Inside The Music In The Club With Reason

I get a lot of questions about how I’m using Reason to DJ. Some people assume that I’m somehow synching the two laptops together.  

Question:I know that you can sync analog gear with midi. Creating a master and a slave. What I want to know is if the same can be done with 2 seperate computers both running Reason. I know you are djing with Reason, so if anyone should know I figured it would be you. My purpose is for live perfomace and am asking for help in this quest of knowledge. Thank you for any help you can give.

Answer:Reason can only slave. I spent the last part of the 80’s trying to sync midi with roland din, cv and gate to midi….. that’s only part of what a musician does – thats for tool operators. By just synching the machines you’re not switched on to what’s going on. You can’t always let the machine make the music for you. With the machines and software becoming more DJ friendly I can hear it in most music when I go out – everything seems to be auto synched. For instance take a Moog – it was not made for a DJ. It didn’t come with preset sounds for you to loop and had no synch buttons you could just switch on. You can synch certain elements but you had to do a lot more thinking in the configuration of things. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that some of the latest synths are basically DJ friendly but it seems like the personality in programming seems to be very rare. It would be nice to distinguish a DJ / programmer by his character sound. I would love to hear someone with their own character sound.

What I’m doing is DJing between the two laptops using my ear. Nothing is synched between the two laptops but the difference with traditional DJing is I am able to go inside the track and manipulate it from the inside out on the fly. Meaning if I feel at any moment that the bass drum needs a big reverb on it or I need to tweak the bassline that is exactly what happens right there and then. Also if I need to filter samples, add another bit of rhythm or break something down just to a single b-line. Basically everything I have learnt over the past 20 years now I don’t have to commit to a vinyl, I can do it there and then (to use a 50 cent catch phrase) “in da club”. If i was to sync the laptops it would not feel like djing for me and takes the creativity out of it for me. I get a kick out of being on the beat without the aid of the machine. It’s like the satisfaction you get from scratch mixing records – it’s theraputic to BE the music.I hope you don’t think I’m dictating to you in any way. I used to get a kick out of synching all the Roland stuff together….

“Dreams are created, never consumed.”

I can’t believe how easy it is getting to make music. Only thing is there’s not enough time in the day to get every single melody sequenced. Ever since 1988 things are getting more and more positive every day. I find myself trying to keep my feet on the ground. I’ve taken to wearing those straps with weights on my ankles. I’m sure I’m transforming into an angel. The light seems so bright now…. 

At the moment I’m practising the zen of sampling. I’m taking the counting straws approach to production. I’ve realised I have a talent I’m sometimes not utilising – it’s called patience. Strange though, it goes away if I watch MTV for too long. I found the best thing to do is go for a walk, get some space in your head instead of consuming films or internet. It’s nice to meditate on the now. It’s seems like most of media consumed is always folding time in different directions – either showing you the past or future or someone’s perception of. I found these false leaps in time can produce anxiety in the here and now which tends to kill time – precious time needed for creating.  

These are all just personal philosophies. I’ve found philosophy. I love it.  In my head I have the dream sound. And in the physical prescence I have a block of material I’m chiselling away at slowly. Sometimes just using my hands to smooth the shapes. When I’m finished the model or sound will be my perfect dream.  The hardware or software used to fulfill the goal is irrelevant. I don’t want to slag anyone off but some people need to stop fetishizing the method and focus on making their dream into reality.  It’s like fumbling around with the condom – why don’t you just stick it on and get stuck in? The important thing is the job at hand. I can imagine in the future people saying “oh yeah I remember in the old days people used to turn the TV over without the remote control so I’m going to show how old school I am and use just the physical knobs. I find it makes the TV look a lot better. I get a better sound from the hi fi when I don’t use the remote to turn the sound up. I get a smoother sound increase when I use the knob instead of the remote control”.  I mean I’m not saying this is ludicrous but it seems like there’s a lot of finger twiddling and knob twiddling intellectual banter being thrown about. But it doesn’t seem like there’s been so much progression since the eighties for me. I mean the equipment has moved on leaps and bounds. I mean even memory has it’s own memory.

I remember 15 years ago working on an SSL desk and one of the main reasons why it cost 100 grand was it had total recall. Back in the days we was trying to get away from manual operation of machinery.  We wanted everything to be automatic. I was dreaming of the future where I could shape the music with my mind.  I can just imagine the conversations in the year 2060, some kid saying “oh that computer music from back in the day – that was the real deal – this new “mind” music just doesn’t seem as real as the stuff written with old school software synths.”  

Anyway, there I go, jumping forward into time.  Welcome to my blog.