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WHAT IS REASON?
Making music should be as easy as powering up a computer, loading up a powerful piece of music software, and getting down to business. And it is. Reason 3.0 is a virtual studio rack with all the tools and instruments you need to turn your ideas into music. And it's more than just a set of excellent synths and effects. It's a complete music system. Step into the age of Reason.
Synthesizers, samplers, drum machine, REX file loop player, professional mastering tools, mixer, vocoder, world class effects, pattern sequencer and more. As many of each as your computer can handle. Reason is an infinitely expandable music workstation on a CD-ROM, complete with its own realtime sequencer.
Less fuss, more inspiration As a Reason user, you can forget about the downsides of music production. Forget malfunctioning modules and confusing connections.
Reason's cables don't tangle. Forget about tiny backlit displays and steep learning curves. Reason is so direct you'll learn it in minutes. And forget the tedious process of gathering all the different disks and sound banks needed to load up a song
With Reason, picking up where you left off - be it last night or last month - is as simple as turning the power on. When you save your music, your whole studio setup is stored along with it. You can even include your samples, loops and drum kits in the Reason file, for easy web publishing or email collaboration with other Reason users. For once, total recall is truly total.
And so is the sound. The audio quality is everything you would expect from Propellerhead Software. But pristine sound quality is only half the story; the instruments and effects in Reason are loaded with character and attitude. Although easy to learn and a breeze to use, Reason is an extremely flexible system that's as complex and advanced as you make it.
And with sophisticated tools such as the MClass mastering suite, or the Combinator, which lets you build new instruments and effects by combining and layering Reason devices, Reason will not just impress, but inspire you.
Control your controlsEach unit in Reason's virtual rack is edited from its own on-screen front panel. All the sliders, knobs, buttons and functions are right in front of you, ready to be tweaked, turned and twisted in absolute real-time. And all your front panel actions - filter adjustments, pitch bending, gain riding or panning - can be recorded and automated in the Reason sequencer.
Radical routing
A single keypress will turn Reason's rack around, and there you are, in patch cord heaven. Most audio connections are made automatically. When a new device is created, it appears immediately below the currently selected device, and Reason patches it into the system in the most logical way.
Repatch by dragging the patch cord plug to the desired connector, or just make a pop-up menu choice. Most devices have one or more parameters controlled by Gate and/or CV. And all instrument devices have several Gate or CV output options. Combine this with easy, transparent patching, and you have connection power approaching that of a fully modular synth.
Need more gear?
No problem. Choose a synth, a drum machine, a loop player or any device from the Create menu, and it will instantly appear in your rack, logically patched into the signal chain. And because Reason is designed to go easy on your computer, you can repeat the process until you're more than happy.
If you ever wished you had eleven samplers and ten compressors, Reason is definitely for you. And if you have created more machines than you have mixer channels, just create another mixer. The studio of your dreams is just a few mouse clicks away.
USE REASON ANYWAY YOU WANT TO
As a self-contained synth studio system Everything you need is there, including a fast and flexible sequencer with powerful, dedicated event editors for each type of device.
As a sub-system synchronized to your audio sequencer
Process Reason's audio output with plug-in effects and mix it with your hard disk tracks. With Reason in ReWire mode, its instruments are automatically patched into the mixer in any other ReWire compatible application. Seamless integration.
As a Workstation synth
Easily load up complex performance patches - instruments pre-routed through effects - in one single click. Perfect for live gigs and performances.
Play your Reason system! Coupled with the Combinator, the new features in Reason 3.0 - a fresh sound library, an enhanced browser and the new Remote protocol - turns your rack into a very livefriendly, very playable instrument. Build your dream instruments and load up fat, layered sounds in seconds with the Combinator, Reason's unique new tool for combining and controlling devices.
It's not an effect unit. It's not a synth. It sure isn't a sampler. It's... all of it. And more. The all new Combinator is a sophisticated device that allows you to build elaborate chains of Reason units - instruments, effects, pattern sequencers, you name it - and save as Combi patches. When a Combi patch is opened, all units in the created setup are instantly loaded, complete with sounds, settings and routings. With its ability to load up complex instruments routed through effect units and dynamic processors in one go, the Combinator is an extremely playable, extremely performance-friendly device, perfect for both stage and studio use.
No Limits
The Combinator can house an unlimited number of Reason devices, which can all be combined, controlled and manipulated in ways limited only by your imagination.
The Combinator's programmer window makes it a breeze to build ultra-thick, layered sounds using any number of synths and samplers, or create keyboard splits for mapping out different instruments across your MIDI keyboard.
You can even alternate between instruments using velocity splits - play softly to trigger an NN-XT double bass, play harder and a Subtractor synth bass will take over.
The Controls
The Combinator's skinnable front panel holds four rotary controls and four buttons that can all be assigned to any function on any device in your combinator chain.
True to the Reason tradition, this machine is very tweakable: try using rotary 1 to control the cutoff frequency on eight separate samplers simultaneously, and rotary 2 for simultaneous tweaking of multiple knobs on your favorite synth. While you're at it, use the assignable buttons for changing patterns in ReDrum or Matrix, or for muting mixer channels, or for switching effects on or off.
The Combi Ins
The back of the Combinator reveals two crucial connectors: the Combi input jacks. If you're into extreme signal processing, these are for you; the combi ins allow you to use your Combinator as one humongous effect unit. Feed your sounds through endless chains of reverbs, delays, filters, modulators, distortion units... you get the idea. The Reason sound bank contains a good selection of freaky but useful effect patches to get you started.
Roll your own
The Combinator is not an instrument in itself, but make use of its extraordinary combination and routing features and you'll soon be building your own unique instruments. It's pretty safe to say that once you get familiar with the Combinator, which will take you about a minute, it will completely change the way you work in Reason.
MCLASS MASTERING SUITE
Reason is now officially one louder. Turn up your tracks to 11 with MClass.
Want big, tight, loud sounding tracks? Need extra stereo width, increased clarity, punchier bass? Say hello to MClass, the new mastering suite in Reason 3.0. MClass brings you four separate pro level mastering units designed to add power, presence and an overall professional feel to your Reason mixes. Load up the MClass tools as a complete mastering suite in the Combinator for finalizing whole mixes, or use the units separately. Apart from being logical and user-friendly, the MClass tools sound good. Audiophile good. These units can compete with the finest mastering tools out there, software or hardware.
The MClass Equalizer
The MClass Equalizer is a 4-band, professional level mastering EQ with low and high shelving bands, two peak filters and a low cut switch. The MClass Equalizer lets you make subtle or drastic frequency adjustments to your Reason mixes, and make them sound a touch more final: clean up that muddy bottom end, add shimmer to your cymbals, bring out the vocals. With its transparent sound and precise sound sculpting features, the MClass Equalizer is a tool you can trust.
The MClass Stereo Imager
No mastering suite is complete without a tool for controlling the stereo image. The MClass Stereo Imager splits the incoming audio into low and high frequency bands, and lets you adjust each independently. Increasing the width for the high band while making the low band slightly more mono gives you wide, open sounding mixes with a tight low end. The Stereo Imager is best suited for treating whole mixes, but feel free to use it on individual sounds and see where it takes you.
The MClass Compressor
All mixes will benefit from a touch of mastering compression and the MClass Compressor will do just the trick. Designed to add punch and definition to your Reason tracks, this single-band compressor sounds simply amazing. The MClass Compressor features a sidechain input for advanced compression tricks such as ducking or de-essing, a soft-knee mode for smooth, musical compression and CV out for dynamically controlling other Reason devices.
The MClass Maximizer
Every decibel counts! The MClass Maximizer is an advanced tool designed to maximize the volume of your Reason tracks, without crushing them or introducing other unwanted artifacts. The Maximizer features a Limiter section - with switchable look-ahead, for distortion- free brickwall limiting - and a Soft Clip section which gently rounds off the edges. Set your input gain and adjust the attack, release and clip amount settings for a loud, proud sound.
Reason is now more playable than ever and more controlling too.
For those of you with a more hands-on approach to making music, the revolutionary Remote technology in Reason 3.0 will be a welcome new feature. Reason now easily controls motorized faders and control surface displays. And then some. This is true hardware integration!
Remote gives Reason smooth, seamless, out-of-the-box communication with external MIDI controllers and hardware control surfaces, giving you plenty of scope for real-time tweaking of Reason's functions and features - on stage or in the studio.
Because Reason 3.0 comes prepared for a majority of the controllers on the market, all you have to do is hook up your hardware and fire up Reason - no tedious configuration required.
Reason 3.0 comes with complete Remote mappings for each of the supported controllers. The preset Remote mappings link your controller's knobs, buttons and faders to the parameters within Reason's devices, giving you instant, tactile control over any function in any Reason unit.
Support for multiple control surfaces lets you dedicate one control surface and its faders to Reason's mixer, while using your master keyboard for playing and controlling other Reason devices.
3.0 BROWSER
To allow you to access and organize the contents of your sound bank in the quickest, most natural way possible, Reason 3.0 features all new browser functions; you can now free-text search the entire library, preview-play sounds directly from the browser, and increase your efficiency in general.
With the Reason 3.0 browser, the task of finding and loading sounds and patches becomes just as smooth and intuitive as the process of making good music in Reason
The 3.0 browser has a whole new way of managing devices and their sounds: do a search for "bass", and all bass patches in the library will be visible, no matter what instrument they were created for. When you load the desired sound, the correct device is loaded along with it, be it a Malström synth, an NN-XT sampler or a Combinator. The Reason 3.0 browser also gives you faster navigation, support for changing patches via MIDI and support for user defined Favorites folders - organize soundsets for live gigs and studio sessions, then select or step through your patches via Remote.
3.0 SOUNDBANK
Reason's sound palette is getting bigger, better, wider and wilder. The new sound bank in Reason 3.0 adds huge quantities of instruments, sounds and patches to Reason's already massive library. Focusing on carefully sampled musical instruments and useful Combinator setups rather than loops and beats, the new soundbank takes a more playable, more performance- friendly direction. Load up any of the multisampled guitars, bass guitars, flutes, mellotrons, strings or melodicas and play away.
Or try the mass of patches developed for Reason's new Combinator: load up complete instruments running through chains of effects in one single click, or get into some heavy-duty post-processing with the Combi FX patches. And then there's the pattern based patches, the weirded out Glitch category, the chromatic percussion section, a brass section... we could go on and on here.
Windows
Intel Pentium III 600 MHz or better
256 MB RAM
2 GB free hard disk space
CD-ROM drive
Windows XP/2000 or later
Monitor with 800x600 pixels resolution or better
16-bit windows compatible audio card, preferably with DirectX or ASIO drivers
Recommended: MIDI keyboard with built-in MIDI interface, or MIDI keyboard and MIDI interface
Mac OS
G4 or G5 processor
256 MB RAM
2 GB free hard disk space
CD-ROM drive
Mac OS X 10.2 or later, 10.3 or later strongly recommended
Monitor with 800x600 pixels resolution or better
Recommended: MIDI keyboard with built-in MIDI interface, or MIDI keyboard and MIDI interface