Producer Chaka Blackmon (Christina Aguilera, Will Smith) explains experience with Propellerhead Record, Reason, and mixing DAW’s with hardware such as Akai’s MPC and EM-U’s SP1200. Chaka also gives a walk-through with his favorite techniques and talks about keeping his workflow moving.
3,237 thoughts on “Chaka Blackmon On Using Record, Reason, Logic”
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Yeah I totally agree about the sound that Reason gives. The guys at Propellerhead made a revolutionary product that many have purchased but never have taken the time to learn to use. I challenge anyone with Reason (3 or 4) in their studio to just start learning to use it and I promise you will be a believer. Many like to say FL and Reason in the same sentence and that is a big mistake. I think that if you are someone that is used to modules and hardware and wiring/patching, then using Reason will be more logical than you may think. It is literally a virtual rack (ALL sound and effect modules included) with endless possibilities.
What it lacks is a drum device that can emulate the MPC. There are ways to get each kick and snare to “act” like it was originated from an MPC, like changing the polyphony to 1 on the NN-XT when loading a sample. You must do that and increase the release all the way. Also, the DR. Rex comes close especially when chopping samples and sending each chop to its own pad or midi note. (You need ReCycle to create the chops and save the .rex and .rx2 files). But the real beauty is the ease of integration with Pro Tools and Logic. This is where your hardware knowledge comes in handy. I’m not trying to ride Propellerheads ****, just information for the ones that don’t know. Its a dope tool to have in your arsenal, especially if you need to get stuff done quickly without sacrificing quality. If you know what you are doing, the sound out of Reason will defineitely impress the DJ/Producer/Songwriter/Engineer/etc etc.
ZITB
IM AN AVID REASON USER ‘ BUT I WAS TURNED OFF WHEN IT CAME TO RECORD ‘ NOT REALLY TURNED OFF BUT I HEARD YOU COULDN’T USE EXTERNAL PLUGINS WITH IT.THEN I SAW THAT THE PRICE TO UPGRADE TO RECORD WENT DOWN A LITTLE. hmmm SO THIS VIDEO SHOWED ME NOT TO TO TIE THE SHIP TO THE DOCK JUST YET.BELIEVE IT OR NOT IM STARTING TO MESS AROUND WITH FRUITY LOOPS AT THE SAME TIME . I NEVER KNEW IT DID SO MUCH STUFF . THE CHOPPING OF SAMPLES CAN ALL BE DONE IN THE BOX I LIKE THAT. MATCHING UP SAMPLES CHOPPED FROM RECYCLE TO REASON 4 HAS BEEN A HURDLE FOR ME. BUT I SAW A FRUTY LOOPS VIDEO THAT WAS AN EYE OPENER. SO BEFORE YOU GUYS START THE BIG DEBATE I WOULD SAY KEEP EXPLORING BOTH. I DON’T RECORD VOCALS LIKE THAT ANYWAY. LIMITED PLUGINS ‘ SLOW COMPUTER. IT IS WHAT IT IS THAT JUST MY 2 CENTS lol
AGAIN GOOD VIDEO SEMANTIC !
You’re also an avid caps lock kinda guy. hahaha
I love Record and I find myself using it with my MPC a lot more where before I felt a distance between Reason, my MPC and whatever daw I would use. It’s kind of nice to have everything in one spot.
The lack of vst’s or whatever doesn’t bother me, BUT it would be nice to see Propellerhead collab with Waves in the future to expand their effects kinda like they’ve done with those Line effects. That would be sick!
Image Line is better. some of the biggest hits were made on FL Studio. I rest my case.
^^LMAO and SMH
I started making beats in reason the only problem with record there only 16 bit sound quaility and logic and pro tool are 24 bit and you can”t use plugins in record.
I don’t think I’ve never learned something like this before. So nice to find someone with some unique ideas on this subject. I really thank you for starting it. This website is one thing that’s needed on the internet, someone with a little originality.
I sleep in a drawer!