The morning after…

[DinoJ]

So thought I would share a little story about my Saturday night.

After working hard all week in a thankless job and spending all Friday night and all Saturday with my family, I was ready to let off some steam. It was Saturday night after all and I am free and single (again) so thought, I know will contact some friends and see what’s happening and if anyone going out. To my surprise they all had other plans but resolute on completing my objective, decided not to let this stop me, I was going out and I was going to get drunk anyway with or without them, and if I hooked up, then this might be just what I needed, so off I went. The night in general was uneventful, boring and I realised I am getting too old for this sort of stuff, even more when I realised, I was actually old enough to be the father of at least 50% of the people there, dismayed and slightly sobered by this thought, off home I went and it was still rather early.

I got home still craving something I had not found on my evening out and in my inebriated state, further fuelled by a half bottle of JD I had in the house, I decided to switch on my laptop and find something I had been looking for online to fill a gap in my life. I don’t remember much else after that and I passed out on my bed.

I awoke the next morning, bleary eyed and more than a little hungover, though not as bad as I normally get which was a bonus. Anyway I quickly realised my online efforts must have been successful as when I rolled over in my bed I was greeted by the sight of something that filled me with shame.

Yep it was Reason 8, must have “drunk purchased” the upgrade, something I had been avoiding, as it seemed pointless with V9 (possibly maybe, info please PH!) around the corner. Needless to say I was instantly filled with regret coupled with the aforementioned shame, not unlike many other people will have awoken to feel on Sunday morning I suspect. My mind was reeling, how could I have been so reckless? I was stuck on 7 and had no intention of ever upgrading to 8, I did not like how it looked, I did not like some of the things I had read and was definately not sold on this whole online Alihoopa nonsense, I was just going to skip that generation of Reason altogether and probably upgrade to 9 and deal with all the stuff I was not interested in then.

I tried to make excuses as to why I needed it to leave my sight but being software installed on a laptop it was not going anywhere! I rolled back over and lamented my mistake for a few minutes, then ignoring it, got up to get some coffee and a cigarette and some fresh air to clear my head.

I went back to my laptop with preconceived notions of how this was going to go down, how I was going to politely ask Reason 8 to leave and go back grovelling to my beloved Reason 7 begging for its forgiveness. I looked at Reason 8 trying to find the right words, I started to say something but it just stared at me with those big browser windows and in my slightly clearer headed state, I noticed that in actual fact Reason 8 was not the monster I originally thought it was, it was actually a thing of beauty once I got past the way it filled out my screen.

I spent the day with Reason 8 (Cue: montage backed with some random love song) and I got to say, I found love! I had been stuck in a lull with Reason 7, everything I had been making for the last 6 months had all been sounding weak, uninspired and samey. I had spent a fortune on Rack Extensions and nothing had brought back my inspiration or got me excited about making music (Edit: replace ‘making music’ with attempting to make music and often failing due to being a newb!). I was just about ready cut my losses on the crazy amount of money I had put into this latest hobby and just uninstall Reason and give up on the idea of “trying” to make music for good.
However, it did not take long for me to realise the new browser system in 8 had got me doing something I never spent much time doing before, and that was browsing and playing with the wealth of RE’s, Refills and many many Sample Packs I had bought previously as they were all much easier to see and try out via the browser. One thing I had avoided doing too often in Reason 7, was actually taking stock of all that I had acquired in the last year as looking for anything required me to actually click on open and then browse the unfriendly open window to find things.

This became even more apparent with the wealth of samples I had acquired in the last year. I hardly touched them in Reason 7. I hated all the faff trying to load samples into NN-XT, Kong or straight into the sequencer, was just too much messing around for me and my precious limited time. In the space of a day with Reason 8 I probably started more little 8 bar projects, around cool samples I had hidden away than in the last year! Just been able to preview a sample or a patch and then just literally throw it onto your device or throw a RE into the rack may be a small quality of life thing to some people but it honestly just opened a new and totally unexpected door of creativity for me. I will also add I love RV7000 Mk2 but who doesn’t right!? I can’t wait to get home from work tonight to enjoy another evening with Reason 8!

Anyway just wanted to share this story with Reasontalk my fellow Reason lovers. I mostly lurk here at Reasontalk and rarely post but I visit pretty much every day and usually always learn something new, so thank you all, you are the best! Hope you enjoyed the read and apologies if it went on a bit, it seems the new found inspiration spilled over into my post writing too! Now if only my Reason tracks would be this long instead of 8 bar loops!

Peace,

DinoJ

[cjb123]

Glad you found your way to a more enlightened state DinoJ!

[craven]

haha, great story! I wish you two a great time, surely she'll become even greater

[Gorgon]

Yeah that's all fine and dandy, but you won't get any further than 8 bar loops with that hog of a sequencer.

[Wook]

Alcohol, the best partner of Propellerhead. Seriously now, everything before Reason 8 for me was like looking through a keyhole. After upgrading, the door opened. Browser was what I hated the most about Reason. It changed the way I work completely.

[jappe]

A wonderful love story:-)

Alcohol gave you x-ray vision, enabled you to disregard the appearance and see the Inside, and it's the inside that counts!

I myself remember waking up with e-tickets to a Pogues christmas concert that clashed with a bunch of mandatory christmas duties.
Today, I deeply regret I chose the duties - still waiting for the Pogues to give another concert.

[DinoJ]

Thanks for the replies, glad you liked

Unfortunately not been able to spend as much time with Reason 8 this week as I would have liked, due to work and being hit with man flu but it is a bank holiday weekend here in the UK so fingers crossed should get some time to explore further.

@Gorgon
I personally do not have many issues with the Reason sequencer, having only used Reason and FL (briefly) some time ago, I find the Reason Sequencer to be quite functional and easy(ish) to understand for a relative beginner such as myself. Can't say I ever had much of an issue with workflow in the sequencer. Maybe it is because I have not used other DAWs though and therefore do not miss what I never seen or experienced? Will say notes to track from Rack Extensions would be nice though!

@Wook
Yeah that is exactly how I feel about it, like a door opened. I honestly did not expect this, I expected to be slightly bitter about paying that much for the upgrade and not really getting much for my money except RV7000 MK2 and a cosmetic change to assist workflow but it made a huge difference.

@Jappe
I know what you mean about duties, unfortunately we are ruled by them, suppose hence the name duties but sometimes you got to balance it out and be a little selfish! I really hope you get to see the Pogues next time they decide to do a tour!

[yeahright31]

Happy to hear you like Reason 8, I read all these negative comments about Reason 8 and when I felt the time was right- I said screw it I'm upgrading- there was some people who loved the upgrade. I'm extremely happy with my upgrade as well man.

Another story is over the years I've attained a fair bit of hardware and I was running 1 or 2 hardware synths at a time plugged into the Novation X-Station, the audio sounded shit.

Last night I decided to buy the Zoom TAC-8, all my hardware is hooked up and I had about 40 minutes to test everything out, mind blown man it's opened so many possibilities and gave me many ideas that I had trouble falling asleep.

[Biolumin3sc3nt]

DinoJ - I don't watch tv much but, your story felt of "Bering Sea Gold". I loved that story BW! So true Sir. Keep on Keepin On!