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(More customer reviews)Reason Version 4.0 - Mac - Review 9-15-2008
In order to give a meaningful review of Reason 4.0 and the major improvements in this latest version of Propellerheads' music creation software package, I first need to state exactly what Reason is, and what it is not.
The most descriptive definition of Reason is that it is basically a "virtual rack mount studio", complete with a built in sequencer, faithfully simulated in a single software package.
For those who are familiar with rack mount studio units, Reason incorporates most (if not all) common hardware rack mount units you would find in a typical recording studio. This includes mixer boards, effects processors (such as reverb, distortion, chorus and flanger units, etc.), two very robust digital samplers which can use samples and wave files as instrumental components, a drum sequencer, a drum sequence sampler/playback tool, and several analog synthesizer units as well - and much, much more. Each of these devices can be "cable patched" into one another within Reason in almost any conceivable combination, and all of the units look and act like their hardware counterparts would in an actual recording studio.
Also, you can "create" as many of these virtual hardware components as you need and the only limitation you have on how many you can effectively use is limited only by your computer's processor speed, RAM, and the sound card hardware in your computer. Since Reason 4.0 uses software to simulate the functions of these virtual hardware units, having a high-end soundcard is NOT necessary to get the most out of the Reason package. Any decent PC or Mac sound card or chip is capable of getting near perfect sound quality out of this package - even the basic sound hardware found in a standard off the shelf Mac laptop such as the MacBook Pro will do just fine.
As a digital music creation platform, Reason has been very good for years, with one noticeable feature missing: The ability to record "live" instruments, such as guitars or vocals.
While this lack of live recording ability has always made Reason a questionably "complete" DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software package, what it lacks in recording capability it more than makes up for by what it does best: Be a one-man-band/studio in a single box. For those who are already using another software package such as CakeWalk Sonar Studio for live recording, Reason does have the ability to be "rewired" into other packages that support rewiring, such as Sonar. As an add-on component to other DAW software packages, Reason adds a some huge capabilities to other programs and can more than stand on it's own for creation of any conceivable type of electronic music from hip hop to classical to jazz and far beyond.
If you are looking to do a lot of live instrument recording, you might want to look at another software package, but if you are doing something "instrumental", say composing a music piece for a television commercial, look no further. Reason has you covered - in a very big way.
This basic description of Reason as a "one stop recording studio" was accurate for version 2.5. While Reason Version 2.5 was very robust, there were several features that were noticeably missing:
- The ability to easily combine samplers or synths into "layered" instruments (more than one type of sound being controlled by a single sequencer track)
- A coherent and robust piano roll / track view with typical visual components (e.g. as found in other DAW packages such as Sonar)
- A mastering suite of tools for controlling final mix down of tracks into a final polished and well engineered song
- The ability to change tempo within a music project by measure
- A very robust and complex synthesizer capable of producing a huge range of different sounds
Starting with the last drawback first, Reason 2.5 and 3.0 contained 2 main synths: The Subtractor Analog synth and the Malstrom Graintable synth. Reason 4 also still contains these two instruments. While these two synths were plenty capable of producing a host of "vintage" style synths sounds, they lacked the kind of customization that can be found in other high-end digital music packages such as Apple's Logic audio software, making music such as "trance" or "techno-electronica" style music incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to do in Reason. This has now changed in a radical way for the better. More on that in a minute...
Reason 3.0 was a huge step in the right direction for Reason users. There were two major advances in Reason 3.0:
- The addition of a FULL suite of recording and mastering tools including a parametric EQ unit and a compressor unit, (among others). The mastering suite units were a huge leap forward for Reason because they allowed composers to control exactly how a finished song should sound - and even how individual instruments within the song should sound - and these units also greatly reduced the occurrences of audio-clipping which can ruin a digital recording. As with all other Reason "hardware units" the user has the ability to create and use as many mastering units as needed for any given project, limited only by processor speed and the amount of RAM in the user's computer.
- The addition of a new rack unit called the "Combinator". The Combinator was another giant improvement on the Reason package because it allowed users to "group" any other kinds of Reason units into 1 "package" or "group" and then assign the entire group to a single sequencer track. This meant that a user could now throw a mixer, some effects units, and several instruments into 1 package and treat the entire package as a single instrument from within the sequencer. Obviously, this stretched Reason's sound producing capabilities much further and allowed the user to create multi-layered polyphonic instruments with ease.
Reason 3.0 was a great leap forward, for sure, but there were still the problems of having a somewhat limited synthesizer capability (there were still only the 2 synth units, and Reason was still fairly limited in that respect), you still couldn't change tempos mid song (you were pretty much stuck with one time signature per song) and the sequencer still had several problems that made it difficult, frustrating and often time consuming when working within the sequencer itself. With respect to the sequencer issues, there were several other problems, but rather than go into all the details of what was still wrong with Reason 3.0, let's just get to the new version of Reason: Reason Version 4.0 and go over how any and ALL drawbacks of Reason 3.0 are now completely eliminated in Reason version 4.
Reason 4.0 is probably the first version of Reason that has finally eliminated any and all potential weaknesses with this software package, and Reason 4.0 is truly a devastating creative tool for musicians looking for full-featured music creation, recording and engineering package for less than a thousand bucks. This is especially true if you are looking to do any kind of techno, trance, or industrial music as the new "Thor" polyphonic synthesizer utterly SLAYS anything previous versions of Reason had in terms of synthesis of sound or synchronized sequences of sound.
Probably the biggest instrumental leap forward for Reason 4.0 is the addition of the "Thor" Polyphonic Analog Synthesizer as a new instrument found only in Reason version 4.0. The Thor synth is an amazing piece of "virtual hardware" that allows the user to create literally thousands (if not millions) of possible combinations of sound generators, oscillators, filters, envelope controls, and even automated or hardware controlled sound parameters, which can handle almost any aspect of sound generation. While Reason 4.0 ships with a fairly decent amount of Thor "instruments presets" pre-created, these prefabricated presets really only scratch the surface of what Thor is truly capable of.
When the sequencing hardware found within Thor is combined with various parameters of the Thor sound generators and controllers, Thor completely blows away any kind of synth found in previous versions of Reason, and now the Reason software package has the capability of producing the deep and complex types of sounds and sequence loops that are often only found in hardware synths costing nearly two thousand dollars or more. The sequencing generator in Thor can be used to create delays, arpeggios, small instrumental sub-sequences and all other manner of complex sound effects found in a lot of high-end keyboard synths, and this places Reason 4.0's synth sound generation and control squarely in Apple's "Logic" audio software territory as well as now putting Reason 4.0 on the same turf as higher end Korg and Roland keyboard workstations. By using Thor in combination with Reason's Combinator and the already built-in digital samplers, the sky is no longer the limit for sound creation in Reason. The Thor Polyphonic Synth is a HUGE addition to Reason version 4.0 and alone is well worth the price of admission by itself, but Reason version 4.0 doesn't stop there.
The second, and another very significant upgrade to Reason version 4.0 is that all of the previous drawbacks of the Reason 2.5/3.0 sequencer have been completely eliminated in version 4.0.
Like previous versions of Reason, you can color-code your track labels with a right click on the track header. You can now toggle between track view and sequence piano roll view with a single mouse click; each of the tracks can now be viewed with the sequence elements (such as note placement in the piano roll now visible in track view as well) as well as effects controllers and note properties fully visible with a mouse click or two...Read more›
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