Propellerhead releases Record 1.5 and Reason 5

[kassonica]

Well half an hour with reason and WOW LOVE it...

Kong is excellent.....

[Shooshie]

Well, I have neither. Tell me, since I would probably be doing it just out of curiosity, how much does it set you back to try the two of them? And you might stop me in advance if you think I'd be wasting my time. I'm working almost entirely on chamber music right now. What I'm doing doesn't lend itself to pattern-based recording, nor section based (repeating "chunks"), and it requires Record Beats, Tap Tempo (two different things, mind you, with completely opposite results), Adjust Beats, and handling a lot of VI's with a LOT of controllers like breath control that must be edited with the sensitivity of the original breath, and all this with the normal host of tracks, key signatures, meter changes, constant tempo fluctuations, and so forth. IMO, it takes a pretty mature DAW to handle all this stuff, which is why I use DP. Is this all going to be a piece of cake in Record?

Then there's mixing and automation. I'll be doing a lot of the mixing in MIDI before going to audio. Then the final audio mix. I'll need impressive control over editing automation points. Is it worth my while to give these things a try? I gave a really good try to Logic. I've even gone back to it a number of times and learned it a lot better. Not a bad app, really, once you finally get a grasp of where everything is, the order in which it works, and so forth. Its only problem is that it literally cannot do some of the things I depend on in DP, or else it does them in a limited form that simply makes things too cumbersome to give the kind of editing and mixing I want. In many ways I'm very impressed with Logic, and wish that DP had some of its raw diversity, but if it did, it would probably pay for it with a loss of the simplicity that makes DP so fast and powerful.

Record is pretty new. Is it able to handle things I'd expect from a mature DAW?

Just wondering. I don't have a lot of time or motivation to waste on just poking around and seeing what something is like, if it's not going to pay off for me. Is Record a cool curiosity, or is it a fully-featured DAW ready for a lot of instruments with a lot of precision?

Thanks for helping me out,

Shooshie

[jgest]

Just wondering. I don't have a lot of time or motivation to waste on just poking around and seeing what something is like, if it's not going to pay off for me. Is Record a cool curiosity, or is it a fully-featured DAW ready for a lot of instruments with a lot of precision?

Thanks for helping me out,

Shooshie

Based on your demands, DP is a better fit. Not even in the same league yet. Guys like my self, who once were technologically challenged to learn how to utilize our JV1080's to their full capacity, realized with the onset of reason, that we could implement our ideas as close to what was in our heads.... Record is just the ability to finally add audio and not necessary need a host program. I don't think you need to think about switching anytime soon. For reason owners, the upgrade from reason 4 to 5, coupled with record thrown in, was very worthwhile.

[mikebeckmotu]

Record is pretty new. Is it able to handle things I'd expect from a mature DAW?
Shooshie

Propellerheads, themselves, state that Record is not a DAW, though most reviewers will call it a DAW anyway. It's awfully close, but I wouldn't call it full-featured.

I have both Reason and Record, and I think it's best to have both, so that you have Reason running inside of Record (you have access to all or most of Reason's features in Record, plus the DAW-like Record features). Reason houses the bulk of the instruments, after all, and some of the instruments are quite good. The Abbey Road Keyboards ReFill is cool.

I'd say Record is a great app for musicians (as opposed to engineers) who want to get songs put together easily. I really like the Record mixer. Editing is nowhere near where you'd want it, from what I've read of the way you prefer to work. It's not nearly as deep as DP, but it's got some neat tricks it can do, and I wouldn't call it a slouch either. The focus, from my perspective, is on quick and easy work. Stability is great and CPU usage is relatively light. Support is great.

For those who enjoy modular hardware, it can be a lot of fun, since most everything is based on virtual patch cables you can freely assign to the various modules, and plenty of creative routing is where it can stand apart.

Record's main draw for many users is simply the ability to be able to record audio, which Reason didn't do directly.

If I had to gripe, the thing I miss most in Record is the ability to use my preferred amp sims, but since there is no 3rd party plugin support, the included effects and instruments have to do. The built-in Line 6 amp sims are usable and can be good, but I prefer others, and instead of doing workarounds to pipe external audio into Record, I just use DP or Logic instead.

For your symphonic uses, I'd say you should probably pass on it. I'm sure you'd enjoy it, but would find it lacking for what you need to do. It's definitely a fun way to get out of creative ruts and work in a different environment, and many users, from what I've read, will use it as more of a scratchpad, which is valid enough, since you can use ReWire to pipe your work to another app, or export audio/MIDI to import directly to another app.

It actually pains me somewhat to discourage using it, because it really is fun, productive and useful, and I hope what I wrote doesn't come off as negative in any way. It's a good app.

[Shooshie]

That gives me a better idea of what it does and where it stands. I've got an audio-only app that I use a lot. It's Wiretap Studio. Not perfect, but when I just want to capture something quickly without any setup, that's the fast way.

Thanks for the descriptions. I may get the demo anyway and just give it a try, but I doubt that I'll buy it any time soon, since I'm pretty well fixed for such things.

Shoosh

[Guitar Gaz]

I use it alongside DP - it is good for quick recording, and also good for quick audio messing with tempos etc - and with the Reason instruments in Rewire it makes for a great combination. For a seasoned DP user it will seem a bit more simplistic - there is less to learn which is a bonus, but I see it as more for getting ideas down quickly on the record side of things (and geared for guitar and vocals) - the Reason instruments are a different kettle of fish even if you will find the sequencer a bit different - great sampling players and synths - many years ago I made the mistake of "just trying the demo" and within a couple of minutes I knew I had to have Reason.

I love DP now I can customise the colours to improve the look and feel, and having the Reason/Record to switch back and forth with is really great and seems to plug a missing link - I am much more productive as a result.

[Mr. Quimper]

Since getting on the NI bandwagon 5 years ago I haven't touched reason much at all. I am still on R3 and it mostly just sits on my dock, unloved. Sweetwater has a special going that will allow me to get Reason 5 as an upgrade that will include Record for about $170. The teaching gig I turned down recently (long story) featured Reason pretty heavily, as did my own alma mater's program, so I am beginning to think for the sake of marketability as a potential educator I should get back up to speed with Propellerheads.

For that matter, I should probably start learning Logic as well.

[monkey man]