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Propellerheads Reason 3

Propellerheads Reason is an enormously successful software title for both Windows and Mac OS platforms that emulates a rack of electronic synthesizers, samplers, drum machines and mixing equipment. Reason has been awarded Editor’s Choice Awards from Electronic Musician, MacWorld, Remix, Computer Music magazines, cnet.com, the MIPA award for Best Software Instrument and the highly coveted TEC award.

Reason 3.0 - What’s New?
The Combinator: a new module which allows users to build elaborate chains of Reason devices-instruments, effects, pattern sequencer etc and save as a Combi patch. With it’s ability to load-up complex instruments routed through effect units and dynamic processors in one go, the Combinator is an extremely playable, extremely performance friendly device, perfect for both stage and studio use.
Remote: Instant out of the box integration with most major control surfaces including support for motorized faders and controller displays.
New soundbank: An expanded soundbank with increased focus on providing a wide palette of multi sampled instruments and huge sounding Combi patches.
New browser: Reason’s new browser will help you work faster and better in Reason. Free text search across your entire sound library, organize your sounds in favorite folders, audition play all samples and patches via MIDI.
MClass: A top-notch mastering suite comparable with any hard- or software units. The suite consists of a four band parametric + shelving EQ, a stereo processor, a fantastic sounding compressor and a maximizer with look ahead limiter.

About Reason
Making music should be as easy as powering up a computer, loading up a powerful piece of music software, and getting down to business. And it is. Reason 3.0 is a virtual studio rack with all the tools and instruments you need to turn your ideas into music. And it’s more than just a set of excellent synths and effects. It’s a complete music system. Step into the age of Reason.

Synthesizers, samplers, drum machine, REX file loop player, professional mastering tools, mixer, vocoder, world class effects, pattern sequencer and more. As many of each as your computer can handle. Reason is an infinitely expandable music workstation on a CD-ROM, complete with its own realtime sequencer.

As a Reason user, you can forget about the downsides of music production. Forget malfunctioning modules and confusing connections. Reason’s cables don’t tangle. Forget about tiny backlit displays and steep learning curves. Reason is so direct you’ll learn it in minutes. And forget the tedious process of gathering all the different disks and sound banks needed to load up a song. With Reason, picking up where you left off - be it last night or last month - is as simple as turning the power on. When you save your music, your whole studio setup is stored along with it. You can even include your samples, loops and drum kits in the Reason file, for easy web publishing or email collaboration with other Reason users. For once, total recall is truly total.

And so is the sound. The audio quality is everything you would expect from Propellerhead Software. But pristine sound quality is only half the story; the instruments and effects in Reason are loaded with character and attitude. Although easy to learn and a breeze to use, Reason is an extremely flexible system that’s as complex and advanced as you make it. And with sophisticated tools such as the MClass mastering suite, or the Combinator, which lets you build new instruments and effects by combining and layering Reason devices, Reason will not just impress, but inspire you.

Control your controls
Each unit in Reason’s virtual rack is edited from its own on-screen front panel. All the sliders, knobs, buttons and functions are right in front of you, ready to be tweaked, turned and twisted in absolute real-time. And all your front panel actions - filter adjustments, pitch bending, gain riding or panning - can be recorded and automated in the Reason sequencer.

Radical routing
A single keypress will turn Reason’s rack around, and there you are, in patch cord heaven. Most audio connections are made automatically. When a new device is created, it appears immediately below the currently selected device, and Reason patches it into the system in the most logical way. Repatch by dragging the patch cord plug to the desired connector, or just make a pop-up menu choice. Most devices have one or more parameters controlled by Gate and/or CV. And all instrument devices have several Gate or CV output options. Combine this with easy, transparent patching, and you have connection power approaching that of a fully modular synth.

Need more gear?
No problem. Choose a synth, a drum machine, a loop player or any device from the Create menu, and it will instantly appear in your rack, logically patched into the signal chain. And because Reason is designed to go easy on your computer, you can repeat the process until you’re more than happy. If you ever wished you had eleven samplers and ten compressors, Reason is definitely for you. And if you have created more machines than you have mixer channels, just create another mixer. The studio of your dreams is just a few mouse clicks away. All controls work as their real life counterparts. In Reason, you will never run out of rack space. A single keypress turns Reason around, giving you full patching and routing power.

Use Reason the way you want to:
- As a self-contained synth studio system. Everything you need is there, including a fast and flexible sequencer with powerful, dedicated event editors for each type of device.
- As a sub-system synchronized to your audio sequencer. Process Reason’s audio output with plug-in effects and mix it with your hard disk tracks. With Reason in ReWire mode, its instruments are automatically patched into the mixer in any other ReWire compatible application. Seamless integration.
- As a Workstation synth. Easily load up complex performance patches - instruments pre-routed through effects - in one single click. Perfect for live gigs and performances.

Close-up on Reason’s Instruments:

The Combinator:

It’s not an effect unit. It’s not a synth. It sure isn’t a sampler. It’s… all of it. And more. The all new Combinator is a sophisticated device that allows you to build elaborate chains of Reason units - instruments, effects, pattern sequencers, you name it - and save as Combi patches. When a Combi patch is opened, all units in the created setup are instantly loaded, complete with sounds, settings and routings. With its ability to load up complex instruments routed through effect units and dynamic processors in one go, the Combinator is an extremely playable, extremely performance-friendly device, perfect for both stage and studio use.

The Combinator’s skinnable front panel holds four rotary controls and four buttons that can all be assigned to any function on any device in your combinator chain. True to the Reason tradition, this machine is very tweakable: try using rotary 1 to control the cutoff frequency on eight separate samplers simultaneously, and rotary 2 for simultaneous tweaking of multiple knobs on your favorite synth. While you’re at it, use the assignable buttons for changing patterns in ReDrum or Matrix, or for muting mixer channels, or for switching effects on or off.

The MClass Mastering Suite:
Want big, tight, loud sounding tracks? Need extra stereo width, increased clarity, punchier bass? Say hello to MClass, the new mastering suite in Reason 3.0. MClass brings you four separate pro level mastering units designed to add power, presence and an overall professional feel to your Reason mixes. Load up the MClass tools as a complete mastering suite in the Combinator for finalizing whole mixes, or use the units separately. Apart from being logical and user-friendly, the MClass tools sound good. Audiophile good. These units can compete with the finest mastering tools out there, software or hardware.

The MClass Equalizer

The MClass Equalizer is a 4-band, professional level mastering EQ with low and high shelving bands, two peak filters and a low cut switch. The MClass Equalizer lets you make subtle or drastic frequency adjustments to your Reason mixes, and make them sound a touch more final: clean up that muddy bottom end, add shimmer to your cymbals, bring out the vocals. With its transparent sound and precise sound sculpting features, the MClass Equalizer is a tool you can trust.

The MClass Stereo Imager

No mastering suite is complete without a tool for controlling the stereo image. The MClass Stereo Imager splits the incoming audio into low and high frequency bands, and lets you adjust each independently. Increasing the width for the high band while making the low band slightly more mono gives you wide, open sounding mixes with a tight low end. The Stereo Imager is best suited for treating whole mixes, but feel free to use it on individual sounds and see where it takes you.

The MClass Compressor

All mixes will benefit from a touch of mastering compression and the MClass Compressor will do just the trick. Designed to add punch and definition to your Reason tracks, this single-band compressor sounds simply amazing. The MClass Compressor features a sidechain input for advanced compression tricks such as ducking or de-essing, a soft-knee mode for smooth, musical compression and CV out for dynamically controlling other Reason devices.

The MClass Maximizer

Every decibel counts! The MClass Maximizer is an advanced tool designed to maximize the volume of your Reason tracks, without crushing them or introducing other unwanted artifacts. The Maximizer features a Limiter section - with switchable look-ahead, for distortion- free brickwall limiting - and a Soft Clip section which gently rounds off the edges. Set your input gain and adjust the attack, release and clip amount settings for a loud, proud sound.

NN-XT Advanced Sampler:

The NN-XT is bursting with detailed programming options, but comes with an intuitive user interface, making it the perfect tool for both sound design and life-like instrument emulation. Just load up one of the included orchestral library patches, and you’ll know what we’re talking about.
The NN-XT is packed with useful features to help you build your own stunningly realistic instrument patches: alternate sample playback, auto-pitch detection, zones with individual parameters and much more. But don’t think for a minute that instrument emulation is all this thing is good for – the filters, the envelopes and the tempo syncable LFOs let you perform some crazy tricks on whatever material you put in there.
All in all, the NN-XT is probably one of the most flexible samplers around.

Malström Graintable Synthesizer
Malström is not your everyday synthesizer. It doesn’t act like one and it sure doesn’t sound like one. We bring you the missing link between rocket science and music technology.

Malström, now an integrated part of Reason, creates its otherworldly sounds using Graintable technology. Never heard of it? Neither had we, we had to invent it. This technology is a cross between granular synthesis and good old wavetable synthesis. And the result? You’ll just have to hear it to believe it. The Malström Graintable synthesizer features all imaginable filtering and modulation options, and a couple of unimaginable ones too; Try some real-time waveform stretching, some spectral modulation, or some awesome wavetable sweeping.

Malström comes with a wide range of meaty and exotic Graintables, letting you create anything from lush pads to scary squeals, from the pretty to the gritty. And that’s just the sounds coming from Malström itself; try using this monster’s audio inputs to filter other Reason devices, and let some of Malström’s magic rub off on your drums or sampled vocals. With a device like this, no one can accuse your sound of being ordinary.

SubTractor Polyphonic Synthesizer
Subtractor is an analog type polyphonic synthesizer based on subtractive synthesis, the method used in analog synthesizers. This close-up will show you the details of Reason and tell you about some of the goodies in it.

As you can see, the Subtractor has lots of knobs, buttons and sliders. Each of them are fully automated and any filter sweep or knob twisting will be recorded in the Reason sequencer just like you can record mixes in ReBirth. Unlike the ReBirth sequencer, you can edit every controller movement after you are done recording to get that final touch.

Subtractor also comes with two modes of remote control. First, there is the standard mapping where each control is assigned a MIDI controller on the MIDI channel that is assigned to the Subtractor module. Second, there is a quick mapping mode where you can assign a MIDI controller to a knob in the synth on any MIDI channel. This mode is very useful for jamming, since you can do this while Reason is playing. Just right-click (or ctrl-click if you’re on a mac) on the control of your choice and assign a MIDI controller via a learn function or by typing in the controller number.

Subtractor can play 32 voices simultaneously. Need more voices? Add another Subtractor! The instruments can play as many voices as your computer can handle. Lots of work on optimizing Reason’s performance will be done before it’s release. Still, initial tests have proven that Reason is a very efficient piece of software. An early model Macintosh G3/266 could play some 80 voices of simultaneous dual oscillator sounds. On a modern Mac or PC you can expect twice as many voices.

ReDrum Drum Machine
Redrum is the drum machine in the Reason rack. It has ten channels that can play one aiff or wav sample each. Whole drum kits can be saved as Redrum patches.

Redrum is a drum machine with a built in pattern sequencer. It has ten channels that plays samples loaded by the user or sounds from a preset drum kit. In addition to the pattern sequencer, Redrum can also be played from Reason’s main sequencer or via MIDI. By combining the pattern sequencer and the main sequencer you can easily create fills and variations to the patterns without having to create new patterns for every variation.
Redrum’s programming uses the same kind of step programming as in ReBirth’s drum machine. You select the channel to program and enter which steps you want it to play at. Each step can have one of three velocities: Hard, medium or soft. A separate flam option let’s you enter flam at any velocity.

Redrum uses patterns that can be between 1 and 64 steps long. The pattern sequencer can be set to run faster or slower than the main sequencer’s tempo - in fact it can run 16 times as fast or 1/16 of the original tempo. This means that you can change the resolution of the pattern. By making a pattern 32 steps long and setting the pattern sequencer to run at double tempo, you have created a pattern with 32nd notes. A nice features for those into fast snare rolls etc.

Dr.Rex Loop Player
The Dr-Rex Loop Player is a truly unique machine and will probably be one of the favorites in the Reason rack. It plays loops treated by Propellerhead Software’s ReCycle and it’s design enables some truly new and innovative ways to use ReCycled loops..

To fully understand Dr.Rex you need to understand what it means to ReCycle a drum loop. Imagine that you have a sample of a drum loop that you want to use in a track you are working on. The loop is 144 bpm and your track is 118 bpm. What do you do? You can of course pitch down the loop, but that will make the loop sound very different, and what if there are harmonies in the loop that you want to match to your song. You can also time stretch it. That will keep the pitch, but will make the loop sound different. Usually it means that you loose some ‘punch’ in the loop.

Enter ReCycle and the smart way to make loops tempo independent. Instead of stretching the sample, ReCycle slices the loop into little pieces so that each drum hit (or whatever sound you are working with) gets it’s own slice. ReCycle also creates a MIDI file with the slices played the way the loop was originally played. These slices can be exported to an external hardware sampler or saved as a REX file to be used in Cubase or… Reason!

The NN19 Sampler
Since the first digital samplers started to appear during the early 80’s, samplers have evolved from primarily being used to reproduce existing instruments to becoming instruments in their own rights. In fact, the sampler has been one of the main influences on modern music during the 90’s and producers have used them for such diverse tasks as spinning in vocals, create drum grooves, play music loops, emulate acoustic instruments, create unique sounds, remix and….. Well the list goes on and on.

In reality the NN19 is a sampler, capable of loading and playing any wav or aiff audio file, so NN19 can be used for any of the processes described above. But because of NN19’s integration in to Reason, its possible to do stuff with this sampler, never done with any other sampler. But before we start lets point out that NN19 does in fact, not sample at all. As all Reason compatible Pc’s and Mac’s have a sound recording facility, adding a recording option to Reason, would make little sense.

Matrix - Analog Style Sequencer
If you are into 70’s style modular synths or if you simply like to play around with a analog style sequencer that can control virtually anything in the rack, take a close look at the Matrix.

The Matrix is an analog style sequencer with a maximum of 32 steps per pattern and is really the part of Reason to use for ReBirth style sequences. Just like ReDrum, Matrix has 32 patterns and each can be freely sized regardless of what time signature has been chosen in the sequencer. So for instance a simple 5 step pattern played back as 16th notes in a 4/4 song would only repeat itself at the original starting position every 5th bar. (No, we didn’t use a calculator to work this out, keep reading and the answer will come later).
The Resolution selector allows playback of the pattern in a range between 1/2 notes to 1/128th notes. The playback resolution is of course completely independent of the sequencer, which means you can try out different resolution ideas while the sequencer is playing.
Matrix is best used with Subtractor or NN19 in mono mode so think of it as a monophonic sequencer. The display shows the 32 steps and a little graphic keyboard on the left hand side will tell you what notes are being played. Work on different note combinations by simply moving the mouse over the main note display. A switch left of the graphical keyboard gives access to 5 octaves within the programming interface. Moving the mouse over the lower part of the display will allow instant change of velocity levels.

Spider Audio & Spider CV
If you ever feel the need to merge or split some Audio or CV signals, these two eight-legged utilities are perfect for the job.

No knobs, no buttons and no display. Spider Audio may not be much to look at, but if you’re a seasoned Reason producer, it might be just the thing you’ve been searching for. The Spider Audio utlity has two purposes in life: to merge and to split audio. All this splitting and merging brings more of the hardware studio’s patching capabilities into the software realm. Try merging multiple audio signals and process them with the same insert effect, as in sending three of Redrum’s toms to the same compressor. Or try splitting an instrument’s output into four, and send them to four different effect processors.
Like brother Audio, Spider CV lacks all the visual trademarks of an effect device, because just like Spider Audio, it isn’t one. Spider CV is exactly the same kind of utlity as Spider Audio, but here the splitting and merging is performed on CV and gate signals. Which lets you get very scientifical about your music: split the CV signals from the Matrix Pattern Sequencer to trigger several synths with the same pattern. Or merge the outputs of several LFO’s to create some very complex modulation patterns.

RV7000 Advanced Reverb
Do you crave sophistication in reverberation? Look no further than the RV7000, the most expensive sounding reverb unit ever to hit the software world.

The RV7000 is a stereo effect unit dedicated to highquality reverberation. This device is set on embedding your sounds in the kind of rich, transparent sounding reverb that only the most sophisticated reverb machines are capable of. In short, it sounds amazing. And despite its pro studio sound and million-dollar features, this machine is very easy to use. Your basic reverb controls are located on the main panel - for instant access and control - and the rest, eight separate knobs for algorithms and their parameters, can be accessed from a fold-out remote at the touch of a button.
The RV7000 is advanced and flexible without ever getting too complicated, and lets you dial in your desired reverb sound in seconds, and saving it as your own preset. The future of reverberation, only for Reason users.

BV512 Digital Vocoder
Roll out the virtual red carpet. The king of versatile vocoding is coming to Reason city.

No studio setup is complete without a proper vocoder, so here it is: the BV-512, superior sound quality, multitalented and advanced - yet simple to use.
Besides being a 4 to 512-band vocoder capable of modulating sound in both old-school analog style and digital FFT fashion, this unit also doubles as a fully automated equalizer with a twist. The BV-512 can be used for everything from classic robot vocals to weird harmonic effects.

Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit
Built for breakage and designed to destroy, Scream 4 turns distortion into an artform.

Imagine having all your favourite distortion pedals and overdrive boxes transformed into one shiny, rackmounted Reason device.
Add a touch of speaker modeling and a rough sounding EQ section and you have Scream 4, the ultimate sound destruction unit. With a wide variety of built-in damage methods, Scream 4 is capable of mangling audio in more ways than one. Use it for digital bit crushing, or regular crushing, or just for adding analog warmth and body to your sounds. If you’re into creative distortion, this unit is your friend to the end.

Scream 4 features ten different damage methods or distortion types, each with its own evil character: Overdrive, Distortion, Fuzz, Tube, Tape, Feedback, Modulate, Warp, Digital and Scream. The P1 and P2 knobs let you tweak parameters within the selected damage type; in “Digital”, P1 controls bit resolution and P2 controls the sample rate. In the “Fuzz” setting, P1 alters the Tone and P2 controls the level of Presence. The Damage Control knob controls the amount of damage inflicted on your incoming audio, from mild overdrive to full-on mayhem.

Download Demo (Save/export disabled, No support for ReFills, Quits after 20 minutes, 63 Mb):
Reason Demo - version 3.0.4 - PC Win 2000/XP
Reason Demo - version 3.0.4 - Mac OS X version

About Propellerhead Software
Propellerhead Software is a privately owned company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Formed in 1994, Propellerhead has created some of the most innovative new music software (ReBirth, ReCycle and Reason) and technology standards, including ReWire and the REX file format, which are used extensively in all kinds of music production. Propellerheads’ ReBirth program was the first virtual emulation of vintage analog gear - a trend that now dominates the music software arena.

Tags: analog, bass, compressor, digital, distortion, drum, drum kit, drum machines, drums, effect, equalizer, filter, granular, groove, loops, mastering, patches, propellerhead, Propellerheads, Recording, reverb, rex, sampler, samples, soundbank, synth, techno, tube, vintage, vocoder, warmth, wav

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