Propellerhead Reason 5 Upgrade Review

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(More customer reviews)From my first exposure to Reason (Adapted that came with an audio interface purchase) I've been a devoted Reason lover. In my opinion there's never been a more unique, or software stable, music creation tool. If I lived to be 90 I don't think I could fully realize the potential of this program.
Now with the addition of Record the program is a complete audio workstation. It's difficult for me to separate the two at this point but I believe the two newest features that are part of Reason 5 that I've found useful are the Kong drum designer and the sequencer blocks mode. I've already created a Combinater that takes full advantage of Kong's drum sounds and effects coupled with the step programable features of Redrum, awesome!
The blocks mode within the sequencer is quite helpful for organizing songs into sections but still the only complaint I have with the sequencer is the lack of position markers.
Reason continues to be the most inspiring music creation program I've ever encountered and the bottom line is it's just plain fun to play and experiment with.

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Reason is back - bigger and stronger than ever. Version 5 brings the mighty Kong Drum Designer, a much-improved REX loop player, a whole new way of sequencing, live sampling and much, much more.Build and play your beats with Kong Drum Designer's analog drum synths, samplers, rex loop players and physically modeled drums. Use Dr. Octo Rex to build arrangements with chord progressions, fills, and variations. Or use it for some advanced loop trickery.Reason 5 introduces Blocks - a whole new way of building your songs. Blocks lets you create your songs using a pattern based approach. Use one block for the verse and one for the chorus - or build your song around an eight bar beat.Re-explore the lost art of live sampling in the NN-XT, NN19, Redrum, and Kong. Tweak any sample in the new built-in editor. Make your songs self-contained by embedding samples and even ReFill sounds in your file. Collaboration just got even easier.If you own both Reason and Record, this is the upgrade for you!
New in Reason 5Dr. Octo Rex Loop PlayerThe upgraded Dr. Octo Rex loop player loads eight REX loops into one player and lets you switch between them on the fly. This makes arranging a breeze - load the drum loops into one player, the guitars into another and use the sequencer to select what loop to play in a pattern-like fashion.With eight loops to switch between, the new loop player also comes ready for the experimental minded. Set the player to retrig the loops on the beat, on the bar or on the 16th note. Or program the loops manually like in the original rex player.For each of the eight loops, the new rex player also comes with an expanded set of per-slice settings. Set pan, pitch, filter frequency and level, reverse slices, use multiple outputs, create alternating groups of slices and much more.The Reason 5 Factory Sound Bank comes complete with guitar and acoustic drums patches for Dr. Octo Rex and a huge selection of techno, house, club, hip hop and r&b loops from signature sound designers.

BlocksMany musicians tend to think of music in terms like intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, buildup and so on. With the new Blocks mode in Reason 5 and Record 1.5, your sequencer does too.Blocks lets you sequence your songs using a more pattern-based approach, with the segments of your song as individual building blocks to be laid out in your arrangement.Start by creating the discrete parts of your song in blocks mode. When you are ready to start building your song, just switch back to song mode and draw in what blocks should play in the dedicated pattern lane. Use one block for the verse and one for the chorus - or build your song around a single 8-bar loop.Blocks provide a very fast way of creating a musical structure for your song. But the options don't end there. With the basic arrangement laid out, you can see the contents of the blocks and create variations and mute individual parts, or add further musical elements in song mode.A typical use for Blocks is to create your backing track in blocks and then use the song mode sequencer to record vocals or instrumental performances. For music based around a single looped section, one repeated block with automation and mutes of individual tracks added in song mode makes arranging a breeze.You never have to commit to using either mode - you are free to move back and forth between Blocks and Song mode, and any changes you make in your Blocks will instantly be manifested in all instances of that Block. Need some tambourine on that chorus? Add it, and there will be tambourine whenever the chorus block is playing.

Live SamplingRemember the time when samples were something you sampled and not loaded from your hard drive? When a sampler was a machine that could record samples, not just play them back.As samplers became software instead of machines, they came to rely on external sample editing software for recording and editing the samples and the art of spur-of-the-moment creative sampling was pretty much lost. Now we are bringing it back to Reason 5 with its live sampling input.All sample players in Reason are now samplers. Just hook up a sound source to the rack's sampling input and you are ready to start sampling. Use a mic, a turntable, an instrument or the entire Reason mix.Sampling in Reason is simple and straightforward. Hit the sample button and Reason starts sampling. Reason will detect the sample start automatically. You can sample when Reason is running too if you like - no need to stop the music.If needed, bring up the built-in sample editor to set start and end points, loop points and more. This is possible for all loaded samples by the way - not only the ones you have sampled.As always, Reason lets you focus on music making - and sampling in this case. All samples are neatly stored in our song file and accessible in the new samples pane in the tool window. Here you can easily see what samples are loaded into what machine and delete and export samples as you wish.Live sampling together with pitch detection of root key and automatic zone mapping makes it dead easy to sample an instrument and map the samples across the keyboard. This way you'll create your own multi-sampled instruments for NN-XT and NN-19 in an instant.

Kong Drum DesignerAnalog synthesis, physical modeling, sampling, REX loops, support sound generators, effects, flexible routing, multiple hit types and more. The Kong Drum Designer is not your regular drum module. It's the drum module focused on letting you get exactly that drum sound you're after. Kong has 16 pads and 16 drums. Build your drum sounds based on any of the nine different drum modules. Flavor the sound with 11 support generators and effects. Program automation, create alternating groups and let Reason's powerful sequencer control the beat.Reason 5 ships with a sound bank with a generous supply of kits for Kong across a wide variety of styles.

System RequirementsWindows
Intel Pentium 4/AMD Athlon or better (multiple cores highly recommended)
1GB RAM
DVD drive
Windows XP SP3, Vista or Windows 7
2 GB free hard disk space
Monitor with 1024x768 resolution or larger
A 16 bit Windows compatible audio card, preferably with an ASIO driver
A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
Requires any version of Reason or Record Reason Duo
Mac
Intel Mac (multiple cores highly recommended)
1 GB RAM or more
DVD drive
Mac OS X 10.4 or later
2 GB free hard disk space
Monitor with 1024x768 resolution or larger
CoreAudio compliant audio interface or built-in audio hardware
A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
Requires any version of Reason or Record Reason Duo

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