I have a couple of articles published in the January 2008 issue of Electronic Musician Magazine. One article discusses some of the important keyboard commands that make using the new sequencer more efficient. Some important notes about effectively using the ReGroove Mixer, and some cool RPG-8 tricks. The other article is a sound design tutorial that shows some off the features of Combinator 2 and using Thor as a filter device. I'm not sure if these will be available online, but I'll certainly post a link up if they are made available digitally.

I've been busy working on a new project. It's been about 5 or 6 years since I last created a Reason Tutorial video, so it's about time that i got a new one out of the can thanks mostly to my friend Josh Mobley.

Up until a month ago, i was focused on working on a new version of Power Tools for Reason, but an opportunity came up with Groovebox Music to develop and produce a tutorial video. After a brief phone conversation with Josh, I had a spark of inspiration - basically we would take his Reason 4.0 demo track, Narrow Escape, and reconstruct it to show people how to make the most of the new sequencer, the new ReGroove Mixer, and a bit of Thor programming.

12 Hours after our conversation, I had drafted the script. A few days later, I was on a plane to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to work with Josh at his place where we spent 5 days cranking out several hours of screen capture animations as well as some video, and voice overdubs. Yes the picture is Josh's Reason Tattoo. Click on that picture to see Josh's livingroom/studio with the total minimal rig we used to develop the video.

This video is the cousin of my old Producing Music with Reason CD-Rom, but it's much more relaxed and casual as you will see in the demos. Amazingly, here we are 4 weeks after the idea was sparked, and the videos are starting to come online at the link below:

Music Production with Reason 4.0

The Propellerhead Software Producers Conference in Hollywood was yet another great event. It sold out with over 150 people attending, and users from the SF Bay Area trekked down to club King King on Hollywood Blvd. The program started at 10:00 in the morning - a decent hour - but people were arriving well before 9:00. We anticipated a crowd who would be into hip-hop, but there were people into a wide range of genres. The one facet we didn't think about was the film and tv industry people who came. It was very cool mix of interests all related to Reason.


Despite a lack of sleep the night before, Rob Pointer and Dave Dolan were at the venue early setting up. Even though the venue has a sound system, they had to bring in their own Mackie rig for the conference. There always seems to be some kind of technical issue with these gigs, and the Producers Conference LA was no exception. We ended up using S-Video rather than VGA for the main projector. It was passable, but not quite as sharp as it could have been.


Chris Petti started off the schedule with a demonstration of ReWire into Ableton Live and exporting Reason songs as individually recorded tracks. He then went through and demonstrated using a variety of Line6 plug-ins to sweeten up his mix.




James Bernard followed up with a demonstration of his new Multi-Band Toolbox Refill. The Refill features a variety of BV512 based effects including some excellent chorusing modules and the phat parallel compression effect that produced some huge drum sounds. This is a free download from the Propellerhead Software website.




After sorting through some other technical problems, Richard Devine rounded off the morning schedule with his presentation on sound design and Reason. This was definitely one of the highlights of the day especially when he played some quicktime movies of commercials where he applied his sound design skills.

My session in the afternoon was not without it's problems. I was dealing with micing issues. Eventually James came through and fixed me up with a better mic with a fresh battery. My presentation on Control Voltages and modular routing in Reason was based on Power Tools for Reason 3.0, but presented in a different manner for people who are unfamiliar with synth programming.


DJ Babu finished up the presentations with his excellent demo of using ReCycle to cut up samples and working them into Reason productions. The interesting part of Babu's presentation was a discussion of sampling and royalties where he talked about some of the exorbitant fees paid for the rights to sample a track. Afterwards we were shooting the breeze and he told me about another project where the original artist started to comment on changes that should be made to a project produced with licensed samples. I told him that he should start working with live musicians and bands to get his own original material - support the hard working musical talent that's out there!



Arabian Prince and Mocean Worker MC'd the afternoon listening session where attendees submitted their work for review by the panel, which included James. There were some really nice tracks presented including an excellent IDM piece from Quantum Anomaly. Eric from Chronic Productions, a music licensing company in LA, was in attendance and made several offers to people for production work based on what he heard!


As usual, I had a great time. It's always a lot of fun meeting up with fellow Reason users, and I spoke with Kenny, who runs the MySpace Reason Users page about the idea of setting up a Los Angeles Reason Users Group for people who want to get together and talk shop. If this gets off the ground, I would probably make another trip down to hang out. For those of you who came and asked about Reason Workshops, GW and I will seriously consider taking our show on the road to the LA area. Please send me an email and I will keep you in the loop on when this happens.

Again, thanks to everyone who attended!

More photos are on my flickr gallery

The Reason workshops in SF at Recombinant Media Labs were another great event; thanks to the support of the Reason User Community in the Bay Area. People came from all parts of Northern California, from SF and the East and North Bay, the Silicon Valley area, the Central Coast (like Me), and even from the Central Valley. Even though the workshops were scheduled for 6 hours, GW and I ended up extending the time on both days. We had a pretty ambitious plan to cover a lot material, and things went much smoother than the spring workshops.

I'm going to skip some of the redundant details, but the workshops had a similar schedule as the spring workshops: Spring RML Reason Workshop Report


After seeing the Native Instruments demo at Recombinant Labs, I found out that GW and I would have access to two main projectors in the RML facility. Last week, I was scrambling to put together a visual presentation in Keynote. During the workshops, the presentation ran on one screen while we demonstrated various procedures on the the other screen. For each of our presentations, GW and I were able to switch back and forth between laptops. It was a busy week for me as I was learning a new application, tweaking the course outline, answering emails, arranging for food catering and other last minute details.


At the end of the Advanced Workshop, GW and I demonstrated a little routine that was inspired from the recent Reason Laptop Jam Session. We used MIDI sync'd our laptops together, and I generated loops and played organ, bass and synth hooks in real time, while he recorded and processed them in Ableton Live. I had a rack of devices with patches and loops preloaded, and accessed each device by using the remote override track selection buttons on the Kontrol49. I would play a part and GW would record a loop clip in Ableton. While he edited the clip, i would mute myself out and start working on the next clip for him to record. It was f-ing cool!-especially in the fantastic sound system at the RML facility.


After the workshops, Bryan Gibbs, the lead engineer of Recombinant Media Labs, pulled out a vintage Minimoog and a TR-808 and hooked them into the main sound system. This was a treat as we spent another hour or so tooling around with a massive analog sound cranked through the speakers. The room was shaking pretty severely. I was burning a DVD on my MacBook, and the burn failed since the vibrations caused the writer to skip. This photograph that Mark shot is fairly blurry; not because he isn't a good photographer, but the pressure transducers in the floor caused the whole room to vibrate :-)

GW and I are already thinking about the next set of workshops at RML, but GW wants to take it on the road. He's going to be looking into some places around his home town in Texas. The RML people have suggested the facility at UCSB. I'm going to talk to my Alma Mater, Columbia, and see if we could organize something in NY. We're also thinking about slimming down the outline into topic specific workshops. There never seems to be enough time to go through all of the cool features in Reason. We really should make it a week of seminars, instead of a couple of days.

Last Saturday, The SF Bay Area Reason User Group finally had the chance to meet up for a full blown jam session with eight laptops running Reason one Line6 Variax Guitar. Participating were Darin, Ed, Hayden, Mark, Mason, Mike, Nick, and me; along with a few guests. We're lucky to have some enthusiastic people involved, because we managed to get this event organized quickly. It's always nice to get together and talk about music and technology, but it's definitely more fun to jam out!




We were fortunate enough to be allowed to use a massive warehouse space in SF, where Mark's wife works. There was no lease for the space, but we couldn't make it an all out event and invite the public. In the future we will find a more public venue if more people are interested in coming... maybe something with a bar ;-)

The afternoon passed in a blur and a few of us walked away thinking that things didn't turn out as cool as we had expected. When we did the test run with only 4 laptops, things ran pretty smoothly. When we added another four, things seemed to get a little out of control. Ed (EditEd4TV) brought in some gear to record and videotape the session, and I just had the opportunity to listen through the session, and there were some surprisingly cool moments.




Mixing and Tempo control were handled with hardware. We had audio feeds from each person running into a Mackie, and MIDI Clock sent out from a Boss DR-202 and distributed via a MOTU MTP II. During the session, we could adjust the tempo and change up the styles from slow prog rock stuff up to some fast trance bits. We even had a few of Ed's favorite Reason cover tracks mixed in. There were occasional problems with levels and sync, but for the most part we could just play without thinking about the technology.

The entire recording spanned about 2.5 hours, but i've reduced it to a few highlights in this 13 minute MP3. Bear in mind that this is mostly live - Real Time - most of the sequences were created on the fly including some drum arrangements:

LaptopJAM_0706.mp3

We will definitely make this a regular event and perhaps start mixing it up with live instruments, vocalists, and other types of software.

Finally...well over a year later, the SF Bay Area Reason Users Group managed to get together again for the annual dinner event last Saturday evening. Once again the group converged in the intriging town of Walnut Creek, California. Many thanks to Ed Bauman (EditEd4TV) for organizing the evening. It was nice to meet everyone and talk "shop".



I was looking forward to seeing the old crew - Mike, Steven, John, Jon - however, they were unable to make it this evening. Ed, GW, and I were the only three repeats from last year, but we met up with Darin (dbooty) and Mark from the boards, and Mason, who I met the week before at RML. The only non Reason user in attendance was my friend John Hinson, but he fit in quite well with the rest of the audio-heads. I'm sorry that others missed it, but there will certainly be another get-together.



Ed suggested that we get together more often. Naturally everyone concurred, so we hope to organize something else before the end of summer. The consensus was to set something up where we could meet, bring in laptops, and play music - not just eat and drink. If any Reason User in the SF Area knows of a place where we could set up, drop Ed a line. For those who want to join in next time, Ed organizes things through the Propellerhead Software Users Forum.

I'm recovering from lecturing at the Reason Workshops this past weekend at the Asphodel Records compound, Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco. GW Childs and I presented two classes on Reason 3.0 in the amazing surround sound/video performance venue. The sound system is a custom 16.8.2 surround system. There are 8 speakers that circle the top of the room, and a matching 8 that circle the bottom of the room. 8 bass speakers are paired along the bottom of the room, and two Low Frequency Emitters are set up on each end. It's unbelievably loud, and the room is virtually anechoic, so every little detail is clearly audible. We had an absolute blast, but it was indeed exhausting.




I came up on Friday afternoon to load in and get everything set up for the workshops on Saturday and Sunday. I brought in my main workstation rig which consists of a Quad Tower, a Cinema Display, and the Korg Kontrol49. I didn't bring in an audio interface, since they had a MOTU 828mkII available, and I planned to connect into the system via firewire. GW was obviously not as concerned with convience, and brought in his massive laptop and Radium controller - no where near as portable as my rig :-p




As we were getting the audio system configured, I sarcastically prodded Bryan Gibbs, the RML engineer, that a facility like this should at least have optical feeds available...He boastfully replied "We can do that!" From the 828mkII, a Digital feed from the ADAT lightpipe output was redirected to the house system into Apogee Converters. So my audio was going digital right into the converters housed with the amplifiers in the control room. The sound was awesome! I was having too much fun sending out low frequency sine waves from the Malström to find the resonance frequency of the room and make it shake.




The Beginners workshop covered basic workflow procedures like the various preference settings; adding devices to the rack; pattern devices and sequencing patterns; cabling and auto-cabling rules; transport features including metronome and loop points; ReCycle, and the Dr.REX Loop Player; Sequence recording, editing, groups and automation; and adding parallel aux effects. We had to cram things during the last 3 hours in order to cover everything planned in the outline.

During one of the breaks of the Beginners Workshop, Bryan Gibbs, the house engineer, fired up the system and replayed the multichannel audio/360° Video performance of Curtis Roads. Bryan also took everyone on a tour of the rest of the facility. They have a Vintage analog synth production room as well as a control room with a Neve VR72. This was a great way to compare the tools of the Real World with devices in Reason.



Plans for the Advanced workshop were a little more ambitious, and we did not manage to cover everything planned. We started off with various ways of using insert effects like the vocoder and Scream 4, then moved into explaining the process of Mixing and embellishing a track by inserting equalizers and compressors. I spent about 45 minutes dissecting a file provided by one of the participants and showed how it could be refined with the use of effects and careful mixing.



Before discussing a bit about mastering, Hayden Bursk demonstrated using ReWire with Ableton Live as a host application which many people found invaluable. Hayden was incredibly helpful in answering questions, and his demo of the Tone Port was definitely a highlight. The Props and Line 6 sent up some Reason 3.0 T-Shirts and Reason USB Thumb Drives that were given to those who attended.

We covered the basics of using the MClass mastering tools and demonstrated the various patches, then we went into details about setting up the gain structure for properly using the compressors and maximizers. As time was running short, we started to merge synth programming with combinator patches. People also started to field more questions about using samplers, and I had a few demos set up to demonstrate synchronizing long audio files with the tempo in Reason. Finally we ended up demonstrating how to use the Combinator to create insane modulation routings and rhythm patterns being morphed by random LFOs.


Backbeat Books also provided books that we raffled off at the end of the class. These included copies of Jim Aikin's "Player's Guide to Chords & Harmony", Rikky Rooksby's "How to Write Songs on Keyboards", and a copy of David Battino & Kelli Richards book, "The Art of Digital Music". David was present on Day 2 and spoke about the interviews with Propellerhead Software published in his book.

I'm guessing things went over well with Recombinant Labs, since they've suggested making these workshops a regular event. I love working on that sound system - i just need to develop some visuals to take advantage of the video. I'm really grateful to Propellerhead Software and Line 6 for their help with the workshop, and to everyone who came to support the workshops. Meeting other Reason Users was really cool, and the event was really nice, and If there's enough interest, I would love to do this again in the near future.

Here are more details about the upcoming Reason workshops. Registration isn't quite ready. Either contact me or RML directly at the email/phone number below.

Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco, CA will be offering two workshops on Propellerhead Software Reason 3.0, presented by G.W. Childs and Kurt Kurasaki. The courses are structured for all ranges of Reason users who wish to explore the possibilities of music creation in the Virtual Studio environment.

Reason Basics Saturday, April 29, 2006 1:00pm - 7:00pm
Intro to Reason
Synthesizers & Samplers
Rhythm Programming
Sequencing & Editing
Mixing & Effects

Reason Advanced Sunday, April 30, 2006 1:00pm - 7:00pm
Mixing & Mastering
Advanced Effects
Sound Design
Combinator
Remote & Rewire

The Workshops
Reason Basics is geared for novice users and explains the process of developing and shaping musical ideas into complete songs. This workshop is highly recommended for people interested in sequencers, editing, synthesizers, drum machines, and loops.

Reason Advanced is for intermediate/advanced Reason users. This workshop covers complex mixing and the use of signal processors and effects; programming synthesizer, sampler, and Combinator patches; using Reason as a production tool; and Reason as a live performance platform.

The Instructors
G.W. Childs is a veteran video game sound/voice effects designer, musician, and is a featured artist and sound designer for Propellerhead Software. He has worked on over 20 video game titles including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Mercenaries, and Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Additionally, G.W. performs with the electronic/industrial acts Deathline International and Soil & Eclipse.

Kurt "Peff" Kurasaki, author of Power Tools for Reason 3.0 (Backbeat Books), is a noted Reason user with credits in Keyboard and Computer Music Magazines. He also works with Propellerhead Software as a sound designer and tutorial developer.

Recombinant Media Labs
The workshop takes place in Recombinant Media Lab's unique, state-of-the-art audio-visual environment. Equipped with truly world-class surround audio and video systems, Recombinant Media Labs focuses on education, research, production and the presentation of new forms of audio/visual expression.
763 Brannan Street between 6th St. & 7th St. in San Francisco's SOMA District

Participation
Enrollment fees are $150 for each day ($300 for both courses) and space is limited to 20 people. Priority is given to those who register for both workshops. Attendees are encouraged to bring their laptops with Reason 3.0, and headphones.

Recombinant Labs Workshop Registration Page
Telephone: 415 863-3068 x 20
Email: workshop@recombinantmedia.net

Well, I have a bit of interesting news. Today, I was up at the new Recombinant Media Labs in San Francisco's SOMA district. This is unique performance space with a 16 channel surround sound system along with a 10 projector video system that spans 360° around the entire room. Sorry, I forgot to bring by camera today.

Recombinant Media Labs is starting to develop educational workshops that focus on music software. In conjunction with Cycling 74, they've offered a Max/MSP workshop. Tomorrow, they will be holding a two day workshop on Ableton Live 5. The course is being offered by Brian Jackson, author of the Thompson Live 5 CSI CD-Rom.

I'm excited to say that GW Childs and I are planning to present a Reason workshop tentatively scheduled for April. The details have yet to be ironed out. It might be a beginner/intermediate course, or perhaps something a little more intensive. I'll definitely make it a point to go through some of the new Reason techniques I've developed as well as some expanded Power Tools for Reason 3.0 stuff.

As the details unfold, I'll post up more information. In the meantime, anyone interested in coming, please post up a comment.

More Pix from NAMM here: Pheads at NAMM 2006 See the faces of the people who's software you love/hate, use/abuse, pirate/purchase :-)