Yea, I think I'm on Komplete 12 Collectors Edition + Maschine. I haven't felt the need to upgrade Komplete yet but I agree that Komplete and Reason is a powerful combination!

Yup, that was pretty much how I felt a few years ago. You have a particular DAW in mind?

@@matthewstuartnz yeah I have. I tried FL and Ableton and my choice would be Ableton as I really like the most of It's basic features. The workflow is brilliant. If I switch the daw then I wanna definitely keep using the reason as a plugin.

You get any kind of meaningful response?

Why don't you think it makes sense? I agree regarding improving Reason. I just don't think they are going to do it.

@matthewstuartnz why would you give away something of value for free? How would you monetize your offering if you have it away for free? How would you pay your employees and keep the company in business?I understand that a company can give trial periods, or a free option with certain functions or limitations.but It still doesn't make sense to me.Especially when you already have a base of full price paying clients. Companies give away their software for two reasons.. they fell off and they know that they have a small user base and they need to breathe new life into the program to save it, or it is a company that has built a new product and want to get you hooked on it, the same way that did dealers give away small samples of drugs to get you hooked. Lol.The only company that has been doing that recently are 1.UAD with their Luna recording platform... and 2. Cakewalk by Bandlab. Cakewalk by bandlab has a completely free option, but that was intended to be free for a period of time to attract attention, get new users, and then ultimately get them to buy the paid version. I believe that Luna by UAD will eventually be a full price daw. It might take awhile. There is lots of competition in this area. It might eventually get as competitive as the Plugin market. Reason itself is a good platform. I enjoy it for what it is, which is a pre-production platform.it is powerful. It comes with a lot of sounds. But for the $500 Standalone price are there other options that are as powerful and maybe more capable daws? Maybe. Depending on each parsons skill level, knowledge, budget and goals. What is the value proposition?I think Cubase is $500-600 and comes with stock synths and samplers like logic. $600 can get you an mbox and pro tools. $600 can get you Ableton. $600 can get you FL Studio all Plugin edition. $500 can get you FL Studio producer edition with lifetime free updates, and Trillian from Spectrasonics...or any other $300 vst synth on the internet. Cakewalk by bandlab is free, audiobox usb96 is $100 from presonus,a decent midi keyboard is $100 for 37 keys or $200 for 49 keys... an entry level mic is $100...Sylenth1 is $150? I'm taking about different levels of value. Reason should not be free. I'm just saying that I paid the $500 price for it last year in August, so I don't qualify for the free upgrade to 13. And I don't see the upgrade being worth $200. And... if I wasn't as loyal to using Reason out of habit and comfort, I could have made a different decision last year when I made this purchase. Why? There are other DAWs that are showing more creativity and functionality right now. Look at Bitwig.Look at Reaper.Look at Ableton. Look at Cubase/Nuendo.Look at Tracktion.it can load video into the timeline just like every other program loads audio...powerful! Reason if a great program that I'm grateful for. But it is also may years behind in lots of ways. And they think that every year they can sell an update price, and all they have to do is create a new mini vst instrument inside of it and maybe another eq Plugin or so, and that will justify the new price. I say okay, please upgrade these functions... please give us ghost notes, please give us a bigger midi/piano roll view to make editing easier, and please give us multi timbral outs. So far we have gotten 2 out of 3 of those requests. But we still don't have an import video function. Fl Studio does, which most people don't know about. And Cakewalk has been able to import video for 20 years. People don't appreciate that program and take it for granted all the time. But Cakewalk and PropellerHead Reason were a powerful 1-2 combination back when Reason worked by Rewire. You could make a whole beat arrangement in Reason, load it into cakewalk, and use Rewire to record the individual tracks into cakewalk for mixing... then record vocals... then mix and master your project. Then came Reason Record... so Reason wanted you to record vocals in Reason... then more mixing functions... then they canceled Rewire. But can Reason compete on the same level as Logic or Pro Tools on a professional level with better functionality and more features? Ask professional level mixing and mastering engineers. Having a free option takes away from where I want to see Reason Studios go. I say, if you are charging such a high price for the product... from a common sense level, not a ego or pride of ownership level,... give the people the same level of functions and features that the other programs at that same price get. I think that's very reasonable. The problem with that is this... every maker is in their own bubble and focused on themselves daily... which they should be. The problem is, they are not liking over the shoulder of the company sitting at the other table, like students in school, and seeing what answers they are writing on the test... lol. They are asked by the teacher... how will you make your program better than every body else's program here in class? What about you Billy? Billy says he'll add video import so a film composer can write scores to video scenes that the Hollywood film company send him. He thinks that will be good and he'll get business from users of Nuendo and Motu. The teacher says.. that's brilliant Billy. Good job. The teacher asks Kelly the same question. What will you add to your program to make it better than everyone else's Kelly? Kelly says... I'll make it possible to do anything in mine. You can route anything to anything, and modulate it with anything, to make it sound like anything. Glorious or chaotic. Audio madness. I'll call it bitwig and it'll split your audio wig...lol.The teacher says, that's amazing Kelly. It sounded wack at first until I thought about what you said and saw what it could do. Good job. Then the teacher asks Reece...aka Reason, what he will do to make it better than everyone else. Reece says, I have a solid program. It's light on cpu resources. It sounds bright, and outdoor call the sound thin, but it's cool to me. I have several instruments in it, but I can add one more. This one you can blend or morph 2 sounds together. Native instruments did it twice already, but so what. I can do it differently in my program. And I can add 2 eq effect plugins, a killer reverb that is really cool, and a sidechain tool that can do some really cool stuff like glitching, etc. Is that ground breaking?no,but it inches the functions along and does qualify as improvements to what I already have. The teacher says, well you have put in a lot of work in my class. You didn't fall behind like Perry did with his Pro Tools program and take 10 years to catch up to everyone else. So I'll give you a pass. But I'm gonna need to see a little more creativity and ingenuity from you from now on if you want to pass the class... I made up that little story right there to put it in perspective. And I had a lot of time right now to write up a really long answer to a really short question... 😆 🤣 😂. I'm just a regular guy that had used the program a really long time ago, and recently rated a lot of money on music programs to rekindle a lost love with music... that wishes I would have done more research before I did. Instead I bought everything that i thought I wanted a long time ago. It doesn't bring you happiness. You do. Keep your money. Lol 😆 Have a good day.

Haha wow thanks for taking the time to write an essay. I hear what you're saying and I think it's a good argument. Unfortunately, I don't think Reece is going to do what he needs to do to pass the class next time 😂 That's why I suggested a free model with a focus on selling the rack. I hope I'm wrong though. I would love to see Reason Studios take QoL seriously and start making Reason a competitive DAW again.

@matthewstuartnz i hope they chose to improve it further. Have a good day.

I see what you're saying and that might apply to the specific differences in the 12.1 update. But honestly, the features and tools that Ableton has that Reason doesn't are things that I use all the time and have a major effect on what I can create.

Yea.. they could just do what FL did and change their naming convention 😂

Well the update is free haha

Yea, I guess they all have the things that would be nice to that finally get added. But the key thing is actually finally adding them 😂

Yea that's frustrating.. I had this happen to me last week with a track I opened in Ableton's beta.. I was sure I hadn't saved the session in beta! Thankfully Ableton has backups I could revert to in the old version.. I'm not sure Reason has backups..

Yup. I think I was doing this in this video? Back in the day I used to have the windows set to different gesture commands on mouse. Made switching between them super easy.

I second that big time

That's awesome! Freedom in regards to what exactly? Cause I felt the same way with switching to Ableton from Reason 😂 I'm always curious how different people value different aspects of the software.

Do you actually? How do you do that? Like just with a prompt?

What's it called?

Nah,it's not. Subscripction is never good

It's a good deal until the next year ticks over.. It's like Waves selling there plugins super cheap all the time. It's a great deal until you want to update your version.. then it becomes expensive.

Even more insane when you add the years they worked on 12.

This is a great way of putting it.

One of the things I think I said about 12 is that you don't get congratulations for doing the bare minimum that was expected from you in the first place. I think this kind of applies to 13 as well.

@@matthewstuartnz Yeah sadly. I WANT to love Reason so bad, and DO for what it does, but without VALUE in the upgrades, just can't pull the trigger. It's a competitive marketplace. Always VSTs on sale (Black Friday, Prime Day, etc. etc. etc.), new products out, etc. So pulling the trigger on $199 just for some features I'd get little practical value from is down the LIST from all the other goodies drawing my attention. Right now, looking at Ujam's Vogue and Vibe, which, at HALF the price of the upgrade for the two of them together, would give me WAY MORE FUN and musical opportunities to say nothing of the $100 left over for other toys. These days you can't just fix some stuff that should have been done prior (e.g. 4K resolution -- the monitors were mainstream in 2016, so, yeah, support for them 5 years later is not an "upgrade" it's an embarrassing CATCH UP), and do some basic incremental advances, a couple minor plugins (didn't even toss in Objekt which might have got me there) and command the kind of money they want. These days you need something ATTENTION GETTING in your upgrade. Objekt COULD have been that, but Polytone and the other effects don't quite cut it, at least for me.

Yea I think you're right on all counts. I like Polytone and I think Ripley is pretty innovative. But Objekt would have been a good thing to add to the official release. It's probably the most innovative thing they have done in a while.

Haha yea I don't blame you. What other DAWs do you use?

Yea I wonder how many more people would sub at $10 month?

Haha fair enough

Yea.. It sucks cause they have such a rich history and I feel like they are wasting it

@@matthewstuartnz I know man. Its so sad. Changed the name to reason studios. So lame. Changed the logo to a cube. Also so lame. And what the hell is up with the website. I'm about to pass out trying to navigate it. I loved Reason when it was lean and mean. It really forced creativity. Now it's bloated. Well everything in the music software world is bloated now I guess!

Bloated yet somehow still missing so much 🤦🏼‍♂️ I remember thinking that 'Reason Studios' was a name change that made sense (although I thought Propellerhead was better) given the exciting possibilities of the Reason Rack Plugin when they released that. But unfortunately, I really don't think they have lived up to the potential that we all hoped for.

Thanks for the great comment! Yea, I think Reason will always in in terms of overall fun vibes.

"the limiting factor is ME".. I think that's a good way to put it. I think I feel the same way. The whole reason I switched to Live was cause there were specific things I felt were limiting me in Reason. I haven't found that yet in Live.

Innovation is basically illegal when your company has been besieged by a venture capital firm, which Reason Studios has. Only thing on the agenda is to maximize profits from existing assets with as little investment as possible. It's happening to NI as well.

Who took over NI?

Yea I don't feel like the new CEO has done anything that's impressed me.

@@glutenenjoyer__ Why do Studio One (PreSonus), owned by Fender, and Steinberg (owned by Yamaha) continue to innovate then?

@@matthewstuartnz They have joined with Brainworx and Plugin Alliance

I haven't ever looked at those 🤯

Yup.. I remember when I first tried a DAW with note chase haha. I was like oh this is how MIDI is supposed to work 😂

Haha that would be fantastic 😂

Feels that way

Poor Ryan

What do you think would be fair to pay per month for just the plugin?

@@matthewstuartnz $0.00 I’d rather buy my plug-ins outright instead of paying for them for 10, 15 or 20+ years no matter how cheap it is. … it sucks to pay for something, and if you decide to stop paying for it, you end up with nothing, not even an older version. You know what Imean?

Yea.. especially since Reason also hasn't updated any of the old rack units forever!

What's the reason?

@@matthewstuartnz just being punny.

😂

Yea there's a lot of little things like that.

Yea everything you've said spot on. It's all good to talk about feature sets but at the end of the day that isn't what's stopping people from making music.

That sounds very cool! How do you do that? I had recycle but didn't use it a ton.

I like Mattias.. but I also have no idea what he does so can't really comment haha

@@matthewstuartnz u should watch one of the latest video how they made reason 13.

I watched that.. and still have no idea about what they really do 😅

Haha I can't tell if this is a serious comment or if you're making a joke.. but no, Reason is pretty expensive as far as DAWs go.

@@matthewstuartnz I was just joking around 🤣

Haha I thought so.. but you can never tell with comments

I think they should just improve the standalone version too.. But I don't think they will so I suggested what I think would be a good compromise (and remove the pressure to add all the workflow features in standalone). Basically, I don't think they will ever improve standalone enough (although that would be the best result I think) and so I think they should change direction with the product.

What are you missing from 12? Honestly, I think if you're just finding your feet with the workflow, 13 is ultimately better. I'd take the time to get used to the differences.

@@matthewstuartnz Yeah you make a good point. Think I just preferred all the devices ready left of the screen to access my choices.

Yea I get that. I like the new layout on 13 but I also wasn't using 12 regularly. I'm sure you'll get used to it though. Ableton changed their layout (and keyboard commands) a bit in their latest update and that messed with my head for a few weeks. I'm used it it now though haha

Haha yea, you'll find you keep stumbling on features like that in Ableton that you realise just make so much sense. Another one that I really love (if you haven't discovered it yet) is if you hold down Cmd you can click and drag up or down on a MIDI note and it will change velocity. Makes making expressive edits super quick and easy in the piano roll.

@@matthewstuartnzooop that one is new to me! Thanks for the tip! I've just been using the velocity controls on the bottom :D

Oh yea, it's a great one. Another thing I do in my default session is set the 'D' (caps lock matters) key to be the stop button. That way you can always push it twice to get back to the start of the track. Otherwise there isn't a keyboard shortcut for that unfortunately. If I think of any other useful tricks, I'll let you know.

Really? I'm going to check that out.

@@matthewstuartnz Yeah. It looks like a copy of Ableton. There is no limit in the number of tracks at all,for example. Then you can buy expansion packs.

@@matthewstuartnz This guy explains what's in waveform free. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nbhzmNdnudWnqWg.htmlsi=YYJqXIWpxWvuWnnx

I had a look yesterday. It looks awesome! I'm going to download it today and have a go

Haha I actually like the Ableton GUI (after you mess with the colour scheme a bit).

Gosh that's a throwback 😂

@@matthewstuartnz Thats some special hair right there.

I know.. What was i thinking 😅

@@matthewstuartnz I had long hair 8 years ago, eventually We grow out of the faze, having long hair is statement lol.

Haha that's true

Yea, I used to think their KZfaq tutorials were some of the best in the game. And I know what you mean about not addressing things. I've made the comparison that I think Reason is a bit like Apple in the sense that they can seem late to the game with implementing features that their competition has. The difference is, when Apple releases a feature, it's rock solid and awesome. Recently, It's felt a lot like when Reason releases a feature, it's half-baked and lazy. I thought their roadmap they released after 12 was a good step in the right direction. And, after some delays, they did end up doing what they said they would. But they haven't really kept up with the dialogue.