Reason is a powerful tool, it has a had a loyal following for many years, especially amongst those who make synth based music. Many of us Pro Tools users enjoy ReWiring Reason into Pro Tools and using them together, they make a powerful combo. However there are some things in Reason I would love to see in future releases of Pro Tools. Here are my Top 5.
- The visual routing matrix is very nice and makes patching stuff together a cinch. I don’t expect Avid to copy the way the wires hang down, but patching stuff in a visual way lends itself more to right-brain creative types. On the whole Pro Tools assumes a left brain approach, that’s why a lot of people find it hard to use it as a compostion tool.
- Adding an effect doesn’t require several actions in Reason. Simple right click add effect and there it is, no creating new tracks with busses - Reason figures this out for me.
- The Combinator is a joy - if you are not a Reason user then a Combinator is a grouping of, say an instrument and associated effects. Imagine being able to open up an instrument in Pro Tools and have the effects chain you liked using with it already there. In Pro Tools this could be as simple as saving channels. There are workarounds, but a preset list of them would be cool.
- The Hardware interface UI is a joy too. A simple visual representation of all your real and virtual inputs and outputs. you can use it like a patch bay and you can also do this whilst Reason is running.
- The option to create a sound without having to know what instrument it uses. Let me explain, I can go and find a string sound and not know if that’s being created using NN19, Subtractor or whatever, I can audition them and then load the sound I want. Nice.
If you’re a Reason user and a Pro Tools user, what stuff do you wish was in a future release of Pro Tools?