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shatten22 · Jan 15, 2003, 10:26 PM

I have a Roland PC-300 MIDI controller keyboard and I was wondering if there was any program out for Jaguar that would let me fool around with making my own sounds, laying down tracks, etc.

I played with the demo for Absynth in OS9 and really liked it. As far as I can tell it is not available for X though, which I am now running exclusively. Could anyone tip me off to some of the options out there?

Anything not too crazy-expensive?

thanks,

geoff

shatten22 · Jan 15, 2003, 10:29 PM

Also, if you haven't guessed already, I am an absolute beginner with this stuff.

g

Axo1ot1 · Jan 15, 2003, 10:34 PM

I would suggest Reason. It has phenominally easy MIDI setup in OS X and has some pretty nice synthesizers that will let you tweak waveforms etc. to make prety much any sound you want. It costs $400 retail, but you can get it for much less if you can get an education discount. Reason is really easy. A friend and I figured out all the basics in under an hour by just fiddling with it.

tr · Jan 15, 2003, 10:37 PM

try out the propellerhead's demo of reason,recycle, and rebirth::

http://www.propellerheads.se/downloads/demos/main.html

or check out ableton live (available as demo too):

http://www.ableton.com/

Axo1ot1 · Jan 16, 2003, 12:39 AM

Is there an OS X ship date for recycle? I want to try it out, but I don't have OS 9 and I'll be damned if I reinstall it.

shatten22 · Jan 16, 2003, 10:23 AM

Originally posted by Axo1ot1:
I would suggest Reason. It has phenominally easy MIDI setup in OS X and has some pretty nice synthesizers that will let you tweak waveforms etc. to make prety much any sound you want. It costs $400 retail, but you can get it for much less if you can get an education discount. Reason is really easy. A friend and I figured out all the basics in under an hour by just fiddling with it.

Whoa...REASON is intense. I don't have a MIDI keyboard, just a MIDI controller. That works great. I am a little blown over by the program though. You and your friend must have worked with rack-mounted systems before because I am totally lost in the demo. Anywhere online that would have some basic tutorials or is that what buying the program is for? I don't want to plunk down $165 (the edu version) for something I won't ever know how to use.

Video is my forte; put me in front of any editing setup and I'll have it figured out in half an hour. Audio is a curiosity.

thanks,

g

Axo1ot1 · Jan 16, 2003, 03:18 PM

I'm a video guy too (im going to film school).

The basic idea of reason is that it is a virtual rack. Start a new rack with a mixer and then add components as needed. The Malstrom and Graintable Synthesizers start you off with sine waves. I didn't know anything about audio manipulation when I started, but just mess around with the different knobs and sliders until you get a feel for what they do. You can make some trippy sounds this way. If you want to emulate a particular type of instrument use the NN19 Sampler. You can select from a whole slew of voices that are fully tweakable etc. The Rd. Rex is the drum machine. Select a patch from what is provided (click the little folder button) and you can sequence beats either on the component itself, or by recording in the timeline.

If you want to change the way things are connected (like if you add an effect box and want to pass one of your components through it on the way to the mixer) hit the 'tab' key and the rack will flip around so you can see all the cables on the back. It might seem a little intimidating at first, but it didn't take very much tinkering to really start to grasp what i needed to do. I can post some samples of stuff I have made in reason if you like.

shatten22 · Jan 16, 2003, 03:25 PM

Originally posted by Axo1ot1:
I can post some samples of stuff I have made in reason if you like.

that would be awesome. Thanks for the tips.

g

Axo1ot1 · Jan 17, 2003, 08:01 PM

Okay so i put 3 "songs" up on my iDisk. I put songs in quotes because they aren't really complete. They haven't been arranged at all and they need lots of wir (sorry I don't have anything more solid to show you). Either way I think they will give you a feel for what someone with almost no knowledge of music theory can do in reason:

one, two, three.

If you have trouble playing these after you download them make sure you have quicktime 6 and make sure the file extension is.mp4 (not .mpeg). For some reason the download is messing up the format for me...

About the "songs"

one: this I did in collaboration with my roommate who is a jazz piano major. it has problems with the mixing, but they will be corrected in time...

two: entirely my creation. it isn't terribly good and some of the transitions are problematic. yay.

three: inspired by listening to some atmospheric trance. I wanted a distorted sound to be the base track and build a song around it. It took me a while to get the drums and the sound to synchronize just right.

elektro80 · Jan 20, 2003, 10:56 AM

Reason 2 is excellent. Low price too. Another option is Storm by Arturia.. at http://www.arturia.com

The next step after these apps would be Cubase I guess. Cubase supports a lot of excellent virtual instruments. Some Cubase songs using both real and virtual instruments can be found at my page .

Logic is of course an option. Both Cubase and Logic are more advanced than Storm and Reason but this does NOT mean that Storm and Reason are bad. Far from it. Play around with one of these first.

Another option which is pretty nerdy, pretty excellent and not that intuitive, is Modularing by Milprod . This one is fantastic.. excellent for live use.. but.. it is not for everyone. I guess one might describe Modularing as a specialized product for nerdy seasoned synth geeks.

fisherKing · Jan 20, 2003, 07:57 PM

Reason is awesome; there are tutorials (propellerheads have a tutorial cd available)

i use it professionally for ALL my music work (altho i use logic for video sync, vocals etc)

u can hear some stuff at:
www.deanyc.com

all the music was done in reason.

take your time, explore modules a few days at a time, it's a great way to learn.

otherwise, it seems like there is SO MUCH to figure out...

good luck!

shatten22 · Jan 20, 2003, 11:38 PM

Thanks to all the replies. Thanks Axo1ot1 for posting those songs. Nice work. It inspired me to go crazy on the demo. The 20 minute limit is killing me. not being able to save makes me feel like a Navajo sand-artist Still haven't scratched the surface it seems... I'll probably buy a book or get the tutorial cd to see what else it is capable of before putting down the money for the program...

elektro80- I am going to check out those other programs you mentioned when I get a chance. really dug the man who japed...

fisherking- the opening and bridge/rain sequence of bliss is gorgeous stuff. any nyc stuff?

thanks again to everyone...

g

HiDDeN · Jan 22, 2003, 02:06 PM

Try cubase

Axo1ot1 · Jan 23, 2003, 03:10 AM

Originally posted by HiDDeN:
Try cubase

I thought cubase was just a sequencer. Is it any good for production?