Can Reason Use Vst Plugins

21.12.2020 admin

So you got yourself a DAW, and you have some gear like a pair of studio headphones or speakers, and a laptop and you’re ready to either record your own music or produce your first beat. Great!

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Can Reason Use Vst Plugins Plugin
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But then you open up your DAW and you notice that to get practically anything done, you need to utilize some plug-in software.

The Reason Rack Plugin is compatible with the latest versions of the following VST3-compatible DAWs, according to its makers: Ableton Live, FL Studio (Windows), Studio One, Cubase, Reaper and Bitwig. It's finally here! The new update, released today, added VST plugin support inside of Reason 9.5. Now you can use plugins like Massive, Serum, Izotope, and Maschine in Reason. Within Reason Rack we can now use Rack Extensions but there’s no VST plugins support inside Rack. Which is a bit strange as some other mega-VSTs (like Maschine) allow hosting VST plugins inside VST plugin. Rewire is now discontinued and is not supported by Reason 11. While this is quite fresh, vst will be supported since Propellerhead Reason 9.5. The whole rack interface contains a VST Host, and you can seamless drag and drop VST intstruments and plugins in to the reason rack as of the latest version. VST the old Method Before diving in to it, there is always the option of 'Rewire'. VST plugin support: add any instrument or effect plugin to Reason’s rack; Delay compensation makes all signal paths play in perfect, phase-locked sync; Opens songs and synth patches made in Reason Compact - the free pocket music studio for iOS.

You come across the term “VST” and you’re not entirely sure what these things are, what they do, and why you need them.

So inn this post we’ll talk about what VST plugins are, which will help to give you some light as to how they work and why you actually need them.

What Are VST Plugins?

VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology. It was created by the people at Steinberg to emulate what used to be hardware equipment used in a studio.

Back in the day, if you needed to place an effect on a track, such as reverb, or compression, you would actually have to buy a physical unit, and like hardware reverb, install it on your studio rack, and plug it in your studio console, which is your mixing desk, or workstation.

As everything became more digitized, and from then, moving toward computer-based music production, the trend led away from clunky hardware that filled a studio, to emulating and simulating the same effects and instruments used to create music using software tools instead.

Nowadays, VST plug-ins are good enough to even replicate analog effects and instruments. Being software, they are cheaper and more versatile. What would once require tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment sitting in several square feet worth of space, you can carry around with you on your laptop wherever you go.

Read: Best Plugins for Music Production

Different Types of VST Plugins

There are many different types of VST plugins on the market. But we’ll just cover four of the most common types:

VSTi
Effects
Metering
MIDI

What Are VSTi Plugins?

A VSTi is exactly the same as a VST, except that instead of emulating effects plugins like reverbs and echoes, they emulate actual instruments. You don’t need to buy an instrument, then, if you plan on creating music on your DAW, you simply need to get yourself a VSTi of that instrument, install it on your computer, and record your music with it.

These are generally synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines. There are VSTis for literally any instrument you can think of. From your standard piano, to exotic percussion instruments, all you need to do is do a google search for your desired instrument + VSTi and you’ll find it.

/vst-plugins-with-garageband.html. There are some that exist that are free, and some premium ones that are as good as the real thing (examples are Keyscape by Spectrasonics).

Here are some standard VSTi plugins types that you should have if you plan on making music in your DAW (other than record it into your DAW from a mic or lead):

At least one synthesizer – these instruments generate sounds electrically.
A sampler – these take pre-recorded sound samples which you can play back by triggering them with the MIDI notes you write in (with your mouse) or play in (with you MIDI controller) in your DAW.
A drum machine – as the name suggests, this creates beats and grooves for your music.

What are Effects Plugins?

These are just about as popular as the VSTi plugins that we discussed above. Maybe even more. Mixing engineers are familiar with these plugins, but so should anyone making music on a DAW.

As the name suggests, these are responsible for creating effects by manipulating the sounds generated or inputted into your digital audio workstation. Some examples of these “effects” are reverb, echoes (or “delays”), EQing, limiting and compression.

There are virtually limitless varieties of effects that can be created, and therefore a limitless variety of plugins in existence. From your run of the mill compressors to harmonic exciters. But the ones you should be most concerned with having are the essentials.

Essential Effects Plugins

Reverb – adds “space” to your sounds by emulating the sound of various types and sizes of rooms and recording environments
Delay – literally creates delayed signals of your sound over time to give an echo effect
EQ – used to control the frequencies on a track or mix, such as bass, treble, and midrange
Limiter and Compressor – often used to change the perceived loudness of audio

What are Metering Plugins?

Metering plugins are used mostly by mastering and mixing engineers. Their purpose is to, as the name suggests, monitor the audio signal either coming into your DAW or being produced by the audio within it.

There are several types of audio signals to monitor. The spectrum analyzer, perceived loudness meter, the phase correction, and VU meter are just a few to name. Once you begin working on your music, you’ll come across the need to see what sort of levels your music is producing. As you become more advanced, you will know what sort of levels to look out for, and therefor find the plugins that will show you that information.

What are MIDI Plugins?

Lastly, there are the MIDI plugins. These plugins can be very useful for composers and arrangers. They often provide shortcuts for writing, creating, and manipulating notes in your DAW, tasks which, depending upon how many notes you’re dealing with, can otherwise become tedious with time.

For example, a chorder” plugin will play chords for you when you play or write a single note into you DAW. Useful if you’re stuck trying to figure out or coming up with chord progressions.

The arpeggiator takes chords and plays each note sequentially or in a pattern for interesting musical effects at various speeds.

The note repeater is similar in concept to the arpeggiator by creating patterns from notes. You even have MIDI plugins that assist you in making new melodies on the fly from entering a few notes.

You even have MIDI plugins that assist you in making new melodies on the fly from entering a few notes.

Where Do I Get VST Plugins?

Chances are that the essentials that we’ve mentioned already exists within your DAW.

Modern digital audio workstations come with all the basics, plus more. So it’s suggested to stick with getting familiar with the ones in your DAW, learning your way around them, how they are used, when they are appropriate to be used, and so on.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of these, which will oftentimes be basic, you can find other professional plugins to buy or download some fun ones for free online.

There are countless amounts of plugins out there, as well as plugin resources, so it is easy to get lost when trying to find the one that’s right for what you want.

Final Thoughts

VST plugins are an essential part of music production. There would literally be no music produced if it weren’t for software plugins. As a digital audio workstation is simply a virtual desk where you can organize, arrange, and create your music, you can think of it as essentially your blank slate.

Whatever it is you want to do with it, whether it is editing a sound, or creating some effects, would require software to produce that for you.

Published: 2017-01-17

VST in Reason is something people have been requested a lot of times. It has been stated back in the days that Propellerhead will not integrate the VST format. Nor are there any plans regarding integrating VSTs in the Digital Audio Workstation called Reason (yes, we can call it a DAW). At some point in time when Reason 6.5 got released the program got its own unique platform for external plugins. Which is a great step forward. Most of the external plugins as Rack Extensions work seamless in the workflow of the program itself. While this has been there for quite some time there is still an outcry for VST support in Reason. For those who really want to use VST support in Reason, this topic might be for you. Since we'll be diving right in to it. We'll also discuss the different downsides with this setups and different 'work flow issues' you may need to be aware of.

VST since Reason 9.5

While this is quite fresh, vst will be supported since Propellerhead Reason 9.5. The whole rack interface contains a VST Host, and you can seamless drag and drop VST intstruments and plugins in to the reason rack as of the latest version.

VST the old Method

Before diving in to it, there is always the option of 'Rewire'. Rewire is a protocol which allows other DAWs (that do support VST) to run reason in the background. In this case the other DAW is the host and Reason just hangs in there in the back ground. For a complete list of daws that support the Rewire protocol you can check the wikipedia list.

There is a lot to say about this type of set up. Since in theory you will need 2 different programs to make use of it. Where Reason is used as a Synth (since in rewire mode you connect directly to the Rack while sending midi data to different devices). At the same time you using the other DAW to make music with. This may sound fine as it is. But there are some major drawbacks to this workflow.
- the user needs to have full understanding working with 2 DAWs
- the reason file needs to be saved as well as the song file. If you want to reload the session you need 2 files. One for the DAW, the other for Reason. I am not 100% sure if this is still the case, but it used to work that way.
- memory load (since your running 2 programs next to each other)
- cpu load might become an issue
- latency might become an issue

At some extend, if there is no real other alternative to get VST working with Reason. Then this might eventually be the only real solid solution there is. Sure, there are issues. But I never said this would be easy.

VST with Midi Out

Since Reason 7 there is a new way to control a VST (where VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology). In this version you have a Midi Out in Reason to control an external VST program. While original Midi Out was implemented to control external hardware, yet it works perfect to control VST instruments that allow it. And this the catch: Not every VST allows this. And not every 'setup' (eg: hardware) allows this to happen. There are a few requirements for this to work. And I know there is Mac OS. I don't own a Mac, there for I cannot make any conclusion on how this works on a Mac.

Minimum requirements for this VST method:
- A Program to Loop the Midi (in this case I am using loopMidi)
- A VST that runs as stand alone
- Minimum Reason version: Reason 7
- multiple Audio Cards that support VST (not required, I will get back to this)

LoopMidi

The idea behind loop midi is to use this as a 'midi bridge' between Reason and the VST. In this case it allows you to control multiple VST instruments at the same time (while using multiple midi loop interfaces). After installing to program loop midi, you will need to set up a Midi interface. Just to keep things simple, give it a solid name that would define what you are using it for.

Midi Out in Reason 7

For the next step, you will need an instrument called Midi Out. This can be added inside the Rack. The only important thing is to select the proper Midi Out channel. In my case it is a setting called 'Reason Midi Out'. Because this is the midi port I created inside loopMidi.

Midi Input VST

Here is the 'tricky' part. Since not every VST instrument will work the same. The most important parts are:
- The VST instrument needs a stand alone version of the plugin (not every VST has this, but most instruments from Native Instruments work as a stand alone version. #1)
- The VST needs to accept a Custom Midi Port.
- Per VST the workflow may be different

As an example, I will show a screenshot from Native Instruments Massive on how the Midi Port configuration may look like:

As far as most native instrument I have tested, these will have a similar set up. Under the menu 'file' there is a setting called 'Audio and Midi' settings. This will display the above picture after selecting the Midi Tab. When done so, make sure the Midi Port you are using in loopMidi is turned 'on' (by default, it is turned off!). When done so, you can go back to reason. Select the Midi Out, and play notes. This even works with the on screen piano.

Multiple Audio Cards

In case you want to play the VST as is, you can stop here. Since it should already be working as it is. However, sometimes you may need to 'sample' the input from the VST to another track. Jasper from therSitez has presented an awesome video which displays this method. It comes down to have the Audio Output from the VST going through a specific audio port. Next you create an audio track. There you will select the same audio channel as input. Hit record.. and you are all set to go. At this point in time I can't display any images regarding this technique because the laptop I am writing on does not have multiple audio card, my desktop does. Since I have already tested this workflow, I therefor can confirm that it works. Only disadvantage with the audio cards: they need to work with Asio4All. Other wise.. it is going to be a no-go.

VST Samples in Reason

Some VST instrument have data libraries where the sound sources are RAW wave files. I know that for instance Battery has this, same goes for AbSynth 4. At some point you are able to use the sound source from different VST and load these up directly inside an NN-XT. Or Kong. I depends if they sound proper enough, and if the VST instrument is using raw sample data by default. In most cases, this is not the case. But I thought I would just add this option to the list of ways to get VST sounds inside the Reason Rack.

There is also the method to record every single note from a VST inside a DAW that supports it, export the sound as a Wav File and import those back inside the NN-XT. While this workflow is really time consuming, I can say I have done this method once using Legacy Cell in the past. There for I know.. it is a real time consuming job to export it, load it up, layer it and so. This method also has some limitations to it (since your only using raw souns). But I am just saying, it can be done.

For now, this kind of sums up my chain of thoughts when it comes to using VST instruments in Reason. Have a good evening!

1. This is based on experimenting with VSTs from Native Instruments like Monark, Reaktor 6, AbSynth 4 and Massive

VST and using Reason Rewire

Reason Rewire is a protocol which allows other DAWs (that do support VST) to run reason in the background. In this case the other DAW is the host and Reason just hangs in there in the back ground. For a complete list of daws that support the Rewire protocol you can check the wikipedia list.

Free Vst Plugins Downloads

At some extend, if there is no real other alternative to get VST instruments working with Reason. Then this might eventually be the only real solid solution there is. Sure, there are issues. But I never said this would be easy.

VST instruments and Midi Out in Reason

VST (Virtual Studio Technology) instruments can be controlled since Reason 7. Since this version you have a Midi Out in Reason to control an external VST program. While original Midi Out was implemented to control external hardware, yet it works perfect to control VST instruments that allow it. And this the catch: Not every instrument allows this. And not every 'setup' (eg: hardware) allows this to happen. There are a few requirements for this to work. And I know there is Mac OS. I don't own a Mac, there for I cannot make any conclusion on how this works on a Mac.

LoopMidi

Midi Out in Reason 7

Midi Input VST

Here is the 'tricky' part. Not every VST instrument will work the same. The most important parts are:
- The VST instrument needs a stand alone version of the plugin (not every VST has this, but most instruments from Native Instruments work as a stand alone version. #1)
- The VST needs to accept a Custom Midi Port.
- Per VST the workflow may be different

As an example, I will show a screenshot from Native Instruments Massive on how the Midi Port configuration may look like:

Multiple Audio Cards

VST Samples in Reason

Free Reason Vst Plugins

For now, this kind of sums up my chain of thoughts when it comes to using VST instruments in Reason. Have a good evening!

Can Reason Use Vst Plugins Plugin

1. This is based on experimenting with VSTs from Native Instruments like Monark, Reaktor 6, AbSynth 4 and Massive

Best Professional Vst Plugins

Written by hydlide
Published: 2017-01-17