For Reason users, this is a no-brainer.
This is the license upgrade for existing Reason users to take advantage of the new features of Propellerheads Reason 6.5. It works for any full version of Reason, and includes a free upgrade to Reason 7!
Some software upgrades are largely an expansion of existing feature sets - more sounds, better sounds, more tracks, more export options, etc. - but some introduce more fundamental attributes that reflect milestones in development. Propellerhead's Reason 6.5 is one of those groundbreaking updates.
Reason software has established itself as one of the major players in audio editing software for many reasons. Its ease of use that is predicated in part on its rackmount-style GUI, the quality of its sound libraries, its vast MIDI implementation and other attributes have won it an enormously loyal user base in the US and across the world. In 6.5, Propellerheads presents Rack Extensions, a bold fusion of what is great about plug-ins seamlessly integrated with what is great about Reason.
With Rack Extensions the Reason rack opens up to third party developers. This is not another plugin format – Rack Extensions are full Reason rack citizens, giving you the same great experience as any other Reason device. Load them in Combinators, route cables on the back, automate all parameters, and experiment with the safety of undo.
Browse all Rack Extensions in the Propellerhead Shop and even download fully functional trial versions to load into your rack. Every Rack Extension you have purchased can be downloaded as many times as you need – for both Mac and Windows – and the latest version is never more than a click away.
In addition to third party developers for Rack Extensions, Propellerhead Software is also releasing their own Rack Extension devices for Reason 6.5 and Reason Essentials 1.5, notably Polar, an old school harmonizing and pitch-shifter effect with a host of modern tricks.
Use Polar for classic harmonizing, stereo-widening, and real time pitch-shifting, or experiment with buffer looping and audio freezing to create otherworldly effects. Load up Polar in the rack, and it will instantly make your sounds wider. Introduce slight pitch-shifting to make it even bigger. Turn the Shifters to add harmonics — up to two octaves above — or radically change the pitch down to two octaves below. Finish up your patch by turning on the filter, manipulated by the built-in LFO and envelope. If you are a singer, producer, guitarist or remixer who is looking for transparent pitch-shifting, creative ways of turning bland recordings into wide, evolving soundscapes — or want to completely mangle a sound into an interesting mess, Polar brings all this and much more to your Reason rack.
Another of the first Rack Extension plug-ins for Reason 6.5 is Pulsar LGM-1, a dual-channel modulation powerhouse for the Reason rack. Propellerhead defines it as an LFO—but it’s also a powerful little synth in its own right. For dedicated synth tweakers, Pulsar makes everything in the rack a little bit better. For back-of-the-rackophobes, it comes with patches containing everything from lush evolving pads to the grittiest wobble basses.
Need to add slow modulation to a filter, or alter the speed of a tremolo as you trigger new notes? Pulsar is up for any task. Turn up the Shuffle parameter to introduce some irregularity to your modulation. Smooth out sharp waveforms using Lag. Or go all-out bonkers and let LFO2 trigger the built-in envelope, set to change the rate of LFO2, and route the combined outputs of both LFOs to control the rate of LFO1.
When the rate is turned up, Pulsar transforms from low frequency oscillator to high-powered synth with plenty of character. The LFO waveforms in combination with lag and shuffle bring tons of tones—edgy and noisy. Other plug-ins for 6.5 Rack Extensions are ready to ship, including a breathtaking new piano called Radical Piano. Propellerheads gives you three basic pianos paired with the technology to make an infinite number of your own. Based on a custom blend between sampling technology and physical modeling algorithms, Radical Piano affords songwriters, producers, and sound designers an unprecedented level of control to craft a realistic piano that is unique.
With Radical Piano you can do things that are otherwise impossible, not only in multi-gigabyte sample libraries but even in the recording of actual acoustic pianos. Do you wish your close mic’d grand piano sounded just a little bit more like a vintage mono upright piano? Use the microphone blend to create a hybrid modeled sound. Route audio like a vocal through the jacks on the back of Radical Piano to hear it resonate the strings as if you had recorded piano and vocals together live.
What if with the turn of a knob you could transform the tonal characteristics of your piano, shifting from a soft intimate performance to a bright aggressive instrument that will cut through your mix? We’ve got that knob, and it’s called “Character.” Radical Piano will change the way you use pianos in your music by allowing you to imagine a piano in a real space and set about creating it yourself through intuitive controls. Or like you have done with synthesizers for years, you can listen to your favorite song and emulate the recording with uncanny accuracy. Perhaps even more impressive, the realism of Radical Piano will affect the way you play because it responds like a real piano to sustain pedal movement, key noise and velocity response.
With the Reason 6.5 release, Propellerheads is also launching the Propellerhead Shop. It will be the central location where users can try and buy Rack Extensions with single-click ease. The Rack Extension technology has been met with great enthusiasm from the developer community and the list of committed developers is growing by the day. Below is a small sample of companies that are already selling or are planning sell Rack Extensions in the Propellerhead Shop: Rob Papen, U-HE, Softube, Fxpansion, Korg, Sugar Bytes, G-Force, Sonic Charge and more.
