by G.W. Childs IV

Every music application has some way of color coding regions, clips, tracks, etc. However, isn’t it interesting how you don’t see anyone using them, with exception of people, like myself, who create demos for music software?

Let me be the first to say that colors are not a silly thing to add to your tracks. It’s not childish, and it’s not meant to make things prettier. Color coding a clip, region, etc, can really help you quickly identify parts, which makes editing and arranging much easier.

For example: I can decide that any part colored red is a rhythm part. As I go back through my song, I can clearly see all of my rhythm parts and differentiate those parts from the green guitar parts.

Second example: I can color code all of the clips or regions green that are apart of my song intro, the chorus could be blue, the verse could be yellow. When I go back to edit my song, I can clearly see all of the parts that make up my song and can jump around accordingly.

Finally, one of my favorite things about the color feature is one of the most simple: Colors can mean whatever you want them to. You can set up a color coding system for the way that your brain works.

However, I wouldn’t get too complicated, occasionally, you may want to pass a song along to a friend to do some work on and if you can easily explain what the color coding means, he can follow your system and this helps the collaboration go even more smoothly. When he returns the song to you with his revisions, you’ll be able to clearly hear and ’see’ what he’s done.

Propellerhead Software today inaugurated the Propellerhead Artist Patch Charts. Have you ever wondered what the bass sound in that track was? How they made the harp glissandos in that movie, the shimmering strings in that commercial, or why the snare in that track sounds so familiar?

Propellerhead did and asked artists the question: “What’s in your Reason Rack?”
Their top picks and insights are collected into Artist Patch Charts.
Discover what Flaming Lips, 3OH!3 and Ru, amongst others, use in their productions: http://www.propellerheads.se/substance/patch-charts

Propellerhead Announces Pascal Gabriel’s Melophobia Machine ReFill

Latest Creator Series Refill Brings Platinum Producer’s Skills, Sounds, Studio and Artistic Touch to the Reason Community

Stockholm, Sweden (November 19, 2008) Propellerhead today announces the latest instalment in the Creator Series: Pascal Gabriel’s Melophobia Machine ReFill. The Melophobia Machine ReFill for Reason version 4 opens the lid of legendary hit maker Pascal Gabriel’s sonic treasure chest—a mass of highly useful, production-ready loops, samples and instruments for songwriters and producers looking to add those unexpected elements that can turn a bland track into a masterpiece.

Pascal Gabriel’s Melophobia Machine ReFill lets Reason users tap straight into the working methods of free thinking producer Pascal Gabriel, providing instant access to his particular kind of magic. The ReFill library gives users a chance to add unique material from actual Pascal productions. Drum kits, guitar loops, effect patches, sampled keyboards, bass patches, FX loops; it’s all there. With a sonic palette ranging from unpolished to outrageous, the Melophobia Machine ReFill is perfect for adding color to any production.

Pricing and Availability

Pascal Gabriel’s Melophobia Machine is available immediately exclusively as a download from the Propellerhead online shop for $49.00 USD and €49.00 EUR.

http://www.propellerheads.se/go/A517EEAE

About Pascal Gabriel

Over the years, Pascal Gabriel has lent his skills to an impressive amount of top artists including Dido, New Order, Bomb the Bass, Miss Kittin, Ladyhawke, Kylie Minogue and more. A longtime collector of odd gear and instruments, with a knack for using them in odd new ways, Pascal Gabriel is a true studio experimentalist—with a sound that is very much his own.

Further information and sound samples can be found at:

http://www.propellerheads.se/pascalgabriel

I’ve just discovered something that kind of blew my mind.

If you are trying to use REASON 3.0.4 with Cubase of any flavor via REWIRE… IT WILL NOT WORK…

Unless you download and install this well hidden patch from the Propellerhead site here…

http://www.propellerheads.se/download/index.cfm?fuseaction=get_article&article=vista_installer

NOTE: Cubase 4 LE can NOT rewire to REASON. This was a policy decision by Steinberg.

Fred Here - From OBEDIA!

This is my very first blog post. I just wanted to say hello.

I’ll be posting comments and tips here as well as thoughts that occur to me while my endless

desire to break, fix and figure out better ways to work with Digital Audio Workstations continues.

I work with lots of progames including Cubase, Nuendo, Reason, FL Studio, ProTools, etc.

Although I don’t get asked about it too much - I am also a surround expert so, you may hear thoughts

about that too.

Finally, I’m heading up to the AES show in the first week of October and I hope to bring back some pictures and video of cool new gear.

Later. -Fred

Reason’s BV512 Vocoder is a flexible and powerfull tool. Lets take a look and show you how to get started with it in Reason.

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OBEDIA is pleased to have G.W. Childs creating video tutorials. He has been handling calls for OBEDIA so some of you have worked with him in the past. Now look for his expert tips for Propellerhead Reason and Ableton Live in our Tips and Techniques section.

G.W. is a sound designer, musician and author Beginning in the U.S. Army back in 1991, at the age of 18, G.W. began learning electronics, communications and then ultimately audio and video editing from the Department of Defense. Upon leaving the military G.W. went on to work for many exciting companies like LucasArts, Propellerheads, Cakewalk as an editor, sound designer and at times an actor.

G.W. has also penned exciting titles like “Creating Music and Sound for Video Games” and “Using Rewire: Skill Pack”, published the Cengage.

As a musician, G.W. is a founding member and keyboardist/songwriter/producer with the musical act “Soil & Eclipse” and is a contributing songwriter and keyboarding “Deathline International”. He’s also produced remixes for acts like “Gene Loves Jezebel”, “Razed in Black” and James Brown.

Learn how to use REASON as a virtual Synth-rack with Cubase using rewire.

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Learn how to create your own CUSTOM default startup document in Reason.

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Learn how to setup your audio interface and MIDI keyboard in Reason.

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