In addition to the manual, I would highly recommend Reason 5 Power! when it's released. I have his book for Reason 4 and it's excellent. He discusses each instrument in great detail, but he also provides a lot of tutorials and walkthroughs that really help you understand them as well.

Here is the link to Reason 4 Power on Amazon. You can use the "Look Inside Feature" to get an idea of what kind of detail this guy provides.

I would also recommend getting something with some pads. I have the Akai MPD 18. There are some negative reviews regarding the responsiveness of the pads, but I used the electrical tape fix and it worked great. The MPD 18 is much easier to mod because there's less to fight with.

u/andy5000 · 3 points r/reasoners

I've found it worthwhile to learn what all the knobs, switches, buttons, and slides do. This applies to all the synths and samplers. This allows you to tweak the preset patches and experiment less blindly. Youtube is a good resource but I've gotten more from this book
But I vote anything that sounds good acceptable!

u/ElliotNess · 1 point r/ReasonProduction

Also, read this book.

I recommend to read front to back, but it works great as a reference manual as well. Lots of detail into the intricacies of the reason program.

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