Reason 4 Forever

[AlienJunk]

Ok not really. But I have been reflecting on the thousands of compositions I have started over the 6 years since I got into digital music, and the most well-formed and captivating songs were alll done in Reason 4.

Sure the sound quality isnt as good, but I attribute that to my ear developing over time. But with the later versions of Reason, it often feels that Im crippled by choices. I get stuck on audio (guitar, and random manipulation).I dive onto Synchronous and Alligator too much and things get messy. I must have about 25 or more RE's that distract me.

And now that a new version is soon upon us, I will have a whole new bunch of crap to tempt me. Jumping from 7 to 9, so thats more or less almost one whole proper version update.

Its not that I dont enjoy the process... i love spending dozens of hours a week just fooling around. But im not achieving much. Shit some nights I work for hours and never even save the project.

Its interesting to note that my creativity comes from limitations, but its hard to be disciplined enough to keep the rack simple, using only tools from the Reason 4 days.

Those 'players' seem a bit gimmicky but im sure to get sucked in by them. Really though, im looking forward to the few things that will actually enhance songwriting flow for me. The extended color pallet will be great. The new style of drag and drop browsing will be cool (I despised the idea on release because of no 'undo' but i believe thats fixed. Thats it for version 8 and my interest.

For Reason 9, if im to understand whats coming, im going to love the pitch editing, the audio to MIDI (but I dont have high hopes) and being able to reverse automation clips. So between all of those features, its not too bad (vut bot great) for a couple of hundred bucks on an upgrade license

[TritoneAddiction]

I can see what you mean. Working with limitations can be a great thing for sure.
Since I bought Reason 7 (my current version) I've gotten myself into the whole Rack Extension thing. It started with a modest 3 REs and now I'm somewhere around 45, though some were free or I've managed to win in Song Challenges here at Reasontalk.
But right now it's time to stick with what I've got for a while. But the worst part is I've said that everytime I've bought a new RE

I still work with limitations though, like just using a newly bought synth for a whole song just to learn it and get rid of endless decision making.

[dana]

Open in demo mode, no REs but you can save. Problem solved.