Reason 9.5 Adds VST Support

Propellerhead today announced Reason 9.5, an update to its DAW that adds support for VSTs.

The update is currently in beta testing and is expected to be released May 29, 2017. It will be a free update for existing users.

Check out the details and let us know what you think!

Propellerhead shared these FAQ’s for Reason 9.5 VST support:

Now that Reason has VST support, will you kill the Rack Extension technology?

Absolutely not! Reason now supports two plugin formats and Rack Extensions will remain a key Reason technology. In fact, combining VSTs and Rack Extensions open up fantastic music making possibilities! Having VSTs in the rack will let us focus our development of the Rack Extension platform even more.

Will Reason 9.5 support all VST plugins?

Reason’s VST implementation is based on VST 2.4. Any 2.4 compliant instrument or effect plugin (that’s just about every VST out there) will work in Reason.

Can I use VSTs with other Reason devices?

Sure! In that regard, there is no difference between VSTs and other Reason devices. Play them with Players, put them in combinators, add Reason effects, patch audio and CV to them – just like you always do in Reason. The only difference is that the VST plugins open in a separate window.

How are VSTs used in Reason 9.5?

Reason will find any VST plugin that you have installed on your computer. The VST plugins can then be found among Reason’s own devices and Rack Extensions in the browser. Drag your desired instrument or effect to the rack and it’s there! VST plugins live inside the new plugin host device in the rack. This is where you can route audio and CV and open the plugin’s own window.

How does the delay compensation work?

Some effects in a signal chain will introduce delay in the timing. With the delay compensation on, Reason will calculate the total delay in each signal path and adjust the timing of each discrete signal path accordingly, to assure perfectly timed, phase correct playback. The adjustment is automatic but can also be set manually for each mixer channel.

What about stability? Will Reason be less stable now?

We’ve implemented a limited crash protection system for VSTs that means we attempt to detect crashes in the VST and prevent the plugin from crashing Reason. Since VST plugins are third-party code, it is still possible to experience problems with plugins. Keep in mind that our VST support in Reason in itself doesn’t make the application less stable if you don’t have or use any VST plugins.

What are the system requirements?

The minimum requirements are listed below. Please note that using third party plugins can require significantly higher performance, and that some third party plugins come with different minimum requirements than these.

Mac OS X:

Fast, stable internet connection for installation and registration required!
Intel Mac with dual core processor
4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended for large ReFills or Rack Extensions)
4 GB free hard disk space (program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space)
Mac OS X 10.7 or later (64-bit)
Monitor with at least 1280×768 resolution
CoreAudio compliant audio interface or built-in audio hardware
MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended

Windows:

Fast, stable internet connection for installation and registration required!
Intel or AMD processor with dual cores
4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended for large ReFills or Rack Extensions)
4 GB free hard disk space (program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space)
Windows 7 or later (64-bit)
Monitor with at least 1280×768 resolution
Audio Interface with ASIO driver
MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended

For more information, see the Propellerhead site.

49 thoughts on “Reason 9.5 Adds VST Support”

  1. My feet are cold from a suddenly freezing of the depths. If they’d done this sooner, I would have kept upgrading after 5…

      1. still gotta pay for 8, i imagine – otherwise ill update just cus its free!

        not that ill ever use it again, but if i can skip paying for the upgrades then ill update now, wait till version 13 or so to open it again and get 4 years worth of paid upgrades for free again!

        1. Note that it is not a free “upgrade” for everybody. What I meant in my previous post is that the upgrade price is the same for everybody with any older version ( version < 9)

  2. Hot diggity! They finally pulled it off and with no teasers. This is massive, like now having the ability to use massive vst in reason. Reason is amazing without vst’s, this just tears the roof off.

    2. Its in free-fall on the DAW user-base rankings, this is an attempt to turn the tide. I hope it works our for PH but I feel it’s too late.

  4. Wait, there was major audio tool without VST? When e.g. simple Wavosaur does have it? OK, good for you. 🙂 Now, VST3 for Live! 😉 (different company I know)

  5. Reason became a well established DAW for their rack technology. To introduce VST if at all, would be a conflict of interest since they have an entire store dedicated to Reason-specific VST’s. So they are like 5 years too early in my opinion. If their Rack Extensions sucked, then it would be 10 years too late but they are pretty awesome.
    Everyone can grab a DAW and throw in your VST’s and rock on. But reason bought a lot of other fun functionality with patching and the SSL mixer and a billion other things, not to mention a solid interface that doesnt make you feel like your on the Starship enterprise when your trying to mix “cough cough Logic, Cubase, Pro Tools”.

    Only someone who hasn’t use reason would see “no VST’s” and bail quickly. But for the guy who isnt willing to spend trillions or pirate VST’s, reason is pretty hefty out of the box and with the patch-ability, you would have much to do from day one. Cant say the same for other DAW’s. Maybe FruityLoops. Ableton Operator? Give me a break. Logic Pro soft instruments, hahahahahaha. Cubase can eat a D on instruments. Everyone in the world isnt popping in Serum Presets.

    1. Totally agree. I used Reason since version 2 standalone for quite some time. And I was always convinced by its modular concept – because it’s just like connecting hardware or a modular synth. Later I got some hardware and it sucked that I wasn’t able to integrate it. So I got Cubase, later Ableton, both with ReWire. Sucked. And those programs where just too complicated to get used to sufficiently (compared to Reason) and I didn’t have the time or patience to do so.
      Then came Record – Audio, yeah. But still you needed to control hardware with another DAW.
      Then came Midi out – and I was totally fine – until today. I didn’t even use much Rack Extensions. As you said, the out-of-the-box content is already sufficient to do fine. So why care about missing VST? In the end – the only VST plugins I was missing were for advanced hardware control – for my ERM Multiclock and Overbridge for AnalogRYTM.
      If those are supported now, I’ll get whatever I need in Reason, with all the benefits of it!

    2. Logic Pro X has the Alchemy synth now, which blows the doors off of Thor, Maelstrom and Subtractor combined. I own Reason and I use it, but your statement about Logic is false. Alchemy is the best sounding soft synth around and the feature list is as loaded as they come.

  7. Once people get over the fact that the props have finally introduced VST’s (well done for keeping a secret in this industry) I think the elephant in the room may well be that its not that good a DAW…..windows, fiddly GUI , a rack paradigm that is outdated and far better served by (for example) live or Bigwig racks… Personally I would have loved to see Reason ‘as a VST’ (a powerful modular type plug in) rather than as a VST host….I have that covered thanks- most people do.

    1. It seems that people want all DAW’s to evolve to be the same.

      I like that Reason uses a virtual studio paradigm, and it manages to be very easy to use while also being being very powerful and probably more stable than other DAW’s.

      VST support is nice – but it does break the Rack paradigm. I do wonder what this will mean for the future of the RE format.

  8. Finally. This is what many have been asking for for a long time. Let’s hope the implementation doesn’t leave anything to be desired.
    Thanks propellerhead!

  10. It is good news, but I still struggle with the fiddliness of it all ever since they introduced audio. Nice mixing potential but tough to get around all the Windows in a fluid way as in Logic. I will get used to it, if only to finish off a bunch of old, abandoned projects.

  11. oh reason i love you always but was behind the no vst thing. oh well.
    would have like a full version of recycle inside reason instead along with rebirth
    . makes no sense. to me but thats why i still like version 5

    the large mixer while sounding well. killed the user interface of the program.

    again oh well.

    1. but im sure lots of people will be happy and it looks like it integrates nicely
      i wish they can fix the huge mixer thing tho. ui needs work in my opinion.

      this may be a good way to figure out how to fully and quickly port to rack extensions which is a great idea and great format.

      so far im still on 5 tho.

  12. This will turn Reason into just another DAW; equal and boring product as all the others in the market. It’s the end of Reason. Bad move.

    1. On the contrary– people getting into music now shopping around for DAWs always compare included content and features and Reason having a check mark next to VST support bumps up its appeal a few more pegs. I personally think this feature alone is enough to warrant giving them the $130 for the upgrade. Without question.

    2. I don’t think so. I’m quite sure that the main thing that attracted people to Reason was not the fact that they had their own virtual instrument standard. The main thing about Reason is the workflow, which is centered around this feeling of working with real hardware in a studio. Which is quite different from other DAWs. No need to open up a manual if you want to modulate one thing with another, just turn the rack around and voila…

  13. This update is huge…. I am so excited! As soon as I upgrade my computer ram I’m downloading instantly!!!!! So exciting!

  15. KORG – MAKE ANOTHER VERSION OF YOUR MICROKONTROL PLZ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    ONE WITH BETTER PANNING AND BETTER PADS. KEEP SAME FORM FACTOR!!!!

  16. My introduction to the world of softsynths was initially through Reason 1.0. I loved it, but I eventually felt too restricted not being able to use VSTs. As time went on, I moved on to Ableton which I love because I can load a sh*t ton of VSTs and continue writing and producing with no loss of CPU power. Unlike Pro Tools which starts hiccuping after adding 8 instances of AAX softsynths on my 3.4 Ghz i5 iMac, I hope the new Reason VST upgrade will allow multiple instances of many VST’s without crapping out on CPU power. I used to love the workflow in Reason, good move IMO.

  17. I’m wondering if Reason supports Polyphonic After Touch now because the V7 I have doesn’t.
    I bought Reaper for that because the VST ME80 is a fantastic CS80 with a PAT keyboard. Live also doesn’t still supports PAT…

    1. Live really doesn’t support poly pressure?
      Logic does and it works great with its ES2 synth!!
      By the way, what keyboard do you use for it? I have the QuNexus and Xkey but they’re a bit small…

  18. This legitimately makes me interested in investing into Reason again. Was a big fan of Reason up to version 6 but after moving on to stuff like Ableton and Cubase, Reasons lack of third party support sorta put it out to pasture for me. That said I still vastly prefer the overall format of Reason to other DAWs and this makes me wanna dive back in and check it out.

    I’ve seen comments about how this would undermine their Rack Extensions but I don’t really think that’s a concern. If people like the Rack Extensions, they’ll keep using them and now users have the option of one or the other or even a combination of the two.

    1. Same here. I was a huge user of reason from versions 3 until 5, even have the Reason logo tattooed on my back shoulder because making music in Reason was such a hugely defining part of when I entered adulthood. But I took a break from producing for a few years. Now just a month or two ago I got back into the swing of producing, except with Ableton instead because of the VST support (and price tag to get back into Reason 9!)… XFER Serum is my favorite synth right now, and now that I know I can keep my expensive VST synth and jump back into Reason I am highly highly tempted to bite the bullet. Hope I havent missed out on too much. I never used Reason after 5 which means I’ve never even tried it with direct audio clips OR the rack marketplace! I’m giddy with anticipation to see what has changed or been added in the last 7 years

  20. I just can’t believe Behringer are doing this, I mean who do they think they are taking someone else’s idea and… oh wait…..

  21. The fact that this is 9.5 tells me there’s more to come…Reason is a brilliant platform, with Reasons unique structure this will be more that interesting…Renoise Redux, Sonic Charge, Sound Hack, D.Blue Glitch…all my faves will finally get to go modular ? what is not to love and be excited about. Reason 10? I think will go even further…Reason looks to claim their Modular legacy.finally??

  23. For those stating this will undermine rack extensions. I think not. For instance : Now you can route your Komplete instruments through the Player extension or if you have it, Auto Theory. I also LOVE the leveler from Selig and ill be able to use that with a shit ton of my instruments in Reason. This actually makes me want to get MORE rack extensions to play along with my VSTs. Also you WILL be able to route your VSTs like the regular instruments. They go into the rack just like any other Reason instrument. It does have its typical vst UI when opened, but when closed its plopped in there just like the rest of them. This is such a great step forward – so much so that I signed up for the beta. Waiting for my confirmation.

  24. Love it, I’ve been using Reason since ver.1 and this update is just icing on top the cake.
    Btw; Also use Logic Pro X, Cubase 9.5, Live 9 and Waveform, but always get back to Reason… 🙂
    Love It even more than before.

    1. Who are you and do you work for Propellerhead?
      I just went through 30 comments to see any info about Audio Units.
      This is a deal breaker for me.
      Why is there no info about any other Plug In formats being supported in Reason 9.5?
      Please please write me back.

  27. Can’t thank you guys enough for unlimited possibilities with reason 9.5 I can hardly wait. So many of my buddies brag about logic pro software because of the vst plugins that’s available but now us reason users can do the same thing

  28. This is big news. Finally, VST support.
    Now I can use all my VST plugins from Eventide, Waves, Artura, Native Instruments, PSP Audioware, Korg, AAS, and others within Reason.

  29. Oh wow. I am REALLY excited by this. I’m still on Reason 7, and I’ve been trying Reaper to explore VSTs a bit, but Reason has always been my go-to, and it looks like it’ll stay that way for some time.

  30. Reason only really had an advantage when people were still trying to transition from hardware to software. You’d always see these old geezers from the 80s saying “I love reason cuz it’s just like being in my old studio from 1988” etc. but now there is a whole generation of people that grew up in a post-studio world and just don’t care. At this point, Reason is a neat novelty to fiddle with, but am I really going to commit to making a project in it? No, I’ll use Logic for that.

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