The Return of Reason

As an introduction to the world of digital audio production, Propellerhead’s Reason is definitely high on the recommended list. But with its ninth incarnation, there’s plenty there for seasoned pros too…

Reason Once More

Reason was the first music production software that I really got into, way back in versions 3 and 4. Its self-contained nature meant that it was pretty much plug-and-play – all you needed to do was turn it on and start making music.

If you wanted, you could connect a MIDI keyboard, but even that was optional – entire tracks could be created just by using pattern editing, and utilising the inbuilt sounds of Reason’s various synths and sounds. Although you could create your own sounds from scratch if you wanted, the factory soundbank provided a wealth of pre-built sounds to let you just get started straight away.

Now that Reason 9 is here, a lot has changed – but one thing that hasn’t is the presence of the Reason factory soundbank. You still get a massive amount of preset goodness with Reason – in fact, you get more than ever now, with Reason 9 boasting over a thousand new sounds from ‘cutting edge designers’.

To illustrate this point, Propellerhead sent Jake Shaw on a road trip to test out all the new sounds, and you can see how he got on in this video… all 10 hours of it!