Reason is a powerful collection of virtual instruments, effects and production tools where musical ideas and amazing sounds comes to life.
New in Reason 12
- A new look, a new size and new Rack devices for creative sample manipulation, Reason 12 is all about leveling up the creative potential at the heart of your music-making experience. The brand new Mimic Creative Sampler approaches sample manipulation as a musical reimagining of audio samples that can be both inventive and even fun! Bringing together the best audio technologies from Reason Studios’ history of groundbreaking DSP and sample-slicing, Mimic includes automatic transient slice detection which easily chops up a sample into individual notes or drum beats. Time-stretching samples can be done using Reason’s legendary stretch algorithm, along with new granular and tape modes to explore.
High Resolution Graphics and Scalable Window
- ALL Reason Rack devices are now in glorious high resolution
- Every 3rd party Rack Extension add-on ever made now supports high resolution graphics now
- Reason scales automatically to fit your own monitor’s resolution and pixel density
- Change the zoom level manually to make the Reason window smaller or GIANT to fit your own taste
Mimic Creative Sampler
- Mimic is Reason’s brand new premium instrument for creative sample manipulation
- Advanced time-stretch and pitch shift algorithms
- Experiment with granular synthesis controls
- Automatic transient slice detection chops up samples for fast sample juggling and flipping
- Onboard filters and effects geared specifically for adding color, grit, and character to your samples
All new Combinator
- Reason’s Combinator has been updated for highly customizable front panel designs
- Combine instruments, effects, and modular devices inside the Combinator however you like
- Use the new Editor to design custom front panels with your own layout of knobs, buttons, faders, and graphics
- Combinators can now include other Combinators inside
- Updated Combinator programming features make customized macro controls, and the sounds that enable more advanced, powerful, and inspiring
Improved Browser
- Reason’s browser has been updated for instant search results while you type
- Search results categorized, showing devices, presets, samples, folders, etc.
- Search the current folder your in or all locations at once now
Virtual studio rack
- At the heart of Reason is a virtual rack where you craft your own sound using Reason’s synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, and other organic instruments – along with a large collection of audio and MIDI effects to shape both your sound and even the notes you play on your keyboard.
- The Rack is a musical playground. Drag an instrument device into the Rack and start playing immediately. Add devices underneath your instrument like audio effects and everything is automatically connected and routed together. If you like building custom instrument and effect chains, you’ll love diving deeper into Reason’s Combinator where your custom device creations can be saved, programmed for your own macro controls, and even configured to have your own custom front panel with knobs, faders, and buttons of your own choosing and your own positioning.
- If you love experimenting with modular synthesis and open-ended signal routing, then Reason’s Rack has another advanced dimension for you as well – the back of the Rack where devices can be cabled together using audio jacks and modular control voltage cables to modulate signals from device to device. The back of the Rack is a true “if you can dream it, you can build it” canvas to explore. But if you’re a front-of-the-rack type of music maker, you’ll appreciate that Reason devices auto-route while you focus on what truly matters: the music.
- With a multi-gigabyte supply of synth sounds, sampled instruments, drum kits, loops and effects, Reason's built-in sound bank comes packed with everything you need to make any style of music. The integrated browser helps you quickly find and try thousands of sounds across a huge sound library.
Reason is a plugin
- Reason 12’s devices are available to users of every DAW running as a VST3, AU, and AAX plugin. Running Reason as a plugin inside your DAW of choice doesn’t only offer the flexibility to take the Reason Rack wherever you want to take your music making. Reason can interact with other plugins to supercharge them in ways never before possible.
- Reason’s Player MIDI effects are a wholly unique take on musical creativity and experimentation. By transforming incoming notes on your keyboard or by generating their own notes, chords, or drum patterns Reason’s Players have become favorites of the Reason Rack. Reason’s Players can now be set up in your DAW to control other plugins in your DAW, bringing the power of Reason’s Players to every instrument plugin you own!
- Adding the Reason Rack Plugin Effect atop your DAW’s mix channels means tapping into Reason’s powerful mix-polishing audio effects. To get that big studio sound, the Channel EQ, Channel Dynamics, and legendary Master Bus Compressor devices have been faithfully modeled after the elite SSL 9000k* mixing desk at the center of the world’s top studios. If you want to dirty up your mix channels in the best sense of the word, try out the Audiomatic Retro Transformer’s selection of coloration and tonal shaping effects.
Don’t already have a DAW?
- No problem! Running Reason 12 as a standalone software doesn’t just mean you can access the same powerful Reason Rack and the same vast collection of devices. Reason standalone includes its own sequencer and professional mixer, meaning you can bring your ideas to life from exploring new sounds to fully polished, mixed, and mastered songs ready for sharing with friends and fans.
Expanding the Reason Rack
- While Reason comes with a sizable collection of instruments and effects devices already, some of us are always looking for even more creative options and the inspiration that comes from exploring something new. When you’re ready, Reason’s Rack is expandable with Rack Extensions. Rack Extensions additional Rack device plugins built by some of the top instrument and effects developers around the world – from modern effects to vintage instruments and everything in between.
Features
Reason Rack Plugin Formats
- VST3 (Ableton Live, StudioOne, Cubase, etc)
- Audio Units (Logic Pro)
- AAX (Pro Tools)
Instruments
- Grain Sample Manipulator
- Radical Piano Advanced Acoustic Piano
- Europa Shapeshifting Synthesizer
- Thor Polysonic Synthesizer
- Rytmik Drum Machine
- Klang Tuned Percussion
- Pangea World Instruments
- Humana Vocal Ensemble
- Kong Drum Designer
- Mimic Creative Sampler
- NN19 Sampler
- NN-XT Advanced Sampler
- Monotone Bass Synthesizer
- Malström Graintable Synthesizer
- Octo Rex Loop Player
- Subtractor Polyphonic Synthesizer
- ID-8 Songwriter's Toolbox
- Redrum Drum Computer
- MIDI Out Device
Effects
- Quartet Chorus Ensemble
- Sweeper Modulation Effect
- Master Bus Compressor
- Channel Dynamics
- Channel EQ
- RV7000 MkII advanced convolution reverb
- The Echo high-quality delay & tape echo
- Softube Guitar amplifier with amp and cabinet modeling
- Softube Bass amplifier with amp and cabinet modeling
- Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit
- Alligator triple channel pattern-based gate
- Pulveriser distortion, compressor and envelope follower module
- Synchronous Effects Modulator
- Neptune pitch corrector and voice synthesizer
- Audiomatic Retro Transformer
- MClass 4-band mastering EQ
- MClass Dual band stereo imager
- MClass Stereo compressor with sidechain input, soft-knee mode and CV out
- MClass Maximizer with look-ahead and soft clip
- RV-7 digital reverb
- DDL-1 digital delay line
- D-11 foldback distortion
- ECF-42 envelope-controlled filter
- DF-101 chorus/flanger
- PH-90 phaser
- COMP-01 compressor
- PEQ2 2-band EQ
- BV512 vocoder with 4 to 512 bands and equalization
- UN16 unison
Player MIDI effects and utility devices
- Beat Map Algorhythmic Drummer
- Scales & Chords
- Dual Arpeggio
- Note Echo
- RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator
- ReGroove Mixer real-time groove console
- Matrix pattern-based sequencer
- Pulsar Dual LFO
- 14:2 mixer w/ EQ and effects send/return
- 6:2 channel stereo line mixer
- Spider Audio Merger & Splitter
- Spider Control Voltage Merger & Splitter
- Combinator, for building chains of instruments, effects, and pattern sequencers
Sounds and patches
- Huge factory sound bank with more than 29000 device patches, loops and samples
Reason Standalone Software Features
- VST plugin support: add any instrument or effect plugin to Reason’s rack
- Delay compensation makes all signal paths play in perfect, phase-locked sync
- Opens songs and synth patches made in Reason Compact - the free pocket music studio for iOS
- Rack Extensions lets you expand your collection of instruments and effects from Reason Studios and 3rd party developers
- Support for Ableton Link: effortlessly sync Reason and other link enabled apps over WiFi
- Unlimited audio recording and instrument channels
- Fully featured high-precision multitrack sequencer with Blocks mode and audio comping tools
- High quality realtime time stretch & audio transpose
- Pitch Edit mode for polishing your vocal recordings
- Audio slicing and audio quantize—correct the timing of your audio recordings
- Convert recorded or imported audio in the sequencer into REX loops for further sound manipulation
- MIDI instrument output—control synths, samplers and keyboards from Reason's sequencer
- MIDI clock output—sync hardware to Reason
- Advanced exporting—export your separate mixer channels as individual audio stems, including effects and tempo track
- Live sampling on all Sampler devices
- Remote mapping to external MIDI controllers and hardware control surfaces
- Supports all major file formats—from wave and aiff to mp3 and more
- Realtime sample rate and bit depth conversion allows for importing any audio into Reason without issues
- Multicore support and 64-bit compatibility makes Reason fast and powerful on any computer
- Self-contained song files make moving projects between computers and collaborator as easy as moving a single file.
- Advanced modeled mixing console with complete channel strip for every instrument and audio channel
System Requirements
macOS
- Fast, stable internet connection
- Intel or M1 Mac with multi-core processor
- 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended for large ReFills or Rack Extensions)
- 5 GB free system disk space required, plus 20 GB for optional content. Additionally, program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space and additional space for cached graphical assets
- macOS 10.13 or later (64-bit)
- Monitor with at least 1280x768 resolution
- CoreAudio compliant audio interface or built-in audio hardware
- MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
- For using Reason as a VST Plugin, a host with VST3 support is required
- For using Reason as an AU plugin, a host with AUv2 support is required
- For using Reason as an AAX plugin, Pro Tools 12 or later is required
Windows
- Fast, stable internet connection
- Intel or AMD multi-core processor
- 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended for large ReFills or Rack Extensions)
- 5 GB free system disk space required, plus 20 GB for optional content. Additionally, program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space and additional space for cached graphical assets
- Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
- Monitor with at least 1280x768 resolution
- Audio Interface with ASIO driver
- MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
- For using Reason as a VST Plugin, a host with VST3 support is required
- For using Reason as an AAX plugin, Pro Tools 12 or later is required
