Propellerhead just detailed some new Rack Extensions for Reason that are being released directly from them.
Rack Extensions are a great idea, and a possible answer to the question of how to do plugins in the era of sandboxed apps. (I’d kill…KILL for a Max-for-Live-ish tool for creating these)
However cool the plugins themselves may be, there is a buried lead – Reason is starting to look more like Figure. Compare Pulsar with Thor – visually speaking it’s like comparing 90’s Vertigo comics to Pictures for Sad Children; both are deep in their respective ways, but one is visually much simpler, and delivers the information far more directly.
The trend in lots of software right now is to ditch old timey metaphors and go “pure digital”. Ableton has been “pure digital” all along, Propellerhead is getting there. What about Logic? Pro Tools? Wood Panel Band? Hello?
WILL KUHN 
