EditEd4TV
How Reason shifted me from hardware to software
The Analog Days
I grew up in the 70's, when disco was king, and I spent a lot of my time learning songs on piano and organ. But it wasn't until the early 80's that I took a deep dive into synthesizers. Armed with a Sequential Circuits Pro-One, I was on a self taught mission to recreate all the sounds I heard on my favorite 80's tunes. Through the years I gathered up my money in stages and one by one I purchased a Prophet-600, Kawai K3, Drumtraks, Korg DSS-1 and DDD-5, and more.
Into the 90's I continued sequencing songs on a Mac (Performer), then an Amiga (Bars & Pipes Pro). I filtered through a few bands but was always entranced by building up full works by myself at home, on my computers.
By the late 90's I slowly and permanently damaged my back at work, which meant it was nearly impossible to sit in front of a screen for hours at home, not to mention transport heavy gear to and from gigs. And then...
The Age of Reason
Some time around 2001 my friend dropped a copy of Reason 1.0 on my desk at work. It sat there for a few weeks because I simply lost all interest in music production as a whole - how could I do anything when my back hurt so much? On a slow Friday, I finally installed the software. My jaw literally dropped - here was all the familiarity of racks of gear, with all the analog synths and drum machines and mixers and effects I could ever need. My analog treasures migrated to the closet (yes, that's sad, but I happily still own it all) and Reason became my new home.
Fast forward to 2025... over the past 24 years I've used Reason exclusively to create hundreds of my own songs, and I've recreated hundreds of cover songs (mostly 80's), all made up of thousands of custom patches that all begin from the ground up initialized default state of any given Reason synth I'm working with. Thanks to the decades of working with all the analog synths and drum machines, my ears and brain can build an accurate patch much quicker than sifting through sometimes hundreds of presets.
What This Means For You
Once I was familiar enough with Reason and built a name for myself online, I began selling my files. It began with a collection called "Reasonable Help" which offered some bizarre and esoteric Reason creations that somewhat bent the rules of what you should be doing in Reason. Eventually I joined an 80's cover band and we started using my sequences on stage, and soon enough I figured I could earn a few extra dollars selling these patches I was making for the band.
It began with my "88 MPH V.1" ReFill, featuring roughly 50 patches from a few of the 80's songs I recreated in what I call a "ReCover". At that time, the Combinator was a basic 4 knob + 4 button bunny, but of course it has grown to be much more of a monster these days. I eventually released "88 MPH V.2" and "88 MPH V.3", each with roughly 50 patches each.
Has it really been 11 years since V.3 came out? What a shock. So here I am, 11 years later, with enough new patches to create another 4 or 5 ReFills for you, so be on the lookout for V.4 through V.8 beginning as soon as possible.
But there's more news... though the ReFills have always been a hit, many of my customers ask for the sequence data; the notes and tracks that make up these songs. They want the full Reason file. I've always been a little reluctant to sell these files as they're precious works that I've slaved over, thus they're basically priceless to me, and if everyone out there has them, what would make me stand out? Well... those days are over.
This is like Willy Wonka opening the chocolate factory - I will soon be selling individual Reason song files, housing all the patches needed, along with the sequence data - it's everything... you'll press PLAY and be transported back to our favorite decade. From Michael Jackson to the Pet Shop Boys, Tears for Fears, Van Halen, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Oingo Boingo, Journey, Billy Idol, Bananarama, Depeche Mode and more... it's all on the near horizon.
So go visit the store and find what you're looking for.