Rating: 
Summary: I Couldn't Imagine A Better Book!
Review: Before I read this book I had Reason installed on my computer and I didn't use it very often because the interface wasn't straightforward for a beginning user like myself to understand how to operate it beyond basic operations. This book is an excellent source to learn how to use Reason 2 or 2.5. It contains practical, hands-on tutorials, explanations of the knobs and interfaces, and helpful tips. This is a must have if you want to become proficient in Reason!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Excellent resource. Informative and inspiring. Very well done. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Fills in some of the holes but not all of them
Review: Great book, yes, thanks very much for it. This book is similar to the user manual included with the software, but takes a deep breath and slows down, explaining hardware, etc. in more detail. Unfortunately, some of it still reads like a private conversation between experts. I guess most(?) Reason users have come from the old days and already know everything about synthetic music, but many of us haven't a clue. Someone still needs to write "Reason for Newcomers."
Incidentally, this book also fails where the manufacturer's user manual does, in AMAZINGLY omitting any information on how to record a HUMAN VOICE with the software! Don't any of these so-called musicians sing? Come on. Or what about how to record your guitar, etc. along with the instruments included in the software? Even the chapter "Reason with other software and instruments" fails (unbelieveable!) to discuss how one might hook up a microphone and sing, or add a real guitar, or bass guitar, or... So, we're still waiting for a guide that does it all.
Rating:
Summary: Better than any other Reason info so far...
Review: I began my quest toward fully understanding Reason 2.0 with the obligatory print version of the 'Getting Started' manual. Then I moved on to the .pdf 'Operation Manual' that came with the software, which to my taste, is oriented a bit cryptically, beginning with 'Recording' before ever talking about creating the sound content to be recorded. But in its entirety, it IS a useful reference... Then I moved on to the ... Propellerhead 'Producing Music with Reason' CD tutorial, which is also helpful, except the tutorial song to be recreated is pretty 'yesterday's music.' To me, anyway ;) Then I got this book. If there is a better reference source to clue you in to what Reason can do, and most importantly, how to do it, I haven't seen it. Yet. Thanks for reading, and, if you care about music and Reason, buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Forget All Others
Review: I come from both a training and programming background. I've written my share of both technical (specifications) and non-technical (training) documents over the years. I can confidently say that you almost cannot write a better book than this. It is lucid and contains a logical flow which is normally the failing point of software how-to's. By stepping through the tutorials -- which are simple to navigate -- I've become familiar with creating, shaping and sequencing sounds in just a few hours. Coupled with the simplicity and power that this program is known for, my only remaining hurdle is what to create, not how to create it. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who uses Reason 2. It will be an asset to the experienced user and nothing short of essential for the neophyte. The book is worth several times more than the cover price and ranks within the top 2 most useful books I own.
Rating:
Summary: Forget All Others
Review: I come from both a training and programming background. I've written my share of both technical (specifications) and non-technical (training) documents over the years. I can confidently say that you almost cannot write a better book than this. It is lucid and contains a logical flow which is normally the failing point of software how-to's. By stepping through the tutorials -- which are simple to navigate -- I've become familiar with creating, shaping and sequencing sounds in just a few hours. Coupled with the simplicity and power that this program is known for, my only remaining hurdle is what to create, not how to create it. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who uses Reason 2. It will be an asset to the experienced user and nothing short of essential for the neophyte. The book is worth several times more than the cover price and ranks within the top 2 most useful books I own.
Rating:
Summary: Best money I've spent this year.
Review: I, like many, bought Reason 2.0 as soon it came out, and immediately loaded it into my Mac. I've had only modest success creating decent sounding loops. It's been 2 weeks since I finished this book, and I am in the process of completing my first track. This book is amazing. The manuals tell you what each piece of gear does, but this book explains how to use them. And through the examples, it also gives glimpses into its infinite potential. By all means avoid the Quick Start to Reason 2, save your money for this one. My experience with this book has me so pumped. I'm in the process of purchasing Cubase SX so that I can continue self schooling. No doubt, both novices and seasoned vets will benefit. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Best money I've spent this year.
Review: I, like many, bought Reason 2.0 as soon it came out, and immediately loaded it into my Mac. I've had only modest success creating decent sounding loops. It's been 2 weeks since I finished this book, and I am in the process of completing my first track. This book is amazing. The manuals tell you what each piece of gear does, but this book explains how to use them. And through the examples, it also gives glimpses into its infinite potential. By all means avoid the Quick Start to Reason 2, save your money for this one. My experience with this book has me so pumped. I'm in the process of purchasing Cubase SX so that I can continue self schooling. No doubt, both novices and seasoned vets will benefit. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: Just got the book and already can't put it down. This is a book perfect the people like me who may not be software literate as far as the terminology.This book breaks it down so much that you might sometimes feel like a kid learning their ABC's again. The tutorials are very easy and thorough. And it is set up so that the impatient somewhat experienced user can skim through the book for easy lookups. Don't be intimidated by the thickness of this book because in the end everything that is covered will eventually be needed at some point and time. Complete satisfaction. I recommend it highly
Rating:
Summary: The Reason Bible
Review: No, you can't RECORD with Reason. But there are countless ways to use files that you have recorded with other, very simple or even free applications (how about your Sony Minidisk recorder hooked up to a decent mike? talk about light years ahead of what we had available way back when); files that you have downloaded, files that you have gotten off of records or CD's or even TV, in Reason (shame!). It can be as simple as having the drum machine play a sound file from anywhere on your computer, with a surprising amount of control of, for example, sample start-and then you move on to the more powerful samplers... And then this will provide you with many different ways to control and distort, filter, and manipulate those files that are so easy to trigger or otherwise get inside Reason. Because that is what Reason does, it gives you a studio full of tools-synths, samplers, mixers, and the many sound sculpting modifiers to create, twist, and control your sounds.
And this book does a fantastic job of showing you these tools, in a very carefully thought out order and depth. Like another reviewer said, you would have to be a serious power user indeed not to get many good ideas from this book; and like yet another reviewer said, people that write textbooks should look at this one and see just how well it can be done. It will take you from a novice to synthesizers to an expert on Reason and computer synthesis music creation, giving history and background to help you learn about the many music synthesis tools. It is filled with tutorials, how-to's, and tips and tricks that even go beyond Reason sometimes. You could take a tutorial and change it as you follow along and create it and have a complete Reason song of your own easily. I also thought it gave a summarily good introduction into the powerful usage of the Control Voltage interface from ages past (one of Reason's most powerful tools in it's bag of tricks-one that ties everything together like you have never been able to do with so many different devices), with tips and tricks there, too. There are a lot of toys available in Reason, but once you get past a certain not-too-difficult level, it is actually a very intuitive and very fun to use interface; and this book is definitely filled with this same infectious enthusiasm for that rack o' modules and wires. It is an extraordinarily good book for beginner to expert.
You should see my copy of this book, it is nearly destroyed from so much usage, carrying it about wherever I go and constantly going back to it for reference.
As a side note, I think the Acrobat Reader Operation Manual supplied with Reason is also excellent. It's just what it should be-precise and to the point-it's an Operation Manual, after all. If you take the time to practise and apply what you read, it will give you the background to know what you are doing (as much as is possible-sometimes when you have so much going on in a patch it would be hard for anyone to say how you got there-and that can be fun, too) and what every control does. This book will do the same and take you farther with much more help.
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