For the past few months I have been wondering + toying around with the Idea of possibly checking Reason out ...
I used to enjoy using SONAR with Rewire ...nothing I currently use / have out side of SONAR is able to be a Slave ...
Every thing is a host ...
The full Reason software package seems way out of my money range these days .
I may be willing to give Essentials a try ...
Anyone here care to comment on their experiences for or against Essentials .
Or should I just wait until I can swing the full program.
 
thank you in advance
 
Kenny 

for $69 ($57.96 at JRRShop with GROUP code) it's not that bad an investment even if you don't use it all that much.
 
you can rewire.
 
there are some minuses like no Thor synth, no midi in/out, bunch of FX missing or limited.  Essential also only works with Essential files, no export or import, once upgraded to full Reason you can open Esential files and then do what you need to with those files in Reason, but Essential is limited.
 
Essential is like the Reason taster to see if you like the workflow, features, rack extensions and rewire.  if you want the full version you can upgrade later on to full version of Reason.

if you have essential reasoning, you could reason essentially that getting reason essentials is essentially reasonable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
btbh i haven't a clue, never used it or even looked at it . . . . . . .  i'll be on my way

that post was Grim.  ugh!

Check if full Reason still gives you a ****load of free RE's. If that sale is still on, go for it. Reason 8 is lovely.

MachineClaw
for $69 ($57.96 at JRRShop with GROUP code) it's not that bad an investment even if you don't use it all that much.
 
you can rewire.
 
there are some minuses like no Thor synth, no midi in/out, bunch of FX missing or limited.  Essential also only works with Essential files, no export or import, once upgraded to full Reason you can open Esential files and then do what you need to with those files in Reason, but Essential is limited.
 
Essential is like the Reason taster to see if you like the workflow, features, rack extensions and rewire.  if you want the full version you can upgrade later on to full version of Reason.

 
MachineClaw ,
 
OK rewire cool ...the rest Ala all the minuses have me thoroughly confused ... 
no midi in or out ? how can music be made ? Is Essentials an audio only program ?
no export or import ? What ? OK now I'm really feeling stupid ....worse than my first day on this forum ....
The videos I saw on u tube a while back with a guitar player demoing Essentials only are what perked my interest at first ...
I had gotten the impression that Reason Essentials was along the lines of the striped down functionality of something along the lines of  Abelton 9 intro .... 
Limited track counts , striped down instruments , effects , only able to use a limited group of  sound packs ...
 
When I demoed FL 12 I was able to make sounds and do things . Once I closed the project I knew if I wanted to get back what I had done , I would have needed to have purchased the program ...
That part I was OK with ...it seems Essentials operates that way ...
Am I misunderstanding something here ?
 
thanks for helping me out now it seems I have more questions than before .....
 

The Grim
if you have essential reasoning, you could reason essentially that getting reason essentials is essentially reasonable
 
 btbh i haven't a clue, never used it or even looked at it . . . . . . .  i'll be on my way

 
good one ....
 
it doesn't  change the fact that I'm totally confused after hearing what Reason Essentials does and does not do ..
 
Essentially , from my point of view Is this feeling unReasonable ? 
 

MachineClaw
that post was Grim.  ugh!

Yeah it was ...classic
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny
 

Fleer
Check if full Reason still gives you a ****load of free RE's. If that sale is still on, go for it. Reason 8 is lovely.

Fleer ,
 
I must have missed your post while I was posting mine ...
Yeah , full Reason may be out of my comfortable price range unless 8 cost much less ..
Normally I'm not big on checking out demos ...
I thought if I was able to pick up Reason Essentials at the going rate there would be no harm or foul if I didn't gell w the program ...
The  logic behind that at first for me was to try and dip a toe in safely with out much financial risk into Propellerheads software offerings ...
Depending on what I can find out here , there and everywhere oohhh I got dizzy saying that
I may just have to bite the bullet and try out the demo ....if I go there , I may as well just try out the full version ...
 
thank you for you help ,
 
Kenny

Don't know if I would have gone for Essentials. I liked it because it was included when I got their Balance interface. Do check that promo page on Reason 9 as the sale is ending today. You get over $400 of RE's for free (https://shop.propellerheads.se/product/reason-9/). Maybe this also works when buying Reason 9 at a lower price from JRR or another vendor.

Fleer
Don't know if I would have gone for Essentials. I liked it because it was included when I got their Balance interface. Do check that promo page on Reason 9 as the sale is ending today. You get over $400 of RE's for free (https://shop.propellerheads.se/product/reason-9/). Maybe this also works when buying Reason 9 at a lower price from JRR or another vendor.

 
I saw that deal and wished it lasted longer ...
I just got done getting my SONAR lifetimes a few weeks ago ...that was all I could swing this month ...
That's kinda why I'm putting out a feeler on the lighter version of Reason ..I figure if I like it I may be willing to upgrade or catch a sale to do so in the future ..
 
thanks for offering your suggestion
 
Kenny
 

I have the full version of Reason so I am not sure about the exact details of the stripped down version of Essential.
 
If you look the comparison chart on Reason 9 vs Essential 9 you can see that there is a Midi Out/Midi Clock Out and it's included in Reason but not in Essential.
 
The file format I mentioned only because in Essential it appears that Essential projects are self contained, you cannot import Reason files.  You only use Refills in Essential in a limited way which are a big thing in the Reason world.
 
Reason certainly can and does audio track recording well.  Reason does not play well with others outside of the Reason sandbox.  It's getting better, every version gets better.  Propellerhead disbanded their forums.  there used to be a lot of talk on their forums about midi, syncing to external hardware etc.  they never addressed these concerns and haven't for the most part.
 
If you want some good rack FX and synths and the use of samplers then Reason does that very well and there are a lot of REX and refills out there to play with.  this can be rewired into a HOST DAW and used like a VST plugin synth sort of.  if you want simple straight forward audio recording Reason can do this and does it well.  If you want midi and controlling external hardware boxes look elsewhere, it's not Reasons strong suit nor designed with that in mind.
 
I quite honestly only got Reason so I could do REX files and import them into Spectrasonics Stylus RMX that was my sole purpose.  the Reason rack extensions and quick audio editing was a plus, the refills and the samplers that Reason has are really nice to use and the rewire functions into Sonar a huge plus.
 
I have and maintain Sonar as my main DAW, it's what I grew up on (still learning).  Now I have ProTools 10/11, Cubase 8.5 Pro, FL Studio Professional, Ableton 9 Suite.
 
ProTools I use and got because of an Eleven Rack hardware box that came with ProTools.  like Protools but rarely use it.
 
Cubase I got because I have a lot of old hardware boxes and Midi is important to me.  Cubase just handles midi better than other DAWs, so I use Cubase for that.
 
FL Studio has one of the industries best piano roll input.  it's just fast, works, and makes sense.  A lot of the other functions of FL Studio do not make sense so I use it for inputting notes fast and laying out ideas in a piano roll style super fast.
 
Ableton 9 Suite I got because Max is included and there are a ton of free Max devices that control or work with hardware midi devices.  I don't like Ableton all that much but how it works with Max and the use of these wild free Max devices is incredible.
 
Sooooooooo why are you interested in Reason at all.  what do you hope to get it to do in Rewire into Sonar?  to what purpose do you need it?  $60 bucks is not a lot of cash, but if your throwing it away on something you wont use I would suggest you go to the table and roll the dice a few times, you may win but if you loss you'd be in the same situation.