David A

I use Reason 7.1 to record my music and like to think that it comes out well. What I have found at this site is more emphasis is placed on lyrics. This is just fine but I have always enjoyed writing instrumentals. My peers tell me that instrumental are harder to convey because the listener loses interest to soon which has been my dilemma and a double edged sword. I will not upload anything that I don't feel is ready to be heard just for the sake of a melody. Its a package, the song and production. Sometimes the feedback hurts but usually I wish my music was critiqued more. I hear some songs that are "hot" with dozens of replies and I think to myself, why? The only rational answer would be the lyrics are being used as a focal point to be critiqued because the music production is really lacking sometimes. I've been doing this kind of thing for 4 decades and was a working musician briefly. Now I do this for fun, but the dream is still there and I guess that keeps me going.

Grays4u has a really good idea with the Band in a Box 12 (BB) option. I used BB and it really works fine after the learning curve is over. Any style, genre and feel is available. Reproduction of midi sounds may be lacking if you don't have good samplers though. The next option may be Construction kits that are available at music software sites like Big fish audio or esounds.com. I have been using a midi controller called YRG with great success. It is essentially a guitar neck that can trigger samples and since my first instruments are string instrument the end result sounds pretty convincing.