Review: Propellerhead Reason 6 & Balance Audio Interface
Is the sky falling in? No – Propellerhead’s Reason virtual electro studio has finally grown audio tracks.
6 December 2011
Review: Derek Johnson
At one time, the idea of audio recording being added to Reason – the king of virtual electronic music studios from Swedish coding chefs, Propellerhead – seemed highly unlikely. I don’t think the words “It will never happen” were ever stated, but one never felt encouraged that it would.
The release of Record, a wonderful-in-its-own-way multitrack audio recording package, may have give cause for some optimism, but Reason+Record Duo seemed to be the way of the future: choose electronic music studio, choose audio recording, or choose both as an integrated bundle.
But two pieces of software, even as well-integrated as these two were, was still less convenient than one, not to mention the extra load on the host computer and the wallet. Distributors, dealers and some users found the situation a bit complicated so, after a couple of years trying to satisfy two different types of user, the Swedes made the integration permanent. Record has been quietly phased out, with all of its functionality – and then some – inherited by Reason 6. The new package even costs rather less than the old Reason+Record bundle.
To coincide with Reason 6’s release, Propellerhead has taken its first step into the hardware market, with the Balance two-in/two-out USB2 audio interface. The market Propellerhead hoped to build for Record continues to be serviced by Reason Essentials, a cut-down (rather than entry-level) package aimed at bands and songwriters.
This version 6 release also sees Reason finally working on 64-bit platforms, Mac or PC, if your host of choice is right up to date.
REASON TO BE CHEERFUL
Summarising Reason 6 as it now stands would bust my wordcount, so I suggest you trawl the AT online archives, and fill in any gaps with Google.
For the completely uninitiated, let’s just say that Reason started out as the virtual representation of the most flexible electronic music studio you could never afford. It’s based around a collection of well-designed analogue-style and purely digital sound generators, sample and loop players, and effects. The synth devices include a mix and match of classic analogue and digital synth modelling, with the mighty Thor easily capable of standing alone as the source of an entire track. Sample players are also available in simple and overkill varieties: NN19 for the simple jobs, and the jaw-dropping NN-XT for mega multisamples. Among the drum machines, ReDrum feels very ‘Roland beatbox’, and the Kong Drum Designer would be an MPC killer in hardware form – it features sound generators, sample and loop players, and you can create kits of great depth and sonic sophistication. If you’ve missed a Reason upgrade, Dr Rex no longer plays REX loops – but multiply that by eight, and you have the compatible but so much better Dr Octo Rex, from Reason 5. Add a step sequencer, arpeggiator, a couple of mixers and tons of effects devices including the luscious RV7000 reverb and MClass Mastering collection. Some devices are simple, some are so sophisticated and flexible that you might wish they were sold separately.
You, the user, load the devices into an on-screen rack (now double width in Reason 6), link them with virtual control and audio cables, and create music. It starts out simple but can become as complex as you like – the linking is largely unlimited, and some deceptively simple devices let you mix and split audio and control signals alike to set up massive patches, effects groupings and so on. The dedicated Combinator, introduced a few upgrades ago, makes multi-synth/multi-effects groupings behave as one device-like patch, tidying up the rack.
Reason offers a flexible sequencing environment that lets you work with patterns, blocks, or completely linear tracks. The feel is old-school but all the better for it – recording and arranging are streamlined here, with full automation of nearly every sequencer (and rack) function.
There’s still no MIDI Out, but Reason 6 has tight integration with external hardware controllers so that you’ll be able to plug in virtually any keyboard or control surface on the market and have it wiggle some of the plentiful on-screen controls in a useful manner.
NEED TO KNOW
Reason 6 now has three major operational windows plus a number of smaller ‘navigator’ areas to help with moving around busy songs. Each one of the main windows can be given focus, or split off to a second monitor, to allow for easier operation.Pulveriser adds dirt, depth and excitement to input signals. Bringing the concept of tape echo into the 21st Century, The Echo offers complete control over every aspect of the stereo delay process. Capable of practically creating a new sequence or pattern from any input signal, the rhythmic dynamics and filtered madness of Alligator cry out for extended tinkering.
IN WITH THE NEW
New for Reason 6, and inherited from Record, is a global mixer ‘modelled’ on SSL’s 9000K behemoth. It grows a new input whenever you create a new device or audio track; in fact, an audio track gets its own device-like entry in the rack, so you can easily integrate audio with whatever else you’re doing within the rack. That means you’re working in essentially three modes – Rack, Sequencer and Mixer, though the sequencer has two sub-modes, dubbed Song and Edit. Actually, there is also a Block mode in the sequencer (new in Reason 5), but it’s really another way of editing, extending or mapping out your song. If you needed an excuse to work with three monitors on your desktop, Reason 6 could be it!
In another context, the mixer would have its own review. It has built-in dynamics processing and master compressor, room for inserts aplenty on the channels and in the master section, four-band EQ, eight pre/post effects sends, metering and level/pan control. All mixer facilities can be automated and integrated into the rack environment. About all that you’re missing here is subgrouping and surround mixing.
The new audio tracks are accommodated in the same way as any other device: add a track, and it’s added to the sequencer track list, an Audio Track device is added to the rack, and the mixer gains a channel. As with Record, capturing audio performances is a doddle. The processing needed to time stretch and pitch shift audio is added invisibly in the background; you can turn these options off if you require un-stretched audio. The process, by the way, is stunning, even up to more than modest stretches.
EFFECTIVE CHANGES
There are no new sound-making devices as such, though the ID-8 sound module, with its preset bank of useful patches, has moved over from Record. The factory sound bank has been hugely expanded, too.
There have been additions to the effects arsenal, though. Line 6 guitar and bass amp devices have come over from Record, adding a unique slice of non-Propellerhead design to the Reason environment. Also from Record is the wondrous Neptune pitch adjuster and voice synth (fix bad notes/add harmonies/wig out).
Now to the new toys. The Echo is clearly modelled on classic tape delay effects, especially those produced by Roland. We get warm, fuzzy sounds here but with a 21st-century edge that makes you wonder how you managed without. it. Plenty of feedback, modulation and external control options will keep this one ping-ponging in all my future racks.
The effects produced by Alligator, a three-band filtered gate device, could conceivably have been created with multiple devices in the past, but it would have been complicated. Alligator splits a signal into three channels, with each channel treated with its own patter-based rhythmic processing, filtering, modulation and effects – distortion, phaser and delay. The highs, mids and lows of the input can all be treated differently. Has to be heard to be believed.
Reason already has a capable distortion device, in Scream 4, but the new Pulveriser ‘high yield demolition’ module goes into different provinces of carnage. This combination of on-the-edge compression, distortion, multimode filtering and modulation somehow manages to mix digital and analogue power and destruction without harshness (unless you want harshness). You can really squash a sound flat or bring out its inner detail in unexpected ways.
ALL THE RIGHT REASON
There really are few downsides to Reason 6. Sure, some of us don’t like dongle-based copy protection, but we don’t like piracy either and dongles do help. The absence of surround mixing may bug some users. The ongoing lack of third-party plug-in support will certainly bug many users, but what you can’t do in Reason… well, just do it in another package, or ReWire Reason to another DAW.
For all-in-one electronic music creation, especially but not exclusively that which focusses on looped audio or patterns, there’s little to beat the speed and power of creation in Reason 6. The audio tracks are flexible enough to allow full band recording, and integrating Reason device patching with a guitar/bass/drums/vocals outfit takes each medium to different places. This isn’t a unique idea but Reason just makes the process so much fun.
So, existing users should have already upgraded – even those who disdained Record. If you’re new to the market, just go straight to the top. You won’t regret it.
RESPONSES