Freesound Forums

c_cinq!
Please do enter the dare! Looking forward to your submission!

Here's a video for my dare 10.
http://youtu.be/bmkjVuUAbe4?hd=1

I used Propellerhead Reason. If anything in the video is not clear, let me know, and I'll try my best to explain. If there are a few tips you have for me, please let me know!
Thanks!

afleetingspeck wrote:
Here's a video for my dare 10.
http://youtu.be/bmkjVuUAbe4?hd=1

I used Propellerhead Reason. If anything in the video is not clear, let me know, and I'll try my best to explain. If there are a few tips you have for me, please let me know!
Thanks!

Nice video, can you tell me what program you use to make this?(the vid)

afleetingspeck wrote:
Here's a video for my dare 10.
http://youtu.be/bmkjVuUAbe4?hd=1

I used Propellerhead Reason. If anything in the video is not clear, let me know, and I'll try my best to explain. If there are a few tips you have for me, please let me know!
Thanks!

Hello afleetingspec

I thought this video thing was a great idea. I have been away the first half of the week so I could not actually watch it, now that I have I am quite impressed.
I think it demonstrates well the possibilities of Reason as a music software. - I have long been a user of Reason and I think its merits outweight its disadvantages... but that is a discussion for another day and another forum

Anyway, what I do find is that this video is a good demo. Perhaps a bit too complicated as a tutorial since the construction of the piece in Reason is actually quite coplex and anyone not familiar with Reasn probably gets a bit lost.
Having said that, certain sections of the video could really be a good tutorial - think of some of the less busy sections where you could easily demonstrate what is going on. The automation of the pitch on the triangle sound is a good example. You can really see what was done there, even if you don't know Reason. So a couple of dedicated shorter videos from those sections only would perhaps be more useful as tutorials for a certain technique (?)

I think this sort of video, using Reason or other programs is a very good tool to teach others how certain things are (or can be) done. Remember many of the Freesound users are students or less experienced musicians/sound designers who would benefit from this info.
With that in mind, the best place for them to find it is possibly in the "Production Techniques, Music Gear, Tips and Tricks" forum. So if you wish to share any tutorial videos, that is possibly the best forum for them.

Of course, as I said, similar vidoes using software other than Reason would be equaly useful.
Can you tell us what program you used to create the video?

I am sorry, escortmarius, because you asked me this question and I forgot about it.
I used camtasia to record the video (I think it's one of the best out there for this purpose. If you can get to know how to use it, the results are outstanding. Clearly, I haven't tweaked the settings to see what works for me ).
Also, I meant the video not as a tutorial but as a mere set-up demo, but now that you have talked about tutorials, perhaps I might consider them as well.
I just feel that I know too little to speak on a subject even within reason (I still do not know what those knobs in subtractor do - none of them, except for perhaps filter, pitch, ADSR, and the simple things). That is why, some of what I say might be pure opinion (wrong one, too), and so I am usually a bit hesitant.
But perhaps, I will try to do one of these tutorials! (Now only if I can figure out how I can use total recorder and asio at the same time).

afleetingspeck wrote:
Also, I meant the video not as a tutorial but as a mere set-up demo, but now that you have talked about tutorials, perhaps I might consider them as well.
I just feel that I know too little to speak on a subject even within reason

Stick to what you know, then!
You have done a great job with sequencing (patterns) using only instances of redrum to play the samples. Also, you can demonstrate some good (even if simple) use of automation.

That is two short tutorials!

In time, as you learn more you can share with the Freesound community.
(sounds like we should definetely have a little collab soon. Can Reason 6 load files from the previous versions?)

Reason 6 can, but when you send them back, Reason 5 won't open them, so it'll only be a one-way collab. OR, I completely finish it, and forget about working on it again once you open it.
And yes, I will do some quick tutorials.
Thanks, AlienXXX!

afleetingspeck wrote:
Reason 6 can, but when you send them back, Reason 5 won't open them

Are you sure about this?
I will shortly send you a file for you to open and save with no changes. Maybe there is a function or option somewhere for backwards compatibility (check the manual).
If there is, you would be restricted to using only the functionalities and devices available in Reason 5 (or the file won't save as version 5).

However, it is quite possible that there isn't such backwards compatibility save mode, especially as Reason 6 suffered some radical changes to the rack and to its internal structure (it can now handle audio, like every other DAW, previously was midi only).

AlienXXX: I am pretty sure that it isn't backwards compatible. Reason 5, which is actually much similar to Reason 4, wasn't backwards compatible. I think it has much to do with some sequencer changes at the backend. Send me the file, we'll try to open and see. Although I think it'd be better if I contact you about this in pm. I've deviated from the original topic quite a bit.

This is the same with Fl-studio, once opened with a newer version(no saving), you can't open the project with an older version anymore.

I amm not seeing soneproject's post in the original submission thread. Am I missing out on anything?

afleetingspeck wrote:
I amm not seeing soneproject's post in the original submission thread. Am I missing out on anything?

toiletrolltube wrote:
I was wondering too, could it also be a post awaiting moderation? Look at off topic. Latest post by noyall021, not there either.

If often happens that the thread count in a topic as (over)viewed from the forum is different from the actual threads in a topic. Maybe something's funny at my end.

I just listened to all the tracks again and I feel overwhelmed by the creativity of all - literally ALL the participants - for this dare. Good job, everyone.
Voting for this is going to be one tough nut to crack.

Special thanks to jgeralyn for having all the dare tracks in this one place: http://soundcloud.com/groups/freesound-dares

Yes, I agree. very nice and diverse tracks. congrats everyone!

As an aside, afleetingspeck asked me to explain the technique I used to make my track. I was about to send him a PM, but I thought maybe it could be interesting to share techniques, tips and tricks with everyone, so we all can learn from each other. so I'm posting here. Hope it's ok. By the way I really enjoyed your video, afleetingspeck, it's cool to see you "in action"

The technique I used is so basic and easy that it feels like cheating: I chopped Corsica's sample into tiny pieces and put each pice in a slot of a drum rack in Live. (You can even let live do the chopping automatically if you want to).

then I just put an arpeggiator BEFORE the drum rack, and recorded some random note sequences, playing with the arpeggiator settings, gate, octave, repetition, swing, etc. Resampled all the audio coming out, and then chose the good parts. That's it! Easy. Sometimes it can lead to chaotic and unusable results, but with patience, you can get nice riffs, sound stutters and whatnot...
I guess you could do the same in Reason with one of its samplers or slicers and RPG-8, or even better, the matrix sequencer!

here's the livepack in case anyone is interested. I just removed the audio resampling track to reduce filesize. Not sure if you can open it with live's demo, though...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/608299/ramacod-dare10pack.alp

anyone else wants to share some tricks?

Thank you for that, bebops! It is a bit similar to what I did, but your choice of riffs and patterns is amazing, which just made me go "wow."
For those unto whom the video wasn't clear, here's what I did.
Just like bebops, I chopped up the sample into 6-8 different parts, and then loaded each sample into a drum sampler in reason (redrum), giving each sample a its own redrum (because I wanted to use different slots within redrum to distinguish between left-panned, center-panned and right-panned samples).
Then I routed them all to the mixer and applied send effects (reverb and foldback distortion) to all the channels coming in with different dry/wet settings to make them sound as if they were in the same environment.
For the patterns, I just used redrum's programming section, and certain breaks in between were step-recordings (where you manually draw in a midi note), or moving the midi notes here and there a bit.
Pitch bend effects were used on the triangle sample, and the "wai" sample (heard later) was put in different slots in one redrum, with each wai having a different pitch (to give it a melodic texture).
Lastly, I used delays on a couple of the samples (I know I used it on the percussion).
I took 2-3 takes of the patterns of all these samples and the one that fit the best I kept.
And that's that!
Looking forward to more tips/tricks if anyone has them!

@bebops and @afleetingspec

Thank you for sharing the techniques guys.

All I can say at this stage is that I am still working on my submission...
This has been a particularly busy month at work and I was away for a week, which has not helped.

In case you have not noticed, I am behaving very differently on this dare from what I did in previous dares. By now I would have normally posted a few reviews and all of that. But this time, INTENTIONALLY, I have not listenned to any compositions yet (although I have downloaded a few)... with one exception (more on that in a sec)

I realized that having to choose only a few samples from a set of 6 and being limited in the number of effects, there was a risk that entries might sound similar. And if I was to listen to any entries that would influence me (either to try and 'copy' the technique/method or to try to avoid it) so I decided to work in 'isolation'

That was until afleetingspec posted his video and I then had a look at it, meaning I listenned to his entry.
It did have the effect of making me decide to use Reason for this dare... which is fair enough as less than 1 year ago that was basically my only music software. In the meantime I have started to use Reaper, Ableton Live and Audacity... So for this minimalist dare I am going back to my origins LOL.

The reality is that I did underestimate the challenge of making a music piece with these limitations: Normally if given no restrictions I can pick out the sounds I think work best (either sampled or synthsized) - I can pick he bassdrum that fits in best, the synth that has the most impact, etc, etc...
If given a limited set of samples to choose from, my normmal answer is to reach for effects! Manipulate the sounds in order to make them fit. Now, in this case, I can't do that either!
This was the reason why I had excluded 'spectral' effects to begin with: because it is possible (and even easy) to completely change the frequency contents of a sound using these tools (it is easy, for example, to obtaint tunned sounds from drums and vice-versa), so you could construct a vast array of 'musical instruments' from one single sample if you made significant use of this type of tools.

All of this to say that I did change my intended aproach to my composition. The unnexpeted difficulty of working with these restrictions has forced me to look at things differently and to use different techniques from what I initially thought would work well.
It will be easier to explain when I actually post my entry and you listen to it.

@ All

By the way...
On the subject of discussing techniques...

... can everyone have a think about this and lets discuss it here on this thread:

There is a "Production Techniques, Music Gear, Tips and Tricks" forum at Freesound.
I have not visited this forum recently, but most of the techniques and tips tend to relate to sound recording ( "what is the best microphone/recorder for...?", etc)
But techniques on using samples would certainly be relevant for many Freesound users.

If we were to start debating technique details (and, of course I do encourage you to do so!), can people express their feelings as to whether they would prefer to do it here in the 'discussion' thread relating to specific dares or would you prefer to post in the "Production Techniques, Music Gear, Tips and Tricks" forum ?

Each has its benefits and disadvantages, so I would like you all to think about it.

Also, if it helps, you can upload sound examples here at Freesound and then put links on your forum posts when discussing/explaining the techniques you have used.
For example:
"I took this sample
(link to Freesound sample here)
and used a rhythmic gate and filtering to produce a rhythmic pattern
(Link to Freesound sample here)"

You can't upload your whole music piece at Freesound, but 'music elements' (riffs, rhythms, patterns, drum loops, etc) are allowed and welcome!
Of course, you can also post links to videos showing your technique in action, like afleetingspec did

I'd prefer to have the discussion take place here, otherwise it gets too fragmented.

I like the idea of uploading related sound samples too. It's jsut a pity everything needs to go through the moderation process first, which slows it down.

Another idea I had for anyone else using Reason - I'm happy to share teh patches I've made using the samples. Just let me know if anyone's interested.

@afleetingspeck:
ah, good ol' redrum. I remember loving it back in Reason 2.5 and then looking for a vst substitute.
I think you could do it with only one instance, though, and automate the panning, but, hey, if it works for you, it works for everyone! by the way, is it possible to route the output of matrix or the RPG8 devices to redrum? (I guess so).

@AlienXXX:
Actually I did post here because I thought otherwise I would contamintate the "production techniques" forum. I also tend to see that more recording oriented.

I'm surprised to see so many people uses Reason. I used to see it more suited for synth work, rather than sample work.