BogusRed's Sketchblog

Random musings from the PaperDemon admin.

Ok so I finally have the money to support my projects and one of the first things I bought was this midi music program called Reason. I heard about it from some members over at OC Remix.

It's definitely a step up from my shitty Cakewalk program. Reason is so amazingly powerful. I can't believe the quality of the songs that I've heard come out of this program.

But with power, comes complexity...

When I first got it and installed it I tried doing some simple stuff with it like taking some of my piano midis and putting a nicer piano sample on it but I was having trouble doing something as simple as that. I found out about a Reason beginner's workshop in San Fransisco and I signed up. The workshop was 6 hours long and was only $ 165 bucks. And it was worth every penny!

If any of you are thinking of trying out this workshop, I highly recommend it. It's very reasonably priced and you will learn a ton.

The sequencer part of Reason was pretty easy to figure out because my other MIDI programs, Cakewalk and MIDI Orchestrator Plus have sequencers that look and function almost exactly the same as the one in Reason. But the part that was tripping me up was all the hardware racks and wiring. I have absolutely no experience with audio engineering. A lot of the terms are based on the actual physical hardware that is used when audio engineers create music. All these terms I really didn't know.  The workshop really gave me enough information to really get started working with the program.

As a result I have a new piano piece available in the Music section! It's a piano rendition of the main theme from Surviving Together. It is an original composition. The midi was recorded with Cakewalk a few months ago but the piano sound is from a Reason piano patch.

Reason just came out with a Piano's Refill pack. I've tried multiple times to order it from their online store but for some reason it isn't going through

But when I finally do get it, I will use it on some of my existing piano songs in the music section and submit them to OC Remix. I'll also record some new songs.

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Life is good. Work is hard. It’s almost the end of summer and the end of my internship. This has been my first real experience with a real full time job. It feels great to be moving out of the school phase of my life and into the working phase but at the same time I feel a little depressed about it. Not because I’ll miss school. Far from it. I am getting sick of school! But I’ve found that having a full time job that mostly involves sitting on your butt in front of a computer all day can be quite draining. I’m often so tired by the end of the day that what free time I do have, I don’t want to spend on the computer. Which means my personal projects like ZMT and PaperDemon.com don’t get as much attention as they used to.

I am pretty sure that it’s just that I’m not used to working 40 hours a week. Once I get in the right rhythm I’ll probably find myself with more energy to work on projects.

I still have one last year of school left. I will be working part time during the school year. I think I may find myself with more time and energy to work on my personal projects. So basically until I adjust to ‘working life’ I think this coming semester may be my last chance to make real progress on my projects for a while.

I can’t take on anything new. From now on, anyone who approaches me about any sort of project, whether it be a flash project, art request, website design, I will just have to say no. For the first time in my life I’m saying ‘no.’ I have this problem where I get really excited about projects and say ‘yes’ to every opportunity that comes at me, whether or not I have the time for it. Now I don’t even have as much time for the project that matters to me most, PaperDemon.com. And I feel that I can’t take on any new projects until I’ve finished what I’ve started with ZMT and Surviving Together. So regretfully, I am closed to any new requests, commissions, etc. indefinitely.

I was also in a rush to get married and start a family after finishing school but I think Mike and I may delay having kids until I’m 30. I will be 23 in September.

On the upside, now that I have a job I feel really confidant going into my last year of school. I have a dream job and am learning new things that I couldn’t learn anywhere else. I don’t have to worry about sending my portfolio everywhere trying to find a job. All I have to concentrate on is graduating. And that’s a really great feeling.

In other news, I’ve finally got my hands on some real music software. I bought Reason. I’m still trying to get the hang of it though. It’s not the most user-friendly program out there. But I’ve signed up for a workshop being held next weekend. So as soon as I get the hang of this program I can start posting more of my music. I’ve been holding off on posting music because I haven’t been happy with the software and sound fonts that have been available to me. I wanted to wait until I had something better to work with so that my music would sound just the way I want it to.

Oh and by the way, I performed on an actual stage yesterday. I performed at the Shoreline Amphitheatre on a real stage. I feel so special. Granted it was for a private event for the company I work for, but still. I still get bragging rights.

Later, BogusRed fans!

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