ReasonTalk.com

Can you pinpoint one thing that has changed your music the most in the last 10 years? Was it a specific way of using software. A plugin, rack extension? Learning how to play keyboards, guitar? Learning music theory? A highly inspiration track?

Definitely, recording more of my own noodling on the keyboard or parameter tweaking compared to using the mouse. Not trained by any means, but I do know some scales and how to build chords in a certain realm.

Secondly, getting away from Reason for a combined time of 3 years, to get to know different approaches to music making, to use them now *probably* in the Reason environment. I used various DAWs and plug-ins in the past and they all told me a little bit. I got back to my most productive tool though in the long run (twice actually) and I know now that I don't have to look somewhere else. But that time did help to expand on my inner set of tools.

What probably caused humans to make music in the first place - trying to impress the opposite gender

normen wrote:What probably caused humans to make music in the first place - trying to impress the opposite gender

I know for many people it works that way, but for me it isn't about that at all. Good music brings up emotions in me and I am trying to find ways to create that myself. A very personal experience.

Marco Raaphorst wrote:I know for many people it works that way, but for me it isn't about that at all. Good music brings up emotions in me and I am trying to find ways to create that myself. A very personal experience.

Doesn't make it less personal, just gives you incentive

normen wrote:

Marco Raaphorst wrote:I know for many people it works that way, but for me it isn't about that at all. Good music brings up emotions in me and I am trying to find ways to create that myself. A very personal experience.

Doesn't make it less personal, just gives you incentive

Ok I understand

In lines in some way with what Normen says, what had changed the most is me!

I am now much more aware what I am capable of. It's that simple.

IMHO Eurorack format which falls into ‘small format’ category
ph-reason-cable-sockets are rear-sided and buttons them are front-sided. A modular synthesizer ‘horrible’ with clotheslines sockets and rotary regulators, ‘Actions’ in same module »UI is the thingy thing«

avasopht wrote:In lines in some way with what Normen says, what had changed the most is me!

I am now much more aware what I am capable of. It's that simple.

Basically what I was going to say but my slant is that all the practice from having made somewhere around 75 albums. It is amazing how as I listen back, somethings don't change but others progress. That progression isn't always linear but sometimes one record seems to leap from another in some technical ability. Yet part of me yearns to still be as sparkly eyed and naive as I was on my first tapes.

Definitely "hip hop" attitude. No, I hate rap mostly, but the idea of the way to chop grooves, music in a musical but computer oriented way, etc is by far the most exciting thing. This include maschine, reason/kong, rex, etc.

Often very demanding clients are asking me to do things I would not do. But since they are paying me and they want something specific, I try to deliver. This can be super hard work. And emotional it stressful as well because such clients often very precise in telling what they like and don't like. Even for the sounds I am using. But it will push me to try and do things which are new to me.

Short answer: people who get the best out of me. It's not only me and the instruments, but for me it's at least 90% the listener, the client.

Listening to electronic music like IAMX, Crosses, Sneaker Pimps, Hurts, Ladytron, Crystal Castles, BT, Sasha, M83, Deep Dish, Juno Reactor, Daft Punk, Slimmy, Chvrches, Blue Stahli, Muse, Julien-K, Benedict Roff-Marsh, Celldweller, Feathers, MGMT, Lorde, Groove Armada, Inner Party System, One Republic, Van She, Shpongle, Metric, Hybrid, Massive Attack, Imogen Heap, The Glitch Mob, Robots In Disguise, Infected Mushroom, The Killers, Silversun Pickups, Battle Tapes, Dan Croll, Motorcycle, The Presets, Ronald Jenkees, Pendulum, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Naked And Famous, Milkfuzz Empire, Platzangst, Avicii, Stuck In The Sound, Yeasayer, Interpol, St. Lucia, Tony Castles, Monarchy, Lykke Li, Jordi, Elli Goulding, Mixe1, Tomcraft, Woodkid, Razihel, The Chain Gang Of 1974, Meg Myers, The Knife, Empty, and a lot of other music made by you guys right here....... .
...just to name a few.

Great topic.

Easy answer for me:It was the moment ~2 years ago when I realized that "buying more VSTs" was not helping me make music, nor was it making me happy. Instead, I was spending 90% of my time just maintaining my music computer, and installing all the latest patches.

So I decided to go back to Reason as the ONLY DAW I used. That lasted for about a year, and then I did miss a few of the VSTs I had... So I started using MIDI-loopback to control VSTs in another DAW (from Reason), but kept it to my top 5 favorite VSTs. And since that point, I've never had the urge to install or buy another VST.

So it was finding the right balance of "gear" - too much, and I felt overwhelmed. Too little, and I was bored. And once I found that balance, I had so much more fun making music.

Jazz totally changed my musical taste in the last 10 years.

ljekio wrote:Jazz totally changed my musical taste in the last 10 years.

I love jazz. What changed you? The heavy harmonic chords? Improvisation?

Marco Raaphorst wrote: I love jazz. What changed you? The heavy harmonic chords? Improvisation?

My view of the instruments, harmony and musical structure.
What previously I searched in folk music, now I find in jazz.

Musically and honestly, if we're talking the Last Ten Years, it would be two things: Discovering Reason and Discovering Shpongle. They absolutely changed my life. I wish I had a nickel for every person I tried to convert to either...!

In the last 10 years is, of course, little has happened, I'm already too old. But mostly there are small things that fascinate me, a certain sound or a sample. Then I try to figure it out how this little item is so fascinating or reproduce it. Ultimately, you try to capture even a mood or feeling and not technology.

In recent years were concerning the sound, post-rock bands probably the strongest influences. Absolutely brilliant sound ideas just for friends of rather unorthodox guitar use.

Although well over 10 years old but I have also discovered that sound late:

The university course in gregorian chant analysis, and the experience of the freedom and creative possibilities in modern jazz.

a friend loading a copy of reason onto my computer didnt take me long after that to go buy a legit copy and ive been upgrading ever since, prior to that i had no musical experience, cant play an instrument to save myself etc lol

I got new inspirations about the possibility of microtonal scales without an octave (like the Bohlen-Pierce-Scale and the Carlos Alpha, Beta and Gamma Scales) by Wendy Carlos' album "Beauty In The Beast" ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_in_the_Beast

I developed my own nonoctave scale and named it Equivocal Tuning where only every second octave exists ... more about it can be found at at http://xenharmonic.wikispaces.com/33ed4

Some examples here:

decibel wrote:a friend loading a copy of reason onto my computer didnt take me long after that to go buy a legit copy and ive been upgrading ever since, prior to that i had no musical experience, cant play an instrument to save myself etc lol

I'd say yeah same story as you, it's been an amazing journey since Reason 4 and I was blown away discovering what each rack does. Then I learned a lot about Modular synths over the past 2 years. Going on to buying a Korg MS20 Mini and feeling so much excitement about everything.

FL 12 new vector theme change my music...

Buying my first pair of monitors around 7 years ago. A bit of a lame answer, as all of yours are regarding the creative side of things, and mine is purely on the technical side.
On the creative side there have been many little things, but no single point of dramatic change.

The thing the changed my music the most was when I realized I should stop trying to make music I thought everyone else wanted to hear...and start making the music I wanted to hear. Motivation plays a far bigger role in how we do things then most people tend to realize.