POSTED BY

Joel Johnson

AT 8:19 AM
Thursday July 2, 2009

Art and Instruments

propellerheads • reason

Video: Propellerheads "Record" audio suite

Old news to those that make music, perhaps, but new to me: Propellerheads, the people who make the delightful sequencer Reason (which I will someday actually buy instead of using the demo for a few days then getting scared to drop hundreds of dollars) are launching "Record", a companion recording suite that more than addresses what I've always found to be Reason's most glaring oversight: the inability to actually record analog instruments or vocals without another piece of software.

Which, I guess, it still does take another piece of software, but at least it's all be part of the same suite now. Since I'm still using Garage Band for most of my projects but have run my head up against its limitations finally, I may have to bite the bullet and get Reason and Record when it comes out of beta.

I especially love the part of the above overview video where they essentially teach guitarists how to convince their band vocalist why the software will help them sound more totally rock.

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12 Comments

yer_maw

#1 – 8:35 AM July 2, 2009

ableton live mate. Ableton live.

technogeek

#2 – 8:59 AM July 2, 2009

I'm on Sonar, myself. Then again, I have friends who are doing serious production using free tools like Audacity.

It really is impressive how much audio processing you can do in a PC these days -- assuming adequate quality input and output, of course.

If you're interested in this topic, and in getting the most for your money, I strongly recommend http://www.marktaw.com/recording/HomeStudio/BuildaHomeStudiononaBudget/OverviewWhatDoyouNeed.html.

dculberson

#3 – 9:11 AM July 2, 2009

Joel, any chance you would share your music with interested parties?!

crabbydad

#4 – 9:51 AM July 2, 2009

Looks fun but I'll always be a Digital Performer guy. Still the best.

Anonymous Anonymous

#5 – 9:54 AM July 2, 2009

Who knows: if they have any sense, they may give you a copy. Or maybe let you review it?

Clay

#6 – 10:22 AM July 2, 2009

I'm not sure how many people Propellerhead is going to woo away from Live, Logic, and Sonar, but for those (like me) whose production has revolved around Reason but who have been trying to decide which direction in which to expand, I can't imagine a more obvious choice.

I've been considering the upgrade purely for the new virtual mixing desk, even though I have no plans to work with vocals or hard instruments.

usonia

#7 – 1:41 PM July 2, 2009

If I didn't already use Live, this would be far more interesting. And it is pretty interesting already.
Meanwhile, drop hundreds of dollars on Reason, it is well worth it - if nothing else you save thousands on analog synths & samplers & stuff.

pupdog

#8 – 7:40 AM July 3, 2009

Dangit, I was looking for news about another Shirley Bassey collaboration...

hohum

#9 – 11:00 AM July 3, 2009

Totally agree w/ 7, except my current weapon of choice is Logic. This looks pretty damn slick… Slick enough to challenge my current investment? I'm not sure, but not ruling it out…

tedpallas

#10 – 1:24 PM July 3, 2009

I got invited to the Beta a few days ago and I might be missing something BUT I feel like there isn't much going on here that other programs don't already do really, really well without too much of a headache. If anything, Record is more confusing than Logic, my usual go-to audio editor. I've never been a huge fan of Reason's "scroll-all-over-the-place-go-to-the-back-of-the-rack" way of doing things, and I'm even less of a fan of my laptop emulating hardware. I don't want to look at a volume knob, I want to see what the insert effect is, double-click it and get to work.

It's also a bummer that it won't host plug-ins - the included effects sound fairly ok (though modeling a mixer seems silly) BUT there's a whole wonderful world of weird, free little plug-ins just waiting to be explored. For this to be a main workstation would be very, very restricting. I'd say that investing in Logic or Live would be a better choice, and will ReWire to Reason in exactly the same fashion. It's 2009 - closed-software solutions are lamelamelame.

cdctrumpet

#11 – 12:11 PM July 4, 2009

If this lets you do true audio throughput with Reason, it's worth every penny. I'd love to be able to use Reason's effects, vocoder, and such on my audio tracks.

nchfrank

#12 – 8:42 PM July 6, 2009

If your looking for some really fun, easy to use audio tools visit www.mchsoftware.com

We make thinks light (small footprints), easy to use, and lightning quick.

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