Moving TO Reason from Ableton - should I?
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Andrei Marchenko Andrei Marchenko https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=312360 - KVRian
- 866 posts since 12 Sep, 2013
One thing that can change your mind also: With VST based DAWs you can jump from one DAW to another with all your lovely plugins. If you'll buy Reason and additional Rack Extensions you will be locked in this daw.
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- KVRAF
- 1950 posts since 17 Jun, 2005
My take on this, based on my own experiences and creative garden paths 
It's one thing feeling bored and uninspired in general when working in a particular DAW (or working on anything, basically), and another thing being kind of inspired to work on something after all, but feeling like you quite cannot work that way in the DAW you're using.
The latter can cause some frustration and, after a while, a sort of "ahh, why bother" type of feeling, resembling boredom.
If it's the first sort, general uninspired mood, first and foremost do what ever lifts your spirits and activates your mind and creativity. Not necessarily directly production related
, for some people it could be spending more time in the middle of a forest, haha, and so on. But specifically production-wise, instead of switching the whole DAW, my advice would be: introduce new elements and methods into your current workflow and into the environment you already know well. Renoise has been suggested in favor of Reason; but instead of going full-blown standalone tracker with Renoise, see if the VSTi version of its sampling/phrase features (Redux) gives you new ideas, for example -- all the while staying grounded in the host you know, easily operating all the routing and mixing tasks and so on.
I mention this because I bought Redux a while ago myself, indeed using it in Live, and it's a blast.
If it's the second sort, an incompatibility between how your preferred working environment in a DAW should be and what you are currently using, then take your time and try more options than just one single "probably the best option" out there. It's quite a big decision, switching the whole host, and it pays off to check out first hand what's happening in the field. Note, I'm not saying this isn't what you have done already, just thinking out loud here.
I know of Reason only what I've read from others, directly contradicting my good "try it out first hand" advice myself
, so that's something I can't comment on, other than the points considering lock-in and being limited to that proprietary scheme (with no VST support and the like) are things that would potentially still push me away from considering a given DAW as my main working environment. That's the reason I have steered clear of it in the past.
It's one thing feeling bored and uninspired in general when working in a particular DAW (or working on anything, basically), and another thing being kind of inspired to work on something after all, but feeling like you quite cannot work that way in the DAW you're using.
The latter can cause some frustration and, after a while, a sort of "ahh, why bother" type of feeling, resembling boredom.
If it's the first sort, general uninspired mood, first and foremost do what ever lifts your spirits and activates your mind and creativity. Not necessarily directly production related
, for some people it could be spending more time in the middle of a forest, haha, and so on. But specifically production-wise, instead of switching the whole DAW, my advice would be: introduce new elements and methods into your current workflow and into the environment you already know well. Renoise has been suggested in favor of Reason; but instead of going full-blown standalone tracker with Renoise, see if the VSTi version of its sampling/phrase features (Redux) gives you new ideas, for example -- all the while staying grounded in the host you know, easily operating all the routing and mixing tasks and so on.I mention this because I bought Redux a while ago myself, indeed using it in Live, and it's a blast.
If it's the second sort, an incompatibility between how your preferred working environment in a DAW should be and what you are currently using, then take your time and try more options than just one single "probably the best option" out there. It's quite a big decision, switching the whole host, and it pays off to check out first hand what's happening in the field. Note, I'm not saying this isn't what you have done already
, just thinking out loud here.I know of Reason only what I've read from others, directly contradicting my good "try it out first hand" advice myself
, so that's something I can't comment on, other than the points considering lock-in and being limited to that proprietary scheme (with no VST support and the like) are things that would potentially still push me away from considering a given DAW as my main working environment. That's the reason I have steered clear of it in the past.-
- KVRian
- 1374 posts since 30 Mar, 2011
I went the other way round and it was the best decision in terms of DAWs I ever made...the fact that I was unable to work with audio at that times (Reason 5) was extremly offputting, and Ableton was a real revelation back then. It might be different now, but I always shudder when I think of those small racks and that claustrophobic track window of Reason.GreatExpectations wrote:I've been an Ableton live user since I began music production about 6 years ago and it's the only DAW I've ever used. Recently I've become uninspired/bored by Live and have been considering a change. I've been looking at Reason 9 and just downloaded the demo. One of the appealing things about Reason is that it is all self contained and limited in terms of 3rd party vsts and effects - I definitely feel overwhelmed at times with Live. Some of the Reason workflow also looks really smooth, particularly the Rex player. Integrating with Live further down this line also looks straight forward.
Has anyone made the same transition of DAWs? How different is the Reason workflow compared with Live? What might frustrate me? Any videos that might help me decide?
Cheers
I know that feeling with all those VSTs around, but there is a simple solution: Just stick to Live's built-in stuff - the Suite has everything you ever need, instruments, FX, samples etc. to make music for a lifetime.One of the appealing things about Reason is that it is all self contained and limited in terms of 3rd party vsts and effects - I definitely feel overwhelmed at times with Live.
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- KVRAF
- 1592 posts since 19 Aug, 2009
Have you considerd getting something like a Push or a Launchpad to change you workflow?
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Andrei Marchenko Andrei Marchenko https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=312360
- KVRian
- 866 posts since 12 Sep, 2013
My story about this statement.. I have mate in internet. He pro in musicians world. I always thought that he write music with hardware synths and etc. Once again i asked him about his hardware instruments. You know what he told me? )) He told: "Man, i just using Live and in-build Live's plugins. No 3rd VSTs and etc."2ZrgE wrote:I know that feeling with all those VSTs around, but there is a simple solution: Just stick to Live's built-in stuff - the Suite has everything you ever need, instruments, FX, samples etc. to make music for a lifetime.One of the appealing things about Reason is that it is all self contained and limited in terms of 3rd party vsts and effects - I definitely feel overwhelmed at times with Live.
So again... It's just our minds and perspective of view.