Reason Tutorials: "One Neat Trick" [Preview]

[doctecazoid]

After years of putting it off, I'm starting to put together a series of Reason tutorials I'm calling "One Neat Trick."

The first video is a demonstration of how to create pseudo-random sequences in Reason.

At present, this video is not visible on my channel; I'm providing a link here to solicit reactions and feedback from the ReasonTalk community. I may make changes and even re-do the video altogether based on your feedback, before publishing it publicly.

All comments, criticisms, observations are welcome. Thanks in advance for your attention.

[jam-s]

Some hopefully constructive feedback from me:
I think your tutorial gives good inspiration on how one can utilise CV and the combinator to get a nice generative sequence going. It's very valuable info for someone who is new to Reason and has not yet taken a deeper dive into the possibilities of it. Well done. Still there are some things which I think could be improved:

• I like it when there is a small peek at or demonstration of the final result at the beginning of the tutorial so one does know where all the patching it will lead to.
• Instead of the very nice Titus BBD using a stock FX would allow everybody to do the same on their installation of Reason.
• Adding some simple beat (e.g. from a rex loop) could give the sequence some more musical context and give the final result a little more "wow".
• I'm not sure how much time and processing you already spent on your voice-over, but I think some breaths and mouth noises could be removed and maybe adding a little bit of reverb and EQ would also be an idea to give it a more focussed feel.
• For a tutorial I think having a clear script and following it is better than fiddling around while doing the tutorial (e.g. the part where you put both matrix devices to the lowest note, forgetting the octave switch and then extending the patterns throughout the whole or where you played around with the scale and chords to select the root note and scale). You can mention that people can get creative here and try different things, but please be focussed and concise in a tutorial. That way you can easily shave off a minute or two. (Which you could then use for other nice things like showing the patch it in a full arrangement in case you'd want the tutorial to be over 10 minutes long due to youtube reasons.)

Thanks for creating tutorials for our DAW of choice and I hope this feedback is of value to you.

[motuscott]

One more cry in the dark for a "like" button here on ReasonTalk.
I have nothing to add but would like to confirm.

[selig]

Some hopefully constructive feedback from me:
I think your tutorial gives good inspiration on how one can utilise CV and the combinator to get a nice generative sequence going. It's very valuable info for someone who is new to Reason and has not yet taken a deeper dive into the possibilities of it. Well done. Still there are some things which I think could be improved:

• I like it when there is a small peek at or demonstration of the final result at the beginning of the tutorial so one does know where all the patching it will lead to.
• Instead of the very nice Titus BBD using a stock FX would allow everybody to do the same on their installation of Reason.
• Adding some simple beat (e.g. from a rex loop) could give the sequence some more musical context and give the final result a little more "wow".
• I'm not sure how much time and processing you already spent on your voice-over, but I think some breaths and mouth noises could be removed and maybe adding a little bit of reverb and EQ would also be an idea to give it a more focussed feel.
• For a tutorial I think having a clear script and following it is better than fiddling around while doing the tutorial (e.g. the part where you put both matrix devices to the lowest note, forgetting the octave switch and then extending the patterns throughout the whole or where you played around with the scale and chords to select the root note and scale). You can mention that people can get creative here and try different things, but please be focussed and concise in a tutorial. That way you can easily shave off a minute or two. (Which you could then use for other nice things like showing the patch it in a full arrangement in case you'd want the tutorial to be over 10 minutes long due to youtube reasons.)

Thanks for creating tutorials for our DAW of choice and I hope this feedback is of value to you.

Agree with all of this, and also to be sure to explain WHY (the often missing ingredient), like WHY did you make the second Matrix and use a Spider to connect to the Subtractor. You clearly explained what you were doing, but we are also seeing what you are doing, so that's all good. But the WHY is the thing most folks are wanting to know, in my experience.

You could probably get this about half as long with a little editing and planning. I agree with the concept of introducing the final product at the beginning, and including a list of required REs or using all "native" RE/Devices.

I'm planning a series of tutorials right now, and the first things I've done is create an outline for all the parts of the video, notes for how I'm approaching it overall (intended length, inclusion of animations and visual aids, low word count, no talking during audio presentation (use on screen text), etc. and of course a list of tutorial ideas. These will be "constructed" as opposed to the live stream format, so I'll cut out 'dead air', follow a script, edit and re-record if necessary, and so on.

Just think about all the things you notice when you see other videos, like "is this for me?" (include the finished product at the top so folks can decide), "do I have time for this" (keep it short as possible), "is this video clearly presented" (scripted, edited, use visual aids, etc). Then plan accordingly - IMO this will make your work more valuable to more users.

[Fusion]

Have always struggled with this sort of thing , and you have inspired me to to give it a go again. Thanks!

I agree with the other comments and the main thing I noticed is that the music volume is very quiet compared to your voice.