Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 2

Reason 7 and Reason Essential 2 were launched today, after having beta tested some of the new features in Reason 7 I now have to go back to Reason Essentials. A bit of a step down but the feature of Reason 7 that I was most impressed with does make it into the cut down and cheaper Essentials version. REX file creation directly from recorded audio means that after recording audio into an audio track its become time-stretchable and remain synced when you change the song tempo. This is determined by the placement of the arrow markers in the audio file which can also be moved, stretching the segments on either side of it and allowing you to correct your playing after recording it. Mind you if you move things too far the audio quality suffers but for minor errors it works really well. It is also possible to cut pieces out and convert them into REX files which can then be loaded in to the REX loop player. Along with the ability to load audio into an audio track from an external file this covers most of what you used to pay an £200 for in the form of ReCycle. And remixing in Reason just become a lot more awesome indeed!

After a good day at work my left ankle gave out to the recurring achilles tendonitis on the way home and I spent quite a bit of time bathing, stretching and generally indulging in pain relief of the more intoxicating variety until an early(ish) night was called for. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow as our scant funds require me to walk everywhere at the minute.