Propellerheads ReCycle!, ReBirth, and Reason Audio Software (review)

Not many companies can claim to have changed the manner in which music is made, but Propellerhead Software has done just that with the release of its great product, Reason. Reason is a stunningly compelling array of tools, and has a much wider application than one might initially guess—that is, it's not just useful for dance music. Anyone experimenting with digital sound will find much of interest in Reason. And for people working in dance music, it's nothing short of the Holy Grail itself (if this is you, don't even bother reading this review; just get up right now and get yourself a copy).

However, Reason isn't the only exceptional product offered by Propellerheads; the company has also released two other software applications, ReCycle! and ReBirth, both of which are reviewed here as well. All three are currently supported at 2.x versions, and all three were tested here on the Macintosh platform, although Windows versions of the programs exist. (The lighter-weight of the two test computers was a G4 400 MHz machine, with 256 MB RAM.)

Propellerheads' first release was ReCycle!, followed by ReBirth, and most recently, Reason. We'll consider each of these programs in the order in which they were created.

ReCycle! (see Figure 1) is mainly a tool for a special type of slicing of loops that permits flexible tempo transformations, as well as the editing and shuffling of resultant slices. Users launch sessions by dragging a soundfile onto the program icon, which causes a window to appear displaying the soundfile. A "sensitivity" slider controls the program's response to transients. When the sensitivity level hits a certain threshold, the file is automatically divided into a series of smaller segments (visually indicated with dashed vertical lines). One can continue to adjust the sensitivity until the slices are in the desired locations, and one can also manually remove or move the slice locations. Finally, when adjustments are complete, one can export the sliced file as a REX file, along with an associated MIDI file.

As one would guess, REX files preserve the slice information. A growing number of programs are able to read and take advantage of the possibilities that the REX format offers. As stated above, one major utility is the ability to apply time expansion or compression algorithms. For example, it is possible to dramatically alter the tempo of "REX-ified" drum loops without drastically altering the pitch or quality of the sound. (Of course, the greater the deviation from the original the greater the chance of pronounced artifacts.) One can also use MIDI to reorder the slices, or trigger them separately. The MIDI files created by ReCycle! may also be remapped to trigger other sounds, in effect preserving the onset information of one performance, but replacing it with the sounds of another (if you've ever wondered how to clone the "groove" of a classic performance, here's one way).

Figure 1.

ReCycle! screenshot.

ReCycle! also includes some excellent onboard effects, most of which apply some kind of amplitude-dependent processing to the file, slice by slice. A dramatic (and useful) range of shaping is available with these tools, from the subtle to the extreme.

Finally, ReCycle! is set up not only to export REX, MIDI, and sound files, but also to communicate with outboard hardware samplers (all major devices are supported). Overall, ReCycle! is an indispensable tool for anyone who works with loops on a regular basis. The slicing feature is also useful for anyone looking to reconfigure audio in a "transient aware" fashion (I've used it in many highly experimental, non-beat-oriented situations).

ReCycle! is essentially a utility, whereas the next two programs to be considered, ReBirth and Reason, are conceptually different in...