Product Reviews

Two-and-a-half years on from version 3, Reason 4 is finally here. Appropriately, the new version gives us four major reasons to be cheerful: an overhauled sequencer, the ReGroove 'unquantizer' mixer, the RPG-8 arpeggiator and Thor, Reason's new synth.

It's Thor that the Reason fanatics are buzzing about. So is it as mighty as the fuss suggests? In short, yes. It doesn't quite render all other synths redundant, but it multiplies Reason's muscle and flexibility in the virtual synth game and compensates for the absence of third-party plug-in support.

Thor (aka 'the Polysonic synthesizer') offers four different filter types, six forms of synthesis, comprehensive modulation capabilities, near-endless routing and a profusion of knobs and dials. Your Midi controller keyboard will never have been so busy. You can load three different synth filters and three separate oscillators simultaneously, the endless permutations of which give rise to hours of happy sonic experiments, never mind the possibilities presented by Reason's Combinator.

The modulation matrix lets you control and route the signal however you like, while an analogue-style step sequencer offers even greater manipulative power. There's also an audio input facility, so you can route audio from other Reason devices through Thor.

It's a complex beast, but Thor's huge preset library eases the learning process. In fact, you could rely on the presets for years to come, as making a few adjustments can have a marked impact on the sound.

Putting Thor reluctantly to one side for a moment, the seasoned user may wonder how else Reason 4 can breathe new life into their rack. The RPG-8 should help. Using RPG-8, a simple chord can become a fluid, hypnotic

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pulse that flits in and out of a track.

Offering multiple controls and modes and a graphic pattern section for activating and deactivating notes, RPG-8 brings mesmeric arpeggiation to any Reason device. Other tricks include the single-note repeat function, whereby the arpeggio is activated only when two or more notes are held down at once, so you can embellish a melody selectively.

The other two draws in Reason 4 are the overhauled sequencer and the ReGroove mixer. The sequencer has been thoroughly reorganised for a much more streamlined workflow. It now offers both vector and tempo automation. It also features multiple lanes for every track, separating note, performance and automation data, which - along with the improved colour scheme - makes it easier to work with.

The new floating Tool window offers easy access to the most common performance and editing functions, such as quantize, transpose and note velocity. You can also drag-and-drop Devices directly into the Rack from this window (although you can't drop them on to the sequencer, as we'd hoped). Numerous other nips and tucks have resulted in the best Reason sequencer yet.

As a companion to the rejuvenated sequencer, the new ReGroove mixer helps inject a more natural feel and swing to your tracks. You can lock the entire track to one particular groove, superimposing an overall vibe, or assign different groove settings to individual tracks - up to 32 distinct musical elements per song - and control each separately. All groove timings are non-destructive and work in real time.

Behind these headline-grabbing additions are a number of less significant but no less welcome improvements, all of which add up to a recommended upgrade - especially when the price is the same whichever version of Reason you have.

Yes, we were disappointed that there are no new signal processing effects, that the 14:2 mixer hasn't changed, that you still can't record audio and that the rack is still a fixed width - there's too much wasted space on anything bigger than a 15in screen.

However, Reason 4 is stable and CPU efficient, it sounds good, runs sweetly on older machines, plays nicely with other apps via ReWire and is dongle-free. What's more, it's as much fun as it's always been - and you can't say that about every sequencer.