is Reason good for ambient?

Am I allowed to say that I hate the term ambient music?

it always struck me as a little bit daft. So much music creates ambience IMO, not just "ambient music"

if you're taking the term ambience to it's proper definition then, with practice you could probably create it with anything. It's not just a case of timbre and psychoaccoustics, but intonation and structure. it's mixing those things together in a consistent,or intentionally inconsitent way that creates an atmosphere or ambience.

if you're taking it in the generic "ambient music" definition, then yes of course you can, but try to be intentional about what type of ambience you're hoping to achieve. Not just washy synths through reverb, that is vague and dull. put yourself in an imaginary place and sound track it.

One thing I always really enjoyed is standing somewhere for a long time, and try to be super selective about what I'm hearing, like peeling the layers of sound away. Stand on a busy street corner, first your hear the traffic driving by, filter that out and you maybe hear people, filter that an you'll get all the background noises of the place you're in, contruction in the distance, leaves on the pavement, dogs barking etc. it's all these subtleties that help your brain understand your environment. its how you know where you are with your eyes closed. I guess ambience is almost like doing this process in reverse. An audio illusion.

Reason is just as capable of this kinda stuff as anything else is. it's a tool.

Well for the sake of having a practical conversation, I gather ambient generally means "music that isn't in your face and vying for your attention," and this is often achieved with lashings of reverb and delay, because they blur and smudge the sound in a way roughly analogous to bokeh in photography. Propellerhead's founder is especially proud of Reason's reverb unit, so it's a safe bet they put a lot of effort into it. Reason doesn't allow plug-ins, so that one reverb unit's the only "choice" in Reason, but it is a nice, versatile device. It can do proper digital type reverbs and delays, and also approximate spring and plate reverbs. While some other software packages might be better for making ambient music, Reason is certainly capable of it, yes. Just set aside some time to get to learn what each of RV7000's knobs and buttons does, rather than relying on presets (as with anything else). So yes, you can make ambient music in Reason.

  On 9/30/2011 at 12:51 PM, ZoeB said:

Reason doesn't allow plug-ins, so that one reverb unit's the only "choice" in Reason, but it is a nice, versatile device.

Oooh, really - That sounds pretty restrictive, is there a reason why they've done that? I mean one of the reasons why I love Jeskola Buzz so much is the completely open architecture that allows anyone to make plugins for it resulting in anything from standard eq/compressor/reverb machines all the way to esoteric multieffect beasts that garble anything that comes near it. Plus the efficient coding of it all allows you to have chains of dozens and dozens of effects on to each individual sound generator creating completely unique sounds with little CPU footprint.

  On 9/30/2011 at 12:57 PM, mcbpete said:

  On 9/30/2011 at 12:51 PM, ZoeB said:

Reason doesn't allow plug-ins.

Oooh, really - That sounds pretty restrictive, is there a reason why they've done that?

As far as I know, it's just the company's ethos. They're like Apple in wanting to have almost a vertical integration thing going on. On the plus side, Reason is very stable and efficient. Even though I'm now using a tangible synth and Reaper quite a lot for fun, I'm still using Reason for almost all my paid work, partly because it's very easy to use, and partly because I don't have to worry about the hassle of finding, paying for, downloading, and then getting software to cope with the DRM of, a dozen different company's plug-ins.

  On 9/30/2011 at 12:57 PM, mcbpete said:

  On 9/30/2011 at 12:51 PM, ZoeB said:

Reason doesn't allow plug-ins, so that one reverb unit's the only "choice" in Reason, but it is a nice, versatile device.

Oooh, really - That sounds pretty restrictive, is there a reason why they've done that? I mean one of the reasons why I love Jeskola Buzz so much is the completely open architecture that allows anyone to make plugins for it resulting in anything from standard eq/compressor/reverb machines all the way to esoteric multieffect beasts that garble anything that comes near it. Plus the efficient coding of it all allows you to have chains of dozens and dozens of effects on to each individual sound generator creating completely unique sounds with little CPU footprint.

+1!

I thought Reason had 2 reverbs. Did they get rid of the old one?

yeah reason has 2. ..

yeah the old one is pretty good as well, it's no lexicon but it's just incredibly musical and versatile.. really like the springreverb on the RV7000.. doesn't sound like a real spring reverb much at all, but it's just really usefull for sounds.

here's a really old ambient tune I did in Reason:

http://soundcloud.com/zeitgeber24/3isa/s-Q9Dvn

protip: just pull up the attack and release and everything is insta-ambient.

  On 9/30/2011 at 12:57 PM, mcbpete said:

  On 9/30/2011 at 12:51 PM, ZoeB said:

Reason doesn't allow plug-ins, so that one reverb unit's the only "choice" in Reason, but it is a nice, versatile device.

Oooh, really - That sounds pretty restrictive, is there a reason why they've done that? I mean one of the reasons why I love Jeskola Buzz so much is the completely open architecture that allows anyone to make plugins for it resulting in anything from standard eq/compressor/reverb machines all the way to esoteric multieffect beasts that garble anything that comes near it. Plus the efficient coding of it all allows you to have chains of dozens and dozens of effects on to each individual sound generator creating completely unique sounds with little CPU footprint.

and why isn't there a version for OsX. You really made good advertising for this tool, I want to try it out so bad now

Mainly because it's made by just one man. And he doesn't own a mac.

I'm sure it's possible, but it's not for me...

After spending a few years using RV7000 and a few days using The Echo, I can confirm Reason is good for ambient and also dub. Just don't use presets and do experiment, and you can go far with Reason.

  On 9/29/2011 at 10:37 PM, slightlydrybeans said:

Reason is a tool limited only by your ingenuity.

Bottom line. The same would be true of almost any music making equipment/tech. In the right hands anything can be made to work.

Shameless plug, but I just made this ambient track in Reason 6, with heavy use of the new echo and distortion units.

http://mostlyambient.bandcamp.com/track/skiss

I usually create atmospheres with the vocoder though. That's my number 1 tool for ambient.

I cannot fathom why they have not put in midi out yet.

  On 10/9/2011 at 6:53 PM, Root5 said:

I just made this ambient track

Have you been watching Videodrome? :D

  On 10/9/2011 at 7:47 PM, ZoeB said:

  On 10/9/2011 at 6:53 PM, Root5 said:

I just made this ambient track

 

Have you been watching Videodrome? :D

lol, it does sound like that.

No, this was the product of me at 4:30 am, after having insomnia all night.

I've made 'Ambient' music in Audacity even; so I would hope that Reason would be be capable at least.

Does anyone know of really good ambient albums that were written in Reason?

The only big name I know of who uses reason is Luke Vibert, and he's pretty far from ambient.

  On 10/9/2011 at 8:43 PM, Root5 said:

Does anyone know of really good ambient albums that were written in Reason?

 

The only big name I know of who uses reason is Luke Vibert, and he's pretty far from ambient.

Well I can tell you that I've written ambient music in Reason which has been used as the background music in several documentaries. Whether it's good is something I can't objectively say, and I'm far from a big name, but it's probably a good sign for other Reason users if some indie documentary directors are willing to pay good money to license out music written in Reason.

  On 9/30/2011 at 4:18 AM, TechDiff said:

Reason is just as capable of this kinda stuff as anything else is. it's a tool.

That's bullshit, before version 6 it didn't even support samples.

I love Reason, but saying it's no different in terms of ability from other DAWs is ridiculous.

  On 10/9/2011 at 10:35 PM, kwikshot said:

  On 9/30/2011 at 4:18 AM, TechDiff said:

Reason is just as capable of this kinda stuff as anything else is. it's a tool.

 

That's bullshit, before version 6 it didn't even support samples.

 

I love Reason, but saying it's no different in terms of ability from other DAWs is ridiculous.

i don't think he said it's no different technically, all daws are different in their own rights, but you can write ambient on all of them.

I think the question here is: are there certain things that you want to do and you needs tools in order to do them? (ex. I need to sample. I need a sampler). Or do you want a bunch of tools to experiment with and dictate what you want to be able to do. For me, I started fiddling with reason before I knew anything about electronic music, so it's pretty much guided how I make music, although I have branched out with a synth.

I guess the OP was originally asking about synths. Are reason's synths up to the task of ambient music? I'd say they are, generally speaking, although they cannot do everything.

  On 10/9/2011 at 10:35 PM, kwikshot said:

  On 9/30/2011 at 4:18 AM, TechDiff said:

Reason is just as capable of this kinda stuff as anything else is. it's a tool.

 

That's bullshit, before version 6 it didn't even support samples.

 

What?

  On 10/10/2011 at 8:44 PM, sneaksta303 said:

  On 10/9/2011 at 10:35 PM, kwikshot said:

  On 9/30/2011 at 4:18 AM, TechDiff said:

Reason is just as capable of this kinda stuff as anything else is. it's a tool.

 

That's bullshit, before version 6 it didn't even support samples.

 

 

What?

You could load samples, but you couldn't record them yourself. So if you don't want to use audacity or some other program like that, Reason prior to Reason 6 (or technically Reason 5 with Record 1.5 worked as well) wouldn't be for you.