ReCycle, the sample/loop manipulator by Reason Studios, has a refreshed new look – and now it’s free. The REX format works everywhere from Ableton Live to Pro Tools to KORG Gadget. Also – wait, did its name start as a reference to a 1993 Disney instructional video?
With support for modern processors and a sample-slicing workflow that still holds up in 2025, ReCycle might surprise you. Even if you haven’t used ReCycle since its 1994 debut, that workflow will seem familiar because so much software and hardware has copied it since. Import audio, divide the beat equally adjust sensitivity to automatically find beats, slice, warp, add transients, EQ, and g– I’m sorry, I’m trying to write this, and I can’t get this song out of my head. See below. Okay –
If you have used Recycle already and were longing for a fresh version with modern processor support, this is it. And it’s free, at last. You folks don’t even need to read the article. The rest of you:
- The workflow is remarkably easier and more straightforward than most hardware/software that has tried to copy it – it’s a really easy and powerful way to manipulate loops
- The REX format works in far more places than you think – software you already use (see the list)
- This now runs on modern architectures: Intel/Apple Silicon macOS, and both x64 and ARM Windows (ReCycle is the first Reason Studios software with native support, but Reason on ARM is inbound – along with other tools; see Microsoft. Now do Linux, please!)
Here’s Sound on Sound describing Logic integration in 2007. It’s integrated with Ableton Live (minus Lite for some reason). Craig Anderton wrote a great breakdown of the format in 2019.
It’s a mystery why it’s taken this long for ReCycle to be free, honestly, given how integral it is to Reason. And that’s still the most likely reason you’d download it, as other tools have added their own slicing. But it works in a lot of software, meaning you can prep the file once and easily import it in multiple places – plus that UI is still terrific:
- Reason
- Ableton Live
- Avid Pro Tools
- Avid Transfuser
- Image-Line FL Studio
- Steinberg Cubase
- Steinberg HALion
- Steinberg Nuendo
- Presonus Studio One
- Cockos Reaper
- Cakewalk By Bandlab
- Native Instruments Kontakt
- Native Instruments Maschine
- Native Instruments Battery
- MOTU MachFive
- Spectrasonics Stylus RMX
- Beat Zampler RX
- KORG Gadget STOCKHOLM
Here’s a shorter, and a longer, tutorial on how to work with the software:
And yeah, they have a beat challenge going:
Telling the history of ReCycle and hip hop is a must; I’ll have to do that separately.
Okay, what software do you want to see come back to life and become free?
You’re not allowed to say Opcode Studio Vision Pro. Go.
Side note: ReCycle, the song/Disney dinosaur?!
About the song.
Propellerhead (now Reason Studios) released ReCycle back in 1994. Now, from the Internet, I’ve accidentally discovered that in 1993, Disney created a character named Recycle Rex, the recycling dinosaur. The show was evidently a co-production of Disney Educational Productions and the California Department of Conservation. It’s a relic from an age when we weren’t just burning resources, ripping off the work of Hayao Miyazaki.
And holy s*** is the recycling song a banger. (Side note: Alex Greenwald sings it as a child. Is that the same Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet fame, amongst other things? Yes it is. Who wrote the song? The guy who was the composer of the Mass Effect games. The lyrics are by a musician who got the Disney contract by writing songs for Jewish teens and is an LA county commissioner.)
Trigger warning: once you play this song, it may not leave your brain ever again. You’ve been warned.
So, ReCycle + REX alone could easily be a coincidence (if a funny one). But it’s the fact that this song is so hard to get out of your brain and – then that repeating “close the loop” refrain is what really got me.
So is it actually a coincidence, and we just found a fun theme song for the software and some additional early 90s nostalgia? If not, who the heck was in Stockholm who had also seen a California educational video? Inquiring minds…