Reason 3.0 demo impressions

[advaya]

THe thing I find most striking reading back through this thread is the strength of feeling that Reason provokes. Some love it to bits, others simply don't, and feel compelled to point out the weaknesses they percieve.

To me this conveys the message that Reason is a piece of software with a strong personality.

I think that we are lucky to live in a day when we are surrounded by such a great array of music software with which to bring our creative dreams to life. The affordable software at our disposal means that we can create any sound, emulated or weird, and produce whatever style of music takes our fancy.

The problem is that the creative process can become a dry and clinical one, and we can all end up producing music that sounds the same. As musicians and composers we can so easily now get overwhelmed by the many options, bogged down in the technicalities of the software, and lose our creative edge while swimming in a pool of choices.

The personality of Reason stands against this tide. For me I find it deeply inspiring, and I find that as I plug in my keyboard to my laptop and fire up Reason I'm quickly making music that sounds good to me.

If you don't like Reason, fine, I get that. Nor am I saying that Reason is the ONLY piece of software with personaliy - there are others too.

So my advice is that its time to find software that inspires you personally, and stop carping about percieved shortcomings in the tools others prefer. Go make music

Well said mate!

I have always wondered why people feel it necessary to flog the masses with their own opinion of something as inconsequential as sequencer software...

Maybe I am missing something...

[John Vulich]

Thou Shalt not worship False Idols..

Heretic!

[ianweb123]

I have always wondered why people feel it necessary to flog the masses with their own opinion of something as inconsequential as sequencer software...

This is an interesting point..

My Theory , by Anne Elk.

With High cost outlays (£150+) I see it as a need to 'validate ' the buying decision. i.e. "I have spent a lot on this but it was really worth it, look at all these others that agree with me".

With Low cost or Freebies its a desire to celebrate the 'discovery' by letting as many others know as possible, although I did notice a poster talking about their freebie 'secret weapons' that they wouldn't let on about, an interesting concept considering that no two musicians have the same demands or needs (unless you are talking about tarnce muso's who all want to sound exactly the same )

[Hovmod]

With High cost outlays (£150+) I see it as a need to 'validate ' the buying decision. i.e. "I have spent a lot on this but it was really worth it, look at all these others that agree with me".

I once called that the "Ego-Rectal Anxiety", or the fear of making an ass of yourself. that's why it's always a good idea to charge a lot for worthless stuff like TM or the Silva Method. If you've paid a lot for it, you're more inclined to think it's good.

TWAT comes to mind as well...

[advaya]

IAN: Sounds like a solid theory to me!

Perhaps we can broaden its scope a little... Any musician needs to validate their decision to invest so much time and effort (and sweat, and blood, and tears) into the creative process...

Bickering over the pros and cons of sequencers seems kinda counter-intuitive to that ends...

I have spent more time and money than I care to admit with this whole music-making thing... Although I might not agree with someone else's choice of software and/or equipment, it's nice to know that someone else has chosen to tread a similar path in life... with all its heartaches and rewards...

Rather than saying, "You wasted money on that crap sequencer X." I'd rather say, "Kudos for doing something creative, and not wasting all your time watching reality TV shows!"

[drez]

On the flip side of the "argument" argument, I think some folks (like John) might actually like the software, but they also don't have rose colored glasses on. THat's OK. I don't mind that at all because you can't go to the next level until you know what people want and what doesn't work. Then there are others that just bash to bash because they don't know the product, but they know how THEIR's works. There's ton's of those and they alienate themselves as soon as the post. Its easy to do across the Internet Those folks are just ignorant and usually end up going through life that way. Pity. If you don't know how to do something, that doesn't necessarily mean it can't be done, it ususally means that you don't know how to do it. Such is the world of Reason. Most people don't know how to do much in it, so they do what most kids do. They bully it.

Personally, I will usually jump in and discuss things if a person points something out that I feel is wrong or inaccurate. If somebody says "reason is crap because it can't do X" but it actually CAN do X, then I'll attempt to point that out. It might not be straitforward in THEIR mind on how to accomplish it, so I'll try to share my experiences with the product and maybe that will further them along.

Other times, its just that somebody doesn't like the way that it works (workflow, no audio, too many wires, etc). That's ok too, but usually I'll try to point out that it works for me because X, Y, or Z. I'm not saying that they are wrong, I'm just explaining WHY it works for me. I have a buddy that hated reason and only used Fruity. He kept trying, but just hated it. Then I sat down with him for a few hours in a coffee shop and watched him. He'd show me how he was doing things ("dude, I'm makin a mixer, I'm dropping a malstrom, I've got some effects, and it still sounds like crap...its dead and lifeless"). So I grabbed the mouse, started taking what he had and added some CV routings, split the same signal into multiple audio channels, ran those through different effects and delays, took "those" sounds and modified other parameters on OTHER sounds with CV, etc. In about a half hour, that 8 bar loop started to breathe! It had movement that was controlled and predictable. Then I showed him the matrix and it was over. Now he really enjoys working with it. Does he still use Fruity? Yep, but he now knows that there are things that are possible in Reason that were beyond the first 2 weeks with the program.

To get reason to do amazing things you have to actually do some work. I think people like to just get a VST that "has a good bass sound" or "is the ultimate pad synth". That's cool and I wish them luck on their journey. For me, I would prefer to try and use a product that I can build all of those things with. For me that's Reason. For many others it's "insert sequencer/vst combo here". That's great, but don't chastise those of use that prefer to swim upstream.

Everybody is territorial and nobody likes their baby to be called ugly

[stefancrs]

OT:
Your baby is ugly.

[lucille]

...getting back to Reason--i have taken the drez test and post below my impressions of the 1st ten
pad combinator presets:


additive pad: a mushy mess of rv-7 reverb

coin pad: characteristic harsh digital malstrom sound married to a passable sub string patch

ancient of days: nice cinematic style pad--nothing
special--but very nice


epad: nicely programmed swell; the harshness of the sub is unmistakable

guitar pad: emulating workstation is not always a great idea--this pad is the linear descedent of the inescapable "piano + strings" workstation patch except the the strings are incredibly harsh sub patch...ouch

gyorgy: nice swirly pad; sometimes the digital quality of the malstrom sounds waldorfy
to me.

huge pad: basic sawtooth string with a very cheesey rv-7 reverb--whats with using the old reverb in so many patches? Something about the unison is very problematic.

lullaby: ugly digital drone with the unison seemingly pulling things off key

plucked cloud: rhodes like mal patch followed by digital string\chior noise. see "piano + strings"


big beautiful nothing: I loved the name...a rather shrill malstrom sub samdwich with sort of lfo mod--played above middle C this sounds aggressively shrill, in lower ovtaves it has sort of
a romantic quality

[headquest]

...so you won't be buying it, I take it lucille?

[CANE CREEK]

My Reason 3.0 upgrade arrived yesterday , some people like reason some don't but it is a rock solid program which has never crashed on me or my friends.

Not sure how it has fallen behind as some posts state here ?

In my veiw Anybody who own's a rewire compatable host should own a copy of reason instead of knocking it.

i use cubase sx 3 and if i want to inject some new idea's into a project its nice to be able to hook up reason via rewire.

i suppose i just view reason as a very powerful vst and a Beautiful program to have in my sonic arsenal.

I think these threads that compare reason to other music programs are stupid , why not own as many as you can and expand your arsenal , rather thanliving with blinkers on.

[CANE CREEK]

well then I suppose I'm a member of the props cult then, as well as the FL cult, the stylus cult, the reaktor cult.......blah blah blah

what a bunch of horseshit. If Reason is so "sub-standard" then be happy your not using it. You have the advantage then right?

And I never said it was sub-standard but the Propellerheads do make some very odd business choices and, IMO, are falling behind when compared to other similar products.

JohnVulich i honestly think you don't know what your talking about saying things like "Propellerheads do make some very odd business choises" is laughable , Propellerhead make good buisness choise's like not including vst so people still buy refills also anybody who owns another host program can still be tempted to buy reason because of rewire.

Also in an earlier thread you used the phrase "Preset whores", well i like presets so do many other musicians there good to get some ideas down then you can alway tweek them , i couldn't think of anything more boring than buying a vst that didn't ship with any presets.
I still use a lot of presets in my music and ive got a record deal and will be playing live at Glastonbury this year , although i use some presets in my music im always told i have a sound of my own to which i agree.

i know a guy who was obsessed about making all his own presets but his music sucked.

[lucille]

Actually, headquest I will be buying it. I love
reason as sampler and drum machine. I just wish the
kool aid kids would cop to the synth problem and I further wish props would fix it. If only they, instead of Cakewalk had bought out rgc--oh what a world it would be...

[Billy]

reason's major weakness right now, imho, is the lack of any plugin support. i think they should design some sort of VST module which can be loaded into the rack, then allows you to load a VST.

for me it's what's keeping Reason from being a 'serious' program.

[CANE CREEK]

reason's major weakness right now, imho, is the lack of any plugin support. i think they should design some sort of VST module which can be loaded into the rack, then allows you to load a VST.

for me it's what's keeping Reason from being a 'serious' program.

Propellerhead is a buisness , to add vst support would likely slow down the sales of reason refill's as people are more likely to buy a vst synth instead , so it would be a very bad buisness move for propellerhead.

on the other hand reason has every plugin support you can think of in the name of REWIRE.

[nuffink]

reason's major weakness right now, imho, is the lack of any plugin support. i think they should design some sort of VST module which can be loaded into the rack, then allows you to load a VST.

for me it's what's keeping Reason from being a 'serious' program.

Propellerhead is a buisness , to add vst support would likely slow down the sales of reason refill's as people are more likely to buy a vst synth instead , so it would be a very bad buisness move for propellerhead.

on the other hand reason has every plugin support you can think of in the name of REWIRE.

And they sell a lot of refills do they?