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Musikmesse Roundup 3: Reason 2.5 and Steinberg Goodies


Right on the heels of the release of Reason 2.0, Propellerhead Software is back with Reason 2.5, an update to its virtual rack of synths, samplers, drum machines, and mixing equipment. It’s no minor update, either: a brand new “Advanced Reverb” module with integrated EQ and gating (with gating, as always, triggered by CV or MIDI for some cool Reason effects!), and a 4-512 band digital vocoder for either “old-school” analog modulation or highly accurate digital processing, flexible enough for classic robotic effects but also the equivalent of fully automated graphic EQ or combination of any two sound sources. There’s also the Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit, a distortion unit with built-in overdrive, distortion, fuzz, tube, tape, feedback, modulate, warp, digital, and scream settings plus EQ and a “Body” setting that acts like a speaker simulator. And there’s more — almost enough for a 3.0 release: UN-16 Unison for detuned unisons of 4, 8, or 16 voices, and Spider Audio and Spider CV for audio and CV merging and splitting, greatly expanding the patching power that has some of us so addicted to Reason. Don’t be fooled by people who complain about Reason being “toy-like”: this is a very deep program and the latest updates make it that much deeper. Some people just don’t like ease of use, I guess. 2.5 ships second quarter, and best of all, it’s free for registered users.

Steinberg was in Frankfurt with some new stuff, too. The development team behind Virtual Guitarist now brings you Groove Agent, the “live” VST drummer — press a button and a virtual drummer will accompany you with live, dynamic drums. Also for VST is Steinberg’s new Xphrase, which combines sound shaping and real-time polyphonic phrase creation. And Steinberg’s HALion VST sampler has hit version 2.0. There’s also Steinberg Waldorf Edition, a collection of virtual analog sounds. All that should keep your VST client busy!

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.