Reasons?

Yeah, yeah... I am starting a blog. This is my first one, thought it was a good idea, jump on the bandwagon, blah, blah blah.

With everything that is going on at the moment I needed a place to dump some thoughts and post some links. For the moment this blog will only be updated by me (James) but there is a good chance that I will make this a collaborative blog with my business partner, Chris. We have recently founded Abstracks Productions, a new media development firm and sound production company.

We are also finishing up construction on Cedub Studios, our personal playground for music and sound creation. To say we are excited is a complete understatement. This is a dream come true for both Chris and I. A fully functional, two room, professional studio at our finger tips and we don't have to worry about booking time to get access to it. Hazah!

Since we took down the original studio almost a year and a half ago, Cell Culture (our band/group/whateverthefuckyoucallit) has only produced one new track. Technically we produced an EP in that time frame but most of the tracks where written at my home "studio" as a side project. I quoted the word studio because all I have at home is a computer, a USB controller and a pair of Alesis M1 powered monitors. Oh and I have some headphones and a headphone mixer. Yadda, Yadda, weeeee.

I must admit though, I am very impressed by what you can create on a simple rig like that with a software package like Reason. I recently had some interesting conversations with some fellow producers/djs here in SF about Reason. The one comment I keep hearing over and over is that it always sounds like Reason. Of course that made me panic because we are about to release an EP written entirely in Reason.

After further discussions with the "haters" it came to the surface that the problem is not just with Reason, but also with how people use it. Most users tend to just pick a patch and then use it with out touching a knob or chaining it through effects. This means that almost everything made with Reason has the same sound and feel too it.

Another complaint I have heard is that you can't get the bass you want out of it. I was actually shocked by that last comment. Can't get the bass out of it? It is a damn computer tool, just fucking EQ it and push the envelope a little bit!?! Shit, I have made Chris' house rumble with some of the basslines you can write in it!!!

That's when it hit me... the problem with Reason is that it takes a lot of time and understanding of the application to really start getting different sounds out of it. Most people don't have the desire or the time to sit and tweak a patch for an hour, stacking effect after effect to get the sounds they want.

In one aspect I totally agree, but personally I am a knob tweaker. I love futzing with the sound, sitting there twisting the knobs, patching, repatching, bitching about it, rebitching about it, etc. That is where you get the different sounds no one has heard before. That is where the magic in the tone appears.

Guitarist are famous for this. Sitting there trying different guitars, amps, strings, pedals, speakers, wires, what ever they can do to get "the tone". That's why I love producing. Its all about getting a sound, either for your own personal music or helping others get the tone, the sound, the feel they are looking for.

Yeah, Reason can be a real bitch, and yeah there are much better tools out there for getting different sounds, but it seems to me that people are looking for the quick fix and not focusing on the details. Eh, what the hell do I know? Maybe all my music does sound like Reason... then again, maybe it doesn't.