Rockin'DoublZ wrote:aes-one wrote:just got reason 8 and it is dope!!
For me this would be a big upgrade cause I'm still on R5 and I barely scratched the surface but I have the basics down and been on a roll making beats with it. Reason has never crashed on me. It's a dope program and I learned that you gotta put in some work before call in it quits just like with any program and hardware. I'm at the stage of workin on my mixes and mixdown, gettin it to sound good. Anyhowz so far my 2008 Intel Mac hasn't died yet but im worried that it will soon, so I'm on the fence about coppin a new macbook and either going with R8 or live 9, I've seen the previews for R8 and like what I see but I like the feel of live,(ive messed with the live demo that was v5)making beats on the fly and changing sequences. My other option would just stick with R5/Mcbook 08 and cop a used 404, until my mcbook dies, my workflow would be, make the beat in reason then resample on the 404, I can do live mutes, tweek sequences... Anybody care to shed some light???? Peace...
You'll get a lot for your money upgrading from R5 to R8. But you'll definitely need to upgrade the Mac, since Reason uses a lot more DSP nowadays. I recommend a quad core i7 at the very least. You can try the 30 day demo of R8 and be able to try Rack Extensions in the shop with it as well now. Try it on the '08 Mac you're running now if it's compatible with your OS. Then you can decide between that and Live 9, or both since the R8 upgrade is only $129. With a new Macbook you can run both with ReWire. Definitely a worthy combo, especially these days.
If you don't want to invest in the DAW upgrades just yet, then go for the 404 and stick with R5. But I'd also recommend Reaper. You can try it for free and continue to use it free after the 30 day trail period is up. Record all of your audio tracks in Reaper as the ReWire master to Reason. You can also sync and record the 404's patterns into Reaper. Tweak the 404's FX while synced and recording in Reaper and you'll end up with lots of nice tracks to work with. Mix it all down in Reaper and you got yourself a decent workflow with the combination of that R5 and the 404.
I bought the 404SX a few months ago and I like to sync and record into R7, then experiment with a few Rack Extensions for more effects. The 404 and the 404SX have really nice sounding effects on their own. But the REs take it to another level. The 404SX and R7 have been a good combo for me. Ever since Reason got audio tracks in R6 and MIDI Out in R7, I haven't needed anything else. Before R7 I had to use Reaper to record my hardware, which is why I recommend it to you to ReWire it with Reason to get similar results without really having to spend any money to find out if it works for you. The only money you'd be spending is for the 404, which you can always resell if you don't like it. But I think you might like it whether you use it with a DAW or on it's own. There's a lot of creative potential in the 404 and you'll come up with a lot of good ideas when you start to notice that from using it.
yup. Best program out there to me 
