Propellerheads' Reason

August 24th, 2009 – I was watching a Youtube Propellerhead video where Cobra Starship explained how they used Reason. In the comments, a user wrote: “it makes me sick to know so many great producers that actually understand the program in and out then see these guys make a total joke of it and themselves as they make millions in record and ticket sales using it”.

Since when did knowing a piece of software, or gear, become a requirement for success? Just because someone doesn’t know everything about their tool, means they don’t deserve success? Good music is about the song. Yes, knowing how to use your tools effectively can help you, and provide more options, but just knowing everything about software, or gear, does not mean you can make great music. If anything, you must be a strong enough songwriter or producer to leverage those tools; it’s not the other way around.

Ironically, Cobra Starship have the same mentality in another clip when they disparage Justice whom they owe a lot of their sound to. We can all say, “I could have done that”, but the fact is that we didn’t. Someone was there to give us the idea. The idea is the hard part, learning software or gear is the easy part.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 10:52 pm.
Categories: Engineering, Featured Articles, Producing, Songwriting.

6 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. Sebastien Orban

    Right on the spot !

    Another question would “why so serious ?” to mimic the Joker. After all, don’t we PLAY music ?

    Aug 25th, 2009

  2. Joe Gilder

    So true, Sean. I’m constantly baffled by how people will put off making music for years while they either buy better gear or learn how to use the gear. Just make some music already!

    Aug 25th, 2009

  3. Sean

    Good points guys!

    Aug 25th, 2009

  4. James Lewin

    Good post!

    An argument could be made that some of the most interesting music is made by musicians that play their instruments in ways that are “wrong”.

    Django, King Tubby and Brian Eno come to mind….

    Aug 25th, 2009

  5. Sean

    @James Lewin : funny you should mention playing an instrument “wrong”. I always wanted to learn the cello (I played a little violin when I was a kid), but I wanted to teach myself so that I might learn to play an interesting way.

    Aug 25th, 2009

  6. Dan Foley

    Yes indeed, this is something we should always remember! The audience don’t care whether you used a preset from Fuity Loops or spent hours programming a synth sound from scratch in Reaktor – they just listen to the end result for what it is…

    Sep 3rd, 2009

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