Quote:

I heard that BIAB's RealTracks are great but the MIDI sounds, if you're recording direct form a keyboard, are rather weak.



Biab has no midi sounds, repeat, NO MIDI SOUNDS. It will sound like whatever you route the midi output to. If it's a new $5,000 Korg Pa3x keyboard then it will sound like a $5,000 synth. In other words it will sound absolutely amazing. If you route the midi output to your el cheapo on board RealTek soundchip it will sound like a freebie soundchip, in other words it will sound like crap.

You're asking the wrong question. Reason is a fine program and all that but it's not a plug in synth that you can use with Biab. It's a stand alone host that you can take a Biab midi file and load it up but as far as playing Biab directly you're still stuck with whatever you're using for your live midi sounds. Biab is designed to be played so you can try out different styles and instruments in order to decide what you want your arrangement to be. If all you're using for that is a cheap synth you won't be happy. Reason is what you use after you've put your arrangement together in Biab. All the synths in Reason are great but you can't use them directly to play Biab without jumping through some very geeky hoops. It can be done but you need more 3rd party software and some clever internal midi routing and it's just not worth the hassle for me anyway. Most of us will use something like the Forte DXi softsynth for that or a hardware sound module like my Roland Sonic Cell or the Ketron SD2. Both sound excellent. After I work up my arrangement in Biab using the Sonic Cell then I put the song into a stand alone DAW like Real Band or what you're thinking of Reason, to load up all my other soft synths and/or keyboards to get the final best sound for each track.

This is a two step process if you don't want to finish your songs up in Biab only. Some are perfectly happy with that but it sounds like you're a bit more experienced with editing midi files and creating some of your own tracks so yes, I agree you also need a DAW. Don't overlook Real Band. RB is one of the best midi editors around and it's free with Biab. It also creates Biab midi parts and reads and creates all the same Real Tracks/Drums that Biab does. Many times I won't even use Biab, I start off in RB because it does almost everything Biab does plus it's a full DAW. It has 48 tracks with 32 midi output ports so I can load up all kinds of VSTi's and other plug ins. It's pretty powerful but it's completely different from Reason. Only you can decide if you really need Reason or not. I don't use it but I've heard good things about it.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.