All week we've been hearing about the proposed new updates for Propellerhead Record 1.5 and Reason 5. Now that all the new features have been announced and the beta testing period has begun, we figured we'd offer a little new-features round-up for the upcoming Reason rev (new Record 1.5 features can be found here).

For the much-anticipated Reason 5, Propellerhead has announced three radical features that should have the Reason faithful swooning–or at least forgetting that they had asked for audio recording to be a part of a new Reason rev and not for it to be part of a completely separate program. Speaking of which, one of the proposed updates is, in a way, exactly what those Reason users have been asking for.

Live Sampling

"All sample players in Reason are now samplers" is how it's described by Propellerhead, masters of linguistic efficiency (and in their non-native tongue, to boot). A seemingly simple statement, but what it means is that you can now instantly create your own drum kits in Redrum. That's not all–when sampling pitched audio the live sampling feature in Reason 5 an Record 1.5 automatically detects the root key note and automatically maps the samples across a keyboard. In other words, instant NN-XT or NN-19 multi-sample instruments. The integrated Reason 5 sample editor let's you trim, normalize, set loop points, etc., and all user samples are added to the sample library and navigable via the new sample browser window. Also -- and you may have picked up on this already -- this marks the first rev of Reason to allow for direct audio recording.

View the Live Sampling presentation on the Propellerhead Website

Kong Drum Designer

As the name implies, this is huge: an MPC for Reason, complete with the kind of sound manipulation that you'd expect from a standalone product. And, like PH said, if it's a sample player, it's also a sampler. The core of the Kong UI is a classic sixteen pad layout, and you can assign just about any sound type you want to any pad, including pre-loaded samples, user recorded samples, Rex loops, synth bass, and more. Kong features its own army of "support modules" for sculpting sound, including synth kit modules (kick, snare, tom, hi-hats), physical modeling acoustic kit modules (kick, snare, tom), mini-multisample (NN-Nano) and mini-loop players (NurseRex -- cheeky), and a slew of noise generators and effects modules. This is basically an MPC5000 nestled in the Reason sampling environment. Killer.

View the Kong Drum Designer presentation on the Propellerhead Website

Dr. OctoRex

The Dr. Rex loop player has been removed from Reason 5 and replaced with Dr. OctoRex, a "combinated" version of Dr. Rex that's, basically, eight times more powerful. All your core functionality is still present; what OctoRex does is allow you to combine an control via controller input or sequence the interaction between eight loaded Rex loops. It's basically a mini sequencer tied to eight instanced of Dr. Rex, and alows for some pretty extremem options (loop switching every 16th note, for example). Actually, when I said the core functionality was still present, i should have said it was upgraded. Each loop player in Dr. OctoRex features expanded slicing controls, letting you set parameters like pan, pitch, filter sweep and even audio output on a per-slice basis.

View the Dr. OctoRex presentation on the Propellerhead Website

Further Updates for Reason 5 include multi-core processing support, improved cable management in the rack, faster sample loading, on-screen piano keyboard, the ability to record notes to multiple tracks with a single pass, and much more. A full list of smaller update features in Reason and Record can be found here.

Beta testing for Record 1.5 and Reason 5 has started, but you can still sign up via the Propellerhead website if you own a registered version of either program.