in general the stock devices should be good to go.
Definitely not. That’s what my entire post above was about, the more recent ones are much more CPU-expensive than the older ones, and many people don’t realize this since Reason lacks a decent, granular metering system.
Here’s a simple comparison, on a i7-4790:
Reason idle:
Running a single instance of Europa, a stock device, playing the default starter patch with five-note polyphony:
Running a single instance of Thor, playing the same polyphonic sequence:
Running 30 simultaneous instances of Thor, playing the same polyphonic sequence:
I could only run 14 instances of Europa before overloading my CPU.
Also, bear in mind that many “stock devices” and devices branded as done by Reason Studios are really rack extensions subcontracted to third parties, using IDT tech, with the performance implication it entails.
The measurements are not taken within VCV, as it tends to make them less accurate, but what’s expensive standalone will remain expensive in VST mode.
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I guess it’s a tradeoff depending on what one likes to do. But yes, Thor is probably the most optimized device in reason. I’d really like to have the filter from Europa standalone. I know I can patch cables and use it … still, small neat device. In generall Reason is missing the opportunity to b fully modular. That’s why I ended up with vcv rack. Looking forward of the integration (either way). Using the sequencer in reason and the rack vst or the other way round.
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Actually i emailed them about this concept a long time ago.
Not so much later, they replied they were thinking of such possibilities. Then not so much later down the road Complex 1 arrived.
That was sort of their approach to that idea, but for me it would be totally awesome if they offered a lot of the components of the already existing devices as small modules.