Reason

[CRM-114]

Anyone here using Reason in conjunction with PT? How are Reason's sounds and user-friendlyness? At $350 (for the newest version), is it a worthy buy for someone who records electronic music?

[Bastiaan]

DEFINATLY!

Reason is an awsome tool and integrates tightly into ptle. On top of that is comes with a very nice collection of sounds and loops, and there's tons of sounds out there. It also reads raw wav's and soundfonts.

[butter_lover]

Once you nail down the configuration of rewire, you'll love it.
just the sampler and redrum modules alone are worth teh 350 bucks in my opinion.
-bl

[Cliffy_Boy]

Any comments on Reaktor 4?

[Roy Howell]

I am loving Reason...I'm just using a few of its modules for sounds for now (and not the sequencer yet), but it's great so far. I needed Brass sounds for something I'm doing and am very impressed.
It takes quite a while to 'audition' the sounds well, but it's worth it.
The spectrum of possibilities has widened with both 6.1 and Reason. Some very cool things will be done now.
~Roy

[dfusion]

Reason and Pro Tools LE is all I use now. There is no _need_ for anyting else although I love experimenting with new instrument plugins. Reason 2.5 includes Reload, their rock solid utility that converts Akai S1000/S3000 CDs to work with the NN-XT sampler inside Reason. The Redrum module is worth the price of Reason alone! I typically use one Redrum to build various kit patterns and load up another Redrum and use my own custom WAV or AIFF files for extra hits, crashes, and other types of percussion.

What _REALLY_ sets Reason apart is the routing option between different modules. Almost everything has CV/Gate, and it's so cool how one devices output can modulate things like LFO or Delay on another device. Simply brilliant for software! A lot of though went into this product. There is nothing else on the market that compares to Reason plugged into Pro Tools LE, except plugging into Pro Tools TDM of course.



Regards,
Mark

FYI - Reaktor is very cool, but currently does not support RTAS on windows. Soon, all Native Instruments will support RTAS Windows (end of September) and _that_ is almost as cool as the day I found out Pro Tools will support Rewire.

[da BaSsTaRd!]

Soon, all Native Instruments will support RTAS Windows (end of September) and _that_ is almost as cool as the day I found out Pro Tools will support Rewire.

"ALMOST" is the key word there. i totally agree. there's no single app that can touch reason...

[Ke productions]

"ALMOST" is the key word there. i totally agree. there's no single app that can touch reason...

DITTO.

[Miguelo Adorno]

Using Reason as a sampler, can I apply it with some quite extensive orchestral libraries which usually are in Gigastudio format? Is there some file converter? How about the polyphony? I've just got my first own digi001 and the very next thing is to get a sampler with performance high enough. As I've understood, Gigastudio requires a separate computer to run since it is not compatible with PT? -> Sooo expensive....

[dfusion]

Using Reason as a sampler, can I apply it with some quite extensive orchestral libraries which usually are in Gigastudio format? Is there some file converter? How about the polyphony? I've just got my first own digi001 and the very next thing is to get a sampler with performance high enough. As I've understood, Gigastudio requires a separate computer to run since it is not compatible with PT? -> Sooo expensive....

You have a few options here. Reason 2.5 comes with some excellent Orchestral libraries on the Orkester CD. There is an additional Refill by Propellerheads called Strings which is top notch and used with the NN-19 sampler inside Reason. You can also convert any Akai S1000/S3000 CDs like those from Big Fish Audio or East West Sounds by using Reload, included with Reason.

If I were you I would not use Gigastudio as it is not designed (as far as I know) to work with Pro Tools. Third party applications like CDXtract or A-Wave Studio will convert from Gigastudio format to many other formats, including Reason and Akai.

In regards to Polyphony, you are only limited by the power of your computer. On the Reason audio device you can change the Polyphony settings for a particular instruments, but it's useful mainly if you want to bump it up from the default. It's typical for me to have at least 3 or 4 samplers in a session, if not more. You have no idea how much more creative freedome I feel using Reason instead of Hardware or trying to get some non-supported Pro Tools app (like Gigastudio) to work with Pro Tools.

Aside from Reason, Sampletank is a sampler that is support inside Pro Tools. I believe they have a slimmed down free version on the IK Multimedia site. Also Native Instruments will be updating all their samplers (Battery, Kontakt, etc.) to support RTAS natively. Even if I owned the Native Instruments programs, I'd still want Reason as it just simply rulez!

My advice - Go to Propellerheads and download the Reason demo. Load up the demo songs and mess around with them. Look at how people are writing songs in Reason. Then fire up Pro Tools and plug it in and see how you like it.

I am using a Digi 001 with Reason. I wouldn't trade it for anything except a bigger and better digi. No need for external gear and other quirky software.

Regards,
Mark