As expected, LANDR is adding plug-ins, mastering, and distribution services to the Reason+ subscription. Here’s the surprise: Reason Rack is available as a standalone, perpetual purchase for the first time ($199), with Reason perpetual licenses lowered to $299. (There’s also a new subscription for just Reason Rack.)
There are a few ways to go. Reason Rack isn’t quite the same as putting all of Reason’s functionality in your DAW — for those of you old enough to remember ReWire. But you do get the instruments and effects themselves, which for some of you will be the main draw.
(Reason owners and Reason+ subscribers get both the Reason standalone software and Reason Rack plug-in.)
The options:
Reason Rack: VST3, AU, AAX plug-in as a $/€199 perpetual license.
Reason Rack subscription: same, the plug-in companion to Reason, $/€11.99 a month or $/€99 a year. This does not include the LANDR extras in Reason+, but it’s also not as expensive.
Reason+: Reason, Reason Rack, and now all the extras from LANDR for $/€19.99 a month or $/€169 a year.
That’s great, and what I’d hoped for.
Reason+ still gives you more than just the Reason perpetual license, as it includes more Reason Rack Devices you otherwise have to buy a la carte: Elecric Bass, Drum Kits, Umpf Club Drums, Umpf Retro Beats, Processed Pianos, Radical Keys, Algoritm FM synth, Complex-1 modular, Friktion modeled strings, Layers, Objekt, Parsec, Scenic, and the new Osmium distortion, plus BV-X vocoder, Polar pich shifter, Chord Sequencer, Drum Sequencer, Bassline Generator, Pattern Mutator, PolyStep, Quad Note Generator, and Arpeggio Lab. You also get sound packs and priority support.
That’s true whether you buy the perpetual license of Reason Rack or Reason.
What’s added in the LANDR offering:
- Unlimited AI stem separation
- Unlimited AI mastering
- Unlimited distribution
- Royalty-free sample credits (1800 annually or 150 monthly)
- LANDR plug-ins: LANDR Mastering, LANDR Stems, VoxTune, Synchro Arts RePitch Standard
- $1500 of 3rd-party plugins from Arturia, Audified, IK Multimedia, Noise Ash, Spitfire, and others.
You can check the full list, but honestly I think the biggest value-add in Reason+ remains the Reason instruments, effects, and pattern generators. And you can do some great mastering yourself inside Reason with the tools you have there. (I said what I said.)
I’d argue this puts added pressure on Apple (among others) to retain its perpetual license for Logic Pro. Reason’s instruments and effects stand up pretty well against Logic’s for about the same amount of money, and unlike Apple’s, happily run inside your DAW of choice. Some of those customers may appreciate getting Final Cut Pro or Pixelmator Pro, but many, honestly, won’t find that relevant. And as I’ve said on loop, customers need choice, and taking away perpetual licenses is a dealbreaker for a ton of people.
Now, my list of things LANDR could still do to make Reason fans even happier:
- Aggressively attack the to-do list from Reason users. (Engineering had already started on this, and I’m sure wanted more resources.)
- Change the software maker name back to Propellerhead. (Hey, LANDR did say Reason Studios would remain a separate division.)
- Change the logo back to the original logo, the one people have tattooed on their arm, literally.
- Call up Roland. (You want a contact?) Find a licensing deal to bury the hatchet and bring back ReBirth as an official co-marketed product. Hell, you could even put ReBirth in Roland Cloud and Reason+. Tell them they’ll sell more TR-8S, TB-03, and TR-1000, etc., which is actually likely true. More hat, shirt, and shoe sales, too, I expect.
Am I stuck in the past? I’m sorry, have you seen this company called Nintendo?! (Sheesh, there’s even a new Commodore 64.) And yeah, as I just referenced, Roland is slapping their early 80s product line on apparel to sell to people who weren’t even born back then.
It doesn’t have to be all at once. Any one of those things would bring some smiles.
https://www.reasonstudios.com/get-reason