Composer Duane Neillson Creates Original Music With Propellerhead Reason For The Emmy Award-Nominated Sitcom, “Everybody Hates Chris”
Composer/musical creator Duane Neillson is the man behind the music on hit TV shows including “Dr. Phil”, “Entertainment Tonight”, “Insider”, “Rachael Ray”, and a host of other productions for CBS/Paramount and Warner Brothers. But it wasn’t that long ago, four years to be exact, that he was toiling away at a day job and dreaming of a career in music. Neillson finally took the leap, trading an office cubicle for a full-time music career. As a long-time Reason devotee, Neillson used the software solely to create music for the Emmy Award-nominated sitcom, “Everybody Hates Chris”, allowing him the flexibility, and the inspiration, to create under what are often deadline-driven conditions.
“I chose Reason for “EHC” specifically because of my ability to tailor the synths and loops to match the theme and musical decade of the show, which is ‘80s Hip-Hop and R&B tracks. Sometimes I’ll get a call or an email at the end of the day, and the producers will need an idea, or more often a few different ideas, for first thing in the morning. And it isn’t a problem. The volume of choices available to me within Reason, even before taking into consideration the thousands of Refill packages, is pretty amazing! Reason does the job perfectly. Even using the mastering suite within Reason helps me get that fat, funky hard edge, which I couldn’t get from any other music applications that I use. And Reason really is an inspirational tool, as well.”
Neillson cites a host of other features in Reason that help streamline his burgeoning musical tasks. “What I love most, other than sound quality, is having total recall; the ability to automate basically everything and with Reason and specifically, the ease of use and ReWire integration with my main host recording applications. And even though my tracks are fairly sparse, they can become heavily processed with effects, e.g., compression, EQ, reverb, delay, etc., so Reason’s CPU efficiency is invaluable.”
Propellerhead ReFills figure significantly into his work, be it Reason Strings, Reason Pianos or Reason Drums. Neillson says his favorite Reason rack device has to be the Dr. Rex loop player. “I’ve literally done entire cues, with almost nothing else. I do my drums, bass, key/synth, horns, guitars, vocal snippets, scratching, whatever it is. That’s where I tend to start at least for the music I do for “EHC”. A lot of the time, I might go back and play the parts on a similar sounding synth or live instrument, but in most cases, it’s 95% Dr. Rex for the initial creation, and very often the final product.”
For more on Duane Neillson, and to sample some of his musical compositions, go to:
http://www.myspace.com/duaneneillson.
About Propellerhead Software
Propellerhead Software is a privately owned company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Formed in 1994, Propellerhead has created some of the most innovative new music software (ReBirth, ReCycle and Reason) and technology standards, including ReWire and the REX file format, which are used extensively in all kinds of music production. Propellerhead ReBirth program was the first virtual emulation of vintage analog gear—a trend that now dominates music software. www.propellerheads.se
OXFORD, UK−Solid State Logic, the world’s leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for music, broadcast and post production professionals, is pleased to announce continued strong demand for its highly popular C Series digital consoles. Both the C100 and C200 are enjoying attention from a wide variety of installations throughout North America.
“With the mandated move to all digital broadcasting in 2009, the C100 and C200 are providing our clients with user-friendly, powerful tools for television audio production,” says Steve Zaretsky, Vice President of Broadcast, SSL, Inc. “We are very pleased to see the broadcast industry acknowledge the quality of our products and customer support through strong sales in a wide range of markets.”
CFTM, channel 10, the flagship station of the trans-Canadian TVA television network in Montreal, produces nearly 90 percent of the network’s shows. As the audio centerpiece of an HD upgrade, TVA will install a C232 HD digital production console to provide surround mixing capabilities and digital control of multiple audio feeds for their live TV programming lineup.
WPTV NewsChannel 5, a Scripps owned NBC affiliate serving the Palm Beaches, will install a C132 HD to meet the needs of broadcasting in HD. As South Florida’s top rated station for news, weather and investigative reporting, WPTV in August, 2007 became the 50th station in the U.S. to offer at least part of its newscast in HDTV. It was the second Florida station to launch HDTV news, following the lead of Scripps sister station WFTS Tampa, which began its HD newscasts in July of last year. WFTS also has an SSL C132.
KFMB, the CBS affiliate in San Diego, CA, has installed a Solid State Logic C124 HD digital console for their live news broadcasts. The C124’s user-friendly console ergonomics provide KFMB engineers with a familiar layout while meeting the needs of their tight installation schedule. KFMB is currently San Diego’s most watched television station.
Comcast SportsNet (or CSN) is a group of regional sports networks primarily owned by the Comcast cable television company. With divisions throughout the country, the group has rights to carry some or all of the local professional teams in baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer. They also air nightly sports-news and talk shows, post-game shows and other programming related to local National Football League teams and a variety of college sports programming. CSN New England will install a Solid State Logic C132 HD-S to bring their on-air production in line with HD broadcast requirements, while providing a stable platform for routing multiple audio sources, instantly accessing setups and mixing in surround. CSN New England is the broadcast home of the NBA World Champion Boston Celtics.
KDTX TV-58 in Dallas will install a C248 HD digital production console at its flagship headquarters for broadcast programming for the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The Christian-based programming broadcaster features a lineup of programs that is vast and varied. TBN was the first faith-based broadcaster to offer an HDTV channel in 2007 and continues the move into all HD production with the addition of the C248. more
CAMBRIDGE, UK, JULY 16, 2008—Clear-Com® Communication Systems, a brand of The Vitec Group and global leader of professional communication solutions for broadcast, live performance, military, government and commercial markets, continues to expand its international reach by selecting Danmon and Soundware as its new distributors for the Scandinavian market. Clear-Com’s move to broaden its scope within Scandinavia will now extend well beyond Norway, where the company has already been making inroads. Through Danmon’s and Soundware’s efforts, targeting broadcast and the live/industrial markets respectively, Clear-Com will increase its customer base to include Sweden and Denmark. more
HOLLYWOOD — EASTWEST, an exclusive US distributor of Best Service products, is helping to bring users into a whole new sound universe with Convolution Space, a sonic landscape collection. Convolution is the first soundware to offer innovative Convolution-Based Spectral Recombination technology.
Produced by world-renown Swedish producer, Magnus Lindberg, Convolution Space features 8.5 GB of handcrafted stereo and 5.1 surround textures. Equipped with a Native Instruments Kontakt 2 Player, users can combine the 625 instruments to create unique soundscapes and atmospheres using Convolution-Based Spectral Recombination. With over 15 years of experience as a sound designer, creating esoteric sound designs for clients such as Microsoft, Nokia, MTV, Steinberg, and Native Instruments, Lindberg was able to develop a collection that can be adapted to all kinds of atmospheres. Types of sounds featured in the collection include:
• Abstract: Metaphysical and esoteric sounds.
• Emotional: Sounds that evoke emotion from pleasing, to sad, to ecstatic.
• Fantasy: Magical and otherworldly —these are sounds for the imagination.
• Mental: Sounds of the states of mind; ranging from psychotic to the spiritual and psychedelic.
• Scary: Provides horror soundtracks with all the sinister and malice they require.
• Sci-Fi: Helping to bring the feel of the future and all of its technology to your high-concept soundscapes.
• Underground: Provides a feeling that is dark and devoid of hope.
• Deep & Rumble: Earth shattering and relentless in the pursuit of deeper realms.
• Structures: These eerie and strange sounds give the feeling of places you normally avoid.
• Technology: The imaginary sounds of communicating CPU’s, searchlights and other futuristic machines.
“The technology involved in Convolution Space is complex and yet the software is very simple to use,” says Doug Rogers, CEO of EASTWEST. “Simply select an instrument, play it on a keyboard and tweak it with the ModWheel - and the texture being played suddenly starts transforming into something completely different, providing users with endless combinations.”
Convolution Space retails for $260.00. For more information on Convolution Space, visit the EASTWEST website, www.soundsonline.com.
Composer Duane Neillson Creates Original Music With Propellerhead Reason For The Emmy Award-Nominated Sitcom, “Everybody Hates Chris” 
