How do I get started

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:09 pm

buggs1a wrote:Is there any place with ims-20 songs to listen to? And same for reason and rebirth.

Youtube, soundcloud?

outbackyak · Post by **outbackyak** » Fri Jan 14, 2011 6:58 pm

buggs1a wrote:Is there any place with ims-20 songs to listen to? And same for reason and rebirth.

http://www.reasonstation.net/songs/ has lots of music produced by entirely within Reason, by users of Reason, in a variety of styles, plus a few from ReBirth. They vary enormously in musical quality (some are excellent, some woeful - depends on the musician). Some of the tracks are available in MP3 form - most are only available in Reason's own file format, and of course can only be opened with Reason.

If you go to the link above, and click the "browse" button on the right you can get a list of all the songs uploaded. You can then use the "type" and "style" buttons to narrow down to just Reason or Rebirth songs (pick the appropriate file extension: A file that ends in .rns or .rps is a Reason file. Rebirth uses .rbs) and the style of music you are interested in (make sure you hit the "Go" button when you've done this).

The only way to find out if there is also an MP3 available is to click on a song name, and see if it lists an MP3 on the song page - it's a bit slow! Some are on Soundcloud, or Soundclick, etc; some are download only; some links on older songs are dead.

Hope this helps.

buggs1a · Post by **buggs1a** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 10:21 am

Thanks. Makes you fill out stuff and sign up for stuff. Doesn't even work on iPod.

outbackyak · Post by **outbackyak** » Sat Jan 15, 2011 7:15 pm

Weird - worked fine for me on PC. I didn't register, didn't have to fill out anything, just went to the site, clicked on Reason Music and clicked on Browse.

Then I browsed the songs one by one and clicked on each song name till I found ones with MP3 files.

Like I said, though, they vary hugely in musical quality, and some of the links are dead.

Here's 1 that sounds pretty good if you like trance (not really my thing, but it's a well produced track that shows just some of the sounds that Reason can do - he's got a bunch of other tracks too). I'm pretty sure this and his other tracks are made just with Reason. http://soundcloud.com/dreamcatcher-1/dr ... -part-no-2

If you go to that page and click on the tag "Reason4" or "Reason5" you'll get taken to a bunch of other tracks similarly tagged, although I can't guarantee they've been made 100% in Reason.

Unfortunately he hasn't tagged this one just "Reason", but some of his other tracks are tagged that way, and that will find you a whole bunch of other similarly tagged tracks.

If the track is also tagged Cubase, or Pro Tools, or Logic, or Record, or or Ableton, or FL, or Fruity Loops, or Native Instruments, or Roland or Yamaha, or ... well there's just too many to list ... it's not been made just in Reason, but also used other music programs/hardware (maybe mainly Pro-Tools with a dash of Reason, say, or maybe the other way round; maybe a pinch of this and a smidgeon of that, and a lot of another ...). Even if it is only tagged Reason it's still no guarantee ... he just may be lazy at filling out tags

That's about the best I can do, I'm afraid.

buggs1a · Post by **buggs1a** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 6:51 am

I was talking about reasonstation. It pops up a window covering everything and makes you go sign up for stuff or survey and stuff.

Soundcloud doesn't work on iPod. Freezes safari after a page loads. So that sucks.

I use my iPod for everything.

outbackyak · Post by **outbackyak** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 11:35 am

buggs1a wrote:I was talking about reasonstation. It pops up a window covering everything and makes you go sign up for stuff or survey and stuff.

Soundcloud doesn't work on iPod. Freezes safari after a page loads. So that sucks.

I use my iPod for everything.

I was talking about ReasonStation too - but I use FireFox for my web browser, and it has Ad Block Plus installed as an ad and pop-up blocker. I saw no pop-up at all.

Why on earth are you trying to do everything on your iPod? You've surely got another computer you can use to access the net. If the iPod has limitations when viewing the web, just use your main computer.

The iPod & iPad are riddled with problems when browsing the net; for example the iPad won't let you view any Flash features of web pages at all - nil, none, zero, nada. So that gets rid of lots of ads - but it also blocks useful Flash features on pages, and people all over the net are complaining about it.

Don't try to use your iPad for one of those "configure your new car" features on a car manufacturers site - they are all Flash-based and do not work at all. YouTube is hit or miss: some pages work, some don't. I've no idea if Soundcloud works the same way.

I don't know what the iPod's specific limitations are, but it won't be anywhere near as powerful for web browsing as your Mac's browser.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 12:26 pm

That's why Youtube, Soundcloud, etc have released apps. use the soundcloud or youtube apps to view content from their sites.

outbackyak · Post by **outbackyak** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 2:46 pm

For a video overview and review of ReBirth http://www.youtube.com/user/VJFranzK#p/ ... EiJFNO1E5g . Not very detailed but it gives you some idea of what it can do. It can do a lot more, but this is the basics.

buggs1a · Post by **buggs1a** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:59 am

Thanks guys.
I use my iPod as it's more convienient and the iMac is in a room I don't go into much. I know about all the limitations though and I agree about it.

The soundcloud app doesn't let you view the site. Only your own files. Don't know what incoming and outgoing is.

That rebirth video was not bad.

I should be playing with ims-20 since I bought it but have been extremely hurt and depressed lately.

buggs1a · Post by **buggs1a** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 6:59 am

I'm listening to the dreamcather 11 minute song you linked to me. I am on my iPad and it's playing in a background www page. This is an awesome song!!!!!!!!!!

I want to own whatever software he used to make this song. It's awesome!! How can I buy it?

I guess my iPod touch doesn't have enough power/speed/performance to work with sound cloud in safari. iPad seems to work ok though.

buggs1a · Post by **buggs1a** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:18 am

This is the pop up from reason station anytime you click on mp3 icon to download or the others.

Survey
Try or Buy
Get 24 Hours Access To Our Songs & Sounds
Just complete one of the offers below. It will take less than a minute to unlock the site and start downloading!
Complete one of these offers, or choose a different option at the top of this window.

Want a FREE $1,000 IKEA Gift Card?
Want a FREE $1,000 Walmart Gift Card?
Want to win a FREE Holiday iPad?
Coke vs. Pepsi what's your favorite?
Who makes your favorite pizza? Vote now!
Want a FREE $500 Best Buy gift card?

outbackyak · Post by **outbackyak** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:35 am

buggs1a wrote:This is the pop up from reason station anytime you click on mp3 icon to download or the others.

Survey
Try or Buy
Get 24 Hours Access To Our Songs & Sounds
Just complete one of the offers below. It will take less than a minute to unlock the site and start downloading!
Complete one of these offers, or choose a different option at the top of this window.

Want a FREE $1,000 IKEA Gift Card?
Want a FREE $1,000 Walmart Gift Card?
Want to win a FREE Holiday iPad?
Coke vs. Pepsi what's your favorite?
Who makes your favorite pizza? Vote now!
Want a FREE $500 Best Buy gift card?

That would sh!t me to tears. Like I said, I don't get them because I've a good pop up blocker. Can't you just close the pop up?

buggs1a wrote:I want to own whatever software he used to make this song. It's awesome!! How can I buy it?

Reason 5 (the latest version) is widely available in music stores, on the net, or direct from the Propellerheads web-site. It's not available to buy as a download - in all cases it will come on DVD. You can download a demo version of it here: http://www.propellerheads.se/download/ but it's a pretty big file, and I don't know what the demo restrictions on it are. While you are there take the tours of Reason http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/ and watch the videos.

It's currently available on Amazon for US$287 http://www.amazon.com/Propellerhead-99- ... 751&sr=8-1 but you can probably get it cheaper elsewhere if you search.

If you are a student there are educational versions which are a bit cheaper (still the full software, but unlike the standard edition you aren't allowed to sell it to someone else later).

You can also get Reason 5 bundled with Record for about an extra US$100. Reason can't record audio (except for short samples of up to 30 seconds); Record is a full audio sequencer. If you have them both they work as one seamless application which is extraordinarily convenient. If you plan on recording any live instruments or vocals get them both; even if you aren't currently intending to record live audio Record extends the functionality of Reason considerably, especially with its brilliant mixing system and the additional sound modules and effects. It's a lot more complicated than just having Reason, but it lets you do stuff that Reason alone can't.

But I say again: neither Reason nor Record are beginner's programs. I find them much easier to use than their competitors, but they are still big complex programs and will take a lot of learning. The documentation is excellent, but there's a lot of it - the Reason/Record manual is a PDF 978 pages long. Even just the Reason manual is 402 pages.

If you are going to buy Reason I can thoroughly recommend getting "Reason 5 Power!" http://www.amazon.com/Reason-5-Power-Co ... 941&sr=8-4 . This is an excellent book that will get you up to speed and using Reason far faster than trying to work your way through the manual. Check out the review for the book on Amazon - there's only one, but I agree with it 100%: he gives it 5 stars, and he was a complete beginner to both Reason and music production.

When I bought the book I thought I knew Reason very well. I was wrong - I found lots of features that I didn't know existed, and easier and better ways to do stuff I already knew how to do. It really is essential reading; you can learn Reason without it, but it will be much harder and you won't get the best out of the program.

However, don't fall into the trap of thinking that if you get Reason you will automatically be able to create great music with it. It's an unfortunate truth that good gear does not equal good music. Talent and skill is more important than the gear you use; that's why I don't have a recording contract, and I don't win Grammies. I'm a professional musician but realistically I know that my talent and skill is fairly limited - that's why I do children's music in schools for a living, not world tours where groupies throw themselves at me in vast numbers and managers do the same (only with money, not sex).

I'm a guitarist and bassist by background. I've got excellent equipment, including a Martin D28 guitar (currently about A$4000 here in Australia). When I bought it 30 years ago I was horrified to discover that I was still a very ordinary guitarist, and that owning a great guitar had not magically transformed me into a Guitar God. I now had great tone, but my talent and skill had not increased one iota. The same is true for software. You have been warned.

One last and very important point: Reason's single biggest limitation is that it is fully self-contained. You can't add new synths or effects to it as you can with other music programs. What you see is what you get. You can sync it up to other music programs that let you expand its capabilities, but this is clumsy and a bit of a pain to work with.

However, that limitation is also its strength. It is vastly more stable than its competitors, it is incredibly CPU-light, and everything works first time every time. I don't think I've ever had a crash. I can run hundreds of tracks at the same time (YMMV - I've got a very powerful computer - but you'll certainly run more tracks on Reason than you would on Logic or Cubase, its Mac competitors). If you want a new instrument or effect unit for a track, two clicks and its inserted correctly and ready to go - no endless pull down menus and stuffing around.

Hope this helps.

buggs1a · Post by **buggs1a** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:47 am

Thanks so much. I didn't mean for my thread to turn into something other then Korg. Just that when I come up with questions or ideas and what not I sometimes just follow ip in my original post.

I can't close the pop up window on my iPod and stuff. Bites. It pops up when I click to wanna listen to an mp3 or something. I think one file linked to soundcloud. So I didn't get the pop up then.

You make me nervous or think you don't think I should get reason. I do understand that no software is really easy. I heard that song and it was great. I do not know why in the world you can't buy and download reason. Seems stupid. That's what I was hoping for.

I wonder what the difference is from reason and live and komplete 7. Not mean to turn this into non Korg so forgive me please.

To be honest I had logic pro 9 full downloaded from usenet. I only played with it a few minutes here and there. Same thing for ableton live 8. Being Christian I been changing a bit wanting to do right, so a few days ago I deleted all music and movies and software I didn't own. So I have the demo of live 8 only now. So now I want to buy and own my first software. Not sure what to start with. Ive barely touched live too.

So now I am fully legit.

I would not care about recording live. No need or desire to.

I don't mind learning and find that to be fun at times. I would want to read a PDF manual on my iPod touch and iPad. So I could read laying on my bed and go through the manual easier on iPod while using the software on Mac or pc. I have both. Good pc and good iMac.

One thing I have not found nor have I looked hard is a tutorial that has step by step for dummies type. Like first step, open app. Second step and so on. To learn how to build a song from nothing.

I watched a bit of the propellerhead kong tutorial video. The guys who make these bids are cool. They seem to all have a sense of humor. The kong video wasn't anything I call a tutorial like step by step. It was good showing a few things.

I am somewhat nervous of getting something and not using it. Or of not understanding and not being able to learn ok. However I want to try.

I did good as a first track with sounds in Korg as you've mentioned so that gives me hope and encourages me thinking that I might be able to learn ok.

outbackyak · Post by **outbackyak** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:11 pm

I'm sorry if you think I'm trying to turn you off Reason - I'm not, I just think you should be cautious and try it out first.

The thing is, nobody knows if they will like or use a program until they've tried it. Tens of thousands of pros love Cubase - it drove me insane. Similarly for the demo of Live I tried - yet it gets great reviews, and is obviously a very powerful program with some amazing innovative features. I've never tried Logic because it is Mac-only, but it has a huge and devoted user base.

Now, Reason suits my way of working - but it may not suit yours. More than any other sequencer program, Reason polarises people. Some people love it; some people hate it with a passion. I love it. You might not.

Komplete 7 isn't a competitor to any of these programs - do not buy it, or at least not yet. It is a suite of software plugins for Mac & PC, and to get full value out of it you need a host program to run them in like Logic or Cubase (for Mac) or Pro Tools or Cubase or Live (for PC). It will run with many other programs too, but it isn't designed to be used on its own as a complete music producing package. Many of the plugins in Komplete have standalone versions that you can play without a host, but without a host you won't be able to compose and create music - for that you need a sequencer program as a host. Komplete will not work directly with Reason - as I said, Reason is self-contained and you can't put plugins into it - although you could hook Reason to Logic or Cubase using ReWire, and use Komplete in Logic/Cubase at the same time as running Reason.

You are right about the vids on the site: they are, after all adverts, not tutorials. There are also both video and article tutorials at http://www.propellerheads.se/substance/ ... =tutorials, which while still promotional are more focussed on using the program rather than just on selling it.

There is also an excellent series of official tutorials available on YouTube on the propellerheadsw channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PropellerheadSW#p/p - the Reason Micro Tutorials and 52 Reason Record Tips in the right hand column. These either introduce the new stuff in the latest version or they are designed to help existing users get deeper into how to get the best out of Reason.

I wouldn't just go out and buy Reason if I were you. Get the demo, play around with it, see if you like it. If you do, that's great. Buy it and if you do a bit of work you'll learn it alright - I find it very user friendly, and there are lots of resources for learning about it available, both as books and on the net. There's also a very active official support forum, and any number of unofficial ones and sites dedicated to Reason.

If you don't like Reason, your Mac has a very good sequencer program on it, GarageBand. GarageBand is more like a traditional sequencer than Reason - if you like it, it's quite good enough to produce excellent results, and when you find yourself coming up against its limits it's handy to know that your GarageBand projects are 100% compatible with Logic, Apple's big professional sequencer program, and although I've not used either they are both very well-regarded in the music press.

I suspect that Reason isn't available for download because it is not just a program - it's got a big library of sounds as well. The full version of Reason 5 is a 7.8 GB DVD, which is a fair size. They are probably also trying to reduce piracy, but that hasn't worked if that's what they were hoping.

I commend you on going legit - I did exactly the same thing a couple of years ago. I had a computer full of cracked software (including Reason 3), and I became increasingly uncomfortable about it; I'm not a Christian but I like to think of myself as ethical, and morally I knew I was doing wrong. Cracks are stealing - I wouldn't steal from a shop, so how could I justify stealing software? I couldn't.

In the end I wiped the lot, bought Reason 4/Record 1 and then upgraded to Reason 5/Record 1.5. I've never regretted my decision to go legit. I now only use software that I've paid for or which is freeware (and not much of that).

buggs1a · Post by **buggs1a** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:42 am

Thanks soooooooo much!

I heard komplete 7 doesn't need anything else. It makes music and let's you make songs etc. So I don't get how it needs logic or whatever else a host is.

I liked in live and somewhat the Korg how you place sounds where you want and play it back to see how it fits. Then you can move the sounds to like spread them apart more like drums or whatever. It has a 16 step thingy how it plays left to right and you place a sound where you want. One reason 5 tutorial video of about 9 minute something has the guy show you from scratch how to build a song. He starts by opening the app and then selecting new song and then picks a drum sound. Then you see him doing the beat on his midi keyboard while reason records him live. As of right now I don't prefer doing things that way.

Edit: here's the video URL and name of the one I'm referring to.

http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?user=Pro ... iew=videos

Beginners guide to experimentation with Reason.