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

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Each window has a vertical overview navigator strip down the right-hand side, with the mixer and sequencer sporting horizontal navigators too. The sequencer also gets horizontal and vertical zoom. However, the really nice feature is that you can simply hover your cursor over the window you want and use the mouse wheel to navigate. If you feel the one-window workspace is too restrictive for your needs, you can detach the mixer and rack windows, enabling you to build a more complex workspace of your own design.

Two further floating windows can be introduced to the workspace. One is the Tools window, which features Devices, Tools and Groove tabs for creating new devices, fine-tuning sequencer data and setting groove parameters. The second window is the on-screen piano keyboard, which can be triggered by clicking or via your QWERTY keyboard.

In essence, a single audio track comprises a sequencer track, an audio track rack device and a channel in the main mixer. The rack and sequencer are like Reason's, except that Record's sequencer handles both audio and MIDI, and the rack is spread across the screen rather than being one tall unit. You can patch things any way you want, then, but out of the box, new channels default to a sensible routing.

Mixer

The mixer is entirely different from those you may have used in Reason (which can still be called up, if you have Reason installed). It's modelled on SSL's 9000K analogue desk, according to Propellerhead (although it's not in any way endorsed or approved by SSL). Clearly, this new mixer takes the pressure to perform off the regular rack plug-ins, providing spectacular SSL-style EQ and dynamics.

For each channel, you get 4-band EQ (with 'E-Series' option), plus separate filters, input trim and phase reverse. You can also switch the filters to feed the dynamics sidechain (eg, so that the compressor doesn't 'see' the lowest bass frequencies, thus reducing pumping) and rearrange the signal flow.

There are eight effects sends and an insert point, giving you access to the processing placed in the corresponding Mix Channel or Audio Track rack device. And, of course, Propellerhead has copied SSL's famous master bus compressor.

The mixer certainly sounds the part and is comparable to any other emulation we've tried. On a functional note, elements can be folded away to make things tidier, and you can assign four rotary and four button soft controls to the insert parameters. These appear on the mixer for quick access.

The rack

As mentioned, Record features many processing effects, most of which will be familiar to Reason users, including the simple DDL-1 delay and CF-101 flanger, the MClass processors (EQ, Stereo Imager, Compressor and Maximiser), and the RV7000 Reverb and Scream 4 Distortion.

There are also various more functional 'rack' devices, including Audio Track, Mix Channel, Mixer 14:3, Line Mixer 6:2 and the Spider audio and CV merger/splitters. New additions are the Line 6 Guitar Amp and Bass Amp processors – which we'll get onto shortly – and, on the instrument front, the previously mentioned ID8.

Finally, there's the Combinator device, which lets you combine various effects and instruments in one shell, allowing easy patch design and advanced routing and modulation. The majority of Record's bundled effects and instrument patches come as Combinators, some with their own custom skins.