Three-Part Video Series on why I believe Reason Rewire sucks for old computers! I get deep and show a bunch of tricks & Tips in Logic & Reason 10 Preferences, what to disable and how setup each computer to get maximum CPU processor performance with a very limited budget.

IMO, the trouble with Rewire is it is very hard on older or non-standard computers not configured with the best in processor, memory and hard drives. This is mainly due to Rewire's taxing nature, it's like running two DAWs on one computer. This is unacceptable to me, as I own an older Mac Pro and by simply using Rewire it will cause my processor utilization to go up so high that I can't produce music.

Yes, I could by a new Mac Pro, but the cost of a newer used one is in the 4K~6K range from eBay, yes, I said used. I found by upgrading some key parts in my old system and adding in a cheap 2nd PC. I was able to gain a huge CPU performance boost and save big on my very limited budget.

If you want to follow along and you are using Logic Pro X and Reason, you will need two computers, a decent older Mac Pro, and PC, plus two Audio/Midi interfaces. All of this can be found for very cheap on eBay, Craigslist or the local Pawn shop. My local pawn shop is great, as they offer Layaway. The PC does not have to be the best, just enough to run Reason, I am running the latest, version 10.

Over time, I have also made some custom upgrades for each computer, which includes a heavy amount of memory, a decent CPU and hard drive for the OS, plus a fast 2nd hard drive to be used as samples and project storage. When you offload your samples and projects to secondary fast hard drives, like SSD or a 10K Raptor (7200 RPMs will not cut it anymore), you will gain an increased performance boost.

Keep in mind, certain audio interfaces offer both Audio and MIDI and certain interfaces offer only Audio. Plus some interfaces will only offer one main audio output and many inputs, whereas other interfaces will offer may audio-outputs and only a few audio-inputs; so it's important you do your research before you buy.

The 'Reason 10 PC' Audio/MIDI interface will need to output at least three stereo channels (more the better) and receive one MIDI input. The 'Logic Pro X Mac Pro' Audio/MIDI interface will need to input three stereo channels and it will need a MIDI device that has both MIDI in/out ports, as explained in each video.

Here is a list of my computers, Audio/MIDI interfaces and MIDI keyboards and how they are configured:

1. Technics SX-PC25 Digital Piano Keyboard - The main stand is removed and the weighted keys are very nice, great to play on. This is my main keyboard and I have only one MIDI coming out of the MIDI out-port and going to the Presonus USB Audiobox MIDI in-port.
2. Arturia Analog Factory Experience' 32 keys - I am missing the external foot-pedal unit (which uses a non-standard sustain pedal plug) on the Technics, this means no sustain for now. I get around it by using the Arturia as my sustain controller configured in a nice Mac app called MIDI Pipe. I will release a separate video on how to configure this later.
3. Presonus USB Audiobox, aka "MIDI Transfer Box" explained in video part 1 and part 2. Please note: I do not use the audio on this device, it is very horrible! I only use this specific interface to route MIDI.
   1. One MIDI cable is routed from my Technics keyboard MIDI Out-Port to the Audiobox MIDI In-Port
   2. A separate MIDI cable is used to connect from the Audiobox MIDI Out-Port to the MIDI In-Port of the Roland V-Studio 100 Audio/MIDI interface.
   3. By doing it this way you're able to control the MIDI on both Logic Pro X and Propellerheads Reason (Remember, you get 16 Channels of MIDI). I show how to setup the MIDI for both DAWS in each video.
4. Roland Cakewalk Sonar V-Studio 100 - Audio/MIDI interface for the 'Reason 10 PC', transmits the audio to the Logic Pro X Mac Pro and receives the MIDI signal input from the main Technics Keyboard.
5. Alesis MultiMix Firewire 16 - Audio interface for the Logic Pro X Mac Pro, it receives the audio from the Reason PC. This interface does not offer MIDI and that is why I have to use the Audiobox as my MIDI interface. Also, this interface is limited to only two output channels; so this is why I have dedicated it to the Logic Pro X Mac Pro, as it only needs to receive audio, not send.
   1. IMO, The Alesis MultiMix Firewire interface is an extremely nice Firewire unit with an amazing clarity of sound that can receive up to 16 channels of audio. However, You'll have to watch out for a couple things. This interface only supports Firewire and only certain kinds of Firewire cards. Now if you own a Mac Pro 1,1, you will be OK for firewire. Also, the internal electronic capacitors by the main DC power supply will fail over time and you may experience bad audio channels, like a bad humming noise on certain audio channels. This is easy to fix and I will release a video on how to fix non-working channels. Now if you find one and it works it works, you will need to load non-standard drivers. More info about the drivers can be found here: community.alesis.com
   2. Keep in mind the drivers on this unit are not officially supported for El Capitan. The issue being that System Integrity Protection (SIP) should be disabled. Not hard to do, more info can be found here on how to disable SIP: Apple.Stackexchange.com
   3. Note, if you're using a Piker's Boot EFI Modification for your EFI, you will need to take an extra step and create a bootable recovery partition to boot into and disable SIP. Info on how here: How to Create Recovery Drive
   4. Yes, this Interface is a big F'n chore, but IMHO, so worth it, as to find a comparable model can cost in the $1000's. I found my unit for under $200 bucks on Craigslist. People are dumping them for dirt cheap. I just saw one go for $150 bucks on eBay.
6. Logic Pro X Mac Pro, aka 1st computer- an old Mac Pro 1,1. running El Capitan (10.6.11) and Logic Pro X 10.3. Note: you can not install and run El-Capitan and Logic Pro X 10.3 on a normal Mac Pro 1,1. You will have to use a special hack called "Pikers Boot EFI". There are many tutorials on how to install config it on a Mac Pro 1,1 Logic Pro X 10.3 will not work on anything less than EL-Capitan. Tutorial: Install El Capitan on Mac Pro 1,1 2,1
   1. Heavily modified Logic Pro X Mac Pro on a custom Open-Air-Case, keeps it very cool and easy to access and change parts. It's running two (2) 3GHz Quad-Core Xeons, 32 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 memory. Dual 128 GB SSD Raid 0 startup OS drive and a Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB Graphics Card. My 2nd Samples hard drive is two 1TB Western Digital WD10EAVS Green Drives Configured as Raid 0 in Apple's software Raid, which gives 2TB of some-what fast access. I'm in the process of changing this to two normal SSD drives, faster and better reliability. When drives are configured as Raid 0, you will have twice the fail rate, meaning if one of those drives fail, you will lose all data. That is why I use a cheap external 4TB drive found at Costco as a backup.
7. Reason PC, aka 2nd computer - Custom Mini ITX with an Intel Core i5-2405S Quad-Core 2.5GHz (3.3GHz Turbo Boost), 16 GB of Ram, 10K 320GB Raptor drive configured as the main OS drive running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I have all my Reason 10 samples and presets symlinked to a 2nd fast Kingston 128GB V-Series hard-drive.