In need of guidance

[deevey]

I don't want to be the loudest one in the room, but I do want to point out that from a DJ perspective, ableton might make more sense (since it's loop based) but from the prospective of a producer and composer, I must insist that Reason has a better flow for sound design (Thor is my master) and tbh, I find that not being able to use VSTs is not a downside, but rather keeps you from having an overload of choices so you focus more on the music and the sounds you're making and less on "Oh, I could load that up", or "oh, what sampler has that sound I'm looking for?"

I have to agree that Reason is a Monster Application and WELL worth the money, even moreso now that record function is built in.

Its a shame it gets very little love when mentioned to peers, they all tend to sneer and make funny noises LOL and start whispering things like "logic / cubase" etc .. but you can honestly make create and lay down track after track with minimal effort, especially for a newbie.

The cool thing is IF you want to use live as well you can re-wire your reason instruments into live, record directly into it on the fly and remix your stuff Live with VERY little effort.

Back in 2000 (i think it was) I got a promo copy of reason 1.0, and had my first track playing during a set 24 hours later & lots of peeps asking for a copy...Unfortunatly I haven't touched it too much of late as I've been focusing on live stuff but I would HIGHLY recommend it.

Oh also... http://www.reasonstation.net is a fantastic source of refills/samples/full tracks that you can deconstruct and see what its all about.

Oh and +1, APC shines for gigging but not really necessary for production, if you aren't a keyboard player but just want to fiddle, don't spend a fortune.

Maybe an Axiom + BCF would be a better choice and give you plenty of control surfaces to play with

[elio_xh]

Could you recommend a midi keyboard? And by that do you a keyboard-keyboard, or something like that APC ableton controller everyone is talking about?

I'm almost making the transition from DJing to producing, I went to stores and tried out their keyboards,and I'll spare you the time and effort, IMHO the best midi keyboard out there for the price is the M-Audio Keystation 61ES. I've been playing piano for a while, and I really like the semi-weighted keys, it makes it feel more like a real piano. It doesn't need an power adapter, but you can use one if you feel it's draining your computer too much. Also it's the most compact keyboard out there depth wise, so it doesn't take up a lot of space.

If you're wondering about APC or keyboard, it depends on what you want to do. If you want to work on a song in a progressive fashion using timeline view, a keyboard is better. An APC is good if you want to make clips and launch them, and make your song like that.

[LmnLm3]

OP, any thoughts on all this so far?

I'd like to add that if you are a pianist, the weighted keys can be quite nice (the 61ES is semiweighted, I had one for a while, gave it to my brother, look for "hammer weighted" or "piano action" if it's important to you) but if you just want to noodle, synth keys are usually fine. For the price, I recommend the Alesis Q49 (not a top price brand, but it's built quite sturdy, pretty good QC from what I have read, and the sensitivity is pretty normal. AND ITS BLACK)

If all of this seems like too much to handle right now, when you get your mac, load up GARAGE BAND, scroll through their loop library (pretty good selection considering the price) and throw some loops on top of each other in garageband.

To be honest, now that I think of it, before you spend $600 on reason (or more on other DAWs) you should screw around with garageband to get comfortable using a DAW. I recommend that to almost anyone who doesn't have experience with computer based music recording things.

It's free, and yes, it can work out. Most people out grow it sooner rather than later, but no harm in starting out in the newbie zone. We won't judge!