Reason 4 by Propellerhead Software
Reason 4 by Propellerhead Software is great. I used to use Reason 3 and this program seems to be a lot better. Reason is a music creation software program for the Mac and PC. The feel of Reason 4 is different. It seems to be a bit more streamlined and it is easier to input note information. The user interface is pretty much the same, but they added a few things. First of all there are some changes to the sequencer, which is the meat and potatoes of Reason 4. You can write information into the song by editing clips. This makes it so it is very clear on what you are working on because the editable area is in color and everything else is grayed out. Also changing the velocity of a note or series of notes is more intuitive. When you select a note in the edit view, you highlight it in the velocity inspector. This lets you quickly determine what note you are working on. The automation lane is very cool because now you can use vectors to literally draw lines of what you want the automation to be. There is a new razor tool that lets you split clips. This function is something similar to the razor blade tool in video editing software like Final Cut Pro. Something really cool is that you can “fold” lanes to make them less tall. When you do this, you can still see the arrangements in a miniature version in the sequencer window. This enables you to be able to see what you’re doing with multiple tracks at the same time, and can be really great if you have a small monitor like on a laptop.
Another great feature to Reason 4 is the new synthesizer, The Thor. This synth has a very unique sound with solid sounds. The included patches in the default sound banks that come with the program are very good and you will have a lot of fun experimenting with the sounds.
-Tyler