How does it work?

Basically the key to ReWire is the fact that Reason Essentials is divided into three components:

•	The Reason Essentials application.

•	The Reason Essentials Engine (a DLL on the PC and a Shared Library file on the Macintosh. Both located in the Reason Essentials program folder.)

•	ReWire (also a DLL on the PC and a Shared Library on the Macintosh).

ReWire and the Reason Essentials Engine are common resources to the two programs (the other application and Reason Essentials) that generate the audio and passes it onto the other audio application.

Terminology

In this text we refer to Reason Essentials as a ReWire slave and the application receiving audio from Reason Essentials (this could be Steinberg Cubase, Apple Logic Audio or MOTU Digital Performer, for example) as the host application.

About system requirements

To run Reason Essentials together with another audio application of course raises the demands on computing power. However, adding ReWire to the equation does not in itself require a more powerful computer. On the contrary, it is likely that ReWiring two programs requires less power than, for example, running them with one audio card each.

Still, you should be aware that running two powerful audio applications on one computer will require a fast processor and most of all a healthy amount of RAM.

About synchronization

All synchronization to other equipment is handled from the host application - not in Reason Essentials. In fact there are no special synchronization issues. All that is said in the host application’s documentation about synchronizing audio channels is true for ReWire channels as well.

For information about MIDI Clock synchronization - without using ReWire - refer to “Synchronization to MIDI Clock”.