JonD

abacab
I downloaded the Reason 9 trial today.  Just had a few questions, and naturally went looking for their forum.
 
Guess what?  They discontinued their forums over two years ago!  Yup!
https://www.propellerheads.se/blog/an-end-of-an-era
 
Uninstalled ... sorry ...

Well, in fairness, that's more a reflection of where they were two years ago.  It does say "an end of an era", and suggests they saw the writing on the wall...
 
Which brings us to today.  If adding VST support doesn't signal a new era for Reason, I don't know what would....
 
My guess is the forums will be back online (somewhere) shortly.  Where else would be complain about our VSTs crashing Reason?!

The VST crashes could prove to be entertaining, for sure!
 
Well in all fairness as well, I'm sure it is a good DAW.  But I have a good DAW with a workflow that I already know! 
 
It had been many years since I last took a look at Reason.  Back when soft synths were beginning to appear, that synth rack sure looked appealing!
 
So this time I was just trying to evaluate Reason for the MIDI workflow alone, and look past all their native instruments, considering that I planned to use my own VST plugins.  The Reason Essentials edition at $69 is budget friendly, and is supposed to support VST in the 9.5 upgrade at the end of the month!
 
But what I really found was that the core Reason app is simply just another DAW.  I guess the value of Reason would be if you are already familiar with their instrument rack and tools, or were willing to learn them.  Or were into sampling, the Rex stuff, the patching options, etc.  I was just willing to bring my own VSTs, if their MIDI workflow proved to have some advantages.  I plan to stick with Sonar for the audio tracking and mixing.
 
So I really didn't find any special MIDI workflow (Note Clips), or other compelling features, that I cannot already do in Sonar, or elsewhere.
 
That's pretty much it.  I'm sure many will love it, but I think I should just focus on what I already have.
 
In addition to the user guide, I also usually check out a product's forum to see if there are any discussions that might reveal something interesting. But when I saw "The Park is Closed" sign at the gate, I closed up shop ... 
 
So as far as MIDI workflow goes, the only products that I have seen recently that raise the bar in that regard is Tracktion Waveform, and Cubase 9.  I have run demos of those, as well as FL Studio and Reason.
 
I picked up a copy of Tracktion Waveform, because the MIDI Pattern Generator is very cool.  Cubase Elements 9 is on my "maybe" list because the Arranger track and Chord track functions are looking real good.  I hope Cakewalk gets around to adding those to Sonar soon! 

Edited. Will add new response later.
 

interpolated Where I do expect issues is when people are using software protection like iLok, eLicensor and windows updates. Not in every case though. In theory, it shouldn't happen however does Reason support native 64-bit out of the box?

iLok is generally pretty good with working properly in things like this. I've had more of an issue with Engine licensing. When I use my remote desktop to access my studio, I had to relicense all my Engine products but everything else worked fine. I think I may have needed to also relicense my XLN libraries but I can't recall. It seems to be anything that has a license tied to a specific machine rather than the install itself that causes issues with plugin routing.

We've all had crashes of sorts but I feel they are making it a much bigger issue than it actually is.

TerraSin
We've all had crashes of sorts but I feel they are making it a much bigger issue than it actually is.

I get what you're saying.  Every DAW has to overcome this particular hurdle, and many do a good job of it. Hopefully they've hired additional programmers with troubleshooting experience.  I don't think Reason's programmers have ever really needed to work those muscles (except maybe on the Rewire side of things).

Meanwhile check out the RE sale at the Prop Shop.  I don't really plan on using many VSTs in Reason. I always like Reason because it was a different way of creating music.  In this age that can be a hard sell. VST support will probably bring former users back but I doubt new users.
 
 I kept checking me email for a beta invite. None yet. 

 The beta is a crashfest for my system.  This happened with the 9 beta as well.  I'll wait for the official release.

Two solid days of use, and zero problems, glitches, or crashes. You can't rewire into another host while using VSTs, but I kind of expected that. Incredible amount of fun. Haven't used it since 2.5, so a lot of new functions. Recording audio in Reason still feels weird.