This week was the official beginning of project "start-checking-stuff-off-of-my-summer-projects-list". It had a strong start with the completion of one of my goals for my geeky side, and today I started to take on Reason and, at the same time, project "Scratch Paper". Reason is pretty straightforward once you invest about an hour of figuring the basic stuff out. The complexity is certainly nowhere near other sequencers/multi-track s/w such as Cubase SX or Logic, which is a big plus. Although I still think Acid and Vegas are unbeatable when you're working on megamixes or remixes which tend to be sample-heavy, Reason definitely gives me much more control and power to create beats, and I personally think it's a lot easier to figure out than Fruity Loops when you want to go beyond the drum machine functionality of Fruity (and more fun!). I still think it lacks a bit in the synthesizer dept., cuz I swear by VSTs than ever depending on built-in synths (altho the built-in synth for Reason is actually pretty good, I just want variety) ... I guess I'll need to plunge into Cubase or Sonar for that and use rewire to communicate with Reason from within. Overall, I must say this is pretty damn fun... As long as I can concentrate on coming up with something creative rather than wondering how to work out s/w interfaces I'll be a happy camper. :)