I think i do get what they mean actually. Its not the Reason synths themself that are the (ahum)"issue". I believe its the way you use Reason
Nowadays we have the option to get big chains of processing to enhacnge the sound in a way, that in the old hardware domain was either impossible, or would've costs thousand and thousand of dollars worth of equipment.
Were i wanna go is that, if you use reason the "oldskool" hardware way (hooking a synth directly to the mixer and using the aux for reverb and stop there) you get that 90's sound. Which can be "cheeky" (dependand on the type of sound).. Its all a matter of taste offcourse. Some people like that sound, some dont.
The way outta this is probably "simple"; more processing on the direct chain after the synth!
Things i do alot:
- Use distortion: Overdrive, tape, whatever works
- Aggressive eq'ing (try removing quite a bit around the 640hz range on a filthy distorted detuned bass sound. Works wonders!)
- Dont be afraid to use big reverbs. Small room type reverbs can give it that smaller feel, and an occasional "cheaper" sound.
- Split the outgoing signal of your synth with the audio splitter and have different types of processing on both signals, feeding back into a 6:2 and give that output more processing or glueing.
There is tons of ways you can process the raw sound that synths generate, often giving a new array of sounds and textures aswell!
But ye, like matt said. Post an audio example. It'll give us more insight into the "issue"