Uncle

Since nobody's mentioned it in this thread yet, I guess I'll go ahead and be the first: Reason 3.0's release date has officially been announced. If things go as planned, it will be out March 10. You can check out the trailer and other such stuff at www.propellerheads.se. Anybody planning on buying it launch day?

I'm not sure what your problem is, Argitoth. Are you saying you can't find the default MIDI soundfont or that you don't know how to use it in Reason. If you wanted to know where you could find the default soundfont, I can't really help you, but if you have it and now just need to know how to use it, you're in luck; I was having the same problem not all too long ago.. NNXT can play sf2 files. Load it up as you would a normal sample. Also, Redrum can load up sf2 files as well. Load the sounds individually like they were wav files you wanted to insert into a kit.

I've been looking for industrial percussion sets for a while, and DarkeSword referred me to an sf2 on his website which was an industrial drumkit. I know Reason doesn't support MIDI, but is there any way I can convert this (and other soundfonts) to a Reason-friendly format? Also, just wondering: does anybody know of any free software that is compatible with ReWire? Most of the programs I see using it are commercial software.

For stings (solo), look for Cadenza or Florestan. For a reverse cymbal, search for sonic implants- it should be a demo sf2, so it's free. Well for a reverse cymbal, you can also just find a cymbal sample and uh...reverse it. Also, if you're looking for a program to reverse it in, check out GoldWave (PC only, www.goldwave.com should do the trick). Hope that helps.

Doru Malaia has some great one-shot drum samples (as well as loops' date=' though they may or may not be drumloops); they are WAVs which can come packaged either in ZIPs or ReFills (for all the Reason users out there). Check it out: [url']http://www.dorumalaia.com/freerefillswavsamples.htm Also, BreakBeat Paradise (www.breakbeat-paradise.com) has a fairly large sample library, which sports both drumloops and drumkits (available as compressed WAVs), among other samples one might find handy. Don't let the name fool you; they have samples useful for many genres, such as Trance, DnB, RnB, House, Hip Hop, etc. As for me, I'm looking for drum samples to use in Industrial music. Anybody know where I can get some for free? If industrial is too broad of a term, I have in mind stuff like DarkeSword's "Stranger In the Desert" (release available at VGMix) or the Phazon Mines BGM from Metroid Prime, though anything you would consider industrial is welcome. [EDIT: I PMed DarkeSword about his samples; they're available at www.soundfonts.darkesword.com as a soundfont. Now I need to find a way to extract samples from soundfonts.. help please?]

Seconded. I'm not sure he's asking a question here or just making a statement about his setup. I think he might be wondering how to encode an mp3 with a small file size. I suppose if the bitrate of the file were extremely large, he could end up making an mp3 even larger than the original wav file. So that's about all the more I can gather from his post: he doesn't know how to go about properly making an mp3 file, does that sound right?

Sorry, I guess I didn't make myself clear. I think I understand what you mean by saying to "make music to learn to make good music" (and thank you for the advice by the way), but I was just wondering if anybody had pointers as to their methods of choosing a particular synth/machine, not a patch, to play certain roles in the song. I've heard that Subtractor is great for basslines, so I was wondering if anybody else had suggestions. Also, by "what waveforms work best in part x of a song", I was talking about basic wave shapes (sine, square, triangle etc). I'm thinking of using them to get something of a chiptune sound (until I can think of some other combination of sounds I feel would fit better), and I was wondering if anybody knew a general rule for what kind of basic shape (eg triangle) usually goes where (eg bass or pad). Whether I choose to follow that pattern will be my own choice, but I'd like to have that option as well as placing them on my own; like a general set of guidelines to start with. Maybe you're right however, learning composition should be my own undertaking. That way, I can develop my own styles and tastes, and eventually my own sound.

No. Reason is not a vsti host. However, if you do wish to use a VSTi, you could theoretically ReWire Reason to a program that supports VSTi and work from there. Also, I was wondering: As of right now, the lead and accompanying instruments for one song I'm working on uses basic waveforms (saw, triangle, square). The bass and drums are not, however, and while I don't think they're really the problem (they sound fine alone), the waveforms sound pretty unrefined. So I guess what I'm trying to ask is what waveforms work best in a given part of a song, and how do you create those sounds (synthesized, Malstrom or Subtractor?)?

Just wondering, how do you choose/make instruments? What I mean to say is: How do you as an individual go about deciding what machine to use for what part of a song (eg using Malstrom for a pad, etc), do you use premade patches or do you create your own sounds (and how do you do that, work with altering parameters of premade sounds or using a base patch and working from there)? Use any additional machines? Just wondering how everybody else gets their sound. Oh, and if you use refills you got online, where did you find them?

Ah.. I should have guessed that was why you distorted the vox. Still, that's pretty impressive for a basic mic. I assume you used Scream 4 for distortion? I'll have to check out the originals you mentioned.. only thing is I'm not downloading as much music as I used to, because I don't often download a mix on sight anymore; I usually stick it in a queue of stuff I want to download. Not neccessarily the greatest thing in the world, but when you need to leave bandwidth open for the phone, it works =P SirRus: I assume you mean gating? For something like that you'll want to hook up a Matrix to the machine you're working with (Redrum, Subtractor, NN-XT etc) and create a pattern on the Matrix.. Can somebody else go over this in more detail? I still haven't done enough with gating sound to properly explain it to somebody else. I'll try to see if I can explain it later, but as of right now I don't really remember how the devices were wired in the back; that's pretty much the most important part now, isn't it?

Cool, I use Goldwave too. The style you say you used to insert these lyrics surprised me, but in all honesty, running them through Redrum is how I would have done it. I'm not fortunate enough to have a copy of ReCycle, so I'd have to splice the lyrics in Goldwave. Two more questions (for now =P): What kind of mic did you use for recording the lyrics? Do you use ReWire at all, or is your work all produced within Reason?

Sounds a little like myself.. I also tend to use it to audition instrument patches (eg. playing a few notes through a certain machine and seeing how it sounds). And in regards to the vocal bit.. would it be possible to re-record the vocals yourself (as in singing it and using that instead of the original recording)? Not always the best way to go, but look at how SGX handled the situation with "4F73R M3"; he not only performed it himself, but he even changed the lyrics, which ended up working out even better. Maybe that's not going to work for what you have in mind, but at least you have a better worst-case scenario than having to use poorly-EQ'd vocals.. Two things while we're at it: 1)How did Trenthian get his lyrics for his One Winged Angel remix? 2)SGX, how did you handle the vocals for your B4U mix? Did you ReWire with a different program or something? I'd like to know in case I ever need to drop lyrics into one of my own works..

Since we're speaking about midi controllers and Reason, I would like to say that even with the controller, I still tend to use the mouse for a large number of adjustments because I have no idea how to map the knobs to particular parameters (e.g., Slider A is used for the master volume of a device, Knobs A-D control the Attack Decay Sustain Release respectively, etc.). How do you do this in Reason? I can't figure it out. Also, will your midi controller setups stay in the memory from project to project, or must they be reentered each time?

I have an Oxygen 8 and while it is a fairly decent midi controller, I would reccomend you all to go the extra mile and pay a little more for an Ozone. Go to M-Audio's website and take a good look at it (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MAudioOzone-focus.html); you'll find there may only be a few extras on the outside, but the real prizes can be found on the back panel: along with being a quality midi controller, it also sports inputs for mic, stereo and other auxilary lines, eliminating the need for a separate midi interface. Shortly after purchasing my Oxygen, I began to somewhat regret not spending another $100 to $200 for these extra features. While doling out $100 to $200 more for something I might not neccessarily use sounds a bit dumb, it certainly is nowhere near as dumb as having to pay $400 to $600 for a separate interface later. (when I found out I could have Anyway, that's how I feel about it; if you play electric guitar or similar aux instrument and might want to record that on your computer, but you don't have an interface already, an Ozone is a sound decision. But don't listen to me; if you're looking around for a controller, you know what all you need. Check the URL above and see what you think.

I'm guessing LordMaestro doesn't have a keyboard. When I first tried out the demo, I didn't have a keyboard (I still don't), and I had no idea how to do anything. I saw all these different devices, none of which I knew how to create sound with or what they even did for that matter. Trust me, it was a really intimidating experience. However, I'm willing to bet that LM here has used piano roll before in one of his previous programs. That being the case, look at the sequencing window. In the very upper-left corner of the window, there should be three horizontial bars: one red, one yellow, one blue. Clicking that button will allow you to enter Edit Mode. In Edit Mode, you will see several different lanes: a Key Lane for entering and editing note values, and a Velocity Lane for editing the velocities of the respective notes, among other lanes. These lanes can be hidden/restored by the buttons located to the right of the Edit Mode button. Using the Key Lane, you can enter in notes piano roll style. Keep in mind that these lanes only pertain to the selected track. For instance, if you had the Redrum drum machine track selected, you will only see note/velocity values that that particular Redrum unit will process. So make sure you have the track selected that has the instrument you want on it. Hope that helps! If something I've said didn't make sense, lemme know and I'll try to clear things up.

I dunno, it sounds pretty good, just out of place. It's very bright and clean, compared to the rest of the mix, which seems much more dark and slightly distorted. Lucky for me I decided to look at this one; right from the intro, I knew this was gonna be pretty sweet stuff. It's very catchy, if that's the right word for it; it just feels right. Twenty-some people can't be wrong! Or at least very far off the mark...