It's been a long, long time since I've become excited about creating music. But, for the past two weekends, I've spent some time learning Pro Tools LE and Reason 3.0 and have been, to say the least, amazed. Everyone I talk to who is under 30 seems to know about these products and I'm feeling old! I've been spending too much time doing boring stuff and missing out on some real excitement!
Everybody is loving GarageBand these days. Rightly so. It makes it easy to create multi-track recordings if you really don't know much about music. Great software, easy to use.
But, if you do know how to play, and if you have a MIDI keyboard, you're making a mistake if you don't RUSH OUT and buy Pro Tools and Reason and hook them together and create something. Pro Tools is the industry-standard audio mixing suite, and it's damned impressive. If you don't like learning complex software, maybe it's not for you. But, if you'd like to control everything, and appreciate software that is not only complete but comprehensive, Pro Tools is the one.
Reason 3.0, from PropellerHeads Software, is nothing short of miraculous. A seemingly limitless array of studio quality synths, effects, mixers, all combined in a simulated rack-mount cabinet that is so convincing I can almost hear the cooling fans whirring. I didn't think there were software companies doing this kind of high-quality innovation any more and it's renewed my faith in the whole software industry.
Beyond the technical junk, the truth is that this software is musical. Once you get past the technical lumps, it's fluid, fast, and doesn't stand in the way.
Because I'm going to the USA (NAB/Las Vegas) for the first time in 10 years, I wrote a little "theme song" for my trip. It's a little rousing march reminiscent of the opening march in "A Few Good Men". After all, why not be patriotic, eh? It's lighthearted, and I tried to create a convincing sounding marching band sound, mostly using the amazing array of processing and sample sources Reason 3.0 provides.
Keep in mind that 100% of this is created with Reason 3.0 and Pro Tools and all the parts were played on my Roland MIDI keyboard. Sounds pretty real to me! It may be cliche, but at least it's mine!
Give it a try, and get a laugh. It's only 35 seconds long, but lots of fun.
The song "Going Back" reminds me of eating a ball of cheese covered in crushed nuts on top of a sugar cone, at a carnival in New Jersey.
Posted by: Jason | July 23, 2006 at 02:38 PM
That sounds awsome. Very Very Good!!!! Can you give me some pointers? I just got both programs. It is a little tought.
Posted by: Jersey Adams II | August 17, 2007 at 03:18 AM
Jersey, you probably need to keep surfing the web to try to find some tutorials. Since I wrote "Going Back" I have completely switched from Pro Tools to Cubase 4.0, but still rely heavily on Reason, which is one of the most amazing programs ever. If I can find the time, maybe I'll try to post some tutorials, I've been doing a ton of new music for our "virtual TV network" using the new platform and wow, the feedback has been great on the quality and I've learned a ton.
Posted by: Wiz Nordberg | August 18, 2007 at 09:12 AM