Reason Studios Reason Review
It’s difficult to shop for a digital audio workstation, or audio editing software in general, without coming across Reason. Born out of an expanded version of Propellerhead’s Rebirth, itself one of the first comprehensive virtual synthesizers for PCs in the late 1990s, Reason delivered a full-fledged software studio. It comes complete with a virtual representation of rack-mounted instruments and effects boxes and an analog-style mixer. Now in version 12, Reason’s user interface has aged considerably in an era of brilliantly usable software workstations. But existing fans—or anyone intrigued by a software portrayal of a room stocked with old-school hardware synthesizers and samplers—should take a close look.
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System Requirements and User Interface
Reason Studios sells Reason 12 two ways: as a $499 standalone purchase (as before), and as part of Reason+, a new subscription service that bundles access to the full version plus weekly new sound packs for $19.99 per month. The company recommends either a Windows 10 or 11 machine or a Mac running macOS 10.13 or later, both with 8GB RAM and 26GB of free hard disk space. It also recommends an audio interface with an ASIO driver for PCs (Macs’ built-in sound hardware works fine), along with some type of MIDI controller. For this review, I tested Reason 12.2.5 on a MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) laptop with 16GB RAM, a 1TB SSD, a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 second-generation audio interface, KRK Rokit 6 G3 powered studio monitors, and a Nektar GX61 MIDI controller keyboard.
The biggest structural change Reason has received occurred in version 11: You can now load the entire synth rack directly into another DAW as a VST3 plug-in, instead of connecting with it via the aged, clumsy ReWire protocol. This alone still gives Reason a shot in the arm for anyone who wants access to its sound modules and synthesizers but has largely (or completely) moved to a different sequencer in recent years.
The Reason interface itself has also matured, but the basic format hasn’t changed and would be instantly recognizable to someone who first saw it in the year 2000. The Browser on the left lets you choose instruments to add to your Rack, which sits on the top right by default. The bottom right usually contains the Sequencer window, for adding, recording, and editing tracks. It’s still possible to flip the rack around and virtually re-cable the instruments, a charming if now almost-archaic concept—especially since populating the mixer in Reason is much more automated these days, compared with the Mackie 1202-like, rack-mount original mixer.
Reason lets you customize the heck out of this; you can put the rack on a second monitor, for example. A widescreen Reason setup across a 34-inch display would be amazing, especially given Reason 12’s updated high-res graphics that look less fuzzy on 4K monitors. Blue and Dark themes give the program a more contemporary look, though the mixer and all the dialog boxes remain unaffected, and you have to quit and restart to see each one. More importantly, zooming, scrolling, and otherwise navigating a track while editing it remains obtuse. It’s too heavily mouse-based and disorganized, and as a result, it’s tricky to find exactly the region you want to work on.
The UI idiom is clearly geared toward sound designers and synthesizer enthusiasts that are thrilled to have a virtual, unlimited, free rack of modules that would have cost-prohibitive amounts of money not many years ago. But that makes it less well suited to someone coming over from, say, Reaper or Apple Logic Pro, or moving up from GarageBand. I realize some Reason fans may take issue with me calling the UI a con, but I’ve always found it rather fiddly. And I was making electronic music in the late 1980s and 1990s, back when rack-mount modules were omnipresent. I’m glad to get away from that in modern DAWs!
Instruments New and Old
Reason 12 contains one new instrument: Mimic, a new “creative sampler,” as the company bills it. It’s essentially a sampler with the difficulty removed; Mimic makes it easy to chop up, trigger, and otherwise manipulate any audio material. You can drag and drop audio right into one of eight slots and then play it melodically (with differing pitch), slice it up, turn it into a drum machine with Multi-Slot Mode, or layer it in Multi-Pitch Mode complete with splits and key ranges. This means you can chop up beats or assemble a pitched, contemporary lead vocal much more easily.
Several other instruments remain standouts. Europa, which Reason Studios bills as a “shapeshifting synthesizer,” excels at massive synth stabs, aggressive leads, and ethereal, textured pads to which you can apply various filters. You can use any sample as a wavetable, and you can also load samples into its Spectral Filter to use as a multiplier when filtering sounds. Grain lets you take samples and use them as the basis for granular synthesis. Both modules are stocked with presets that sit nicely in a mix and continue to evolve and change over time.
Klang delivers a variety of tuned percussion, including a glockenspiel and a wine-glasses instrument. Pangea adds a bevy of plucked, blown, strummed, and other instruments from around the world. And Humana brings decent voice samples to Reason, with multiple choirs and solo singers to choose from. Radical Piano blends samples with synthesis in a nod to mid-to-late 1980s early digital instruments. The Synchronous modulator lets you run just about anything through it and modify its delay, reverb, distortion, and other characteristics over time in a way that would be difficult to achieve with straight automation.
Perhaps the greatest thing about Reason remains its inspiring sound set, which now spans some 29,000 instrument patches, loops, and samples. To get an idea of how good it sounds, skip the two included demo songs and instead check out the array of SoundCloud audio examples on Reason Studios’ website(Opens in a new window). (If you’re focused on bundled instruments, it’s also worth looking at Cubase Pro or Logic Pro, both of which offer a lot of value in this department.)
Recording and Mixing in Reason
The new, vastly more flexible Combinator in version 12 lets you change its size, color, background graphics, and even its control layout, a huge improvement over the (very) old one. The Combinator lets you combine multiple Reason devices into self-contained presets, which thanks to the new features, can now look like entirely new modules with your own custom UIs. And if you don’t feel like building your own, Reason 12 includes more than 100 new Combinator patches and updates to more than 1,000 older ones.
Other new effects since I last tested Reason include version 11’s beautiful-sounding Sweeper Modulation effect with built-in phaser, flanger, and filter; a vintage-style, fat Quartet Chorus Ensemble with (naturally) four modes; and the ability to break out the mixer’s Master Bus Compressor and Channel Dynamics as rack effects. The sequencer has also been bolstered in recent years, with new curved automation and seamless audio file crossfades, multilane MIDI editing, adaptive snap-to-grid, and the ability to move multiple faders. But Reason still lacks film scoring, notation, and surround-sound facilities, so look at another DAW if you need any of those features.
Although a DAW like PreSonus Studio One or Pro Tools offers much more robust audio editing tools, such as for comping vocal or guitar tracks from multiple takes, Reason can at least get the job done. The mixing desk remains flexible and sounds good, thanks to its SSL 9000k analog modeling, sweet-sounding EQ and compression by channel, that console’s famous master bus compressor, and send and insert effects. I love the sound of the channel compression, although I would still appreciate more granular metering than the five LED dots, even if that’s how a real SSL does it!
If you’re more focused on realizing your musical ideas quickly, and less so on recording live instruments or producing finished masters, Reason has plenty of built-in tools. And if you’re a budding sound designer who’s looking to get under the hood of different types of synthesizers and samplers, it’s tough to go wrong with Reason. The same goes for anyone who has an electronic music bent and wants to compose music quickly. But if what you’re looking for is to record podcasts, you should look at an audio-only-focused app like Adobe Audition.
A Favorite for a Reason
It’s worth comparing Reason, FL Studio, and Ableton Live before making your purchase; all three programs let you create electronic music quickly, albeit with different approaches. If you’re looking for a mainstream-style DAW to record a band or score for film, Reason is less compelling and even lacks key features. But even then, it serves as an excellent bundle of virtual instruments in plug-in form. Our Editors’ Choice audio editors remain Logic Pro on the Mac and Avid Pro Tools on the PC (though the latter is, of course, also available for the Mac).
Reason Studios Reason
3.5
(Opens in a new window)
Check Stock
$997.99
at Amazon
(Opens in a new window)
MSRP $399.00
Pros
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Cons
The Bottom Line
Despite its flaws and dated UI, it’s tough to knock Reason as an all-in-one recording and mixing tool, particularly if you’re into electronic or hip-hop music and want a large array of sounds and beats to work with.
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