Cubase 7

4.5 out of 5

Pros

Mixer revamped at long last. Channel Strip rocks! Chord Track/Assistant are inspirational. VST Connect SE for remote recording. CurveEQ is a crash course in mixing.

Cons

No mixer/plugin undo! Overstuffed MixConsole needs scrolling. VST Connect SE video can be flaky. Snow Leopard users will need to update.

Verdict

An excellent update, bringing yet more power, quality and innovation to Cubase.

A year ago brought us Cubase 6.5, a mere point release, yet one stuffed full of new goodies including two of the best instruments the company have ever bundled in. Unusually, this was a paid-for point update, but it followed in the footsteps of Steinberg's established full version update formula: a handful of new instruments and effects, some nips, some tucks and a few eye-popping features.

"Times have changed in the DAW scene, with some competitors offering quite radical updates"

Steinberg's updates have, of late, been designed to open users' wallets with the promise of creative inspiration, while rarely delivering the sort of sweeping changes that would rattle them or have them scrambling to the user manual.

But times have changed in the DAW scene, with some competitors offering quite radical updates - see Propellerhead's introduction of full audio editing/recording and plugin Rack Extensions to Reason, or Cakewalk's deep rework of Sonar as Sonar X1. Elsewhere, you have newcomers like PreSonus Studio One and even the upcoming Bitwig Studio that are not tied down to years of established convention.

Some might say that Cubase has been looking slightly stodgy in comparison; others might champion its familiarity. If you're in the latter camp, you may be taken aback by some of the sweeping changes that have come to Cubase in this new version. However, we've been spending a lot of time with it and can assure you that the new features are nothing short of inspirational.

Remixed remodeled

"There are tons of new features in Cubase - and the new MixConsole is probably at the top of the list"

There are tons of new features in Cubase - far too many to cover in our review. Of those that demand specific attention, the new MixConsole is probably at the top of the list. Yep, Cubase 7's new mixer is so drastically different from the previous version that they've seen fit to rename it. A few minutes of poking around reveals that this is indeed an entirely new concept for Cubase and one that, frankly, makes the old mixer seem like a limited relic, albeit a slightly more immediate one.

That old mixer was relatively fixed. You could collapse the bits you didn't want to see, toggle showing inserts, EQs, sends, etc, and you could have three different mixers available at any time. However, for the most part, the size of all of these elements wasn't adjustable. The new MixConsole is entirely configurable and can be expanded to fill your entire screen.

The Visibility/Zones column enables you to decide not just which channels you want to see but in what order they should be arranged. You can show (and grow) only the fader sections, for instance, or toggle a notepad for each channel, channel overview and more. Old tools like in-line EQ curves and large meters are still available.

Strip tease

The new Channel Strip isn't just an element of the MixConsole but is also available when viewing the Channel Settings window. In fact, we prefer accessing it this way as it gives a better overview than the narrow vertical display in the MixConsole, enabling you to see all its five sections at once without scrolling. You can arrange them in any order you like; some offer variations on a theme, while others do one job.

The Noise Gate comes first, with its Threshold, Attack, Release, Freq and Q controls - just enough to do the job in a hurry. There's also a Saturation section, offering Tube and Tape modes, both of which give you control over drive, output and low- / high-pass filtering. Then there's an Envelope Shaper with - as you'd expect - Attack and Release knobs, along with Length and Output controls.

The Compressor section provides Tube, Vintage, and Standard models, each with its own collection of controls. The one that impressed us most was the Vintage - although it offers only Attack, Release, Input and Output controls, this simplicity is what we found so appealing.

"With just the bare essentials on hand for each band, the EQ makes simple work of dialing in just the right amount of boost or attenuation"

In addition to the compressors, there's an entirely separate section for limiting. This one provides Brickwall Limiter, Maximizer and Standard Limiter models, each with only the barest set of parameters. Again, it's this simplicity that appeals, and it's seen yet again in the four-band EQ, which can be placed anywhere in the signal flow.

With just the bare essentials on hand for each band, the EQ makes simple work of dialing in just the right amount of boost or attenuation. And that's the point: hosting a set of the most- used processing on each channel for immediate access. No digging through plugins or toggling GUIs - just get in, get the job done and make it sound good. You can draw upon a collection of Channel Strip presets, some of which were designed by US rock producer Allen Morgan.

Hanging by a chord

The new global Chord Track enables you to enter chords along the timeline manually or by extracting them from a MIDI track. Once you've created a chord track, any MIDI or VariAudio tracks can be made to follow along in perfect (user-defined) harmony.

"This time around, Steinberg have thrown Voxengo's CurveEQ into the bundle"

This is particularly powerful when used with the updated VariAudio, which has been upgraded to version 2, with a new detection algorithm and multiple parts across a single grid. We had great fun using these tools to create new vocal melodies and harmonies from a solo vocal recording.

We got our fair share of new plugins in Cubase 6.5, so we're not going to complain about the paucity of extra gadgets in 7. Besides, this time around, Steinberg have thrown CurveEQ into the bundle. Coming from Voxengo, CurveEQ is a 'smart equalizer' that can examine the frequency spectra of two signals and match one to the other. In this way, you can 'steal' the spectrum of, say, a solo'ed vocal from a professionally recorded track and apply it to your own, to make them sound more similar.

Loosening control

"The Remote Control Editor instantly create customisable layouts for the MIDI controller of your choice"

Next up, the Remote Control Editor. This is an easily configurable generic controller editor available for VSTinstruments and effects. You can instantly create customisable layouts for the MIDI controller of your choice, and there are presets for some of the more popular models. It's very fast and totally intuitive.

It's also worth mentioning that all plugins now have A/B comparison buttons, and that effects can now be globally bypassed. MemZap allows you to assign magnification levels and position to key controllers for quick toggling.

Other tweaks to the system include ASIO Guard, using what the developers claim are 'intelligent dropout prevention algorithms' to protect against glitches. There's also a Safe-start mode that can temporarily disable custom preferences to start Cubase with its default settings, to aid troubleshooting.

There are countless further brushstrokes: you can now search for tracks in busy arrangements and add customisable icons and notepad info to any channel. Fullscreen mode is also here, as is improved scalability across screens of all sizes and aspect ratios.

So what's still missing? Well, we wouldn't mind an intelligent noise reduction/restoration system, but we guess we'll have to use WaveLab for that. And your computer's OS will have to be bang up-to-date to run the thing - it wouldn't install on our Snow Leopard Mac until we upgraded to Mountain Lion.

Oh, and despite all the fancy new stuff in the new MixConsole, you're still stuck with a limit of eight insert effects slots. And, frustratingly, you still can't undo mixer and plugin parameter movements! If you're a longtime Cubase user, you'll be accustomed to the lack of such functionality, though that doesn't make it any less vexing.

Even without such features, though, Cubase 7 represents the most complete and comprehensive version yet, as you'd hope. It's an absolutely compulsory upgrade for existing users, and very much worth checking out for everyone else.

Pro Tools 9

                                                       Score 4 out of 5

Pros:
Improved overall specification. Automatic delay compensation. Multichannel Beat Detective as standard. Greater hardware flexibility. Useful instruments and plug-ins.


Cons:
Entry price is higher. Add-ons needed for full feature-set. No offline mixdown


Verdict: Not a huge update in terms of features, but the abolishment of interface reliance makes Pro Tools 9 far more attractive

For years, computer musicians have bemoaned the proprietary nature of Pro Tools. Unlike every other DAW, the software would only work with Avid's own audio interfaces. Pro Tools 9 marks the end of this archaic practice, putting it on an equal footing with its numerous rivals.

Pro Tools still comes in multiple varieties: HD, HD Native and the 'standard' edition that we're reviewing here. Both HD versions require Pro Tools hardware for full functionality, either to interface and process audio via TDM DSP (HD); or just interface it, using the computer's CPU for processing (HD Native).

Like other all-in-one DAW packages, PT9 combines audio recording, MIDI sequencing, automation, real-time audio plug-ins, offline audio processing, elastic audio, instrument plug-ins and bundled sample content - basically everything you need to make complete pro-quality tracks.The third option - simply called Pro Tools 9 - is the only truly open system. It requires just the software, a PC or Mac, and a suitable audio interface (ASIO or CoreAudio), and it's this version that we're testing. You can even use it with your computer's onboard sound system - handy when on the move.

It is, in essence, a replacement for Pro Tools LE and M-Powered (but note that v8 of the latter is still currently available). The big downer for existing users is that this will mean a paid-for upgrade, while new users are also looking at a higher entry price. In return, the spec is much better, but paid-for extras and enhancements do still exist.

Making it all better

Major improvements include a higher track count (96 mono or stereo at 44.1/48kHz), up to 32 channels of audio in/out (interface dependent), 256 buses, 512 MIDI tracks, 64 instrument tracks, 128 aux inputs, OMF/AAF/MXF support, EUCON support for Euphonix Artist/Pro devices, multitrack Beat Detective, pan law options and automatic delay compensation (ADC).

Officially, only OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 are supported. Third-party audio interfaces will not be officially qualified on an individual basis. Copy protection is still via iLok (and, thankfully, the boxed version includes a pre-authorised iLok).

Don't be a stranger

While some updated DAWs can feel like totally new programs, v9 is all very familiar. In fact, there are no further headline-grabbing changes. You get the same bundled six-instrument pack and additional sample content as v8.

This is a great starter set, though you'll still hanker after the full Instrument Expansion Pack.

Next up, the standard effects plug-ins (including the recent AIR effects and bundled Bomb Factory ones) cover most ground. But apart from multitrack capability being added to Beat Detective as standard, there's also not much new here.

On the upside, switching between interfaces is simple, and there is reasonable flexibility here: Mac users can use a Pro Tools Aggregate Device for combining CoreAudio interfaces.

Alas, within Pro Tools, Avid's own interfaces only use DAE drivers and so can't be aggregated. Interestingly, low-latency hardware monitoring still exists if you select an Avid interface that supports it (002, 003, Mbox Pro and Mbox Pro 2) but seems to be otherwise unavailable.

Automatic delay compensation is big news for non-HD Pro Tools and we found it worked very well, not least because it flags up the channel whose plug-ins are causing the most latency. There's also further manual adjustment should you need it, giving excellent user control.

Pro Tools still doesn't have an offline rendering mode - if you mix down a ten-minute song, it'll take ten minutes to do it, unlike most DAWs, which accelerate the process.

Newcomers should also be aware that Pro Tools uses its own plug-in format: RTAS. VST/AU aren't supported (although there is a VST wrapper available).

Small steps

Pro Tools began life as an audio recording system, and whether you're using QuickPunch to drop into record or mixing with lots of automation, it's still incredibly reliable and good at such tasks.

Audio and MIDI editing can all be done in the main edit screen, but, there's also a dedicated MIDI Editor pane, similar to other big-name DAWs.

One thing lacking is the option to play instruments from the QWERTY keyboard, and this combined with the fairly 'functional' bundled instrument set means hardened programmers will probably look elsewhere. However, if you combine recording and programming, Pro Tools' stability and sonic quality are very welcome.

Although the shift to Pro Tools 9 is mostly positive, there are some downsides. Firstly, there's no longer an equivalent option to buying cheap interfaces with Pro Tools LE included, and new v9 bundles reflect the higher price.

Next up, to compete with its nearest rivals (in terms of spec at least), you still need to buy the Complete Production Toolkit 2 (£1716) and Instrument Expansion Pack (£432).

Thirdly, the onslaught of instruments and effects courtesy of the AIR team seems to have ground to a halt for the time being. And finally, while Avid have done a reasonable job of harmonising the various versions into one unified program, comparison charts are still needed to nail down precisely what to expect from a particular setup.

Even so, in most respects, they've finally given users what they asked for, and Pro Tools can now be viewed as a direct competitor for a wide range of DAWs.

Logic Studio 9

Score: 5 out of 5

Pros:
Excellent new workspace. Much improved workflow. Tasty new multitake and comping feature. Bulging bundle of applications. Terrific sound library. Incredible price! Mainstage is a great idea
Cons:
Not quite the revolution some had hoped for.
Verdict:
Logic Pro 8 itself sounds as great as ever, and the improved interface is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Apple. The fact that it’s just one element of the extremely affordable Logic Studio is quite mind-blowing.

Inevitably, the new Logic-based products - the full-on Logic Studio suite and the cut-down Logic Express 8 - are a combination of expected improvements and surprising additions. However, one thing that will no doubt have knocked everyone sideways is the pricing. At £319 for the full Logic Studio suite, Apple has not only slashed the price of Logic Pro by over 50%, but also undercut pretty much all of the competition.

Given that it's the flagship product, we'll be focusing on the fully-fledged Studio package, but if you do go for Logic Express 8, you'll get a standalone application for £129 that shares the majority of the features of Logic Pro 8. What you lose is a lot of content, some more advanced features (including surround capabilities) and the bundled additional apps of Logic Studio.

Aside from Logic Pro 8, the Studio suite comes with the following apps: Soundtrack Pro 2 for audio post-production; MainStage for live performance; WaveBurner for CD mastering; Apple Loops Utility, which enables you to convert audio files into Apple Loops format; Impulse Response Utility for creating Space Designer effects; and a Dolby AC-3 encoding utility called Compressor 3.

Possibly the biggest 'value added' element comes in the form of the 39GB Studio Sound Library. This combines the first five Apple Jam Packs with further content to deliver 18,000 Apple Loops, 5000 sound effects, 1300 EXS instruments and 2400 channel strip settings. And it's all royalty-free, of course.

The new stuff

Fascinating though this is, existing Logic users will want to know what fundamental improvements have been made. The most obvious is the revamped workspace, which we'll look at later on.

Intriguingly, the XS Key copy protection has been dumped in favour of a simple serial number (ie, it's not even a challenge/response system). The handling of templates, track creation and project 'assets' (audio files, movie files, sampler instruments and impulse responses) has moved up a level, too. Rather than being an option, as it was before, your starting point is now a Logic project folder, containing associated song file and assets, and keeping everything tidy from the outset. What's more, you'll be greeted with a choice of task-specific templates to get you going on start-up.

Newbies should find the program easy to migrate to, but for existing Logic users, possibly the biggest ongoing bugbear is the audio handling. Although good, it struggles to match that of Pro Tools.

It's not entirely clear whether Logic Pro 8 addresses this from the ground up with an overhauled audio engine, but there are many new features. Useful tweaks include the routing of buses to record inputs, input monitor buttons, low-latency monitoring of software instruments, end-to-end surround capabilities, support for the new Core Audio file format (CAF), and the ability to play projects containing frozen tracks in Logic on any Mac, even without the original plug-ins installed.

However, the two most headline-grabbing changes do concern recording and editing. Logic Pro 8 introduces both multitake recording of audio and MIDI, and a new feature called 'Quick Swipe comping' for audio. Multitake mode kicks in whenever you record in cycle mode or record over an existing take - this is the default mode for audio and an option for MIDI. Recording in this way results in a 'take' folder, which you can then unpack to edit. 

For MIDI, that's where the fun ends; however, for audio it's where the fun actually starts, because double-clicking the folder reveals each take stacked up in order. You can then cursor-select or 'swipe' regions on each, creating a comp.

By default, it doesn't leave any gaps (although you can add them by holding Shift), and the automatic crossfades it uses follow your preference settings. When you're happy with your comp, you can then 'flatten' it to reduce it to one track visually, or 'flatten and merge' it to produce a completely new, consolidated audio file.

Clearly, this system draws on techniques used in Pro Tools playlists, but we found it intuitive to use and probably the quickest system we've tried for comping, and it even works on grouped multitrack takes. The only downside is that you can't import multiple audio takes from preexisting wave files and apply Quick Swipe comping to them, which is a shame.

The interface

Logic Pro 8 sports a completely revamped single-screen workspace, which will no doubt anger as many users as it pleases. If you really can't get on with this way of working, the basic individual windows (Arrange, Score, Event and so on) can still be used, as can screensets.

The workspace is vaguely reminiscent of Ableton Live, and Apple have taken this opportunity to rename and revamp a few things as well, with the Matrix Editor becoming the Piano Roll Editor, for example. The result is four main areas - Arrange, Inspector, Media/Lists and Editor - plus a transport bar at the bottom. All can be folded away, apart from the Arrange window and the transport bar.

The Editor and Media/Lists areas both use tabbed windows to grant access to their various options, such as Hyper Editor, Score and so on in the Editor section. The Media/Lists section contains not only audio files but presets and channel strips as well, and includes the Spotlight-supported browser and Tempo and Event Lists. Furthermore, both the Editor and Media areas can link to the Arrange window, so clicking on, say, a software instrument's slot will bring up the list of available patches for that instrument in the Library list.

The Inspector area includes both part and track parameters, and dual channel strips - one each for the selected track and its output, although clicking on any output on the left fader (send, bus, etc) will bring up the corresponding fader to the right. It's easy to get to grips with and should certainly speed up workflow.

Although Logic Pro 8 comes with a massive audio and instrument library, you'll notice there's not been much mention of new plug-ins. However, there are a few newbies, such as Delay Designer: a delay plug-in with filtering and programmable taps. The new Microphaser makes an its debut too.

Various instruments have been updated, including a long-overdue new editor for EXS24, big improvements to UltraBeat (including a larger library of kits), and better multi-output handling performance.

The addition of end-to-end surround capabilities has necessitated a revamp of some key plug-ins, including some surround-equipped instruments (Sculpture, EXS24 and ES2). Both Delay Designer and Space Designer offer True Surround, and a few of the typical audio effects (eg, Surround Compressor) are also available in this dedicated format.

Apple have also added a multi-mono architecture. This combines mono and stereo instances to build a surround plug-in that matches the format of the track, and it even works with third-party plug-ins. The standard interface for this includes a flexible configuration option for grouping channels (labelled A, B and C) the way you want for processing. Additionally, the LFE channel also gets its own settings, and you can bypass each channel from all effects groups. If this sounds a bit complicated, don't worry, as it makes perfect sense in use.

On the downside

Logic remains a large and complex application, and you'd expect there to be a few teething problems, as with any new release. However, we found it to be very stable, and apart from a couple of graphics-related anomalies there's little to moan about.

Even so, some people will undoubtedly be annoyed by changes that don't match their working methods, such as the integrated transport bar, which you can fully customise but not remove. Equally, some may be miffed by the disappearance of the floating extended parameters window, the floating toolbar and the needless renaming of many things.

Is Logic Studio a revolutionary product? Probably not. If anything, Logic's revolution happened years ago, when it gained a multitude of soft synths, studio grade plug-ins, and so on.

What this version does do is deliver all the promise of those ideas in a foolproof package. With its new apps, sounds and low price, it's going to be a tough product to beat. Whether it was worth the wait is harder to say.

Ableton Live 8

Score: 4.5 out of 5

Pros:

Stunning Groove Engine. Enhanced workflow. Improved warping. Looper is awesome. Midi section comes of age. Despite some flaws this is the most powerful version of Live yet

Cons:

Warping more fiddly for DJs. Some features not perfect. More audio glitches and crashes. No multi-screen support. Sharing functionality still in beta.
Verdict: 
It's not without its faults, but it is by far the most powerful Live yet.

Cosmetically, Live is more or less unchanged for the version 8 update, which is reassuring, as it implies that Ableton trusts us to be happy enough with the software's conceptual functional differences.

So, the most radical overhaul is the new warping engine, which is guaranteed to divide opinion. It's uncontroversial enough at first glance, offering the new Complex Pro warp mode, which gives improved control over the Complex mode that's so popular with DJs and remixers.

Similarly, there's greater flexibility with the Beats mode that DJs have warmed to, though it can still make complete tracks sound rubbish! But there are more fundamental changes afoot, too.

Warp this way

Whereas previously you would create a warp marker at a certain point on the timeline and drag it along to the relevant point in the audio, you now create a marker on the waveform itself, and drag that to fit the timeline. These warp markers default to transient points, and once you have a marker, you can then nudge the audio along that marker, too.

There are various advantages to this system, not least of which is that what you see is what you get. Furthermore, when dealing with markers that are very close to each other, you no longer come up against a limited timing resolution, as could happen with previous Live versions.

And if you're warping multiple audio channels and flicking between them, it means you get an immediate visual reference as to how things are lining up, which wasn't easy when the timeline itself was being stretched.

It's a positive change, and once people adjust (which should take a week or two) they'll forget that it was ever any different, despite all the uproar on the forums during beta testing. However, DJs do have reason to complain, as when it comes to warping electronic material on a steady beat, you're dealing with more mouse clicks and sub-menus, as Live tends to put in loads of transient markers you just don't need.

One suggestion we have is to offer a 'DJ mode', in which the default setting is to warp straight, placing just one transient marker right at the start. You can do something similar from within the Preferences, but there should be a front-panel solution.

Oh, and no, Live still often incorrectly identifies the first beat of the song. Come on, Ableton – you've had four years of auto-warp to sort this out!

Groove engine

The next huge leap forward comes with the long-requested Groove Engine. Whereas previous versions of Live only offered basic quantising and swing, we now have full-on groove quantisation based around a vast library of groove maps, including everything from the seminal MPC grooves beloved to this day by dance and hip-hop producers, and the quantise mappings of the legendary hip-hop machine that is E-MU's SP1200, right on through to a huge range of real drummers' feels

These work on audio, too, though it sometimes takes more tweaking to get perfect results. Nevertheless, the whole thing is a glorious addition and brings Live up to par in an area in which it lagged behind apps like Reason, Cubase and Logic that already offered such functionality.

As for mapping and controlling parameters of third-party VST/AU plug-ins, this is easier now, as you can choose which controls should be shown in the pop-out Live editor window. And at last, Live enables you to access more than just the first 128 parameters of a plug-in, which was a major restriction of previous versions.

MIDI and more

Live's MIDI features have been enhanced, too. First, there's the step-input sequencing mode, which offers hours of fun (though for proper old-school step-sequencing, we'll have to wait until Max For Live ships, complete with a vintage-style step-sequencing patch that works with Akai's APC-40).

This is backed up by nifty new MIDI editing features, like sensible key commands – an essential workflow streamliner for any serious user (although it still highlights the lack of a fully editable and universal key command system).

Next, the long-requested collapsible Group tracks – if you're familiar with Live's Drum Racks, you'll understand how these operate. They're busses for combining the outputs of multiple tracks, onto which you can insert effects.

The remainder of the improvements are mostly workflow-related, such as the ability to zoom in and out, enabling you to get closer to the action, or fit a lot more tracks and other info in the window. This is an awesome feature, let down by one baffling flaw: you can only set the zoom level in the Preferences window.

A far better implemented feature is the waveform preview in the Browser tab, which makes locating audio files much easier. But Ableton has missed another trick by not including a similar feature at the base of every channel in the Session view, for visualising the structure of the tracks that are playing.

More new features include fade in/out and crossfading for clips, and control over multiple parameters with one mouse movement (eg, adjusting several track levels at once).

Sharing

Ableton is also to be congratulated for making the process of online track-sharing a lot less painful with the Share Live Set function. The bad news is that the whole system is still in the beta stage, although you can apply to test it. We've had a go and can report that it's a good start, although clearly still a work in progress at present.

Selecting this option uploads your project to a server, including all associated audio files. Every time you do this, it's supposed to check for any new files and only upload those, though when we tried it, it created a whole new project.

If there are any third-party plug-ins or non-universal content (Operator channels, for example), it will prompt you to freeze them – there's no one-click solution, it seems.

The whole thing operates in the background, while you continue working on your project, but it'll be interesting to see how the servers cope once Live 8 has been out for a while and the whole sharing system goes live, so to speak.

Effects

There are six new effects plug-ins in Live 8. Multiband Dynamics offers three bands of compression/ expansion, and the results, though not comparable to a top-end processor, are certainly ample for no-nonsense problem solving.

f multiband dynamics manipulation seems like overkill, you can use the new Limiter instead, which is another brickwall solution for your main output that will be particularly useful for DJs and live performers. Live's audio engine does unpleasant things if you let your signals stray into the red, so this will keep them under control.

The rest of the new plug-ins are creative tools, including Frequency Shifter, for some ring-modulated goodness; a distortion plug-in named Overdrive that won't replace your Big Muff but still has its uses; and the rather awesome and versatile Vocoder (which is a cross between a vocoder and a talk-box, in many ways).

The coolest of the bunch has to be Looper, which is a phrase sampler, the likes of which guitarists have been using for years, but with the added bonus of automatic loop calculation and retriggering. This is an absolutely amazing live tool, as well as a compositional aid, and is our favourite new Live plug-in by far.

Instruments

Although you don't get them as standard with Live 8 (unless you buy the Suite), the updates to the Live instruments are part and parcel of the version update.

For a start, Operator has a load of new filter types (for a total of 14) and, even more excitingly, the facility to draw in your own waveform, which will no doubt delight intrepid sonic explorers. On the sampled instrument side of things, there's now Latin Percussion to complement Drum Machine and Session Drums.

Most fascinating of all, though, is Collision. Brought to us by AAS – the same third-party partner that created Analog, Electric and Tension – this synth uses physical modelling to recreate the sound of percussive instruments, such as xylophones and glockenspiels. You also get the resonator section of Collision as an independent effects plug-in, named Corpus. This can be used to generate modelled resonance patterns on any sound you like. It's unconventional, yes, but very cool when you get it right with an off-the-wall source.

And that's about it for Suite additions, apart from the ever-growing sound and preset library. In truth, we don't think the library is quite good enough to be your only sound source, but it's still pretty good, albeit not as radically changed from version 7 as pre-release marketing suggested.

And whether it's in the range and quality of sounds (Zero-G and Cycling '74 count themselves amongst the contributors), or the carefully crafted presets, with all of the main controls pre-mapped via macros, nobody could deny Ableton's comprehensive approach.

Summary

Little tweaks and additions notwithstanding, that, ladies and gentlemen, is Live 8. It's the biggest overhaul in years.

Buying into the Live experience is still a touch daunting, due to the ever-bulging Ableton product line. The standard edition of Live has the exact same functionality as the version in the full-on Suite bundle, but lacks most of the extra instruments and vast audio library.

If you produce music for media, or don't have many instruments already, then Suite offers a massive saving over buying the component elements separately, these being the Essential Instrument Collection, Sampler, Operator, Drum Machines, Session Drums, Analog, Electric, Tension, Latin Percussion, World Class Library and Collision.

If you use Live for DJing or producing albums, or if you tend to make music in one specific genre and already have decent software instruments, then we'd suggest giving Suite a miss. Instruments like Sampler, Operator and Drum Machines are great for almost any type of electronic music, but they're not vital, and you can always buy them separately later on.

We haven't even had time to talk properly about forthcoming Live 8-requiring products, like Max For Live (for designing your own devices) and Akai's APC-40 (the best Live controller we've ever tried). While these are optional extras, they're bound to make Live an even more appealing platform.

Live 8 isn't perfect, though. Some of the new features haven't been implemented as well as they could've, and there are things we'd still like to see (multi-screen support, for example). We've also been experiencing more crashes and audio glitches than with previous versions when adding plug-ins (though not when performing with a pre-prepared set, which is the main thing). Hopefully, this will be resolved with an update.

Ultimately, none of this takes away from what is an awesome leap forward in terms of both features and workflow. File this under 'essential upgrade' and start saving those pennies.

Reason 5

Score: 5 out of 5

Pros: 

Rock solid and CPU friendly. Stunning new sequencing features. Kong drum device is awesome. On-board sampling. Streamlined interface. Surface locking for control hardware.

Cons:

Single column rack. Can't configure custom shortcut keys.

Verdict:

It's always been a superb app, but with v5, Reason finally feels 'complete', offering a. highly satisfying musical environment.

Reason has been a firm favourite of ours since its original release a decade ago. Not just a virtual studio in concept, it offers a literal representation of a traditional MIDI studio, revolving around a simulated rack to which a huge range of devices can be added.

Effects, synths, samplers, drum machines, mixers - all can be dropped into the rack and connected as you see fit by flipping around to the rear of the units and plugging virtual cables into their I/O ports. Sequencing is pretty much the only part of Reason that's not tied to the rack.

Unlike almost all modern music applications, there's no third-party plug-in support - and there likely never will be, although you can connect Reason to other apps via the ReWire protocol.

If there's one new feature that has our pulses pumping the most, it's the Kong Drum Designer. Each of its 16 pads can control any of 16 drum channels, each of which holds its own sound source module.Now Reason 5 is here, and following what seemed like an eternity tinkering with the restricted beta build, we're finally in possession of the finished, boxed version. But is it really any good? And are there any hidden drawbacks? That's what a review aims to uncover, so let's get to it…

The one you'll probably use most is NN-Nano, a stripped back version of the NN-XT sampler. The other modules are Nurse Rex (a mini Dr. Rex) and seven synthesisers.

Tip of the hat

Each pad can be assigned to any drum channel and also bound to one of four 'hit types'. Sound modules respond to these; for example, Synth Hi-hat offers closed, open and two intermediate positions.

NN-Nano's hit types, meanwhile, are four discrete multilayered setups. For Nurse Rex, hit types can fire off a loop, slice or slices. There are also pad-level Link and Alt group, level, pan, tone, decay and pitch controls, and two external sends and internal Bus FX send.

Oh, and then there are the effects! Each pad has two slots, for one of nine effects or an additional tone or noise generator. Our favourite is the Overdrive/Resonator, but the Rattler comes a close second. We'd like to have the effects in the Reason rack too, but for now, you can route signals through Kong.

There's also a send effect slot (eg, for reverb/delay) and a master slot for compression, etc. The small Q buttons positioned adjacent to most of Kong's parameters select them for Quick Edit mode, whereby all 16 pads display relevant controls. For example, hit the Q button next to the Pan/Level knobs and each pad turns into a mini X/Y pad for instant editing of pan and level.

It's a fabulous system. There are a few omissions, though: when loading multiple layers, there's no automatic velocity mapping, and Kong lacks the seemingly obvious per-pad delay/offset function. But overall, it strikes the right balance between power and immediacy, and on the back panel, you'll find every connection you might need.

Different drum

In addition to its sample-based drum modules, Kong offers seven synthetic ones. Physical Tom Tom, Snare and Bass Drum mimic real instrument sounds using physical modelling, while Synth Bass Drum, Hi-hat, Tom Tom and Snare ape classic synthesised drums.

It's a surprising inclusion given the huge number of sample banks on offer and the realism that multisampling affords. Surely you've already got all the drums you want with samples? Well, not quite.

The ability to tailor each drum sound to the rest of your track is every bit as fun and useful as being able to edit synth patches. Of course, this requires a lot of tonal control - and Kong has plenty. Physical Bass Drum, for example, has no less than nine sound-shaping parameters, taking in things like beater density, tone and even shell level. You can get lost for hours designing drum kits and adjusting them in real-time.

So how do they all sound - can they compete with samples? Well, the three physical modelling drums are rather impressive, offering a truly different and useful approach to real-sounding drums.

With judicious tweaking of settings, they can be very convincing, particularly in conjunction with the two effects slots. As for the synth drums, these recall the unashamedly unrealistic tones of old school drum machines (as do the physical modelled drums, on extreme settings) and quickly prove their worth when let loose on a project.

It's only a shame that you can't save individual drum module presets, although you can save entire banks.

The other new device is Dr. Octo Rex. This backward-compatible replacement for Dr. Rex allows up to eight loops to be loaded at once. However, the variations you can now achieve with a single loop can make you forget you have eight to play with!

Sampling made simple

Despite Reason's 'racks full of virtual gear' approach, previous versions couldn't sample audio directly like old school hardware samplers. That's all changed with Reason 5. Simply click a button on NN-Nano, ReDrum, NN-XT, NN-19 (we still love that Paul Hardcastle reference) or hit the icon in the Tool window to record your external source.

Once you've recorded and edited your sample, you can save it for use in any suitable playback device in Reason - complete, rather usefully, with its loop setting (one-shot, forwards or forwards-backwards).With the recording made, open the sample editor, which is at once both basic and beautiful. Start, end and loops points are set with the mouse, as are fades and normalisation. You can trim samples based around chosen start and end points, and snap these points to transients.

One-click copying is another great feature, allowing quick variations to be saved. Like magic, Reason has gone from having no sampling functionality whatsoever to having perhaps the quickest tools of any DAW on the market. We challenge you to go from recording and editing a sample to playing it in a device in less time with anything else out there.

Rock around the Blocks

Perhaps the best feature debuting in Reason 5 is Blocks. This is a way of defining blocks of arranged material, ie, clips and automation. They appear in the sequencer as a single track, and you can define and use up to 32 blocks. One might be an intro, another a chorus and so on.

Blocks might sound simple, and, well, it is - that's the point. It's powerful, though, and could revolutionise the way you approach arranging. It makes reusing great edits easier than ever and lends a compositional spontaneity that - of all the major DAWs - only Live can match, while managing to be better for sequencing.

Anybody who tries Blocks will miss it terribly whenever they use any other sequencer - it's that good.

One thing we'd like to see, though, is the ability to highlight a section of arrangement and have Reason automatically create a block from it. You can do it manually, but there should be a more immediate function.

Reason's Factory Soundbank has always been a useful resource, if not particularly extensive or inspirational. For v5, Propellerhead have called on a who's who of sound designers, including heavyweights like Adam Beyer (techno superstar), the Bomb Squad (legendary Public Enemy producers) and Printz Board (musical director of the Black Eyed Peas).

There are drum banks, loops and more, totalling 1.5GB, with some genuinely great material to be found. Reason 5's newfound ability to lock controllers to specific devices shouldn't be overlooked.

Elsewhere, there are more enhancements than we can list. The most obvious is a coming-of-age makeover. Reason and Record now share an almost identical aesthetic, with many control sections made slightly larger and more clearly delineated.

The transport bar is improved, with larger level meters and a Tap Tempo button, for example. Record's virtual keyboard (use mouse or QWERTY keys) and Big Meter are also here.

All of which leads to our one major complaint. Despite all the welcome homogenisation with Record, the latter's multiple rack facility is absent, so the single column of rack devices takes up only part of a widescreen display. This oversight is as infuriating as it is inexplicable. And there are a couple of other small gripes.

For example, when we've talked about Reason in the past we've mentioned how we'd love to automate the Length control in the Groove section of the Toolbar. Playing with this in real-time yields an absolute goldmine of edits and breakdown effects, but it still can't be automated.

However, you can now at least resample such live tweaks on the fly. On the topic of sample tinkering, the vast majority of DAWs now offer some degree of built-in loop slicing, so Reason users could feel maligned at having to fork out for ReCycle on top.

Some might argue that it's time to add basic audio track functionality, too, but when you look at how little extra it costs to get all of Record's amazing functionality, and factor in the built-in sampling that Reason now offers, we think Propellerhead have got the balance about right.

One genuine grumble to round things off: we still think a comprehensive assignable key-command system is long overdue.

Reason reassessed

Minor caveats aside, how does Reason stand up in 2010? Music software has progressed immensely since it first emerged, but Reason uses many of the same devices it's always had. Can it still compete?

In short, yes. It's fair to say Reason has its own character, and while you can't use plug-ins, the built-in devices are great. The mighty Thor synth can produce everything from searing leads to bowl-breaking basses.

All of your drum needs are more than met with Kong, ReDrum and NN-XT, and there's a comprehensive range of effects processors.

Ultimately, Reason's restricted nature is also its strength. With only a few synths and a finite range of effects at your disposal, you really do get to know them inside out, in a way that very few producers bother to do now that there are so many plug-ins around.

And by eschewing third-party plug-ins, Reason is made so rock-solid that come the nuclear apocalypse, only cockroaches, scorpions and Reason will be left standing. It can run on a very modest machine, too, being one of the most CPU-light music applications we've ever used.

Most of us can benefit from using Reason as part of our setup, and as a number of name producers have shown, you can make complete tracks entirely in Reason. If you're into audio recording, it won't be for you, but perhaps its sibling, Record, will fit the bill.

For almost anybody else, whether pro or hobbyist, it's a crime not to at least try Reason. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the best version yet - but more than that, it really does make Reason a complete proposition at last.