Reason Intro

[WarpCanada]

So recently Reason (formerly from Propellerhead Software, now from Reason Studios) is both a DAW and a plugin for other DAWs.

I decided to grab it because it was cheap ($88 canadian) on black friday / cyber monday sale. It has some fun synths inside which I wanted to use in Cubase.

But playing around with it as a standalone DAW, it's pretty interesting.

One nice feature is the idea of Blocks, which is similar to what can be done in Cubase with the Arranger view, but it's super simple and easy.

Imagine I'm making a song, and I want an intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, solo, outro structure.  With blocks in Reason, or with the arranger view in Cubase, you can define and then repeat sections easily.  The difference is that the Arranger view is in the $500 and up versions of Cubase, and in Reason Intro which is $88 canadian, probably around $65 US, it also has this feature.  There are vocal pitch correction features as well, and some pretty nice vocal timing correction features, a LOT of functionality for under $100 US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf-dohMvLWg&feature=emb_title

[Kody]

I thought about going for this also. Didn't pull the trigger since I spent enough $$ on other deals (Virtual GAS was in full effect lol). The fact that it can be used as a plugin in Studio One (or any other DAW) is super appealing to me. Would love to hear your review once you've had it for awhile. Does it come with quite a few VSTi's?

[WarpCanada]

I've used it on a few tracks now.  The main reason to buy Reason INtro is to get the two best synths inside it, Thor and Europa.  They are worth the price of intro to Reason ($99 US) all by themselves.

There's some nice effects including a "VHS Vintage" 80s effect and about a dozen other standard effects (chorus, filter, flange, delay) and some really nice drum machines, that feel like working with discrete rack gear. 

Thor and Europa can even be used in tandem where one generates sound and the other becomes an effect on the other, so you could think of Reason's internal system as being a kind of "virtual modular" environment, but instead of each module doing 1/10th of the job of one modular synthesis module, each rack item is like a rack mount synth or rack mount effects processor, which can be chained up to each other.

As a standalone daw, Reason has that "all in one place" vibe that Ableton Lite and FL Studio also have.  It also is far less capable as a DAW than  Cubase, or Logic, or Cakewalk.   It is really fun and worth $99.

I am disappointed that Reason Studios has come out with a monthly $20 rental fee for EVERYTHING, including all Reason high end features that are not part of the Intro edition, because that monthly fee doesn't ever translate into a purchase credit.  That's new as of a few weeks ago.  Reason+.   If Reason+ changes to give you a rent to own credit some day, then great, but until then I can't recommend Reason+.

But Reason Intro at $99 remains a great deal.

[WarpCanada]

Alas, REason Studios killed the Reason Intro product, and now the only way to try Reason inexpensively is to pay $30 a month for their new subscription service.  Meh.

[StephenM]

the block idea is similar to what the Digitech Trio plus allows me to do...with that you can easily create up to 5 song parts and put them in any order or repeat etc...the difference here would be that the Trio is more for live and does not do stereo...It's essentially a box that provides bass and drums for your guitar chord progressions and has fantastic looping capabilities as well..and it's super easy to used compared to other loopers I tried.

your software sounds interesting enough...

[Bishmanrock]

I hadn't realised they'd canned Reason Intro. What an absolute shame. I cut my teeth on Reason 4 and absolutely loved it, when it went to plugin I was really interested, but looking at the website now I think I'll give it a pass.