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Reason Studios Reason 3.0
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All user reviews for the Reason Studios Reason 3.0

4.6/5
(42 reviews)
69 %
(29 reviews)
26 %
(11 reviews)
2 %
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Users reviews
  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    The combiner is great i use it for ever instrument i have stayed up countless hours making templates with each instrument. The Master Pieces are great so know you can get more out of reason, so when i mix down to do my next mastering step it is that much more bangin.

    Price paid

    450

    Its still easy to used since i had 2.5 but i must say that just the few things they changed i have to get acustom to such as not being able to make window bigger, or how my "quick" folders are no i can make more than 4 favorite folders(very helpful)

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    It still the same your quality is based on how hard you work on the sounds them self.

    Its software.

    OVERALL OPINION…
    Read more
    The combiner is great i use it for ever instrument i have stayed up countless hours making templates with each instrument. The Master Pieces are great so know you can get more out of reason, so when i mix down to do my next mastering step it is that much more bangin.

    Price paid

    450

    Its still easy to used since i had 2.5 but i must say that just the few things they changed i have to get acustom to such as not being able to make window bigger, or how my "quick" folders are no i can make more than 4 favorite folders(very helpful)

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    It still the same your quality is based on how hard you work on the sounds them self.

    Its software.

    OVERALL OPINION

    I love reason 3.0 if it had a finger i would put a ring on it.

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: J2thaP ( 8-, 2005)
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  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    The options are limitless with the new Combinator device. You can select multiple devices and with one click, group them into a module that can be saved as arranged. Even just browsing through the default patches for the combinator is hours of fun. The only thing I wish reason had was VST support.

    Price paid

    $300

    Many inexperienced people find their first experience with Reason to be a little scary. The rack works just like real hardware, and if you've never worked with hardware, it could be a little confusing. But after reading their in-depth PDF manual, I knew exactly how all of it worked. Then it's very easy to navigate.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    The new mastering tools in Reas…
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    The options are limitless with the new Combinator device. You can select multiple devices and with one click, group them into a module that can be saved as arranged. Even just browsing through the default patches for the combinator is hours of fun. The only thing I wish reason had was VST support.

    Price paid

    $300

    Many inexperienced people find their first experience with Reason to be a little scary. The rack works just like real hardware, and if you've never worked with hardware, it could be a little confusing. But after reading their in-depth PDF manual, I knew exactly how all of it worked. Then it's very easy to navigate.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    The new mastering tools in Reason are excellent. With this new edition, you can get thumping lows and sparkling highs.
    It's built like a rock. I've never had it crash on me, and it lets you keep adding devices until your CPU can't handle it (which takes a lot of devices). Propellerhead is meticulous when it comes to quality.

    OVERALL OPINION

    The flexible nature of this program allows you to tweak and invent new sounds quickly and amazingly by routing cables around on a virtual gear rack. How cool is that? I love it!
    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: modcam ( 8-, 2005)
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  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    Samplers, Drum Machine, Loop Players, Mixers, Synths, Effects.... and now with the new mastering suite and combinator but FINALLY! The Detachable Sequencer! by far my favorite feature. Hopefully a line in recording might be in the future. One thing that i dont like about Reason is that it takes control over all midi. Basically unless its rewired into another app (ex Cubase SX) no other programs can be controlled via midi. Reason takes over fully.

    Price paid

    $500 CND

    Definatly a program that takes time to learn. But the Virtual Rack Equipment interface makes it easy to understand. i love the sequencer and automation. An all around program. I'd honestly be lost without it.

    SUITABILITY/…
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    Samplers, Drum Machine, Loop Players, Mixers, Synths, Effects.... and now with the new mastering suite and combinator but FINALLY! The Detachable Sequencer! by far my favorite feature. Hopefully a line in recording might be in the future. One thing that i dont like about Reason is that it takes control over all midi. Basically unless its rewired into another app (ex Cubase SX) no other programs can be controlled via midi. Reason takes over fully.

    Price paid

    $500 CND

    Definatly a program that takes time to learn. But the Virtual Rack Equipment interface makes it easy to understand. i love the sequencer and automation. An all around program. I'd honestly be lost without it.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    This software requires a decent sound card. I really can't see the point if using onboard sound. Maybe for the beginner but to utilize the full potential of Reason i wouldnt go with anything less then an M-audio Audiophile 2496. without it, once the tracks get complicated enough clipping might be alot more frequent But back on topic the sounds in Reason are great.

    I've never had any serious problems with Reason 3.0, or any of the versions for that matter. The team at Propellerheads are definatly professional and did an excellent job with this software. It's givin birth to a whole new world in computer based music production. Your imagination is the only limit.

    OVERALL OPINION

    I Can't stress it enough how much i love this software. I would honestly be lost without it. If your a serious musician or just looking for a fun hobby. Reason is it. Just be warned.....Its Addictive! Have fun & Happy Trackin'.

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: Colorblind ( 8-, 2005)
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  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    Recording vocals into an individual track

    Price paid

    350

    very user friendly

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Good

    OVERALL OPINION

    Its okay by my standards, a variety of creative tools

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: bles ( 9-, 2005)
  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    As far as final production is concerned the Mastering suite units, 4-Band Parametric EQ with low cut, compressor, limiter & stereo imager provide the possiblity of giving it the "fat" sound it was lacking before.(though it was tediously possible and fun only in a geeky kind of way) The Combinator unit allows creating new instrument/fx presets out of multiple units. There are four knobs and buttons that can be assigned the any of the controls of the units contained within. Two freely assignable slots in the Cobinator's Programmer allow one knob to be linked to three controls(eg. cutoff, resonance, output level). There's keymapping as well and more. I'll stop here before I get carri…
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    As far as final production is concerned the Mastering suite units, 4-Band Parametric EQ with low cut, compressor, limiter & stereo imager provide the possiblity of giving it the "fat" sound it was lacking before.(though it was tediously possible and fun only in a geeky kind of way) The Combinator unit allows creating new instrument/fx presets out of multiple units. There are four knobs and buttons that can be assigned the any of the controls of the units contained within. Two freely assignable slots in the Cobinator's Programmer allow one knob to be linked to three controls(eg. cutoff, resonance, output level). There's keymapping as well and more. I'll stop here before I get carried away into all the functions and other units. But I think this highlights the main bits. An option to switch the outputs of the knobs of the Combinator between linear and logarithmic would be nice. Together with the new line mixer(simple, six stereo channels) and audio/cv merger/splitters, setups only theoretically possible in a studio with a 19" hardware rack can be created - "the cpu's the limit". Also new is a growing list of directly suported controllers (including motorised faders) so it saves a lot of time not having to create custom mappings. There still is need for an external audio editor and I recommend the use of ReCycle. I wouldn't want to see audio editing functions within Reason though. Something could be incorporated though to make the inclusion of long audio files (eg. vocal tracks) easier. I would also like to see a realtime clock to make the production for specific purposes (eg videos) easier and also a spectral analyzer for the mastering. At that price (I think it's great value for money) they can't expect everyone who buys it to also be able to afford studio qulity amps, monitors and room. Some keyboard shortcuts for use within the sequencer would be nice. Most "missing" features can added by using the ReWire function to combine Reason with software such as Ableton Live, Cakewalk Sonar, Cubase, Fruity Loops... .

    Price paid

    $460USD

    Anyone with some experience in sequencing and soft- or hardware- synths should have no problems using Reason. There are good tutorials on the Propellerhead website. The possibilty to route audio and cv can be little confusing if you don't know what the controls on the units do. Yet cool things can be created accidentally ;) The sequencer although allowing almost all functions to be controlled requires a lot of moving the mouse about and clicking to select different tools and views. I find this can disrupt the workflow unless one has the speed and precison of an experienced CS-player. It would be nice to be able to set points and tangents for the controller curves instead of having to draw them with the mouse.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Excellent sound quality possible. Has become much easier with the introduction of mastering units and Combinator device(see features) in 3.0. Only reason some of the out of the box sounds are thin is because there are no fx on them.

    Although the last update to Reason 3.0.4 was actually a whole new installation, it was released so fast that I didn't have the time to encounter any of the bugs mentioned in 3.0 and 3.0.3. I find the soundquality to cpu load very high compared to other solutions. ie a synth within in Reason produces less cpu load than most other softsynths if they are set up to produce the same sound. If wasn't for the issues with the usability of the sequencer, I'd give Reson higher ratings for overall quality.

    OVERALL OPINION

    Lots!!! I haven't heard any single software soltution capable of producing such a sound at a practical cpu load. I'll give a ten out of ten whe they incorporate the features I mentioned in "Features" and "Usability".

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: mousejunkie ( 9-, 2005)
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  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    Good features, every software has some features that others don't. Reason lacks midi out and vst support though.

    Price paid

    $399.98

    I began with FL Studio and picked it up within the first couple hours. Reason takes a little bit longer to get the hang of. But it is still much easier to figure out than progs such as cubase.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    The sound quality from the refills that come with reason are simply amazing. wow. You can achieve excellent sound quality with most of the stuff in reason if you know what you're doing... If you want a simple solution to sound quality you can achieve it in other programs more easily using plugins.
    No problems or unexpected error, therev…
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    Good features, every software has some features that others don't. Reason lacks midi out and vst support though.

    Price paid

    $399.98

    I began with FL Studio and picked it up within the first couple hours. Reason takes a little bit longer to get the hang of. But it is still much easier to figure out than progs such as cubase.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    The sound quality from the refills that come with reason are simply amazing. wow. You can achieve excellent sound quality with most of the stuff in reason if you know what you're doing... If you want a simple solution to sound quality you can achieve it in other programs more easily using plugins.
    No problems or unexpected error, thereve' been a lot of bugs in other software i've used. haven't found any yet here.

    OVERALL OPINION

    I love the way everything looks in reason, the layout is nice and I really like that fact that you can learn a little about harware while using it. I think that's very innovative.

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: Esthetix ( 9-, 2005)
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  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    Lot's of features in the package, some hard to work with, some aren't. Beginner, advanced, it doesn't matter. Refills are very fine to work with, really making the production sound better. But at the other side, there is a lack of VST/VSTi support..

    Price paid

    369 Euro

    In the beginning: No. But that's just a matter of time.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Sounding good. Redrum is really fine to work with, same as the NN-XT sampler within the package. Most of them sound good, some of them cheap, but that is just a matter of tuning them.

    Had to get the disc to Feedback again (Dutch music shop), something was wrong with it, but got another, and things are all fine.

    OVERALL OPINION
    Read more
    Lot's of features in the package, some hard to work with, some aren't. Beginner, advanced, it doesn't matter. Refills are very fine to work with, really making the production sound better. But at the other side, there is a lack of VST/VSTi support..

    Price paid

    369 Euro

    In the beginning: No. But that's just a matter of time.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Sounding good. Redrum is really fine to work with, same as the NN-XT sampler within the package. Most of them sound good, some of them cheap, but that is just a matter of tuning them.

    Had to get the disc to Feedback again (Dutch music shop), something was wrong with it, but got another, and things are all fine.

    OVERALL OPINION

    More a hardware fan myself, but this is going to be a standard in my production process. For sure.

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: 989NL (January 2-, 2005)
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  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    Reason is unique in that it makes patching things together in various ways very, very intuitive and encourages inventive thinking. I've found many times while using this program, I'll be at work and I think of a great way I could make an incredible sound happen, by routing a synth through some modules in a certain way, or getting a synth envelope to control a drum's pitch in the drum module or something, and Reason makes that all super-easy. The next best thing is Reaktor, which offers much more in the way of modular possibilities, but much less in terms of sequencing. When trying to use Cubase and Live after using Reason, I often get frustrated with not being able to route things the way I…
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    Reason is unique in that it makes patching things together in various ways very, very intuitive and encourages inventive thinking. I've found many times while using this program, I'll be at work and I think of a great way I could make an incredible sound happen, by routing a synth through some modules in a certain way, or getting a synth envelope to control a drum's pitch in the drum module or something, and Reason makes that all super-easy. The next best thing is Reaktor, which offers much more in the way of modular possibilities, but much less in terms of sequencing. When trying to use Cubase and Live after using Reason, I often get frustrated with not being able to route things the way I want. The feature that Reason really lacks is how it addresses audio files. You can't record audio in or put audio tracks through effects, unless you want to bring the audio through sampling-style, through the loop sampler, drum machine, or one of the keyboard samplers. You can do it, and I've made songs with vocoded lyrics (did I mention the vocoder is amazing?), samples of people talking dropped in, and cut-up guitar. But working with audio in Reason is hard, and it's never going to get easier, because of a strict agreement that propellerheads has with Steinberg: Steinberg releases Reason, and Propellerheads stays away from audio tracks. You can always drag reason in as a rewire slave, but I always find that to be a big pain in the butt. I know a lot of people who use Reason just for generating amazing sounds, and then record them and manipulate them in Cubase or Live. This is what I do a lot of the time as well. Overall Reason has a very interesting and unique feature set, perfect for making almsot any kind of electronic music, but not so great for making music that requires lots of audio tracks.

    Price paid

    $400

    Reason is a total cinch to use. Once you figure out the basics of how it works, it's easy to learn more and more about it, and the process of learning how to use Reason is basically just learning about how electronic music works. If you've ever used a midi-controlled synth, a midi sequencer, a drum machine and some effects pedals before, Reason will be no problem, and if you start your electronic music adventure with Reason (as I did), you can walk up to pretty much any old piece of hardware and figure it out almost immediately. Sequencing out tracks is simple, using the envelopes (with which you can control anything except for the song tempo, which is unadjustable for some reason), is super-simple, and it all makes a lot of sense. Unlike Cubase.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Not the best synth sounds. The SubTractor subtractive analog-style synth can make sounds that are as interesting, crazy, abrasive, smooth, dreamy, and whatever else as you can imagine, but none of it has the warmth and thickness of Arturia's line of vst softsynths, like the minimoog, moog modular or arp 2600. I think this is mainly because it only supports one oscillator per voice, so there's no unison, and the synth outputs in mono, so there's no stereo separation. The Malstrom has stereo output, but again no unison, and the unison effect box doesn't come close to reproducing the sound of real unison. That said, the NN-XT sampler, on the other hand, has a great sound. The reverb is solid and can be very smooth and expansive, atmospheric etc. The Scream 4 distortion box also offers really high-quality distortion effects, and the little family of mastering units is useful. Also worth mentioning is the vocoder, which in my opinion rivals Native Instruments Vokator in terms of sound.

    Reason just doesn't crash, unless you really mess with it, like if you feed back the mixer into itself in some crazy way, I forget how I've done it, but by really trying, I can make it crash somehow. But in regular use, it's easy to forget to save, because it's super-stable. Mostly because it's all completely proprietary, so there's no VSTs or DXis or RTAS plugins to mess with it. It's also really good on your CPU - you can write a big, thick song without crackling out your chip.

    OVERALL OPINION

    I guess I kind of started out with Reason. I've started using all the craziest software out there, using Live with all those rad arturia synths, which sound better than Reason, and I can technically get a better sound out of Live, but I still fire up Reason when I've got an idea for an electronic song, and I still make amazing songs in it, because it's easy to get to know, and it's easy to make weird and amazing patches with it and get really custom, which is what I like, so for me Reason gets the most love of any of my software.

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: agreatwhitebird ( 2-, 2006)
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  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    I really liked reason at first, I thought it was amazing as i was switching from FL Studio to Reason, the intial jump in quality was pretty astonding. After about 1 1/2-2 years of using the program, however, i am wishing it had vsti support and/or audio recording, and more synths and/or effects. The cable routing however helps to remedy this (with the combinator you can practically piece together new instruments). The sound library it comes with is pretty good and has a good variety but i wouldn't say the quality is spectacular. If you like using samples you will probably love reason, but if you like programming more of your sounds, with only 2 different synths to chose from (and the malstr…
    Read more
    I really liked reason at first, I thought it was amazing as i was switching from FL Studio to Reason, the intial jump in quality was pretty astonding. After about 1 1/2-2 years of using the program, however, i am wishing it had vsti support and/or audio recording, and more synths and/or effects. The cable routing however helps to remedy this (with the combinator you can practically piece together new instruments). The sound library it comes with is pretty good and has a good variety but i wouldn't say the quality is spectacular. If you like using samples you will probably love reason, but if you like programming more of your sounds, with only 2 different synths to chose from (and the malstrom sounds pretty poor) you will feel pretty limited in what you can do.

    Price paid

    450$ usd

    If you are familar with other sequencer programs its pretty easy to learn. The routing is pretty straightforward and doesn't take long to get the hang of it. Its a bit daunting at first since there is a lot it can do but if you read the manual or tutorials it makes a lot of sense quickly. The sequencer is a bit quirky though and I feel like my work doesn't go as smoothly as it did with fruity- a big dissapointment as it really affects the quality of the pieces i do or the amount that never get finished.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Sound quality is good. Its very easy to make your tracks thump via the scream 4 and the new mastering suite, which really brings the volume up a couple notches and makes your tracks sound tight.

    Never really have had a problem with it. Its definately stable, and it doesn't use much cpu power. It does what its supposed to do flawlessly.

    OVERALL OPINION

    I'm really starting to dislike reason as I feel pretty limited to what i can do. It's a little awkward to work with and my songs really show the discomfort. No matter what kind of sound im after im always using the same set ups. Rewiring is an option but it leads to compatibility issues, more cpu use, crashes etc- if you like using patches/presets, and/or samples, you will probably love reason if you are considering buying it. If you are like me and like making your own sounds on some of the incredible vsti softsynths out there, you probably won't. Lots of potential, but it leaves out some huge features.

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: omgznub ( 3-, 2006)
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  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    I wish there was an onboard chopper other than that Im very very satisfied.

    Price paid

    $130

    very easy to use.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Reason has great sounds out of the box. Its a sound designers dream as well offering great tools for tweaking and saving sounds. My only problem with it is its standalone mixer which for some reason dampens the output but that can be worked around via rewire.

    sound quality is excellent except for the mixer

    OVERALL OPINION

    Im never leaving reason

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: Xabiton ( 3-, 2006)
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    I wish there was an onboard chopper other than that Im very very satisfied.

    Price paid

    $130

    very easy to use.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Reason has great sounds out of the box. Its a sound designers dream as well offering great tools for tweaking and saving sounds. My only problem with it is its standalone mixer which for some reason dampens the output but that can be worked around via rewire.

    sound quality is excellent except for the mixer

    OVERALL OPINION

    Im never leaving reason

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: Xabiton ( 3-, 2006)
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  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    Every single feature in reason is hot! The only thing they should have incorporated is a way to pitch a sample without changing its speed and length like in FL Studio's sampler.

    Price paid

    $200

    Alot of features but really simple to understand and use. Great Stuff!!

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    The sound quality is awsome, great built in samples!

    The quality is awsome, no crashes as yet.

    OVERALL OPINION

    I absolutely love it! it's a real studio!

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: cyptm ( 3-, 2006)
  • FP UserFP User

    Reason Studios Reason 3.0Published on 10/31/08 at 16:00
    I love the workflow of Reason, I can change things on the fly. For instance Reason allows me to change the cabling real quick from one one module into another. I love how it doesn't take that much cpu power, which is great.

    $400 plus tax

    At first it was pretty challenging however after a couple hours I figured out the concept of how everything worked.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Since reason does not support vst, they "force" the users to create their own unique sounds, thus making the users more creative. Other than that, the stock sounds are good but needed to be eq'ed for that fatter/fuller sound.

    I've never had any problems, propellerheads are great because they allow …
    Read more
    I love the workflow of Reason, I can change things on the fly. For instance Reason allows me to change the cabling real quick from one one module into another. I love how it doesn't take that much cpu power, which is great.

    $400 plus tax

    At first it was pretty challenging however after a couple hours I figured out the concept of how everything worked.

    SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

    Since reason does not support vst, they "force" the users to create their own unique sounds, thus making the users more creative. Other than that, the stock sounds are good but needed to be eq'ed for that fatter/fuller sound.

    I've never had any problems, propellerheads are great because they allow the users to download patches for glitches and such.

    OVERALL OPINION

    Reason is my arsenal, it is the center piece of my studio.

    Originally posted on FutureProducers.com
    Posted by: phenombeats ( 3-, 2006)
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