New rack devices became available from Korg, Izotope, Softube, Rob Papen, FXpansion and countless smaller developers.
A new Rack Extension format - Propellerhead's take on the concept of plug-ins - opened up the virtual rack to third-party developers, and suddenly gave us a whole new way for us to spend our hard-earned cash. Version 6.5, arriving in 2012, was even more momentous. Amongst the Propellerhead faithful, version 6 marks the beginning of the modern age, with all subsequent updates and releases building on its fundamental design. The next version, Reason 6, was, in essence, the Reason/Record combo without the double-application confusion, and spelt the end of Record as a separate product. Reason and Record could be run separately or together. In 2009, version 5 was joined by a sister application, Record, which added audio tracks and introduced a modular mixer that grew as your arrangement did. Versions 1 to 5 of Reason all had a similar fundamental design, built around a virtual rack that houses soft synths, samplers and effects, plus a fairly straightforward sequencer. Meanwhile, existing users could find themselves revelling in previously undreamt-of freedoms. The traditional DAW crowd might be forced to rethink its Reason prejudices. With version 7, though, some of the walls around Reason's self-contained world are beginning to crumble. Propellerhead must know what they're doing, though, because the studio snobs have always been heavily outweighed by legions of bedroom-based producers who have fallen in love with Reason, enticed by its phenomenal bang-for-buck, and positively embracing its pop-production focus and simplicity.
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For nearly 13 years, it has resisted any kind of plug-in support, has steadfastly refused to drive any MIDI device other than its own synthesizers and samplers, and, until very recently, offered no way of adding to its complement of bundled virtual devices.Īs a result, many 'traditional' DAW users have branded Reason an inflexible toy of the recording software world. Propellerhead have never been afraid to plough their own Scandinavian-style furrow, and Reason, their main Mac/PC DAW application, has always been an unashamedly independent and quite insular affair.
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The three main components of Reason's interface: the virtual rack, stuffed full of bundled devices (left), and the sequencer and mixer, shown tiled in a single window (above).
Reason has evolved in splendid isolation from other production tools, but version 7 sees Propellerhead build bridges to the outside world.