Propellerhead Record review

Propellerhead Reason is one of the classiest music-production packages around, with a suite of world-class virtual instruments alongside comprehensive effects and sophisticated MIDI sequencing. The notable omission is audio recording. Without it, Reason has always felt more like a souped up synthesizer than a comprehensive music-production program. Propellerhead has spent so many years rebuffing demands for audio recording that it began to look more like bloody-mindedness than a marketing strategy. Finally, it has relented, but with an unexpected twist.

Record is essentially Reason minus its virtual instruments, with added audio recording and improved mixing capabilities. It’s available as a stand-alone application, but will also run in tandem with Reason 4, melding to become a seamlessly integrated application. Reason 4 users can buy Record for £100 including VAT, while both together cost £369.

Propellerhead claims that Record is designed for musicians rather than audio engineers, with a focus on music making rather than technology. The realisation of this brief is somewhat hit-and-miss, though. For starters, Record requires either online verification or a USB dongle each time it’s run. This means that the dongle must be used on stage or when travelling – the times when it’s most inconvenient. On the plus side, the license allows users to install Record on as many computers as they like, as long as only one is used simultaneously.

Running the software for the first time wasn’t the most welcoming experience, either. The interface looked cluttered, divided into three horizontal strips, which isn’t the best layout on the widescreen displays that prevail these days. It didn’t assign itself an audio driver automatically, or invite us to select one.

An ASIO sound card is recommended, but we were dismayed to find that latency wasn’t handled correctly, resulting in audio appearing on the timeline a few milliseconds later than it was performed. This problem may go unnoticed by many users, but will result in sloppy timing of live performances. It disappeared after we adjusted a preferences setting and monitored performances via the sound card’s mixer, but this meant guitar effects couldn’t be auditioned during recording.

Like Reason, Record doesn’t support VST or any other type of plugin. This will be a turn-off for some but it makes collaboration and archive retrieval easy – Record (or Record plus Reason) projects are self-contained so they’ll open on any installation. Another contributing factor is that all audio recordings are embedded within the project file. This won’t suit some workflows, making it impractical to keep multiple versions of projects that run to gigabytes, but it removes any worry of missing audio files. Different sample rates and bit depths can be combined in a single project, sidestepping compatibility issues when moving projects to other PC setups.

In use

Fortunately, it didn’t take long before Record’s interface started to make sense. It’s split into three views – the Rack, Sequencer and Main Mixer – and while all three are crammed onto the screen by default, hitting F5 to F7 quickly jumps between them.

The Rack will be familiar to Reason users, looking as resplendent as ever with its virtual wood panels and rack bolts. They’ll also recognise much of its contents. This is where audio effects reside, alongside in/out metering and a new Audio Track device for live recording. The effects are inherited from Reason and include high quality EQ, compression, reverb and a versatile distortion unit.