Reason 13 is GREAT and I can't recommend it

I say this as somewhat of a Reason fanboy but I still maintain there are no hard barriers to making music in Reason. A lot of things people wanna see from other DAWs are like, nice/impressive/whatever. But the actual business of composing, recording and editing notes and audio...you can do that, right now. I've made what I consider some of my best music in Reason despite having access to basically every other DAW. That said, I am in the process of moving mostly over to Cubase 13 Pro. 13 Reason versions in and I'm still waiting to be able to hear long notes without having to play the note-on message (note chase). Still waiting for some kind of means to organise my tracks (folders). Still waiting for user definable hotkeys. More colours. A dark mixer. Re-pitch time stretch mode. Audio pitch envelopes. MIDI note feedback on arrow selection + nudging. Punch in. I absolutely do not underestimate the work that goes into software development, but if we've waited literally years to get option/alt+click to collapse/expand all device vendors, I really don't know how much longer I'd have to wait to get these other things, especially if I don't even know if they're a priority to RS. I do hope that what they've done here is lay the groundwork for more significant changes in the future. It wouldn't make sense to implement X, Y and Z only to then change the sequencer layout/workflow and create more work for themselves. And I believe there was some hinting at that in their recent BTS video. And I will end by saying I'm still using Reason to compose. For certain styles of music, it's pretty hard to beat IMO. But for bigger projects where I need those kinds of industry standard QoL features that just aren't being requested by RS's focus groups...makes no sense to wait for em.

Fl studio just released an update with a similar stereo tool, a new synth and more stuff than I care to list, not to mention the 20 other updates in the last few years. There is more stuff in the last update than the last two versions of Reason. Plus they got rid of fav lists for external VSTs and their thumbnails making it way slower for me, I don't search with tags very often. I'll stick with 12 for now lol

I used to teach Reason at a college.... but their customer service was horrific. They did not care at all about their customers and were absolutely no help when we had issues. For instance, we had purchased a multi-pack license which contained 10 licenses. The rub is rack extensions did not work with the multi-pack version. And when we asked about an upgrade path so we could get rack extensions their reply was there is none.... so to get access to rack extensions we would have to re-purchase Reason at full price. WTF?! We complained and they did not care.... so we stopped teaching Reason and took it out of our program.... Does Reason still save their audio files into the Reason song file? If so, that is crap. I love Reason but hate.... I detest the people that run the company.

Wasn't the main selling point of Reason 11 that the Browser was fully improved? They're selling that again as a main selling point only 2 versions later? What the...!? Sequencer Upgrade is another selling point on this upgrade...all they did was move the Edit Options from above the Piano Roll to the side of the Piano Roll. What the...!? Another selling point is "It looks good". Looks the same as Reason 12 to me. What the...!? Added Rack Extensions...those have nothing to do with Reason 13 update, hard pass. I'm sure they all can be used in Reason 12. What the...!?

Maybe Reason Should give it up as a DAW!? Focus on making it a reason rack! I 100% agree! Ive thought this for so long now. You definitely are on the same page as me!

i've been waiting for your opinion. you can say that again. i can't recommend reason13 either, but i still love reason.

As a Reason / Ableton user myself I can only say this: Reason has always been always a few steps behind the competition and therefor every update will have a mixed bag of feelings. Especially the new sequencer workflow got me frustrated at first. Now I kind of adapted to the concept (because I am partially a potato and I have no idea what I am doing... so that makes perfect sense for me). The click areas you mentioned, yes... that is spot on. I sometimes scream at my screen like 'wtf man'. Then I grow up again, and start clicking on the proper spot. I am still abit surprised that this wasn't mentioned during the beta test phase (or addressed). But this comes simply because the sequencer of Reason Pre 13 simply didn't have this issue at all. After some weeks I somehow got used to things as they are now. But I guess ReasonStudios already gets a lot of feedback related to this update. So they can address issues with patches / updates for Reason 13 now. At least lets hope. Anyway, awesome constructive critism. I am somewhere on the same lines as you mentioned. I adapted to be handicapped.

"I think reason should change their business model: I've been thinking this since reason 5 and it hasn't changed.. I'm genuinely surprised it's still in business

Hey now, nice to see you back : I quit reason and never upgraded from 11 to 13 and a reason is the f*****g browser driving me absolutely bunkers, among other s**t like pricing REASON may R.I.P. I will use 11 as a plugin and nothing more .... Cheers 🥂

Bro, a Matt video on Reason? Christmas came early!

👏🏻 I agree. It’s unfortunate as I remember when they started and they were such a great team. But yeah.

I was so disappointed that they still haven't updated a simple thing like color swatches. It still comes with a bare minimum of color swatches.

I really feel like they half A things. Take mimic as an example. It had time stretch, chopping, beat sync, but all of these are different t modes. You can’t auto stretch a sample you are chopping to the beat. Most importantly, you can’t affect slices individually. All the technology is in the device to do this, but it affects the whole sample instead of slices. I should be able to reverse, pitch and filter individual slices. I should be able to independently stretch slices. I should be able to tempo match the entire sample to the beat in slice mode. But no, they take the laziest possible implementation of it, which makes a potentially cool device pointless

Good to see You back, and hear your opinions I dont lime the 12 sequencer I was always getting lost and the resize bar was annoying, so I think the split view in 13 is good and reminds Me of Ableton. The tools I never knew where they was in 12 and never used them either same as You, however I won't be switching DAWs. I want to be able to independently zoom the rack quickly but cant, I also want stem separation.

Reason has gone from a second-rate DAW to borderline irrelevant. As a plugin, it's cool but as a DAW it can't compete with the likes of Ableton Live, FL Studio, Cubase, Studio One or even Bitwig and Tracktion Waveform. New devices just don't cut it. It's not 2008 anymore. The aforementioned companies seem to add major quality of life improvements with each iteration. Reason adds a Poly synth like we don't have 500 synth plugins already. Reason has lost me because they consistently overprice under deliver. If Bitwig doesn't get their s**t together , and start listening to user feedback, they'll be next.

There is no DAW that for me feels even close being as creative and fun as Reason. For creating music that is. I mix in UAD Luna and Studio One (depending on the mixing tools I use) since Reason is too cluttered for that. Also I want a classic channels - busses - mixbus setup. But the quality of the instruments and effects in Reason are amazing and they actually had proper mastering tools built in for years, which many daws hasn't had. Anyway, for me Reason is my songwriting tool since I can have full screen view of all instruments and just can unfold the one I'm working on. Also you find creative solutions by connecting cables on the backside.

I love Reason. It was my first. I have a special bond with it. But the workflow in standalone, as a proper DAW with arranger, the workflow just provides too much friction. It's not intuitive, not even after years of use. Workflow in Ableton Live is the opposite. Live is fast, easy, flexible.

this should be a free update... embarrassing

No way I pay 200 for upgrading from 12 to 13, for a delay, a synth I don’t need and a browser update that should be free because it finally became what it was supposed to be in first place in Reason 12. 99$ max

I agree with a lot of what you have said, and I'm sure a lot of other people do too.