Two long-awaited updates to Reason arrive today. Reason now is fully Apple Silicon native for Mac users, and there’s an offline mode, for both Reason+ subscribers and license owners.
Apple Silicon support is especially important if you’re using Reason as a plug-in, since previously you had to switch the host into Rosetta mode to work with Reason Rack Plugin. (Eww.) That’s now solved for both. As a bonus, all your Rack Extensions “magically” just work natively, too, without the developers having to do anything. That’s nice, as I have a couple of Rack Extensions I love that are discontinued, but I never lose access or compatibility with them.
Reason Studios also says you’ll see up to 50% improved performance. I hadn’t noticed the performance hit on my MacBook Pro, but I did definitely notice not being able to use the plug-in easily, so this is great news.
The other update is offline mode. I figured there would be some complicated disclaimer for this, but there isn’t. You just log in once online and – that’s it. Then log in once again if you need to authorize a Rack Extension – but only once. As they describe it:
All you need to do is log in to Reason once and you are covered if you lose internet access or if you are located off grid.
This also mean that when you have purchased or started a trial of a Rack Extension, you only need to install it and launch Reason with an active internet connection to get going. Going to “My Products” to synchronize licenses and having to be online to use a Rack Extension trial is now a thing of the past.
That is very, very welcome.
And yes, it is a big deal that you don’t have to worry about OS updates and the like. If Reason runs, all your Rack Extensions run, too.
Reason 12.6 is included with Reason+ subscriptions and is a free update for Reason 12 owners.
Reason 12.6 – Reason everywhere