What sequencer have you completely mastered???

[WingsOfAnAngel]

I have decided to share my bits and pieces; I have been a Reason user since version 1.0, and basically, never looked back. Recently, i've been trying to pepper my productions with a different vibe, by trying out various software applications. I think that i am being candid by saying that i have mastered Reason and really took its features to the next level...
While trying some other sequencers (Live & Fruity), i just couldn't take my thoughts away from Reason (thoughts such as - how would i have done it with Reason...). This is a quite special case of a spiritual connection between a producer (MYSELF) and a piece of software (REASON). It's an absurd, it's funny - but it's just how things are... This is how i feel.
I find myself getting back to Reason, no matter what...
Each and every track i have created (since 2001), has been done on Reason, so i think that i'm making sense, nonetheless.

Many of you have gotten used to the sequencers you use on a daily basis:
RIGOR is a maestro with Fruity, he makes the most amazing ish, with nothing else but Fruity (and a Wave-Editor). I think that i'm being fair when i say that he's the best Fruity-Master i have ever met.
COLD TRUTH makes maximum use of Cubase and its rich features.
FADE has fully mastered Sonar.
MERCURY WATERS has revolutionized Live's use as a complete beatmaking tool.
DUECE\EQUALITY\AFRIQUE are Reason-Masters as well. And the list goes on and on.

I challenge ya'll by asking: WHAT IS YOUR BELOVED SEQUENCER? ARE THERE ANY CASES OF SPIRTUAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR WEAPON OF CHIOCE?

Open Your Mind,
Wings

 

[classic]

Good thread,

well Im not a master, but i definaly LOVE the MPC's sequncer. Nothing like programming your stuff live and on the FLY. THe MPC's sequncer's simplicity can be deciving, you can get very indepth with the sequncer. ITs very flexable and robust. ALso i like the fact that you have to use your ears instead of your eyes. Thats the way i prefer to make music

Ive tried other sequncers,(CUBASE FL etc...) and they each have their strenghts and weeknesses,but as of right now my personal prefernce is the MPC


BUt honestly if i needed to, i could learn any sequncer rather quickly, becasue they all do the same thing, its just a matter of prefernce.

class......

 

[Sacred One]

I wouldn't say that I am a master yet, cuz I only been working with Reason for about 8 months now, but I can say that I am pretty close to mastering, I'm still learning things tho, reading the tutorials and all of that really helped me out, but when i was a FL user, I had mastered that, but I just fell in love with Reason so I never went back to it, honestly tho, I just erased it from my comp last week, so I can say that I am getting close to mastering it

 

[incogneeto]

I'M A FANTOM-X USER....AND I GOTTA SAY I USED TO HAVE THE MPC2XL...I LOVE, I MEAN FUCKIN LOVE THAT SEQUENCER, ONLY THING IS I HATE MIDI CABLES...ABSOLUTLY HATE EM..........SO THEREFORE I JUST USE MY FANTOM-X SEQUENCER....I WON'T SAY I MASTERED IT YET, BUT I'M GETTING CLOSE...I CAN PUT TOGETHER SEQUENCERS PRETTY FAST WITH IT NOW, AND CHANGE EM ON THE FLY--SIMILAR TO THE MPC.....BUT MY FANTOM IS MY TOOL OF CHOICE BOTH FOR SEQUENCING AND SAMPLING---THIS THING IS INCREDABLE----ALSO FOR FANTOM USERS, NOT LIKE THERE R MANY ON HERE....BUT THERE IS AN oOS VERSION 2 FOR THE FANTOM-X NOW----DO U BELIVE THAT A WORKSTATION ACTUALLY UPGRADES OS's---I'M TELLIN YOU THIS THING IS A MONSTER.....CHECK OUT ROLAND'S WEBSITE THEY HAVE SOME SHIT ON THE VERSION 2 OS UPGRADE!!!

 

[classic]

I'M A FANTOM-X USER....AND I GOTTA SAY I USED TO HAVE THE MPC2XL...I LOVE, I MEAN FUCKIN LOVE THAT SEQUENCER, ONLY THING IS I HATE MIDI CABLES...ABSOLUTLY HATE EM..........SO THEREFORE I JUST USE MY FANTOM-X SEQUENCER....I WON'T SAY I MASTERED IT YET, BUT I'M GETTING CLOSE...I CAN PUT TOGETHER SEQUENCERS PRETTY FAST WITH IT NOW, AND CHANGE EM ON THE FLY--SIMILAR TO THE MPC.....BUT MY FANTOM IS MY TOOL OF CHOICE BOTH FOR SEQUENCING AND SAMPLING---THIS THING IS INCREDABLE----ALSO FOR FANTOM USERS, NOT LIKE THERE R MANY ON HERE....BUT THERE IS AN oOS VERSION 2 FOR THE FANTOM-X NOW----DO U BELIVE THAT A WORKSTATION ACTUALLY UPGRADES OS's---I'M TELLIN YOU THIS THING IS A MONSTER.....CHECK OUT ROLAND'S WEBSITE THEY HAVE SOME SHIT ON THE VERSION 2 OS UPGRADE!!!

Just curious,
why dident u get the fantom XR rack and sequnce on the MPC???? that way u would have had the best of both worlds. ITs good to see your doing your thing though

class.....

FYI: I plan on getting the XR rack and i have heard nothing but good things!!!!!

 

[Greg Savage]

Reason, Mpc, Cubase, Pro tools, Triton

 

[FTdub]

Acid, sp1200. Ive had my sp for 9 years now so I Know exactly how to use it. I have used Acid for 4 years now and I know it in and out and can work very quickly, yet not as quick as sp. I also have the eps-16+, whose sequencer I don't like but am learning, reason, ableton, and protools free. But I am still learning them so that I can teach them. I just ordered cubase, but haven't received it.

 

[Cold Truth]

uh. honestly i havent even come close to mastering cubase. i do know how to get around pretty efficiently though....

 

[incogneeto]

Just curious,
why dident u get the fantom XR rack and sequnce on the MPC???? that way u would have had the best of both worlds. ITs good to see your doing your thing though

class.....

FYI: I plan on getting the XR rack and i have heard nothing but good things!!!!!

Basically, when i sold my MPC, i had NO clue how to wire the MPC to the racks--and honestly, i still have no clue.....i wish i did....but i kinda need a hands on expeirence to see how this all works (setting the midi cables up, send cables to mixers then to the comp...i just dont know how to do it all)--plus it looks like a pain in the ass......

but i have to say, selling my mpc wasn't a horrible thing, as for the sequencer on it--it can't be beat. but the fantom-x is one POWERFUL piece of equipment. I mean, as a MPC user you have to load you sound onto it via CD-ROM or ZIP drive, but even before that you have to send the sound you want to your comp. to adjust and tweek it the way you want.......MAN on the fantom-x, all you do is assign the sound you want to a pad, start fuckin witht the knobs cause its all realtime controls, you can tweek forever and when you have that exact sound you want on the pad...you just hit recored and start recording a track on the sequencer......no long waits, nothing, its so simple to tweek a drum set to ur likings......

sorry, getting back to the original question.......mpc and racks tend to b a pain in the ass, or at least look like it to me, one day i will learn it.............but i'll tell u, i'm learning the fantom-x more and more everyday and i think this workstation is nasty...and i'm kinda glad my ignorance made me rid my mpc cause the fantom is sick!

only problem i am having witht the sequencer on the fantom is that each sequence has got to have the same tempo.....i haven't really learned the easiest way to switch tempo's in a song...but i never really did that anyway, plus MOST hip hop doesn't have a tempo change in the song...basic 4 bar loops/ same tempo throughout...............DAMN I THINK THIS IS MY LONGEST POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CLASS BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN ALL...LOL...HOLLA

 

[classic]

Your right about the edting sounds part, the MPC 2000xl filters really arent that great for editing sounds. But im not to much of a sample head(yet) so its all good. I prefere to record, loop,filter in software and chop in hardware.

Eventually i will upgrade to the 4000 casue it has those sample sampleing editing capabilites as the fantom X and it will be alot easier to do it all on one platform like u said. But its dope that your learning new stuff on the fantom
I played with the fantom keyboard from what i saw it was tight,i just want the sounds though lol

As far using MIDI and racks, its seems alot more diffcult then it is,acutally once u sit down and do it,u realise how easy it is. Trust me if it was hard alot of cats wouldent do it Honestly i think its something u need to learn casue u may want to control some racks/samplers from your fantom sequncer down the road.

if you intersted you can check this thread here
https://www.illmuzik.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8860

i gave a pretty detailed explenation of how the racks work with the MPC2000xl, the princpals will be EXACLTY the same with any sequncer(hardware or software)

class.....

 

[Ash Holmz]

i mean i used to make my tracks in reason . but i never really messed with the sequencer to much .. i just made 8 bar tracks and pasted them to cubase ..... . i have not mastered the mpc sequencing yet .. but its so dope to me.. for me its the way hip hop should be made .... on the fly and free... and the timing is off the chain .... the mp is complex in its simplicity

 

[MaximeRobin]

I have used Cubase, Reason seriously and alot of other for fun. For me nothing come close of Ableton Live. Even tho when you master your program you can make a beat pretty fast, Live is surely the simplest and the fastest powerful program around. And I'm not talking in an amateurish garageband way... The nice sample stretch fonction simplify alot of simpling and the midi side help for drum and midi loop. The only really bad thing I see in it, is that it's a processor hog. I don't think I master it tho, there is too much to know. It's like photoshop; A newbie can use it but you can also dig deep in the prog to do pretty complex things.

 

[Lex]

I've been using Cubase and Fl together sicne I started. All I use Cubase for is arrangeing my loops and structuring my tracks, as well as messing around with the automation and very occasionally using some VSTs. I occasionally use the processing plugins simply because they're so quick. I definetly know I'm not using Cubase to its full potential, but at the moment I'm happy working how I do and with what I have.

I want to replace FL with Reason at some point though....it just seems so more versatile and rapid to use [at least from what I've read/seen]

 

[Cold Truth]

cubase really is a midi monster if you spend some time with it.... but thats me though.

 

[Greg Savage]

^^^ I still haven't found a Piece of software that outdoes Dp4 in Midi nor Editing.. Not even logic is holdin up to dp4 in those fields

 

[Da IllFellaz]

i think my FL skills is definitely up to par wit alot of other FL producers. i aint a cocky dude either, i jus know wat im good n wat im bad at.

 

[Formant024]

MPC2KXL, initialy bought for live purpose with other h/w, now serves for everything. From beatmachine to patternplayer to portable midi recorder on the clavinova to a percussion/loop instrument in a jam session. In the studio the mpc is in midi thru mode so I can control all synth via logic and/or the mpc without changing the environment. I dont really use it as a sampler since I have other samplers that simply sound better and are more convenient to edit.

TR808/606 - Nothing special but the typical x0x type step editors have a charme to it, especialy the vintage 808/606. The newer x0x ( 505, 626, 707, 727 and 909 ) grid styled editors are basicaly the same, just not analogue.

Fasttracker II, it's old but still efficient hehe. This program works so fast because it's sooo basic you'll have beats produced in a matter of minutes.

Reason, I know all there is to reason and had been using it since 1.0 but the proggie didn't develop as good over time, vst's and i's got better and the machines in reason never made up the difference. The midi out issue is to a certain extend a pain, in that the contrast of reason machines vs. hardware is not much of a compitition making use reason less and less attractive that I ended up not using it anymore because without the machines it's just a cubase lite for noobs, so why not use a proper platform right away. I did have some fun making beats with it, actually, all I ever used in Reason were the Dr.Rex, Redrum and the NN19 and mostly the combo of Dr.Rex with Redrum. Just the use of rex files in general since I was working with Recycle before Reason came out gave it a whole new dimension for me. But as soon as I got EXS24 reason wennt overboard simply because the filters where much fatter than the plastic sounding reason filters. The Redrum was still dope though, but one machine is not the reason for me to use the proggie, I've also got an alternative to it called the RMIV by Linplug. So the love died on this one, but slowly, I've probably work a year and half or so with Reason along side FL and Logic untill I put it to deep sleep.

Cubase SX, I've mastered it since the ST1040 cubasis releases. To a point, cubase never changed so knowing the old cubasis made it easy to work with Cubase SX. I can't say it's the most flexible sequencer to work with, but for vst purposes it's serves good aswell as FL in vst multimode. It's also good for my midi gear but I still miss out on environment editing capabilities alike Logic which doesnt make it as smooth to work with compared to a customized logic environment. These lack of interface building made it less spiritual to work with, but considering a lot of pre production studios work with Cubase it's possible for me to work anywhere, any platform thusfar because it's all basics you'd find on any platform.

Logic, since Platinum 3 the shizzle on my hardware nizzle. Logic doesn't do miracles, no proggie does but in terms of editing capabilities a must have for big hardware kits and the remote editing of them. I made a TR 808/909 for the drumstation in logic, it looks like a plugin but it's the interface to control the drumstation and added a step editor in the fashion of the original TR sequencer ( even with flam ). So to a noob it may look like a vst plugin, but I'm actualy controlling the real thing, I'm just too lazy to turn around and fiddle them knobs in the rack. Same thing for the fx units with midi, the lexicon, studiotech or Pod pops up like plugin but controls all parameters on the frontpanel, loads and saves programs. Logic enables you to customize the environment to your preferences, something no other program does thusfar. The custom screensets are also a pre over other programs since I rather work with the keys than with the mouse ( RSI ) and it makes the proces go even faster. I've simply placed 6 screensets under the numpad and every screenset contains the windows/utilities I need, so there's no menu flipping, just working the numpad to get me going. So it's very convenient and all the automation boosts the workflow in the studio and all is done with a simple mouse click and shortkeys.

FL, its so easy and there are utilities/functions no other proggie has. I stepped in since 2.56 leaving FTII behind me. I consider FL as the gen. x multitrackers since it works pretty much just as fast as FTII but I finaly had more sampler parameters, like filters ( which are really good in FL ). Now with FL5 there's nothing I can come up with that I cant do with the proggie, it's that I dont intend to use a lot of midi via FL ( I got logic for that ) or do multitrack audio recording but it's all possible and fairly easy ( and considering the all the features the remix utility by preference ). So FL turned out to be my software counterpart to the hardware setup ( Logic ).

My arsenal of weapons... for every field a dedicated weapon.

 

[Carpe Diem]

to be honest, i aint mastered anything, but im on the reason tip...

 

[mr mello]

Acid 04. Man I cant even begin to tell you guys how easy and fun it is to use this program. I tried reason and I tried FL, but in the end Acid works best for me. The guys from from the UK should get it when I say its so piss.
( I feel like I'm in an infomercial.)

 

[kojo]

FL-my 1st sequencer, started out on version 3, i prefer this for sample based tracks. got the most experience with this, but im always finding out something new on this thing, especially since version 5 dropped.

Reason-like it alot. moderately experienced here. only thing i dont like is the sequencer (no wait for input like FL) and i find it harder to do sample-based tracks, but theres probably ways to overcome it, but instead i just do it in FL cuz im more comfy there.

Ableton live-only got the demo but its fun as hell messing with samples, if i cop this id have to use it in rewire mode with Reason or FL cuz i didnt like making beats totally from scratch on it, but im definitely a newbie with this.