Reason

Multisampling specialists Wavescape Studio have released the Nord Modular G2 VOL. 01- Club Life sample library, which features sounds for pop, dance, trance, electro, house, hip-hop. All sampler presets have extensive modulations settings in each format: move the modwheel and the library starts to “breathe”.

The library is available in three different formats:

• WAVESCAPE™ MULTIPAK (EXS/EXSP24, Reason NN-XT, Kontakt, Halion, RGC SFZ player, Akai Z4/8 hardware and WAV formats – ALL FORMATS IN ONE PACKAGE, 6×94=564 categorized sampler presets!) – 310MB
• EMU EMULATORX/X2 sample pack (94 presets) – 395 MB
• TASCAM™ GIGASTUDIO 3.0 sample pack (94 presets) – 230 MB

Each package available 24/7 via electronic delivery for 9.99 $ – digital items, “free shipping”.

Details and audio demonstration are available at the Wavescape Studio site.

UK electronic collective, Urban Myth Club—comprised of electronica artist Dezz and Hollywood film composer Stephen Barton—has released its first full-length recording on TRL Music in the spring of 2006. North American radio airplay followed, as well as debut appearances at Glastonbury and the Big Chill festivals.

Their debut single gate-crashed into Apple’s iTunes Top 30 on word-of-mouth. The group used Propellerhead’s Reason extensively on the project as it lent itself perfectly to the group’s collaborative writing process—thanks in part to its extensive onboard sound library and usability.

“Not many people know this, but Reason is actually integral to the whole existence of Urban Myth Club,” says Dezz. “Whereas most bands start writing material in the studio together, the first few tracks from our album ‘Helium’ were written entirely online using Reason as the core tool for collaboration – writing musical concepts and most importantly sharing files over the Internet easily. During the two years making the recording, we did a lot of time writing together in the studio, but we had the best of both worlds, being able to also work remotely. Reason enables us to completely indulge creatively by ourselves and not have to spend time debating whether something works or not.”

Reason helped the band find a completely new way of working and they found it extremely liberating and inspiring. “Reason plays an important part in most of our compositions. To give you an idea, we must have written over 250 tracks from concepts to full-blown, eight-minute epics for our album Helium, and most started life in Reason. Whittling them down to just 13 tracks for the final album cut was the hardest thing!”

“The first track we wrote and still is a favorite was “Bird’s Eye View”. It started with me writing the melodic hook in Reason. I then e-mailed the .rns file to Ian who got totally inspired and came up with this fantastic new section. Reason’s great for exchanging or emailing .rns files because they are not huge beasties. When I got the track back the next day I thought, ‘Amazing! I would never have taken it in that direction, but it works!’ I then continued to build on the track and we would fire the Reason file back and forth whenever we felt ready to pass it on. As a result, the track developed in a very different way then had we have written it in together in the same studio.

Dezz found that it was easier to switch between working between multiple songs using Reason. “When we had loads of outboard it got to a point where it would take half the morning to wire everything up the way we had it last time and load up all the samplers with the relevant stuff. It was a nightmare if you’d wired something in line through an effect because you’d have to keep exhaustive notes on exactly how everything was configured. Now you just open a song… fantastic!”

He raves about Reason’s extensive library and flexibility. “The Rex player is unique! Nothing on the market touches it. The string library is also very lush. The ability to ReWire with other software is a major feature for us. We have quite a lot of refills but keep coming back to the factory-supplied refills because they are so good. We really like the Strings Refill as it’s very accessible software when you first start with it, but there’s also unlimited depth to it. We keep discovering new things the deeper we get. It’s also the only music software on the market we know of that lets you wire a feedback loop for creating special effects.”

Reason’s ease-of-use impressed Dezz as well. “Reason is really great for getting concepts down really quickly when inspiration hits. There is nothing worse than firing up software and messing around with loads of settings before you can get going. It’s also useful for exporting a track and taking it outside the studio. We always find it is good to listen to tracks away from the studio during all stages of its development to get a different perspective on it.”

But Urban Myth’s use of Reason goes beyond merely studio writing and tracking, they’re also using it live. “It’s so dependable and quick to load. Doing our music live, as any electronic artists will know, is not a simple task. It’s good to have something solid and reliable as part of our live kit. We’ve play huge festivals like Glastonbury, The Big Chill, and The Glade, so we need something we can rely on.”

Dezz fully expects to see more collaborations similar to Urban Myth Club, with people around the world hooking up together online, writing tracks and releasing them as full-blown commercial projects.

Note: This article has been updated to correct quote attributions.

Mig Music has announced a new collection of patches for Propellerhead Reason’s Subtractor synth.

The Subtractor Patches Reason Refill Volume 1 contains 256 new Subtractor patches including warm analogue synths, fat basses, cool sweeps, different beeps n’ noises, hard industrial sounds, interesting synth pads, lush strings, big beat sounds and fx.

Any Reason user interested in purchasing the Subtractor Patches Reason Refill Volume 1 can view a complete sound name list, which lists all 256 sounds in the collection.

Once puchased, the sounds can be used without payment of royalties. The Subtractor Patches Reason Refill Volume 1 can be ordered online for £19.95 using visa, mastercard or paypal from http://www.migmusic.com Customers can pay in either UK pounds sterling, US Dollars or Euros and then the sounds will be emailed to them within 24 hours.

Mig has also announced a special offer: anyone who buys the Subtractor Patches Reason Refill Volume 1 before 31 January 2007 will get two extra Mig Music products (which together are worth £39.90) for free which are:

• The Mig Music Maelstrom Patches Refill Volume 1 (worth £19.95) which contains cool ambient sounds, raw analogue synths, relaxing chillout sounds big basses, crazy big beat sounds, different fx, serious industrial sounds, interesting sequences, warm strings, cutting synth leads and synth pads.
• The Mig Music TR808 Midi Dance Collection (worth £19.95) which contains 512 House/Techno/Trance Midi Drum Patterns in Standard Midi File Format

More information is available at the MIG site.

Cycling ‘74 has published a tutorial on using ReWire to move MIDI and audio data between programs on a computer. It’s by Darwin Grosse, one of their development gurus and the publisher of the Creative Synth site.

It written from the Max/MSP perspective and demonstrates how you can create patches controlled by the host app.

Propellerhead Software has joined forces with Berklee College of Music’s online extension school, Berkleemusic.com, to develop four accredited certificate programs based on Reason, the popular electronic music application.

The programs are Propellerhead Software certified and mark the beginning of formalized education surrounding the award winning software. The certification will enable existing Reason users and those new to the software to gain an industry recognized certification with courses developed and taught by the renowned faculty at Berklee College of Music.

The four certification programs; Sound Design using Reason, Electronic Music Production using Reason, Music Creation using Reason and Music Production using Reason offers students a directed study plan that addresses practical approaches to music production, sampling, sequencing, sound design and arranging in various genres. The online courses enable students to study with Berklee College of Music’s production faculty and collaborate with other musicians and producers from anywhere in the world. In addition, Berkleemusic offers nine individual online courses using Reason and has taught over 5000 students worldwide over the past four years.

“This certification provides an excellent learning platform for existing Reason users as well as musicians new to the software,” says Barry Kelly, Director of Marketing, Berkleemusic.com. “Not only will they gain industry recognized proficiency but they will walk away from these programs with core skills and new music production techniques. The online courses also bring Reason users far and wide together in an collaborative environment to share and exchange ideas.”

“We are excited to be working with Berklee College of Music and their innovative approach to teaching music theory, engineering, and production,” comments Robert Pointer, Propellerhead’s Director of U.S. markets. “The Reason certification program will enable artists around the world to get closer to their creative potential by acquiring the certification. One of our goals as a company is to provide the tools and the path towards making music a reality for all artists, and the Reason certification program is a valuable step towards that goal. We can’t wait to see this be available to Berklee’s online students.”

The Music Production using Reason program consists of eight courses, five core and three elective courses that let students customize their own specific educational goals in music. Elective courses are offered in songwriting, film scoring, remixing, arranging, performance, composition, orchestration, music theory, production, and music business.