Propellerhead has announced that they have finally made their flagship program, Reason, compatible with third-party plug-ins, as an update to Reason 6.5 will grant users acess to Rack Extensions. But there is a catch: In order to maintain the level of quality and usability associated with Reason’s existing effects units and software instruments, only plug-ins specifically developed for Reason’s Rack Extensions can be used within the program (such as the two pictured above)—that means no VSTs and no AUs. Fortunately, it appears that the folks at Propellerhead have taken considerable steps to make sure the use of these new Rack Extensions are seamless, as the third-party effects and virtual instruments will be usable direct from the rack, acting in the same manner and capable of being implemented in the same fashion as all of the pre-existing Reason devices.

Currently, Reason 6.5 is still in Beta testing, but soon, enough Rack Extensions will be fully functional and, as it appears, Reason is bound to get that much cooler. Below, you can peep a video which finds a few of Propellerhead’s higher-ups and some of Rack Extensions’ early developers discussing the concept and implementation of the new function. Despite some atrocious music in its soundtrack, the clip actually provides a solid bit of insight into the possibilities of Rack Extensions. You can also head here to read up on further details and check out some audio samples from a few of the third-party instruments that have already been developed.