The “Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack” is a book loaded with information. Part technical manual, part creative resource, and part practical “how-to” guide, this takes you on a tour through the past 10 years of my Reason experience, and provides it to you in one comprehensive 360-page volume. Use it as a reference to save you time, and shorten your Reason learning curve. Time to show you what’s inside the book.
The Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack is a book loaded with information. Part technical manual, part creative resource, and part practical “how-to” guide, this takes you on a tour through the past 10 years of my Reason experience, and provides it to you in one comprehensive 360-page volume. Use it as a reference to save you time, and shorten your Reason learning curve.
I’ve shown you the video and a few still shots from the hard copy. See my previous post for that. So what are you going to get when you purchase?
The book is divided into two main sections:
The Core Reason Devices & 8 Rack Extensions outlined fully front to back (see the image below for all the devices covered).
101 in-depth Tutorials that cover Basics, Utility Construction, Sound Design, FX Design, Advanced Setups, and Rack Extension Integration. (see the PDF Table of Contents for a listing of all the Tutorials).
Both of these sections are cross-referenced, so that it’s easy to navigate between the two sections. For example, when you are reading about the SubTractor device, all the tutorials related to the SubTractor are outlined (by number) in the SubTractor heading section. When you are in a specific Tutorial, all the devices used in that Tutorial are outlined in the Tutorial’s heading section.
Note: There’s also a Companion ReFill that will be provided with “premium” options, containing 250 patches. These patches serve to complement the Tutorials. There’s also several additional routing and sound ideas in there for you to explore.
I wanted to give you a few samples from the book. So I’m providing them here as free PDF files:
That should give you a pretty good idea of what you get with the book and the book’s layout. Now for a visual listing of all the devices covered in the first half of the book:
The Book covers all 43 Core Reason Devices, as well as 8 additional Rack Extensions; all of which are shown here.
I think you’ll agree that this is unlike any other Reason book on the market. This is the only Reason book you’ll find that offers a Coil-Bound, full Color purchase option. And the only book that provides a full copy PDF with all purchase options.
You can pick up your copy of the Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack exclusively athttp://www.reason101.net/shop
A picture is worth a thousand words. 864 pictures and 312,000 words on 360 pages becomes an invaluable story. Especially when what it conveys is everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the Reason Rack in a logical, easy-to-follow way. Take a sneak peek inside the “Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack” – There’s a lot to cover, with 51 devices presented in full detail, along with many creative and practical ideas, tips, tricks, sounds, and utilities. Stay tuned for more updates to come.
A picture is worth a thousand words. 864 pictures and 312,000 words on 360 pages becomes an invaluable story. Especially when that story conveys the inner workings of the software tool used to get the music in your head out to the world. And especially when that story is packaged in a logical, easy-to-follow book. That’s what you’ll find in the Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack
Want to know a bit more? Here’s a video that should answer most of your questions about what it is and why you should invest in it:
Here’s a little preview of some of the test copies I got back from the printer. 51 devices are covered top to bottom, and there are full visual outlines of how every parameter on each one of them functions. And all this is cross-referenced with the 101 Tutorials on everything from basic to advanced sound design, effects design, and utility construction.
A few pages from the Kong device section (Color test copy)
The idea was to create a dual purpose book whereby the Device section can be used as a quick reference as well as completely cover all front and back panel parameters. The Tutorial section can open up new ideas on how all the devices can be integrated together to create different sounds, effects, and utilities. A complete course in a book.
A few pages from the Thor device section (Color test copy)
As I progressed with the devices, I found that you could explain most all of them in a very concise way over 3-4 pages each. Of course, some devices took considerable more space, such as Thor and Kong, which are each about 9 pages. But each page had to be laid out according to the device’s design, not a “one-size-fits-all” book layout. Each page was hand-crafted, and required completely different layouts, balanced against the consistency of the headings, fonts., page size, and other elements to give the book its flow.
I’ve been a technical writer for 12 years, and that often involves working on your own layouts and graphic design. I was very mindful of this when crafting the book to give you the best learning experience I could. Part technical manual, part creative index of ideas, and part practical “how-to,” I hope this book encourages you to push your limits with the Reason software.
A few pages from the “Thor” section (Black & White test copy)
One of the most important aspects of working on this project was ensuring that all the visuals presented the devices in full view as you would see them on-screen. I wanted to make everything easy to follow and simple to navigate. I didn’t want to intrude too much on the imagery. Therefore, all the call-out lines are simple and don’t cover any important device areas.
A few pages from the “Alligator” section (Black & White test copy)
As you can see, all the tutorials have full visuals as well, so you can follow along and recreate exactly what I’m explaining. And with 101 Tutorials, there’s plenty in there to work on. Many of these tutorials also have alternative ways to accomplish something, or additional ideas and tips. This isn’t a rehash of what you’ll find on my website. There are many new tutorials, as well as expansions and re-workings of many of the most popular articles found on my site.
A few pages from the “Tutorials” section (Black & White test copy)
Well, that’s a quick look at the actual copy. Let me know what you think.
You can pick up your copy of the Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack exclusively athttp://www.reason101.net/shop
10 Years in the making. What I will present to you on December 1st, 2013 is the book I always envisioned for the program, and I want to invite you to stand over my shoulder and see why I find this software such a compelling and creative tool for anyone with a love of music and audio. I wrote the “Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack” so that I could convey all the amazing things this program can do in a logical, easy-to-follow way. I wanted to shorten your learning curve, and at the same time share my 10-year Reason journey with you. I hope you enjoy learning about Reason as much as I do.
Robert Anselmi’s Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack
When I first started working with Reason, I was amazed at the breadth and depth of the program. It had such a wide array of devices and options, it made my head spin. And the visual design of the software was truly stunning. I was excited and wanted to learn more. I had longed for a book that would walk me through all these Rack devices, and more importantly, would explain how to connect all these devices together to create what I wanted. It had to be highly visual as well, doing justice to the fine artistic efforts put into the Reason software design. I searched everywhere for a concise and comprehensive book that would teach me all the possibilities. Yet, nothing like that existed at the time. And it was at that point I decided to eventually write that book. I’m more than happy to provide it to you now, a decade later.
What I will present to you on December 1st, 2013 is the book I always envisioned for the program, and I want to invite you to stand over my shoulder and see why I find this software such a compelling and creative tool for anyone with a love of music and audio. I guarantee two things will happen when you invest in it: 1. It will save you time when seeking out answers to how the software operates; making you more efficient, and 2. It will teach you something new; no matter what level of expertise. These are bold claims. And I promise to deliver.
Reason is a gigantic Lego set, and you’re free to construct anything you can think up. Using the devices, audio, CV, and all the related sliders, rotaries, and buttons as your building blocks, you’re free to construct an endless amount of sounds, effects, and utilities.
But without an understanding of how these blocks fit together, it’s difficult to build anything. And that’s where this book comes in. The first half will provide you with the theory. Every core device and 8 Rack Extensions are comprehensively outlined in a clear, concise, and visual way. You’ll learn how each device operates, front to back, A-Z. It can be read straight through, or used as a desk reference when you are seeking out how a particular control or connection works.
The second half of the book will provide you with the practical side of Reason, and can be thought of as a complete course, from basic to advanced, over the span of 101 in-depth lessons. You can read them straight through, or focus on specific tutorials that interest you. To help you navigate through these two sections, I’ve cross-referenced them. This way, you can see the tutorials that relate to a specific device in each device section, and which devices are used in a specific tutorial in each tutorial section.
I wrote the Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack so that I could convey all the amazing things this program can do in a logical, easy-to-follow way. I wanted to shorten your learning curve, and at the same time share my 10-year Reason journey with you. I hope you enjoy learning about Reason as much as I do.
You can pick up your copy of the Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack exclusively at http://www.reason101.net/shop
With the latest Propellerhead Reason 6.5 announcement, there’s a lot to discuss in the world of Reason. I have been fairly silent over the last few days, even though the forums have been ablaze will all kinds of chatter. Until the dust settles, it’s never wise to jump out and state your opinion. Did that once and it bit me in the behind. But I wanted to provide some of my thoughts on all these new changes, since they are fairly huge, and developing rapidly. So here are my preliminary musings.
With the latest Propellerhead Reason 6.5 announcement, there’s a lot to discuss in the world of Reason. I have been fairly silent over the last few days, even though the forums have been ablaze will all kinds of chatter. Until the dust settles, it’s never wise to jump out and state your opinion. Did that once and it bit me in the behind. But I wanted to provide some of my thoughts on all these new changes, since they are fairly huge, and developing rapidly. So here are my preliminary musings, all of which are subject to change.
By now you’ve probably heard of two new changes to the Reason environment. If not, here’s the official news release. And here are the two core changes that you’ll see in the Reason 6.5 update:
Figure: The iPhone / iPad app that will be available in the Apple App store soon.
Re (Rack Extensions): Propellerhead’s own proprietary Plugin format, which opens the Reason rack up to new devices that are developed by third party companies. In other words, Korg, U-He, Arturia, Peff, or any other developer or instrument company keen on developing a Reason Rack device can now do so. Propellerheads are launching the “Rack Extension” store on their site, where Extension devices will be sold and delivered, via the click of a button, to your Reason software.
Out of the two features, “Re” is the earth-shattering news, and “Figure” is exciting for those on the Mobile iOS platform who enjoy music-making on the go, but not so much for those of us that already use the full version of Reason on their computer. Figure is slated for release in the next few weeks, while Re is slated for release at some point in Q2 of 2012, and in my opinion, it will take some time to see how this will all unravel.
First, let’s take a look at the Keynote speech by Propellerhead:
So, what I’m getting from this video, other than the fact that I need to get a cool Reason tattoo in order to be included in a slide during the next Propellerhead release, is the fact that this is a huge paradigm shift for Propellerhead.
Figure
On the one hand, Figure is the first real outing for Propellerhead into the world of Mobile devices. Sure, we had ReBirth for a while, but that seemed like a test run. This is the real deal; a new introduction into the app market.
While all of this is preliminary, based on what I see in the above video, I have my own personal list of Pros and Cons. Bear in mind none of this is released yet, so it’s all subject to change. But these are just my own thoughts on Figure:
First, let’s look at the Pros:
It’s built with Kong and Thor as the background devices for your sound, so it probably sounds fantastic!
It’s easy to use. Big plus in a mobile environment
It brings some of Reason into the mobile realm. Never a bad thing.
It probably won’t crash your device, being a Propellerhead product.
Price. It’s a buck (one dinero, one dollar, one smackaroo). So there’s no reason not to pick it up. Even if you only want to try it out a few times and never use it again. I spend more on a cup of coffee. So yeah. Of course I’ll get it.
Now for the cons:
If you already own Reason, this isn’t going to add anything new in the way of sound.
If you don’t use mobile devices or make music on-the-go, then you can probably pass it up.
Like most other iOS music apps, it looks like great toy, and should be fun to tinker with, but is it as functional as Nanostudio or Beatmaker? Not sure yet, but doubtful. Of course, Nanostudio and Beatmaker are also 20x more expensive at $20 each.
In summary, if you own an iPhone or an iPad, getting Figure is a no-brainer, even if you own the full version of Reason. It brings a little bit of Reason into the mobile world, and if it lives up to the Props mantra, it will be easy to use and simple to sketch out some nice ideas. And it opens up more creativity, which appeals to me. I have to give the Props a big thumbs up for their official first step into the Mobile world.
Re (Rack Extensions)
Now let’s look at Re (Rack Extensions) — and don’t call it “ReRack” or the Props will give you a sour look and shake their finger at you (just kidding).
As with any preliminary announcements, it’s hard to judge how it will work, and how accepting people will be towards the technology. Again, going by the video above, I’m going to throw out a few thoughts on it, all of which are just my own personal assessment, questions, and the like. Let’s look at it from three different perspectives: The Musician, The Sound / ReFill Designer, and The Re Device Developer.
The Musician:
As a musician, you’re probably having an orgasm right now. You finally have your dream of plugin instruments and effects inside Reason, as long as they get developed. And I have no doubt that the floodgates will open, and you’ll see all kinds of great new devices in Reason.
The Re Store is a great implementation. You have a single location where you can try out or buy any of the Re devices. With one click, you purchase the device and it gets downloaded and installed on your computer. I assume it’s tied to your license so that wherever you go and wherever you install Reason, the new devices can get installed.
It’s interesting to note that very few people have discussed the Re Store concept yet. The Re Store seems like an exact replica of Apple’s App Store, and as such, you could say that most of the arguments that people levy against the App Store could also be levied against the Re Store. For example, this means that the Props are the ultimate arbiters of which devices make it inside the store and which are left out of the store. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I’m not going to take any sides in this debate. I’m just pointing it out.
Anytime you switch from a closed-architecture to an open-architecture (or rather, like Thor, this seems like a semi-modular Rack system now), you also open yourself up to the potential of having lots of poorly constructed devices. So are we going to see hundreds of poorly contructed devices? Or are we going to see only the best of the best? Or some combination of both? This ties in with #3 above. Are the Propellerheads going to decide which devices make it in and which don’t?
On the other hand, as Ernst said in the above video, this does make it easier for musicians to a) get Plugins downloaded and installed on their systems, and potentially allows for an easier experience sharing music and collaborating. However, as anyone who has collaborated with fellow Reason users understands, if the other party does not have a specific ReFill, it’s more difficult to collaborate successfully (but still easier than collaborating with non-reason users, more or less). Both parties must have the same ReFill in order to open and play the songs (or self-contain the song). With the introduction of Re devices, this existing issue that was in the ReFill domain now extends itself into the Reason Rack. If the other party doesn’t have the rack device, they won’t be able to open the song, or at the very least, they will be able to open the song, but won’t hear the same thing that the other party intended them to hear. What’s more, there’s no “self-contain” setting that will rectify this issue. What you will have to do is bounce down the audio and share the audio track. And while this is a perfectly valid solution, it is limiting because once it’s audio, you can’t edit the effects from the devices directly. The audio is static.
Because collaboration of the .reason song files can pose these kinds of problems, I predict that most people will collaborate using bounced audio files only, even between reason users. If you think about it, that’s the only logical way we can go. Otherwise, the onus is on the Musician to figure out which extension devices they have and also figure out which extension devices the other party has; making collaborations more complex. And if you share audio files, as I said, this is limiting in certain ways.
The Sound Designer / ReFill Developer
Looking closely at the video with my “ReFill designer’s eye,” I noticed that some of these devices have the ability to save patches and some don’t. Possibly this is because the devices are not completely developed yet. But it brings up the question of whether or not Re developers can allow their device patches to be saved or not. Or do all the devices have to have a “Save Patch” option? This has implications for ReFill developers who want to design patches for the Re devices. It also brings up the issue of whether or not ReFill developers will be allowed to design patches for these devices? My hope is that all devices allow for the ability to save patches, and the developer SDK demands that patches can be saved.
If patches can be saved on all devices, this opens up some new questions. Firstly, it creates a lot of different patch formats for all the different devices that we expect will flood the Re Store. Things could get a little confusing and convoluted.
Are the Propellerheads going to stop producing new instruments for Reason? In some ways, Re removes the need for them to put together new instruments for Reason. And if they still produce new instruments for Reason (which I highly hope they do), will they continue to be a part of the core program, or a new Re device? There’s something to be said for a closed system. As a Patch designer, if the Props don’t provide new instruments as part of the core program, this means those devices are subject to the same potential problems outlined in #3C below.
This fragments the ReFill developer into a few different camps:
Those that develop for the traditional Reason devices. This is the safest bet for ReFill designers, as anyone that owns Reason will own all these devices, and so the ReFill will work for all Reason owners.
Those that develop for specific Re Devices. Designing for specific Re devices is more of a niche market than group “A” above. This doesn’t mean sales will be less than in group “A,” but it does mean that your market is a smaller subset.
Those that develop for a combination of both A & B. As a ReFill designer, if you develop Combinators that contain both traditional Reason devices and Re Devices, you then have to worry about whether or not your users have those Re devices installed on their computer. If not, the Combinator won’t work, or it may work, but not work as expected because it can’t load the proper Re device(s). This is another “to be determined” question which is left unanswered. I’m speculating here, but I am willing to bet that most ReFill designers will either a) not use the Re devices in combination with traditional devices, or b) they will limit usage of Re devices to just one or two that are the most popular. And if my bet is true, then this limits the development of some really interesting and creative Combinators that make use of many different Re devices.
Those that develop using traditional Reason devices to imitate Re devices. Now here’s where it gets interesting, and my mind is always looking for new opportunities. So I said to myself, well, if Re devices are now available, wouldn’t it be interesting if intelligent sound designers attempted to recreate the sounds or capabilities of a particular Re device using the core Reason devices. This can potentially open up a new avenue for designers.
The Re Device Developer
This is a brand new position that just opened up where Propellerhead and Reason are concerned. So as a developer, if you want to try your hand at creating a Re device, you simply need to ask for the SDK. From there, you can potentially get a device inside the Reason Rack.
If you are BOTH a ReFill Designer AND a Re Device Developer, you’re probably in the catbird’s seat. You can now develop both a Plugin product and a ReFill product; taking both to the Reason market. Not a bad deal for you.
In summary, Re seems like it’s going to be very beneficial for most everyone concerned; musicians, sound designers, production engineers, etc. And I’m cautiously optimistic. But there’s no question that this brings up a few concerns or additional questions, at the very least. Anytime a company make such a sweeping paradigm shift, there’s bound to be some rough patches; call them growing pains. How the Propellerheads address these questions, and how this all develops over time is going to be very important for all of us. And right now, it’s still too early to tell. But I don’t want to be a naysayer either. I think the future looks bright and creative overall.
A little note about pricing. While it’s true that Reason 6.5 is a free update from Reason 6, and I commend the Props for providing it for free (I’m sure there was quite a bit of development work that went into the core update), that doesn’t mean that the new Re devices are free. So upgrading will have to take into account the fact that you will have to pay for each device individually, and that cost is as yet to be determined. This means that you need to factor this into your purchasing decisions. I’m also not sure if the 6.5 update will include any new devices inside the core product for free? But I don’t think so.
Lastly, here’s a little preview of the Bitspeek Rack Extension device for Reason 6.5:
And here’s an update from Rack Extension developers “U-He” on their plugins, also from Musikmesse in Germany:
Until next time, don’t stop working with Reason as it is, and don’t stop supporting the Musicians and ReFill developers. From the sounds of it, nothing that currently exists inside Reason will change. All of the news centers around added functionality. All the beautiful bells and whistles that work in Reason 6 today will work in version 6.5 tomorrow. And please share any thoughts you might have. I’m interested to hear everyone’s opinion. Cheers!
The long-awaited new original Phi Sequence album and Phi Sequence Remix Project album are here. 30 tracks. Over 2 hours and 15 minutes of original music by myself and 8 other amazingly talented musicians and producers well known within the Reason community.
Dark: Original music by yours truly. 90% of this album was made entirely with Reason 6 and the Reason 6 FSB.
Light – The Phi Sequence Remix Project: Remix compilation of various tracks on the “Dark” album.
The long-awaited new original Phi Sequence album and Phi Sequence Remix Project album are here. 30 tracks. Over 2 hours and 15 minutes of original music by myself and 8 other amazingly talented musicians and producers well known within the Reason community.
Dark: Original music by yours truly. 90% of this album was made entirely with Reason 6 and the Reason 6 FSB. You can listen to the tracks below and purchase individual tracks or download the entire album. Dark by Phi Sequence
Light – The Phi Sequence Remix Project: Remix compilation of various tracks on the “Dark” album.
And now, how about a few free MP3s? The first two tracks in the set below are two that didn’t make the albums, so I’m giving them away for free. The others are older tracks and demos from previous releases:
Here are a few videos I came up with for the songs. Have a look/listen and let me know what you think.
And here are two videos that Myk (aka: TheFatControlleR) did for his remixes of “Mid-Blank” and “Light”:
From the Liner Notes:
Dark:
Thanks to all the Propellerheads out there for producing great software, and to all those who contributed to the Factory Sound Bank. 90% of the material here came out of that sound library, except for “Enlightened,” which was based entirely on Bitley’s DeLight ReFill.
Special thanks go out to James Bernard, Ed Bauman, Kurt Kurasaki, Hydlide, Mattias, Leo, Jiggery, Robb at Patch-a-day, Ben at 3rdFloorSound, Selig, Theo (NAA), Koshdukai, Sterievo, Pushedbutton, Ned Rush, Jeremy Ellis, Lewis Filter, Grumo, Vish, Rob Puricelli, Chris Petti, Noel Gonzalez, Kibeja, Ces, Jeremy Wright, everyone on the PUF, SoundCloud, FB, Twitter, studio662.net, and so many others whom I’ve met in passing or perhaps forgot to mention.
Thanks to Holly Nelson for vocal work on “Twin Tines.”
Thanks to Nicolas Delmotte for mastering all these tracks with complete professionalism.
Thanks to everyone who contributes, comments, and shares creativity on Reason101.net.
Your ideas and designs always inspire, and contribute to my relative sanity.
– Rob / Phi Sequence – February, 2012
Light:
Art is not solitary. In order to grow, we must listen to others and open ourselves up to reinterpretations of our work. This project comprises the work of 8 musicians and producers who provided their talents and skills to reinvent my work. The concept was simple. I provided 20 songs they could remix in any way they chose. This is the outcome.
When I started this project, I had no idea how far it would reach, how much I would learn, nor how much feedback
I would get. What I received in return was innovative and inspiring. The work speaks for itself. And I am truly grateful to call them my friends. My eternal appreciation to them for providing their time and artistic vision. I am humbled for the experience.
I recently read an article at the Wall Street Journal called “Better Ideas Through Failure.” In it, the writer shows a curious trend in company management to reward failure. The point is simple. The more “Epic Failures” you have, the more innovative you are. It’s not so much that you fail, but rather, it’s about learning from your mistakes. Flash forward to the Propellerhead User Forum, where every once in a while I see a post that looks like this: How do I get out of the loop?. The OP there has not finished a song in 4 years, and everyone is jumping in to give lots of very helpful advice on how the Original Poster can break out of a clear creative block. In other words, how do we become more Creative? And how do we finish a song?
I recently read an article at the Wall Street Journal called “Better Ideas Through Failure.” In it, the writer shows a curious trend in company management to reward failure. The point is simple. The more “Epic Failures” you have, the more innovative you are. It’s not so much that you fail, but rather, it’s about learning from your mistakes.
Flash forward to the Propellerhead User Forum, where every once in a while I see a post that looks like this: How do I get out of the loop?. The OP there has not finished a song in 4 years, and everyone is jumping in to give lots of very helpful advice on how the Original Poster can break out of a clear creative block. In other words, how do we become more Creative? And how do we finish a song?
So how do we do this?
Is it through our failures? Is it through a million ideas that we can provide to a poster in a forum? How do we kick-start our creativity?
One answer comes from another quote I often use. A friend of mine once said “the best gift we can give to our children is the freedom from fear.” Think about that for a second. What would you do if you feared nothing? What if you were unafraid to fail? Would that unleash a watershed of creativity inside you? I think that’s the first step.
When you don’t fear what others think, you are unafraid to do things badly. You are unafraid to take chances and it’s at this point you are the most innovative and creative in your life. You try things out you wouldn’t normally. You regain your sense of innocence you lost somewhere between the age of 5 and 25. You become liberated.
Another thing you can do that will help you in your creativity is to become a sponge. Read up on everything and anything related to what you want to achieve. If your goal is to create a song, then learn as much as you can about sound design, mastering, routing, mixing, your genres of choice, and all genres. Listen, meditate, take it all in and increase your knowledge. Use your ears 90% of the time and then make music the other 10% of the time.
Then create a set of rules and challenge yourself. For example, here’s a recent idea I had which challenged me to create an entire song using nothing but a noise oscillator in Thor. I gave myself some limitations. I could use any number of Thor Noise Oscillators in Thor, but that could be my only sound source. I could use any number of effects I wanted. I could use any filters I wanted (though I couldn’t let them self-oscillate), but that’s it. No samples (except samples created by resampling the Noise Oscillator sounds I was creating), no loops, just that little old Noise Osc.
As soon as I did that, I set about to build up my song from the ground up, creating all the sounds as I went. I was unafraid to take chances, and I started with drums, then bass (which was extraordinarily challenging with this particular oscillator), then pads, and synths, a few little sweeps here and there. By the end of it I was building something interesting, but was it a song. Hell no. It sucked! It was an epic fail. Here. Have a listen:
So I dropped that song like a rock in a pond, and went about reassessing what I was doing. I stepped back, took a few days off, and went back to the drawing board. I asked myself what I had learned. Turns out, I learned quite a lot. I learned more about the Noise Oscillator for one thing. Secondly, forcing myself to use only the Noise Oscillator, I had created some interesting Noise Oscillator samples, I had learned what was working and what wasn’t. All of this was valuable information.
This brings up another good point: Another way we can be creative is gathering the opinions of others, not just in our wins, but ESPECIALLY in our failures. Now I already know this song does not work, so you don’t need to state the obvious, but why don’t you tell me where it fails and why, and what I can do to improve it. What would you do with it? In fact, I’ve included the song in a Reason format below, so that you can open it up, pick it apart, rework it, and make it better. Want to collaborate? Here you go.
There’s a few good parts to the song. The delay on the drums towards the end I really liked. The high pitched Synth sound seems to work well, and some of the samples I created were salvageable. As for the cons, I learned that it needs more drum variation, it’s very chaotic, without cohesive transitions, and well. . . I could go on. But instead, I decided to cut my losses and take some of the good out of the song in order to start reworking it into a new song. Enter the blank slate and new approach.
Fast forward to today. I have since tried about 4 different variations, and I’m currently working on one which I think is much better than this one. It sounds nothing like the original, and it may or may not turn into a full-blown song that I post on Soundcloud. But it’s sounding better to my ears. More importantly, for every success I feel I have, there’s many more failures. And I think you need to be open to that. It’s more important to exploring ideas, pursue challenges, know when something isn’t working and when it is, and never being afraid of that “Epic Fail.” The more experience you gain, the easier it becomes to both fail and succeed.
So to answer the original poster on the Propellerhead forum, keep at it, make lots of song attempts/sounds/loops/samples, try different approaches, take all the advice of other helpful people, collaborate, and be unafraid to fail.
If you like any of the sounds in this song, I’ve put them together into a zip file, along with the actual song here: Epic-Fail. Feel free to use them and maybe come up with your own Noise Oscillator song. If you do, please tell me about it and let me have a listen. I’d love to hear what you come up with.
While there has been a lot of buzz surrounding other Propellerhead news this week, a tragedy has befallen the family of our friend, James Bernard, PH Artists Relations and Reason Specialist. On July 13, 2011, James’ wife, Nicole, passed away. Nicole was 36 years old and was the mother of their four children, Ava, Chloe, Mia and Asher.
While there has been a lot of buzz surrounding other Propellerhead news this week, a tragedy has befallen the family of our friend, James Bernard, PH Artists Relations and Reason Specialist. On July 13, 2011, James’ wife, Nicole, passed away. Nicole was 36 years old and was the mother of their four children, Ava, Chloe, Mia and Asher. People in the user community are leaving their expressions of sympathy on on the Propellerhead User Forum in this thread.
A trust account for James and Nicole’s four children has been established, and people can make a tangible gesture by contributing to this fund. The button below takes you to the paypal portal for the Bernard Childcare Trust:
Maybe it’s music making month that has me exploring more new music out there. Or maybe it’s just the fact that I’ve been rather introspective lately, looking at various sound design ideas, and needing to take a break from tutorial writing (don’t worry, I’ll be back with more tutorials soon). But right now I’m looking more at what other people are doing out there. Instead of writing a tutorial this week, I decided to present a few things that are inspiring me. My tastes lately have gone more ambient and less dubstep, drum n bass, and whatever other new “step” is the new vogue.
Maybe it’s music making month that has me exploring more new music out there. Or maybe it’s just the fact that I’ve been rather introspective lately, looking at various sound design ideas, and needing to take a break from tutorial writing (don’t worry, I’ll be back with more tutorials soon). But right now I’m looking more at what other people are doing out there. Instead of writing a tutorial this week, I decided to present a few things that are inspiring me. My tastes lately have gone more ambient and less dubstep, drum n bass, and whatever other new “step” is the new vogue.
So here are some of the things that are playing on rotation in my iPod, and some new material that has me going “wow, now that’s cool.” I’d be interested to hear what you all think of these artists and tracks. So feel free to comment and tell me what your opinions are. And let me know what you have on rotation in your iPod. Any ambient, drone, or glitch suggestions would also be welcome.
First and foremost is a CD that I recently purchased which at first listen didn’t catch me. The second time I listened to the whole CD front to back and it instantly connected for me. Now it’s the one CD I play from start to finish continually. It’s the number one CD on my iPod, and if you like your ambient served to you in a crunchy, distorted, and feedbacked guitar-based way, then this will certainly hit the mark. It’s Seefeel’s self-titled CD from this year, and I would definitely recommend it for some blissed-out mystical journey with a big kick.
What I really love about it is the lush layers, distortion, feedback, and the power that each track brings. After a 15-year hiatus, and a line-up change, they seem to still have what it takes to inspire me. And it’s nice to hear their sound get more gritty, and I think their choice to bring guitars back into the mix is spot on.
A note about the CD cover: This music feels exactly like the picture IMHO. Of course that’s why they’re called Seefeel.
Perhaps it’s the fact that Tim is from my hometown (Montreal, Canada) that has me curious about his music. Or perhaps it’s the CD cover image of the first “Piano Drop” at MIT in my current location in Boston that has me intrigued. No, wait. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s done most of the recording sessions for this CD on a church pipe organ in Iceland. Well, now there’s just so many reasons to listen to this, that I couldn’t pass it up.
Interestingly, the music comes across very sparse, but very dense and all-encompassing. It’s broody and almost apocalyptic in nature. There’s elements of Eno here. There’s the spaciousness of emptiness. There’s the beautiful emmersive experience that just cries out “Ambient” in my head. This is what ambient can possibly be in the right hands. I can’t wait to get this CD and give it a full and thorough listen from start to finish. It’s the kind of music that forces you to lie in bed, close your eyes and just lose yourself in it.
The moment I listened to this artist, I was hooked. The sampling is awesome and the sound is extraordinary. As one of the soundcloud reviewers said on his channel, he deserves more attention. And it’s true. I have Ed from EditEd4TV fame to thank for introducing me to this artist’s work. So have a listen. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. That is, if you like ambient breakbeat. The one thing that struck me about Esselfortium is the connection it placed in my mind with older progressive bands such as Tangerine Dream. The feel is definitely there. But the sound is just as clean and melodies are more traditional.
It’s worth a listen if you have a keen interest in quality musicianship, and still enjoy the founders of progressive ambient from the 70’s — Kind of like prog rock takes an ambient U-Turn, then came out to a complete stop in 2011. Nice work here.
I know this is more main stream, but I can’t seem to shake this off my iPod for anything. The vocals from twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and the guitar and production work of Benjamin Curtis are really well put together. Cohesively shoegazish and very ethereal. The band seem to take off where My Bloody Valentine left off. Though this is their second CD, they still hold everything together well. Though, I still tend to like the first CD Alpinisms better, as I think it’s more raw. But there’s nothing wrong with this CD as well, and both get a lot of air time when I’m on the road.
I think I also have an affinity to them because they maintain their own blog. Something a lot of musicians don’t do, but should. Note to all you bedroom musicians out there: start a blog, get a website, and get your name out there!
What list would be complete without something from The Orb. At least my list that is. Well, I can’t knock the Orb. They were pioneers of Ambient Dub, and broke out a whole generation of chilled out rave youths. So this purchase for me was a no-brainer. And the fact that they teamed up with David Gilmour (finally doing something Pink-Floyd-esque) is a bit of a treat.
I have to make a confession: I love long drawn out ambient tracks that progress and move over time. So to get a single track in two 20-minute parts was really nice. A clean break from the everyday 3-5 minute soundscape that everyone is used to. The tracks have a chance to breathe and develop. And that’s a very integral part to ambient as a genre.
So does this CD hold up. Yes and no. It’s a great CD overall, but it’s not what I would consider the best from either artist: The Orb nor Gilmour. For the most part, Gilmour voices a few words and does his guitar thing. And the Orb seem a bit tried, tested, and tired. It’s not that the CD is bad. It’s had a lot of listens from me already. It’s just that with the wealth of everything else out there, and with their track record for breaking boundaries, I guess I expected more from them. It’s still a very solid CD and the music production is really wonderful. But it also falls a little flat for me in places. I’m still a die-hard fan, but next to all their other ground-breaking work over the past 25+ years, it kinda made me go “eh. ok. so what?”
Still one of the best musical glitchy debut CDs of the decade, and gets a lot of airplay from me. I have most of their CDs, and I have to say this one is the best of the bunch. My favorite track is “Asleep on a Train” which just sounds like perfect music to fit the title. This group is from Iceland, and I would say this is one of the best “mood CDs” which fits my personality perfectly. It’s quirky, upbeat and downbeat from track to track and it weaves in and out of a really nice journey which makes the listener focus very deeply on what’s being played. Perhaps because I like to create music myself, I tend to listen harder than others. But I think this could have appeal for everyone who is willing to listen to some of the outer edges of our tiny little pop culture.
Most of their newer CDs since this one go down a very folksy path, and that’s not a bad thing. But it’s not necessarily MY thing either. This CD is much more electronic and glitch, and holds it’s head up high above a lot of others that were produced 10 years later.
This is the guy from Sigur Ros (I must have a weird affinity to Iceland this year). His first solo project was taken from lots of recordings that didn’t quite fit the Sigur Ros style. The CD is an interesting musical journey that is somewhat akin to Bronski Beat’s Jimmy Sommerville vocals, and modern day acoustic ambient. The cross-breading is superb. The best song on the CD by far is “Grow Till Tall,” the second to last track.
His vocals are haunting high pitch yearnings for what? I have no clue. But it all just works. And even cooler is that I heard a rumor that all the music on this CD is from acoustic instruments. No digital instruments. Which is refreshing in this day and age, and for this genre especially. Have a listen for yourself.
So that’s just some of the stuff loitering around my iPod or waiting to be purchased. Any suggestions based on these tastes? What do you think of these artists? I’d love to get your feedback. As always, never forget to stop and take a minute to listen to the music of others. It can be its own reward, and it will help tune you into sounds and ideas for music-making of your own.
Every once in a while I get some great ideas coming into my inbox. This week has been more active than others, and I wanted to share a few ideas with you from some great members sending me some interesting ideas. Here they are, in no particular order.
Every once in a while I get some great ideas coming into my inbox. This week has been more active than others, and I wanted to share a few ideas with you from some great members sending me their thoughts and their work. Here they are, in no particular order.
Eric Kloeckner’s Recent Musings
First off, we have Kloeckno, who sent me a bunch of great patches that he very generously allowed me to provide everyone: Eric-Kloeckner-Patches. This came from my comment to him that one of the patches he was showcasing in an improv session on YouTube was one helluva great sound. So I asked him if he would send me the patch. He then provided these patches to the community. Well, I delved into them and took a listen. Check them out yourself. I made a video to highlight a few of the sounds within. Great stuff. Simply great.
The patches contain some Combinator Instruments and FX, as well as a very novel way to create a 4-way cross-fader without the need for Thor’s shaper. Very interesting work!
Peff’s new Patch Offerings
Another great development lately has been Peff, hard at work doing some unique high-level stuff for Reason. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should see his new files that are available for download. If you can’t access them here, you’ll need to become a fan. So do it and check them out when you can. You won’t be disappointed. Among the files are a template for Livid OHM users, and a new implementation of an equal power cross-fader which is arguably easier to set up using two Thors, instead of a series of mixers and pan controls.
Mick Comito’s latest Song using the Modulated Thor Oscillator Method
And yet more interesting things from the Reason community. Mick Comito has a really amazing song which definitely resonated with me because it’s very ambient with some nice glitch highlights. His Combinator patch builds on the idea of modulating the Thor oscillators. I had written a tutorial about it a few weeks back and he incorporated this idea into his song. First, have a listen:
When I emailed him about it, I asked if he would be willing to share the Combinator patch and he replied saying he would be more than happy to share the patch AND the Record song file. So here they are: Mick-Comito-DancingThors. The song is a great exercise in simplicity if you ask me. The main drums are comprised of Rex files, and the Lead is quite a nice Malstrom setup. The modulated Thors provide the spacey/glitchy effect and round out the whole track. Add the Bass, and that’s the entire effort of the song. Structurally simple and yet very rich in sound. If you get a moment, be sure to comment on the song and drop him a line to tell him what you think. I’m sure he would appreciate it. I know I was extremely impressed.
So take a listen when you have a minute. As usual, the production on the song is excellent. And he has something in store for us in the not-too-distant future at The Sound of Reason (TSOR) site. So be sure to check in every once in a while and say hi to all the members there.
Some Urgings at the PUF
Lastly, thanks to everyone for posting their thoughts on my posting at the PUF. If you have access, you can view the posting here: https://www.propellerheads.se/forum/showthread.php?t=137134. The post was meant to hopefully open up some better discussion about what makes up a community and how we can all receive some better support, tutorials, information, etc. from the Propellerheads themselves. As of this posting, there was no word from them (though James Bernard did respond), but then today I noticed they had a few responses (from Leo and Ludvig), which was VERY encouraging indeed!
If you get a chance, post a comment and let your voice be heard as well.
I don’t know how the hell I missed this last year, but Introducing James Bernard. . .
As you can see, there’s a lot of happenings out there in the community that are noteworthy, and I’m sure many others that deserve mention. These are just some of the great ideas that I’ve had the pleasure of looking into, and in talking with everyone here, it’s nice to see a few fresh thoughts come out of the discussions I’ve had. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed here. It does not go unnoticed and is very much appreciated, to say the least.
Have an idea of your own that you want to discuss? Write me and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear about them.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the same questions I see over and over in the Reason forums. So I thought I would try to grab the best and brightest resources and tutorials (aside from my own. . . ahem!) and create a sort of compendium of the best things out there that every Reason and Record user should know about.
This is an article I’ve wanted to write for a while. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the posts I see and all the questions asked all over the place, and it usually boils down to a few simple questions:
How can I give my drums more life
How do I cross-fade in Reason
How to I create fader groups in Record
Where do I find the best patches?
Where do I find a “Midi to Frequency” Converter?
And so on.
So I thought I would try to grab the best and brightest resources and tutorials (aside from my own. . . ahem!) and create a sort of compendium of the best things out there that every Reason and Record user should know about. These are tutorials written by others that are exceptional, and get to the heart of the main questions that 99% of people ask. Or additional information that you should become familiar with.
In an ideal world, this would mean that we can now devote 99% of our time to other matters and move away from asking the same old tired questions. Of course, if history is any teacher, that’s an incredible fantasy. We’ll still get the same questions, and we’ll still have to provide the same answers. However, as far as I’m concerned, when I now provide the answer, it will amount to a single link that reaches back to this page.
Enjoy.
The Top Resources (in no particular order)
Before listing out some great resources, I’m going to have to say that the grand-daddy of them all is the Reason User Manual or Online Help system (F1 when in the software folks). There is also the Record User Manual, if you have Record. Read it, know it, love it, kiss it at night before you go to bed. It’s your bible for all things Reason. Read it cover to cover!
1. I can’t do this or can’t do that in Reason? Well, some (if not, most) things you CAN do! Here’s a few you may have not thought possible:
. . . and all the other Resources you see in the right-side column on this blog.
Hopefully you all find this information as useful as I do. Any other great sites I should link here, please feel free to comment or email me and if they’re really useful, I’ll be happy to add them in. Until next time, good luck in all your musical pursuits!
“Hardware Interface” (Device Section)
Robert Anselmi’s Reason101 Visual Guide to the Reason Rack
While there has been a lot of buzz surrounding other Propellerhead news this week, a tragedy has befallen the family of our friend, James Bernard, PH Artists Relations and Reason Specialist. On July 13, 2011, James’ wife, Nicole, passed away. Nicole was 36 years old and was the mother of their four children, Ava, Chloe, Mia and Asher. People in the user community are leaving their expressions of sympathy on on the Propellerhead User Forum in this 
