Propellerhead Software • Reason
Analog synth, sampler, drum machine, ReCycle!-based loop player, mixer, effects, pattern sequencer, and more. As many of each as your computer can handle. All the power of hardware, but without the hassle. Forget tripping on cables. Reason doesn't need dusting. Picking up where you left off is as simple as turning the power on. When you save your work, your whole studio setup is stored along with your music.
In the following pages, we examine each of the Devices in the Reason Rack Studio. So click ahead to the next page for more about Reason!
- SubTractor Polyphonic Synthesizer - A monophonic/polyphonic analog synthesizer capable of thick bass, screamin' synth leads and lucious pads and textures.
- NN-19 Digital Sampler - A full featured Sample player for loading up and playing your own WAV or AIFF samples, loops, and more.
- ReDrum - Based on the classic drum machines but with all the features and conveniences of modern drum machines.
- Dr:rex Loop Player - Load up samples, slice and dice them, and more. Use this to lock any drum/rhytmic loop of any tempo into your sequence, or rearrange it completely.
- Matrix Analog Pattern Sequencer - Based on the simplicity of classic analog sequencers, use this to create TB303-like loop patterns for the synth or sampler modules.
- ReMix, Midi, ReBirth Interfaces - Reason's flexible and full featured interfaces and Mixer sections.
- Effects Devices - A whole lotta effects, choruses, delays, distortion, EQ, reverb, compressors, envelope followers, and more.
- New Devices in Version 2.0 - The Malstrom Graintable Synthesizer and the new NN-XT Advanced Digital Sampler are introduced in v2.0.
- New Devices in Version 2.5 - RV7000 Advanced Reverb, BV512 Vocoder, UN-16 Unison, Spider CV and Audio Merger & Spliters.
- Sequencer and Transport Controls
- Rear View

The user interface drives me nuts too. That's just my opinion though, some people swear by it. I prefer the Cakewalk and FL Studio interfaces.
Sound wise, the software synths are pretty cool, but are a tad thin. The sample libraries that ship with it for the NN-19 and NN-XT samplers are pretty weak. There are patches in my XV-3080 (with 64 MB of ROM) that blow away those in the Orkester bank, which is the size of a CD.
NN can load soundfonts, but is inaccurate with the filter and some other settings, so don't expect to load and play those.