Propellerhead has released Reason 7 and Reason Essentials 2, the latest versions of its DAW for Mac & Windows.

Key Features:

• Reason 7 comes with MIDI out support to bring the sound of your favorite hardware synths and beat machines to the Reason rack. MIDI is handled by the new External MIDI Instrument device, fully integrated into the Reason environment.
• With Reason 7, you have more creative control over your audio recordings. Record your instruments and let Reason automatically slice the recording into single notes or hits. Use it to quantize an audio take, to tweak your timing or to drastically change the recording with Reason’s time stretch. The sliced up audio can also be converted to REX files for playback and further treatment in Reason?s Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player, Reason’s samplers, or the Kong Drum Designer.
• The most important mixing controls like level and pan are now available in the rack too, always close at hand. This means less jumping about in the program and more focus on your music.
• The new bus channels make it easy to group your tracks, and even group your mixer groups to process them together. Create parallel channels with a single click for separate processing – for quick New York style parallel compression and other tricks.
• Reason now has a built-in spectrum analyzer window, giving you instant visual feedback on the selected channel or bus. The new Spectrum EQ window combines a powerful spectrum analyzer with a graphic EQ overlay controlling the mixer’s renowned EQ. Easily adjust the EQ on your tracks from anywhere in the program.
• Reason 7 comes with Audiomatic Retro Transformer?a future-retro effect unit with plenty of personality. Add Audiomatic to any channel or group and select a snapshot to instantly change the sound of your track
• Reason 7 also comes with an expanded sound bank that adds a new and powerful section of hard hitting drums loops: big room house, dubstep, and even metal.

Here’s a video overview of the new Reason 7: Continue reading →