Propellerhead Reason 8.3 Beta Now Available

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Propellerhead has announced that Reason 8.3 is now available as a public beta.

Note that this is a public beta release, so you should only download it now if you are interested in testing pre-release software and giving Propellerhead feedback on any bugs that you encounter.

The final version of Reason 8.3 is expected to be released in a few weeks.

Here’s what’s new in Reason 8.3 and what they are looking for users to test:

RV7000 mkII
Explore creative reverb sounds with RV7000 mkII! The new version of Reason’s cornerstone reverb effect turns RV7000 into a fully featured convolution reverb. Create your own otherworldly reverb effects by sampling or loading your own impulse responses. A selection of impulse responses will be made available later during the testing.

What to test:

  • Load samples in various ways, including drag and drop. You should be able to use any kind of sample.
  • Does everything sound OK?
  • Save and load RV7000 patches, combi patches and songs (note that 8.3 songs will not open in previous Reason versions!)

Known issues:

  • Preset 2 and 3 are currently empty. Check in again in later versions!

Browse where you are
Call up Reason’s browser from where you work! The new browser introduced in Reason 8 offers a vastly improved workflow, but was previously only accessible from the main window. After feedback from users who use Reason with the rack in a detached window, you can now access the browser there as well.

What to test:

  • Use the browser extensively with a detached rack window.
  • Test browse focus together with detaching/attaching the rack.
  • Make browser settings, save and load songs. Are all settings restored as expected?

Quick Zoom
Move quickly from birds-eye view to close-up. Hit the Z key to zoom to your selection and hit Z again to zoom back out. This is a real time saver when editing and arranging!

What to test:

  • Zoom to Selection button (below track list) + Z key.
  • This functions zooms in horizontally on the selection, or zooms out to “show all” (if nothing is selected or you have already zoomed in on the selection).
  • Test selected clips in Arrange and Edit mode, selected notes, selected automation points, etc.

Set MIDI focus from the rack
Some Reason users spend most of their creative work in the rack view. Now you can select what device receives your master MIDI controller input directly from the rack, without having to go to the sequencer.

What to test:

  • A selected device in the rack gets a tab with a button. Clicking this sets MKI (Master Keyboard Input) to this device. This is the same as clicking on the corresponding track in the track list.
  • If the device has no track, setting MKI in the rack will automatically create one.

Adjust static value in Arrange mode
When you open an automation clip for editing in Arrange mode, the static value for the parameter is now available in the track list. This means you don’t have to go to Edit mode to adjust this.

What to test:

  • Test automated parameters on native devices and REs
  • Do all text labels show properly?
  • Does the static value setting behave as expected?

Fixed bugs

  • Remote files for Akai MPK Mini added
  • Removed splashes shown when copying sound banks from DVD
  • Increased horizontal zoom in Edit mode in all template songs
  • In Manual Rec mode, Parameter Automation Rec Enables are no longer turned off when you select another track
  • The template song chosen in the Setup Wizard should be set in the Preferences
  • Mixer scrollbar no longer overlaps the channel strip name labels
  • Replaced “Beta Version” dialog on startup with label in splash
  • Added tool tip for browse/clear button in Browser side panel
  • Audio is now properly clipped to range [-1,1] when dropping to Propellerhead
  • Assert Failure When Browsing Nested Folders Using Kong’s NN-Nano Sampler Module
  • Assert on duplicate many clips
  • Authorizer could crash if it tried to start Codemeter service (Mac) and failed
  • Assert on drag and drop of REX file to Dr OctoRex
  • User statistics failed if Codemeter wasn’t installed
  • Reason and Authorizer now works with earlier versions of Codemeter (Mac)
  • Fixed a problem using network attached storage in Reason
  • If Music folder was broken, Reason couldn’t start (Unknown exception)
  • Corrected text field validation in Drop dialog
  • 3rd party RE patch files didn’t show proper icons in Reason Essentials
  • Having subfolders in the DiagnosticReports folder on Mac could cause Reason to crash

See the Propellerhead site for details.

15 thoughts on “Propellerhead Reason 8.3 Beta Now Available

  1. reason is a nice piece of sorftware , just seems to take a while to get critical updates but it seems that way with ableton as well. don’t get it.

    1. It takes a long time to program those updates as well as bug test. Only apple puts out updates to all of their products on a daily basis. A lot of the changes they made were based on user request so thats a good sign. The sequencer focus should have been in there from day one but finally they got it right. Now all I need is to be able to record external audio, chop it in the sequencer, then drag and drop it in the kong or redrum, then I’m all set but that would make Recycle obsolete!

      1. I thought Reason 8 would let you chop audio in the sequencer and drag n drop back to other devices. It does not do it ?

    1. Because of the browser! You know about the browser, right? And it’s even better in 8.3. You can call up the browser from anywhere – and I mean anywhere! I defy you to name one DAW with Reason’s advanced browser technology. You can’t. Why? Because Reason is #1 when it comes to browsing.

      Oh, and the RV7000 is now a convolution reverb but big whoop. BROWSER RULES!

    2. I don’t get it either and I’m a reason user..
      There’s something about it that makes it a pleasure to use, I’m always more creative in Reason and the CV stuff is just great for unusual interaction between devices.

      I own Studio One, Ableton, Harrison Mixbuss, and Fruityloops. Yet I always find myself back in Reason. I only keep Ableton installed for Reaktor, Geist, and the Twisted Tools ensembles.

      Also the great Rack Extensions like Lectric Panda’s Korde and Skope. It’s like a candy shop of unusual devices that most people are completely unaware of 😉 hook skope up to a stacked combinator of a collection of synths with a bunch of controls being triggered by skopes key triggered drawable lfo’s and envelopes.. Then automate skope from another skope and hook the seq and gates into a Korde and run it through ochenk’s cv tuner and see how far the rabbit hole goes.

      1. Exactly. Less than Live etc and you get a lot of instruments out the box to start making music with right away. Plus you get unique FX and a pretty damn sweet mixer without having to pay for additional plugins. Reason might actually be too cheap compared to others. 🙂

    3. Using Logic is a great deal, compared to Reason, but with a $2000 dongle. I think Logic should be $49 or free. It would not matter to Apple. But for others like me, future users of the upcoming beautiful Windows 10, freedom is priceless. Be happy with what you have. We are all part of the 1% anyway.

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