Is reason worth the money?

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farleydanucci
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Is reason worth the money?

Post by farleydanucci » Tue Dec 07, 2004 10:11 pm

Can anyone tell me whether reason 2.5 is worth the money? I like to make all kinds of music and I like to use computer programs so I am looking for a new toy that does lotsa cool stuff. Is there a better program out there for the same price?

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Mr. Dipity
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by Mr. Dipity » Wed Dec 08, 2004 12:34 am

farleydanucci wrote:Can anyone tell me whether reason 2.5 is worth the money? I like to make all kinds of music and I like to use computer programs so I am looking for a new toy that does lotsa cool stuff. Is there a better program out there for the same price?
Depends.

I would recomend traktion (free) and all the free vst plugins around as a better place to start. You won't be locked in, you'll can pick and choose your from among the vsts, so you can create your own sound, and you can record live instruments too.

Some of those vst plugs are better than others, of course.

Architect
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by Architect » Wed Dec 08, 2004 9:09 am

Reason 3 is about to come out if anything I would look at all the new features for that version instead of 2.5. Actually I'm not really a Reason user so I can't tell you all the benefits although I'm familiar with some of the things that turn me off from using it. I would recommend FL Studio 5, with that you can do a lot of fun and serious work depending on what your goals are. You can use all the free and paid VST's you want, you can rewire (So can Reason) your really only limited by your creativity (the same as any other audio program).

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DJDM
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by DJDM » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:00 am

Well whatever you decide if you plan to get Reason you should do so when 2.5 goes on sale to make room for the incoming 3.0 boxes. There is usually a big price break on the leftover copies of the previous versions. Even with the upgrade cost you may well spend less than on a new copy of 3.0. It's worth looking into.
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high tek
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by high tek » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:29 am

reason is a great tool for composing fast, but you are limited to its own environment...ofcourse you can rewire into cubase but im guessing you dont have cubase.

maybe check out cubase sl .

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bokononlives
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by bokononlives » Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:00 am

Reason is a cool program and you should be able to pick up a used copy of 2.5 for pretty cheap. Especially since 2.5 retail price will be going down due to 3.0 arrival. But....If you plan on recording yourself or others playing instruments or want to sample records or whatever then I would suggest buying something like Traktion, Cubase, or the Protools Mbox just because Reason does not record audio.
It's a great app. (very easy on the cpu) but is much better when rewired to a host program like the ones mentioned above.
But it's all about how you like to work and make music. Like I said, if your a musician looking to record yourself playing instruments or like to sample records, ambient sounds, etc. I would not recommend buying reason.

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kcrusher
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by kcrusher » Wed Dec 08, 2004 12:32 pm

why not just download the demo and check it out?
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JohnDavisNYC
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by JohnDavisNYC » Wed Dec 08, 2004 12:38 pm

reason is a toy, but it's a cool toy. it doesn't sound all that convincing in terms of synth sounds (except for Malstrom, which is wierd and cool), but the samplers are kinda cool, and with a certain aesthetic, it can be awesome, it just definately takes alot of work. there's some really wierd high frequency garbage going on with that prog sometimes. you don't really hear it until you've got tracks blasting out of a perfectly tuned PA SUPER LOUD, but it definately is slightly questionable in the audio integrity department. if you want a scratch pad that will let you come up with cool ideas, some kinda cool sounds (and some that suck) that maybe you can reuse later in the context of a 'real' daw, it's awesome. as your only program for everything? it is a bit limited in scope.

hope that helps.

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john
i like to make music with music and stuff and things.

http://www.thebunkerstudio.com/

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tylernolan
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by tylernolan » Sun Dec 12, 2004 5:47 pm

I would also check out Reaktor. nativeinstruments.com

aishabag23
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by aishabag23 » Wed Dec 15, 2004 1:20 pm

.... yes, absolutely!

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Milkmansound
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by Milkmansound » Wed Dec 15, 2004 6:44 pm

Ableton Live 4. Arguably the best thing on Earth at the moment. Reason is a toy - and only sounds passable if you rewire it into another program. For the same money you can get Live 4 - be able to use VST's, multitrack, remix, send midi out of the box to your hardware synths, use their great audio and midi effects, sequence the bejeezus out of anything intuitively, and the list goes on. Download a free demo and you'll see why I am in love with it.
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CKD
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by CKD » Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:56 pm

REason is very good and a lot of fun but I'm not sure it really is worth the money, since you need another DAW to make the most use of it, and most DAWs have plugins and such that do a lot of what Reason does if not quite as elegantly. But if money isn't so important, and you have time to learn it, Reason is excellent.

If you plan on using odd time signatures, though, keep a calculator handy and prepare to not have much fun at all.

toastchee
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by toastchee » Fri Dec 31, 2004 2:11 pm

Can't recall if anyone mentioned FruityLoops. I just got 5, producer edition. It is smokin'. For $150 you get a kick butt program that also supports buzz machines, which for me, takes care of some really cool sounds that I was leaning towards Reason for. Highly recommended.

drliebs
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by drliebs » Tue Jan 04, 2005 11:06 am

I am not into synths and electronic music, but I have used reason quite a lot with the reason samplers. I think they are pretty good and the sample library on it's own is pretty nice. I also use it in rewire with Cubase SX. I can't compare it to anything else but I have heard from quite a few engineers and a lot of students who love it.

On it's own it is not complete enough for the reasons mentioned above. With rewire it is very flexible and the samplers are nice and the sample library is not too bad. I use my own drum samples and have created some very convincing sounding kits.

How do these other programs mentioned above compare as far as latency and the number of samples and virtual instruments that can be run? I think with a few large sample librarys running and 16 tracks of audio, a few plugins and automation is about all my system can handle pefore it starts to sound like rice crispies. (P4 2.8, 512 RAM 7200 RPM IDE drives)
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tommymakestapes
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Re: Is reason worth the money?

Post by tommymakestapes » Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:05 pm

A lot of people see reason as a toy but those people would probably see ableton, fruity loops and all the others of that sort a toy. I believe that it is legit software, however you only get out of it what you put into it. It's kind of it's own world as far as the effects and synths go (the effects are getting better in reason 3). I use the samplers quite a bit and the rx2 format is great for editing loops (but here again you have to buy recycle to actually slice up your own audio or audio sample cds).The soundbanks that it comes will make your music sound like it was made in reason. 80% of the songs I hear that were done in reason sound like they were done in reason. That being said, you can make reason sound like whatever you want it to, but if your really looking to work with loops and sampled grooves etc... your going to be looking into buying more then just reason witch is its huge downfall. I'm not saying that reason is an overly expensive investment but if you really want to use it to its fullest it can be (reason plus recycle plus DAW host... it gets costly in the end) and there are alot of programmes out there that will be a complete solution.

Alot of what you pay for in reason is the envoirnment that it supplys you with and alot of people (myself included) find that it works the way they think..

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