I play guitar and keyboard and Ive been using sequencing programs for many years like. cubase, logic audio, and now Sonar. I learned classical piano for 12 years and had guitar lessons with an eccentric guy who prefered to have experimental jam sessions instead of learning songs which was both good and bad. I have a motif rack mounted synth which has some awesome basses and drum kits. Ive been running it through my peavy studio amp and playing guitar over some of my sequenced tunes. nothing serious, just for kicks. I gave up long ago at being professional with music but I like to think I can still make some sounds that are pleasing to the ear.

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I'm jealous! I'm stuck with a netbook and LMMS, while you have some serous heavy hitting programs! I could probably use some guitar lessons. Classical guitar looks really hard and I wouldn't mind learning that. One thing at a time, I guess.

Why don't you link a song in, its own thread for organization's sake, so we can critique?

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Ive always wanted to learn some flamenco guitar. I learned one of the simplest flamenco riffs from a friend but when I play it it sounds like a simple classical piece, like mozart or something. yeah It would be cool but damn it just takes so much practice. when I pick up my guitar these days I feel like my fingers are really cold and I cant move them the way they should move. plus my stamina is down to like 10 minutes. then my fingers hurt. I need to build up my tolerance. As for programs. I highly recommend Sonar its got some nice soft synths and a really easy to use toolset. You get the LE version when you buy hardware, I think it came with my edirol keyboard and its perfectly fine for almost anything I would want to do. recording and sequencing midi, recording audio and using effects. its pretty complete as far as I can tell.

[Link to www.cakewalk.com]

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" when I pick up my guitar these days I feel like my fingers are really cold and I cant move them the way they should move." -Tyson
I've got a bad case of this.

"plus my stamina is down to like 10 minutes" -Tyson
Don't tell your lady that
These classical guys, that fly up and down the neck, don't seem to be moving as much as it sounds. They seem to find ways to minimize their movements by using their whole fingers instead of just the tips for doing complicated pieces; this is something I'm terrible at.

I'll keep Cakewalk Sonar in mind when I make the inevitable crawl back to Windows.

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I've played guitar for 15 yrs, I've also written electronic stuff.

Tool of the trade:

Ibanez RG370DX
Ibanez RG7321
Line6 POD X3 Live
Ableton Live
Reason

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Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

--Matt

You don't see too many people that use reason these days.

I wouldn't mind hearing some of your work sometime.

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Yeah its weird. I like Reason because its all emulated real-world hardware, but at the same time I usually find these kind of graphic heavy interfaces to be very redundant, because I know what all of the values mean and would be quite happy if I could code sequences out in a text editor. But for Reason, it just seems to fit me really well. Maybe because of the fact that all of the routing is visual through the cable patches.

And for the fact that Thor is just an amazing synth.

I just wish that Reason had a session based editing mode (ala Ableton Live), in addition to the usual non-linear editing mode.

But I think the main reason people don't use Reason too much anymore is that the lack of VST compatibility is pretty much a deal breaker these days. You can ReWire it into Live, but really sometimes you just need a different synth or effect that's just not available in Reason, and its hardly worth it to set up a ReWire and shift your sequencing and mixing into Live just for one or two tracks of your mix. Especially when the Reason Mastering Suite is as good as it is.

I've been thinking about writing my own synth and sequencer for a while now, just so I can play it on my laptop with my midi controller. I'd like to do a modsynth, and allow you to add as many modules as you want and route the signals wherever you want. But I know it will take me a number of months to do, and I just don't have the time or monetary motivation right now.

As for hearing my work, I don't have a great deal of it anymore, I lost most of it in a hard drive crash, but I'll see what I can dig up. I may even write some new stuff if you really want to hear it.

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Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

--Matt

With all you knowledge on the subject, it would be a shame for you not to write anything new.

However, if your stuff is really good, you might need to find a way to copyright protect it before sharing. My stuff all sucks, so I'm not worried about people steeling it.

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Haha I wouldn't say I'm heaps good, just heaps passionate.

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Please support us and post a [Link to www.digitalartsfront.com] on your website.

--Matt

Varnished, its good to see another reason enthusiast!

Its a shame people are put off by the lack of VST support as its an amazing piece of software even standalone. People often say to me "you use reason? its a toy, its like lego software!" but then if you actually sit them down and show them what its capable of and how fast the workflow is they often change their minds

I dont find rewiring to be much of a chore either, and when you couple reasons capabilities with something like Massive in cubase, the sonic capabilities are a little intimidating!

And yes! Write some stuff, i for one would love to hear it.

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