Reason 13: Polytone Dual-Layer Synthesizer Walk-through

Read more about Reason 13:
www.reasonstud...
Release date: June 18th 2024
Get to know Reason 13’s Polytone Dual-Layer Synthesizer with 13 tips and tricks! Ryan’s bringing us some of his favorite techniques with Polytone that are soon to become your favorite techniques too.
Polytone is a synth-lovers’ synth. Inspired by our favorite vintage hardware, we designed it to recreate the warm analog sounds you know and love. But it wouldn’t be us if we didn’t tweak the formula for more possibilities. Even better, Polytone has two layers that can be stacked or morphed between for super fat or evolving sounds.
Intro/outro song: Funkin Matt - First Encounter

[@candoraudio3159]

you guys make the best videos for your synths and devices

[@WARDISWARD]

I alzays have the feeling they are made for kids , the childish tone is pure cringe

[@gainofdysfunction4135]

@@WARDISWARD It may seem cringe to you but this is totally easy to understand. He's explaining it in a way that you will never have to go back and look at the video again.

[@dstorfer]

He's a little corny but I'd rather have him than some stiff engineer type.

[@WyattLite-n-inn]

Disagree with all of the above…He’s the best I’ve seen of any company …I’d rather watch reason videos than the competitors

[@gainofdysfunction4135]

@@WyattLite-n-inn Yeah, not like this synth is all the simple. He just breaks it down that way.

[@Kaitain]

The fact that there is an knob called Age that goes back in time when you turn it is both hilarious and brilliant!

[@dstorfer]

It reminds me of the fact that Tesla's radio volume goes to 11.

[@quarmat]

The GUI design is by Erik Söderberg of Ekssperimental Sounds Studio and is SUBLIME. As tactile as the caress of Ceres, as crisply direct as a two-cylinder carburettor motorbike and as massively elegant as the best club sandwich of your life. It would be phenomenal even if it sounded like a Nokia 3210, but Polytone sounds like an Indo-European deity in a state of grace. Can't wait.

[@EkssperimentalSoundsStudio]

😂❤️

[@Chrisreedbeats]

Making it look so easy! Ryan is the absolute best, I love this guy! Thanks for these tips man can’t wait to try them out when 13 drops! 🙏🏾👍🏾 #reasongang

[@NeoPest]

really like the gui design it looks clean and sounds even better

[@photophob]

I love the hands-on "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" approach ❤ Might even replace my loved Subtractor as bread and butter synth.

[@mimikova390]

i like a wysiwyg synth.

[@DionteBOOMstudio]

Love this. Feel like a can truly get into sound design with Polytone. The front panel is as simple as the Korg Volcas. Very dope.

[@DavidAndersonKirk]

I love the layering ease of this device.

[@neilbiggin]

Wow. I could watch these teaching videos every day. Always impressive, always well presented, well produced and expertly considered. Thank you!

[@louisecollins9213]

I love Polytone sounds amazing

[@kirtandreamrezzer]

The propellers were going full speed when they developed this new beast. Some very cool mods with simple controls. Thank you Reason Studios Team!

[@buckycore]

Thing sounds so beautiful

[@Raphoxonthebeat]

Reason always with awesome sound!!!! The resonance is so dope!

[@mimikova390]

they always have great-sounding filters.

[@redshiftproductions9996]

Always love Ryan’s deep dives. Still miss Neat Beat Cheat Sheet and Picks for Quick Mix Fixes!

[@mimikova390]

Nice demo, Ryan. looks fun. good to see your face.

[@bloodsweattones]

The more I see this excellent and motivational videos the more I love Reason. It is so fun to use and experiment ideas with. Keep doing what you do!

[@cheapshotfishing9239]

I am highly enjoying reason 13

[@doktorgroove1258]

It looks like Reason Studios has created the musical perpetual motion machine 😆 Great stuff! 🥳

[@romaindelaplace2962]

If I am not mistaken, the mix and morph features of Polytone can be reproduced with any of the existing synths (and effects) within a Combinator. Mix: two instances of the same synth with different settings: assign the main volume of each instance to a Combinator knob, one growing with the knob, one decreasing. Morph: take one instance of a given synth, assign all parameters to be morphed to a single knob of the Combinator and... morph.

[@ueberlicht_]

LOVE YOU GUYS. The only good system is a sound system!

[@KrisCoady]

Haha that 'make ramp' button in the editor. Not mentioned as new function but definitely a function everyone's been waiting for since forever :)

[@DNGMaestro]

It has been mentioned on the other video about the new things. It's literally the only thing new in the whole update.

[@totigerus]

I'm way more excited about the new inspector than anything else, although this synth does sound good. Logic did the same thing in it's recent update. It only advertised the new shiny features, but didn't mention any of the new "quality of life" features.

[@touchthatdial]

Looking forward to trying it. Sounds great!

[@Dreadwroth]

I can't wait to get my paws on this thing, it looks really cool.

[@MrSkunky2009]

Brilliant Insight Ryan as Always !!!

[@realnotes]

WOW! Just WOW. So looking forward to retirement - I will actually have time to dig in use Reason.

[@JimmySlough]

Nice! Neat little synth.

[@NeilDonkin]

Very innovative 💪

[@Artek604]

"Innovative" is the last word I'd use to describe this synth. Also, the sound easily falls apart when using some of the functions. It could clearly use oversampling and/or higher quality oscillators & samples. On the other hand it's just a polyphonic version of Monotone, which was introduced without any fanfare in one of R10.x releases and that what it basically deserves. It's definitely not a flagship synth like Europa or Grain were. But it's competent enough, and it's fun.

[@spartahill]

I sincerely hope the folks at Reason Studios are properly compensating Ryan, as he's a significant factor in my continued interest in the platform. It's hard not to be creative and want to try non-traditional experimentations when watching someone so obviously passionate about their craft and the tools they use. Keep the tutorial videos coming, and keep this guy involved in knowledge development as he creates value for both the end user and for Reason Studios by way of new and continued use of the platform. Moreover, his Reason 13 tips and tricks thus far have made forking over $199 bucks slightly palatable for this early Reason 12 user.

[@Sol_Keez]

Ryan you look great! Lost a lot of weight. I’m still on 11 and still making the best beats. Lost a ton of Funk and House projects when I had a year of Reason +, now I can’t open those projects. Hope to be able to afford to upgrade to 13 it looks 🔥

[@tkelong3569]

Polytone sounds great so far!

[@WagnerKoop]

looove that sound at 10:25

[@tranceemerson8325]

Hey Ryan, A sweet Player you guys could make is a Player that changes the microtonal tuning relationship between notes, and modifies it realtime based on what you're playing in order to keep it consistent between chords, like the Hermode tuning in Cubase, except you can chose from a plethora of microtonal modes, like Equal Temperament, or Just intonation, Pythagorean, or even set the radicand value that sets the number of tones per octave manually . I'd buy that! :D

[@AtomPiken]

Man that is some detailed UI design. The knobs look like real metal & plastic. Personally I like a good mod matrix, but I guess they can be intimidating to new users.

[@anzatzi]

Sounds exciting! Go Ryan!

[@RussDnB]

Excellent demo Ryan! Can't wait to get my hands on this only to realise, I can't produce music. Faster.

[@danoreilly5020]

man really excited for R13. great video here and the new developments in R13 are exciting. one week away now....!!!

[@RicoTropico]

Amazing synth, worth alone to upgrade. I was hating your some, recent business decisions but this blow my mind. :O

[@R.A.M_000]

oddly enough, after seeing how poly does its routing, the legacy mod matrix tables make SO much more sense to me now!

[@BenedictRoffMarsh]

Yes, I will miss the Thor Matrix (and Europa MSEGS) on Polytone. :-)

[@chocomalk]

@@BenedictRoffMarsh CV and Combis will make up for a bit of that at least.

[@R.A.M_000]

and to be clear, I mean I like the poly routing set up better, way easier for a beginner to see. and now that i've seen it' the mod matrix finally makes sense lol

[@paulweyer4339]

I've used the Combinator to make my own "morph" effect between two settings many times, but it's always required a lot of dedicated programming time in mod matrixes. Doing this by swapping tabs on the same synth is a really smooth way to handle what could otherwise be a complicated process. I wouldn't say this new synth does a lot of new things, but it certainly engenders that stated R13 philosophy of "Your sound, faster." In that sense, you could call it less a new toy and more a quality-of-life update for people who use the DAW in a specific way. Excited to give it a try =) Now, if we could drop that Chaos shape into exiting LFOs on other devices, that would be a nice surprise.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

Looks cool sounds good, sort of reminds Me of some Combinators that have multiple Subtractors in.

[@dustintheblacklight]

Yes. Cool little device but.. you can get the same/similar results with two Subtractors and with little more effort.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

@@dustintheblacklight I dont do much sound design, I next to never spend more then a couple minuts twasking knobs, because I would rather just make music.

[@Pixel1962]

That looks great!!

[@MarcoRaaphorst]

great sounds and music!

[@johnisrael5183]

Oh yesss!!!!

[@nueschi]

Brilliant 🔥

[@homewerxmusic]

Awesome!

[@kyma1999x]

finally we are comeback to the beauty semplicity of Subtractor which remains for me one of my favorite instruments in the reason rack, along with redrum, nn19 and dr rex was the signature sound of the rack for years, some artists made high quality music with them. I have nothing versus thor or europa or parsec, almost all reason instruments are original and well done, inspiring...but sometimes semplicity is the key. Having inside reason a fast, clean, straightforward and good sounding device is always a useful thing, and doesn't mean you cannot later explore more advanced sonic territories of europa or thor when necessary.

[@Funkspace]

The LFO /Envelope knob has no means to determine whether the envelope modulation is modulation in a positive direction or negative direction. You can do this on the filter cutoff but not on oscillators shape and pitch. What if I want to use the envelope on pitch negatively on one oscillator and positive on the other so as to create a converging pitch for both oscillators on each note?

[@anosoumusic]

Polytone's designed to be as straightforward as possible in its UI, that choice means some things won't be achievable-negative envelope modulation to pitch is one of those. You could use morphing, set up Layer B with different pitches, and have the Global Envelope control morph for a similar effect though.

[@todocorazon]

I wouldn't be surprised if there were a way to make this happen via the back panel with either cables or switches.

[@jenslempke7501]

Love that Roland XP/JP like screen. It looks "hardwarey".

[@ChristopherJenkins73]

This looks like something Pink Noise Created. 😮

[@jkenlive]

Feel like copying one of these patch settings and then riffing a different meleody over it... 😅 Sounds really cool. Looking forward to it.

[@adamsmith7058]

In terms of concept it reminds me of Linplug Morphox, from back in the day, even down to the filter fm. That's not still not a common feature among VST synths.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

The Blue, the name and sound is like the Korg Monopoly.

[@justme-kt7zt]

shshshshhhh...

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

@@justme-kt7zt I have the Behringer Monopoly.

[@suryadnb]

A bit disappointed there is no wave form display and no LFO shape editor, but I suppose routing will allow us to deal with that?

[@bloodswarms]

For those of us that use Reason as a plugin in another DAW, this update gives us one instrument and one effect for an upgrade cost of $199. That's about it. Considering that Reason Studios hasn't mentioned Native Windows ARM support, I'm taking it that they'll be on the back foot with that as well, and it'll be years before they do it. Oh well.

[@CyanSix]

It would be nice to be able to have A or B or Both visible at the same time. I think Both would speed up production time and music flow

[@tangente00]

Love the sound of 11:30. Nice synth, unfortunately a missed chance to not allow for separate A/B patches. I mean it could be another patch format than the standard. I really hope it will be implemented in the future. I mean, how low can a fruit hang?

[@felipefs106]

Not using Reason lately, but this plugin looks nice. Also those new options in the sequencer look interesting

[@Asmund648]

That 13 tricks, wordplay 🤪

[@devittm]

Great video. I am new to Reason so What does Ryan use for the drum beats featured into the Reason song? Thanks

[@tranceemerson8325]

this synth makes Thor seem like the God of Static Electricity.

[@aikighost]

This synth could do with a separate stereo out for each layer.

[@SSITM]

No panning for each layer?

[@HE77ION]

my man ryan you need to get the software update for your oxygen pro 61 keyboard, it adds a screen saver funciton so you dont get screen burn in when leaving it idle.

[@DJShroomOfficial]

I still need to explore the whole reason 12 before even considering upping into 13 :o

[@roksoulo]

id rather spend 200 on logic... I cant believe they charging for this small update

[@Rome.Monroe]

I feel like this is Matthias with all this C Minor.

[@fiddlestickzmuzik]

lol so weird seeing you use the light colour scheme. I have been using the dark theme for so long it feels like a really old version when I see the light scheme.

[@HOLODECK-MUSIC-PROJECT]

Have a year ago upgraded to the version 12, now I should pay 200 bucks again for the upgrade? Seriously?

[@osmancan6132]

niceee

[@jasonjbundy]

What does the back of the instrument look like for routing?

[@rushdown24]

I would tell you, but then they would kill me.

[@jasonjbundy]

@@rushdown24😂

[@mogrizzly49311]

How long do we wait for the Ripley Space Delay?

[@busywl69]

3 oscilators would have made this really interesting.

[@EkssperimentalSoundsStudio]

🔥🔥🔥

[@atomicafro]

Question for Reason Studios staff. Those of us who purchase the box upgrades of reason (rather than subscription) - will we get all of the Reason+ devices that were added post 12 release as part of the upgrade to 13? Because that will really make the difference between upgrading or not. And no, 100% not interested in the subscription model.

[@atomicafro]

Also any chance of a Reason Rack MIDI plugin? Would like to use Reason Players on Ableton Live Instruments.

[@dmillionaire7]

They won't answer because they are in it for the cash That's why they refuse to work on there daw, they hurt want sub. money(loops, etc) and DLC (players, synth, etc..Sick of em, them IK, AVID, UA, even NI starting to get on my nerves, they swear the simplest sh!t be hard to fix. But can't wait to offer a SALE... We as producers gotta get away from corporate greed of this caliber.

[@PrimaudiaRecord]

​@@atomicafroLookup Reason midi out device.

[@雨宮和希]

So basically Sylenth1 without their signature dutune and distortion.

[@WyattLite-n-inn]

So you can just sweep through stuff vs one parameter at a time..That’s innovative…

[@thegoodsherman]

Mpe Support please 🤷

[@UltimateMoralizer]

Does anyone know if Reason 13 will be compatible with Mojave? If it isn’t, then I won’t purchase the upgrade unless I buy a new computer.

[@anosoumusic]

Reason 13 will require macOS 10.15, i.e. Catalina, so it's not compatible with Mojave.

[@UltimateMoralizer]

@@anosoumusicAh okay. Thanks.

[@5t3w]

Any unannounced enhancements to the rack plugin? At least make a CLAP version 🙏🏼

[@rindallbroxmitten]

What I would really like to know is: will Reason 13 include all the previous devices that were not included in Reason 12? Like Algoritm, Objekt, Friktion, etc.

[@dustintheblacklight]

Certainly not.

[@ohcibi]

It would be good if player designer and instrument designer would work together. The specific advantage of players is not that they look more modern (thats a matter of taste and therefore irrelevant) is that they usually have buttons, big enough, so one can use them, while not being too big. That device looks very fiddly with unreasonable small buttons again. Who is clicking those up down buttons next of Wave for example? I know there is a dropdown but then the updown buttons still waste space. Likewise player designers should not make all players have different controls for the same thing. The should rather all follow the same system of buttons and order of buttons, such that I intuitively know how to use the player, when i see a new one. All UI that doesnt show anything like the circle around pattern mutator (which barely shows a monophonic pattern and is useless for a polyphonic pattern, most simplest fix here is to not allow polyphony for that particular player, but that opens up another rabbit hole of players needing better ways to share patterns amongst each other) or that weird animation in the bottom of bassline generator can be removed in favor of a more streamlined UI. I like what I see in the sequencer though.

[@madmanj.official]

the age button is quite nice, only i doubt if there is a difference between 2024.01 and 2024.02?

[@somuchfortalent]

The years don't matter. It's just a control knob that changes the amount/rate of the tuning drift. They could have called the knob "drift" and shown values of 1 - 127, but they did it like this to stick with the character of the synth. The more you crank the knob the more tuning drift you'll get out of it.

[@TigburtJones]

Better than native instruments but still slingin that schlock, I wish the technicians would do the reason tutorials like back in the day; but a salesman’s got to sales….man

[@maxlarsen5509]

Better than what? Maschine mk3?)

[@dmillionaire7]

Right this company is getting on my nerves, ready to sell but the DAW itself is STUCK in the STONE age they refuse to address that until reason 31 beta release in 2042... fukoutta here ...

[@JamielDeAbrew]

A time saver would be the need for fewer devices… Fewer searching for devices. Fewer configurations to learn. Etc… It would be fantastic to see Reason update existing devices. Eg maybe reason adds additional knobs or buttons. Maybe more connectivity options on the back of existing devices.

[@AdamsOlympia]

I'm not sure I get the benefit of having a single mode toggle switch when a slider all the way on A or B could've been sufficient. Just seems like an unnecessary extra step when you want to mix.

[@mimikova390]

You could use the slider, but I like knowing I have dialed to one layer while doing the sound design. But there is no wrong way to use reason.

[@MrMallum]

It's going down - we can't say timbre!

[@obhbeats]

no daw have sounds better than reason ❤💯👍

[@ZzGeWizZ]

21:11 Tom, bruh

[@goodshorts]

I can't keep paying for upgrades! sigh

[@joni.sirvio8867]

i sure sounds good, but i see no reason (pun here) why this should beat thor

[@muuroonggeooffrey246]

custom shortcuts pls, too much clicking, pain in my hands.

[@hasyimabubakaryahya2751]

Woww

[@ComradeMorlac]

Way too much talking about nothing... Just show us what does the knobs do with constantly screwing around with them...

[@knuftobor]

Not impressed...

[@endisthebeginning24]

I’m going off Reaosn tbh. The workflow is all over the place. Too much going on. Just town it down and stop creating so much, it’s a waste of time. Plus the sequencer is so awkward

[@mimikova390]

music is about inspiration, not workflow.

[@travellogger5080]

It's different, for sure, but that is what makes reason.

[@endisthebeginning24]

It’s also about how easy it is to express that inspiration when on a computer and reason imho has now flow to it. It’s the equivalent of crack, quick fix.

[@mimikova390]

@@endisthebeginning24 I disagree. but the good news is you probably already have the DAW that fits your needs. I like reason because it is different. I don't expect every device to have everything. character is in limitations. By all means, be well and make the music you love in the DAW of your choice.

[@EdgxrRamosDj]

❤🇲🇽🫶🏾🎧

[@bigkeezo]

🤔

[@somuchfortalent]

Blah blah blah. Release version 13 already!

[@kuhliloach8842]

Is Reason a DAW or a synth? Cool I guess if you are a synth person who likes to dial things in, but what about regular musicians? I just wish Reason worked as simply as Koala Sampler because not everyone cares about turning dials inside of a synth.

[@JOHNNYRAVIOLLI]

Reason is whatever you want it to be. Reason comes with 50,000 presets! Yes, 50,000. There’s no need to turn knobs if you don’t want to.

[@mimikova390]

reason is a DAW with many synths. polytone is just one synth.

[@djshmul1]

Wow another synth, thats why reason sounds like reason 😢