I’m sure most people here are familiar with Taron’s (taron333) great work as a digital visual artist.
You may not be aware of his great musical talent.
I just discovered some of his music on Soundclick, and on ReasonStation. The latter site is where musicians who use the Reason software synth share their musical creations.
If you’re a musician, pro or amateur and haven’t seen the Reason program download the demo http://www.propellerheads.se/index.cfm and then go over to ReasonStation and download Taron’s 30 or so compositions. The files are very small (~100k) or so.
I dabble with midi at home, and was intrigued when I read on SoundClick that Taron had retired his hardware synths and was composing entirely with a software synth. When I heard the results I was amazed.
Really nice stuff! I didn’t know Taron did music too. Every once a while people post their music here at cgtalk (mostly aspiring composers looking for projects to work on), and they are usually not very good. This time I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, he’s so good that I think he should try to moonlight as a composer for games/film/TV. But then again, I’ve known really great musicians that don’t want to make a living with music, because they don’t want to let money change how they feel about music.
I’ve tried Reason before, but pattern-based sequencers are a bit limiting when dealing with a wide range of styles. Also, a closed system is not as versatile (no VST). You can use Rewire, but it can get troublesome working that way. I’ve also tried FL and Orion, even trackers like Buzz, but in the end, the traditional sequencer is still the most powerful and versatile for me. I worked with both Cubase SX and Sonar, and at this point, Sonar does just about all I need, and has some excellent highend effects plugins included.
Today’s music-making environment for home studio users is like a dream. What would’ve cost tens of thousands of dollars before now can be had for just a fraction of the cost.
Taron, is there anything he can’t do? …juggle?! Can you juggle?!
Reason looks like a very fun program, I’d love to use that to do some little home ditties but it’s a bit pricey for me now. I may pick up FL Studio though, it looks like a nice addition to my home setup. http://www.flstudio.com/
What did you think of his “Reaper’s Christmas” ?
As I wrote on his messageboard, I thought i was one of the most haunting and gorgeous pieces of music I’ve ever heard.
As for his pro-work, if you read his notes on the main page, apparently he has done it in the past. As for “compromising”, I’m guessing that if he wanted to, he could pick and choose what musical projects to work on.
As for Reason, the actual sequencer part of the software is fairly primitive compared to full blown sequencers. It does have the basics though, multi-track, cut/paste, etc, so I don’t really see it as limiting. Remember when you used a 2 track hardware sequencer ?
I wouldn’t really categorize it as a sequencer, it is actually meant to replace or augment the hardware in a studio, particularly analog synh sounds. The sound is crystal clear, and even the demo comes with a couple of hundred patches for the instruments, and of course you can create your own.
I just downloaded it yesterday and I’m working my way through it. I don’t know how well it “hooks” up to external program. What blew me away is the awesome quality of the sound. Crystal clear, and plays smoothly on my 1.2g machine, even when I have a bunch of other programs running.
btw, I’m downloading and listening to your music, I’m only on 56k dialup, so it will take a while to listen to all your stuff, what I’ve heard so far though sounds great
I also read your bio, and I share your regret about not having started in music at an earlier age. IMO, music should be one of the basic subjects taught in school from pre-kindergarten on, as well as basic drawing and art … another skill that I think is left untapped in many people !
He’s obviously very talented, but as I mentioned to Lunatique, I think that music …and art should be basic subjects taught from kindergarten through high school. If that was the case, perhaps many more people would discover artistic talent they never thought they had.
Download the demo, and then head over to ReasonStation to grab some demo songs.
The program emulates Analog synths, drum machines, effects (reverb,chorus, etc), and from I’ve heard so far sounds as good and performs as well as the hardware. I guess maybe for really large and complex pieces of music it might have limitations, but for the home musician looking for analog synths and high-end effects, it looks like a bargain even at ~$500.
I’m running the demo on a 1.2g machine, while I have a web browsser open, downloading Mp3’s and videos and running Messiah Studio all at the same time !
I played with FL awhile ago, I’ll revisit it and try it again. I don’t really have any analog synths at the moment.
mstram - hahaha, yeah, 2-track hardware sequencer was a royal pain in the ass. Now I can have as many tracks as my RAM/CPU can handle–what a world of difference!
Since you’re on a 56k, I should probably recommend one track that best represents my music so you don’t have to download too many–and that track would be “End of the Story, and the Beginning of Another.” It marries orchestral and electronic, which is something I’ve always been fascinated by.
I wonder how well these all-in-one soft studios like Reason/Orion/FL work with highend orchestral sampling libraries like the Vienna, Sonic Implants, East West/Quantum Leap…etc. I’m doing a lot more orchestral music these days, so that’s very important to me. With a full-blown sequencer, I don’t have to ever worry about it, since they are in general compatible with just about every single commercial product out there. I do understand the beauty of the on-in-all soft studios though, as they are a complete environment onto themselves for a lot less money. In the end, I do believe that you get what you pay for, and once you cross into the highend pro level (composing for film, games…etc), most will have to switch to a full-blown sequencer and expensive highend sampling libraries.
reason runs in conjunction with cubase via rewire, however it uses it’s own library system and doesn’t directly support cubase virtual instruments. and apart from the syncing there it’s pretty self contained. so you’d really use the east/west etc stuff as before in cubase (or whatever else you’ve got that uses vst’s), and run reason on the side.
Have you listened to any of the demos here ? http://www.garritan.com/GPO.html
I’ve dl’d some of them, and so far they have all sounded very impressive.
I’m strictly a hobbyist, but I wonder who uses the “pro level” stuff? I suppose it’s a matter of $$$ in the budget for whatever the project is. For instance I was a bit surprised to see a full blown orchestra used in “The Incredibles”. … Maybe the composer only used sample libraries as a “sketch” / composing tool, but in the end they still used live players.
I’m not up on the state of the art products, but from what I’ve heard in the past, brass instruments have been a tough thing to do in software, but it seems like most of the instruments can be done quite convincingly. Still, I guess there’s a reason that live orchestra’s use real instruments
Eh I don’t know, I’m not used to all these knobs and buttons…that’s what our studio engineer is for. I’m happy with my guitar at my lap through my guitarport with Cubase to record. I’m wanting FL studio to just do basic drum tracks to help our drummer along with ideas maybe to riffs I come up with.
GPO is a great tool for MIDI mockups, but it’s not that great for highend production–it tends to sound a bit synthy, even after you tweak the hell out of it. You really do get what you pay for, and GPO simply does not match up to the highend libraries that cost thousands of dollars (East West/Quantum Leap, Sonic Implants, Vienna Symphonic Library…etc). If you haven’t, I suggest you browse and listen to the mp3 samples at the websites of these highend libraries–you will be floored by their realism.
When you use mid/low-end libraries like GPO, Edirol Orchestral, or the recent one-in-all plugins like Miroslav Philharmonik (the one from IK Media), Symphonic Instrument (from Mark of the Unicorn–MOTU)…etc, you have to compose and arrange to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, or else you will get a synthy sound.
Currently, combination of sampling and physical modeling is the new trend for ultra realism and expressiveness. Synful is leading the pack at the moment, and some of the solo instruments from Synful are just amazing. I use Synful, and you can hear a solo cello passage from the WIP track “What You Don’t Know” on my website.
It shouldn’t be a surprise at all that they used a full orchestra to record The Incredibles. Remember, that’s an fairly expensive film, so it’s unlikely they’d all of the sudden get stingy on the music production. Usually, film composers will work according to the budget. If budget allows, they’d record with an orchestra, but if not, they’ll either do a combination of sample libraries with a bit of live recording to enhance the realism, or they’ll just use sample libraries. Remember, “just sample libraries” still means super highend libraries that require multiple computers to run, and are hundreds of gigabytes in size, with insane number of articulations, have supreme sound quality (24-bit recording in some libraries), and expert performances (top musicians from the best orchestras were used). Realistically speaking, if I had to choose between forking over insane amount of money for live recording session with a cheap orchestra that I could actually afford, or for the same price, have a highend sample library that’s recorded with one of the best orchestras in the world–which I could use over and over again–guess which I’d pick?
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