A bit of background about me: I use Reason 4 alot, with recycle. When I need to work with vocals I plug reason into Sonar. I also plug melodyne into sonar when need be. I use a waves bundle as i reach the fianl stages of a song, along with Harbal (my little secret mastering weapon!). Adobe Audition is in there too at times.

I believe I’ve reached a point where I understand and can work ‘efficiently’ in Reason pretty much 100%, and now things are starting to bug me about it. Namely things to do with workflow, albeit many of these have been partially addressed in version 4.0

Haha the questions are piling up now. ok first one. Does anyone else get annoyed with the ‘finnickyness’ of timing/synching samples in reason? I seem to be spending much too much time switching between recycle and reason and making little adjustments.

(switches topic)
Like alot of us here I think, I now worship at the altar of Melodyne. but perhaps because its in its relative infancy still, I find it too is quite finicky, and the interface when pulling notes around needs refinement. I still use it though because its so impressive with the way it handles pitch. Does anyone else find this?

Another question, are there any committed Ableton users out there? I gave it a try but balked at it, partially because I hate learning curves, but also because I am so comfortable in the programs I already use.

And in general, any workflow tips? Things to avoid, or develop. I use as many hotkeys as i can but I don’t use them all. Particularly I’m thinking of things like, when you stop your mix after having listened to it, what part of the mix does your “play” cursor move back too? Things like that. And CPU intensiveness.

I have a lot more questions, but this post is already so long I think I’ll leave it for now. Thanks for reading :)

workflow in the creative process can be a really personal thing.

for me personally I found the Ableton model to match my needs the best (I’ve used all the programs you mention and a lot more extensively). Ableton was the first one where I actually had to read the manual (and from cover-to-cover) but the pay-off for me was huge.

I used to poo on Live’s render engine but they seem to have made a huge improvement in version 7 that came out last Nov. (there’s a white paper floating around their website that’s a must read to get the most of it) The price also sucks and I really wish they host directx, etc. but it all just works for me.

I used to use Digital Performer for pro, semi-pro, and enthusiast music making – it was awesome. The flexibility and power in expert hands is unparalleled, IMHO.

When my music making time started to become slivers of time at 2am (kids, career), DP started to feel like work. I decided that I was going to understand why people like Live so much, and consumed the manual and tutorials. For me, it accelerated my music making such that I can really take advantage of those slivers of time, and it is a joy again.

On the Mac, there are several other apps that I rely upon to make flow slippery: IcedAudio’s Audiofinder is one of them.

choices between software are a very personal thing. Some of the dimensions to be considered include the following trade-offs:

* loop based vs. linear metaphor

* audio vs. midi prowess - although some of the classic “sequencers” are very good at both: Cubase, Logic, Sonar and Performer come to mind.

* how friendly, stable and diverse is the eco system for plugins (for some people that is very important, for others less so)

* mac vs. pc (don’t start a flame war!)

* collaboration / compatibility needs (friends, collaborators, paid work)

* cost (while everyone has their own cost ceiling, the argument could be made, that cost is a relatively small differentiator in software, when for example compared with synth or other studio hardware).

I’m less and less opinionated about general “superiority” of tools. I’ve heard people do really neat stuff with almost anything. Heck, I’ve corresponded with one dub-style remixer, who transfers all of his audio source material to 2 inch multi-track reel-to-reel tape, then does all of his FX processing with a big old analog mixing board and nothing but antique outboard fx gear.

In my case, I’m currently using Cubase 4, because it represents a pretty good sweetspot for what I currently prefer. Excellent midi as well as excellent audio engine, excellent plugin eco-system, more linear metaphor, bi-lingual: mac and pc.