Reason still has the "wow" factor ...

[avasopht]

So, this singer I've known for years signed up for R+ but needed some help with latency (she wasn't using the ASIO driver).

She also is a complete novice on the keyboard, so naturally, I showed her the Scales & Chords player.

The immediate response was a very wide-mouthed "WOW!" It all just seemed to click, and you could see the gears moving in her mind imagining the terrors she could unleash with it.

She totally flipped when I threw Beat Map on her drums! The fact I'd never used it before (beyond a little tinkering when it first came out) only added to her fascination.

It happened again the other day when I was recording this rapper. The singer he'd invited to sing the hook couldn't make it, so I said, "no problem" and proceeded to hit up the Reason Store and buy the Antares Autotune RE. I could have done it with Neptune, but whatever, I was just trialling it. He didn't even notice what I'd done.

The wow factor came a little later after I'd chained up a slew of effects to make his voice sound like what I can only describe as hypnotic.

That's not to say it couldn't have been done in any other DAW because it was only an effects chain. And maybe I've become highly accustomed to Reason effects, but he was notably please with how effortlessly I did it - as well as leveraging comp tracks so that I could just loop the recording and deal with it later.

And then he asked to listen to the track at a different tempo - not a problem.

Later in the week, I tidied up his vocal.

What's great about Reason is that I can seamlessly switch between the various time-stretching and pitch editing functions. I'd use the "Recycle thing" to adjust the timing, sometimes use APE to modify the pitch of one or two syllables (I've also used APE to alter the pitch of a few syllables in spoken word to make it flow better), and for some parts, I'd make harmonies by cutting a section of audio and transposing the odd duplicated word.

Combining APE with Neptune or Autotune gives you subtle control over the raw vocal modulations, which can make the pitch correction sound a little more smooth.

For the few parts that lacked a complete double (sometimes the double was not correct) I used Polar to give me a slightly pitched double.

For the adlibs, I used things like Audiomatic, flangers and phasers to make it slip into the background.

Oh ... and Buffre. Towards the end of the track, I used Buffre to spice up the drums and the master channel. It was all so effortless and seamless.

He was well impressed with what I did with the recording, and Reason made it uber easy to do it.

It's easy to forget how crazy some of its features can be to others when you've gotten so used to having it available. But to the outside observer, it can seem a little otherworldly.

[moofi]

Pleasant to read.

[arnigretar]

Thanks for sharing. Was a nice read with my first two cups of coffee. And I agree -- everytime I switch on Reason for my mates in electronic music (who don't use it) they always get suprised. And the thing with Reason is that it looks like you are working in the rack -- which to many is visually pleasant. And for those people Live is like writing music inside grey-ish excel (I like both however, lol).

[crimsonwarlock]

I have several wow moments every time I watch an Adam Fielding live stream. It is incredible how smooth his production process is. It is crazy how proficient he is with Reason. His streams have boosted my confidence in making the right choice when I decided to move to Reason as my main DAW.

[Zac]

Nice to read that too.

I sat down with the latest update yesterday for the first time in months (apart from mastering) and wrote most of a song in about 4 hours.

It was a mainly pleasant experience apart from the odd short lived audio glitch which I'm guessing is still some sort of bug as my dsp meter was only on 1 bar?

I still love Reason and R12 is now 'ok' for me but I'm really glad I only paid £60 for it. This release had been a farce IMO. I'll certainly be a late adopter if there's ever a R13 purchase option.

But yes, Reason is still a nice experience for me, and it's nice to hear stories like the above.

[moofi]

I got two friends I´m teaching musicproduction, one prefers Reason Skeoumorphic design while the other prefers Live´s style.
I can work with both, yet feeling-wise I very much prefer Reason. Let alone inspiration and also possibilities within the rack.

[...] And the thing with Reason is that it looks like you are working in the rack -- which to many is visually pleasant. And for those people Live is like writing music inside grey-ish excel (I like both however, lol).

[EnochLight]

So, this singer I've known for years signed up for R+ but needed some help with latency (she wasn't using the ASIO driver).

She also is a complete novice on the keyboard, so naturally, I showed her the Scales & Chords player.

The immediate response was a very wide-mouthed "WOW!" It all just seemed to click, and you could see the gears moving in her mind imagining the terrors she could unleash with it.

She totally flipped when I threw Beat Map on her drums! The fact I'd never used it before (beyond a little tinkering when it first came out) only added to her fascination.

It happened again the other day when I was recording this rapper. The singer he'd invited to sing the hook couldn't make it, so I said, "no problem" and proceeded to hit up the Reason Store and buy the Antares Autotune RE. I could have done it with Neptune, but whatever, I was just trialling it. He didn't even notice what I'd done.

The wow factor came a little later after I'd chained up a slew of effects to make his voice sound like what I can only describe as hypnotic.

That's not to say it couldn't have been done in any other DAW because it was only an effects chain. And maybe I've become highly accustomed to Reason effects, but he was notably please with how effortlessly I did it - as well as leveraging comp tracks so that I could just loop the recording and deal with it later.

And then he asked to listen to the track at a different tempo - not a problem.

Later in the week, I tidied up his vocal.

What's great about Reason is that I can seamlessly switch between the various time-stretching and pitch editing functions. I'd use the "Recycle thing" to adjust the timing, sometimes use APE to modify the pitch of one or two syllables (I've also used APE to alter the pitch of a few syllables in spoken word to make it flow better), and for some parts, I'd make harmonies by cutting a section of audio and transposing the odd duplicated word .

Combining APE with Neptune or Autotune gives you subtle control over the raw vocal modulations, which can make the pitch correction sound a little more smooth.

For the few parts that lacked a complete double (sometimes the double was not correct) I used Polar to give me a slightly pitched double.

For the adlibs, I used things like Audiomatic, flangers and phasers to make it slip into the background.

Oh ... and Buffre. Towards the end of the track, I used Buffre to spice up the drums and the master channel. It was all so effortless and seamless.

He was well impressed with what I did with the recording, and Reason made it uber easy to do it.

It's easy to forget how crazy some of its features can be to others when you've gotten so used to having it available. But to the outside observer, it can seem a little otherworldly.

It’s stories like this that remind me why I’ve been using Reason for 2+ decades. Thanks for sharing! I’ll even save my rage post response about how it no longer can run on my computer.

[thefixr]

I have several wow moments every time I watch an Adam Fielding live stream. It is incredible how smooth his production process is. It is crazy how proficient he is with Reason. His streams have boosted my confidence in making the right choice when I decided to move to Reason as my main DAW.

Got a link to any of these?

[crimsonwarlock]

I have several wow moments every time I watch an Adam Fielding live stream. It is incredible how smooth his production process is. It is crazy how proficient he is with Reason. His streams have boosted my confidence in making the right choice when I decided to move to Reason as my main DAW.

Got a link to any of these?

Sure: https://www.youtube.com/c/AdamFieldingMusic00/videos

Whenever I watch one of these, I have a notebook handy