Soft studio's why and which? P5, R, and FL

[headquest]

I actually thought Reason would be the top choice with KVR members as it has been around for some time and is very popular.

Hi there christianmusicmaker!

I'm surprised Reason has as many votes as it does, because - how can I put it - KVR isn't particularly inviting to Reason users...

Check out the "hosts" section and you will find FL Studio, P5, Orion, Storm etc all there, but not Reason. Nor is Reason under instruments or effects, although it has some outstanding ones included...

I think this stems from the fact that Reason is a "closed environment" but surely ReWire is now a plug-in format in its own right (albeit one that small independant producers may feel shuts them out?...)

You can't spend too long on this site without also coming across barbed insults about Reason from the site's users.

While Reason's exclusion from this site may be argued using the "letter of the law" as it were, its difficult not to see sour grapes in it. Why - really has the worlds best-selling music software been so excluded?

As regards Reason users themselves, they can thankfully take refuge and get friendly help at the excellent Reason forum on the propeloorhead's site, and at several other independant user sites.

Those Reason users who use other software too will generally use Cubase, Sonar, Logic, Live et al, because Reason particularly appeals to professional users who already have those other mainstream products - all of which host their own forums.

So I don;t think many Reason users (millions worldwide) probably inhabit KVR, (whereas FL Studio/ Orion and even P5 users more naturally do...). Hence my suprise that Reason has had votes

[BONES]

would love to get more feedback about orion, some folks here were using fruity and then switched to orion, I use live mostly but think fruity is great and find that hard to believe. would any of you core orion users get a little more in depth about the 'why' you use orion, whats better about it ? what do you like

Come into my parlour...
Firstly, Rich, ORION's developer, has stated publicly that his first concern is quality. He doesn't care so much if no-one uses it, as long as everything is of the highest quality [or words to that effect]. That said, he is generally very responsive to user requests, especially if a request captures his interest. That means that if you don't want to, you don't need to buy anything else. There are 3 drum machines; a Sampler that supports soundfonts, kurzweil and akai instruments as well as it's own native format and wave files; a 3-osc wavetable synth: a super-extended 303 kinda thing: an wave-morphing sampler, a plucked string modelled synth and, as far as I'm concerned, the synth with the all-time best sounding filters anywhere at any price.
On top of that you get pattern-based sequencing with a Playlist for song arranging, pattern and song level events, a lot of effects, the newer one's being incredibly good, an excellent mixer with great EQ and 4 sub-busses plus a whole lot of internal support for things that just work. e.g. you can automate anything, whether it supports MIDI or not and ORION has its own preset format that works with internal generators and VST plugins [as well as supporting .fxp/.fxb]. The whole thing is completely skinnable and as stable as any other software I use. The operating paradigm is very close to that of a hardware studio, making it completely intuitive for me from the get-go. Did I mention the best sounding filters ever?

[christianmusicmaker]

Hi there christianmusicmaker!

I'm surprised Reason has as many votes as it does, because - how can I put it - KVR isn't particularly inviting to Reason users...

While Reason's exclusion from this site may be argued using the "letter of the law" as it were, its difficult not to see sour grapes in it. Why - really has the worlds best-selling music software been so excluded?

Hi headquest...

I too have wondered about this...maybe it is because it is not a host, or just an instrument and certainly not a simple FX rack either...but all three?

No idea maybe Ben (KVR) knows...either way I somehow do not think it is a deliberate act to discredit Reason in some way (I am not saying that is what you mean)

As regards Reason users themselves, they can thankfully take refuge and get friendly help at the excellent Reason forum on the propeloorhead's site, and at several other independant user sites.

The propellerhead Reason forum is very good yes.

[headquest]

Hi headquest...

I too have wondered about this...maybe it is because it is not a host, or just an instrument and certainly not a simple FX rack either...but all three?

No idea maybe Ben (KVR) knows...either way I somehow do not think it is a deliberate act to discredit Reason in some way (I am not saying that is what you mean)

The propellerhead Reason forum is very good yes.

Thanks for a balanced response to my latest rant .

Worth noticing that ReBirth and ReCycle are both completely missing too!

KVR is a great site which is so comprehensive in every other espect. I just think that:

A. The rules could be bent in order to accommodate revolutionary products that don't entirely play by the rules...

B. ReWire is developing into a plug-in format in many ways... (although not "open-standard", I agree!)

[Mephit Blue]

I wonder how many people on the KVR forum use Propellerhead products. While it is not a VST host, instrument or effect, it is supported through ReWire by many of the hosts discussed on this board. Even FL Studio broke down and added Rewire support in the latest version.

I use Reason and just purchased a copy of ReBirth. I do like the Propellerhead sweet of tools even though I use FL Studio and various plug-ins for things outside of what they can do.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

would love to get more feedback about orion, some folks here were using fruity and then switched to orion, I use live mostly but think fruity is great and find that hard to believe. would any of you core orion users get a little more in depth about the 'why' you use orion, whats better about it ? what do you like

I'll shoot my mouth off a bit here and see if I can provide useful input. I tried the Fruity demo but I could never get comfortable with the UI or the workflow. When I tried the Orion demo, I was able to get down to work almost immediately and had some basic tuneage going right off the bat. For whatever reason, Orion just feels more "natural" for me than FL. It's a personal thing, I guess..

The only complaint I have with Orion at this point is audio handling, but I guess Rich will be sending me a bill for any audio-related requests!

[ATS]

I use FL for everything - it's so quick and intuitive (I think, but then I started with Fasttracker), plus it's extremely stable and flexible too

The only downside is the misonceptions many people have about it (but who cares right?) If I were them I'd give it a shiny new gui and a fancy name and charge twice as much...

I totaly agree, and not only that but all future updates are free. I can afford to have any host I want except for maybe one or two and I choose FL Studio everytime.

[stale bread]

thank you very much for the orion info, I use fruity and enjoy it very much, i'm not really a synth person as much as a samplist, could anyone go into detail about the orion samplers and how they compare to the other ones listed in the packages on this thread, of course mainly compared to fruity (4 me) and is orions file saving configuration intuitive or a hassle?

[TeeLangSun]

thank you very much for the orion info, I use fruity and enjoy it very much, i'm not really a synth person as much as a samplist, could anyone go into detail about the orion samplers and how they compare to the other ones listed in the packages on this thread, of course mainly compared to fruity (4 me) and is orions file saving configuration intuitive or a hassle?

The sampler in Orion is in my opinion, Orion's best module. It's got the best beatslicer I've ever seen (for built-in beatslicers). It doesn't rank with any of the major VST samplers of course, but it's still very nice. It's downside is that it's so-called support for soundfont, kurzweil, and Akai formats is somewhat misleading. In other words, it will indeed load these formats, but playing them back is where it gets tricky. Orion's sampler doesn't "fully" support any of the above and so what you hear when you attempt to play one will greatly vary from patch to patch. Some may play correctly, others won't and still others will just sound plain broken. I still like it though.

[ambe]

Orion Platinum here, it works very well for me and fits into my workflow. Once you get the basics of it and learn it a bit (which will take about half hour) it is the most intuitive music app i've seen. As people have already said though, its probably more down to personal preference and the way that you work. Everything is simple in Orion and nothing is overcomplicated. Thats not to say that it cant produce results that sound complicated. When I demo other software to see what all the fuss is about I always tend to just think "This would be so much easier in Orion and be far less effort".

Plus we have BONES to brutally defend our app if anyone makes nasty comments

[7zark7]

Orion's sampler is awesome. It does what it needs to do for my use and does it best. The internal grooveslicer is also an excellent, excellent tool. For soundfonts I use a dedicated soundfont VSTi with an interface that lends itself to working with soundfonts and was designed to reproduce them accurately. I don't see this as something that makes Orion's sampler any less a great sampler.

My headphones can work as a mic but do I want them to? Do I need them to? Nah, I'll get a mic.

-7zark7

[LoRez]

The 3 headed beast of Sonar/Project 5/Kinetic is working at warp speed for me. Why?...

Sonar 3: Easy to use, powerful, can do it all, great IDE for mixing/mastering.
The bundled modules are excellent. Producer edition has the
Lexicon Pantheon reverb, that can sound phenomenal.
Project 5: Easy to use, tight integration with Sonar/Kinetic, great pattern
creation tool. All the bundled soft synth/modules play nice with
each other.
Kinetic: Super EZ interface, tons of patterns. Nice pattern builder too, but
excellent as a way to quickly build up a pattern to work with. Track
patches dropped in from Project 5 WILL allow the use of plug-in
synths/modules. Kinetic has over and over again been the catalyst
that gets the creative juices flowing.

All 5 integrate with each other superbly, Sonar has a VST wrapper that works just fine, and overall cost of the 3 is very reasonable given the amount of immediately productive tools you have.

I'm a recent convert over from the Mac (Digital Performer). DP is a fine program, but the holy triumvirate of Sonar/P5/Kinetic has been like moving from 8 track tapes to CD's. Just get so much done so quick with the Cakewalk trio now.

Tom

Dood....I totally agree! Never thought years back I'd find myself using three Cakewalk products, but lo and behold here I am These three offer so much flexibility and, best of all, fun! With the right synths, this combo is an absolute killer. Nothing I can't do with relative ease and speed. Not to mention Kinetic and P5 can be quite inspiring...a feature I often find lacking in software packages.

[LoRez]

& how did Project 5 get in there & Orion didn't? I've never even seen a Project 5 user in here..

Then you haven't looked very hard...

[LoRez]

I've never even seen a Project 5 user in here..

There's a few 'ex' users..............Utter shite that it was/still is?

What is utter shite is your pure lack of understanding of a great program. Can't you just admit to the possibility that it doesn't work for YOU, but that maybe it works well for other people for whatever reason? If it sucks so bad why are there some people here that use it and love it? Are we complete idiots with no knowledge of what "good" software is? There must be some explanation, no?

[LoRez]

All 5 integrate with each other superbly, Sonar has a VST wrapper that works just fine, and overall cost of the 3 is very reasonable given the amount of immediately productive tools you have.
Do you know that for the money you spent on these 3 you could have FL XXL with life time updates, be able to do all that in one single app and still have money left to buy som other vsts?
I have tried them all and to me (this is a personal opinion) FL wins by far.
GERM

You are saying that FL can do everything Sonar, Kinetic and P5 can do? Now c'mon, give me a break. Maybe they do everything YOU need to do, but that statement is completely rediculous. I realize you like FL and that's fine as it is a very good program, but let's be reasonable here.