I remember years ago, I wasn't using Reason then. I was using Fruity Loops (FL Studio today) and I was happy with it. FL was what got me into this whole music production thing and I loved it dearly. But when I got introduced to plugins and such inside FL, I was floored and overhwhelmed. With all the choices available, I found myself exploring and exploring and exploring and exploring and exploring plugins. Notice I didn't say I was making music? I was overwhelmed by the choices and the possibilities, that I got stuck doing that... exploring. I found my music-making time would be eaten by just listening to what's out there. Fast-forward to today and that's one thing I loved about Reason.
Reason prides itself in being a closed system. This makes Reason limited in a way since it can only use its own racks/modules to create music. You're limited by what it had and you'll have to "make do" with whatever they included in any update. For me, I saw this as a plus rather than a minus. With the limitations set by the software, I now had to learn the whole thing from the inside out and squeeze the juice out of it if I was to go get a particular result I wanted. This taught me how to program and how to get the most of what I had. Now, I wasn't focused on looking for that "perfect synth or sound" because I was busy making music because if I was looking for something, I had to tweak the synth to get that or try to approximate sounds close to what I'm hearing. This trained me and kept me focused. focused... I think that's the word.
Now you may be using a different DAW like Logic, or Live, or Cubase and those are great! You may even have dozens of expensive plugins and that's great as well! The point of this post is not being distracted by all the options out there. We can be MORE creative if we limit ourselves and work with what's there, because there are people who spend more time looking for the next new thing than making use of what he already has at his disposal.
How can this benefit your music-making? I know and heard a lot of people say that if only I had this or if only I had that gear, I would make "better" music or my songs will improve. Truth be told, anyone can make music with a little money saved up. You don't have to dive in and use up a lot just to start getting into music production. You can get very basic and useable gear and start from there. Learn mic placement with a simple mic or hone your skills at mixing with the default mixer and effects of your DAW. Know how to tweak the default effects in your DAW and get to know them that you can get it to sound close to things you're after. There are a lot of things you can do.
Bottomline is, put some limitations in your music and you can get back to being creative.
I read in a forum the other day that "A fish can be more creative in a fishbowl than in the ocean." If you think about it, it's quite funny but it makes perfect sense. I can imagine a goldfish swimming all day in a bowl with water and that fish has his imagination to keep him sane as it dreams up world upon world per day or imaginary fish perhaps? Whereas if it were in the ocean, he has all the wonders of the waters and all the fish he can cross paths with and he can explore all he wants.
Coincidentally, I also came across this site the other day while surfing. Download this guy's free ebook. It's VERY related to my point and expands on it as well as suggests some gear you may want to consider to start with and develop your skills at. www.recordingrevolution.com
So there, I hope you learn to put more limits on your music making and you'll soon reap the benefits!
Cy
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