Reason Studios Reason 13

The Reason UI has had a slight re‑org, with a new split sequencer view and a tidy up of view selectors and editor functions.

Thirteen is unlucky for some, but not for Reason users, who gain a new synth, a particularly nice delay and all sorts of other improvements to boot!

Reason has settled into an upgrade cadence where every other year sees some kind of infrastructure update, a new premium device or two and some utilities/updates. Reason 13 continues this pattern, with an overhaul of the device and patch browsing system, a new synth, a new effect, and a rejig of the sequencer/editor workflow. This last will be encouraging to those who use Reason standalone, rather than as a modular device rack in another DAW.

Polytone

Let’s start with something fun. Polytone is, you guessed it, a polyphonic synth. This is conceived as an accessible polysynth with all the important stuff up front — the poly equivalent to the Monotone synth found in both Reason and the Reason Compact app. Or Subtractor 2.0. This is not to say it’s basic; it has everything you need to emulate the classic big‑name polys, some interesting extra sound‑generation options plus one show‑stopping trick up its sleeve.

A glance across the front panel confirms all the standard ingredients are present: two oscillators with cross‑FM, a filter, dedicated amp and filter envelopes, general purpose envelope and LFO mod sources and of course some chorus and reverb to serve. A major part in keeping things simple is the choice to leave out the spreadsheet‑esque mod matrix that’s been bolted onto the bottom of most new Reason instruments since Thor. Instead, all mod assignments are in context and on the panel like on a Jupiter/OB‑8.

Points of interest include the versatility of the oscillators, osc shape‑shifting for all types, static or key‑tracked filter FM and an Age control that makes everything progressively wonky. Alongside the usual source waveshapes you get a Digital mode (wavetable) and a choice of band and ‘chaos’ noise generators in addition to the mixer section’s noise source.

Perhaps the defining feature of Polytone is the big A/B selector at the top. The synth has two independent but equally spec’ed layers. You can choose to blend these via a crossfader or mod source, but much more interesting is the Morph option, which glides all panel parameters between their two layer positions.

Browser

For version 13, the Reason crew have had another swing at refreshing the preset/sound/device browsing experience. The left‑hand side bar, which was the previous home to all things browsey, is now a simple device and plug‑in palette. A new search and tag‑based sound finder which deals purely in patches and files has been created as a floating window.

Patch and file browsing now happens in a new tag and search based browser.

My initial reaction to this was incredulity. I liked the way Reason’s browser worked, and a floating window seems far from elegant, especially when it comes to the Rack plug‑in with its relatively limited (and still fixed!) real estate. It’s also a drab grey, and the window is captive...