I can tell you from my experience hanging out with John Legend's band that Reason is not considered a Pro tool, though I have seen photographs of Jay-Z using it. Ableton Live is definitely something pro's use live - if you've ever watched an R&B concert or pop concert of a recent band and you see those Apple Powerbooks? They are most likely running Ableton Live for the samples.

As far as your main question I can't really help you since that is not really my area of expertise...but try to roll off some of the bass guitar to add some seperation, or raise a portion of the frequency spectrum to give it a different character, one that stands out over the kick drum.

I don't think you can base pro or not pro on what one person or band uses. I think that you'll find that people use what they feel comfortable with. Reason has enough of a history to be considered "pro" IMHO.

At any rate. Maybe rolling off some of the low end on the bass guitar might help. Maybe using a compressor with slow attack will accentuate the bass a bit more. Sometimes you can take a good chunk of the low end out of the bass leaving an insinuation of the guitar and your mind will fill in the rest.

Whack at 1k. Thump at around 125Hz. Body at around 250Hz. Honk or horniness(he he)at around 500Hz. But I'm no pro. Just a Hack.

Thanks for the feed back!

I cant remember who it was here on the the forum,
but i was having the same problem, And this was the best advice I have ever gotten..
For seperation and depth and spacial width.
Build the drums first and then fill in the holes around them.. That was just magic to me.. hope this helps..

I have noticed with Reason, which I do use alot, my mixes all have a layer of mud. I have even tried breaking the reason tracks out to indivudal channels on my analog board and doing a analog sum on them. No luck. Personally I have not found a way to make reason not sound like reason. It leaves a sonic signature, that anyone who has played with it long enough hears.

Reason?

Link555 wrote: I have noticed with Reason, which I do use alot, my mixes all have a layer of mud. I have even tried breaking the reason tracks out to indivudal channels on my analog board and doing a analog sum on them. No luck. Personally I have not found a way to make reason not sound like reason. It leaves a sonic signature, that anyone who has played with it long enough hears.

I read this interview recently I think in Electronic Musician:

From the M1 to the MOTIF, to the foundations of the Korg KARMA, there has been one key element in them all. Athan Billias the engineer behind theses innovative synths said:

Some of the things people seem to think are innovative are really just imitations of really old synths and instruments. For example, the Nord and Novation lines, Reason (a Roland Tr series imitation essentially), B4 (Hammond imitation), Pro 5 (a Prophet 5 imitation), and lately FM7 (a DX 7 imitation) do not have anything new as far as synthesis is concerned.

Hello Link555.

If Reason has this signiture sound that you're trying to get rid of, why use it at all?

ITs so easy to get ideas going. Plus I own reason.

My intention is always to just write in it, and then transfer the arrangement to bettering sounding loops and synths. But then I get lazy and say "well if I keep just the filler loops, it should be fine". Well it is never is fine in the end. I Think I will just have to try Live out instead.