Earlier this year, Groovebox Music introduced a series of video tutorials for Reason which are accessed through a subscription website. For quite sometime now, I’ve been in contact with Asa Doyle of Groovebox Music, and I’ve finally had a chance to go through and check things out.

The video tutorials are nice large 800×600 screen animation captures in Quicktime Movie format with a voiceover explaining the procedure as well as audio from Reason. The video animation medium is great educational delivery system and allow viewers to see mouse movements, which buttons to click, menu item selections, and at the same time, hear the audio feedback from the software.

As reason has evolved over the years, it still has a few idiosyncrasies that people, especially new users, have difficulty understanding, and these video tutorials are a way to learn by watching someone else use the software. The pace will most likely languish the seasoned user, but this is quite suitable for those who are just learning the software. The comprehensive content range covers the general Reason controls and operating procedures.

The only criticism I might add is that there are spans of time where you view absolutely no movement during the movie, and must concentrate on the dialogue only. These periods could benefit from a few splash pages that add visual cues to help people visualize what the dialogue is explaining. Of course, if you miss something, you can simply drag the progress bar back on the quicktime movie and repeat that portion of the tutorial. There are several free example chapters available, and all you need a is a fairly fast connection.

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