It looks familiarly retro but hides a lot of clever ideas about how the desired result should be achieved. It’s always been designed by musicians who just happen to be great coders, and represents their (and their users’) idea of what the ideal, flexible electronic music studio should be. Suffice to say that, as it did in v1.0, Reason aims to do in software everything that anyone familiar with mainly analogue electronic music hardware would like to do if they could afford lots of hardware. Newcomers should check out the ‘Reason In A Nutshell’ box for a crash course in what’s going on, then visit Propellerhead’s informative web site to fill in the gaps, and finally surf SOS’s article archive for some hands–on digging into what the software can do. We haven’t space for yet another full overview of Reason - the software has been covered in four SOS reviews before this one, not to mention dozens of ‘how–to’ pieces over the years. It’s on my laptop, and it’s ready to rock. The recent start of a user–based beta–testing cycle confirmed a new release’s imminence, and finally Reason 4.0 has gone golden master. Stage–managed peeks at a new monster modular synth device some months back told us that the team haven’t just been taking some extended R&R. Sure, the team have been managing incremental updates to keep up with Apple’s Intel processor–equipped Macs and Bill Gates’ Vista OS, plus the odd bug or two, but there have been no new toys since early 2005. I snapped this at a ridiculous screen resolution to give the sequencer a chance to show off, and to reveal almost all that the Tool Window, right, has to offer.It’s hard to believe, but over two years has passed since the last release of a proper update to Reason, Propellerhead’s ground–breaking virtual electronic studio. Note the individual automation lanes that have been expanded for the ReMix sequencer track. This screen shows nearly everything new that Reason has to offer. Six years on, is the original still the best?

In 2001, Propellerhead’s Reason broke new ground by virtualising every element of the classic analogue synth studio.

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