Propellerhead Reason Essentials review

You’ll need a decent sound card to get the most out of Reason Essentials, particularly if you plan on recording live instruments. At very least, you should install a generic low-latency ASIO driver such as ASIO4ALL which will minimise lag when recording and will work with even the most generic on-board or budget USB audio devices. Like the recording and input interfaces, Reason Essential’s settings are clearly designed and easy to use, from selecting your sound card driver to detecting MIDI input devices such as keyboards and drum pads. If you don’t have a MIDI keyboard, you can even set up your computer keyboard to work as a MIDI control surface instead, although it’s very much a compromise option.

Whatever control surface you use, choosing an instrument for it is simple. You set up an instrument track from Reason’s main right-click menu in much the same way as you create an audio track or add an effect. You can select instruments using the Patch Browser or go to the Instruments sub-menu and choose from Reason Essentials’ supplied synths, samplers and drum machines. Propellerhead’s legendary Thor synth isn’t included in Reason Essentials, but the wide range of synthesisers, samplers and patch banks that are included will take most musicians a lot way before they start wishing for more advanced options. Reason Essentials also lacks support for VST plug-ins, which limits your ability to add third-party sound patches and effects. However, it does support Propellerhead’s ReFill sound libraries. It’s a proprietary closed system, but there are plenty of interesting sounds available, some of which are free.

Although it’s limited in comparison to the full version of Reason 6 and despite its lack of VST patch support, Reason Essentials is a brilliant introductory Digital Audio Workstation. Its clear layout, comprehensive help files and handy mouse-over tooltips make it genuinely easy for beginner to get to grips with. It’s very competitively priced, too. At £85, it’s both cheaper and easier to dive straight into than Steinberg Cubase Artist 6.5, making it our Budget Buy for audio production.