Thread for Reason users

[kshatriya]

I've mostly used Cubase earlier, but have switched to Reason for it's midi capacities.

I was wondering if any others use Reason, and maybe if you have any general or specific advices concerning making ambient music in this program?

 

Let this be a thread for us (I presume there are more than me) who use Reason and who want to share our thoughts, tips and tricks about it with the other contributors/team members. Since I believe most people that make ambient music use Reason, I thought this thread justified in the DarkMod forums.

 

One thing in particular I would like to know is recommended patches for bass ambience, like the one in 'Outside the Mansion' and 'Defiled Church'? I've tried a lot of patches, but can't find any that really has the right Thief-sound, not necessarily like in the aforementioned tracks mind you. (I may just be picky, but that's better than sloppy methinks)

 

/K

[kshatriya]

No Reason users or is my thread just plain stupid?

 

I discovered that the patches called "Pads" are very good for creating a dark background in the ambience, if anyone else would find himself in the same situation as me.

[greebo]

Erm, no your thread's not stupid, it's just that this forum is a bit underpopulated, so to say. I assume phide is not using that program or he hasn't seen your thread yet.

[phide]

I don't believe any of the full time music guys are still around, and I'm not a music guy myself (though I've surely dabbled). I think the last time I used Reason was at the last school I went to, where an instructor brought in his MacBook so we could play around with it during a course that covered the Yamaha O2R. I remember that version (I'd guess is was 3.0) having a pretty competent bit cruncher that served as a good effect on pads and ReDrum sequences, so you might look into that if your version comes with it.

[kshatriya]

I understand. So I am the only music guy at the moment?

 

I've looked into that bit crusher-thingy, but can't find anything. Nevermind about that though, I've found some really nice pads that I can use now.

[Schatten]

Hey there kshatriya, sorry for the late reply, I'm not around that often because I'm ..hm.. TDM is on hiatus for me until I can find the energy again to work for it.

 

I don't use Reason, the interface doesn't agree with me*. Anyways, I've talked about the bass track in 'Defiled Church' here for a bit. Hope this helps.

 

 

*) Best sentence ever

[kshatriya]

Thanks.

With that information I managed to get a sound in Reason that was quite similar to the one in Defiled Church, although not identical.

[saxmeister]

I haven't used Reason before but I understand the switch from Cubase. On the PC side of things I chose SONAR for its extensive MIDI capabilities. From what I've read about Reason creating soundbeds and ambient should be no problem. In fact, the nature of soundbeds and ambient tracks makes Reason a more probable choice due to its loop based approach and its wealth of virtual instruments.

 

You should easily be able to recreate any "classic" synth sounds or any other synth based tracks with a little bit of ear work. Get to know what differentiates a sawtooth, a sine, triangle, and a noise wave. Getting to grips with these primary elements of a synth sound will get you to your first big step. Then some basics of subtractive synthesis will allow you to sculpt any of those original wave forms into the sound you want (plus some filtering and possibly some form of modulation such as FM or PWM).

 

Patches are a good place to start but don't be afraid to "twiddle the knobs" to get the sound you want. That will get you the most unique sound instead of relying on the presets that others are already using for their compositions.