Reason - 4.0.1

As a beta tester for Reason 4.0, I can now say after using the released version, that the best audio production/sequencing software just got even better. The new sequencer is outstanding, and the new additions to the rack are quite different and useful.

Reason is revolutionary software, and any person at all involved with music production at any level should own a copy of it. Highly recommended.

The demo of version 3 won't allow me to access ANY of my old ReFills.
Does anyone know if this is a limitation of the demo or is it a problem with version 3?
I really don't feel like buying all those libraries again once they are upgraded for version 3 :-(

Couldn't agree more with the two previous comments. Loaded up Reason 3.0 demo on my Titanium G4867 PowerBook (768MB RAM) and hit play on the demo song. The CPU meter stayed in the green (maybe 65%) but the audio glitched, pipped and popped through all of the demo tracks and the actual application window seemed incredibly unresponsive. I’ve only ever had this experience when Reason 2.5 was loaded with about 40+ rack units and the CPU meter in the red (95%). Basically Reason 3 is one hungry hungry hippo! Did all the usual system optimisations (*censored*tail etc.) and a full restart and nope Reason 3 is unusably slow on older Macs, whereas 2.5 was super nippy and could handle some serious rack combos. The Propellerheads website states a G3 (minimum) but I honestly don't think it's worth moving to version 3 unless you have a nuclear powered quad G6. Very disappointed indeed!

I've been using Reason since v.1.0 and was awaiting v.3.0 with an anticipation built upon the previous -always very positive- experience.

So, I downloaded Reason 3.0 Demo - and started it up. After telling me that is a Demo, that I can't save and that it will quit after 20 minutes, it quit immediately, because REX wasn't loadded properly. Say what?

Well, soon after that, I restarted my PowerBook in the target mode (for backing up), and after restarting "normally", I tried the Reason 3.0 Demo again, and now it loaded properly. (Hmmm... and here I thought that the days when the whole system has to be restarted for a newly installed app to run were gone with the wind.)

So Reason started up, and presented me with the "built in" song. On the first glance, you just have to admire the nice and shiny updates on the graphics. And then I hit "Play"... and after a few seconds of playing, Reason told me that my PowerBook (G4 @ 667MHz, w/1Gb RAM) was too slow. Well, I know it's not a dual-G5 @ 1.5 GHz, but even just for the dinky lil' "built in" song?

So, I thought, maybe the "built in" song uses some really involved effects; why not try something I wrote? So I did. Of course, Reason 3.0 did not know where I kept my refills, so it prompted me to find them. And, owing to the changed interface, I wasn't able to define default file locations on the fly, but was content to just locate them one by one.

Ahem. Except that they all now have "bad format". Huh?

Not just one; all of the 600+ Mb (not much, but still...)? Presumably, I'll have to recompile them, somehow (?) or reload recompiled refills?

Well, sorry. Back to Reason 2.5, which handles all my work and all my refills with no hiccup, even at ~30 devices in the rack and plenty of parameter automation, and which needs optimization at the expense of latency only for a few of them.

If you want to get a 'sample' of what reason 2 can do check this out - www.mp3.com/lukeetyrnal - all done w/ reason - even the vocals are played w/ NN19 sampler...