Customer Reviews

Reason 3 Power!

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book because this was supposedly written for "advanced" users of Reason. Im halfway through reading this and I havent learned a thing. It goes through and identifies what all the knobs do and gives a very rudimentary explanation of audio recording and signal flow. I was expecting a book that would give more technique on how to get certain sounds, get better mixes, and how to really use and program the synths. The "advanced" material here has more to do with using the hotkeys than anything that has to do with audio. Plus I thought that with 532 pages there would be something I would learn. Nope, there are whole pages dedicated to screen shots of nothing but what appears in such-and-such a menu. If you own the manual, this book is a complete waste of time, money and bookshelf space.

I've been a Reason user since the 2.0 days, but this book has so much more to talk about! The new features are explained very clearly, and the author details informative tutorials that even a newbie could understand.
I'm so inspired to create new scary Combinator patches! Thanks Matt Piper!

I really want to give 2.5 stars. It's really just sort of a dry, rote listing of every control on every rack device. The examples lack aesthetics and interest. A lot of the better info is tucked away among the odd collection of sidebars, captions and block quotes. The illustrations are likewise offset from context and in funny formats. Typically, the illustration for the point in the text is several paragraphs later in the book. Also there are a lot of partial shots of the interface so you sort of have to track down the area of the device interface the book references. It's just a petty annoyance, no worse.

The info that's in there is accurate, and that's good, but it is neither in an easily referenced format, nor a format that would cause tidbits to stick in your memory. It's just sort of "there". I'm still reading it cover-to-cover because, well, I paid for it so I may as well get all I can out of it.

There are much more entertaining and stimulating books out there -- one which even has the word "Power" in its title, too.

Reason 3.0 is a monster. Therefore I found it necessary to break things down into terms and concepts that were chewable...and found Reason 3 Power to be very successful in breaking ideas down into bite size chunks without giving me indigestion at any given time. Its very comprehensive and covers various aspects that will be understandable to both neophytes and experienced users alike. The only thing the booklet doesn't tell you is how to define your audio engineering process, which is obviously something that each engineer needs to find out for themselves. Anyways, it goes from the basic setup to the more advanced features detailing every aspect of Reason greatly improving chances for success with this monster of a program. Ultimately, the book is written by 2 people that understand music and technology very well and I gotta hand it to them, they did a damn good job of proving it.

I would STRONGLY recommend this booklet to people that are just starting out in Reason 3.0

I just purchased Reason 3 along with this book and I can tell you that it will put you light years ahead as far as learning the core features as well as some of the advanced features as opposed to trying to figure them out on your own. If you want to start using Reason the way it's supposed to be used I would recommend buying this book. If you want to spend alot of time doing the trial and error route, stick with the owners manual that shipps with Reason.

The title should say it all. Reason is really not that complicated to grasp. At least the basics are simple enough.

I've used 3D software for many years (3D Studio MAX and more recently Autodesk Maya) and they're about as complicated as they get in terms of software. Yet the books i've bought to learn the software have been relatively easy to go through.

Reason just isn't complicated by comparison, but the authors of this book just make it monumentally painful to walk through. Graphic illustrations are often pages ahead of the paragraph that refers to them, random bits of tips and tricks brutally interrupt the flow of the book, explanations to concepts or tool functions are sometimes poorly worded, making it difficult to understand them and finally, a lot of repetition. Many of the instruments in Reason have the exact same buttons. So sometimes they bring up the same explanations and they look exactly the same, word for word, and then sometimes they'll say "we've already explained this before, we'll leave it out here". Well make up your mind. They could quite simply have grouped them together in a chapter of their own to refer to as you went through the book for example.

Like i said, monumentally painful to walk through. Disorganized.

However, i would STILL recommend this book quite simply because it's so complete. It goes through every single instrument and effect. All the instruments have their own in-depth chapters and the effects are grouped together and covered thoroughly. I just wish they'd organized this book like they actually wanted to teach Reason...

I bought this book because I wanted to learn how to create great music using Reason 3.0, which is an amazing piece of software. I feel as if I could spend a lifetime experimenting with its different virtual sound modules, effects, and drum machines. Unfortunately, I thought this book was too dry, and more focused on various "nuts and bolts" of the software, instead of the artistry a composer can explore. I actually preferred the Lyford book, which performs a great walkthrough on building a song from scratch. This book also has a walk-through on building a song, but I didn't enjoy going through it as much.

I loved this book. It is very comprehensive, all the material is well explained and most of the steps to follow in the excercises are properly illustrated. For me, that knew a little bit about reason, as a begginer it was the best book I could have bought. The sequencer chapter is great, and the modules chapters too. Like I said, everything is explained in detail, in a very comprehensive manner. The cd included is not bad, but could be better, since you cannot scroll between lessons, it is probably the format, but its cool. Highly recommended

There's definitely more info here specifically covering the new features in Reason 3.0, but the "readability" has dropped. Even though 60 - 70% of the text is the same as the previous "Reason 2.5 Power!" edition, the typeface used has taken a turn for the worse. It's like somebody turned on a bold attribute at the start and forgot to turn it off. That's why I docked it one star. However, the book does a very good job covering all of the various Reason devices and effects.

I tried the Visual Quick Start Guide, but I prefer this much better! It has more explanation on the consequences of your actions, and why thing happen. I found it more satisfying.

There are lots of hints and tips throughout the books which proved to be very valuable.

Definitely recommend.