At last, the time had come. But it was about time. I made the decision to go ahead and purchase the upgrade from Reason 4 to Reason 5 and Record 1.5. And boy am I glad I did.
First thing to say about Reason 5 is this – make sure you get Record 1.5 too. The Reason 5 upgrade is made more worthwhile if you get the Record upgrade too, and for only another 50 euros you might as well just do it.
Now many will know that I tend to not write in the Dance / Trance / Psy genre and more tend towards Progressive Rock, Classical and melodic synth work. Reason was more developed for the first group of composers, those purely in the electronic scene. But Record turns this completely over – you can now do a whole lot more with Propellerheads popular music sequencer.
I have had a good week playing with it and although I’ve not used all the new features, here is what I’ve liked so far:
1) Kong is good. Thor is still amazing. Line 6 gives your guitar sounds, more patches needed.
2) The ability to edit WAV files by importing them is a nice feature.
3) The new mixer is awesome, the new mastering panel gives you more control over your final sound.
4) All the small little things make a big difference – being able to tap out the tempo being one.
I’ve not had the chance to play with “Blocks”, a new feature aimed at songwriters to organise and arrange their compositions in a professional manner.
Seeing double
With so much going on, the use of one monitor is proving difficult for me. In Record, you have the screen split into The Mixer, The Rack, The Sequencer, and a separate window again for the Tools. On a 22″ monitor, I can tell you that working with all of that is very difficult.
Therefore, at some point I will be investing into a second monitor and would suggest you do the same if you want to spend more time being creative, rather than spending your time moving the window split up and down.
Impressed…
Overall, I am severely impressed with Propellerheads new outing and, although I am about 9 months late to upgrade, I am just happy that I actually managed to get around to it. Its more than an overblown synthesiser machine, its more than just a sequencer, this is a great music making tool aimed at any composer of any genre, with an easy interface for beginners, and the tools to satsify the needs of more advanced, professional musicians.
CIW Certified Web Design Professional and E-Commerce Specialist working in IT Support. Music Producter and Gamer, big Prog Rock fan. Proud father and Husband! 
Would you say alot easier to use with 2 monitors?.. the video tutorials i have been watching are all with 2 monitors. I’m gonna try and have a tinker with it.. interested in having a stab at some DnB! I’ll probably flunk.. and get confused!
Hi Rob, yes definately. One screen is workable, but only just – the problem with Record is that you have the mixer window, the racks window, the sequencer window and, on top of that, the Tools window! So with two monitors you should be able to break the sequencer window and the rack / mixer window and spread over two monitors, far easier to work with.
Reason / Record should be perfect for DnB – have fun!