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 Record rev (new Reason 5 features can be found here).

The announced updates for Record 1.5 include a much-needed pitch correction rack element called Neptune (which goes well beyond mere pitch correction) and an intuitive new composition methodology, refered to in Record as Blocks.

Neptune

The most common initial gripe about Record was its lack of 3rd-party plugin support. Propellerhead mitigated this concern by making Reason's rack instruments and effects accessible in Record, but to my mind there was one oversight, and given Record's potential as a pop and hip-hop production powerhouse, a glaring one: no pitch correction. Record 1.5 *ahem* corrects this misstep and then some by introducing the Neptune pitch adjuster, auto transposer, and vocal synth. The Propellerhead demonstration video offers a quick glimpse at Neptune's potential uses, from vocoder-ish robo harmonizing to subtle pitch correction to a hard auto-tune sound that would make T-Pain blush (there's also keyboard pitch control–stand back). We'll have to wait for a beta to hear exactly how transparent the pitch correction is, but Neptune looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

View the Neptune presentation on the Propellerhead Website

Block Arranging

It's the most basic concept in composition, realized functionally in the Record arranger environment. Designate groups of audio regions and automation tracks as Chorus, Verse, Intro, etc, and move them as a whole unit or even write them into the timeline with the pencil tool. Or layout your song structure first and start building audio within each block. Yes, this is basically Ableton's scenes in a linear-only editor, but it's a step beyond what most other DAWs offer in terms of enhanced compositional workflow. Block mode is turned on or off via one big friendly button, meaning you don't have to constantly group or un-group blocked regions.

View the Blocks presentation on the Propellerhead Website

Further Updates For Record 1.5 include the ability to normalize and reverse audio clips and even time-stretch individual clips by resizing their defined region boundaries. 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.