Reason 4 Loads Very Slow On my New Fast Computer

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Hello everyone. I have the strangest problem with Reason 4 (yes, I know). I bought a new (but used) computer which has Windows 7 on it and two hard drives. I still have my old Pentium IV (Windows XP) with all my Refills on it and so I copied my Refill folder onto a USB portable drive. From there I copied it onto the second drive of my new computer. BTW, I did the same with all my Kontakt instruments. Now here's the odd thing, when I open an old Reason song, it now takes about 2 or 3 minutes to open it. On my XP computer it takes about 2 or 3 seconds. However, when I open one of the demo songs that are installed in the Reason 4 program folder on the main drive, it goes superfast. The good thing is that, once a song is loaded, everything runs smoothly. It's only the loading/searching process that takes a lot of time. I have no problem with the Kontakt folder (which I also copied from my old system). Kontakt loads and reads very fast, like you would expect. This tells me that there is nothing wrong with the second hard drive. So why is Reason suddenly so slow and only with the material coming from my old computer? I could try the latest version of Reason (the trial version) but you can't load any songs with it (right?)

I did roam the internet to find a solution and found one person who had a similar problem, but because I couldn't completely understand him, I failed to replicate his success. Here is the conversation:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Fo ... -very-slow


Can anyone solve this mystery? Is it because I copied the Refill folder from an XP machine and not 'freshly' installed the Refills?


Thank you for listening!


Alex

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Alex Cremers wrote:because I couldn't completely understand him, I failed to replicate his success
Here are the instructions again:
Arthur wrote:Run in compatibility mode with administrative privilege
================
1. Right-click the .exe file of the Reason 4 program and choose Properties.
2. Click the "Compatibility" tab.
3. Please check the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and choose "Windows Vista (Service Pack 2)".
4. Select "Run this program as an administrator" option under the Privilege Level.
5. Click Apply, click OK.
Seems all pretty straight forward... At what point of these instructions do you get lost? Or doesn't it make any difference?

For 1. you first need to locate the Reason executable. By default the file explorer hides file extensions, maybe first make these visible:
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/softw ... s-3341794/

Then you need to know the location. You could start looking for it in C:\Program Files (x86)\Propellorheads\Reason. But if you have a shortcut on your desktop or in All Programs, right-click that and select Properties. in the tab General you'll see the exact location of the executable, but the Compatibility tab is present there already.

But if you set Compatibility on the Shortcut, I think that won't have any effect if you open Reason by double-clicking on a project file. It will then use the settings (I think) specified on the executable on it's original location.

Does that help??
We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Image
My MusicCalc is served over https!!

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I did understand what Arthur was saying. It's the guy who asked the question that I don't understand. He said that it didn't work and that he solved it by undoing what Arthur said, or something like that. He had to undo it because Arthur's method made it even worse (Reason was even slower). I simply don't understand this whole 'undo' bit.

I too tried what Arthur suggested but I think I used the shortcut on the desktop. The machine then was scanning all the files, and when it was finally ready, Reason was so slow that I had to log out.

So you're saying I have to find and try it with the original Reason.exe?



Alex

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Alex Cremers wrote:It's the guy who asked the question that I don't understand.
The OP of that thread "espee808" never responded :-I
Alex Cremers wrote:He said that it didn't work and that he solved it by undoing what Arthur said, or something like that.
That was actually another guy "djzyx", but never mind that...
Alex Cremers wrote:He had to undo it because Arthur's method made it even worse (Reason was even slower). I simply don't understand this whole 'undo' bit.
Frankly, neither do I. It doesn't really make any sense. He wrote he first did change the compatibility and run "as administrator", then put that all back to normal, and then it was fast.
Alex Cremers wrote:I too tried what Arthur suggested but I think I used the shortcut on the desktop. The machine then was scanning all the files, and when it was finally ready, Reason was so slow that I had to log out.
It probably then is the compatibility mode setting that makes it slower instead of faster.

I don't think it's the File Indexing. That's a background service, and it can use some CPU power or do file I/O at times no convenient to you. It could be a virus scanner that scans each and every file before letting Reason access it. I've used Reason 4 like a decade ago, and if memory serves me right it's built up from thousands of very small files. Then the overhead of a inefficient virus scanner could be too much.

You could have a look at the Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc) and see what process is consuming CPU or doing I/O at the time Reason is starting up. Or just bite the bullet and invest again in the last version of Reason. First check whether your old projects can be used...
Alex Cremers wrote:So you're saying I have to find and try it with the original Reason.exe?
No, that wouldn''t make any difference unless you habitually start Reason by double clicking on a Reason Project file instead of first starting Reason from the desktop and then with menu File - Open select a project.
We are the KVR collective. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Image
My MusicCalc is served over https!!

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Yes, now that you mention it, there is a virus scanner (McAfee) on board. It came with the computer. Since I don't really surf the net with my 'studio computer', I might as well get rid of it. I suppose virus scanners don't let themselves to be uninstalled that easily?


The odd thing is that the old demo songs of Reason 4, which reside in Reason's program folder, load very quickly. It's really my own folder (copied from XP) that is causing the problem.
Last edited by Alex Cremers on Thu Jul 30, 2015 3:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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