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Hi folks,
I'm having a look at propellerheads reason and just wondering does anyone use it on here and for what genre of music?
Also the learning curve involved?
Thanks
Musiclover
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Some very creative and musically adept people use PropellerHead software, including "Reason", to make music. Thom Sneddon in New Jersey is such a fellow... do a search for elwoodblues1969 at Kara-Moon.com to hear some of his stuff - amazing! http://www.kara-moon.com/forum/index.php?topic=6473.msg40376#msg40376
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Reason is very popular with people that do beat-based electronic/industrial/dance music. I don't know of anyone that uses it for your standard rock/folk/country/standards work.
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Quote:
Hi folks,
I'm having a look at propellerheads reason and just wondering does anyone use it on here and for what genre of music?
Also the learning curve involved?
Thanks
Musiclover
I have been using Reason 3 since 2007 and haven't felt a need to move on until the the recent integration of audio recording into Reason 6. It is popular for making dance music, but to think of it as a beat box is to vastly underestimate its potential. As it is a software instrument it can be used for any kind of music from classical to experimental whatever.
The learning curve kinda depends. I have mainly used it to port the basic parts from BIAB (B/D/G/K/S) and then create layers. That much is relatively easy. The documentation is superb, and there is plenty of third-party literature available as well as youtube videos to guide you through anything you want to learn.
But get under the hood a little and it gets really deep. You essentially have as many instruments, synths, effects, and tracks as your PC can handle. Get the companion program Recycle and you can make your own REX loops. Beatmatching heaven!
Check my link below and listen to "Jarreologie" for an example of a tune ported from BIAB and heavily massaged in Reason 3.
Good luck, and keep the questions coming.
Richard
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Very nice Ryszard. I like the sound of that "Jarreologie" Thanks Oren and Rockstar as well, reason is a program I will check out more.
musiclover
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I have Reason. I worked with it for a while and found that I have no reason to use Reason.  Everything I do I can do in BAIB and Real Band.
Russ Anyday above ground is a good day Computer is Hp Pavillion Vision 6 Ghz quad core AMD processor 8 Gig memory 1 TB hard drive 6 GB hard drive Windows 7 Premium Loose nut behind the keyboard 
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I use reason 3. Some of the almost magic pads it has are simply fabulous for mystical Scottish ballads & airs. I used reason in my latest post in fact called the dark island.
Strings section and the Myroslav choirs. When you can't find that right piano backing in real tracks, reason has some beautiful piano sounds to use. Some excellent organs, violins and wind instruments.
When I use midi, I ALWAYS use the reason library. STILL havn't played with all it has to offer and I've used reason for ages
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Well Graham, you're living proof it's good then. You've made some of the finest music out there in my opinion.
Russ Anyday above ground is a good day Computer is Hp Pavillion Vision 6 Ghz quad core AMD processor 8 Gig memory 1 TB hard drive 6 GB hard drive Windows 7 Premium Loose nut behind the keyboard
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Quote:
I use reason 3. Some of the almost magic pads it has are simply fabulous for mystical Scottish ballads & airs. I used reason in my latest post in fact called the dark island.
Strings section and the Myroslav choirs. When you can't find that right piano backing in real tracks, reason has some beautiful piano sounds to use. Some excellent organs, violins and wind instruments.
When I use midi, I ALWAYS use the reason library. STILL havn't played with all it has to offer and I've used reason for ages
Thanks for all replies. Graham I would be very interested if you have the time, if you could give a brief description of how you access the reason refills to back up your excellent music.
Do you use reason through rewire or something else?
As reason has a big learning curve I am interested in getting the refills sounds into my own music the easiest possible way 
Or maybe there is no easy way and you have just taken the time to learn a lot of the program.
Thanks very much
musiclover
Last edited by musiclover; 11/22/11 06:02 AM.
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I'm very glad you asked the question. Even though you have directed it to Graham I am going to chime in until he replies. Likely we both will learn something.
The first thing is to approach Reason as an instrument. Imagine that it is a bunch of hardware sitting in front of you and it is a bunch easier to get your head around it. Propheads make that quite easy as everything is presented to you as knobs, sliders, and switches, complete with patch cords in the "back."
In terms of working with BIAB, I basically use Reason as a glorified General MIDI synth. Unfortunately Rewire has not yet been implemented in PG Music products, although I have told that they are taking a hard look at it. Instead I create a MIDI file from my BIAB production and import it into Reason.
From there a bunch of hand work is involved. You have to select or create instruments and assign them to the various MIDI tracks. This is pretty straightforward except with drums. GM drums are only partially implemented in Reason, so I have had to do some fiddling about to get everything to work. I won't go into specifics here, but it's not too difficult once you figure out how. Reason has a kick-ass MIDI editor that works quite well.
The biggest problem is choosing patches and effects from the near-infinite possibilities that Reason offers. No matter what patch you start out with it is always possible to imagine something better. The trick is knowing when to stop.
Reason is as big and complex as you want it to be. Start small and work up from there. It's all worth it IMO. Now that Reason is a complete recording suite you can take everything from BIAB and Real Band and work on virtual instruments and audio in Reason. (They have a great set of mastering tools, too.)
The next task in mastering the advanced functions of Reason is to learn how to use the Combinator, a virtual rack that lets you create complex instruments and effects, or combinations of the two, and use them as modules which can be used in other creations as well.
Good luck,
R.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Thanks very much Ryszard for that detailed reply. Probably what I was hoping is that I could access the reason refills and import the sounds as midi files into realband or cubase, and then edit them there. Seems no easy peesy way to do it, just head down and start to learn the program thanks again musiclover
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Cubase has Rewire, which makes it easy to work with mixing tracks from the two programs. You still have to do all the sonic sorcery in Reason.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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There's many freebies online for reason refill. I've downloaded all mine and have them stored on a spare hard drive. I personally use reason in Sonar 8 producer ed. Two ways I go about using it. Firstly getting midi from a biab file. How I get my midi is to save each midi track separately in biab. For example, piano, strings, bass etc... Taking note of the tempo is of course advisable, then just type in the same tempo into reason. Re-open using sonar and import the required midi into reason. Select the synth you wish to use and tweak to your hearts content. Adding refill is no problem, just open the folder containing your refills & drag them into the reason folder. Hundreds of free refills to suit every taste on the propellorhead website, export each midi file as a wav and Bob's your uncle or Aunt 
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Awwwwwwwww shucks, I'm all ebawwased now  Quote:
Well Graham, you're living proof it's good then. You've made some of the finest music out there in my opinion.
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Thanks very much Graham for describing how you get it to work. I will definitely give it a try asap.
Love your playing.
musiclover
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