Propellerhead Reason 7 Now Available – Here Are The Details

propellerhead-reason-7Propellerhead has released Reason 7 and Reason Essentials 2, the latest versions of its DAW for Mac & Windows.

Key Features:

  • Reason 7 comes with MIDI out support to bring the sound of your favorite hardware synths and beat machines to the Reason rack. MIDI is handled by the new External MIDI Instrument device, fully integrated into the Reason environment.
  • With Reason 7, you have more creative control over your audio recordings. Record your instruments and let Reason automatically slice the recording into single notes or hits. Use it to quantize an audio take, to tweak your timing or to drastically change the recording with Reason’s time stretch. The sliced up audio can also be converted to REX files for playback and further treatment in Reason’s Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player, Reason’s samplers, or the Kong Drum Designer.
  • The most important mixing controls like level and pan are now available in the rack too, always close at hand. This means less jumping about in the program and more focus on your music.
  • The new bus channels make it easy to group your tracks, and even group your mixer groups to process them together. Create parallel channels with a single click for separate processing – for quick New York style parallel compression and other tricks.
  • Reason now has a built-in spectrum analyzer window, giving you instant visual feedback on the selected channel or bus. The new Spectrum EQ window combines a powerful spectrum analyzer with a graphic EQ overlay controlling the mixer’s renowned EQ. Easily adjust the EQ on your tracks from anywhere in the program.
  • Reason 7 comes with Audiomatic Retro Transformer—a future-retro effect unit with plenty of personality. Add Audiomatic to any channel or group and select a snapshot to instantly change the sound of your track
  • Reason 7 also comes with an expanded sound bank that adds a new and powerful section of hard hitting drums loops: big room house, dubstep, and even metal.

Here’s a video overview of the new Reason 7:

Reason 7 & Reason Essentials 2 are now available, with this pricing:

  • Reason 7 US $449 / 405 Euro
  • Reason Essentials 2 US $129 / 120 Euro

See the Propellerhead site for more details and upgrade pricing.

If you’ve used Propellerhead Reason 7, let us know what you think of it!

29 thoughts on “Propellerhead Reason 7 Now Available – Here Are The Details”

    1. always found odd when someones compliments an update to software as “the best yet”. that goes without saying. are they supposed to take features away?

  6. Now if they would only add VST support, or at least give Reason the ability to be a Rewire host (a technology Propellerheads INVENTED), then Reason would finally be almost as good as all the other DAWs on the market today.

      1. Oh yeah, BRO. He should re-buy a bunch of inferior REs of synths that he already owns as VSTs. That’s a great idea, BRO!

        BRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHLKGL><HAGDK<HADKGKJAHDGADKJHGADKHGDKHGD.

      2. Actually, I don’t own Massive. Although it is a great synth, and I always have the option of getting it….along with scores of other phenomenal industry-standard VSTis.

        Unlike you, who can only ever use whatever craptastic little fart machine RE is available in Propellerheads shop at any given time. Hope you enjoy spending $50-$100 a pop for your little toy noisemakers.

        1. The only “industry standard synth” that I miss in Reason is Logic’s ES2, but since you sound like a PC Gamer not a music producer I’m sure you don’t have that either…

    2. Actually, you can run VSTs in Reason 7. It’s not very elegant and it works better on mac than on PC, but you can do it. It requires setting up an Aggregate Device in Soundflower and then setting the right virtual audio ins/out for Reason and your VST. Once that works, the new EMI device in Reason will send MIDI notes to your VST as well as clock sync. Then you just create an audio track and set it to the correct virtual audio input and you’ve got the audio of your VST into Reason.

      1. Sure, you could follow that straightforward 25-step process. Alternately, you could use a real DAW that isn’t missing fundamental features that every other DAW on the market has had for 10+ years. Simple!

  7. Reason just became infinitely more useful with the ability to create REX files and integrate my MIDI setup. The work flow just makes sense to me when instruments aren’t barried in sub-menus and the back panel really invites tweaking. It also helps that I was able to upgrade from Adapted for $200. Wish me luck with this new/old DAW.

  10. Why is Reason such a controversial subject on this site? Every time it’s mentioned a flamewar begins.

    “Oh it’s rubbish, it’s got no VST support”
    “Rack extensions are rubbish!”
    “Get a proper DAW”

    What the hell guys? If you don’t like it don’t use it! It’s only software at the end of the day, why get so worked up about it?

    1. Reason gets hated everywhere not just this site. You always see whining from people who do not use it, they just pop up to whine. I don’t use Logic, Live etc. but I don’t pop up on every site to whine about those products. Props roll their own way and I think this is what upsets a lot of people. They think Reason should behave like other DAWS and do the exact same thing like other DAWS. Interesting thing is you would expect musicians to be a bit more welcoming of something different. After all is that what its about being an artist?

  11. Reason is great when you are first starting out. The racks are really logical, especially if you are coming from a guitar background and are used to plugging things in. I think especially a few years ago, it made a lot of sense to buy something that just worked out of the box and never crashed — for someone just starting to dip into computer music. The tools are easy to use and easy to understand if you are used to real world racks.

    I eventually got tired of trying to layer three synths together to get a warm sound out of it, and have since moved on to Ableton with AUs from Native Instruments, Arturia, and Madronna. I am having fun playing with Max for Live and Reactor. But, I don’t think I ever would have gotten there without starting with Reason. And, if Reason had allowed for external plug ins, I never would have left. So, here is my final comment:

    If you are new to electronic music, Reason is a great way to get started. You get all the tools you need to get going, and you are assured they will play well together. Wanna put a little guitar in there? Maybe a vocal rack? Excellent! But, you have to know that it probably won’t last you forever — the closed system just doesn’t work after a certain point.

  12. I’m not sure why people dislike the software. I make a living as a sound designer and have designed sound for a lot of top companies out there using nothing but Reason.

    I’ve been using it since 1.0. It’s the only thing I need for film scoring and sound design.

    But again everyone has their own comfort zone.

    Keep working with what works fellas

  13. I too feel Reason 8 just fails to provide what I need from available VSTs, specifically VST instruments– drums, synths. I like mixing in Reason and love the SSL but the VST instruments I prefer most are not available as Rack Extensions.

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