Just some thoughts on Reason....

[david1806]

Hi all...

So I have had my copy of Reason v11 for a couple of weeks now, and to say I am happy with it would be a massive understatement. I haven't been creating music for quite a long time now, and the last time I was using Reason was when I had a cracked copy of version 6 - I am just being honest here, it was a long time ago and something I wouldn't do now. But owning my own copy is just so much better. It may only be the Intro version but for now it will do me.

I mean, it is just an awesome piece of software. From someone old enough to remember Cubase 20 years ago, to have what I have at my fingertips is a dream come true, it really is. I used to have a small recording studio, I spent about £40k on it (and this was early 90s) and I couldn't do 1% what I can now do with my laptop - I mean, how cool is that!? Youngsters don't know how good they've got it (fuck, I sound old!!).

I think the Europa synth is just incredible. I have absolutely no clue how to use it, I am just using presets at the moment - I really look forward to getting down and dirty with it and actually understanding how to make my own sounds. Also the Thor synth is incredible, though I do understand more how that works - though I still have a lot to learn about it.

I had the full trial version for a month (v10), so I absolutely plan on getting it soon. I loved the Alligator and Synchronous units, and also The Echo and The Pulveriser is just awesome. So far I haven't had a problem with the 16 track limit of the Intro version. I really do believe that the amount of Reason that you get for just £69 is incredible, worth every single penny. I am going to check out what is in the Reason Suite version, see if it's worth the extra £100 or so. Anyone here have the Suite version?

So anyway, for what they are worth, these are just a few of my early thoughts on my Intro version of Reason 11. I think I have said somewhere before that I think I would rather the new version not be able to be used as a plug in, so anyone can just add it to their DAW. I liked being in that exclusive 'Reason Club' - I feel that now it is available as a VST plug-in, it's somehow, oh I dunno, made it less special maybe? I dunno, I'm probably just talking shite.....

Cheers all, would love to hear what you guys think - I am new to this forum so sorry if this has all been said before, it's all new and exciting to me!!

David

EDIT: Ah, just checked, Reason Suite is nearly £200 more!!

[Oquasec]

Dope. I started with a Reason 5 disc back in 2010.
Hope ya like the feature set

[Loque]

I don't own the Suite, because i already owned too many of the contained synths. Parsec is probably the best thing of the bundle and normally cost around 100.

[MannequinRaces]

Welcome and have fun David! Once all of the R11 hoopla dies down the forum will be a less negative place, lol. If you don’t already have any of the REs in Suite then it is a bargain for people like yourself. Before jumping on Suite take time to explore and learn what you have.

[TritoneAddiction]

Welcome and have fun David! Once all of the R11 hoopla dies down the forum will be a less negative place, lol. If you don’t already have any of the REs in Suite then it is a bargain for people like yourself. Before jumping on Suite take time to explore and learn what you have.

I pretty much agree with this.
Play around with the stuff you've got for a while. Once you feel like you want some new stuff the Suite version is a pretty good deal. You probably wouldn't need to buy anything more for a really long time.
It might seem a bit pricey at first. But if you would instead go the route to buy instruments or effects seperately it would cost you way more.
Of course it's a good idea to try out the stuff included in the Suite before you buy it, because there are always things you won't care about. That's just the way it is with bundles.

[ShelLuser]

Thanks for sharing your story David, I really enjoyed reading. It also brought me back to Reason 4, I was just as excited back then

I mean, it is just an awesome piece of software. From someone old enough to remember Cubase 20 years ago, to have what I have at my fingertips is a dream come true, it really is. I used to have a small recording studio, I spent about £40k on it (and this was early 90s) and I couldn't do 1% what I can now do with my laptop - I mean, how cool is that!? Youngsters don't know how good they've got it (fuck, I sound old!!).

LOL, but it's oh so true... Take parallel processing, back in the days you had to know what to do. These days you just copy a channel in the mixed and you're pretty much done.

I think the Europa synth is just incredible. I have absolutely no clue how to use it, I am just using presets at the moment - I really look forward to getting down and dirty with it and actually understanding how to make my own sounds. Also the Thor synth is incredible, though I do understand more how that works - though I still have a lot to learn about it.

I'd also like to suggest you look into Malstr0m sometime if you got the time (and drive) for it. I have to admit sharing some personal bias here (Malstr0m was the main reason why I bought into Reason 4 back in the day even though I also had Live 8 Suite) but honestly... Granular synthesis is something else indeed, and very fun to play & experiment with. In my humbly opinion obviously...

Anyone here have the Suite version?

Not officially but I do own pretty much all the rack extensions that are in there (apart from Scenic, I couldn't care less about that one) and in full honesty it's something else indeed. My absolute favorite instruments in there are Parsec and Complex-1 (be sure to reserve plenty of time for experimentation! ).

Which is my warning to you: always pay attention to what you already own because unfortunately the Prop webshop has no problems selling you the same device twice or even more times. So: if you're looking into buying a bundle of some sort (some of which are seriously worth it) then you will always pay the full price, even if you already own several device in said bundle. So be careful there.

But having said that.. despite this small bit of (fair) criticism I definitely share your enthusiasm. As said: some Reason devices are seriously good.

I liked being in that exclusive 'Reason Club' - I feel that now it is available as a VST plug-in, it's somehow, oh I dunno, made it less special maybe? I dunno, I'm probably just talking shite.....

Nah, but I do think you're overlooking one very important thing here: you can't buy the VST without buying into Reason. Ergo the VST is only available to the illustrious members of the Reason Umpf club (umpf! is something you say when you managed to build that exciting new sound! ).

[antic604]

Europa reveal stream is a pretty good tutorial for it:

And for Thor, this one is worth watching:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... sCXK8RQmT5

It's kinda refreshing to read a positive post about Reason. Great job & good luck!

[david1806]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

OK, so be warned, I am going to drone on a bit here.... LOL!! [Being the saddo that I am, I have put links at the end for the equipment that I am going on about....]

So being new here, I wouldn't know about the negativity surrounding Reason. And before anyone tries - I don't want to either!! I can sort of guess what some of it is about, probably not Reason itself, but about what you do/don't get when upgrading if you already have Reason, and complaints of that nature. I used Reason Version 1 many years ago, but then stopped making music apart from a short period when I than had Reason 6, but that didn't last long.

So that brings me to now, and it was lucky timing, with Reason 11 just being released. It will be awhile yet before I get upgraded, but I earn decent money, so it is not a big deal spending that kind of money (remember I am on old bugger, so I should be earning good money at my age!!). I have just checked the Reason site, but I can't see if I would get any discount buying Full/Suite versions - if I do I don't think it would be a lot, although you would think that they would at least discount the price I spent on the Intro version (£69)....?

ShelLuser: indeed, the Malstrom is a great synth. I had it before when using v6, and I am sure it was in the first version too? I think that and Subtractor were the (only) two synths that were included.

Thanks for all the advice, I will indeed take my time. I have already decided that I will be upgrading, that was always the plan, but you are still right for me to take my time in making my final decision, which for me will be whether to go for the Full or Suite version. I have just checked the comparison list (https://www.reasonstudios.com/en/reason/buy) and you know what? I am not too sure that another (nearly) £200 for the Suite is worth it. The extra synths - Complex 1, Parsec, Scenice, Waves - I think I could live without, or if I really need them, but them separately somewhere down the road. As much as I would love to, I can't ever seeing myself spending all the time needed to learn how to use a modular synth like Complex with so much else to study and learn (Europa, Thor etc...), and the others. And I would have so much choice with the synths I would have in the Full version, I mean, if I can't make a decent track with all that Full provides, having a few more synths/FX units ain't gonna' change that fact!!!

So, it'll probably be the Full version. I am super-excited about that, I will probably get it on payday this month.

You know, even now, when I just look through a rack in Reason, I still get a little buzz go through me. Knowing that the only limit to what I produce is whatever limit I have, because that software right there is capable of producing pretty much anything.
Maybe it is because I am a bit older than probably your average Reason user, I don't know (or maybe it's just the fact I am one of those annoying super-positive, glass-half-full type geezers!!). It means I can really appreciate what is there in front of me. Like I said before, if I had known just, say, 15 years ago what I would be able to do just a few (relatively) short years later - I would have thought you were joking. I remember (and I remember well) using my Akai S1000 sampler (at about £4,000 each!!!) and it had been upgraded from the S950, which meant a whole TWO GIGABYTES of memory! Ah, the excitement! All of that sampling time I had now had at my fingertips.

And my 24ish (can't remember!) track mixer, how awesome was that! I did own an 8-track reel-to-reel (a what, some of you are probably asking??!!) but as I was doing dance music (I was a record producer back in the 90s/00s) I got rid of it. My main synth was the Yamaha SY-77 synth and then my Yamaha SY-22. I also had a Roland U110 sound module, which was fucking awesome sound quality. Used it for all my piano, string and suchlike sounds.

I even had a Roland JD-800 for awhile, that was the last piece of equipment I bought before I sold everything off.

My software was Steinberg Cubase. I even used a piece of software that was pre-Cubase, a 24-track thing (Steinberg Pro-24), same as what Stock, Atkin and Waterman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_Aitken_Waterman) did all their hits on before Cubase came along. Cubase really changed the face of music. It truly meant that finally, with an decent version of the Atari home PC (the 1MB version, the 'ST1040' version and the mono monitor), Cubase and a decent keyboard and sampler, you were up and away, and you didn't need an expensive recording studio to produce decent electronic/dance music. The charts were full of hits at the time, made by people literally in their bedroom - it was the new punk!! And for awhile I was one of 'em!!! If you want to hear some of my 90s tracks I made they are here - Dido sings on one of them, I might have posted them before, apologies if I have. https://www.reverbnation.com/sherwin

Anyway, I think I have bored you enough - I did warn you! But if anyone has any thoughts, especially if you are an old bugger like me, and especially if you were into the 90s dance scene - big fish, little fish, cardboard box...if that means something to you then come say hello!! LOL....


8-track reel-to-reel: https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/352768936860
Yamaha SY-77: (https://encyclotronic.com/synthesizers/ ... tion-r334/)
Yamaha SY-22: (https://encyclotronic.com/synthesizers/ ... sy22-r345/)
Roland JD-800: (https://encyclotronic.com/synthesizers/ ... izer-r346/)
Roland U110 sound module (rack unit, a synth just without the actual keyboard: http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/u110.php
Akai S1000 Sampler: http://www.vintagesynth.com/akai/s1000.php


David

[david1806]

I have been playing around with Europa, going through more of some of the presets, and good God, that is some seriously awesome synth, I mean really!!!

I have started to watch some videos and go through the manual. I have watched the 14 minute official Reason YouTube video, and I did start the live stream one, but jeez, they don't half waffle on about everything but how to use Europa. I got about half an hour in and they had discussed about a total of 5 minutes of actually using Europa. Anyway, my point is, if anyone knows any good tutorials/guides to Europa (or anything Reason related), that would be most appreciated. I have discovered the mad Dutch guy who runs the Reasons Expert site - it is excellent if you don't know it - it's here: https://www.reasonexperts.com/ - really worth checking out....

Cheers all!!!

[fieldframe]

If you’re not already familiar with wavetable synthesis from your hardware days, that might be a good place to start (although Europa is also a subtractive synth, can do some FM, and even has some elements of additive synthesis, it is at its core a wavetable synth). This is a good introduction: https://musicproductionnerds.com/what-i ... -synthesis

[Proboscis]

David, it's interesting to read the views from someone coming into Reason at version 11 (I wont count your short foray into version 6 as it sounds like you probably didn't do a lot with it). It is my belief that if you were to buy the full version + the Suite addons, you will never need to spend another cent. Sure there are plenty of interesting extras, but a lot can be achieved simply by re-purposing the stock devices - Thor is a great example of this, it appears in heaps of old ReFills where it's never used as a sound generating tool, but as a utility. I've spend years wanting a basic CV on/off switch until it dawned on me that I can use Thor to do this! . Synths like Europa you can use the envelopes assigned to a CV out to modulate other devices, you can use Malstrom's LFO to trigger other instruments, and so on. And the Combinator, when used with the 14:2 mixer inside of it, can be an incredible device to build your own unique sounds. The only limit is your imagination.

Out of interest, when you made commercial stuff in the 1990's, what did you record to - DAT ? I was of the belief that computers were very, very slow, and rendering took hours per track. DAT seemed like a pretty good advancement for digital studio production as a bridge between tape and the modern computing power we take for granted today.

[Boombastix]

If you gonna work with Thor, I suggest, focus on the Multi-Osc, Wave-table, and PD oscillators. Those are the best IMO. You have to add ext FX to Thor.
Future upgrades: Synapse bundle (pssst, probably on sale on Black Friday). You should also look at the synth rigs bundle. There are some good presets hiding in the factory bank too, you just need to find them...
Synths like Predator RE, lets you route any audio (e.g. Thor) into its back to use the FX section. So, some big synths can be used as multi FX too.

[david1806]

Out of interest, when you made commercial stuff in the 1990's, what did you record to - DAT ? I was of the belief that computers were very, very slow, and rendering took hours per track. DAT seemed like a pretty good advancement for digital studio production as a bridge between tape and the modern computing power we take for granted today.

Yep, DAT was the daddy. I had a DAT recorder that we would put our final mixes to, and that is what would be taken to the record pressing place (it was down in SoHo, on Shaftesbury Avenue). That's another great thing - nowadays you just export as a WAV file out of Reason, open it in the (free!!) program Audacity and then export again as an mp3 file. All great quality, all so simple. And then once you have the mp3, you can share/send it so easily. It's just heaven!!

And jeez, I have just looked at my post - did I really write all that??? LOL!!!