Low latency Reason + VSTs. I documented it for myself so I don't forget, maybe useful for others

[bboyza]

Keep in mind that I don't have much money to work with and I already owned an old M-Audio Firewire 410. Any other sound interface should do.
I had another setup that worked, but the latency was terrible. The latency of this particular setup is virtually non-existent and sounds great.
Reason is awesome, but without VSTs it can turn many away, Propellerheads likely won't approve of a post like this because for them it's all about Rack Extensions, but if this can help a future music producer stick with Reason and rise up, I hope all will be forgiven!

Basic Overview:

• Reason audio preference using sound interface (in my case an old M-Audio Firewire 410)
• Use External Midi Instrument in Reason with MIDI out into a program called loopMIDI (free)
• VST host Cantabile Lite (free), takes loopMIDI in, runs it through the VST and then outputs to my onboard soundcard (not my sound interface because I was getting too much latency). onboard soundcard installed drivers are ASIO4ALL.
  run a cable from my back of my PC's onboard soundcard to my line in on my Sound interface (M-Audio Firewire) which then is picked up in Reason.
• Use an Audio Track in Reason and hit record when you want to bounce what you hear to the sequencer (this is required before you export otherwise it won't come through into the final wav).

Detailed settings and setup (Open in new tab or save as if you can't see it):

[Dante]

Classic hardware loopback - used similar this in the 90's when I had both a Yamaha XG and Soundblaster sound cards. Fed the output from the XG into the line in of the Soundblaster.

Then came the Yamaha SW1000XG - which had loopback on board so no external cable needed.

[Redster]

Great image there, explains the process well! Good job.

Lord I miss my old SW1000XG. Why don't they do that sorta thing anymore? XGEdit was awesomesauce!

[mcatalao]

I do it all internally, and it's quite fast too.

[Lizard]

This is a nice set up and a nice diagram. It explains a lot for those who haven't tried audio loopback. Like mcatalao I also do it internally. There are several hardware devices now that offer internal audio loopback. Focusrite has a few models and I think RME has a few now too. However not even this is really necessary these days. Like you I use a MIDI loopack software. I bounce back and forth between LoopBe and LOOPMIDI. Both get the job done.

For a simple software that handles just VST I use Hermann Seib's stuff. I'll either use SaviHost (which is a stand alone for a VST) or I'll use VSTHost (which is an environment to host multiple VST). Often I use VSTHost as I will have multiple tracks. Each VST can be assigned a MIDI source from your EMI Devices. There are no tracking and sequencer elements to worry about or anything which is great actually.

What I like about both of these softwares though is there is a simple WAV recorder built in. There really is no need to run two audio cards or devices. Some may have them but many don't. VSTHost will record the audio from within the program and then save it in WAV format. After it is recorded you just simply import into an Audio track in Reason, trim the beginning and adjust its timing / start point. You may be put off by having to import and adjust the wave file but truthfully (pending the latency) you would probably be doing adjusting anyway. Another grand benefit of this is that you would probably get the cleanest audio by recording it's digital output over running through another sound card and back into another.