Propellerhead Reason - THE SOUND QUALITY

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No. When I switched to Reason 3.0 from the MPC2KXL back in the day, nobody could tell what platform or machine my beats were made on. Either way, it doesnt matter. Only music nerds/geeks care about who uses what. The end listener knows only good music.
 
Talking about Reason's "sound", I've never been able to hear and recognize the sound of a piece of software. One thing that I've always wondered about though is, does a $600.00 eq do something above and beyond the eq in whatever your favorite DAW? What I recognize as truly different in terms of sound quality is analog distortion vs digital distortion. Analog does indeed sound better to me. But if a professional DAW costs $500.00 and an eq being sold separately by the same company costs $600.00, is that eq really that much better than the various eq's in the DAW? Are the eq's in the DAW just pure trash? LOL I have a feeling that there's no way anybody could demonstrate to me why the $600.00 eq is 600 times "better" than the ones in the DAW (that are being promoted as being so great themselves.)
 
A bad worksman will always blame his tools.

I'm not entirely sure why anyone would use Reason 5 or below as a master tool or in judgement for a final mix. Reason just wasn't for that, hence not introducing Mastering Suite/Combinators till Reason 3. Cubase, Pro Tools & Logic Pro are far more advanced and adapted to mastering songs a lot more intrinsically then a midi based program and that's the fundamental difference between all DAWs and sound quality.

The method I use; I write midi and audio using Reason, then mixdown and personally master stems on Cubase (for DJ purposes) then get the track mastered professionally for labels, internet, TV, etc. Tracks can be mastered for as little as £10 and most EDM labels expect you to get your tracks mastered before being signed.
 
rolaz said:
I'm not entirely sure why anyone would use Reason 5 or below as a master tool or in judgement for a final mix. Reason just wasn't for that, hence not introducing Mastering Suite/Combinators till Reason 3. Cubase, Pro Tools & Logic Pro are far more advanced and adapted to mastering songs a lot more intrinsically then a midi based program and that's the fundamental difference between all DAWs and sound quality.

The method I use; I write midi and audio using Reason, then mixdown and personally master stems on Cubase (for DJ purposes) then get the track mastered professionally for labels, internet, TV, etc. Tracks can be mastered for as little as £10 and most EDM labels expect you to get your tracks mastered before being signed.
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i do the same thing when i chose to produce in reason.

but the main thing i like about reason is that its easy to use.
 
If you know how to use reason right it powerful at making custom sounds. Any DAW is just a tool for your imagination. It may be the look of the interface or maybe you do not like the sound you are getting, try different things until you find your sound and what works for you. If you are making hip-hop DJ Toomp is a prime example of a producer that uses his tools (reason) to make hits; for example "What U Know" by T.I. Also mixing has a lot to do with how your overall beat will sound, first you need to start with something good, although even then if you have a bad mix it will all sound bad.
 
People will make anything out of anything to start a debate and to say that what they have is better or worse. Forget about the Reason sound and do what works best for you. At the end of the day if the record sounds bad its not Reason its you not having the skills required to make a good track. Sonics are something different entirely and if that's the case then get the tools that sound sonically appealing to you. I am not one of those people who thinks for example an EQ is better because it handles sound a certain way that sounds better but I do like having a variety of EQs that do sound different but then oddly enough I end up using only the same couple of eqs I always use anyway lol.
 
Propellerheads software does have its own unique sound, it's not necessarily the users fault if they can't get from it phatter sounds than the vsti counterpart.

Aside from maelstrom and kong, the synths and effects don't hold up to the majority of modernday plugins. It's a very capable piece of software, some just want a different sound and workflow.
 
StreetSlang said:
Propellerheads software does have its own unique sound, it's not necessarily the users fault if they can't get from it phatter sounds than the vsti counterpart.

Aside from maelstrom and kong, the synths and effects don't hold up to the majority of modernday plugins. It's a very capable piece of software, some just want a different sound and workflow.
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I can't think of any VA synth that Thor cannot keep up with in terms of sound. Anything you have in mind in particular?
 
Reason sample rate converters? The reason sound/

Have a look at this website: src DOT infinitewave DOTca/

Compare the 1khz tone of Reason 6 vs Logic 8...You can clearly see way more artifacts in the Reason
graph. In fact Reason seems to be the worst of all the programs I compared.
I love the Reason interface and have used it since 2003 but Logic definitely sounds better. I still use Reason but Rewire it through Logic and use Logic effects.
 
"Better" isn't a difinitive word. My engineer ears tell me Logic is the worst sounding program on the market before tweaking(in reference to instruments and the overprocessing of patches).

Productionwise, I can get a better sound out of Reason without outsourcing than any other program I use. It's all about how you use the tools in front of you.

It's the equivalent to debating the sound of a Philips CD player running thru an alesis board to a pair of KRKs being better/worse than a sony CD player being run thru the same board to the same pair of KRKs.

The difference in quality is minimal, but exists as I'm sure i've said before in this thread. People once used this same debate with MPCs vs computer programming, yet MPCs are more scarce now than EVER.

"Sound quality" from your audio source is only a concern until you learn to properly mix. Give a real engineer FL Studio stock and they could mix a top 40 record that you'd think was done no differently than any other top 40 record.
 
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In other words, people spend way too much time dissecting diminutive differences in their tools rather than making music.
 
i think theres deff a reason sound and tbh its kinda hard to get rid of, for instance every sound is distinct and it rly takes u to become a pro at reason to get over this, but i also think the synthesizers are somewhat limited in what they can produce, rpob something with their algorithms but i deff hear a reason sound
 
nastyslim said:
i think theres deff a reason sound and tbh its kinda hard to get rid of, for instance every sound is distinct and it rly takes u to become a pro at reason to get over this, but i also think the synthesizers are somewhat limited in what they can produce, rpob something with their algorithms but i deff hear a reason sound
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picard-facepalm.webp


There is so much Fail in that post...
 
I don't know, maybe it is possible to make Reason to sound like it should but I know that the biggest reason for me to give it up was fight I had with its sound engine. Second reason was lack of VST support ...
 
franticnick said:
I don't know, maybe it is possible to make Reason to sound like it should but I know that the biggest reason for me to give it up was fight I had with its sound engine. Second reason was lack of VST support ...
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Reason doesn't need VSTs. It can replicate about 95% of what the VSTs out there can do. The problem for people is that you need a knowledge of synthesis and sound design to make Reason do what you want. Liam Howlett from Prodigy used Reason, and no one can say their tracks are weak.

Propellerhead is in the business of selling software, not talent.
 
macbeat said:
Reason doesn't need VSTs. It can replicate about 95% of what the VSTs out there can do. The problem for people is that you need a knowledge of synthesis and sound design to make Reason do what you want. Liam Howlett from Prodigy used Reason, and no one can say their tracks are weak.

Propellerhead is in the business of selling software, not talent.
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I'm not saying it is not possible to make great things in reason. I just don't like the way it sounds and that might be completely subjective feeling (although I can see some other people are reporting the same). Also, I don't care if Reason can replicate 95% of VSTs. I have list of VSTs I like to use and I don't want to learn how to replicate them in Reason.
 
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macbeat said:
Propellerhead is in the business of selling software, not talent.
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quoted for truth

No level of software will make you talented

No amount of blaming your tools will make you talented

Nothing substitutes for study and application of what is studied:

  • you need to spend time learning how the synths work, and then spend time
  • understanding the basics, and then
  • the intermediate aspects, and finally
  • the advanced aspects of mixing, eq, fx, and
  • maybe, just maybe, mastering

then you will be in a position to actually criticise the sw you are using for what it lacks rather than complaining about what you actually lack in experience and knowledge.......
 
bandcoach said:
quoted for truth

No level of software will make you talented

No amount of blaming your tools will make you talented

Nothing substitutes for study and application of what is studied:
  • you need to spend time learning how the synths work, and then spend time
  • understanding the basics, and then
  • the intermediate aspects, and finally
  • the advanced aspects of mixing, eq, fx, and
  • maybe, just maybe, mastering
then you will be in a position to actually criticise the sw you are using for what it lacks rather than complaining about what you actually lack in experience and knowledge.......
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So, conclusion is that if somebody dares to criticise some DAW he is definitely lacking of talent... nice...

In my opinion DAWs are nothing more than just tools for producing music and they don't have anything with someones talent level. One can like one tool better and be more productive with it and that's basically it.
 
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