Propellerhead announces Reason 5 & Record 1.5
As a regular user of Reason, I couldn’t be any more excited to what Propellerhead is going to release soon. I started using Reason 3 in 2007, I found the virtual racks amazing and easy to relate to, since I come from a musician background. The software was an amazing extension to what I could possibly have in a studio setup. Anyone could use Reason, from the beginner to the expert. The more you dug into it, the more profound things become and the more possibilities were offered to you.
Reason 4 brought a lot of new goodies, of which of them, Thor. Thor is a beast when it comes to modularity and sound design. One of the great things about Reason is that there is no one right way to do things, producers/musicians adapt it to their needs and work-flow. I like to think of it as a real studio with a correct and clean wiring (Yeah I like neat cable wiring) which helps me to modify controls on the fly after writing the music lines.
Reason 5 promises amazing things, the octoRex for managing Rex loops and messing around with them, the writing blocks for better arrangements, on the fly sampling, and much more.
Am looking forward to it. Until then, enjoy some videos
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TidO_m4n364
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr6LdmW7VYc
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OPlD4N11vM
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbhaeBRb7NA
The return of Plastikman
Richie Hawtin can’t be summed up in a few words nor placed in one category. His imagination and creativity have proven to be without limits. Everything he does has an “un-seen” feeling to it, whether as a solo act, or along his M-NUS crew, it’s always surprising and challenging to live his events.
Yesterday was no exception with the revival of Plastikman. The event was sold out, which meant 10000 people were going to be there. Paris was the 3rd date of the tour and the rendez-vous mobilized French fans as well as many European ones, from UK, Holland and Germany. Time was slow until doors opened at 11pm and everyone got informed via the SYNK application that Plastikman wouldn’t start before 3.10am.
The wait was worth it though and it was mind blowing as expected. The stage was a huge LED screen in a form of a cage which broadcast the visuals. The shape was smart since all the crowd could equally see everything so no one would be marginalized.
The show was mainly visual for my part, since I went there without ever listening to a Plastikman record. Yeah you heard me, I only watched a Richie interview reviewing his career and talking about it. The music was very avant guardiste if you put it back in its right timeline, and I was very happy to witness the evolution of techno music till what we produce today. Sure the records have been re-adapted for the occasion but the essence of Plastikman was there.
Back to the visuals, it really made the music more interesting, as giving it another dimension. Every record was in the perfect harmony with its visual counterpart. Every track talked to the crowd, as if you’d see music alive, the way your brain processes it, well it was there on screen. It was dark, complex and psychedalic at times, very deep at others. Colors ranging from the majestic white to deep red. The SYNK app was fun, I couldn’t use it all the time since it drained my phone’s battery.
The show was an hour or so long, enough to make you go crazy I guess 
Marc Houle, Magda and Troy were in charge of the opening and closing sets, nothing to say about that since they are solid DJs and do great jobs all together. The M-NUS crew showed again that they can make crazy ideas come true with lots of practice, trial and errors (i.e. Contakt shows) and team work.
Overall the experience was quite trippy and I hope that the Richie crew will make a DVD out of it. I have a sure bet on that. Future events are posted on Plastikman’s websites, have fun if you’ll be around.
Richie always beleived in sharing experiences with his crowd over his gigs and he undoubtedly learned a lot from his “Contakt” tour. Plastikman is no exception.
