Reason 8 A ‘Radical Rethinking Of Reason’s Workflow’

Propellerhead-reason-8

Propellerhead Software today announced Reason 8 – a major new version of its virtual studio and digital audio workstation (DAW).

Reason 8 introduces a completely redesigned user interface and streamlined workflow that Propellerhead says ‘makes it easy to create amazing music, faster than ever.’

“For Reason 8, we’ve taken everything people love about Reason and introduced a streamlined new user interface,” says Propellerhead’s Leo Nathorst-Böös, “that makes it easier for new users to get started, and more fun for seasoned users to work faster.”

Here what’s new in Propellerhead Reason 8:

Reason 8 introduces a redesigned user interface with a whole new look and even smoother creative flow, while the new browser and search window provides immediate drag-and-drop access to inspiring samples, loops, and patches.

Expanding on Reason’s included collection of instruments and effects are the new amps from Softube, bringing a variety of first-class guitar and bass tones to the rack.

Workflow improvements make for a more streamlined music creation experience, allowing musicians and producers to move quickly from initial idea to a completed song.

Propellerhead Reason 8 UI Screenshots:

Pricing and Availability

Reason 8 will be available for purchase worldwide on September 30, 2014 at the following suggested retail pricing:

  • Reason 8 EUR €405 / USD $449
  • Reason Essentials 8 EUR €120 / USD $129
  • Reason 8 Upgrade (from any previous Reason version) EUR €129 / USD $129
  • Propellerhead is also offering a grace period for customers who purchased Reason 7 on or after July 1, 2014. Purchasing and registering a qualifying product today makes users eligible for a free upgrade to Reason 8 when it becomes available.

See the Propellerhead site for details and a FAQ.

82 thoughts on “Reason 8 A ‘Radical Rethinking Of Reason’s Workflow’”

  4. Damn!!!! I was hoping for an Ableton type clip launching thing for reason 8. Oh well, i guess I´ll just have tu buy/learn Live or Bitwig.

    1. Same, I have been waiting so long for this. I think it’s time to say goodbye to reason. I will come back if they ever do introduce a session view.

      1. I don’t understand this… Reason’s workflow is extremely different from Live, and you could always send midi clip or audio data from Live directly into Reason if you really wanted to marry the 2 workflows. I already do this all the time.

        I’m not necessarily ecstatic about this update, but homogenizing all DAWs into essentially the same product is not what I want either.

        1. Oh I know man and you´re totally right. Every DAW should do it´s own thing. But I´m stuck in the land of greek philosophers, meaning Logic and Reason, and I drool every time I see a video of a guy just jamming with a synth and a launchpad. Me wants!

          But I still don´t want to face the baffling task of learning another DAW.

  5. I’m very selective over which products I openly criticise, preferring to keep quiet on most things that don’t appeal, each to their own and all that, but every so often something so desperately cringe-worthliy terrible comes along that, well, I just have to say something, somewhere… so here goes:

    ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

    OK, that’s better, I hope those that do like this way of working have a lot of fun with it 😀

  6. These lot needs to sell the midi sequencer on its own for those of needing a simple , non bloat ware midi sequencer for our hardware. Go for it Propellorheads, Ill buy the first copy.
    Cubase and Ableton and reason etc contains so much that someone sequencing midi syntheiszers , samplers etc really has no need for.
    I know its an irritating gripe for some of you to hear , but cubase ran better in the eighties.
    So much down time with DAW’s or so many computer upgrades.
    Sell us just the sequencer come on be REASON able.

    2. Midi sequencing is in itself very 80s. I started out as an Atari kid as well, but things has moved on. Try Reason’s excellent audio quantization – you don’t even need MIDI if you can play your music’s parts. As for the sounds of hardware, we and other sound designers provide those in heavy doses. I have a giant synth collection but I rarely use MIDI these days.

      1. MIDI’s better if you want to be able to change the sound after you play, even if you don’t move a single one of the notes.

    3. *So much down time with DAW’s or so many computer upgrades.*

      Downtime ? If you don’t know how to run a computer, then maybe yeah there is downtime.
      Computer upgrades ? Why upgrade your computer if its running fine ?

      You sound like someone just complaining about something that shouldn’t be a problem.

      If you want a basic midi sequencer, then look at some of the Linux sequencers out there, some of them like Non can run on really small computers like the Raspberry PI

      http://non.tuxfamily.org/

    1. You know, I’m a devout Reason user, too. I LOVE Propellerhead’s Figure app, and the Thor app is great… but what’s the sense in a Thor app if you can only save patches??? AudioCopy and AudioPaste should be STANDARD for EVERY DAW app on the iPad.

      I see Figure being transformed into something much more expansive in time, where a user can go beyond recording 3 tracks, 8 bars, and the choice of samples will be much bigger. For now, I’ll keep audio pasting into LaunchPad…

    1. Yeah, and in a few years you won’t even bother to install the latest “free update” because you’ll have moved on from basic stuff….FL Studio is like a tax on noobs, if you don’t do your research you’ll blow some cash on it before moving on to a good daw.

      1. Yeah Like Avicii, Afrojack, Porter Robinson, Feed Me/Spor, Madeon, Savant, Seven Lions, Cazzette, MDL, The Flashbulb, Varien, Sarom Soundz, Tritonal, David Morris, Jayce Lewis, Richy Pena, Tom Swoon, Mayol Levi, Zardonic, Umet Ozcan, Dot Rotten and many more. (all using FL Studio) … and even BT.

        You calling these guys Noobs? You are the noob.

        1. Don’t forget Cell Dweller, Seamless, Martin Garrix, Ephixa, Veela (hotness), Mick Gordon who has scored Need 4 Speed and Crysis, Bear, Tom Ellard of Severed Heads, Bilain and Deadmau5.

          Trolls gotta troll tho don’t they 😛

  13. Also on Reason since ver 1: i think, that this update should be free. This isn’t anything new, it just makes an old interface a bit better.

  16. was looking for full recycle integration , and a rebirth “re”
    but they updated the browser which is a good thing cause that was very slow.
    drag and drop is def cool too.

  17. Also they are dropping the line6 amps from reason in 2016. Breaking the legendary reason backwards compatibility, if you own a refill with a great sound, you may not be able to use that in the future.

  18. I had been a Reason user since version 1 and while for many years I enjoyed tinkering with it, it wasn’t until I finally tried Ableton two years ago that I really began to have fun and easily do many things I had been struggling to do in Reason. The clip launching feature (session view) allowed me to experiment in a much more dynamic way, making all else seem outdated. I am just a dabbler, though, and have only scratched the surface of Reason and Ableton, but Ableton’s session view just seems so intuitive compared to anything else I’ve seen.

    Also, I initially strayed from Propellerheads to Native Instruments because Reason’s intrument selection interface seemed really awkward and disorganized. It required a lot of work to organize sounds, in my opinion. I don’t know if they’ve improved that in the last couple versions or not.

    1. I know.. They say they putting the flow back in work flow.. but they are a few years behind with this.. but any upgrade they do, no matter how little it is, it’s enough for their fan base to drool over

  22. Tells the truth here I already know the other guy had a page on facebook and you copy all topics of his page as you are doing now so he created this page Shittopia

    You should be ashamed

  24. i love Reason but…this is a major paid update? wtf? this is more like a point release man…i hope there’s more features that they didn’t mention because this is pretty much awful. The Softube amps could be interesting as Softube makes the most “premium” REs in the propshop but a new amp is about the least exciting kind of plugin i can think of. Usually I can’t wait to get the latest version of Reason but this one I’ll wait for a sale if I buy it at all.

  28. I’ve been looking forward to an update but I agree with 90 % of the comments above. I hoped they would have included some kind of dock and/or rack device to hook up and incorporate Figure…

  29. I’ll get downvoted, but whatever. It’s almost a badge of honor around here.

    The workflow changes *seem* to be pretty major improvements (a ReFill/sound browser, “tabbed’ switching between the main views, and drag & drop). That these changes might be long overdue to you doesn’t mean the upgrade should be free (aka it is worth nothing). It may be worth nothing to you, and that’s fine. There are plenty of DAWs in the sea. But some of us appreciate these changes and think that they are likely to be worth the price. Also, people have to code and QA anything new that goes in. That stuff doesn’t take place for free.

    If you need flashier stuff with each upgrade, you’d better head to Bitwig. Being new to the game. they have more catching up and innovating to do, and they’re likely to have major additions in the next few versions of their software. But, oh no! What happens when their DAW also becomes mature and they can’t add new rainbows and fireworks to it with every version? Hopefully, a shiny new DAW will pop up by then, or there’ll be the same ton of bellyaching here that there is for this.

    1. Hopefully this is part of a two part overhaul like when they released Record first and then later combined it with Reason. Maybe they have some final goal that they want to gradually get to over a few versions. The 7.1 update seemed to add some new possibilities to the RE interfaces which haven’t really been used yet except for that one LFO plug. Now this drag and drop stuff also seems super minor but maybe in another two or three versions we’ll see where they are going with it. As it stands right now though this update is a real head scratcher. Dragging samples into kong instead of browsing for them? Dropping REs into the sequencer instead of that rack? Ok, that’s neat but not worth 130 bucks.

      1. OK..IT SOUND’S LIKE A GOOD IDEA BUUUUUUUT…IF THAT IS ALL THEY GOING TO DO FOR 130 BUCK’S THEN NOOOOOOO..THEY COULD UP GRADE THE SSL DESK..AND ALL THE RE..LIKE CHANGING THE WAY YOU CAN CLICK AND MOVE THE SOUND LVL OR EQ LVL SO I WON’T HAVE TO USE MY MOUSE AND OVER AND UNDER EQ SO IF I NEED TO GO UP OR DOWN 10 OR 15 DB THEN I CAN BECAUSE WHEN I AM WORKING ON THE SOUND OF MY TRACK’S THEN I WON’T HAVE TO OVER EQ OR UNDER EQ MY SOUND…

  31. Instant passing of judgment before any hands-on experience – seems like y’all just don’t like Reason in the first place. As for myself, I’ll wait until I get my hands on & work with 8 to evaluate it. As a long time Reason user, I can say this: if the interface has been improved to the point where doing things that take multiple clicks & fiddling about with dialogs in 7 now takes a single click or single drag/drop in 8, that’s a good thing in my book and worthy of the update price. Reason’s workflow is already well matched to the way I work, so, faster is a win for me.

    Also: those Line 6 amp/cab sim devices are OK but not great, they came about as a result of the business partnership between Props and Line 6 a while ago. That relationship is now defunct, and if the new amp/cab sims coming with 8 are even a small amount better than the Line 6 devices, that’s fine in my book. (Though I don’t understand why, instead of jettisoning them from the product line altogether, they don’t work out a deal with Line 6 to convert them into regular REs instead … if they really eliminate them from the product, it will be the first instance of a case where a Reason device available in previous versions is not available in later versions.)

    1. maybe the softube amp will be designed to seamlessly replace the line6 amps in old projects, which would keep backwards compatibility. but should users really be expected to pay for this like it’s some kind of “upgrade”?

      1. It’s an upgrade, no matter what punctuation you put around it. Those of us who think the workflow improvements are useful will pay. Those who don’t and instead need a new instrument or effect with every update won’t. Pretty straightforward.

            1. Maybe if they post a demo video of somebody building a track from scratch it will show how all these little improvements add up. I’m all for an upgrade with just workflow improvement but I don’t see what is so new about some of this stuff. I mean you could already collapse the mixer frame or rack etc. so how is that even new? Dragging samples onto Kong is nice but 90% of using Kong is just loading complete kits, one time you set up all the samples then the rest of the time you just load the kit you saved, so while that is nice it’s not like you build new kits in kong every day. I don’t know man, I just don’t get it.

      2. You would think:

        From the FAQs page on propeller heads.se:

        “With the new guitar amps coming in Reason 8, what happens with the Line 6 amps?
        In addition to the new guitar and bass amp devices introduced in Reason 8 and Reason Essentials 8, the Line 6 Guitar and Bass devices are still available. Please Note: In order to support future product development, the Line 6 guitar and bass amp devices will no longer be available in the Reason rack by October 2016. In order to prevent any future compatibility issues, Propellerhead recommends that you render to audio any tracks that use the Line 6 devices. Alternative amp models will be available in Reason 8 and later.”

        Oh well.

  33. I’ve been a Reason user since the beginning. (though I haven’t touched it more than twice in over a year, since I bought some hardware and unchained myself from the computer). Propheads should focus on figuring out how to make the Reason GUI scalable, or at least larger, so it isn’t so damn tedious to use and look at. Drag-n-drop means very little to me, but an interface that could be enlarged would blow my socks off.

  34. Wow, they realize their workflow is crap, so they fix it and call it an upgrade. I call it a patch to fix your broken workflow. Squash that workflow bug!

  35. I remember when Ernest(PH CEO) said we want MORE, well where is this more now? I cant find it in Reason 8..Not impressed Ernest!! _ ^ _

  36. Exactly !!!

    I have 6.5.3 and checking…7 8 or 9 or 10 😉 hopefully with some
    MIDI PLUG-INS etc…(see Cubase )…. Agree – Reason GUI scalable – Please !!!
    R 8 should be a free update !! –
    Wow …so many RE in the shop….Have you gone over a 1000$$$ already???
    If so you will probably stay with Reason forever wont you???
    Never-ending Love….oohhhhhh

    Lovely….;-)

  37. All Reason platforms are a joke. Good for beginners who know absolutely nothing about hardware. Worst sequencer (if you can call it that) ever for Professionals. Why? Propellerhead has been BSh$tting us since Reason 5 claiming it would become a full DAW with full plugin (VST/AU/DX) support. Propellerhead has a lot of nerve claiming Reason 7 or 8 is a DAW with Record because there is still 0 support for 3rd party plugins. Wake up Noobs and join the professional world of digital audio recording. Your missing out on ProjectSAM, Vir2, 8Dio, Cinesamples, Spitfire Audio, Kurt Hunter Studios, Big Fish Audio, Best Service, Native Instruments. Spectrasonics, Waves, Brainworx and the list goes on and on!

    1. In all honesty man, apples to apples.

      I just think of Reason as a one plugin that can do many cool things via rewire, and it´s less than half as much as ProjectSam, EWQL, etc… and about the same as the Big Fish Audio stuff. It comes with great synths, drum machines and a but load of samples. If you think of how much comes under the hood of this thing it´s pretty much a bargain.

      The only thing that I would say comes near in value for money would be the NI Komplete stuff, which is also great.

    2. A professional is someone who make a living with the tools and skill they have and there are lots of people making a living with Reason. Are you really here ranting that the sequencer is not for Pros because its not feature bloated like half the stuff out there. Are you being serious here? I saw Chromeo using a very basic sequencer and begging for someone to write a version that can work on modern OS. A version of the same very basic sequencer. Last time I check they were pros i.e. making a living off their craft.

      Are you actually making a living with all the Pro plugins and sequencer you have at your disposal? If so links to your album or credits to work you have will be appreciated.

      1. I would guess he’s a software pirate arrgg. Probably just butthurt that he can’t download a cracked version of reason 6+.

  39. You can get 10 high quality VSTs from Arturia’s V-collection for $199usd. Same type of rack extensions will set you back over $1000usd+ and you can only use them in Reason. THAt’s nuts. They should be priced like apps. I never upgraded from 6.02 because I hate they went all cashgrab like they did, just offering what should be free service packs instead of priced upgrades. Seeing how they offered nothing new for 10+ years and got away with it, its amazing they took this route and still make a profit. Its like resetting your entire user base. No one makes refills for ver 6 and below anymore. This new update is simply them knocking off 10 new features or so from the list they have accumulated over the past 10 years. Very lazy. No new sounds for long time users, no new nothing for long time users.

    The only reason I still use…..Reason….is that I have invested a lot into it and do not have the time to learn a whole new way or producing music, so version 6.02 will last me for awhile. The competition is way to good now. I know people who have bailed and new potential customers who just can’t see pouring all that money into something that is still closed off. I hope Propellerhead gets it together. And my lord, the disgruntled Balance buyers out there….oh my….

    1. “… they offered nothing new for 10+ years and got away with it …”

      Reason 3, 2004: Combinator device.
      Reason 4, 2007: Thor synth, ReGroove template device, interface overhaul.
      Reason 5, 2009: Kong & OctoRex, Blocks pattern editing tool
      Record 1, 2009: Audio recording/editing/sequencing.
      Reason 6: Reason/Record merged into one product, ID-8 / Alligator / Pulverizer / The Echo devices.
      Reason 6.5: Rack Extensions open the product to 3rd party vendors.
      Reason 7: MIDI Out device, many new Propellerhead-created REs.
      Reason 8: TBD (we don’t really know yet just what they’ve done, other than the minimal video tease that’s got everyone’s knickers in a twist.)

      Oh, maybe you mean other DAWs did all of this as of 2004. You could make a case for this… but I don’t think you’ll find a DAW that’s as fully integrated nor as stable as Reason.

      1. That’s what you call playing catch up to the competition at a leisurely pace. It wasn’t until I started visiting other studios and setups out there that I realized this. If you stay just within Propellerheads world you won’t think about these things I guess.

        Stable is wonderful. Lazy is another thing.

  40. Man things are getting weird over at the Reason User Forum. All the users are changing their avatar pictures to pineapples as a show of solidarity (theres a pineapple in the reason 8 promo image). It really is like a cult or something, fkn weird. I think I’ll take a break from visiting PUF for a while…

      1. He’s right. They do not want to hear one single negative thing about Reason or they will jump all over you. Stopped visiting their awhile ago. Reminds me of Mac forums.

  41. ive heard this from a guy trying beta version of r8
    and the features introduced in the 2 min promotion clip is actually only and everything they offer for this update
    “drag and drop thing” for $130 unomsayn?

  42. im speaking for a lot of people here , when i say the new changes are welcome , but as a major upgrade , clever marketing won’t cut it. reason is a great program and but don’t insult your buyers intelligence. this should have been a silent upgrade 7.5 .

    i have this gnawing feeling that props is going to sell to apple. (this is not happening just a feeling)
    text on version 8 looks very ios

    anyway peace

  44. I’ve just discovered that songs created in Reason 8 aren’t backwards compatible to 7.The upgrade to 8 just isn’t worth the money for what is essentially a tweak here and there

  45. I am hoping that Propellerhead finally picked up on Ableton’s ease of sample access, being able to drag mp3/wav into the DAW, not having the library reset to step one every time. I hope they’ve also got the hellish transport that doesn’t return to the last starting point taken care of. Reason has always been interesting but once Live came out and improved rapidly, Reason became a royal pain in the ass to use. I think if they can pick up why Live is so quick to create with and make it easier to maneuver, it should be great, especially rewired to Live.

    *I also hope they use hard data like Live on their unit parameters. Not 0-127 abstraction that doesn’t actually mean anything.

  46. You guys are getting so caught up in the whole DAW system. It doesn’t matter which DAW you use. I have seen guys produce amazing stuff with just Reason 3. Thats old school. Yes this update is a little small and should have been free, but make the most of the DAW you’re using today.

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