Review: Propellerhead Reason 7
After almost 13 years of careful and considered development, Reason’s ‘walled garden’ is entirely open.
1 November 2013
Review: Derek Johnson
In retrospect, the release of Reason 6, with its fully integrated audio tracks, heralded Propellerhead’s move to answer critics of its closed approach. Then with v6.5, last year, the wall came down, and the previously locked rack of virtual synths and effects was opened up to third-party plug-ins. There was almost nothing left for a Reason 7 update to add… except for MIDI Out functionality. And the Swedes haven’t disappointed. Finally, Reason has opened right up.
THE ‘MISSING’ UPDATE
To bring us up to date, we should take a trip past v6.5. For a normal software house, this update would have been worth a full integer, and inspired a full review. But Propellerhead isn’t like that!
For the longest time, Reason was a closed system. This was fine: files could easily be swapped between users and Propellerhead didn’t have to worry about accommodating other developers’ code. I’ve always been on the fence: as much as I’d like to use my favourite virtual instruments and effects inside Reason, the ReWire inter-application protocol has usually been enough to let me link Reason to a VST-compatible host. And I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of bending Reason devices to mimic particular instruments and effects.
But as of v6.5, Propellerhead’s attitude changed, with the introduction of Rack Extensions. This tightly written plug-in format is obviously designed to slot seamlessly into Reason, complete with all the established audio and CV connections, and automation control of standard devices.
The SDK is free to genuine commercial developers, and some hefty names have come to a fast-growing party: Korg, FXpansion, Rob Papen, iZotope and u-he are just a handful of examples.
Further control is maintained by distributing Extensions through a very 21st century integrated web store. New Rack Extensions can only be found, bought and installed from the Propellerhead Store. Freebies have been rather thin on the ground, as opposed to the vast sea of gratis VST plugs, but you can download 30-day trials if you’re collaborating with someone and missing an extension.
A NEW FRONTIER
The opening up of Reason to the outside world is practically complete with the launch of v7.
The big ticket item here is the new External MIDI Instrument (EMI) device: Reason can now play and control your external hardware synths. In fact, through virtual ports on your computer, it can also play soft synths hosted in other applications.
This latest enhancement engenders a peculiar feeling of satisfaction. Anyone with a history with, or experience of, any generation of hardware synth will find functionality in Reason that sparks ideas that would sound even better if the other gear in the real world could join in. There is, however, an irony here. I can’t be the only one to have scaled back a hardware studio in the face of the creative software tools offered by the likes of Reason… Now look at the geekily attractive press shot of Reason linked to a studio full of that very same inspirational gear!
Many of Reason’s controller devices — the RPG-8 arpeggiator and Matrix pattern sequencer, for example — are inspired by an earlier generation of electronica. Applying them to more modern instruments adds old-school ‘feel’ to a sonic universe that might not have expected it.
EMI is as simple as it comes: it transmits data on one MIDI channel on one MIDI output, and is equipped with pitchbend, mod wheel and one assignable controller (and one program change). It’s equipped with CV controls so any device in the rack can be routed to the outside world (albeit monophonically). It can be played polyphonically (as long as the voice on the target MIDI channel is polyphonic) from a master controller assigned to a sequencer track. Complicated MIDI data, such as Bank Select commands and deep controller data, will have to be recorded or drawn on sequencer lanes. Velocity and aftertouch data are transmitted through the EMI, and recorded into the sequencer, as you’d expect.
There’s no real downside to the EMI, though it does open up issues of latency that weren’t there in the closed Reason rack — MIDI going out, triggering the device, and audio coming back into Reason. Moving tracks around can solve any obvious problems, but it would be nice to see an automatic latency compensation tool introduced at some point. Other than that, there will be the issue of having enough audio inputs for your gear — or being tempted to buying hardware if you’re mainly soft!
NEED TO KNOW
See these devices? They’re Rack Extensions and they fit in the rack perfectly. Here, you can see Propellerhead’s own colourful Audiomatic Retro Transformer, inspired by one-click photo transformation tools. An appropriate photo illustrates each process, and although some (such as Psyche, Wash, PVC) require an audition to understand their effect, you’ll know what to expect from VHS, Vinyl and Tape. Vinyl even adds a 60Hz rumble!
Above it is Korg’s Mono/Poly — the device that made my jaw slacken and hit my desk, as I fished out my credit card. It has the same classic sound, but with automation, patches, real polyphony, and a price of just US$49. The original is one of my personal favourite hardware synths, and having it in my Reason rack — arpeggiator and all — fulfils something of a dream.
IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT MIDI
Let’s not get entirely distracted by EMI, wonderful though it is, as it’s joined by plenty of other new features. First up, the factory sound bank has been expanded, mainly with a “new and powerful section of hard hitting drums loops”.
One simple but immensely helpful tweak is support for more audio formats — including MP3, WMA and AAC — that can be directly imported into Reason. The minor hassle of converting, for example, MP3 before importing is now a thing of the past.
More significantly, audio tracks (which can already be time-stretched against tempo) have gained a ‘slice’ option. This automatic process slices a track at each peak, and lets you quantize, fix, tweak and generally get creative with the timing of the track. There’s not a lot of user control over the process but therein lies its simplicity. There will be audio that the process doesn’t work well on, but largely it gets the slices right. Manually removing or adding slices to a mis-analysed track can be a pain but this hasn’t happened too often for me so far. At the moment, only one track at a time can be processed and tweaked, and the process doesn’t include any pitch tools on a per-slice basis. You can manage most of what you want using other Reason tools, though.
If this is sounding something like an in-line version of Propellerhead’s Recycle slice and dice loop tool, then you won’t be surprised to hear that sliced tracks can be converted to Recycle’s REX file format. The exported file can be used elsewhere or kept in-house for playback and treatment through the Dr:Rex or Dr Octo Rex devices, any of the Reason sample players or the Kong Drum Designer.
Many of Reason’s controller devices are inspired by an earlier generation of electronica. Applying them to more modern instruments adds old-school ‘feel’ to a sonic universe that might not have expected it
Version 7’s new Spectrum EQ is an odd beast: it’s not exactly a new processor, but provides a new way of looking at, and controlling, the mixer’s EQ. The analyser window is highly effective, and quickly becomes an essential tool when fine-tuning mixes.
The External MIDI Instrument device completely opens up Reason to the rest of the world, connecting Reason to whatever sound makers you have on your keyboard stand or in your rack. Audio is routed into Reason’s mixer via the usual channels (and the hardware channels of your audio interface) and MIDI heads out of your MIDI sockets — one channel at a time, obviously. If your external device is polyphonic, then it can be played that way from your master controller via Reason’s sequencer channels. If triggered from the rack by, say, the Matrix step sequencer, life is refreshingly monophonic. Automation of the external MIDI device is possible, and program changes, CC automation, and pitchbend, mod wheel, velocity and aftertouch can all be sent out of the EMI. The device also has one assignable controller knob on its front panel.
Beyond the automatic time-stretching on the post-v6 audio tracks, a ReCycle vibe has been added to audio tracks with a slice option that detects peaks automatically and places slices at the most obvious points — it’s nearly always right! Then quantize, re-time, or export the result to REX-compatible devices.
MIXING IT UP
Reason’s mixer is already tightly integrated with the rack. But Propellerhead has taken it to another level. First of all, mixer channel level and pan controls now appear in the rack itself, so you don’t have to keep jumping to the mix window. The mixer also features new bus channels, which make it easy to group tracks for mixing big sessions.
Apparently, setting up one audio track for parallel processing in a pair of mixing channels is now a ‘thing’ with a 21st century name — ‘New York compression’. Well, this technique is as easy as a right click on a mixer channel, applying whatever contrasting signal processing you’d like to experiment with on the channels and mixing the result. This is much fiddlier in other soft- and hardware situations.
Another feature which you never knew you needed is the Spectrum EQ. This spectrum analyser with moving display visualises the frequency content of a selected mix channel or bus, anywhere in the program (you don’t have to be in the mixer window). Spectrum EQ’s on-screen controls offer a truly graphic experience of grabbing a curve — rather than knobs on the mixer — to tweak the EQ. Refreshing, and instinctive.
And that is not all: v7’s Audiomatic Retro Transformer is a deceptively simple tool that is now always in use somewhere in my Reason work. It offers 16 ‘snapshots’ — including VHS, Vinyl, MP3 — that impose the psycho-acoustic character and frequency response on to the selected track. I love this even though I know I shouldn’t. The control here seems limited but it does all it needs to. Actually, the Audiomatic Retro Transformer is a Rack Extension; free with Reason 7, users of V6 or V6.5 can buy it for US$49.
OPEN ARMS
After 13 years — an eternity in software terms — of gradual evolution, Reason has matured and opened itself up. Okay, there’s no VST support, but that is even more unlikely to happen than it ever was. The eternal fence-sitters should sort themselves out now that the rack is open to third-parties and external MIDI gear. I wonder about surround mixing and monitoring but don’t yet miss it myself.
If there’s anything you’d like to see working in a certain way, tell the Swedes. They do listen to the steady stream of constructive feedback generated by their users, and come up with considered, streamlined solutions to some of the problems raised. That’s why Reason keeps growing: because people like Propellerhead’s approach, and the open-ended way it allows users to do their own thing.
And those hundreds of thousands of Reason users are happy to follow that lead. This upgrade comes highly recommended.
RESPONSES