Propellerhead has announced a major price drop on Reason Essentials, a streamlined version of the award-winning music making software Reason.

Introduced in the fall of 2011, Reason Essentials is now available at an exceptional price suited to first-time buyers of music software or those curious about Reason’s instruments, creative flow and fresh take on audio recording.

Propellerhead is also lowering the price on the Balance with Reason Essentials package. The integrated system featuring the critically acclaimed Balance audio interface and Reason Essentials music making software will be available at a new lower price starting today.

Distilled from the core of Reason, Reason Essentials contains a great selection of instruments and effects in a virtual rack that builds itself, or can be infinitely customized—drum machine, loop player, sampler, synths, reverb, delay, distortion, mastering effects and more. For guitar players, the built-in virtual guitar and bass PODs from Line 6 bring a wide range of top quality guitar amps, cabinets and effects. The built-in audio and MIDI sequencer makes recording and arranging song ideas, loops and full-blown tracks a breeze. Users never have to worry about track counts, latency issues or adding that extra reverb or effect. With an easy to grasp interface, it won’t get in the way of ideas and will inspire to make more music.

“We want Reason Essentials to be within reach for everyone,” says Leo Nathorst-Böös, Reason Essentials Product Marketing Manager. “With this new price-point for Reason Essentials we’re opening up the Reason platform to all musicians who want to record, mix and produce their own tracks in a straight-forward way.”

Skills learned and song files created in Reason Essentials are directly transferable to Reason, providing users with a smooth transition to Propellerhead’s full-blown music making platform should they need more instruments, effects and advanced mixing tools.

Reason Essentials now has a suggested retail price of $129 USD/120 EUR. The street price is expected to be $99 USD/99 EUR.

The new suggested retail price for Balance with Reason Essentials is $449 USD/429 EUR. The street price is expected to be $399 USD/349 EUR.

More information: Propellerhead Software