words: MICK WILSON TECH News TECHNEWS
TURE RISING Thermal Bear tests out Denon’s new DB2/DB4 mixer V2 upgrades. p. 80
TEMPERA-
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
Propellerhead’s fresh new upgrades to Reason 7 introduce more professional features into this popular DAW, a sure-fi re reason for the dance community to celebrate…
IN THE
ROMBOY House and techno veteran Marc talks us through his production process. p. 82
STUDIO WITH... MARC
STYLE WITH ADDED
S
SUBSTANCE V-MODA’s Crossfade M-100 headphones are on-point. p. 84
COMPACT BY p.150 TECH
PRODUCER Assorted tips and tricks to help
your productions on their way. p.86
076
DESIGN We put Fostex’s PM0.3 monitors through their paces.
ince the release of Reason 1.0 in December 2000, Propellerhead’s fl agship product has undergone an evolutionary process. It started life as a cut-down music production
environment aimed at beginners and the less technically minded, and has gradually grown into the fully-fl edged powerhouse that it is today.
Now seven versions on, Reason boasts a huge array of professional features. This latest update is more of an evolutionary step than being revolutionary in nature, as Propellerhead step ever-closer to their aim of challenging the big two (namely Cubase and Logic) in terms of features and professional performance.
Arguably the biggest and most exciting new feature to be found in Reason 7 is the External MIDI Instrument rack, which (fi nally) brings MIDI support for external synthesisers and other hardware to the Reason platform. This has been a big hole in Reason’s abilities up to this point, and arguably should have been there from the start, but late is better than never. Reason users can now breathe a sigh of relief — the taunting from other DAW users will stop, on this point at least.
Reason’s mixing functions have had the upgrade treatment and now feature level and pan controls within instrument racks. The mixer rack now boasts new bus channels to allow grouping of channels, parallel channels with insert effects, and channel presets to shortcut optimising channels for specifi c types of instruments and audio. A new EQ called Spectrum EQ will no doubt bring a smile to the face of Reason afi cionados, with real-time spectral analysis within the EQ for precise
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tweaks to frequencies — not to mention the general coolness of the way it looks when in operation. These additions have improved the workfl ow within Reason, and come together — with the existing features — to give the mixer rack a studio-grade mixing console feel. Audio editing has always been a bit of a sticky subject in Reason, especially when it comes to dealing with REX fi les. Up until now it has always been a tricky affair sending audio to another program (Recycle) for editing, then fi nally importing it back into Reason to use with Dr Octo, samplers or Kong. Thankfully, this is all now a thing of the past, thanks to the new audio editing functions. These include auto-slicing of audio into notes that can be quantised and then exported directly as REX fi les.
Another improvement in the audio department sees Reason now being able to import more audio fi le types, including MP3, WMA and ACC formats. Propellerhead have also expanded the Reason Factory soundbank to keep the sounds fresh and up-to-date with current musical trends. It now includes a new hard-hitting drum loops section, catering for styles as diverse as big room house, dubstep and even metal.
While this latest update will bring much joy to existing Reason users by incorporating features that have been sorely missed, as it stands at the moment, Reason has become quite a complex beast to master for those new to the business of making music. The competition have become easier to use, especially given the availability of a huge amount of free instructional tutorial videos on the internet. With the purchase price of £399 for users new to Reason, the cost of purchase is close to that of Logic or Cubase, but Reason comes without the possibility of
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