Reason 13 Upgrade from Intro / Ltd / Essentials / Adapted / Lite

Please Note: This is an upgrade for owners of Reason Intro, Essentials, Adapted or Lite. The full version of Reason 13 is also available.

Please Note: Any customers who purchased Reason 12 on or after January 1st 2024 are entitled to a free copy of Reason 13. Please reach out to Reason Studio's customer support to claim your copy.

Sound Like You

Reason has everything you need to sound like you.

It's a virtual Rack where you wire up instruments and effects to create the sounds you're looking for.

You can use it as a plugin or a full-blown DAW with recording, sequencing, mixing, and everything else you’d expect.

Fast, fluid, and fun, Reason is all about making music—however you make music.

Your sound, faster. With an upgraded sequencer, brand new browser, five new devices, and more sounds—Reason 13 is all about your workflow.

New in Reason 13

Browse your way

• All patches, samples, and loops are now in one place—the new Browser.
• Find the perfect sound by filtering on anything from name and kind to categories and tags.
• Just type what you’re looking for and the browser will give you suggestions or use the Category and Tag buttons to filter your way to a new sound.

Tag, you’re it!

• All content in Reason is now categorized and tagged to let you explore sounds in a whole new way.
• That includes all soundbanks, all Reason Studios devices, and all Sound Packs.
• Over 20 years of sound design for you to use and abuse. Anything that isn’t already tagged by us can of course be tagged by you.

Sequencer upgrade

• The sequencer has been split into two. With the new Edit Area it’s easy to get down and dirty with the details in your music without losing your way in the arrangement.
• Together with several new workflow improvements, improved zooming, layout changes, and easy access to editing features—the upgraded sequencer makes it effortless to make your music sound like you.

It’s got the look

• Reason 13 doesn’t just sound good, it also looks good.
• Together with the sequencer the entire Reason interface has been updated. It might not necessarily improve your music, but it will make it easier to find your way around.

New sounds for your sound

• Fall in love with your favorite devices again.
• In Reason 13 we’ve updated our sound bank library with 1000+ new patches, samples, REX loops, demo songs and song starter templates.
• Sometimes your own sound starts with one of our sounds.

Polytone Dual-Layer Synthesizer

• Polytone is a synth-lovers’ synth. Inspired by our favorite vintage hardware, we designed it to recreate the warm analog sounds you know and love.
• But it wouldn’t be us if we didn’t tweak the formula for more possibilities.
• Even better, Polytone has two layers that can be stacked or morphed between for super fat or evolving sounds.

Ripley Space Delay

• Ripley combines delay and reverb with unique flavors of filtering, noise, and distortion.
• Coupled with extensive modulation you can create the delay you want—anything from clean taps or warm analog sounds to crazy lo-fi chirps or washed out ambiences.
• Everything that adds character and depth to your music.

Reason Tools

• Three new devices that simplify common tasks for a smoother workflow, so that you spend less time on the boring stuff and more time making music.
• Sidechain Tool is all about ducking signals.
• Gain Tool puts you in control over signal levels.
• Stereo Tool is a stereo widener specifically designed to make a simple signal sound bigger and wider.

Instruments & Effects

Use your ears!

These instruments and effects are all included in Reason. You can combine them any way you want in the Rack to create the perfect sound for what you want to express. Some of these may look complicated at first – but don’t worry. Nothing can break. Just use your ears and try stuff out!

Europa - Shapeshifting Synthesizer

A wavetable synth at heart; Europa is the most powerful, most modern and biggest sounding synth for your next track and the many more to come. The heart of Europa is its three spectral wave engines, where waveforms are loaded and warped through traditional wavetable sweeps and spectral waveform modifiers. Add to that a set of unique spectral filters, customizable envelopes, fantastic effects and more and you’ll be ready to realize that Europa isn’t just the greatest synth to arrive in Reason. It’s the greatest synth to arrive. Period.

Thor - Polysonic Synthesizer

Where other synths use one specific form of synthesis and one single filter, the Thor polysonic synthesizer features six different oscillator types and four unique filters. What does this give you? An unstoppable monster of a sound generator, Thor utilises synthesizer technology from the last 50 years. With its unique selection of oscillator types and filter designs, the Thor Polysonic Synthesizer is a veritable synth museum. But there’s nothing dusty about this instrument. Thor may have one foot in history, but its sound is pure future.

Monotone - Bass Synthesizer

For all the bass heads out there, here’s Monotone: a monophonic supply of speaker rattling low-end. Monotone has a deep and big sound but is inviting and easy to work with. No hidden menus or cryptic controls. Everything you need is at your fingertips when you want it. Monotone is also the bass synth in Reason Compact for iOS. Start your basslines on Reason Compact and scale up your production on your Desktop – Monotone seamlessly integrates into your workflow.

Subtractor - Polyphonic Synthesizer

Similar in layout of the analogue flagship synths of the early 80s, the Subtractor makes it easy to create anything from warm pads to rumbling bass. A unique feature of the Subtractor Synthesizer is the oscillator phase offset. By using this feature you can create complex waveforms by subtracting or multiplying a waveform with a phase offset copy of itself. This analogue type polyphonic synthesizer is based on subtractive synthesis, the method used in classic, analogue synthesizers.

Kong - Drum Designer

Kong Drum Designer is not your regular drum module. It’s the drum module focused on giving you exactly that drum sound you’re after. Kong has 16 pads and 16 drums. Build your drum sounds based on any of the nine different drum modules. Flavour the sound with 11 support generators and effects. Program automation, create alternating groups and let Reason’s powerful sequencer drive the beat.

Radical Piano - Advanced Acoustic Piano

Radical Piano will change the way you use pianos in your music by allowing you to imagine a piano in a real space and set about creating it yourself through intuitive controls. Based on a custom blend between sampling technology and physical modelling algorithms, Radical Piano affords songwriters, producers, and sound designers an unprecedented level of control to craft a realistic piano that is 100% unique.

MIDI Out - Device

Play the sounds of your favourite hardware synths and beat machines within the Reason Rack. Sequence and automate your MIDI gear in Reason's sequencer, play in new ways with Players, or control any MIDI parameter with CV cables from any rack device.

When using Reason as a VST3/AU/AAX plugin, the MIDI Out Device communicates directly with the host. Build your own custom MIDI rack using Reason's devices and control any other plugin or external hardware in your DAW of choice.

Effects

Sweeper

Add more colour with this high quality, multi-talented modulation unit with expansive dynamic modulation options. Sweeper offers three separate stereo modulation effects: phaser, flanger and filter. The pristine-sounding phaser offers up to a whopping 40 stages for some extreme phasing sounds. The Flanger excels at the sweeping sounds you’d expect from it while the filter section is the oversampled filter from Europa with nine filter modes. To breathe life into the effect, Sweeper has a modulator with a looping envelope, an audio follower and audio trig to modulate just about any of Sweeper’s settings.

Master Bus Compressor

Reason’s trusted ready-for-radio bus compressor is now available as a rack device. The sound is identical to the Mixer’s master bus compressor, but the rack unit offers expanded CV control, dry/wet settings and the ability to apply the compressor magic anywhere in your signal chain. How would your drum mix sound with its own Master Bus Compressor?

The Echo

The Echo is an advanced stereo echo bringing together the brilliance of modern delays with the organic sounds of analogue circuitry and old-school tape machines. The Echo is equal parts pristine stereo delay, sound sculpturing toolbox, and playable performance effect. Add Delay, colour, modulations and triggers to your Rack. The Trigger and Roll modes let you play The Echo as an instrument, creating stutter and repeat effects on the fly.

Features

The Rack

• If Reason was a song, the Rack would be the hook. Wire up instruments, effects, and Player MIDI effects to create the sound you're looking for. Or discover something completely new.
• Reason comes jam-packed with a huge collection of unique synthesizers, instruments, samplers, drum machines, audio effects, and much more.
• Their devices have been lovingly hand-crafted in Sweden since we started in 1994. By music makers, for music makers.

Instruments

• Drums, bass, piano, synths, strings, percussion, textures, keys, mallets, organ, woodwind. Reason comes with just about every instrument you can imagine.
• Polytone Dual-Layer Synthesizer NEW
• Europa Shapeshifting Synthesizer
• Malström Graintable Synthesizer
• Monotone Bass Synthesizer
• Subtractor Analog Synthesizer
• Thor Polysonic Synthesizer
• Grain Sample Manipulator
• Mimic Creative Sampler
• NN19 Sampler
• NN-XT Advanced Sampler
• Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player
• Kong Drum Designer
• Redrum Drum Computer
• Rytmik Drum Machine
• Humana Vocal Ensemble
• ID-8 Instrument Device
• Klang Tuned Percussion
• Pangea World Instrument
• Radical Piano
• MIDI Out Device

Player MIDI FX

• Beat Map Algorhythmic Drummer
• Dual Arpeggio
• Note Echo
• Scales & Chords

Utilities

• Gain Tool NEW
• Combinator
• Matrix Pattern Sequencer
• RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator
• Pulsar Dual LFO
• Mixer 14:2
• Line Mixer 6:2
• Spider Audio Merger & Splitter
• Spider CV Merger & Splitter

Effects

• From the easy and straightforward to the esoteric and downright complex, Reason comes with all the effects you need.
• Ripley Space Delay NEW
• Sidechain Tool NEW
• Stereo Tool NEW
• Quartet Chorus Ensemble
• Sweeper Modulation Effect
• Audiomatic Retro Transformer
• Master Bus Compressor
• Channel Dynamics
• Channel EQ
• Alligator Triple Filtered Gate
• The Echo
• Pulveriser Demolition
• RV7000 MkII Reverb
• Softube Amp
• Softube Bass Amp
• Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit
• Synchronous Effects Modulator
• Neptune Pitch Adjuster
• BV512 Vocoder
• MClass Equalizer
• MClass Stereo Imager
• MClass Compressor
• MClass Maximizer
• RV-7 Digital Reverb
• DDL-1 Digital Delay Line
• D-11 Foldback Distortion
• ECF-42 Envelope Controlled Filter
• CF-101 Chorus/Flanger
• PH-90 Phaser
• COMP-01 Compressor/Limiter
• PEQ-2 Two Band Parametric EQ
• UN-16 Unison

• Sound library with more than 30000 device patches, loops, and samples.
• Find the perfect sound in the Browser by filtering on anything from name and kind to categories and tags.
• All content in Reason is categorized and tagged to let you explore sounds in a whole new way.

Reason Rack Plugin

• Bring the Rack to your favorite DAW as a VST3, AU, or AAX plugin, or use Reason as standalone music making software.
• Take the best patches from Reason into Ableton Live, add a rack of instruments to Pro Tools, or expand your channel strips in Logic.
• How ever you make music, the Rack’s there for you.

Reason Standalone DAW

• From your first beat to your next album, Reason is the music making software for capturing and exploring your ideas.
• Easy to get started yet deep as you want it to be, it’s everything you need to sound like you.

Standalone Features

• VST3 and VST2 plugin support: add any instrument or effect plugin to Reason’s Rack
• Rack Extensions lets you expand your collection of instruments and effects from Reason Studios and 3rd party developers
• Delay compensation makes all signal paths play in perfect, phase-locked sync
• Support for Ableton Link: effortlessly sync Reason and other link enabled apps over WiFi
• Unlimited audio recording and instrument channels
• Fully featured high-precision multi-track sequencer with fast navigation and edit tools
• Blocks mode for arranging and structuring your song
• Audio Comp Edit for selecting the best parts from multiple recordings to craft the perfect take
• High quality real-time time stretch & audio transpose
• Vocal Edit mode for polishing your vocal recordings
• Audio slicing and audio quantize—correct the timing of your audio recordings
• Convert recorded or imported audio in the sequencer into REX loops for further sound manipulation
• MIDI instrument output—control synths, samplers and keyboards from Reason's sequencer
• MIDI clock output over multiple ports—sync hardware to Reason
• Advanced exporting—export your separate mixer channels as individual audio stems, including effects and tempo track
• Live sampling on all Sampler devices
• Remote mapping to control Reason with external MIDI controllers and hardware control surfaces
• Supports all major file formats—from .wav and .aif to .mp3 and more
• Real-time sample rate and bit depth conversion allows for importing any audio into Reason without issues
• Multi-core support and 64-bit compatibility makes Reason fast and powerful on any computer
• Self-contained song files make moving projects between computers and collaborator as easy as moving a single file.
• Advanced modeled mixing console with complete channel strip for every instrument and audio channel

System Requirements 

Mac

• Fast, stable internet connection
• Intel or M1 Mac with multi-core processor
• 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended for large ReFills or Rack Extensions)
• 5.5 GB free system disk space required, plus 20 GB for optional content. Additionally, program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space and additional space for cached graphical assets
• macOS 10.15 or later (64-bit)
• Monitor with at least 1280x768 resolution
• CoreAudio-compliant audio interface or built-in audio hardware
• MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
• For using Reason as a VST Plugin, a host with VST3 support is required
• For using Reason as an AU plugin, a host with AUv2 support is required
• For using Reason as an AAX plugin, Pro Tools 12 or later is required

Windows

• Fast, stable internet connection
• Intel or AMD multi-core processor
• 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended for large ReFills or Rack Extensions)
• 5.5 GB free system disk space required, plus 20 GB for optional content. Additionally, program may use up to 20 GB scratch disk space and additional space for cached graphical assets
• Windows 10 or later (64-bit)
• Monitor with at least 1280x768 resolution
• Audio Interface with ASIO driver
• MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended
• For using Reason as a VST Plugin, a host with VST3 support is required
• For using Reason as an AAX plugin, Pro Tools 12 or later is required