# Reason Reviews **Vendor:** Reason Studios **Category:** [Audio Editing Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/audio-editing) **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 24 ## About Reason The recording software with everything you need to create amazing music. ## Reason Reviews ### 1. Bringing it all together.. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jaye P. | Professional Musician, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 28, 2023 **What do you like best about Reason?** Interaction and rewire _ I love the attention to detail.. **What do you dislike about Reason?** Expensive - I often write around an orchestra - **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** I feel that Reason is simply more intuitive and minimizes mechanical efforts for creativity but my old version 5 could use upgrade.. ### 2. Reason is a well rounded and seasoned choice - great sounding instruments make it a pick! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mark F. | Mac Systems Administrator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 30, 2022 **What do you like best about Reason?** The instruments are fantastic. I particularly like having the ability to load them into my favorite DAW if I'm not working within Reason. **What do you dislike about Reason?** The whole virtual rack thing - including the virtual cabling - was revolutionary back in the early 2000's. Now it feels a bit tiresome. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allows me to customize instrument patches, effects, and sequences and then load them into my DAW of choice (Logic). I can even combine them into racks to use them as I need. ### 3. The rack attack! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Primary/Secondary Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 08, 2022 **What do you like best about Reason?** The emulation of the hardware rack is a great way for producers to learn the connections inherent in hardware music production, which builds a better understanding of how everything works together in a studio. **What do you dislike about Reason?** The new subscription plan is something I don't really like as much. It seems that Reason feels they can't compete as a proper standalone DAW against Ableton and have moved to this strategy. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** Reason is great if you want to peek behind the veil at the connections inherent in DAWs. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Learning how to produce music using racks, just as one would in a real studio, but all accomplished in the box (computer). The reason plug-in is also very useful as an instrument within other DAWs. ### 4. Everything I Need To Be Creative **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lesley B. | CEO, Music, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 06, 2019 **What do you like best about Reason?** Flexibility in function. Extremely stable environment to work in. Very versatile!!! **What do you dislike about Reason?** The lack of exporting directly to an .mp3 format. If it did that? I’d never use anything else but Reason for all of my music production needs. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** I would seriously recommend that any one wanting a very versatile.. extremely capable one stop shop that’s expandable to anything you can dream of no matter what style or genre of music you’re into. Reason has something for everybody. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Literally everything that I can creatively think of... I can solve it with reason. Not being a natural born singer with perfect pitch, the pitch editing in Reason allows me to realize things that I could only used to dream for but can do now. It’s changed my life creatively for the better. It helps me express myself. ### 5. Ideal for music production and live performances **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Writing and Editing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 05, 2019 **What do you like best about Reason?** Reason is fantastic to quickly get started in music production. You can jump in and start messing around with loops, eventually building up to a full track. Samples are easily imported and it's incredibly effective as a program **What do you dislike about Reason?** Sequencing isn't the easiest compared to it's competitors like ableton. However its still works great and is worth taking the time to get acquainted with **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** I would recommend using Rewire with Reason and also sequencing direct into Ableton. It's easy once you get used to it - and the effects are mind blowing. Also make sure your VSTS are up to date **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've been able to discover more about playing live using pre-recorded loops and samples. something which previously I didn't think would be achievable ### 6. Reasonable Reason **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Music | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Reason?** Reason has some of the best samples of any Digital Audio Workstation I've tried. I use it for all my film scoring and composing needs. **What do you dislike about Reason?** It is not the most user-friendly Digital Audio Workspace. There is quite a learning curve. I seem to have had an easier time with it than others I know, and in my opinion, it is worth it to put up with a little more difficulty for better quality MIDI samples. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** It's a bit difficult to use, but for the best quality MIDI audio and a huge high quality sample library, you can't find any better, especially for the price. You can buy separate sample libraries, but for a DAW that comes with a sample library, this is the best you'll find. It's perfect for creating realistic sounding film and video game soundtracks and for creating electronic music. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reason is best used for MIDI rather than live audio recording and editing. However, I think it is the best MIDI-specific Digital Audio Workspace out there at the moment. It has a very vast and extensive sample library, allowing you to create better quality audio recordings with digital instruments than any other Digital Audio Workstation I've tried. ### 7. Full Music Development software **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tyrone T. B. | ____________________________________________________________________________________________, Writing and Editing, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2018 **What do you like best about Reason?** This is a dual arpeggiator, as you might have guessed at the back there. Each arpeggio can be run in parallel or separately and assigned to separate key ranges – as in a key split. Anything you play outside the key ranges…well, that gets played as is. This means you could play arps and melodies or basslines at the same time. Creating a player is a simple matter of dragging one onto an instrument or its track. You can also create one by right-clicking on the instrument and adding it from the context menu. **What do you dislike about Reason?** At version 5, Propellerhead created Record, a separate program allowing you to record audio for use in Reason. Record sessions could then be saved and opened in the DAW with the audio intact. Although a little cumbersome, this gave Reason owners, for the first time, the ability to record directly. Before this, the only way to get audio into Reason was by way of importing audio files. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** Consider the price. This DAW is pretty coslty but can pay off if you get over the learning curve. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Production-Level projects. ### 8. Well-designed, professional DAW **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Leighton F. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 15, 2018 **What do you like best about Reason?** Intuitive UI mimics physical audio hardware - a concept easy to grasp even for those not experienced with it. Included features make 3rd party VST's unnecessary for most projects. Visual EQ and master compressor makes mixing far easier than other DAW's. While designed primarily for music production, Reason works well for the recording and mixing of sound FX as well. Reason is just as suitable for the production of synthesized music as it is for creating music through recording traditional instruments as well. **What do you dislike about Reason?** I've been using Reason for years, and I cannot think of any valid complaint, as any issues or lack of features I've noticed has been addressed in recent years. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** Reason has a free trial and official tutorials that I highly recommend trying. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Efficient, ultra high-quality audio processing for music production - used to create saleable music and to create music for use in games and video, as well as processing sound FX for said applications. ### 9. Workflow and ease **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Music | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Reason?** Intuitive interface for a great workflow and nice ability for virtual routing, also ease of modulating most parameters with a few clicks. **What do you dislike about Reason?** Lack of logarithmic fade curves for destructive editing of audio in the sequencer. Lack of video support for post-production, furthermore a non-musical grid could enhance this. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** You'll be surprised with it's potential and workflow **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Sound design and synthesis problems, ease or recreating sounds. ### 10. Reason Review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Charlotte D. | Pianist and Organist, Music, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 17, 2017 **What do you like best about Reason?** The best thing I like about Reason is the intuitive layout and design. The realistic components make the music creating experience feel more organic. Additionally, I enjoy the addition of color coding and blocking. It matches well with my composition process. **What do you dislike about Reason?** I dislike the default rack that always appears with a new project. I prefer to start with a blank slate. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reason has been helpful with the creation of electronic tracks for live instrument with electronic performances. Having access to numerous built-in sounds as well as the ability to create/manipulate pre-recorded sounds from within the program has been beneficial. ### 11. My regular software in the industry **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Junayd K. | Global Travel Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 24, 2018 **What do you like best about Reason?** Me and my music partner use this on a daily basis. It has the potential if you have the ability to produce and record. This can make hits and has so many internal options to use for effects and precise engineering. **What do you dislike about Reason?** There is not anything to dislike. Reason has improved every year! **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Music production, studio recording and engineering. ### 12. Top of the line **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 18, 2018 **What do you like best about Reason?** New features. Easy to use.. Work station makes it really easy to get a privacy done. **What do you dislike about Reason?** Nothing.. Everything about this program is awesome. Well.. Could add tattoos stop feature. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Song creating ### 13. If you are looking for something that resembles hardware this is it! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jordan B. | Web Designer, Music, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 16, 2017 **What do you like best about Reason?** What I love about reason is it's updated interface, it allows me to drag and drop my sounds instead of manually looking for them. If I need a drum kit to play around with it's a drag and drop solution and playing and gaming right away. I love how reason can get instantly brilliant sounds with a few clicks and can get as detailed as you want. I also really enjoy patching cables on the back, it allows me to see the signal flow if something is not working correctly, and reconnect the cables to get back in the action. Blocks are incredibly helpful if you come from an 8bar approaching method how you build each section is a block has it's own space and is completely separate from another block. It allows me to arrange my elements on the song and if it's not apart of the block I can lay an instrument over it. This is a really flexible program for any musician. **What do you dislike about Reason?** The one thing I really don't like is the clip editor, I'd have to say that is a really big component of composing. It has nothing to do with astetically appearance, having a deepened window and plus and minus bars are just archaic about and in my eyes fail to recognize a detailed approach what about a magnifying mouse expander and closer. The last thing I would really like to see is it's own sets that can be redrafted back into a new song. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** If you come from an audio engineering hardware class this is exactly the way it resembles it in real life it's a nice transition from real hardware and quality, just in a nice digital package that does a nice job handling the cpu on a ton of tasks you can really have; your virtual studio and play in it too ;D. If you are also looking for an Mac environment there is kong and it can go one step further. I still use reason amongst my arsenal of cool daws, reason has something special. The rack otherwise where you can patch things in there are even patch bay splitters! Its a nice way to get an idea going quick! **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reason has a vast array of sound design capabilities that a lot of programs. Even the old stock instruments like maletsröme the graintable synth is able to still achieve fantastic results! Subtractor uses minimal effort to achieve a really nice bass and some interesting alternating fm chord sounds, with a little distortion from scream 4 you can get some early tweaky sounds. Now that Vsts are apart of the workflow that reason has it's hard to stop creating with this DAW. The response it has to new editions of synths is amazingly fast I am able to really dive as deep as I need to be. Versatile and fast auto detect of midi instruments allows me to plug in and go. Creating beats, ### 14. My thoughts on Reason **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Music | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2018 **What do you like best about Reason?** Its a great professional music-making workstation, that allows you to create your own sounds from scratch. You can get very creative and create basically anything you want. The new Players are awesome, they have as well as the pitch correction on the sequencer. **What do you dislike about Reason?** It still feels a little toy-like software. It’s more of a sonic playground: fun, but not for serious work. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being able to create sounds from scratch. ### 15. Avid Reason User - Highly recommend to those used to physical studio gear **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Religious Institutions | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 27, 2017 **What do you like best about Reason?** I love the virtual rack made to feel like an outboard synth & FX rack. Workflow is fantastic and intuitive. With version 9.5 they have made possible to use VST effects and instruments within reason (this was not possible in prior versions). Having the ability to use reasons A+ workflow, and the additional content and sounds possible with VST integration has taken away the one big black eye keeping reason from being a serious contender. Prior to the VST integrations Propellorhead included the RackExtension feature to allow 3rd party developers to put their content into reason, however i found the prices to not be extremely competitive. I have also found that the MIDI editing interface in reason is easily the best editing scroll available in Pro Audio. **What do you dislike about Reason?** There are times when the auto routing of racks can be frustrating as it can be clunky to rewire to your needs. As I stated above, the prices for content in the Rack Extension shop are not always the most competitive compared to the VST market (alot of great free VST's out there). This has however been remedied by the addition of VST support in 9.5 **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** Give it a shot! they have a 30 day trial available with all functionality unlocked. Try it out and commit to making a track or two, start to finish and i think you will love it! Its a great product with an ever growing community behind it! I also think if you have used other DAW's and found the mixer function lacking, you will LOVE the mixer on reason. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used reason to create supplemental backing tracks to use within a multi-campus church. We created tracks from scratch using both stock sounds and supplementary upgrades and rack extensions. One thing that was great with reason was the ability to teach others who are not used to pro audio applications but are musicians the workflow as there is an easy parallel between a pedal board/synth rack etc and the virtual rack in reason. ### 16. Very easy to use **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Music | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 25, 2017 **What do you like best about Reason?** I started using Reason before i started Ableton but i use both now. **What do you dislike about Reason?** Nothing really to dislike about it, sometimes certain plugins or audio can't be found so i have to search for it so that can be annoying **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** It's good for new users to audio making software. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** I make music on here and make my income off of selling beats. ### 17. Propellerhead's Reason is a powerful tool for MIDI-based music production. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Benjamin W. | Recording Engineer, Entertainment, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 01, 2016 **What do you like best about Reason?** The sheer amount of sounds that come with Reason is cause enough to purchase it for one's musical arsenal. Especially when used alongside other audio programs, it is an extremely useful tool to have at disposal. Synths of many kinds, drum sounds, loops, samples, effects, and more are part of Reason's abilities. Another huge advantage is the ability to edit and tweak sounds with the program's advanced sound editing modules within each specific instrument's interface. **What do you dislike about Reason?** Some of the sounds included are a bit dated sounding. However, many of the presets are very great, and if they are not to one's liking, a few tweaks in the module's knobs and buttons can create a whole different, newer sound. In future versions and updates, I hope that Reason may update its default sounds to a bit of a more "modern" sound, i.e. reflecting modern music trends--however difficult that may be for a product designer! **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** I believe that Reason works best in cooperation with other audio programs. Coupled with other sounds and abilities included with other more raw audio-friendly programs, Reason is a great tool to have on hand. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am not the most proficient keyboard player, so Reason's vast MIDI capabilities allow me to create the compositions and performances that I need--despite my inaptitude at live playing. ### 18. Reason has everything you need to produce a full song **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Reed B. | Web Content Manager, Newspapers, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2016 **What do you like best about Reason?** I like the Redrum drum machine and the fact that it has a step sequencer. In line with the step sequencer, the master grid to align and edit every audio or midi track is very fast and intuitive. You can be and be up and running with the skeleton of an arrangement in minutes. The range of effects is also impressive and the customizing can lead to some very interesting results. **What do you dislike about Reason?** I still don't understand how to use the Rex sampler and .rex files. I know that it's good for sampling and splicing samples, but I find the Rex sampler unit confusing and difficult to navigate. I usually end up using the NNXT sampler instead. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Usually I've used this software when a client asks me to produce a track in a relatively short time period (if they need a quick turnaround). The arrangements are easy to make and edit quickly, and the overdubbing and tracking process is very quick too. There's not a lot of set up involved if you have a saved file to start from with all your preferences set the way you want. ### 19. Best software to start producing music **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nicola B. | Web Designer & Developer, Internet, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 18, 2016 **What do you like best about Reason?** I love the way Reason keeps things simple and real. Its "analogue" approach in displaying drum machines and synths clearly based on real, actual drum machines and synths, the way they choose to use cables to make connections, everything looks as it should be. **What do you dislike about Reason?** I think its main problem is the overall sound quality, but i'm not sure of this statement, i'm not using Reason since 2010. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** You should definitely try it. It's really easy to use and it gives you a clear path to start with audio production softwares **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used Reason for 5 or 6 years, almost everyday, to produce electronic music, and i loved it. ### 20. Reason is gunnin' for the top and they deserve it **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Internet | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2016 **What do you like best about Reason?** Reason may have started out as a simple software synth/drum programmer, but they're clearly pushing to be a full-featured DAW, and they're well on their way. The interface is great looking and makes browsing and working easy. The software doesn't crash (seems like it should be an obvious thing, but coming from Pro Tools, you learn this isn't a promise). Using and customizing the various plugins/synths/drum machines is awesome because the interface mimics real-life gear. On top of all of this, it's very reasonably priced, especially as new versions are released... Propellerhead isn't trying to rob it's customers blind, unlike some companies (*cough cough Avid cough*). **What do you dislike about Reason?** The only thing I dislike is that it's generally not accepted as a standard in pro recording studio environments. I'd love to be able to work within Reason at home and bring it to the studio and stay in Reason... but I guess the perception just isn't there yet? Hopefully that changes over time. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** Get it, it's great. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Reason solves the problem of finding a reliable, fully-featured DAW I can use for writing and recording music easily. ### 21. A masterpiece in the musical creation **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David P. | freelance, Graphic Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 11, 2016 **What do you like best about Reason?** Have a powerful portable recording studio anywhere. Its incredible professional console for mixing. Its excellent and endless devices; surely there is a device created exclusively guarantee quality and originality in your sound. Focused on musical creation and less on the technical aspects behind it, but allows much experimentation crossing cables behind the device; now even integrating hardware and software the possibilities are endless **What do you dislike about Reason?** some minor difficulties when manipulating the sound wave and import other sound waves **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** Reason is an impressive recording studio on your computer added to a great integration with the hardware of your choice. Makes great weapon to choose. Not limited to the study can also be used in live performances; everything is limited to what your imagination consider ### 22. Reason before REASON **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Entertainment | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 16, 2016 **What do you like best about Reason?** Reason remains one of my favorite DAW, I used for a while especially to do some light mixing and mastering works. It has a user friendly interface (for professionals) hence, you might get overwhelmed at your first contact. **What do you dislike about Reason?** External sources couldnt be recorded, besides this, I think its a great software. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mixing and Mastering ### 23. Reason **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Music | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 02, 2016 **What do you like best about Reason?** I really like all the sound modules. The virtual instruments all sound really cool. The sequencer is great for trying to build beats. I think the whole software and patching part looks really cool and is a great idea. Reason has made great strides in trying to make it a standalone DAW. **What do you dislike about Reason?** I don't like that its not easy to do precision editing. Sometimes the Graphical user interface looks a little too much like a toy. **Recommendations to others considering Reason:** The granular wavetable synthesis module is awesome. **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** This software is great but I always use it with ProTools in Rewire mode. ### 24. Great recording software **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 04, 2016 **What do you like best about Reason?** Come free with the purchase of Korg midi controller **What do you dislike about Reason?** Stiff learning curve, could become rather messy on how things are wire together **What problems is Reason solving and how is that benefiting you?** Help recording video game voice over and podcast - [View Reason pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/reason/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-14+04%3A31%3A01+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=941d8f81-1a83-4b60-8573-dabf36f41002&secure%5Btoken%5D=b065b7f3a451b896fc7496c56376ce42c335733a20577271924a2e75d7f7b3ec&format=llm_user) ## Top Reason Alternatives - [GarageBand](https://www.g2.com/products/garageband/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (274 reviews) - [Logic Pro X](https://www.g2.com/products/logic-pro-x/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (174 reviews) - [FL Studio](https://www.g2.com/products/fl-studio/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (99 reviews)