If you have a small screen - e.g. a laptop - then you should actually detach the Rack and Mixer from Sequencer, full-screen them and move between them with a touchpad gesture (3-finger horizontal swipes on both Win and macOS). That’s a real “gamechanger” 
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And to add onto this advice if you’re using Reason on macOS with a touchpad, you should enable three finger dragging from system settings to make using Reason (and everything else as well) slightly more convenient as you no longer need to exert any pressure in order to use knobs, sliders or drag-n-drop functionality.
This also of course turns standard three finger gestures into four finger ones.
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I’ve been using a Mac for 15 years now and never though of this. Enabling from today, thanks.
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Glad I could be of assistance .
Since Reason is one of the knobbiest DAWs, it does make using the software for a longer period of time infinitely more comfortable.
Also, you can use it to select text as well!
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149€ upgrade price from Reason 12 (coupons dont work with it either! why?) feels a bit too rich for my blood. Its even more of a bitter pill to swallow because of the worsening of the license activation system - spent an hour yesterday re-authorizing Reason 12 becuase it again locked down all of a sudden. I really hate these “regular online activation necessary” DRM-schemes, my project studio is without internet for a reason goddamit!
Aint nothing like the internet for messing up a neat schedule, a music studio without internet is a focused and a productive one…
It was like $90 a couple of weeks back…I upgraded for like 70 through jrrshop using a code, i think it was FORUM. Always try that and the price is reduced even more.
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I’ve used Reason for around ten years. But I slowly started getting the feeling that they are greedy when I had to pay twice for the same synth in Reason Compact. Then they became overwhelmingly woke, throwing free licenses on some people while beta testers didn’t get any. Then I tried Ableton, and that was it for our relationship.
How is this software doing nowadays? Can’t say I miss it, but I am curious.
The sequencer is still woefully lacking in lots of basic functions that other software has had for years and is truly painful to use. The new authorisation system is hot garbage. They have shafted long-term licence holders repeatedly, while favouring subscriptions. Their reputation for being the most stable computer music program went out the window years ago, and they have abandoned development on every innovative protocol they were ever responsible for creating. But they reverted the most unpopular change they made to the software in ages and it only took them a year.
So yeah, all in all, it’s doing great!
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Where do I claim the free license because they went “overwhelmingly” woke? (lol)
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To counter a few of these. Reason still is my favorite desktop software by far. I own several others as I like switching environments. I am talking about the creative aspect of music making. Granted I do this as a hobby mostly, but understand first hand when something has needed to be done profesionally (like mixing and mastering a project), I was forced to use another DAW, since the sequencer just does not cut it in many ways.
Reason itself and the REs are consistetly on sale a few times a year at about regular intervals, so if you plan to, you can get it then. They also offer a subscription based service but I would avoid that, because it’s on the expensive side.
I’ve used every version of reason since version 2, appart from 6 and 7, and I appreciate that at it’s core it remains exactly as it was back then, but at the same time a lot was added throughout the years. I especially like that I can load VSTs and also load the reason rack as a VST inside whatever else. I do miss rewire though. That was unique and very good. Especially whenever I play around in Renoise I miss it.
Even if there are annoying bugs introduced, especially with the last few major releases, those do get ironed out, and (since I do not use it for professional work) they do not bother me too much. Right now the latest 13.3 is very stable for me on Mac and on Windows.
The REs that Reason Studios themselves produce are top notch in my opinion, and are very fun to use if you are familiar with how Reason works. I can see how someone coming from Live might fail to appreciate Reason workflow though. I just never could and can not vibe with Ableton Live.
The authentication process has changed quite a few times in recent history, but now the companion is completely stable for me. What i really don’t like is that even if you activate a machine for “offline” use, every year that machine needs to contact Reason servers to re-activate. This means death of the software I own and love if Reason Studios does go under. They are hardly the only dev studio doing something simmilar but still. If nothing else, I know I can get my copy of Reason 5 going together with Renoise if need be!
All in all, I still think Reason is great to date and remains with workflow and features which make it stand out from other options on the market. It is like everything else a subjective matter though, and since there have beed many hic-ups through the journey, it also depends how hard you hold grudges against companies.
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Don’t get me wrong, Reason is my all-time favourite music program. It’s the one I have consistently had most fun with and know inside and out. Been using it since version 1. But the last few years have been abysmal, especially since around the time they introduced the subscription… Must just be coincidence!
It’s the things we love the most that come in for the harshest criticism. I wish they were doing a better job with it.
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I think if they go under they’ll allow for customers to activate forever (as long as the os supports it). They would be assholes otherwise and they don’t strike me as such. @Gral_Kerkila
I’ve been a Reason user since version 1. Huge fan. It’s the only subscription I have for music stuff. Version 13 is the best it’s ever been for me, and it does so, so much more than any other DAW I use, and also does it more creatively and more musically. Enjoying it now more than ever, and always irritated when I have to switch over to do a project in Ableton, for example.
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I have a complicated relationship with them too. Back in the day, they were doing actual social justice, democratizing production of electronic music by doing Rebirth, which earned them a place in the history of techno (check Wiki). I even live in the neighborhood where they have their office.
It’s just sad that the software lacked so many obvious features for so many years, many of whom I hope are now fixed, and used their time and energy to work on subscription model and a neo-woke PR department.
ReBirth was fantastic, then Reason was revolutionary. I remember there being actual excitement about it. Lots of buzz and rumours even among pro electronic musicians. Can’t say that happens very often any more.
“OMG have you heard about the new sample pack dropping next week?!” Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
Yeah I mean Reason 2 and 2.5 especially, was what really kicked off my music making back in the day. I made tons of beats with it, some of which I still use every now and then as elements in other tracks… but that was what, 23 years ago? A lot has happened since, and if we talking about enshittification, I’d say Reason hasnt been safe from its cold, deadening grasp…
Given how the offline authorization scheme is getting worse year by year, it’s only a matter of time until I stop upgrading completely, render what I got into audio and move on… but cannot deny Reason has had a great impact on my musicing over the years…
OTOH, I could also see myself creating a virtual machine and just running Reason 4 on it. Would give me access to 99% of my old stuff… The low CPU requirements of legacy Reason versions would make it an ideal candidate for using virtually
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I think a lot of people here would find this device rather interesting:
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They have? 
Ableton for sure has, Presonus to certain extent. But all the other DAW developers are - and were - surprisingly restrained when it comes to support of the woke causes. Or any political causes, actually.
And yet, it’s the only one DAW where each and every time I am able to create something worthy of saving & developing.
I think that - for me! - it has the right balance of features AND constraints to let me do most of what I need, but not a lot more, i.e. I won’t get carried away tweaking & “perfecting” stuff. Even simple things like inability to type-in or precisely mouse values of parameters is genius, although I thought “WTF?!” initially. Realistically, there’s really no difference in setting a compressor threshold on -14,82 or -15,07 vs. exactly -15dB, but it forces you to make these decisions quickly and just move on to the next thing.
Integration of native devices & 3rd party REs in the Rack and Sequencer is just 2nd to none and I simply refuse to use VSTs in Reason, because cost/benefit calculation works against them (again - for me).
The only thing that’s really screams for improvement is handling of bigger projects. Working on small ideas is a pure joy, but once the project grows past certain point the hardware studio metaphor starts to get in the way - things take more clicks than it should, the Sequencer and Rack become confusing and difficult to organize. THIS is what they should work on, but MOST DAWs struggle with it just the same, just maybe they’ve different pain points.
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WTF are you talking about?!
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