Give me a Reason… 😊

Back when Emagic was building Logic, I used it for my first film score. I had a cozy little studio next door to Dave Elitch—a powerhouse drummer—and I still smile remembering how I'd wait for him to wrap up practice so I could record. Those days were a mix of fun and frustration. I actually didn't enjoy Logic much; I even sent feedback to the developers around the time Apple took over. It felt a bit amateur, and since the interface hid so much, digging around felt like a chore. I stuck with it for years before moving to Live and Pro Tools. Those weren't exactly a blast either, but they had the features I needed and sounded great. I eventually closed the studio and headed to Japan, focusing on traditional music until I got my first synth and dove right into recording it. That synth led to a Korg SV-1 Black, which sparked a Volca purchase—and that's when I discovered Reason's free license.

What I loved about Reason was how easy the manual was to read, and I dug the way the cables swung when I flipped the Rack. I even printed and highlighted key points in the manual—something I'd never done before. Eventually, I ran into its limits; as the Rack grew, issues seemed to multiply. My mentor warned me that Reason might "bite" me later, so I stepped away for a bit. I returned when they added Rack integration in other hosts, but I'd already grown attached to using it as a DAW. Missing features in that setup felt like playing with a dog that had lost its spark—just not as exciting.

I watched them roll out HiDPI updates (another dealbreaker for me) and a few minor releases. The final straw for me was realizing my Pro Tools subscription included a one-time Reason license that had expired—I thought I was done. But after a clean reformat, I noticed Reason already had native Apple Silicon support. I figured, why not give it a shot? I expected updates to be slow, so I might as well use it while waiting for other DAWs to catch up. A couple of weeks and a few songs later, I tried running Reason as a Rack in Bitwig but ran into the same limits and happily drifted back to Reason itself.

Right now, I'm using Reason to build backing tracks for my one-person live show—exactly what CompAct is all about. I'm importing guitar parts from GuitarPro into Reason via MIDI, and I'm either playing drums or using the step sequencer with Kong for solid sounds. Honestly, it's fun! I'm a little tired of the German "essentials-only" vibe on my computer, so I'm leaning toward the Swedish approach to keep things engaging. I especially love how the chord sequencer shows chord names—it's a huge help when I'm learning bass parts. The point I'm trying to make is that this whole setup feels really enjoyable. I'm not stuck tweaking endless preferences or wrestling with MPE messages (probably because it's not supported yet—that's why I tried Bitwig). For horn parts, I'll still use Audio Modeling and Bitwig. My goal is the same as when I used Logic: play as many parts as Reason-ably possible in a space that feels like a real studio. Since I keep a physical setup, Reason's simple, straightforward interface just adds to that vibe. Check back for progress and screenshots as this story develops.