Musikmesse 2000 - The quest for REASON.

Our quest for Reason starts delayed. 

10 am: The ticket sales desks are unable to handle the crowd of people begging for entry. Soon we figure out the reason. The girls behind the desk seem to run on "slow motion", the girl on our desk even looks slow. She might has taken some kind of VALIUM. Anyway, a couple of minutes and 15 EURO later we finally make it ! All right, letīs check out where to find what. Ah, Hall 9.0! Thatīs where we belong ....

Touchdown!

10.30 am: Entering Hall 9.0. Looking for big REASON signs. Nothing. Whereīs the Propellerheads booth? Cannot find it! Well, we are sure we will do later on. What else do we have in sight? Novation! Yes, letīs check out the SUPERVOVA II.

http://www.novationusa.com/

NOVATIONīs SuperNova synth is a virtual analog based machine. Available as keyboard and rack version. It features a bunch of real time controllers for direct access to filters & envelops. 
Our personal rating:
The sound is variable. It covers the full range from pad sounds, basses to weird synth fx sounds. Negativ is definitely the plastic case ! This machine costs more than 2.000 EUR, for this price itīs just not acceptable. Itīs not very stable (not cool for live performance), plus it makes the SUPERNOVA look cheap. We like the sound a lot, however itīs not really innovativ.

AT JOMOX !

11.00 am: A very small booth here at JOMOX. This German company is the inventor of the  XBASE-09, a hardware drum computer which is the only alternativ to a real TR-909. 
 

http://www.jomox.de/

Our personal rating:
Of course, itīs not new, however we think it defenetively needs to be mentioned here. The programming of patterns is very similar to TR909 programming. In addition it adds some cool new features like i.E. reverse sounds which makes it even more worth to buy. The sounds are based on samples and can be changed by replacing the ROM! You allready have a 909? Well not a problem. You can change your XBase into a 808 i.E. -  a friend of us did that! A great feature. The Base Drum is truely analog. We think itīs the only "weak" sound - compared to the original 909. Itīs just not that pumping as it should be. The price is lower than the current price for used 909s. So people looking for a hardware drum computer defenetively want to check this machine out!

But thatīs not what we are looking for. SUNSYN! Yes, here it is. A new true-analog synth! No virtual "GEN product" (JOMOX product broshure), itīs the return of the analog dinosaur!

http://www.jomox.de/

Our personal rating:  Coolness:
"The JoMoX SunSyn finally continous the range of big and exiting analog synthesizers.  Expanding the well-known capabillities, the SunSyn connects extensive sound generation and -processeng features with most intuitive acces in every studio and live setting." "XOMOX Statement on Homepage)
We have to wait for the headphones. Oh come on, dude! A guy is checking out the Sunsyn. The background drum loop created by the XBase repeats itself  every minute and starts getting boring ...  5 mins later he lifts the headphones. Yes, thatīs our chance! Oh no, he is looking around for some assistance. After another 5 mins. of discussion with Jomox staff he finally is done! Here we go.
Hmmm ....... real analog ... cool .... wow, this thing is heavy! It weights well over 12 Kg! The sound, well, truely analog. Innovativ? Well, the time is really too short to figure it out. Compared to the current virtual synths the sound is a bit weak. the reason is at hand: no internal effects improve the sound. All we here is dry, clear and true-analog sound! Maybe itīs just turned off, we donīt know.
Resumee: The price is well > 2.000 EUR as far as we know. We feel this synth could probably become a classic. However, itīll defenetively not find itīs way into our studio since current virtual synths offer more performance at a lower prince. For those who can spend the money, check it out! 

12.00 am:
Still looking for Propellerheads, still looking for REASON! We check out STEINBERG, the german distributor. They really should be able to tell us. 

CelticSons: "Hello, where can we find Propellerheads?"
STEINBERG Staff#1: "What? I donīt know. Sorry."
STEINBERG Staff#2: "Yes, you can find them over there (pointing with his hand to the other side of the hall)".

Good news! We wonder why staff#1 did not know this. Anyway, Steinberg is Steinberg. What can you expect from a company who donīt even respond to Emails regarding ReBirth i.E.? Forget īem ! Better letīs get our asses moving - heading REASON !

Oh wait ! This is cool ! CLAVIA.
12.15 am: We donīt expect much new since we have checked their homepage a couple of days ago looking for some new stuff. But hey, what the hell is that?

NORD LEAD III 

picture showing Nord Rack 2
http://www.clavia.se/nordlead.htm

To put it straight: The new Nord Lead III is one of the machines mentioned in the introduction. 1st we notice the updated user front end. We find a feature we were looking for a long period of time. Each knob contains a circuit of LEDs indicating the actual value, the virtual position of the knob. Now, if you turn the knob, the value is not overwritten anymore! 
Hereīs an example: The knob for Cut-Off frequency points to the minimum value. You select a different program and notice that the LED shows a value of 2/3. Now, if you turn the knob to the left side, the value does not longer jump down to the current position of the knob, it raises as you turn the knob! The knobs have endless function of course.
The sound kicks serious butt ! Itīs very clean and smooth, great for pad sounds, on the other hand it can sound dirty, kickinī, weird, strange ... hard to describe. We feel that both the dynamic as well as the frequency range are greatly improved. We cannot tell more at this time. The timeīs just too short. 

They start a demonstration show at their booth right now  while we got the chance to speak to a Clavia staff member. Hereīs what he said:
- NordLead III will be available in Summer (probably August)
- NordLead III (Keyboard) will cost 2.000 EUR, he was not quite sure though
- NordLead III will be available as a rack version too.
- Technical details which sound very interesting - if we only knew what he is talking about ;-)

Our personal rating:
Who wants to buy our old NordRack 2?

Heading on for Reason. Where did the STEINBERG guy say Propellerheads are supposed to be? Anyway, we keep looking for it. 

01.00 pm: We arrive at the Waldorf booth.

Waldorf "Q"

Small (rack version), yellow and neat. Thatīs our 1st impression. What will we hear? Microwave sound as usual?

http://www.waldorf-gmbh.de

Our personal rating: -
We try to create really sick sounds. This machine suprises us. Without a problem we can create sounds which youīd expect to be created by a Jupiter-6 or something, but not by a new virtual analog synth. The user front end is similar to Microwaveīs. The Argeggiator can be accessed on the front panel, thereīs even control for the different steps via buttons! Great! The prices start at EUR 1.600 for the 16-voice rack version. The 32-voice version is about EUR 1.900. A seperate Voice-Expansion is available, so you can upgrade the 16-voice version - however itīs more expensive than bying the 32-voice version directly - very suprising ;-)

1.30 pm: No Propellerheads, no Reason. We feel that the STEINBERG guy did not tell us the truth. So we check back their booth. Cubase_VST show on the big screen all the time. We ask another guy for Propellerheads & Reason. His answer was "No, they are not here. But thereīll be a demo in about 1 hour. Check it out, REASON is great!". Finally we found a guy who seems to know what he is talking about. So we will be back here in 54 minutes!

In the meantime we get a quick

Access to VIRUS "B"

Of course, itīs not new. Due to itīs attractive price (< EUR 1.500 for the rack version) and great sound we descided to mention it here.

Our personal rating: -
Already a classic, this synth still rocks. The sounds are very brilliant and flexibel. It covers the whole area from weird sounds to nice pad sounds at a high quality. A new operating system ("OS4") is supposed to come out very shortly, It can be downloaded from the internet as a standard midi file and uploaded into your system.
The only negativ thing we noticed, that the 16 (!) internal arppegiators cannot be accessed by knobs on the front panel. OS4 will change this - as least one of the Virus designers tells us so.

Now itīs 2.20 pm, we are heading back to STEINBERG. Again we see the end of the CUBASE VST show. We notice that all their demos run on MAC systems. We watched the same at the LOGIC booth too. Well, of course, LOGIC is defentively the no. 1 software sequencer on the MAC. So thatīs not surprising. On Windows systems, defenetively CUBASE is. So the only reason we see for  STEINBERGīs behavior is very simple. If you run a demonstration on a show, where many people watch, you donīt want to have an application crash, or even a OS crash. So, PC users out there, think about it. 

Anyway, in the meantime they are finished and announce the next show to come:

REASON

www.propellerheads.se

We can see 2 men entering the arena. The 1st looks like one of the guys playing guitar in the movie "From Dusk Till Dawn", the 2nd is way smaller, American obviously. We can see a VIRUS which is connected to a Powerbook via standard Midi cabling. They change some cabling and *bang*, we can see the Powerbookīs desktop on the big screens. All right, allīs set. The smaller guy - his nameīs Rodney btw. - begins the show introducing REASON by playing a song created by Mr. Peff. The song sounds cool, however we cannot say anything about the sound quality since the speakers of STEINBERG suck. After that he explains the basic concept of REASON. Itīs pretty much the same you can read on Propellerheads homepage. 
He starts by opening a mixer.
"Give me a mixer!" he says to the long haired guy. On the screen a 24 channel mixing console comes up. 1st impression: very cleaned up interface, people who know how a real mixer works will have no problems to manage it.
"Give me a loop!" Rodney shouts and the Guitar player clicks on the top menu and *bang* thereīs a new element on the screen, placed right below the mixer. He loads a loop real quick. This loop is already trimmed with ReCycle. A cool thing is that you can alter the different drum elements like you can do it in ReCycle. He starts Reason and we can hear a drum loop, He lowers the speed and the loop follows without noticable latency. He raises the speed to a higher value. Same deal here. The loop follows. Itīs pretty much the same like you can do with ACID. 
"Give me a sample!" Rodney shouts (he was enjoying it obviously) and here we go, a new element jumps to the screen right below the loop machine. Now he loads a sample into the memory and demonstrates how to play it live. Ah, thatīs the reason why they have VIRUS here. The long-haird Bombenleger played a sound on the Virus while Rodney explains that "all we hear is generated by Reason and comes out of the standard sound interface of the Powerbook". He adds, that every standard sound card on a PC can do the same. "No additional expensive hardware required!"
"Now give me a piano sound!" Rodney is getting excited. The other guy does and ..... oh give me a second ... well.... "This never happened before!" Rodney comments the serious system crash.
While the Powerbook reboots he says that Propellerheads are the best programmers of software synths on earth. He adds that this software is Alpha-Software which has not been tested before, but never crashed before. Hmmm... never crashed and never tested. Back on track again.
"Give me a synth!" and the guy does by selecting it from the top menu. It looks pretty much the same like current rack versions of the virtual analog synths do. A bunch of knobs for various filters and envelops.
"Give me another synth!" he says and Mr. Long Hair does. You can have as many synths as you want. Itīs just limited by the CPU power. He opens up a voltage controlled matrix. This can control the synths. Or you can play the synths via midi.
"Give me a drum machine!" Rodney shouts. Here we go, on the screen we can see something like a hardware drum machine, obviously pattern based. Rodney explains that every sample can be assigned to the instruments. Of course, there are some pre-programmed setups. We cannot say much about the way of prgramming. From what we can see, itīll probably the same as it is in ReBirth.

"I want effects. Give me effects!" and after 2 seconds thereīs a reverb effect on the screen. After that he adds a delay effect and a phaser effect. 

Now comes the real cool thing of Reason. By clicking a button, the whole rack turns around and we can see the back side of the rack. The cables are moving a little bit from turning. Yeah, thatīs Propellerheads! You can now change the signal routing by picking the cables up and dragging it down over the new socket. Very cool.

At the end, Rodney tells us something about the latency. He claims the latency is better than it is in hardware machines. Well, we cannot believe it as it depends on the computer system you use and the hardware installed. However, he seems to be 100% sure about that. He continous by mentioning the ReWire support - that way you can run Reason and Cubase together with no latency. The signals of Reason are routed to the mixing console of Cubase.

The demonstration ends. They play a last song. Itīs a simple arranged dance song with a bass, a synth line and some percussions. Not much elements. We watched the CPU usage displaying 40 %.  As Propellerheads recommend you should have at least a PII 333 minimum to run Reason. You defenetively can believe it! Remember, the demo ran on a 500 Mhz RockīnīRoll Powerbook - probably one of the fastest laptops on this planet. And the CPU usage was at 40-50% % playing a simple song.

Enough data, letīs get emotional.
REASON is a truely new concept. Itīs a real production software which contains everything you need for creating techno, dance, trance or other electronic music. Thereīs nothing similar available, itīs a revolution. If the sound will be as good as the concept, the developers of hardware synths and samplers should be prepared. If the quality of the effects section will be at the level of current plug-in effects, it would be a real kick in the ass. 
So the sound quality will descide if itīs a real professional tool or "just" another but brilliant computer synth. The price will be at EUR 400. The price for a high quality reverb plug in like TC-Native Reverb is about the same. We just cannot believe that the sound quality of Reason, specially when it comes to effects, will be good enough that you can throw your hardware studio out of the window. If you do, please inform us, weīll be there. :-)
If we are wrong, it would be to good to be true.

Our personal rating:

Thereīs one thing we are 100% sure of:

"The Age Of Reason Is Beginning!"

[ back to Rebirth home]

[ReBirth] [homepage]