Thx Matt for those kind words. That means really a lot to me.
I did some pretty good progression in sound lately. Being restricted in only using Reason Record is really a good thing for me. I learned so many things about sounddesign, frequencies & mixing etc only by using this software and thinking about workarounds and trying out different techniques. Btw it´s part of their concept not to rely on graphical stuff. They force you to use your ears. They always said that trusting your ears and learn to hear those things is one of the most important things for them. And you are right. It was so damn hard in the beginning to hear things while turning some knobs and faders, pushing the envelopes and doing some wiered cv routing. But it´s getting better and better.
But I´m also aware of the bad acoustics in my flat. My amp & speakers are not that good for music production. I have an old AKAI hifi amp from the late 70´s and a pair of cheap speakers (but with a nice sound btw). Half of the time I´m working with my headphones on (I know them pretty good and rely on them) while shaping my sound. But I know how my music sounds on other setups so I try to adapt that in my work.
A friend of mine runs a little studio with two other guys just for fun. All of them musicians (playing some kind of instrument). His father was a jazz rock musician in the 70s so he grew up with all this stuff. Most of the studio gear is analog stuff collected in the last 30 years. Pretty amazing. No ProTools but good acoustics and some nice sounding Tannoy Dual Concentrics. I´m looking forward to put my hands on those wiered looking synths like the Hohner String Melody Mk2, the ARP or Waldorf Q. His father owns 3 hammond organs (at least 1 B3 and one special one for gospel, don´t remember the model) and two lesleys. They have so many instruments over there...it´s amazing. Eventually we will record some of them. Because I wannna know how to record stuff manually (settings up mics etc).
Anyway, last weekend I ran some tests there. I wanted to know how my music sounds in a more professional environment. So I grabbed my best mix (working on that for a few weeks now when I have time) and met him in the studio. I was afraid that everything sounds bad, boomy and/or muddy (esp the kick/bass thingy), no space and dimension, no definition etc...boy I was wrong. Actually it sounded pretty good. But it also revealed some problems that I was aware of but I needed to know how they behave on a professional setup (wrong choice for kickdrum, hihats way too loud, some problems in the highs but at least no problem in the mids). Of course he did some corrections with the eqs and/or the level of the tracks. But that were minor ones and he was pretty amazed too that I did this only using Reason Record. That gave me a lot of self-confidence.
I learned a lot from him. He gave me my first Herbie Hancock record more than 20 years ago and that changed my whole life. He showed me Chicago House & Detroit Techno. I learned so much about music while listening to my records from my collection.
And now I´m trying to produce my own shit. I think that I´m on a good way. And there is so much to learn.
Thx for taking the time and sharing your knowledge and experience with us.
Sebastian
I did some pretty good progression in sound lately. Being restricted in only using Reason Record is really a good thing for me. I learned so many things about sounddesign, frequencies & mixing etc only by using this software and thinking about workarounds and trying out different techniques. Btw it´s part of their concept not to rely on graphical stuff. They force you to use your ears. They always said that trusting your ears and learn to hear those things is one of the most important things for them. And you are right. It was so damn hard in the beginning to hear things while turning some knobs and faders, pushing the envelopes and doing some wiered cv routing. But it´s getting better and better.
But I´m also aware of the bad acoustics in my flat. My amp & speakers are not that good for music production. I have an old AKAI hifi amp from the late 70´s and a pair of cheap speakers (but with a nice sound btw). Half of the time I´m working with my headphones on (I know them pretty good and rely on them) while shaping my sound. But I know how my music sounds on other setups so I try to adapt that in my work.
A friend of mine runs a little studio with two other guys just for fun. All of them musicians (playing some kind of instrument). His father was a jazz rock musician in the 70s so he grew up with all this stuff. Most of the studio gear is analog stuff collected in the last 30 years. Pretty amazing. No ProTools but good acoustics and some nice sounding Tannoy Dual Concentrics. I´m looking forward to put my hands on those wiered looking synths like the Hohner String Melody Mk2, the ARP or Waldorf Q. His father owns 3 hammond organs (at least 1 B3 and one special one for gospel, don´t remember the model) and two lesleys. They have so many instruments over there...it´s amazing. Eventually we will record some of them. Because I wannna know how to record stuff manually (settings up mics etc).
Anyway, last weekend I ran some tests there. I wanted to know how my music sounds in a more professional environment. So I grabbed my best mix (working on that for a few weeks now when I have time) and met him in the studio. I was afraid that everything sounds bad, boomy and/or muddy (esp the kick/bass thingy), no space and dimension, no definition etc...boy I was wrong. Actually it sounded pretty good. But it also revealed some problems that I was aware of but I needed to know how they behave on a professional setup (wrong choice for kickdrum, hihats way too loud, some problems in the highs but at least no problem in the mids). Of course he did some corrections with the eqs and/or the level of the tracks. But that were minor ones and he was pretty amazed too that I did this only using Reason Record. That gave me a lot of self-confidence.
I learned a lot from him. He gave me my first Herbie Hancock record more than 20 years ago and that changed my whole life. He showed me Chicago House & Detroit Techno. I learned so much about music while listening to my records from my collection.
And now I´m trying to produce my own shit. I think that I´m on a good way. And there is so much to learn.
Thx for taking the time and sharing your knowledge and experience with us.
Sebastian
