Reason is featured in our roundup of the best Music Production Software

16 Pads, 1 Sound per Pad. 4 Analog Synthesis Drum Generators. 3 Physical Modelling Drum Generators. Loop Player.

Kong Drum Designer: Analog Kick Generator - Snare Generator - Hi Hat Generator - Tom Generator - Sampler with Massive Layering Capabilities.

Reason is now a full featured virtual studio rack with all the tools and instruments you need to turn your ideas into music. You get a wide variety of sounds from its sound bank and your creativity will not be distracted with its intuitive flow. Reason helps you along in the creative process and is the music software that never gets in your way.

Making music should be as easy as powering up a computer, loading up a powerful piece of music software, and getting down to business. And it is. Reason version 5 is a virtual studio rack with all the tools and instruments you need to turn your ideas into music. And it's more than just a set of excellent synths and effects. It's a complete music system. Step into the age of Reason.

All-in-one wonder
Synthesizers, samplers, drum machine, REX file loop player, professional mastering tools, mixer, vocoder, world class effects, pattern sequencer and more. As many of each as your computer can handle. Reason is an infinitely expandable all-in-one music production environment, complete with its own realtime sequencer.

Although easy to learn and a breeze to use, Reason is an extremely flexible music system - a system that can be just as complex and advanced as you make it. With sophisticated tools such as the MClass mastering suite, the mighty Combinator device, or the all-powerful Thor synth, Reason will not just impress, but inspire you.

Need more gear?
No problem. Choose a synth, a drum machine, a loop player or any device from the Create menu, and it will instantly appear in your rack, logically patched into the signal chain. And because Reason is designed to go easy on your computer, you can repeat the process until you're more than happy. If you ever wished you had eleven samplers and ten compressors, Reason is definitely for you. And if you have created more machines than you have mixer channels, just create another mixer. The studio of your dreams is just a few mouse clicks away.

Control your controls
Each unit in Reason's virtual rack is edited from its own on-screen front panel. All the sliders, knobs, buttons and functions are right in front of you, ready to be tweaked, turned and twisted in absolute real-time. And all your front panel actions - filter adjustments, pitch bending, gain riding or panning - can be recorded and automated in the Reason sequencer.

Radical routing
A single keypress will turn Reason's rack around, and there you are, in patch cord heaven. Most audio connections are made automatically. When a new device is created, it appears immediately below the currently selected device, and Reason patches it into the system in the most logical way. Repatch by dragging the patch cord plug to the desired connector, or just make a pop-up menu choice. Most devices have one or more parameters controlled by Gate and/or CV. And all instrument devices have several Gate or CV output options. Combine this with easy, transparent patching, and you have connection power approaching that of a fully modular synth.

Click to see the Reason Manual

Related Hardware:
Studio Monitors
Nektar Panorama P6 - Reason Controller

New in v9

• 3 Player devices that help in music creation - Note Echo, Scales & Chords and Dual Arpeggio
• New Pitch Edit mode for fine tuning notes of vocals and other instruments
• 1000 new sounds added
• Improved Reason Rack workflow
• Pulsar dual channel LFO included

New in v8.3

• Updated reverb with new convolution reverb engine
• ReFill with impulse response
• Improved browser
• Quick zoom feature
• Various other improvement and bugfixes

New in v8.2

• Auto-update system
• Revert Browsing
• Better Remote support for Redrum Drum Machine
• More colors for tracks, channels and clips
• Various other bugfixes and other improvements.

New in v8.1

• "Drop to Propellerhead" and "Open in Reason", now connected to Propellerhead service.
• Reason remembers the password for internet verification.
• Opening a Propellerhead web page from within Reason should not prompt for login, if the user is already logged in within Reason.
• CodeMeter version 5.20d included.
• Browser: REX loop preview is now disabled when a running Dr Octo REX has browse focus.
• Various bugfixes

New in v8

• Redesigned GUI
• New Browser window
• Softube amp models
• Drag and drop from anywhere
• Various other usability and workflow improvements

• New in v7.1.1

  • Bugfix for problem where moving cables and rack devices could cause extremely slow rendering on some computers.
  • Bugfix for previewing certain WAV files in 32-bit floating point format could cause a crash.
  • Bugfix for arpeggiators in some Rack Extensions would get out of sync with the main Reason sequencer.
  • Attempting to download a huge number of Rack Extensions at the same time will no longer cause Authorizer to crash.
  • The asterisk indicating subtick lengths and positions is now always shown properly in the Clip Inspector.
  • Loading samples without root key info would sometimes cause root key to be set to the lowest possible key. It's now properly set to C3.
  • A couple of internal fixes that could cause problems in some cases.
  • Added support for Akai MPK 225-261 controllers.
  • Added and extended support for several Livid Instruments controllers.

  New in v7.1

  • Improved workflow
  • Enhanced overall performance
  • Support for Custom Displays in Rack Extensions (SDK v.2).
  • Rack Extensions built with SDK v.2 will perform math functions faster.
  • New settings and improved MIDI Clock Sync
  • Send error reports and usage statistics
  • Improved re-routing when Shift-dragging devices
  • Better indications on audio clips.
  • Various ReWire fixes.
  • Reason can now import WAV files in 32-bit float format.
  • Slices in self-contained REX files can now be used as samples.
  • A Spectrum EQ button has been added to the Master Section device in the rack.
  • Adjusted BV-512 Dry/Wet behaviour.
  • Utilize the Razor tool on open audio clips.
  • Split at Slices with a huge amount of slices selected will no longer make Reason freeze.
  • New Codemeter version: 5.10.
  • Various other minor bugs fixed.

  New in v7

  • New External MIDI Instrument
  • New Spectrum EQ
  • New Audiomatic Retro Transformer Rack Extension
  • New Audio Slice Markers
  • Updated Sequencer
  • Improved audio import
  • Various other enhancements and bugfixes

  New in v7 Beta

  • MIDI out support
  • New External MIDI device fully integrated into Reason
  • Reason can automatically slice your recording into single notes or hits.
  • Level and Pan control is now available in the rack
  • New bus channels for grouping your tracks
  • Built‑in spectrum analyzer window,
  • Audiomatic Retro Transformer
  • Expanded sound bank that adds a new and powerful section of hard hitting drums loops

  New in v6.5.3

  • BugFix for a Create Menu bug, where sometimes the wrong device would be created.
  • BugFix for a bug in how the Browser uses the registry under Windows. This could lead to situations where some file types couldn’t be browsed and loaded.
  • The Download All function for Rack Extensions could cause the Authorizer to misbehave or fail.

  New in v6.5.2

  • Free maintenance update for owners
  • Authorizer now works properly under Windows 8.
  • Reason now works with AMD processors under Windows 8.
  • Fixed Combi patch backwards compatibility that was broken in 6.5.0 and 6.5.1.
  • Default browse locations now work as in Reason 6.0.2.
  • Rack Extensions now respond to sample rate changes in the ReWire host.
  • Dropped support for 22,050 Hz sample rate on playback and export.
  • Various bugfixes

  New in v6.0.1

  • Pulveriser, a sound crushing effect
  • Echo, an advanced echo in stereo with modern analog tape delay emulation
  • Alligator - a three band pattern based gate effect
  • High quality audio Transpose
  • Improved Interface
  • Expanded soundbank
  • 64 bit compatibility

  v5.0.1 includes some bug fixes and it's recommended all registered users update - free for registered users

  Related Hardware:

  • DAW Controller