Reason Studios Mimic Creative Sampler – First Official Look
Reason Studios a Mimic Creative Sampler video outlining some of Mimic’s features and functionalities.
What is Mimic Creative Sampler?
Mimic is Reason Studios’ new sampler that they’ve teased about for a few months now. It looks intriguing you can get early access to it if you’re a Reason Plus subscriber; if not, you’ll have to wait until the official release of Reason 12 which should be September 1st. You can check out the official video below.
Thoughts About The Mimic Sampler
Right off the bat, I’m not intrigued by the look of Mimic. The color scheme and overall design aren’t inviting. While I value looks less than functionality, it is the first thing people see. They could have done a much better job with the presentation.
Aside from that, Mimic loosely reminds me of Logic X’s new sampler. Again, loosely.
On the surface, it looks as if Mimic has a lot of shared functionality of the Grain Sampler and Dr. Octo Rex Player. Both powerful units, one could say Mimic is their love child. There are also some Recycle functions/features there too (so it seems). The ability to manually slice and cut-up samples, so important, and I’m glad this was addressed.
I like what I see so far in terms of features, what I can see on the face of the unit.
- Pitch
- Filter
- EQ
- AMP
- Sample Modes
- Etc
I do wonder if 8 slots are enough…
I’m excited to test out the functionality and crosstalk between Mimic and Reason’s existing units (players etc). Reasons Studios is an absolute beast when it comes to routing and creating custom instruments and effects. The absence of pitch detection is a major flaw.
That’s almost as unforgivable as not having a ‘save preset’ button. That’s how standard and basic this feature is these days. Even their NNXT Sampler has this function and look at how long that sampler has been around.
Granted, most samples and loop libraries are going to be labeled with key and tempo thanks to the vendors (creators), but let’s keep it real… A lot of creators rely on software for this data which is bad because software is not always accurate.
I’m sure there’s a graphic department in the company, but I question whether or not they have quality control when it comes to aesthetics.
I love Ryan, he’s great when it comes to video introductions, tutorials, etc. if it’s not Ryan doing the video, I’m not watching it. His ability to articulate and demonstrate functionality is phenomenal.
Is Mimic The New Recycle?
One commenter on the video said that this is a Recycle killer. However, Mimic doesn’t import or export Rex Format.
This would have been the perfect opportunity for Reason Studios to incorporate features from an application that Reason Users have been asking for since its creation and that is to Plugin-ize (if that’s a word) and more recently, Rack Recycle.
This is a huge missed opportunity.
Some Reason Users Aren’t Impressed
I can’t say I’m surprised by this. Lately, a lot of loyal users have been feeling this way, but others are completely fine.
Check ReasonStudios Instagram
Mimic Creative Sampler Features
Going off the video, it looks decent and looks like it will be fun to play around with, but I’ll save my final thoughts until after I’ve had time to work with the unit and compare and contrast with other Samplers on the market.
I’m glad to see Reason introducing new units, they’ve always been good at that I’m also interested to see the updated design. Reason has been in need of a facelift for a number of years.
Hopefully, there’s some good functionality added to the DAW Itself, specifically in the sequencer. A lot of die-hard Reason users are still waiting for Reason Studios to catch up in terms of audio and MIDI functionality. The 2005 version of Digital Performer is still way ahead of Reason in that arena, and it shouldn’t be.
I’ll have a full review of Reason 12 and Mimic Mimic soon. Find about more about their new sampler here
