Hello, everyone

I've been having the same problem for many years now, which has really been hampering the creation of music fo rme; spending more time searching patches than creating music. The tedious sifting through sounds ultimately led to my very large break sequencing altogether.

When I made my first large investment in music back in 1999, I purchased a Roland XP-80 workstation. At the time this keyboard was great, at least a GREAT improvement over the casio keyboard I owned previously. The sequencing layout made sense to me, and I could move quickly creating a song. Most importantly, at the time, the sound database was soo much larger than anything that I had used previously, that it was inspiring loads of music.

Now I face the opposite dilemma. Over time the Roland database has grown stale and generic MIDI sounding. A couple years ago I started to make my transition to Reason, but found it so tedious because my keyboard was far away from my computer. It connected through midi only so it didn't map any of my Roland controls aside from pitchbend and the notes themselves.

After practically giving up on sequencing, I'm ready to give it another go. I've purchased a Novation Remove 37l keyboard thats now perched right in the center of my computer desk, and is supposed to interface easily with reason using novations automap feature.

At this point the only thing thats holding me back is my own ignorance working within the Reason app, and the difficulty I find in searching for lush patches. I often findmyself just dialing through one patch at a time, and just like before, I'm spending more time searching for sounds than creating music! This is more of a problem when I'm trying to replicate horns, or looking for a wealth of piano tones. For electronic music reason seems to have a weath of options, but I feel restricted on most everything else.

Can somebody offter some tips on sifting through the soundbanks to find quality patches, or if you have a few of the default soundbank patches memorized, share some of your favorites?

my advise... take it or leave it...

Learn the workflow for each device, then, you will not have to look very far for the sound you're after.

Presets are a good for learning, and a good starting place. But, if you want a certain sound quickly, learn to design it!

See I really hate having to do that! What if every painter had to construct his own canvas, or manufacturer his own paints! I know it's not to that extreme, I just really got used to the layout of the old workstations chuck full of quality patches, or even the new workstations seem awesome aside from the $4k price tag. Where I'd really like to start is with some lush piano tones. Maybe theres a good piano refill out there?

I do own the Propellerheads Piano refill , should be one youre after when searching for quality piano refills ... me think ...

Greetzzzzzzzzz

*otherwise ive posted some links to free refill-sites in another thread ...why dont you go and take a look on these sites for some sounds ? (Could be that you aint gonna find what you looking for ... but , if u aint gonna shoot , youre always miss ...


Greetzzzzzz

Remy aka SCEZ

Is it a stickyed thread? Ran a search, found some dead url links for reasons demo of the piano refill :\

http://www.reasonstation.net/refills/index.php
http://www.combinatorhq.com/modules.php?name=Downloads (free registration)
http://www.reasonfreaks.com/modules....download&cid=5
http://www.reasonix.de/
http://youproduce.net/index.php?opti...d=27&Itemid=34
http://www.peff.com/journal/reason-refills/

Maybe there are some sounds who will fit your needs on the site's above ...

Greetzz and good luck !

to be honest... I'm happy with the factory refill

nn-19 grand piano... sounds good to me... am I crazy?

I'm with you Loch32! Either we're both crazy or the default piano is great. I use the NN19 patches all the time, including the Rhodes. I must say though, I prefer the NNXT default grand piano patch. I have heard that the Abbey Roads Piano Refill is a must have though. Eventually I'll have to get around to checking that one out.

As far as sifting through patches... I have often found myself wasting too much time looking for just the right patch. A number of years ago I remember reading n article with Martin Gore from Dépêche Mode, where he talked about a phenomenon he called "option anxiety." His advice was that eventually, you just have to commit to a sound and continue with the creative process before the moment is lost forever. There is plenty of time to go back later and really dial that sound in.

Personally this seems like a great problem to have. “Option Anxiety” is a small price to pay for an infinite source of patches.

good call!

cheers