PolyStep Sequencer Player for Reason 

AHAHAH I just did the same comment!

It's just not Reason without him.

@Patrick Bateman I don't use computers to make music anymore

annabelleshaus P r o t o o l z, no but really My favorite daw is reason 11:) it is fucking amazing

@@BarnacleButtock you have no clue what you're missing!

@@DjSegwon I know exactly what I'm missing. latency, crashes, updates, software, drivers, dongles, DRM and etc.

@@BarnacleButtock nope, those days are far behind us ! But as they say, do you!

His voice is amazing! ✊🏾

Accurate!

Wait for the sale... Quad Note Generator was on sale in less than 6 months...

@@brianmi40 for sure!

Agreed!

I think Reason is super fun. I've owned every version since version 1. I love how it makes me feel like it's a real rack. Stupid, I know, but I love it and probably always will.

Some people don't get that part about it. Its fun and because of the rack. Main 2 reasons that I love Reason. And now we can take the rack anywhere now. Soon even Logic Pro. Although, that wont be me. I'm all the way with Reason. @@loopduplicate

@@dougroyce5784 :) My sentiments exactly :)

Really? Here's my thoughts posted separately: ------------ This product intro, to me, doesn't match the high expectations I've come to expect when Propellerheads releases a new add on. Specifically, I expect 3 things: 1. A very COMPELLING CASE for why I would want / need the product. 2. To come away understanding pretty much all the FUNCTIONS, and only having questions about tiny details of what / how it does what it does. 2. Multiple STRONG musical ideas being showcased: built or enabled by the tools features. Let me explain: First off, the video opens with a statement about "...creating chord progressions requires an advanced understanding of theory", so we're led to expect this tool with be offering some, or a lot of that to help us. But I didn't see that in the video. You still have to build the chords yourself, note, by note, by note. What it offered along the lines of "theory" was simply constraining to a Key, and then a simple means to switch inversions (which was clever and easy, but not earth shaking compared to how others do it). Based on the opening statement, I was expecting something STRONG, like Pluginboutique's "Scaler" STRONG, which is the 800 pound GORILLA in that functional space! But as a "theory" helper or tool, this underwhelms, big time. We're then shown a two chord progression (again, underwhelming by Propellerhead standards), and then when the Alter button is pressed, we're told nothing about what magic it is doing. Having a Probability adjustment for chords SOUNDS interesting, but no compelling example is given, like in Drum Sequencer's demo where probability is immediately recognized as earth shakingly useful. And thinking about it, I don't think I'd find a strong case for using probability in chords, just speaking for myself. Buehler??? Arp mode seems like a poor excuse for not using Dual Arp, or other strong Arps like Kompulsion, Mercury, or Sequences arp. And the Sequencer mode saves a few seconds at best to just open another track for a sequence, which would then let you easily change the instrument to be different than where Polystep is sending it's notes. It also raises the question of viewing this content in the window along with the chord notes: vertically Polystep only displays 15 notes, with some up and down buttons to scroll the display. Not even a scroll bar is included, so I think most times you'd be better off sticking with a separate track and the full Piano Roll for that. I'm also not getting what "Variations" offers beyond simple Pattern choices, other than adding randomizing which of the 4 get played... But clearly sequencing Patterns in any order is a basic feature of all Arps I listed above. Underexplained clearly. Polystep makes it easy to select, constrain and change the Key, but so do Kompulsion and Mercury and basically every other arp on the planet, and they offer a lot of other features not present here, like Polyrhythms, like Drum Sequencer brought. Seems like per note sequence length to create polyrhythms (Kompulsion, Drum Step Sequencer) would have been an interesting feature here for chords, at least to me, more interesting than probability. As for the "Strong musical ideas showcase", I count one, at the end, and don't really consider a simple arp sequence as "strong"... You literally could have created that arp for that track using the any arp! Up to normal Propellerhead par, we would have seen 4 Polystep sequencers on the screen in the finale, with them spliting up the duties of creating interesting chords, amazing arps, and maybe even a bass line for a killer track! Overall, the product seems a bit hastily designed and built, sort of like the demo video: neither live up to what I've come to expect from Propellerheads add ons. I would WAY WAY strongly recommend anyone look at Pluginboutique "Scaler" instead, which is a KILLER TOOL, and get it for $49 as opposed to Polystep at $69, if what you want is a STRONG tool to help you not only create, but explore chord progressions. And if you still need a strong Arp, get Kompulsion or Mercury and you shouldn't miss Polystep at all then. p.s. everyone should be using FREE "PATCHER" from Image Line, makers of FL Studio. It gets around Reason's inability to route MIDI in unlimited fashion between plugins (something Reason should build in), which is virtually identical to how Waveform Tracktion does it in their "Racks" feature. It will let you do awesome MIDI and audio routing, such as in a SINGLE REASON TRACK, take your MIDI input from your keyboard, route, say, a single note you play, into Scaler to get a chord, then the MIDI of that chord into any VST Arp to arpeggiate it, then route that output into 1 or more instrument VSTs! www.image-line.com/plugins/Tools/Patcher/ Another alternative I would recommend over Polystep would be to mow a few more lawns, and just buy the Player Device Bundle at $149 (or during next Propellerhead sale). Since this includes: 1. Kompulsion 2. Euclidean Rhythms 3. Drum Sequencer 4. Chord Detector 5. Quad Note Generator 6. ST100 Strumming Machine www.propellerheads.com/shop/bundle/player-device-bundle/ Which would likely also make you forget about Polystep Sequencer. Kompulsion, Euclidean Rythms, Drum Sequencer and Quad Note Generator would give you WAY more fun times than Polystep! I may be wrong, and someone, even Propellerhead, may follow up with a better video, and show Polystep to have some compelling reasons not made clear here, but for now I think there are much better tools to invest in... Polystep seems like too much of an attempt to make a "swiss army knife", and like most swiss army knives, each of the tools is heavily compromised over the normal individual version of the tool. So, much the same, Polystep doesn't touch tools like Kompulsion for a sequencer, or Scaler for building chord progressions... Peace.

Amazingly fun and intuitive. I’m not sure how that is refuted when it’s a personal take. Different workflow strokes for different folks!

@@robtronik - point taken, it was a hasty reply as I should have said you can do better for the money... I wasn't debating fun and intuitive, was questioning "instant buy"...

@@brianmi40 thank you for this! I had similar doubts, i thought these I II III IV are cadences but unfotunately it is just a variation you pull with your mouse?! WTF???

Glad to hear it! :) /Stefan

But Reason is not about the sequencer. Its about the rack. Now you have this functionality in any DAW in a form you can become familiar with!

And waste processing?

@@BarnacleButtock Actually no - updating the graphics would allow to off-load it to GPU and thus free up the CPU for audio, whereas now (if you use 4K screen and/or several screens) all drawing is done on CPU using libraries and procedures that are almost 2 decades old... That's why in heavy project scrolling the rack or mixer might cause audio drop-outs.

@@Artek604 and introduce numerous graphical errors for users with not so great graphics hardware? Awesome

@@BarnacleButtock I've no idea what you mean? In this day and age even embedded GPUs in Intel's Core processors few generations back is powerful enough to render a simple - compared to 3D game - GUI of a DAW on several screens at high frame-rate. I've been running Live or FL (both hardware accelerated GUIs) on Surface Pro 4 - 6th gen i7, no dedicated GPU - without any issues.

@@Artek604 not everybody has a computer from this day and age, alot of us are working with what we can get our hands on

I looked at this as the Matrix on Steroids. I'm glad we now have the option to access it.

It's so advanced I have to use Matrix to midi trigger its patterns:) And I can't copy-paste patterns between devices within a project.

It's the new business model. Nickel and dime your customers until they switch to NI for good.

That's a lot of well thought out information. Thanks for the plugin recommendations as well, especially Patcher. 👍

@@aswinbeats - thanks. Yeah, Patcher is awesome. Kept thinking they would stick a price on it but it stays free so far. Have you checked out Scaler? They put out a new release with a bunch of new chord sets and new functionality a few weeks ago...

@@brianmi40 I just watched a RU-vid video on Scaler. It's brilliant! Can I use it in Reason? IIRC, Midi generator VSTs don't work in Reason. Is that where Patcher comes in?

@@aswinbeats Yes, you'll need Patcher then. Once you instantiate Patcher in a track, within Patcher you can go crazy with MIDI and AUDIO routing to your hearts content.

B Miller Perfect! I'll give it a shot 👍

Preach !!!!

Word! We have the instruments, now give us a better sequencer and more flexibility.

I was thinking the same thing all these new toys for re 10 what will be left for 11 lol

True....I'm not paying for something that should be included in the software

Cassandra Imogen definitely a good point! Also it is needed to integrate the synchronous Modulation capabilities into the sequencer

Reason is not about the sequencer. Although they have said they are continuing to develop and release those improvements. It is important to remember that the rack is the foundation of Reason. That is why it is this way. I personally like it 😉

@@dougroyce5784 I would go one step further with this, now that Reason is available in other DAW:s as rack extensions. Why not open up fully and make them able to also contain VST-instruments (not possible now) that could be put inside Combinators. If that was possible, then we could also use utilities and players like this to also trigger vst-instruments. (For Cubase users like me an additional benefit would be the combinators themselves for any VST combos since Cubase don't have anything like combinators/multi instruments. Something that Studio One and Ableton Live at least have!) As it is now, it is once again totally locked into a person only using Reason as a DAW for combining these kind of things! Even more integrated would be if you could somehow write/generate midi tracks in Cubase from these devices (but I guess that one is probably almost impossible. Well, there is an exteranl midi device in Reason so maybe not?) Say what you want, but Reasons sequencer is no where near the big DAW:s. But at least they streamlined the integration by switching to Rack Devices making things much easier/less setup/clicks than with Rewire plus the very big benefit of being able to at last use Reason effect devices on Vst-instruments when using Cubase!

bingo

​because its a vst, not a vst host. @@Magnus_Loov

I'd guess the idea is to maintain reason's uniqueness amongst other DAW's. I understand everyone's need for practicality, but Props would probably rather just emphasize the Rack view instead of the typical sequencer that all DAWs have.

@@paulweyer4339 I think gas/diesel car manufacturers should start making cars with 5 wheels and the back seat pointed backwards to emphasize the difference to electric cars :D

I mean, in this case, reason would be the electric car. This uodate would be the equivalent of updates to the electric motor interface, giving a new way to charge and/or maintain charge. It doesn't improve horsepower like the latest updates to gas vehicles, but it's not trying to compete on that level

Paul Weyer dob’t get me wrong, I like Reason, it was my first DAW and I still use it for having fun, but it’s the exact opposite of the electrical car in this analogy. Doing weird shit isn’t necessarily being innovative, and Propheads does a lot of stuff with their products that doesn’t make sense in other ways then for them to make money, like Players, rather than building a solid DAW with a kickass sequencer. Instead we have all these separate feeder line products that cost almost an upgrade on their own, that honestly should be a part of the main product.

@@posebukse great point

Like any other VST

Huh? They're not even remotely similar devices.

@@deankrain this puts a new twist on octorex...Reason devices interconnect.

You're kidding right? Kompulsion, Mercury, even free Sequences are three true step sequencers in the PP shop, the first two of which would seem to eat this for lunch as far as sequences, other than the easy inversion part of the tool... but Kompulsion even has randomization...

@@brianmi40 they are super arpeggiator, whose sequences are based on chords. You can not, for example, transpose a melody.

Frank*

Totally agree! I love almost EVERYTHING Lectric Panda has to offer. I think Lectric Panda needs to get into the DAW developing game. Could easily give Reason a run for it's money.

Thanks Mr Starchild! Glad you like it. /Stefan

see my long post, i think there are way better alternatives...

seriously! $70 for what should be a patched-in update...sad.

@@RobsanOtter i fear the Propellerhead company has grown too much in terms of running charges. That would explain all these weird kinds of monetising everything and anything, every knob is soon to be available as a special RE in 20 differnt colors. I hope the new CEO is not going to kill this awesome Company by wasting all the resources into the smartphone business, wich is nothing but a funny thing to play with but has nothing really to do with a daw. Also Reason Compact will not be downloaded 40 Million times. Reason itself is super cool in a way but compared to the other daws it lacks in the sequencer big times. Also the routing capabilties compared to ohter daws is limites to the cable clutter. Best Example how to use sidechain in a VST Fabfilter Plugin? Or Cthulu? And all the other awesome VST's? Nobody tells you.

see my long post, i think there are way better alternatives...

I used Reason since 3, and I feel like these player features should be implemented into their piano roll and arranging. These players feel kind of wonky tbh

These are "Sequencer Extensions" 😏

Because fools and their money...

Haven’t tried it yet but remember... Props do offer an unrestricted 30 day trial! Why not take it for a spin and find out 🤷‍♂️. I’m willing to bet that the device does more than merely draw notes into the piano roll. In saying that though, I am skeptical that it will surpass existing midi effect devices currently on the market.

90 percent of their background and tutorial songs are bangers

It's a song by Kaylin Karr that hasn't been released yet.

@@RD-ie4mw Thanks, much appreciated. I shall be looking out for it!

@@RD-ie4mw Thank you. I will also download and buy this new song of Kaylin Karr when it is out on Itunes. Propellerhead should put a link for the sond in their description then.

Ryan is M.I.A. as he should always be 💩🚽💩

Hopefully...and a few other free cheap toys would be much appreciated as well

You can make and save your own presets and drag and drop those on there.

Always!

I definitely agree with you to a certain degree. But when you take into consideration the level of music technology that’s available today with an emphasis on workflow when one is creating/producing beats/songs ... Then Devices and tools like this are a must have ... especially now that almost Anybody can be the Next Big Artist or Producer right from their Home Address With little to no understanding of music theory whatsoever

@@clevelandboiohio492 From a work-flow perspective yes I suppose you are right - it's certainly faster. But it just lacks soul, man!

@joebeard I hear ya man ... and like I said, I even agree with you. I’d much rather play out a chord progression myself, if only to keep the Soul in it. But I must admit, when I’m sitting there for hours playing with sounds and trying new ideas but still hitting brick walls ... its devices like this that can jolt new ideas and inspirations into my creative process. I say why not take advantage of both routes. And also keep in mind, even though this player generates chord progressions for you, they give you the option to play out everything yourself and just use the player to further manipulate what you just played. Try it out man. 30 days for free. Fully functional. Win Win Situation

lol that will be a long way off re 11 will be out before that

3!? Is your mac from 1991?

Otto Mercer It wasn’t there from the beginning because originally Reason did not have any multitrack audio sequencing elements Why don’t you rewire it to your daw and keep the drum tracks in the program that is fully featured for working with multitrack audio. Sync them there and then import them to Reason if you really have to I couldn’t think of anything more annoying than working with 10+ channels of drums in Reason tbh, that’s what DAW’s are for (Cubase, Logic, PT etc)

Paul Daly I meant from the introduction of Record. I’ve been using reason since well before that. Reason is a DAW... it is just massively lacking in basic editing features. A group/phase locked edit mode, tab to transient and shortcut to split the clip is really all that’s needed to make reason useable. That was available in other daws 15 years ago. Oh and crossfade would be nice. Please don’t say go into comp mode, that’s a ridiculously long winded process for multi track recordings. As for rewire and syncing, it’s quicker just to record, edit and export the audio honestly.

Otto Mercer Even though I use Cubase for recording and mixing drums, my phase checks and fixes are done with Auto Align vst, maybe it can work in Reason for you?

Punch in Punch out

Paul Daly Auto align is a great plugin, I use it when I receive drum tracks that aren’t that well recorded to get the best phase correlation and bring the overheads in line with the kick and snare to get a punchier sound. But when you need to do multiple cute, possibly hundreds, it just becomes a mess in reason. There shouldn’t need to be workarounds for a DAW that’s designed to be so easy to use for musicians.

wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole. Here's my separate post about it: ---- This product intro, to me, doesn't match the high expectations I've come to expect when Propellerheads releases a new add on. Specifically, I expect 3 things: 1. A very COMPELLING CASE for why I would want / need the product. 2. To come away understanding pretty much all the FUNCTIONS, and only having questions about tiny details of what / how it does what it does. 2. Multiple STRONG musical ideas being showcased: built or enabled by the tools features. Let me explain: First off, the video opens with a statement about "...creating chord progressions requires an advanced understanding of theory", so we're led to expect this tool with be offering some, or a lot of that to help us. But I didn't see that in the video. You still have to build the chords yourself, note, by note, by note. What it offered along the lines of "theory" was simply constraining to a Key, and then a simple means to switch inversions (which was clever and easy, but not earth shaking compared to how others do it). Based on the opening statement, I was expecting something STRONG, like Pluginboutique's "Scaler" STRONG, which is the 800 pound GORILLA in that functional space! But as a "theory" helper or tool, this underwhelms, big time. We're then shown a two chord progression (again, underwhelming by Propellerhead standards), and then when the Alter button is pressed, we're told nothing about what magic it is doing. Having a Probability adjustment for chords SOUNDS interesting, but no compelling example is given, like in Drum Sequencer's demo where probability is immediately recognized as earth shakingly useful. And thinking about it, I don't think I'd find a strong case for using probability in chords, just speaking for myself. Buehler??? Arp mode seems like a poor excuse for not using Dual Arp, or other strong Arps like Kompulsion, Mercury, or Sequences arp. And the Sequencer mode saves a few seconds at best to just open another track for a sequence, which would then let you easily change the instrument to be different than where Polystep is sending it's notes. It also raises the question of viewing this content in the window along with the chord notes: vertically Polystep only displays 15 notes, with some up and down buttons to scroll the display. Not even a scroll bar is included, so I think most times you'd be better off sticking with a separate track and the full Piano Roll for that. I'm also not getting what "Variations" offers beyond simple Pattern choices, other than adding randomizing which of the 4 get played... But clearly sequencing Patterns in any order is a basic feature of all Arps I listed above. Underexplained clearly. Polystep makes it easy to select, constrain and change the Key, but so do Kompulsion and Mercury and basically every other arp on the planet, and they offer a lot of other features not present here, like Polyrhythms, like Drum Sequencer brought. Seems like per note sequence length to create polyrhythms (Kompulsion, Drum Step Sequencer) would have been an interesting feature here for chords, at least to me, more interesting than probability. As for the "Strong musical ideas showcase", I count one, at the end, and don't really consider a simple arp sequence as "strong"... You literally could have created that arp for that track using the any arp! Up to normal Propellerhead par, we would have seen 4 Polystep sequencers on the screen in the finale, with them spliting up the duties of creating interesting chords, amazing arps, and maybe even a bass line for a killer track! Overall, the product seems a bit hastily designed and built, sort of like the demo video: neither live up to what I've come to expect from Propellerheads add ons. I would WAY WAY strongly recommend anyone look at Pluginboutique "Scaler" instead, which is a KILLER TOOL, and get it for $49 as opposed to Polystep at $69, if what you want is a STRONG tool to help you not only create, but explore chord progressions. And if you still need a strong Arp, get Kompulsion or Mercury and you shouldn't miss Polystep at all then. p.s. everyone should be using FREE "PATCHER" from Image Line, makers of FL Studio. It gets around Reason's inability to route MIDI in unlimited fashion between plugins (something Reason should build in), which is virtually identical to how Waveform Tracktion does it in their "Racks" feature. It will let you do awesome MIDI and audio routing, such as in a SINGLE REASON TRACK, take your MIDI input from your keyboard, route, say, a single note you play, into Scaler to get a chord, then the MIDI of that chord into any VST Arp to arpeggiate it, then route that output into 1 or more instrument VSTs! www.image-line.com/plugins/Tools/Patcher/ Another alternative I would recommend over Polystep would be to mow a few more lawns, and just buy the Player Device Bundle at $149 (or during next Propellerhead sale). Since this includes: 1. Kompulsion 2. Euclidean Rhythms 3. Drum Sequencer 4. Chord Detector 5. Quad Note Generator 6. ST100 Strumming Machine www.propellerheads.com/shop/bundle/player-device-bundle/ Which would likely also make you forget about Polystep Sequencer. Kompulsion, Euclidean Rythms, Drum Sequencer and Quad Note Generator would give you WAY more fun times than Polystep! I may be wrong, and someone, even Propellerhead, may follow up with a better video, and show Polystep to have some compelling reasons not made clear here, but for now I think there are much better tools to invest in... Polystep seems like too much of an attempt to make a "swiss army knife", and like most swiss army knives, each of the tools is heavily compromised over the normal individual version of the tool. So, much the same, Polystep doesn't touch tools like Kompulsion for a sequencer, or Scaler for building chord progressions... Peace.

they should have been implemented ages ago

Freeze sounds like your stopping the sound of a track. How is it different than mute? What is a track "freeze" and why do you need it?

69 dollar. And it is not that different from scales and chords player. I would not recommend this.

Thanks!!!!

It comes in with the suite version of the now known Reason Studios. Also, it is different than scales and chords, clearly.

@CJ just demo it for free for 30 days. If you end up liking it, I’d wait for Version 11...it’s right around the corner. You’ll have buyers remorse if you buy right now, as you’ll have to pay for the upgrade.

The one by the Rec button? If you press the Step button you can step input notes in the sequencer with your keyboard. /Stefan

no, you cannot trigger directly patterns via midi either

lol that would be awesome 🤣

I got this, I tried to like it over several years, but it's not offering anything that isn't every bit as easy just in the sequencer. I don't know what this is for and I have yet to see anyone show off a compelling use case. I've liked most of the other Players, this one I don't get at all.

Hi Paul! If you set in Key mode, it will transpose the chord progressions with ever key you press. /Stefan

Very cool. Love the Players format!

Log into your account and you can download it and all other Suite Rack Extensions there.

Reason Studios log into reason website with account?

just turn it off inside the combinator

have you used the piano roll ?

@@RepeatAgain979578 see my long post, i think there are way better alternatives...

About 15 years. The piano roll and sequencer used to have better grouping methods before blocks.

Rob from Lectric Panda was involved in this one, yes. He's awesome! /Stefan

✌🏾🤣

Tart

You can make your own soulful presets. And you should sell them. People would buy them. I would like that refill.