Open (love) letter to Propellerheads

[zeronyne]

Dear Swedish Alchemists at Propellerheads,

 

I need to warn you up front that this is a love letter with an ulterior motive. I am hoping that with my dulcet tones and soft delivery, you will accede to my request. I say this not to intimidate, but to disclose fully my intentions.

 

I have been a Reason owner since 2.0, and I have been a rabid fanboy since 2.5. The milestones of my musical life have been paralleled by your development schedule. I started really using my gargantuan Akai library when you released Reload, which made conversion a snap. I started playing out after a decade long hiatus with the advent of the Combinator. I have used Reason to teach a college course, and I'm working on a project right now that will put it into the hands of some of the poorest Native American children in the nation.

 

I own and use many other DAWs and softsynths, so I am not blind to Reason's limitations. But it's the singular focus of your architect and the consistency of your user interface that I really admire and buy into.

 

And then Record went into public beta. I have to tell you that I was skeptical. You guys had stated time and time again that audio was beyond the scope of Reason, and I totally understood the consequences of scope creep. Releasing an adjunct product - one that seemed like a money grab, especially when ReWire worked almost flawlessly - seemed dubious at best.

 

But I'm totally bought in at this point. It works great, it has a very light footprint, and it does 75% of what the big DAWs do, which is about 99% of what I need.

 

The concept is sound, the two programs work together flawlessly, and the workflow is incredibly efficient. For people like me who need to put out short pieces with wildly varying styles in tight deadlines, it's really great.

 

But...

 

Well..

 

Hmm...

 

One of the most persistent criticisms of Reason has been the lack of external MIDI control. As I stated above, I completely support the notion of a closed system. And as a defense, I've always pointed out that you need a DAW anyway, and that would be the logical place for external MIDI control. You see where I'm going with this right?

 

You guys are smart. Not just in the squinting, Jolt-drinking, no personal hygiene developer way. You guys are also geniuses at marketing, market penetration and saturation, and product development. You know that with the release of Record, you now have a soup to nuts solution with one gaping hole.

 

Please do something about the lack of external MIDI sequencing. Please. Pleasepleasepleaseplease. Hell, just put it into Record and leave it out of Reason if you want. Or make it a separate product that has the Reason sequencer UI but the guts of something like Master Tracks Pro. If anyone could integrate that beautifully, you could.

 

I am the biggest Prop fanboy around, but you have now stepped (albeit gingerly) into the big leagues. I know you are not trying to be all things to all people with your Reason/Record combo, but at least be this ONE extra thing to a significant portion of your user base. We love you, but we also love our Motifs and Wavestations and Viruses and Proteii. You cannot ask us to ditch those or just play those live into your system.

 

I'm begging you.

 

External MIDI Sequencing. Please.

 

Love,

 

Zero

[Bridog6996]

You should be able to do that now, right? I do MIDI sequencing with Reason all that time. Or am I missing something?

[kanker.]

I think he's talking about sequencing external sources from Reason

[zeronyne]

Yes, exactly. I had been a staunch advocate of NOT trying to be all inclusive, but circumstances change.

[Bridog6996]

Ah, I gotcha. I read the original post quick. I've never really used Reason as a stand-alone, only rewired into other programs, so that thought didn't occur to me.