Reason Studios Song Challenge! The Trick Or Beat Halloween Challenge : D

[Jagwah]

Looks really cool, check out here!!

https://www.reasonstudios.com/news/post ... -challenge

[Toki]

Yeah I might have a crack at this. Interesting vocals for sure, and for me two very distinct vibes between verse and chorus. The chorus writes itself in my mind but the verse is something else. Bit of a hip hop vibe. I think it’ll make for some pretty cool songs and I’m interested to hear what people come up with for this.

[ElectronaldMcDonald]

I managed to get a remix together in time. There are some really great entries. Nice and varied approaches

[DNGmaestro]

Hello my friends! Here's my entry:

[Quarmat]

Practically on the edge of the deadline, here is my entry. Thanks for listening!

[ShadowMatriks]

Here's what I came up with:

[ElectronaldMcDonald]

Deadline was Monday 28th at midnight (presumably CET), people are still uploading their entries...

[aeox]

No mention of 28th as a deadline what-so-ever.

[ElectronaldMcDonald]

They dropped the ball on the closing date, it was only shown on Facebook. that's a shame if peeps were disqualified for submitting theirs late

[ShadowMatriks]

I got caught out by this as well.

I did think it was odd not having a deadline other than the live stream date but didn't think to check other platforms for it!

[JLawProductions]

Fun day today! Let's get the next challenge going! I do want to share what reeled me in on this one, but first some backstory.

I'm a long-time fan of the Propellerheads legacy and was making music with the old school ReBirth program in the 90s (RB-338) and have been using Reason ever since it came out. Before that, I was messing around with modtrackers on early Pentium platforms. I was using Reason in ReWire mode around 2001 and fell in love with the super efficient workflow (it was the greatest thing ever - I seriously hope that comes back). I used to be big into EDM 30 years ago, but then I became a sound designer for a hiphop sound library company that I helped build. The goal was to get the most inspirational cutting-edge samples out there in software sampler form since that genre was (and still is) severely lacking in great, usable, and unique samples (and the hiphop market was just BARELY migrating towards software samplers and away from hardware, even the big name producers. The vintage hardware still rules for certain sonic reasons though). As part of my task as a sound designer, I constantly studied why top of charts tracks were successful and found that in most cases, one single unique sample was the defining factor. Each sample I created had a fictitious production in mind that I would think "users will want to make a track like [this one] when they hear this sample. What still blows my mind is how I will hear a new song on the charts and recognize a sample my wife and I created 20 years ago (a super complex clap sound) used in exactly the type of style I originally envisioned! My samples are currently used in a quarter of the top of charts tracks. Those samples are so identifiable because of the many detailed layers of sounds within those samples (and they were mostly tweaked and created in Reason from scratch with mic'd sources, mostly organic, I spent so much time on each sample - they are also easy for me to recognize within the factory soundbanks of audio software here and there). Many of the producers of the top tracks were known customers too. What's really amazing is how there are more productions using those samples in hit tracks today than there were 15-20 years ago when they were released! It sure does take time to get something new and unique to become commonplace. I witnessed our unique samples being a pivotal factor in the crossover of hiphop with pop (Natali Noor's "Monsters" track is a great example of the result of that timeline). One unique sample easily becomes the inspiration for an entire production. When the mainstream crossover was taking place between hiphop and pop, it was fascinating to see it happening from those samples. Even country music was using them. I'm hearing a lot of them in so many worship songs now.

That sound design journey proved that hiphop is the most difficult genre to produce if the goal is to make productions which are listenable and enjoyable to all audiences. I used to judge beat submissions for our own contests and gained a lot of insight on where producers were in their skill progress. Making music that relies on rests and silence to define a groove is not as easy as most think, and that concept is very difficult for many to grasp. I migrated away from EDM into hiphop for that sound design path and had to up my game, bigtime, because I had to make captivating sounding demos to showcase what you could do with these very new and unique sounds. These demos had to inspire big producers to buy them.

I then took a break to raise kids, but now that they're older, I'm back and pretty thirsty to pick up where I left off. There's a lot of room for improved samples even now, especially after seeing not much has changed. Soundbanks and other libraries are often simply recycling the creations of others, with dirty tricks of truncating longer complex samples in an attempt to conceal their origin. The sound design industry was always a bit stressful for me because of all the piracy we had to deal with. It's so different when it's your own stuff that you poured your blood, sweat, and tears into.

To tie all that history into the main topic, this particular Halloween challenge got me out of dad mode because it triggered my hiphop instinct. What is surprising is how few hiphop submissions there were. After spending lots of time aiding frustrated migrating-from-hardware-customers for years, I can truly say Reason is the best software for making that genre. The only thing we heard over and over was "but it looks so intimidating, all those racks". Once you helped with some one-on-one coaching, they became converts. We helped sell Reason to a type of customer who would never have given it a chance. We had many customers using NN-XT presets in the files we sent them, and everyone loved it. That was some serious progress!

My vote for the next challenge would be this: create a hiphop oriented track with another vocal stem.

I'd love to see how the EDM crowd would create hiphop productions. I actually think they could make some amazing results. The challenge would also have many stepping outside their comfort zone and feeling quite accomplished in the end.

It's good to be back.

[JLawProductions]

Also, on the 28th and 29th, there was something wrong with SoundCloud where many submissions disappeared when searching for or clicking on a #ReasonTrickOrBeat tag, even when those submissions were tagged correctly. We found out about this when I and some family members were double checking to see if mine showed up, and we couldn't find it at all other than directly within my Profile. I then decided to look up some other ones that I had just checked out the day before, and those were missing too. It is very possible that the judges might have not heard a submission. The good thing is you can check to see what locations listened to your track. In my account, I see 7 plays from Stockholm, and 6 of those show Natali Noor playing them, so that does probably mean the other play was from Reason judges in Stockholm? ...if that's where they are.

[ElectronaldMcDonald]

Also, on the 28th and 29th, there was something wrong with SoundCloud where many submissions disappeared when searching for or clicking on a #ReasonTrickOrBeat tag, even when those submissions were tagged correctly. We found out about this when I and some family members were double checking to see if mine showed up, and we couldn't find it at all other than directly within my Profile. I then decided to look up some other ones that I had just checked out the day before, and those were missing too. It is very possible that the judges might have not heard a submission. The good thing is you can check to see what locations listened to your track. In my account, I see 7 plays from Stockholm, and 6 of those show Natali Noor playing them, so that does probably mean the other play was from Reason judges in Stockholm? ...if that's where they are.

That's pretty interesting. I can only see who listened to my effort if I pay for Soundcloud premium and I don't really want to do that. Just seems to be endless people offering listens for cash. Good that you know for sure Natali heard it at least. I would have liked some feedback for mine, the live stream turned into a bit of a free for all in the end. Probably trying to appease people after failing to put the closing date in the email or blogpost

[Benedict]

I watched the whole Livestream the next day seeing I am in upsidedownland and had to work at 5:00AM. It was interesting and I agree that overall what we heard, the entries were all interesting and worth hearing. The winning tracks were impressive.

I too found it sad that Ryan abandoned his (hopefully) considered shortlist to appease the crowd. While I absolutely didn't expect any kind of win for my track, as this style is not my world, I did hope to see if I got on the list and any feedback. Becoming that "free for all" took all of that away. Publishing the list and any feedback would have honored the work we all did (supporting their marketing effort). Maybe next time, but I rather doubt it.

Similarly, I thought it very sad when Ryan made it clear that his Americana style cannot be shown. It rather gave the impression that Reason users are only allowed to (or supported if they) do the approved EDM/Trap/RnBop genre. While appealing to some, it cannot be good for business overall for a DAW to become too wedded to what ultimately will be a passing fad.

[ElectronaldMcDonald]

Fun day today! Let's get the next challenge going! I do want to share what reeled me in on this one, but first some backstory.

I'm a long-time fan of the Propellerheads legacy and was making music with the old school ReBirth program in the 90s (RB-338) and have been using Reason ever since it came out. Before that, I was messing around with modtrackers on early Pentium platforms. I was using Reason in ReWire mode around 2001 and fell in love with the super efficient workflow (it was the greatest thing ever - I seriously hope that comes back). I used to be big into EDM 30 years ago, but then I became a sound designer for a hiphop sound library company that I helped build. The goal was to get the most inspirational cutting-edge samples out there in software sampler form since that genre was (and still is) severely lacking in great, usable, and unique samples (and the hiphop market was just BARELY migrating towards software samplers and away from hardware, even the big name producers. The vintage hardware still rules for certain sonic reasons though). As part of my task as a sound designer, I constantly studied why top of charts tracks were successful and found that in most cases, one single unique sample was the defining factor. Each sample I created had a fictitious production in mind that I would think "users will want to make a track like [this one] when they hear this sample. What still blows my mind is how I will hear a new song on the charts and recognize a sample my wife and I created 20 years ago (a super complex clap sound) used in exactly the type of style I originally envisioned! My samples are currently used in a quarter of the top of charts tracks. Those samples are so identifiable because of the many detailed layers of sounds within those samples (and they were mostly tweaked and created in Reason from scratch with mic'd sources, mostly organic, I spent so much time on each sample - they are also easy for me to recognize within the factory soundbanks of audio software here and there). Many of the producers of the top tracks were known customers too. What's really amazing is how there are more productions using those samples in hit tracks today than there were 15-20 years ago when they were released! It sure does take time to get something new and unique to become commonplace. I witnessed our unique samples being a pivotal factor in the crossover of hiphop with pop (Natali Noor's "Monsters" track is a great example of the result of that timeline). One unique sample easily becomes the inspiration for an entire production. When the mainstream crossover was taking place between hiphop and pop, it was fascinating to see it happening from those samples. Even country music was using them. I'm hearing a lot of them in so many worship songs now.

That sound design journey proved that hiphop is the most difficult genre to produce if the goal is to make productions which are listenable and enjoyable to all audiences. I used to judge beat submissions for our own contests and gained a lot of insight on where producers were in their skill progress. Making music that relies on rests and silence to define a groove is not as easy as most think, and that concept is very difficult for many to grasp. I migrated away from EDM into hiphop for that sound design path and had to up my game, bigtime, because I had to make captivating sounding demos to showcase what you could do with these very new and unique sounds. These demos had to inspire big producers to buy them.

I then took a break to raise kids, but now that they're older, I'm back and pretty thirsty to pick up where I left off. There's a lot of room for improved samples even now, especially after seeing not much has changed. Soundbanks and other libraries are often simply recycling the creations of others, with dirty tricks of truncating longer complex samples in an attempt to conceal their origin. The sound design industry was always a bit stressful for me because of all the piracy we had to deal with. It's so different when it's your own stuff that you poured your blood, sweat, and tears into.

To tie all that history into the main topic, this particular Halloween challenge got me out of dad mode because it triggered my hiphop instinct. What is surprising is how few hiphop submissions there were. After spending lots of time aiding frustrated migrating-from-hardware-customers for years, I can truly say Reason is the best software for making that genre. The only thing we heard over and over was "but it looks so intimidating, all those racks". Once you helped with some one-on-one coaching, they became converts. We helped sell Reason to a type of customer who would never have given it a chance. We had many customers using NN-XT presets in the files we sent them, and everyone loved it. That was some serious progress!

My vote for the next challenge would be this: create a hiphop oriented track with another vocal stem.

I'd love to see how the EDM crowd would create hiphop productions. I actually think they could make some amazing results. The challenge would also have many stepping outside their comfort zone and feeling quite accomplished in the end.

It's good to be back.

It must be very gratifying to hear your samples in other peoples music. I'm sure I must have one or two of them in my sample library

[ElectronaldMcDonald]

I watched the whole Livestream the next day seeing I am in upsidedownland and had to work at 5:00AM. It was interesting and I agree that overall what we heard, the entries were all interesting and worth hearing. The winning tracks were impressive.

I too found it sad that Ryan abandoned his (hopefully) considered shortlist to appease the crowd. While I absolutely didn't expect any kind of win for my track, as this style is not my world, I did hope to see if I got on the list and any feedback. Becoming that "free for all" took all of that away. Publishing the list and any feedback would have honored the work we all did (supporting their marketing effort). Maybe next time, but I rather doubt it.

Similarly, I thought it very sad when Ryan made it clear that his Americana style cannot be shown. It rather gave the impression that Reason users are only allowed to (or supported if they) do the approved EDM/Trap/RnBop genre. While appealing to some, it cannot be good for business overall for a DAW to become too wedded to what ultimately will be a passing fad.

What was that about Americana? I must have missed that.
As usual for me, my entry was too eccentric. Starts out with what I hoped would sound like a 1980's Quincy Jones style rhythm section but with ambient strings, then a more electronic second half that ends with a glitched chiptune saxophone solo. I shot myself in the foot there

I'm going to drop the vocals and keep it as an instrumental I think.

[ElectronaldMcDonald]

Here's what I came up with:

Lovely stuff! Really listenable that

[ElectronaldMcDonald]

Practically on the edge of the deadline, here is my entry. Thanks for listening!

Love the chords you put behind the vocals, they fit really well

[Quarmat]

Love the chords you put behind the vocals, they fit really well

Thank you, I had a lot of fun harmonizing her vocal stem. As i said in the live comments during the stream, the chorus almost asked for that chord progression but all the other parts were open to experimentation. Super fun time. I hope more of these challenge with only the vocal stem will come in the future. I find them refreshing,

Thank you for listening to my track <3

[ShadowMatriks]

Lovely stuff! Really listenable that

Cheers. At least a few people gave it a go. I thought it was doomed to the online ether after missing the social media circus