Propellerhead Record 1.5 & Reason 5 – James Bernard Interview Part One
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
The recent Propellerhead Masterclass at Digital Village, South London was a resounding success, with guru of all things Reason and Record, James Bernard, holding two packed audiences for almost two hours a pop. So successful, I’d add, that the 7pm session had them spilling out of the doorway and a multitude of attendees transfixed from the outside looking in. For the first hour and a half, James stuck truly and deeply to the current version of Propellerhead Reason, touching on Record but mainly giving his amazing insight into the actual understated programming power and capability built in to this behemoth, modular synth ‘n’ FX-based software.
We’ll be running some video excerpts of James’ Propellerhead masterclass over the next week or so, but, as I managed to grab 15 minutes with the man himself before facing his audience, here’s a part-one video interview where I get some answers to a few questions about the new Reason 5 and Record 1.5 features: Kong (drum designer), Dr OctoRex (multi Rex instrument player), Live Sampling, Blocks (arrangement tool) and Neptune (pich changer/voice synth). Part two to follow looks solely at ‘Neptune’, but part one below kicks straight into Kong. Here, James explains how this new instrument can be beneficial to fans of acoustic drums and percussion, as well as those absorbed in electronica.
Moving on from Kong, James elaborates on what he feels was the thinking behind the Propellerhead team re-introducing the ‘long lost’ art of real world sampling (harking back to the early 80s and the world inhabited by Messrs. Horn and Gabriel, with instruments like the Fairlight, Synclavier and Emulator). Essentially, the ‘live sampling’ conclusion seems to land firmly in the fun and creative arena. Getting serious again, James moves onto the multi-playback Rex instrument, Dr OctoRex, and looks at why its ‘slice-edit’ mode is gonna change how existing users have previously looked at controlling loops, with a fast ease-of-use and hugely expanded parameter manipulation curve heading their way. Finally in this video interview, focus locks on to the new ‘Blocks’ feature, and although as James iterates Propellerhead are not trying to “re-invent the wheel”, it looks like it will be a hugely powerful arrangement too. This, whilst still being based on the simple premise of keeping song sections tidy and neat, subsequently allows fast and efficient re-interpretation and experimentation of song sections along the timeline.
Check back here soon at DV247′s blog for the ‘Neptune’-related part two of this James Bernard interview and also your very own (virtual) front row seat at the above, full Propellerhead Reason 5 and Record 1.5 Masterclass session.
Tags: Blocks, Dr OctoRex, James Bernard, Kong, Live Sampler, propellerhead, Reason 5, Record 1.5