Reason 12: Unleash the Power of the Rack
Sporting a stunning new high-res look and new Rack devices for expressive sample manipulation, Reason 12 is all about revving up the creative power that drives your music-making experience. For version 12, Reason Studios expanded Reason with hot new features that include scalable, high-resolution graphics, the brand-new Mimic Creative Sampler, a completely revamped Combinator, a vastly improved Browser, and more. Reason is both a powerful DAW and a plug-in, so you can deploy all your favorite Reason Rack instruments, effects, and devices in any DAW. Reason 12 includes both the plug-in version of the Reason Rack and the standalone Reason music production software with all the features you know and love. Long-time Reason aficionados know what we’re talking about; but, for those new to the ebullient experience of creating music with Reason: you’re in for a treat. Get ready to turbocharge your music production with Reason 12!
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What’s new in Reason 12
Sweetwater knows that nailing the right sound quickly is vital to your creative process. At the heart of Reason is a virtual studio rack where you craft the sounds your music needs, starting from scratch or from Reason’s massive, multi-gigabyte sound library. From synthetic and electronic to acoustic and organic, Reason has you covered; while its integrated, interactive browser helps you quickly find and audition the perfect sounds for any genre. Synthesizers, instruments, effects — as many as you need. Brimming with more than 29,000 meticulously sculpted synths, samples, drum kits, loops, and effects, Reason’s onboard sound bank is renowned for putting everything you need to craft your music right at your fingertips. Now, Reason 12 ups the ante with a bevy of new features to incite inspiration and ignite your creativity.
Reason is now high-resolution
Reason’s new high-res look is obvious right after you launch it. For longtime Reason users, it’s quite dramatic — to the extent that all your favorite instruments, effects, utilities, and third-party Rack Extensions will look as if you’re seeing them for the very first time. Whether you work on a laptop or with multiple large monitors, being able to freely arrange your screen workspace is key to optimizing your workflow. Reason 12 scales automatically according to your monitor’s resolution and pixel density, but you can also zoom and resize the Reason window to suit your requirements for each and every project.
Improved browser
Reason’s browser has been updated over the years, making it easier to find the sounds you’re looking for. Now, for Reason 12, the browser is fully interactive and provides instant search results as you type. Search results are categorized, indicating devices, presets, samples, folders, and more. And now you can search the current folder you’re in or all locations at once. Simply arrow down the list to audition sounds. With Reason 12, finding sounds is a seamless operation that doesn’t interrupt your creative flow.
Mimic Creative Sampler
Combining the most advanced audio technologies from Reason Studios’ legacy of cutting-edge DSP and sample slicing, Mimic Creative Sampler reimagines audio samples in a novel, highly musical fashion. Equipped with automatic transient slice detection that effortlessly chops up samples into discrete notes or drumbeats, Mimic leverages Reason’s acclaimed pitch and stretch algorithms for effortless, high-fidelity pitch shifting and time stretching of samples; it also offers exciting new granular synthesis and tape mode options. Armed with filters and effects geared specifically for adding color, character, and grit to your samples, Mimic is a new premium instrument that joins Reason’s other highly capable samplers in the Rack to expand your production power in new and exciting ways.
A brand-new Combinator
Hardcore Reason fans simply couldn’t live without the Combinator, a mainstay of the Reason Rack for many years. To call it a “utility device” would be an injustice: it’s an indispensable creative tool that allows for powerful sound design by letting you easily combine instruments, effects, and modular devices any way you see fit. Now, by popular demand, it’s been totally supercharged for Reason 12 with a host of new user-requested features that includes additional CV inputs, an enhanced control set, streamlined programming with customized macro controls, and an arsenal of expertly sound-designed patches that take full advantage of the Combinator’s upgraded capabilities. The new Combinator also features a new editor that lets you create front-panel designs with your own personalized layout of faders, knobs, buttons, and graphics. And for the first time, you can nest other Combinators inside a Combinator, which opens up delightful new worlds of sonic mayhem. This advanced, unique, powerful, and inspiring device is yet one more reason to love Reason!
Reason is a plug-in
Nothing captures the playful spirit of music making and sound sculpting more than the Reason Rack. And you can use it as a plug-in with your favorite DAW or produce music directly in Reason standalone. With the Reason Rack Plug-in, you can make music with all of Reason’s cherished instruments, effects, and sounds in whatever DAW you choose. Used like this, Reason is a gargantuan expansion to your studio setup with its synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, MIDI effects, sampled instruments, and creative effects. With the Reason Rack Plug-in, you deploy the instruments and effects just like you do in Reason. You can combine or stack them and add Reason’s Player MIDI FX devices. Want more options? You can also expand the Reason Rack Plug-in with exclusive Rack Extension plug-ins to create the ultimate studio rack of your dreams!
Reason is a DAW
When used standalone, Reason is a powerful virtual studio for fast and creative music production. Reason’s open architecture and anything-goes cabling philosophy have won over legions of fiercely loyal devotees worldwide. Unique among DAWs, Reason’s logical workflow and gorgeous, highly responsive graphical interface emulate a real recording studio (complete with racks full of insanely great gear). It’s intuitive whether you’re an experienced engineer or just getting into music production. With easy, comprehensive sequencing and effortless audio recording on unlimited tracks, you can create beats; build your Reason Rack with VST plug-ins, Rack Extensions, and amazing built-in instruments, FX, and utilities; and mix down on Reason’s legendary modeled large-format console.
Push the envelope
With Reason, you’re free to push the musical envelope, unencumbered by the constraints of conventional production methodologies. For instance, Reason has a unique way of handling tempo, key, and pitch. Record first and find the right tempo later with Reason’s always-on, real-time, project-wide time stretch. Want to audition how your song sounds in a different a key? Keep the tempo and transpose the audio. Tweak your vocal performances to perfection with Pitch Edit. With Reason, it’s easy to rework, re-sample, or reshape your recordings into something completely new.
Drag and drop, or patch from scratch
In Reason, you don’t have to patch anything if you don’t want to. Simply drag and drop instruments onto tracks, and effects devices onto instruments, and Reason automatically makes the connections — just like any other DAW. But when you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and throw some patches, hit the Tab key to flip Reason’s rack around, and you’re in modular heaven with unlimited sonic possibilities at your disposal. Exhaustive patch points on the back of every instrument and effect rack unit give you cart blanche to explore the world of open-ended signal routing, where you create your own signal path by cabling devices together using audio jacks and modular control-voltage cables to modulate signals from device to device. What you can create is only limited by your imagination!
Reason: there’s nothing else like it
Experiment and have fun as you patch audio and control voltages freely between devices in the rack to build truly monstrous sounds. Use samples in Europa’s Spectral Filter to generate sample-based filter curves — or draw your own. Process a guitar through Thor’s LFOs, envelopes, and step sequencer. Drop a sample into Grain and marvel at the endless sonic mutations you can create with its available playback algorithms, modulation, routing, and effects. Patch a vocal through Radical Piano’s audio input to enhance it with shimmering grand piano string and body resonance. Try that with any other DAW! You get the idea. Simply put, there is no other DAW like Reason.
Instruments included with Reason 12:
- NEW Mimic Creative Sampler
- Europa Shapeshifting Synthesizer
- Grain Sample Manipulator
- Klang Tuned Percussion Instrument
- Pangea World Instruments
- Humana Vocal Ensemble Instrument
- Radical Piano — advanced acoustic piano
- Monotone Bass Synthesizer
- Rytmik Drum Machine
- Kong Drum Designer
- Thor Polysonic Synthesizer
- NN19 sampler
- NN-XT advanced sampler
- Malström graintable synthesizer
- Dr. Octo Rex loop player
- Redrum pattern-based drum machine
- Subtractor analog subtractive synthesizer
- ID-8 songwriter’s toolbox
Included effects:
- Quartet Chorus Ensemble
- Sweeper Modulation Effect
- Master Bus Compressor
- Channel Dynamics
- Channel EQ
- RV7000 MkII advanced convolution reverb
- The Echo high-quality delay & tape echo
- Softube Guitar amplifier with amp and cabinet modeling
- Softube Bass amplifier with amp and cabinet modeling
- Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit
- Alligator triple channel pattern-based gate
- Pulveriser distortion, compressor and envelope follower module
- Synchronous Effects Modulator
- Neptune pitch corrector and voice synthesizer
- Audiomatic Retro Transformer
- MClass 4-band mastering EQ
- MClass Dual-band stereo imager
- MClass Stereo compressor with sidechain input, soft-knee mode and CV out
- MClass Maximizer with look-ahead and soft clip
- RV-7 digital reverb
- DDL-1 digital delay line
- D-11 foldback distortion
- ECF-42 envelope-controlled filter
- DF-101 chorus/flanger
- PH-90 phaser
- COMP-01 compressor
- PEQ2 2-band EQ
- BV512 vocoder with 4 to 512 bands and equalization
- UN16 unison
Player MIDI effects and utility devices:
- NEW Combinator (updated for customizable front panel designs)
- Scales & Chords
- Dual Arpeggio
- Note Echo
- RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator
- ReGroove Mixer real-time groove console
- Matrix pattern-based sequencer
- Pulsar Dual LFO
- 14:2 mixer w/ EQ and effects send/return
- 6:2 channel stereo line mixer
- Spider Audio Merger & Splitter
- Spider Control Voltage Merger & Splitter
- MIDI Out device
Reason Studios Reason 12 DAW Software and Rack Plug-in Features:
- Massive factory sound bank with more than 29,000 device patches, loops, and samples
- NEW High-resolution graphics with zoomable, resizable window
- NEW Improved Browser (updated for instant search results as you type)
- VST plug-in support: add any instrument or effect plug-in to Reason’s rack
- Delay compensation makes all signal paths play in perfect, phase-locked sync
- Opens songs and synth patches made in Reason Compact — the free pocket music studio for iOS
- Rack Extensions lets you expand your collection of instruments and effects from Reason Studios and 3rd-party developers
- Support for Ableton Link: effortlessly sync Reason and other link enabled apps over Wi-Fi
- Unlimited audio recording and instrument channels
- Fully featured high-precision multitrack sequencer with Blocks mode and audio comping tools
- High-quality real-time time stretch & audio transpose
- Pitch Edit mode for polishing your vocal recordings
- Audio slicing and audio quantize — correct the timing of your audio recordings
- Convert recorded or imported audio in the sequencer into REX loops for further sound manipulation
- MIDI instrument output — control synths, samplers, and keyboards from Reason’s sequencer
- MIDI clock output — sync hardware to Reason
- Advanced exporting — export your separate mixer channels as individual audio stems, including effects and tempo track
- Live sampling on all Sampler devices
- Remote mapping to external MIDI controllers and hardware control surfaces
- Supports all major file formats — from wave and AIFF to MP3 and more
- Real-time sample rate and bit depth conversion allows for importing any audio into Reason without issues
- Multicore support and 64-bit compatibility makes Reason fast and powerful on any computer
- Self-contained song files make moving projects between computers and collaborators as easy as moving a single file
- Advanced modeled mixing console with complete channel strip for every instrument and audio channel
