic and p.t. etc.)

and i read a prophedz interview in tape op and they CLAIM their sw doesn't crash. true?

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xonox

I've been wondering about ReCycle too. Are they going to upgrade it or put that functionality back into Reason. I'd like to create my own rex2 files since i'm not using any premade ones...

@galob, nice way of putting software costs, didn't think of it :)

When some stand alone synth plugins cost 100-200$, i think that even if someone uses another DAW, Reason provides a lot of synth power for the money.

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s ford

recycle hasn't been updated in ages. i thought it was a product which propellerheads has kind of left in their line, but have kind of stopped stuff for it. in now days it's a bit of a archaic tool, but in it's day it was a revolutionary tool mainly for those who wanted to chop up loops for hardware samplers.

i reckon it's just been kind of forgot about.

i myself have never been a user of reason, well i tried it but found it's sound engine a little thin at times, which i thought were due to the failures of my own production techniques.

there's not a massive amount of point comparing progs with other progs. in this day and age, i believe the choice in the market is great; pretty much every particular choice is represented.

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Peter Kirn

Yeah, I'm not sure on the ReCycle thing, either, to be honest. The tool itself needs updating, it's not clear why at this point it's not part of Record/Reason as a product offering or even workflow-wise, and the pricing no longer really makes sense. The tool itself remains cool and led to a lot of these other things; I just want a new answer on what it means. I'll ask them if they can explain.

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Yodhan

I am pretty psyched about some of the new items. Kong makes my mouth water. Neptune looks pretty cool. I am not so sure about Blocks. It looks like a half-hearted attempt to take out Ableton. I use Live and Reason almost exclusively. I love the sounds of Reason and the modular, fluid composition form of Live and use them together all the time and love it.

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Andy

I am still on Reason 3 (been a user since version 1), but I'll upgrade to Reason 5. Version 4 was not compelling to me as a user. I think I'm in a weird little pocket of Reason users. I don't use the Redrum at all. I'm a drummer and ReWire Reason into Logic, using Reason for the NN-XT, synths, and effects, doing live drums, etc. in Logic. Strangely one of the things I'm most excited about in R5 is Kong. Admittedly I have used Reason less and less as I've gotten to know Logic.

I'll do the Record for Reason users upgrade. I've been saying for years (and getting laughed at on the Reason user forums) that the next logical step in Reason was audio-in. They accomplished 95% of this with Record, now with sampling at any sample selector in Reason 5, they've completed the functionality. I feel so vindicated!

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sixnon

I know, I do honestly, hell I got Record + Reason 4 upgrade for $129...it just seems completely counterintuitive with Propellerheads philosophy, backwards compatability etc.

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