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Record's interface features an arrange page, a mixer and a rack.

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Propellerhead Software's Reason has established itself as the definitive self-contained electronic music programming suite. But if you wanted to extend your Reason productions to include audio tracks, your only real option has been to use a separate DAW, either exporting all the parts as audio or slaving using ReWire – hardly ideal.

Finally, though, Propellerhead has designed its own multitrack audio system and the name of that beast is Record.

Overview

Like Reason, Record is a self-contained program, but if you own Reason too, then the two products 'merge' into one – more on this later. Record enables you to do many typical DAW tasks such as recording, editing and mixing of audio, and programming, editing and arranging of MIDI for its built-in instrument, with maximum track capabilities only limited by your CPU. However, there are a number of things that mark it out from the majority of DAWs.

First up, like Reason, it doesn't support plug-in systems such as VST, and it's important to appreciate that this is a deliberate part of Propellerhead's ethos. Next, although Record includes many effects, it only has one synth: the ID8 workstation. This 'songwriter's toolbox' covers typical workstation territory (drums, piano, bass, keys, etc), but if you want serious synthesis options, you'll want Reason 4 as well.

Although Record has good MIDI capabilities and can be controlled extensively using external devices and keyboards, it doesn't actually send MIDI on a track-by-track basis like a typical DAW. So, if you want to trigger external MIDI devices, you'll have to ReWire it into another DAW.

Record offers not only real-time multiple sample rate support (you can combine file types within a session and they'll all play correctly), but also automatic timestretching. With Stretch enabled, any audio recorded is BPM-tagged, so it will match any tempo changes, and imported audio can be made to conform too.

Interface

Although Record ploughs its own furrow conceptually, it does have some very familiar aspects. The interface consists of three main areas, the first being a typical arrangement page, in which all audio and MIDI clips are handled. The second element is the mixer, while the third is a rack of virtual effects, instruments and devices, providing both editing of device parameters and, if you flip it round, virtual patching, à la Reason.