HELP a rookie.

[thesightless]

listen i wanna screw around and i have some cash to spend now. i wanna get reason. i have a PC. what do i have to buy? keyboards? books to learn? etc etc

basically i know nothing of production myself and i want to waste money trying to learn.

i did some tunes back in the day, but never learned the hardware. i had a friend who knew it.

[tiddles]

sounds kinda like me...heh

i'm just using reason alone right now, but i need to buy a keyboard because i can't stand programing notes into a computer.
the reason manual is actually really good, dunno about other books, haven't got that far yet

[thesightless]

yeah weird., i did some work with alan HUSH, back when we were all at UMASS, moonface even played one in tel aviv set, but i really wanna get back into it sooooo bad. just need to learn the interfaces and what not. i dowloaded the demo, but couldnt figure out shit, wasnt even getting sound. but that is like me trying to preform brain surury.

[falcon2noah]

reason is cool if you are on a pc i guess thats a good place to start. its easy to get a free full version (oops did i just say that) and if you have an oxygen 8 or something it will definitely make your life a little easier. the other decent pc option is cubase sx which is a more full fledged production suite like logic. my main qualm with reason is the sound quality, but if you are just starting back up i guess the sonics shouldnt be too big of a concern. i would recommend an Mbox so you can dump whatever you do from reason in to pro tools and beef the sound up a bit... hit me with a PM if you have any questions... peace...

[geoffgulley]

^^^^ Errrr... Sean, there is nothing, i repeat nothing wrong with the sound quality/engine of Reason.... This has been debated over and over and over again in computermusic, futuremusic, electronic musician etc etc etc. First off, BUY (you already know how I feel about that crap) the program of choice. Reason is a good one. There is also a fully dedicated cd-rom tutorial for Reason that will take you through the basics. If you can't find it let me know and I'll point you in the right direction. Second, dedicate some time to learning and you'll be on your way.... You didn't learn the tax code in a day nor will you any production suite. Everybody has an opinion as to what is "best" or is "user friendly" etc... Just experiment. It took me over four years before I was comfortable with the stuff I was producing and before I ever had a track on edmdigital, beatport etc (and i'm not the norm by the way)..... You'll never stop learning/progressing....

^^ and I'm not dissing you Falcon nor waving a flag of support for Reason because personally I rarely use it but know a lot of extremely established edm producers who do....also you have some good suggestions above so peace my brother... cause in the end it's all about the music, no matter how you get there.

[Jibgolly]

buy some cdj's instead and leave the production to Martinez ;)

or,,, go find a track by him called Twilight and make me music like that, exclusively ;)

[ShawnD64]

yeah weird., i did some work with alan HUSH, back when we were all at UMASS, moonface even played one in tel aviv set, but i really wanna get back into it sooooo bad. just need to learn the interfaces and what not. i dowloaded the demo, but couldnt figure out shit, wasnt even getting sound. but that is like me trying to preform brain surury.

if you are speaking of reason, you probably needed to go into the preferences and choose your sound card .... 90% of the time thats the case.

i used to use reason, now i use logic, and love it. but i agree with what was said by geoffgulley, anything reason lacks in sound quality can be fixed when mastered by the record label. it is a great tool to learn on and even stay on if thats your bag. personally i f'ing hate the sequencer window, even tho it expands it drives me crazy. i like to be able to see all the automation at once. i also hate how clusered the window gets with all those synths open, especially when i am wiring tons of shit together. but it can do almost anything you want it to. it just needs the mind to tell it....

[groffhibbitz]

I think reason is a great "all in one" package. Unfortunately, if you want to buy more hardware, or even software for that matter, you will want to have another 'host' program to run them in. SO really it's a tough call. I never did figure out reason, I'm still trying to figure out how to use all the other stuff I have!!!

[jeffrey collins]

Reason is not a bad program. But if you get it in conjunction with Ableton Live 5...you're life will be so much better, and your tracks will sound a lot better and more composed. Get yourself Live and a few soft synths and a controller and you're golden.

[falcon2noah]

Werd i aint mad at reason, i think its a great tool. my main thing with it is getting what you create in reason onto a platform with a little more advanced AD/DA algorithms. Like, Reason sounds SIIIICK when you rewire it to a Pro Tools HD rig... but agreed, its all about the music. I started out learning to sequence on a battery powered Yamaha qy70, not thats a doozie!!! Sean Im gonna see you May 6th right?...

[anonin]

listen i wanna screw around and i have some cash to spend now. i wanna get reason. i have a PC. what do i have to buy? keyboards? books to learn? etc etc

.

get cubase or ableton live for your sequencer

then get a midi keyboard (oxygen 8)

then get a sampler (boss dr. sampler, or an akai s2000)

then get a synthesizer (access virus or korg)

dont bother with books, hands on is how you really learn, ask a few of your friends that produce to come over and show you some stuff, also check out the forums of the sequencer your using (ableton or cubase) and you can learn things there, and buy a subscription to future music, because that magazine can really help A TON in the production arena. best of luck 8)

[khilla]

it all comes down to mixing and mastering !

no matter what app or sequencer u use it's the eq-ing that makes the track sound full. Good placement of effects, roll offs and stuff like that . Tame and spread all them instruments and samples on different frequencies, control the gains so the entire audible frequencyfield is nicely sorted ;)

[stevenlibby]

I use Logic, Ableton Live 5, hardware/software synths, and a lot of 3rd party plugs like Waves, etc...I love this setup. BUT-I've spent a small fortune on all this stuff...and I didn't really NEED all this to start making music. Had I known that I could've been throwing tracks together with software only, I'd have started producing many years ago.
So- as others have said-grab Live 5, some software synths, and a controller...you'll be golden.

As for using Reason-I have not used this-it looks pretty wicked if you don't have all the gear... And if you aren't getting sound or are having trouble learning how to use it: start from the beginning of the manual and follow the directions :) Read threads from various sites, get magazines, etc... There is just SO much out there...we truly are at an advantage these days. Best of luck to everyone with the desire to make good music- make it happen.

[thesightless]

gonna sit with noah and learn something i think. dont wanna drop a ton of cash to have it be shitty.

[jeffrey collins]

first off, make sure you've got a great computer, with a hell of a processor and at least 2 gigs of ram.

[falcon2noah]

gonna sit with noah and learn something i think. dont wanna drop a ton of cash to have it be shitty.

reason, ableton, logic, pro tools, all at my spot for you to check out sean.
peace,
nb

[alexfish333]

reason, ableton, logic, pro tools, all at my spot for you to check out sean.
peace,
nb

Does it sound like a thinly veiled handjob party to anyone else?

[falcon2noah]

Does it sound like a thinly veiled handjob party to anyone else?

i got the kleenex and lubriderm on point.

[falcon2noah]

Does it sound like a thinly veiled handjob party to anyone else?

i got the kleenex and lubriderm on point.

[victorgonzales]

I would suggest not buying reason and getting cubase instead. Your sound quality will be way better and when you decide to branch out a little reason will become pretty much useless to you anyway. cubase has almost limitless possibilities if you use vsts. ( you can get the basic vst plugins for free ussually too if you look hard enough online).

Reason will just hold you back onceyou run out of things to do with it so you might as well start off with a real production program.

[Jenks]

i'll be the only one here to recommend FL studio. But there it is, my recommendation.

-Cue the nerds saying FL studio is crap, etc etc.

[victorgonzales]

i'll be the only one here to recommend FL studio. But there it is, my recommendation.

-Cue the nerds saying FL studio is crap, etc etc.

fl studio is a great program for learning to make music because it is cheap and gives you lots of samples. If you want anything original you need fl studio xxl which is 600 dollars. It comes with a few vst plugins.I used to use that to make music all the time until I started makeing tracks good enough for release when I couldn't get shit for sound quality out of it.

The problem with this program is the sound quality. It sounds like crap any way you slice it. Also the main mixer is a joke. If you don't plan on ever making pro quality tracks and you just wanna screw around fl studio is the way to go. If you want Proffesional quality at a decent price go with cubase.

[Jenks]

again, hate having to say this every time, but i know several A list producers who use FL studio exclusively, run labels, produce their own music, do remixes, and it works fine for them time and time again.

Cubase and Logic are like taking 4 suitcases of clothes on a weekend vacation. All you do is end up with too much shit and you're carrying around all this excess baggage imo.

To each his own tho.

But im not hearing the "You can't make pro sounding tracks with FL" thing , because it's being done all the time and you don't know the difference.

I'm just sayin :NotMe: