The biggest news out of Musikmesse 2012, at least for Propellerhead Reason users, was the announcement of Rack Extensions -a new format that opens up the Reason Rack to third-party developers.
Rack Extensions are full Reason rack citizens, giving users the same experience with third party extensions as with any other Reason device. This includes the ability to load them in Reason’s Combinator, route audio and CV cables on the back, automation of all parameters, copy/paste devices and signal chains, and experimentation with the safety of unlimited undo.
This video, via Sonic State, features Magnus Lidstrom from SonicCharge (makers of Synplant) talking about converting their BitSpeak plug-in to the new format and what Rack Extensions mean for developers.
Rack Extensions will be coming in Reason 6.5, which is expected in Summer 2012.
Why would developers not get on board with this?
i would definetly get bitspeak, alot of versatility there, i would want to layer after a filtered synth for some interesting combinations.
now.. if synplant could be integrated… that would be awesome.
I think there are legitimate reasons why a developer would not get on board with RE. One particularly outspoken dev seems to loathe pretty much anything that isn’t VST 2.4, and you can’t blame him. New format = more work, and when it’s a format supported by only one or two apps, it’s not always easy to justify the extra outlay of time and resources.
That said, from what info Props have provided, it makes sense that they did what they did, rather than attempting to shoehorn VST into Reason. I think it’s an exciting development. Better to have something that fits the paradigm and does some things that VST doesn’t, as well as being very convenient (the RE Store will be nifty, I think).
Devs who don’t want the hassle may lose out on some potential revenue, but they will be fine, while other devs (and possibly Reason-exclusive devs) will fill in the gaps.