Home

Propellerhead Reason - 5.0 Getting Started Guide

1. SA TUTORIAL 1 PLAYING A SONG REASON 45 13 Raise the Aux send level knobs at the top of a mixer channel Send 1 is connected to the delay while send 2 goes to the chorus flanger The Aux sends Now let s try tweaking some controls on an actual instrument device to change the sound In this example we will use the Subtractor synthesizer device but all devices have parameters that can be adjusted on the device panels in the same way Unless you have a very large screen the Subtractor device isn t visible right now You could use the scroll bar to scroll the rack down but here s a quicker way 14 In the sequencer area above the transport panel click on the name Subtractor in the track list to the left The rack is automatically scrolled to bring the Subtractor device into view 15 Try adjusting some parameters while the song is playing You may for example want to tweak the Filter 1 Freq slider to change the brightness of the synth bass sound Hotch HF 12 BP 12 LE 12 a Legg e Frog Res TT That concludes the first tutorial TUTORIAL 1 PLAYING A SONG SA REASON Chapter 5 Tutorial 2 Playing devices and selecting sounds About this tutorial In this second tutorial we will go through the following basics e How to add a mixer device and an instrument device e How to direct MIDI to an instrument device so you can play it e How to browse for and select a p
2. 6 Start playback and play suitable chords to accompany the song As Loop is activated the set bars will repeat for as long you are in Play mode 7 To record the notes you play press Stop rewind to the beginning and make sure Pre count the Pre button on the transport panel is activated Pre count was described in Tutorial 4 and should still be on Note that you have to enter the first chord after recording starts i e when the one bar count in is fin ished if you hold a chord and then enter record the notes generating the arpeggio will not be re corded although you can hear the arpeggio This is because you are not recording the actual notes generated by the arpeggiator only the notes you play 8 Stop recording rewind to the top of the song and start playback The arpeggio will now play back exactly as you heard it when recording You can still change RPG 8 parameters freely Changes will be reflected in the arpeggio although the recorded notes that gener ate the arpeggio will be the same The RPG 8 has many more features not covered in this tutorial please refer to the RPG 8 chapter in the Operation Manual for a full description of the RPG 8 AN TUTORIAL 6 ADDING AN ARPEGGIO 73 REASON Automating a parameter Automation is a big part of Reason Any parameter change can be recorded and edited as automation events In the following example we will record some automation for the Subtractor device currently u
3. Getting Started Version5 Getting Started Manual by Fredrik Hylvander and Anders Nordmark The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Propellerhead Software AB The software described herein is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to any other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement No part of this publication may be copied reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded for any purpose without prior written permission by Propellerhead Software AB 2010 Propellerhead Software and its licensors All specifications subject to change without notice Reason and Record are trademarks of Propellerhead Software All other commercial symbols are protected trademarks and trade names of their respective holders All rights reserved Copyright notice for Adobe Flash Player Adobe Flash Player Copyright 1998 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated All Rights Reserved Patents pending in the United States and other countries Adobe and Flash are either trademarks or registered trademarks in the United States and or other countries Table of Contents Installation 7 Welcome 8 About the manuals 8 What is in the Reason package 9 Requirements 9 About the Audio Hardware 10 About MIDI Interfaces 12 Installing the Software 13 Setting Up 15 About this Chapter 16 First run Reason Setup Wizard 16 About t
4. Rados Dis Fea ce Pair Ostet a a a dr S AA Ean EE Wabsia swa popslet ai da farce We 2 Openoneofthe folders and select a patch but do not close the browser window The patch is loaded in the background you can now try out the patch while playing your keyboard 3 Try auditioning other patches in the browser When you have found a patch you like click OK to close the browser gt Once you have selected a patch this way you can step between the patches in the same folder by clicking the up and down arrow buttons next to the patch display Alternatively you can click in the patch name display to bring up a context menu with all the patches in the folder The browser will now remember this location so the next time you open the patch browser for this instance of the instrument Ey TRACTOR POLYPHONIO SYNTH HESIZEA gt The basic procedure of browsing and selecting patches is the same for all instrument de vices All devices that use patches have a Patch name display a Browse Patch Folder button for opening the Patch browser Up Down arrow buttons and a Save Patch button floppy disk icon AN TUTORIAL 2 PLAYING DEVICES AND SELECTING SOUNDS REASON Adding an effect Next let s add an effect to the synth device Effects can be used in two basic ways gt As insert effects This means the effect is connected between the instrument device and the mixer You use an insert effect whe
5. Dr TWO BAND PARAM While the mixer device has basic two band EQ on each channel sometimes you may need some more pre cise control over the tone color For this purpose you can use the PEO2 This device contains two inde pendent parametric equalizers with controls for frequency gain and Q value Spider Audio Merger amp Splitter This is not an effect device but a utility With the Spider Audio you can merge up to four audio input signals into one output as well as split one audio input signal into four outputs This makes audio signal routing much more flexible and allows for very creative patching Spider CV Merger amp Splitter au ren ir wr Irom wv MERGER amp SPLITTER Again this is not an effect device but a utility With the Spider CV you can merge up to four CV input sig nals into one CV output as well as split CV or Gate inputs into several outputs one of which can be in verted One use for the Spider CV is to split Gate and Note CV to control several instrument devices with one Matrix GUIDED TOUR PON REASON The Matrix Pattern Sequencer LAILLAII The Matrix is a stand alone pattern sequencer somewhat similar to a vintage analog sequencer A Matrix pattern can have between 1 and 32 steps and for each step you can specify which control voltage levels should be sent out from the three separate CV outputs on the back of the device If you like you could view this as having three sep
6. ranging from rooms and halls to special effects The RV7000 also contains an equalizer and a gate section making it possible to get virtually any kind of reverb character including gated reverb RV 7 Digital Reverb amr AV 7 Orr DIGITAL REVERB ae a ie a _ a a a F I BiZE DECAT DAMP DATs WET F This is a reverb effect with ten different reverb algorithms ranging from hall and room simulations to spe cial effects You can fine tune the effect with the knobs on the device panel if you like The reverb is nor mally used as a send effect DDL Digital Delay Line DDL 1 Dre DIGITAL DELAY LINE ME TRL BTEPB WBT io D La FEEDBACK PAN ORY WET UNIT BTEP LENGTH This is a basic digital delay useful for echoes slapback doubling etc The delay time can be set in steps based on and synchronized to the current song tempo or in milliseconds for free running delays The max imum delay time is 2 0 seconds GUIDED TOUR POR REASON D 11 Foldback Distortion The D 11 is a simple but highly effective distortion device that can convert mellow synth sounds to screaming leads and basses add grit and dirt to drum patterns or loops etc ECF 42 Envelope Controlled Filter This is a synth style resonant filter with three different filter modes You can either use it as a static filter and vary the filter frequency on the device panel or via Control Voltage from another device or use the buil
7. AN REASON 6 An image of the selected control surface model is shown often along with some informa tion text read this carefully For some control surfaces you need to select a specific preset to use the surface with Reason this is noted here Manufacturer Edirol ssi Model PCR M series B This Remote driver can be used with Edirol PCR M30 PCR MS0 and PCR M80 When you use the PCR you need to make sure that memory set 0 is selected this is the memory set selected by default when you turn the PCR on Name Edirol PCR M series MIDI Input 1 Not selected H Find l MIDI Input 2 Not selected H Find l MIDI Output optional Not selected Cancel s OK 7 Use the MIDI Input pop up to select the input port to which you have connected the sur face If in doubt you can click the Find button and then tweak a control or play a key on the control surface to have Reason find the correct input port for you e Some control surfaces may have more than one MIDI Input pop up menu You need to select ports on all MIDI Input pop up menus e Some control surfaces will have a MIDI Output pop up menu In some cases this labeled Optional then you don t have to make a selection In other cases a MIDI Output is required This is the case if the control surface uses MIDI feedback motor fader displays etc 8 Ifyou like you can rename your control surface in the Name field 9 Click OK to
8. Alt but ton on the Transport Panel This will create a new record enabled note lane above it but will not mute the previous take In other words you will hear the previous take as you record e This is the method to use if you wish to record additional notes to a previous take You can also use the Lanes button above the track list to create a new record enabled note lane TUTORIAL 4 RECORDING A BASS LINE SA REASON Using Quantize You can quantize your recorded notes to tighten up the performance The Quantize pop up menu is lo cated on the Tool window Sequencer Tools page Tool Window Value Amount Random 1 16 Quantize 776 T Shuffle Transpose Notes a The Quantize pop up menu 1 Make sure the clip containing the bass line is selected in the main sequencer window Simply click on the clip so that you get black arrow handles at each end of the clip 2 Click on the Sequencer Tools tab in the Tool Window This page features various edit functions that can be applied to selected clips notes The top section is Quantize and the default setting is 1 16th note quantize meaning that notes will be shifted to the closest exact 1 16th note position Click the Apply button in the Quantize Notes section to quantize the recorded notes 4 Play back your recording to audition the result If it sounds good keep it If it wasn t what you expected use the Undo function on t
9. In this tutorial we will add a REX loop to the existing song REX loops are created in ReCycle another Pro pellerhead application but there are scores of ready made loops in the Factory Soundbank for you to use REX files are audio files usually 2 or 4 bars in length that have been sliced in the ReCycle application The resulting file allows you to change the tempo of your song and the REX loop will automatically adapt to the tempo Any MIDI notes you have recorded like your bass line will of course also adapt to any tempo but non REX audio loops will not Adding a REX loop REX loops can used with the NN XT sampler the Kong Drum Designer or the Dr Octo Rex Loop Player In this tutorial we will use a Dr Octo Rex device Proceed as follows 1 Double click a Dr Octo Rex Loop Player in the Tool Window Device Palette page A Dr Octo Rex loop player is created together with a corresponding sequencer track A default loop is also loaded in Loop Slot 1 2 Click on the Run button so that it lights up The default loop starts playing If the Run button is activated you will also be able to audition loops in the browser at the current sequencer tempo e E ENABLE LOOP PLAY MUTE The Programmer panel is shown TUTORIAL 5 ADDING A REX LOOP REASON 4 Click the Browse Loop folder button on the Dr Octo Rex Programmer panel to open the REX file browser In the main browser window you should now se
10. UP REASON Adding a control surface 1 Open the Preferences dialog and select the Keyboards and Control Surfaces page 2 If your control surface is connected via USB or if you have made a two way MIDI connec tion try clicking the Auto detect Surfaces button Reason scans all MIDI ports and tries to identify the connected control surfaces Note that not all con trol surfaces support auto detection 8090 Preferences Keyboards and Control Surfaces H4 z Use this page to add and set up Control Surfaces including MIDI keyboards One of your MIDI keyboards will automatically be made the Master Keyboard this is the keyboard you use for playing devices in Reason Attached Surfaces Auto detect Surfaces lt Other gt MIDI Control Keyboard HLL Model lt Other gt MIDI Control Keyboard grein 3 Eons This is the master keyboard Muse with Reason Y Master Keyboard Input Standard Master Keyboard Input to selected track Separated Independent selection and Master Keyboard Input All found surfaces are listed in the Attached Surfaces list 3 To adda control surface manually click the Add button This brings up a new dialog 4 Select the manufacturer of your control surface from the Manufacturer pop up menu If you can t find it on the menu see below 5 Select the model of your control surface from the Model pop up menu If you can t find it on the menu see below A SETTING UP
11. add the surface Depending on the surface model alerts may appear reminding you to select a specific preset etc In some cases Reason can restore a preset in the control surface to factory settings for you you are then informed of this Finally you return to the Keyboards and Control Surfaces Preferences page where your added surface is now listed If your control surface model isn t listed If you can t find your control surface listed on the Manufacturer or Model pop up menus when you try to add it this means that there s no native support for that model However the program supports generic keyboards and controllers Here s what to do Select Other on the Manufacturer pop up menu and then select one of the three op tions on the Model pop up menu or if the Manufacturer is listed but not your specific model A I SETTING UP REASON gt Select one of the three Other options on the Model pop up menu In both cases the options are e MIDI Control Keyboard Select this if you have a MIDI keyboard with programmable knobs buttons or faders You need to set up your MIDI control keyboard so that the controllers send the correct MIDI CC messages depending on which Reason device you want to control check out the MIDI Implementation Chart in the Reason documentation If your control surface has templates or presets for different Reason devices these can be used e MIDI Control Surface Select this if you
12. are proud to say that this is the best version of Reason so far And we ll hope you ll like it just as much as we do A strong driving force for us at Propellerhead is communication with all the people around the world that use our programs to realize their musical ideas And a big part of this communication takes place on our own user forums This is a unique meeting place where professionals and beginners meet on equal terms to exchange ideas But even more importantly it s a forum open to you We think you will enjoy talking to other Reason users all over the world just as much as we ll enjoy talking to you See you on the Propellerhead web Yours truly The Propellerhead Software Team www propellerheads se About the manuals This is the Getting Started Manual a guided tour of the basic features and procedures in Reason The manual also includes six short tutorials to help you get going with the program Detailed features and operations in Reason are described in the Operation Manual a file in Adobe Acrobat pdf format This and other pdf documents are installed with the program you find them in the Docu mentation folder inside your Reason application folder The Operation Manual also contains reference de scriptions of all Reason devices and commands To read the Operation Manual on Windows systems you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader application Since this has become something of a household utility application chances ar
13. are using you should follow these basic steps 1 Make sure you have the latest drivers for the audio hardware Please check the manufacturer s web site for the latest versions 2 Install the audio hardware and its drivers as described in its documentation 3 Connect the stereo outputs of your audio hardware to your listening equipment speak ers mixer headphones or similar For information about how to use multiple outputs i e more than a stereo output see the Operation Manual pdf For now we stick to standard stereo connections 4 If possible test that audio plays back properly with the audio hardware In the case of audio hardware with ASIO drivers you will need some test application for this often in cluded with the audio hardware If you are using DirectX or MME drivers you can use Windows Media Player application for this About MIDI Interfaces While it is possible to use Reason without an external MIDI controller by playing patterns and loops only or drawing notes and automation in the sequencer this would not allow you to use the program to its full potential From now on we assume that you are using a MIDI interface and some kind of external MIDI controller typically a MIDI keyboard with a built in USB interface gt When installing the MIDI interface and its drivers follow the instructions in its documen tation carefully e While a MIDI interface with a single input is sufficient you will benefit f
14. done click the stop button A 4 bar clip containing the notes you played has been added in the sequencer Song Block x Snap Position Length Edit Mode NII FOP AM 111 oja 400 z 4 Ge B T a Device ks Lanes fe urbe A u e 13 Click stop again to move the song position to the beginning of the song 14 Click play to listen to your recording Stop playback when you are done Perhaps you want to record a new take either just to improve the performance or simply because you made a mistake This can be done in several different ways which are described below AN TUTORIAL 4 RECORDING A BASS LINE REASON About tracks clips lanes and recording takes A Reason device can only have one track in the sequencer A track can have any number of lanes As illus trated previously a recording produces a clip which is placed on a note lane for the corresponding track This clip will contain the notes and any performance data like pitch bend or mod wheel you played when recording To record a new take of your bass line you have three basic alternatives gt Select Undo Record Track from the Edit menu This will simply delete the clip you just recorded allowing you to record a new take on the same note lane of the track e You can undo and re record until you are satisfied but note that you will not be able to go back to a previous take after deleting its clip and recording a new take so only use this method
15. edit notes controllers device parameter automation and pattern changes The left part of the sequencer area is the track list showing the names of the sequencer tracks To the left in the list a small image of the device the track belongs to is shown There can never be more than one track for a specific instance of a device but a track can have any number of lanes containing note and automation data In the track list you can mute or solo whole tracks mute individual lanes add or remove lanes etc Device m ks Blocks DOSSO Transport The track list The right part of the sequencer area has two main modes the arrange view and the edit view When the arrange view is selected you will see the tracks lined up vertically with any recorded note events contained in clips A ruler at the top of the view shows the meter positions The sequencer with the arrange view selected GUIDED TOUR You can also view and edit the data events contained in the clips on a track this is done in the Edit view In the Edit view data is always shown for one track at a time For instrument tracks clip events on one se lected note lane will be shown at a time you can have multiple note lanes on an instrument track A note lane will also contain several edit lanes showing the recorded data in detail There are specific edit lanes for editing notes velocity and performance data You will also be able to view and edit any
16. es 7 a W ENABLE F PATTERN 1rat_ 148 arse m 45 64 PATTERN wa 1122 n 33 48 D 4 SECTION f ir a 1164 _ 2 19 22 uv B bo oa Ws DE 1 46 i 11128 MUTE 5 e 7 fe STEPS RESOLUTION SHUFFLE EDIT STEPS RUN You will now hear the sound of the selected drum on the first beat of each bar 9 Add more drum beats by clicking other step buttons Clicking a lit step button will remove the beat for the corresponding step gt You can add beats of different strength velocity level by adjusting the Dynamic switch Exactly how each sound is affected by different velocity levels depends on the settings You can also adjust the dynamics on the fly by pressing Shift or Option Mac Alt Windows when you add beats Shift click for hard beats Option Alt click for soft beats 8 ema 9 emma 10 CR MEDIUM k SOFT HARD CYHAMIC F 10 Select another drum sound by clicking its Select button and proceed in the same way until you have a drum pattern you want to use 11 To stop the playback click the Run button again That concludes the third tutorial In the following tutorial we will describe how to add a bass line to the current drum pattern so you can leave the current song open Alternatively save it in a location of your choice under a suitable name by se lecting Save as from the File menu TUTORIAL 3 CREATING A DRUM AN PATTERN REASON Chapter 7 Tutorial 4 Recor
17. for each Kit The Kong Drum Designer should be used as a sound module which you can play live from an external MIDI controller and or from the main Reason sequencer The 16 pads can be assigned in a number of dif ferent ways to allow for maximum flexibility MClass Mastering effects MClass Mastering Suite Combi The MClass Mastering effects consists of four high quality sound processors suitable for but not in any way restricted to use as mastering effects i e to process the final mixed output from Reason The MClass effects can selected as a Combi with all four effects chained or as individual effects The Factory Sound Bank contains MClass Combi patches with settings optimized for various mastering and sound enhance ment applications The MClass series of effects consists of the following devices GUIDED TOUR POR REASON 37 e MClass Equalizer This is a two band fully parametric equalizer with added high and low shelving bands and a low cut rum ble filter In addition there is a curve display giving graphic feedback of your settings e MClass Stereo Imager This device splits the signal in low and high frequencies user definable allowing you to adjust the stereo width independently for the low and high bands A typical application is to make the high band wider and the low band more narrow mono e MClass Compressor This is a single band compressor with features such as sidechain inp
18. have a MIDI controller with programmable knobs buttons or faders but without key board Again you need to set your controllers to send the correct MIDI CCs e MIDI Keyboard No Controls Select this if you have a MIDI keyboard without programmable knobs buttons or faders This is used for playing only including performance controllers such as pitch bend mod wheel etc you cannot adjust Reason device parameters with this type of control surface e MIDI Multichannel Control Keyboard Surface These options can be used if your MIDI keyboard or surface can handle multiple MIDI channels simul taneously After selecting a model proceed with selecting MIDI input as described above About the master keyboard One of the control surfaces can be the master keyboard This is like any other control surface but it must have a keyboard and it cannot be locked to a specific Reason device in other words it always follows the MIDI input to the sequencer This is the surface you use to play the instrument devices in Reason e The first surface with a keyboard that is added or found by auto detect is automatically selected to be the master keyboard This is shown in the Attached Surfaces list on the Preferences page gt Ifyou want to use another surface as master keyboard select it in the list and click the Make Master Keyboard button You can only have one master keyboard If you don t want to use any master keyboard at all sele
19. loops if you use the computer s internal speakers or ex ternal speaker close to the built in microphone We recommend NOT using the Built in Microphone option partly because of the feedback loop problem and partly because of the limited audio quality of the built in microphone Click Done to finish and exit the Aggregate Device Editor In the Audio MIDI Setup window choose the Aggregate Device you just created by select ing it in the Default Input and Default Output drop down lists respectively Select your Aggregate Device from the Properties For drop down list and set up the Format in the drop down lists that appear in the Audio Input and Audio Output sec tions at the bottom of the window Choose 2ch 24bit for best audio resolution 8 When you re done exit the Audio MIDI Setup If Reason was running while you created you new aggregate device you ll have to restart Reason for the new aggregate to be available in the Audio Card drop down list on the Audio page in the Preferences dialog If you are using other audio hardware with your Macintosh You may want to use other audio hardware with Reason e g an audio interface with multiple outputs dig ital connections etc For this to be possible the audio hardware must be compatible with Mac OS X ie there must be a Mac OS X driver available for the card 1 2 Install the audio hardware and its drivers
20. not already loaded The Factory and Orkester Sound Banks will be automatically copied into the Reason Program folder During this process which will take a while various splash screens are shown along with a progress meter 5 Fill in the authorization form that appears Your license number can be found on the product authorization card included in the package At this point a dialog appears asking you whether you want to register your copy of the program at the Propellerhead web site Registering gives you immediate access to various benefits such as free extra sounds for Reason You must have a working Internet connection to be able to register on line gt If you click the Register Now button your Internet browser will launch and take you to the registration page on the Propellerhead web site Follow the instructions on the web page After finishing the registration click the Continue button in the installation dialog gt If you don t want to register at this point click the Later button You can register at any time by selecting Product Registration from the Contact menu Mac or Help menu Windows in Reason or by going to www propellerhead se register This completes the installation and the program is opened but a new dialog appears named Reason Setup Wizard which will guide you through the basic settings needed to use Reason This is described in Setting Up on page 15 so just leave things as they are for
21. now and go to the next chapter A INSTALLATION AN REASON Chapter 2 Setting Up About this Chapter This chapter describes the settings you need to make before you can start using Reason These are nec essary in order to get any sounds to and from the program and to be able to play and control Reason via MIDI First run Reason Setup Wizard If you followed the instructions correctly in the last chapter Reason should be running and the first dialog in the Reason Setup Wizard guide should be open This only appears the very first time the program is run Reason Setup Wizard J Welcome To Reason We recommend that you click Next to specify basic Audio and Master Keyboard settings However if you prefer you can click Cancel and later make these settings in the Preferences dialog Open Preferences Dialog Cancel Note that the Language page only appears in the Windows version of Reason In Mac OS X the selected system language is automatically used Note that any settings made in the Setup Wizard can always be changed later in the Pref erences Clicking Next will take you through a series of dialogs where the following happens The Setup Wizard will first try to find a compatible audio driver It will automatically select the first compatible driver it finds If this is the driver you wish to use fine If it isn t select your preferred driver from the Audio Card Driver pop
22. or open patches which are complete drum kits a number of which are included in the Reason Factory Sound Bank Each sound channel has settings for pitch level velocity response etc There is a built in pattern sequencer allowing you to create classic drum machine patterns complete with shuffle and flam options It is also possible to use Redrum as a sound module playing it live from an exter nal MIDI controller or from the main Reason sequencer You may for example have the pattern sequencer play a basic drum pattern and add fills and extras in the main sequencer As with the Dr Rex loop player each drum sound has a specific note number C1 for drum sound 1 C 1 for drum sound 2 and so on A GUIDED TOUR AN REASON Kong Drum Designer The Kong Drum Designer is an advanced drum sound module with 16 drum sound channels You can sample and or load samples Wave AIFF SoundFont files and REX files individually for each channel or open patches which are complete kits a number of which are included in the Reason Factory Sound Bank Each sound channel can consist of one out of several different types of drum sound modules including Sample Player REX Player Physical Modeling modules and Drum Synth modules You can also add two additional insert FX modules to each drum sound channel The effects can be additional sound genera tors or various types of effects The Kong Drum Designer also features a Bus FX and a Master FX
23. powerful feature that enables you to quickly search for a sound without having to create new devices or to open close the browser etc 8 When you have found a bass patch click OK to close the browser A new corresponding sequencer track is added for the new instrument device You can still access all the patches that were found when browsing i e the patches in the All Instruments Synth Bass folder This is either done by clicking in the Patch Name display and selecting from the pop up menu or by us ing the Select Next Previous arrow buttons beside the Patch Name display Selecting a patch for an other device will change the instrument instantly AN TUTORIAL 4 RECORDING A BASS LINE REASON Recording notes in the sequencer Now let s try adding a bass line to the Redrum pattern by recording notes in the sequencer 1 Select the track for the synth bass device in the sequencer track list It will automatically get Master Keyboard Input as indicated by the keyboard symbol and the red frame surrounding the device icon 2 Start playback on the transport panel The Redrum drum pattern will start playing and will repeat for as long as you are in play mode 3 Play the bass patch along with the drum pattern and check how it sounds If needed you can slow down or speed up the song tempo by using the Tempo up down arrow buttons on the transport panel lt 0 00 00 000 CLICK cevet 111 000 RN 474 Continue playi
24. remote control surface devices in your setup these will have to be added in the Preferences see About the Preferences on page 18 The Setup Wizard will only establish a connected Master Keyboard device If all went well you should now have established audio and MIDI communication the basics needed to play back audio and to direct MIDI to Reason Reason will launch and bring up the default song However if for any reason the Setup Wizard failed to establish the necessary settings or if you wish to add other devices etc you have to make settings in the Preferences Read on A I SETTING UP REASON 17 About the Preferences The basic settings for audio and MIDI are done in the Preferences dialog This is opened from the Edit menu or if you are running Mac OS X from the Reason menu os Preferences Page v Editing Mouse Knob Range Normal w Automation Cleanup Level Normal kod Trigger Notes While Editing Appearance Reduce Cable Clutter Setting Show For Selected Devices Only Hide Auto Routed Cables Hide All Cables Cable Animation Show Parameter Value Tool Tip Show Automation Indication Default Song Empty Rack Built in Custom Fredriks First Song ms C Load Last Song On Startup Miscellaneous CPU Usage Limit aoe Load Default Sound in New Devices This also sets the default browsing location Use MultiCore Audio Rendering Self cont
25. slices FOLLOW LOOP PLAYBACK DM SELECT SLICE HY MIDI roma tran i COPY LOOF TRANSPOSE LOOPLEWEL That concludes the fifth tutorial You can either keep things as they are and directly go on to the next tu torial or save the song to enable you to continue later 70 TUTORIAL 5 ADDING A REX LOOP 62D REASON Chapter 9 Tutorial 6 Adding an arpeggio 72 About this tutorial In this last tutorial we shall cover the following basic operations e How to create arpeggio patterns using the RPG 8 e How to automate a parameter see Automating a parameter on page 74 The following tutorial continues from the previous tutorials Adding an arpeggio The RPG 8 Arpeggiator is a device that generates patterns arpeggios from notes It needs to be con nected to an instrument device as it doesn t generate sound on its own You set it up as follows 1 Create a new Subtractor device from the Device Palette A Subtractor is added to the rack with its output auto connected to the mixer 2 Open the patch browser and double click on the MonoSynths folder to open it 3 Select the patch Matrix3 This is simply a patch with short attack decay times suitable for arpeggio playing 4 With the new Subtractor device selected create a RPG 8 Monophonic Arpeggiator A sequencer track with MIDI input named Arp 1 is created for the RPG 8 The RPG 8 Note and Gate CV outputs on the back panel use Tab
26. to flip the rack will be auto routed to the Subtractor s Se quencer Control Gate and CV inputs so all connections needed are made automatically The CV Gate connections are a way to make one device control another The Gate signal tell a device when a note should be played and the Note CV signal determines the pitch of the note Sl E E Mfelfeltes e are TUTORIAL 6 ADDING AN ARPEGGIO 5 Flip the rack back and play a few chords The notes in the chord you play are now arpeggiated for as long as you hold down the keys The ar peggio will change directly if you release all notes and play another note or chord If you add notes while holding down a chord the arpeggio will continue with the added notes The arpeggio will play in sync with song tempo by default in new RPG 8 devices gt Try changing the arpeggiator mode using the Mode knob The various modes govern how the notes are arpeggiated For example Up means from lowest note to highest note Up Down from lowest to highest note then back down to lowest note again ARPEGGIATOR are Lp UPF 00WH DOWN RANDOM MANUAL IMSE FT e The Octave buttons set the octave range of the arpeggio E g if set to 2 Oct the pattern will play over two octaves and so on e The Rate sets the rate of the arpeggio pattern in the current Rate mode Sync the rate will synced to the sequencer tempo in various beat resolutions Experiment with these basic parameters if you like
27. up If you don t know which driver to use see Setting up the Audio Hardware on page 19 To get both inputs and outputs in the same driver under Mac OS X 10 4 it is required that you create an Aggregate Device For information on how to do this please see If you are using the built in audio hardware in your Macintosh on page 13 gt Next Reason will try to auto detect a master keyboard If one is found and you want to use this click Use and proceed For Reason to auto detect a device you need two way MIDI communication Non USB keyboard devices without a MIDI input can of course still be added manually Note that your keyboard model might not be auto detected by Reason even though it s a modern one and connects via USB However you can still use such a keyboard to control Reason and use Remote in the same way as with an auto detected keyboard A SETTING UP AN REASON gt If Reason can t find the keyboard you have connected or if you clicked Don t Use you will be asked to specify a master keyboard manually This is done by first selecting a Manufacturer and then a model If your model keyboard isn t on this list select Other see below gt You will also have to specify a MIDI port to use This can be done either by selecting one of the available ports listed in the popup or by clicking the Find button and pressing some keys on your keyboard Note that if you have additional
28. when you are sure you want to discard the previous recording otherwise create an alternate take as described below e Ifyou record over an existing clip on the same lane without erasing it first the new notes will be overdubbed on top of the old take i e notes from both takes will be contained in the same clip and play back simultaneously which is probably not what you want Create a new note lane for the track by clicking the Alt button to the right of the Record button on the transport This will mute the clip between the locators on the previous note lane and create a new record en abled note lane above it e This is the method to use if you wish to record and keep a series of takes You can use this basic method to record any number of takes and later play them back one at a time to decide which take is best or edit together the best bits from several takes eee OR ore fomno As you can see the clip on the first note lane is muted indicated by the grey stripes The new note lane is directly above the first note lane and is record enabled indicated by the red Record button gt To compare between several takes select the clip s you want to mute or unmute and choose Mute Clips or Unmute Clips from the Edit menu To mute an entire note lane use the Mute M button on the respective lane in the Track List gt Create a new note lane for the track by clicking the Dub button to the left of the
29. LECTING SOUNDS REASON gt 10 11 In the sequencer the synthesizer track is automatically selected as you just created the device and Master Keyboard Input will be routed to this device When a device icon to the left in the track list is surrounded by a red border and has a keyboard symbol this indicates that the track has master keyboard input This means that notes you play on your master keyboard will be sent to that sequencer track and to its device in the rack By default master keyboard input always follows the selected track Snap Song Block Edi lodo S F FOP QAM The Subtractor track is selected and has master keyboard input Press the Tab key to show the back of the rack As you can see the output from the Subtractor has a cable connected to the first channel of the mixer and the mixer output has cables connected to the Hardware Device where audio signals from Reason are sent to your audio interface These connections were made automatically when you created the devices Press the Tab key again to flip the rack back to show the front panel Try playing your MIDI keyboard What you will hear is the default patch of the Subtractor which may not be what you want All new in strument devices will open with a default patch loaded This behavior is however a user selectable preference see below If you don t have a MIDI keyboard at hand you can press F4 to bring up the On scre
30. ain Samples When Loading From Disk The Preferences dialog gt Described herein are only the most important settings in the Preferences For informa tion about other Preferences settings see the Menu and Dialog Reference chapter in the Operation Manual pdf A SETTING UP AN REASON Setting up the Audio Hardware In case this wasn t done in the Setup Wizard you need to establish a connection between Reason and the audio hardware This is done by selecting a driver a software component that acts like a link between the program and the audio hardware Proceed as follows 1 In the Preferences dialog use the pop up menu at the top to select the Audio page oy Preferences v Master Tune 440Hz 0 cents Audio Card Driver ASIO ASIO4ALL v2 ly Sample Rate 44 100 Buffer Size 512 samples 7 Input Latency 14 ms Output Latency 13 ms Extemal Sync Offset 13 ms 7 Active Input Channels 7 out of 2 Active Output Channels out of 2 Clock Source Control Panel Play in Background 2 Pull down the Audio Card Driver pop up menu and select one of the options Which option to select depends on the platform and the audio hardware If an option is not applicable to your setup it will be greyed out in the dialog Mac OS X Under Mac OS X it s required that the audio hardware supports Core Audio drivers gt Select the option that corresponds to the hardware you want to use the bu
31. anel for the audio hardware click the Control Panel button to open this For more information please consult the Operation Manual A SETTING UP AN REASON Setting up MIDI In Reason MIDI keyboards or remote control devices are called control surfaces MIDI input from control surfaces is handled by a system called Remote Here are some of the main features e You can use any number of control surfaces at the same time e The program supports a large number of control surfaces out of the box knobs faders and buttons on the surfaces are automatically mapped to the most useful parameters on the Reason devices You don t have to change the settings on the control surface to control different devices in Reason if you change MIDI focus from a Subtractor track to a Malstr m track the control surface will automati cally adapt You just set up your control surface once and for all for use with Reason the program handles the rest e For control surfaces that are not natively supported at this stage you can use generic drivers With the generic drivers you can use templates or settings compatible with Reason 5 if available for the control surface Note however that Remote drivers for additional control surfaces will be added continuously check our web page for more info e By default all control surfaces follow the sequencer Master Keyboard Input This means that you set MIDI input to a track in the sequencer to route the
32. arate pattern sequencers in one By connecting the Matrix to e g a synth device you can have the pattern sequencer play the device for a repeating synth pattern or control various parameters for rhythmic effects that you cannot obtain using the synth device alone RPG 8 Monophonic Arpeggiator An arpeggiator generates rhythmic note patterns arpeggios from notes or chords Similarly to the Matrix connecting the RPG 8 to e g a synth device means the arpeggiator can play the device for a repeating arpeggio or control various parameters The RPG 8 Arpeggiator has innovative features like musically log ical pattern variations and a Pattern editor for even more rhythmic variation ReBirth Input Machine This device allows you to use Reason in conjunction with Propellerheads classic ReBirth application The audio from ReBirth will be streamed via the ReWire protocol into Reason By routing the different outputs on the ReBirth Input Machine to different mixer channels you can mix the sound of ReBirth with the sound of Reason add effects to separate ReBirth sounds etc A GUIDED TOUR AN REASON Chapter 4 Tutorial 1 Playing a Song About this tutorial This and the following chapters are written in tutorial form to introduce you to some of the basic operations in the program So if you are new to Reason and wish to get started quickly this is where you should start In this first tutorial we shall go over
33. as described in its documentation Connect the stereo outputs of your audio hardware to your listening equipment speak ers mixer headphones or similar For info about how to use multiple outputs i e more than a stereo output see the Operation Manual pdf For now we stick to standard stereo connections If possible test that audio plays back OK with the audio hardware With some audio hardware a test application is supplied for this purpose Audio hardware and Windows To run Reason with full audio in and audio out functionality under Windows an ASIO driver is required for the audio hardware Reason can be run with DirectX or MME drivers as well but this will only support audio out and at considerably higher latencies than with ASIO drivers If there is no ASIO driver available you should make sure your audio card supports Di rectX DirectX is a Microsoft protocol for handling audio and other multimedia aspects As a last resort you could use audio cards that don t support ASIO or DirectX provided that they are Windows compatible In this case Reason will communicate with the audio hardware via MME Windows Multi Media Exten sions However most often this results in large latency values see About Latency and other Audio Settings on page 20 making real time playback of instrument devices difficult or even impossible A I INSTALLATION REASON Regardless of which type of audio hardware or drivers you
34. atch for an instrument device e How to add an effect This tutorial assumes you have made the necessary setting up for MIDI and audio If not please refer to the Setting Up chapter before starting About devices Reason devices can be divided into the following main categories gt Instrument devices These are playable devices that are handled like an instrument i e notes played on your master key board will play the instrument device Effect devices These are used to process sound gt Other devices These include Mixer devices for mixing audio signals Pattern devices which can be used to program patterns that can trigger notes in instrument devices and Utility devices these can split and merge signals in various ways Adding a mixer and an instrument device This first section of the tutorial describes how to add a mixer device and an instrument device to the rack We ll start with an empty rack to show you how it is done from scratch 1 If you like close the current song by selecting Close from the File menu You can have several song documents open in Reason at the same time but each song uses some memory and computing power so it s good practice to close songs you don t need Note that on the Windows platform closing a song when there are no other songs open will also cause the program to quit 2 Pull down the File menu and select Open 3 Navigate to the Reason program folder and open the Te
35. ck another Browse Loop button as described in step 4 above and load another REX file To switch playback between the REX loops click the corresponding Loop Slot button on the main panel By default the new REX loop in the selected Loop Slot will kick in at the next bar gt If you want the loop switching to take place at the next beat or 16th note click the corre sponding Trig Next Loop button Dr OctoRex TRIG MEXT LOOP MOTES BAR M BEAT DM 1 15 TO SLOT TUTORIAL 5 ADDING A REX LOOP PON REASON Adjusting Dr Octo Rex parameters You can tweak the REX loops in various ways using the Dr Octo Rex Programmer parameters Here fol lows a few examples gt While playing back the loop try adjusting the Filter Freq parameter By lowering the frequency the loop is shaped through a low pass filter by default Raising the filter resonance Res slider will produce a sharper filter sound By using the Loop Transpose parameter you can transpose the whole loop up or down one octave in semitone steps gt If you adjust the Slice knob you can select an individual slice for editing A selected slice is highlighted in the display The eight knobs to the right of the Slice button Pitch Pan Level Decay Reverse Filter Frequency Alternate Group and Output can be used to edit a single slice For example by adjusting the Pitch parameter the selected highlighted slice will be transposed but not the other
36. control surface s to the track s device in the rack e You can lock a control surface to a specific device in the rack For example you could have a master keyboard that follows MIDI input while another control surface is locked to the main mixer in the rack This way you can control levels and pans at all times This is de scribed in the Operation Manual e You can use remote overrides to map a specific control on a surface to a specific Reason parameter or function For example you could override map a knob or fader on your control surface to the mixer s master level fader Or you could map buttons on your control surface to control Reason s transport play stop record etc at all times regardless of which track has Master Keyboard Input in the sequencer This is described in the Operation Manual e Remote also supports some control surfaces with MIDI feedback If you have such a control surface and it is supported by Reason Version 5 you can take full advantage of motorized faders meters displays etc Among the Reason documentation you will find a document called Control Surface Details This contains useful information about the supported control surfaces In case you specified a master keyboard in the Setup Wizard and you don t have any other control sur faces you don t have to do anything else But if you want to add additional control surfaces or edit your settings this is done in the Preferences A I SETTING
37. ct the current master keyboard surface and click the same button which is now labeled Use No Master Keyboard Master Keyboard Input This allows you to set a preference for how Master Keyboard Input mode is selected gt Standard mode This always sets Master Keyboard Input to the selected track gt Separated mode This will allow you to independently select tracks while Master Keyboard Input is unchanged If this is selected Master Keyboard Input is set by clicking the device icon in the track list Selecting another track by clicking on the track name or somewhere in the track list leaves Master Keyboard Input un changed A SETTING UP AN REASON Other functions gt To edit a surface double click it in the list or select it and click Edit This lets you change its name and MIDI port settings if needed To delete a surface select it in the list and click Delete You can turn off a surface by deactivating its Use with Reason checkbox This could be useful if the surface is connected to your system but you only want to use it with another program etc gt There is also an Advanced Control page in the Preferences This is only used for External Control MIDI buses and for MIDI Clock Sync input All hands on MIDI control is set up on the Keyboards and Control Surfaces page Setting up the Default Song Every time you start Reason a simple default song opens This default song contains a few de
38. ding a bass line About this tutorial In this tutorial we will go through the following basic procedures gt How to browse for a specific type of patch How to record notes in the sequencer How to copy a clip in the sequencer This tutorial assumes that you have followed the previous tutorial s You should have a song open containing a mixer device and a Redrum device with the drum pattern you programmed in the previous tutorial If you kept the same song open for all tutorials you also have a Subtractor device If you saved the previous tutorial and closed it select Open from the File menu navigate to the saved song and open it Browsing for a bass sound Browsing for a patch was covered in the previous tutorials In this instance we will use cross browsing which means you can browse and audition patches for all In struments regardless of whether the instrument exists in the current song or not In addition we will browse for a specific type of patch a synth bass sound It doesn t matter what track is selected when you use this feature you will automatically get Master Key board Input when cross browsing It works as follows 1 Select Create Instrument from the Create menu or use the corresponding button at the top of the Tool window Device Palette page Double click the All Instrument Patches folder in the browse list The browser will show all instrument patches divided into ca
39. e three Dr Rex folders Drum Loops Instrument Loops and Percussion Loops As we already have a drum pattern let s try adding a percussion loop to the song 5 Open the Dr Rex Percussion Loops folder Various percussion instrument folders are listed The folders also have a tempo listed in bpm These tempo listings are merely suggested tempo values for the REX files contained in the folder Any REX loop will sync to whatever song tempo is set on the transport although some loops will sound more natural if they do not deviate too much from the original tempo 6 Open a percussion instrument folder of your choice and select one of the loops inside Audition different loops in the folder by selecting them 7 When you have found a loop click OK to close the browser The selected loop continues to play and the display on the Dr Octo Rex Programmer panel shows the waveform as well as the individual slices in the loop 8 Click the Run button again to stop the loop playback 9 To check out the loop together with the other devices previously recorded sequencer data click the sequencer Play button This will automatically activate the Run button on Dr Octo Rex and will make the loaded REX loop play back in perfect sync with the rest of the song 10 Click Stop on the Transport Panel The loop stops together with the song The Dr Octo Rex can hold up to eight REX loops at a time If you want to load additional REX loops just cli
40. e you already have it in stalled on your computer If not run the Acrobat Reader installer included on the Reason installation DVD To read pdf files under Mac OS X you can use Preview instead About Mac and Windows Reason runs under Mac OS X and Windows for operating system details see below All Reason pack ages contain program versions for both platforms Everything said in the manuals applies to both platforms unless explicitly stated If you are running Mac OS X please note that there s an additional menu called the Reason menu which is not present under Windows This contains the Preferences menu item otherwise found on the Edit menu A INSTALLATION AN REASON What is in the Reason package When you purchase Reason the package contains the following items The Reason 5 installation DVD This disc contains the main Reason program installer and the Reason Factory Sound Banks two large files containing samples patches and loops for use with Reason These are copied to your hard disk the first time you launch Reason see About the Sound Banks on page 13 for more information In addition the DVD contains documentation in Adobe Acrobat format and an installer for Adobe Acrobat Reader The product authorization card This contains the license number required for the installation Keep this card in a safe place in case you need to re install Reason Note that if you bought Reason from the PropShop it i
41. en Piano Keys window From this window you can play the devices either by clicking on the on screen keyboard on the Mouse tab or by using the computer keyboard on the Com puter Keyboard tab Refer to the Operation Manual for more details about the On screen Piano Keys window To browse for a suitable patch see Selecting a patch below About the Load Default Sound for New Devices Preference AND SELECTING SOUNDS TUTORIAL 2 PLAYING DEVICES SA On the Preferences General page you have the option of selecting whether new devices should open with a default patch or not In this manual we assume the option Load Default Sound for New De vices is activated This is also the default mode REASON Selecting a patch Patches are loaded from the Patch browser To select a patch proceed as follows 1 Click the Browse Patch folder button on the Subtractor panel This opens the Patch browser dialog By default for a new Subtractor device the folder Subtractor Patches of the Reason Factory Soundbank will be shown This folder contains a number of sub fold ers with different patch categories Dasdi Gurerd ote Search for E Masson Factor Sound Berk ig ua Has ALL les Paste ALL ranman Pacchay creino Patel tr Rex frum Lows gle Ree at Loi iir Mar Farhi 2905 Rex Fastin Looga jie Patches Sicani Mane Fancher i oa SHIT Semele Paces NNT pe Paice Qta i
42. ete de scriptions of Reason elements procedures and devices 14 TUTORIAL 6 ADDING AN ARPEGGIO SA REASON Index A Adding devices 48 Arpeggiator 72 ASIO Driver 11 19 Audio Card Driver 19 Audio Hardware 10 Audio Output 19 Automating parameters 74 Browsing for sounds 60 C Computer Requirements 9 Control Surface Adding 22 D Default Song 25 Devices About 32 Creating 48 Direct Sound Driver 11 19 Drum patterns 56 E Effect Devices 52 F Factory Sound Bank 13 K Keyboard Adding 22 L Latency 20 Load Default Sound for New Devices 50 Loops REX 68 Master Keyboard Input In Track List 50 Mode 24 MIDI Adding a keyboard 22 Connecting 12 Keyboards and control surfaces 21 MME Driver 11 19 O Orkester Sound Bank 13 INDEX P Parameter automation 74 Patches 51 Preferences dialog 18 R Reason Factory Sound Bank see Factory Sound Bank Reason Setup Wizard 16 Recording notes 62 Requirements 9 REX loops 68 S Separated Mode 24 Sequencer Overview 30 Recording 62 Song Playing back 44 Selecting a Default Song 25 Sound Bank 13 Standard Mode 24 T Tool window 31 W Windows Multimedia Driver 11 REASON
43. etune effect if you like 6 By using the Dry Wet knob you can adjust the balance between the clean Dry signal and the effect Wet signal TUTORIAL 2 PLAYING DEVICES SA AND SELECTING SOUNDS REASON Now we will apply the same effect but this time as a send effect 1 Delete the Unison device you just created by selecting it in the rack click somewhere on the panel to select it and then pressing Backspace The effect will be deleted and the cable routing will be restored to exactly how it was before creating the effect You can also delete devices from the context menu which is opened by right clicking Ctrl clicking Mac OS on the effect panel 2 Select the mixer by clicking on the panel 3 Double click the UN 16 Unison device in the Tool window The effect appears below the Mixer in the rack If you flip the rack around by using the Tab key you can see that the Aux 1 Send Out is connected to the effect s input and the effect stereo output is con nected to the Aux 1 Left Right Return sockets 3 4 N x x Ue x N N A Left Mono ten Audio Input Mano NI n N ey Sy A S amp Right Px LIRI RS 1 R14 ZI Audio T Miah Level cv in Pe Ke FKe Rex mm mm m i T Pan CV In gt is Compatible EO s O O 0 10 O 0 I mix a remix VIRTUAL TOY MX 28 4 14 eee Sequencer Control Modulation input Mod
44. evice in the list to add it gt Sequencer tracks are not automatically created for new mixer or effect devices Currently there are only two sequencer tracks named Blocks and Transport present in the Track List The Transport Track is always present in the sequencer and is used for automating tempo and time signature changes but this will not be covered in this tutorial The Blocks Track is present when the Blocks function is active on the Transport Panel and is used for automating playback of Blocks shorter sections of a song The Blocks function is not covered in this tutorial but is described in detail in the Reason Operation Manual The reason why you should start with a mixer device is that all subsequent instrument devices you add to the rack will then automatically be connected to a mixer channel In other words whatever further instrument devices you add the device output s will auto matically connect to this mixer This will be true until you run out of channels in the mixer in this case 14 stereo channels When this happens you can create more mixer devices and chain them so there is never any risk of running out of mixer channels 7 Select Subtractor Analog Synthesizer from the Devices page and click Create A Subtractor synthesizer device is added to the rack and if you look in the sequencer a track has au tomatically been added for the device I TUTORIAL 2 PLAYING DEVICES AND SE
45. ferent samples across the same keyboard range Another use ful feature is the possibility to set up velocity switched key maps GUIDED TOUR POR REASON Dr Octo Rex Loop Player The Dr Octo Rex Loop Player plays REX files audio files created in ReCycle another Propellerhead Soft ware product ReCycle is a program designed especially for working with sampled loops By slicing a loop and making separate samples of each beat ReCycle makes it possible to change the tempo of loops with out affecting the pitch and to edit the loop as if it were built up of individual sounds After loading one or several REX files into the Dr Octo Rex Loop Player you can play them back in virtu ally any tempo make settings for individual slices extract MIDI playback data and process the loops with the built in filter LFO and envelopes You can also play the individual slices via MIDI or from the sequencer each slice has a specific note number C1 for the first slice C 1 for the next and so on A number of REX files are included in the Reason Factory Sound Bank Redrum Drum Computer Lim PIL LisiL MIL LisiL MIL LisiL MIL Limit MIL LisiL A Lissa o e T a E T fuuissit o uissalit a Rice Rice oie Mica ELI Hi iasl ii fa mut The Redrum is a sample based drum machine with ten drum sound channels You can sample and load samples Wave AIFF SoundFont files and REX slices individually for each channel
46. guage an install location and whether you wish to create a program shortcut alias on your desktop When the installation is complete you have the option of launching Reason directly Mac OS X gt On the Mac there is only a folder called Reason simply drag this to your hard disk About the Sound Banks The first time you launch Reason you will be asked to insert the Reason Version 5 disc to copy the Factory Sound Bank and the Orkester Sound Bank These each consist of one big file containing a large number of patches samples and loops serving as your main supply of sounds much like the sound ROM in a syn thesizer These are copied to your hard disk and are required to run the program A I INSTALLATION REASON Launching the program Now the Reason files have been installed in a folder on your hard disk Under Windows all Reason related items have also been added to the Start menu and possibly you will have a Reason shortcut on the Desk top 1 Check for any ReadMe files in the Reason folder or on the Start menu and open and read these ReadMe files may contain important last minute information that didn t make it into this manual 2 Launch the program by double clicking the Reason icon or by selecting the Reason item from the Start menu 3 First a Licensing Agreement is shown Read it through and click Agree to proceed 4 You will now be asked to insert the Reason Version 5 disc if this is
47. he Edit menu to re vert back to unquantized notes You can select another quantize resolution e g 1 8th notes from the Quantize section of the page and perform the operation again to check if this works better gt You can also quantize notes as they are being recorded by clicking the Quantize During Recording box in the Quantize Notes section in the Tool Window gt Reason also features a powerful ReGroove Mixer function where notes can be quan tized to fit a certain groove rather than to simply adapt to specific bar beat increments The ReGroove Mixer is described in the Operation Manual AN TUTORIAL 4 RECORDING A BASS LINE REASON Copying and pasting a clip in the sequencer So now you have a four bar bass line contained in a clip in the sequencer Although the clip loops infinitely now having the sequencer loop over just four bars is not something you usually do as any further tracks you might add will then loop four bars as well which is rather restrictive The answer is to copy and paste the clip so that it repeats for a certain pre determined length Proceed as follows 1 Select the clip by clicking on it in the arrange window Selected clips have handles at the start and end of the clip 2 Select Copy from the Edit menu The position cursor will automatically move to the end of the clip The position cursor determines where the start of the copied clip will end up and as we want the clip to repeat this i
48. he Preferences 18 Setting up the Audio Hardware 19 Setting up MIDI 21 Setting up the Default Song 25 Guided Tour 27 About this Chapter 28 Guided Tour 28 RS TABLE OF CONTENTS SA REASON Tutorial 1 Playing a Song 43 About this tutorial 44 Playing a Song 44 Tutorial 2 Playing devices and selecting sounds 47 About this tutorial 48 Adding a mixer and an instrument device 48 Selecting a patch 51 Adding an effect 52 Tutorial 3 Creating a drum pattern 55 Creating a drum pattern 56 Tutorial 4 Recording a bass line 59 About this tutorial 60 Browsing for a bass sound 60 Recording notes in the sequencer 62 Tutorial 5 Adding a REX loop 67 About this tutorial 68 Adding a REX loop 68 I TABLE OF CONTENTS ES REASON Tutorial 6 Adding an arpeggio 71 About this tutorial 72 Adding an arpeggio 72 Automating a parameter 74 Index 75 e TABLE OF CONTENTS SA REASON Chapter 1 Installation Welcome Thank you for purchasing Reason Ten years have passed since we released Reason to the world and you are holding the fifth major version of Reason in your hands a version adding the mighty Kong Drum Designer and the updated REX player Dr Octo Rex to your rack live sampling on all sampler devices a completely new way of sequencing your tracks and many many more improvements We ve added all this while maintaining the look flow and fea tures of the Reason you know and love We
49. he beginning again TUTORIAL 1 PLAYING A SONG SA REASON 9 Near the top of the rack is a mixer device make sure this is visible You may need to scroll the view using the vertical scrollbar to the right in the rack or the scroll wheel on your mouse if it is equipped with one The scrollbar Aaa neo new laa 4 The Mixer AOE ae gt m gt Gh a g a g ome a a Gh oo a ol to mi7 ove ol i om MASTER h DD types T CF 1 DIG DL a LINE HORU Ad FA GER If you look at the mixer you will see that each mixer channel has a tape strip next to the volume fader If a device is connected to a mixer channel the tape strip is labeled with the device name In this song there are only four instrument devices so only the four first mixer channels are labeled 10 Click the play button to start playback 11 While the song is playing click and drag the faders to adjust the level of each instrument device 12 Try changing the pan setting stereo position of a channel by clicking the pan knob above the fader and dragging up or down Dragging up will turn the knob clockwise dragging down will turn it counter clockwise You may also want to add some effects to the music In this song there are two effect devices connected a delay and a chorus flanger These are connected as send effects from the mixer allowing you to specify how much of each mixer channel signal should be sent to each effect
50. he virtual rack the heart of Reason At the top of the rack you will always find the Hardware Inter face which allows Reason to communicate with the audio hardware Below this you can add as many dif ferent devices you want or as many as your computer can handle Read more about the different devices below GUIDED TOUR REASON The Back If you press Tab or select Toggle Rack Front Rear on the Options menu the rack will be turned to show you the back Here the back panel of each device in the rack is shown As you can see connections between devices are indicated by virtual patch cables Connections between instrument devices and mixers use red ca bles connections to or from effect devices use green cables connections to or from Combinator devices use blue cables and CV connections Control Voltage used for controlling parameters or triggering sounds use yellow cables You can make connections by clicking and dragging from one socket to an other on the back panels To turn the rack over again to show the front panels use the same command The Transport Panel Su vox e e _ DR The panel at the bottom of each song document window is called the Transport Panel It contains transport controls and settings such as tempo and position displays DSP load indicator etc GUIDED TOUR REASON The Sequencer The sequencer is located in the area below the rack This is where you record and
51. ia ila i aa IC E sro Ron cr 7 n 1 ri a This is a mixer with fourteen stereo channels four stereo effect sends and a basic two band EQ section By connecting the different devices to different mixer channels and the stereo output of the mixer to the hardware interface you can listen to all your devices at the same time adjust levels and pan add effects and so on just like on a physical mixer Line Mixer 6 2 This is a simple mixer with 6 stereo channels and one stereo effect send return It can be used in situa tions where basic mixing facilities will suffice Ideal for mixing device outputs within Combinator patches Subtractor Analog Synthesizer The Subtractor is a polyphonic synthesizer laid out much like an advanced analog synth It features two os cillators two filters and a host of modulation functions allowing for everything from fat basses to swirling pads and screaming lead sounds GUIDED TOUR REASON Thor Polysonic Synthesizer Thor is an advanced semi modular polyphonic synthesizer based on various selected vintage synth de signs It features several different oscillator and filter types which can be loaded into open slots allowing for an incredible tonal variety It also has an extensive modulation section and an advanced analog style Step Sequencer Malstrom Synthesizer E E a E G ai 6 E a The Malstr m is a polyphonic synthesizer featuring two oscillators t
52. ilt in audio connectors or some additional audio hardware that you have installed gt If you are using Mac OS X 10 5 or later a number of predefined combinations of built in inputs and outputs are also available in the Audio Card Driver pop up The number of available input s output s combinations depends of your computer s specific config uration A AN SETTING UP REASON Windows To be able to use both audio inputs and outputs it s required that the audio hardware supports ASIO drivers gt If you are using audio hardware for which there is a specific ASIO driver you should se lect this With an ASIO driver written specifically for the audio hardware Reason can communicate more or less directly with the audio hardware The benefits are lower latency see below and possibly better sup port for additional hardware features such as multiple outputs If there is no specific ASIO driver you should select the Direct Sound driver for the audio hardware This makes Reason communicate with the hardware via Direct Sound a part of the Microsoft DirectX package You need to have DirectX installed on your computer and there must be a Direct Sound driver for the audio hardware You will only be able to use audio outputs in this scenario gt If the audio hardware doesn t support Direct Sound i e there is no Direct Sound driver available for the audio hardware select the MME driver This makes use of Windows Mult
53. imedia Extensions the part of Windows that handles audio MIDI etc Using MME often results in larger latency values see below You will only be able to use audio out puts in this scenario About Latency and other Audio Settings In the audio page you will find a number of additional settings for audio The most important ones are Buf fer Size and the corresponding readout for Input and Output Latency Sample Rate 44 100 v Butter Size 512 samples Input Latency 14 ms Output Latency 13 ms The Input Latency is the delay between when the audio is sent from a connected microphone or instru ment and when it s received and detected by Reason Output Latency is the delay between when audio is sent from Reason and when you actually hear it The latencies in an audio system depends on the audio hardware its drivers and their settings If the output latency is large you will notice that the sound is delayed when you play a device from a MIDI keyboard You may also notice that reactions are delayed when adjusting controls on the device panels for example if you lower the volume of a device you will not hear this immediately but after the latency time If you experience high latency values you will need to make adjustments to your configuration If available use the Buffer Size slider to lower the latency If the Buffer Size slider is greyed out you may be able to lower the buffer size in the con trol p
54. irst time Reason is launched see First run Reason Setup Wizard on page 16 or when using Auto detect Surfaces in the Preferences Whether auto de tection works or not depends on the keyboard model A INSTALLATION AN REASON If you have several MIDI control surfaces or similar that you want to use we recommend that you connect them to separate MIDI ports or directly to the computer using USB Installing the Software Upgrading vs New Installations If you are upgrading from a previous version of Reason please note the following gt Our recommendation is that you uninstall the previous version before installing the new one Under Windows please use the Uninstall feature Under Mac OS X just drag the program files to the Trash Uninstalling will ensure that there is no confusion between versions and that shortcuts and aliases point to the right files etc Running the Installer Now it s time to install the actual Reason software gt Insert the Reason Version 5 disc into your DVD drive What to do next depends on whether you are installing on a Mac or a Windows computer Windows 1 On the DVD locate the file called Install Reason and double click on it Under Windows the installer may automatically start when you insert the DVD depending on your sys tem settings 2 Follow the instructions on screen Before executing the installation of the software components you will be asked to select a lan
55. ith a few devices to start with but no sequencer data Note that it is not possible to open these songs by regular means via the browser since they are not independent rns files and thus do not reside anywhere in the Reason folder e Custom This allows you to select a custom default song Any Reason song can be used so if you often create songs using the same or similar device setups you can use a previ ously created song as the default song This way all new songs you create will have the same device setup To select a custom default song click the Folder icon to the right and browse to the de sired Reason song The name of the selected song will then be displayed in the text box Default Song gt Empty Rack Built In Custom Mixer and Mastering rns fe A SETTING UP AN REASON Chapter 3 Guided Tour About this Chapter This chapter is a quick introduction to the basics in Reason laid out as a guided tour describing the dif ferent areas and devices in the program Before you proceed with the tutorials you should have connected your equipment and made settings for audio and MIDI as described in the previous chapters On the following pages you will find a brief introduction of the program This helps you get familiar with the different devices and their uses Guided Tour The Rack z se oe ete Korean mf yu lii Il LITI RT HUHNE UHHH Erm Pri n This is t
56. mbining in puts and outputs into one virtual audio device This is done in the Aggregate Device Editor Although Aggregate Devices can be used regular audio devices with both inputs and outputs have proven to be more reliable and allow lower latencies Therefore we recom mend using external audio hardware with good Core Audio drivers instead Proceed as follows to create an Aggregate Device 1 In OS X open Audio MIDI Setup in the Utilities folder in Applications 2 Select Open Aggregate Device Editor from the Audio menu Audio MIDI Setup Edit Audio MIDI Window Help Audio MIDI Setup Aggregate Devices In Out System Settings z A Default Input utput utput j Add and remove aggregate devices on your computer g Properties For L_ gt Structure Clock Source Clock Use Audio Device In Out Resample Audio Input q F E Master Stream The Aggregate Device Editor A INSTALLATION AN REASON In the Aggregate Device Editor click the button to create a new aggregate device If you like you can rename your new aggregate device Place a tick in the Use check boxes for each of the Audio Devices you want to use For example if you want to use the Built in Line Input and Built in Output tick these two boxes If you want to use the Built in Microphone together with the Built in Output note that there might be audio feedback
57. mplate Documents folder 4 Selectthe file Empty Rack rns and click Open A song document window appears This consists of an almost empty rack and one track in the se quencer the Transport track which is always present To the right of the rack is the Tool window which can display various pages for editing or adding devices etc gt Normally when you create a new song you would select New from the File menu This command opens the default song which contains a mixer and a Combinator device loaded with some mastering effects which is a perfect starting point for adding instru ment devices and getting started with your song For the purpose of this tutorial however we will start with an empty rack AND SELECTING SOUNDS TUTORIAL 2 PLAYING DEVICES SA REASON gt You can also customize what song should open when you select New from the File menu This is described on Setting up the Default Song on page 25 5 In the Tool window make sure that the Device Palette tab is selected and that all de vice categories are ticked Instruments Effects and Other Now the Devices page is shown displaying all available Reason devices X S e k iruri acta Flos insitrume nta 6 From the device list select Mixer 14 2 and then click Create at the bottom of the list A mixer device is created in the rack You can also click and drag devices directly into the rack or dou ble click a d
58. n an instrument device should have its own separate effect and typically when you want to hear the effect sound only no dry sound gt As send effects This way you connect an effect to the Aux send and return busses on a mixer You use send effects when several instruments should have the same effect and typically when you want to hear a mix be tween the dry sound and the effect sound You control the effect amount by using the Aux knobs for mixer channels as illustrated in the first tutorial Typical send effects are reverb and delay In the first example we will describe how to connect a Unison effect device as an insert effect for the Sub tractor 1 Click somewhere on the panel not a button or slider of the Subtractor device in the rack to select it 2 In the Tool window untick the Instrument and Other device categories so that only the Effects category is ticked Only effect devices will now be shown 3 Double click the UN 16 Unison device The effect is created and appears below the Subtractor in the rack If you flip the rack around by using the Tab key you can see that the output of the Subtractor is now connected to the effect and that the effect s stereo outputs are routed to a channel in the mixer 4 Flip the rack back to show the front panel 5 If you now play you should hear the Subtractor being processed by the effect You can turn up the Detune knob for a stronger d
59. ng along and try to come up with a short 4 bar bass line that fits the drum pattern gt If you would like a metronome click to help you keep time press the Click button on the transport You can adjust the click level using the Click Level knob below the Pre button When you are ready to record your bass line proceed as follows 4 Make sure the Left locator is at the start of the song It is by default set to 1 1 1 0 Loor 1 1 1 0 1 1 The Left locator position is shown locator position is shown in in the C display to the right on the transport panel 5 Set the Right locator to the position 5 1 1 0 You can set the Left or Right locator positions in several ways e By clicking on the header of either the L or R locator and dragging it will snap to ex act bar positions e By clicking on the first digit of the locator position display on the transport panel and moving your mouse up and down e By clicking on the first digit and typing in the bar position for the locator position display e By clicking on the first digit and using the up down spin controls beside the position dis play TUTORIAL 4 RECORDING A BASS LINE SA REASON 6 Click stop on the transport until the song position is at the start of the song 1 1 1 0 The first time you click stop the song position cursor simply stops at the current position The second time the cursor moves to where it was la
60. ngs are part of a Redrum patch Drum sound channels T_y_ tt i A NN ee Ee 2 Es Ee LEVEL WEL 5 7 Fu sh SLI Kk gt LAOS a O LENGTH LENGTH 0 Cali i A PITH Price PITH A Te rir ee oe a pi a The selected patch tonet ver Tonet veL START WEL gM SELECT gee SELECT Me SELECT ENABLE PATTERN PATTERN SECTION a P im PATCH 1660 ml BELEGT BAR HIGH QUALITY INTERPOLATION le aon CHANNEL 8 5 SE Al S ILE EXCLUBIWE 5 Try out the drum sounds by clicking the audition buttons at the top of each drum sound channel Now let s start building a pattern By default the empty patterns have sixteen steps with each step corre sponding to a sixteenth note so that the length of a pattern is one 4 4 bar To make things simple we ll keep this setting for now 6 Click the Run button on the Redrum device panel The pattern will start playing as indicated by the running LED on the step buttons at the bottom of the device panel Nothing will be heard since you haven t added any drum beats yet 7 Click the Select button for one of the drum sounds In Redrum you add drum beats for one sound at the time TUTORIAL 3 CREATING A DRUM PATTERN PON REASON 57 8 Click on the first step button marked 1 The button lights up indicating a drum beat Tone 4 WEL STAAT 4 WEL START WEL STAAT 4 WEL RATE WEL RATE WEL 2 cca 3 ea 4 a 5 ee G
61. rd a USB audio interface the built in audio hardware on a Macintosh or some more advanced audio card with several inputs and outputs digital connectors etc Re gardless of which you need to make sure the hardware and its drivers are properly installed Audio hardware and Mac OS X If you are going to use only the outputs of the built in audio hardware In this case you don t need to make any extra settings Just connect the audio output to your listening equipment speakers mixer headphones or similar and make sure your Mac plays audio properly If you are going to use both the inputs and outputs of the built in audio hardware All Mac models come with a built in audio interface providing stereo input and output jacks and in some cases a built in microphone Depending on your needs the quality of these inputs and outputs may be fully sufficient for use with Reason If you use Mac OS X 10 5 and later Reason provides a number of pre configured Input s Output s com binations that can be accessed from the Audio tab in Preferences However under Mac OS X 10 4 the system presents the built in inputs and outputs as two or three individual audio devices This means that by default you can only select the Built in Output option in Reason s Preferences This works fine for playback but since you get no inputs at all you cannot record audio To get access to both built in inputs and outputs you need to create an Aggregate Device co
62. recorded param eter automation data for the track 2 3 4 5 18 7 8 9 10 O ER NE fll a prum a i I 12127 gt Drum anat 0 The Edit view with separate drum velocity pattern and two controller edit lanes visible The Tool window arii e Eesti Elita insirumenta The Tool window provides a quick and convenient way of adding devices editing scaling data or adjusting groove parameters The window can display one of four pages the Devices Palette page which contains all available devices in Reason the Sequencer Tools page the Groove Settings page and the Song Sam ples page The window floats above the application You can show hide the Tool window by pressing F8 or selecting Show Hide Tool window from the Window menu A ANN GUIDED TOUR REASON The Devices The following devices are available in Reason Reason Hardware Interface HARDWARE ATLAP ACL ql Qil HHU NN TT TTT CRCECECICRCIO This device handles Reason s communication with your audio and MIDI hardware The Hardware Interface contains audio input and output indicators as well as sampling input indicators with level meters This is where you connect different devices to different outputs on your audio hardware This is also where you can route external input signals for real time audio processing or route external or internal audio signals for sampling Reason supports up to 64 separate audio inpu
63. rom having two or more individual inputs This is especially true if you want to manipulate Reason parameters with additional MIDI control sur face devices or use the program in conjunction with an external stand alone sequencer groove ma chine or similar e For some MIDI interfaces connected via USB no driver installation is required Just plug in the interface and you re ready to go e For other more advanced MIDI interfaces or at least to take advantage of more ad vanced features like multiple inputs you will need to install a driver Please consult the documentation that came with the interface for details MIDI Connections gt Simply connect the USB cable from your keyboard to your computer Although many USB MIDI keyboards are plug and play some may require a driver to be installed Consult the documentation that came with your MIDI keyboard or visit the manufacturer s web site Drivers are usually downloadable gt Connect a MIDI cable from the MIDI Out on your MIDI keyboard or other MIDI controller to a MIDI In on your MIDI interface This is sufficient to be able to play and record notes and controllers in Reason from the MIDI keyboard gt Ifyou are not using a USB keyboard you may also connect the MIDI Out from the MIDI in terface to the MIDI In on your MIDI keyboard This is not strictly necessary to use Reason but it will enable two way communication when you run the Reason Setup Wizard which appears the f
64. s already registered to your ac count The Getting Started Manual The manual you are reading right now Requirements Below you will find the minimum requirements for running Reason Version 5 Note that these are the minimum requirements You will benefit from a fast computer with a lot of RAM since this will allow you to use more devices at the same time Mac OS X e Intel Mac multiple cores highly recommended e 1GB RAM or more e DVD drive e MacOSX 10 4 or later e 2 GB free hard disk space e Monitor with 1024x768 resolution or better e CoreAudio compliant audio interface or built in audio hardware e A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended Windows e Intel Pentium 4 AMD Athlon or better multiple cores highly recommended e 1GB RAM or more e DVD drive e Windows XP SP3 Vista or Windows 7 e 2 GB free hard disk space e Monitor with 1024x768 resolution or better e A 16 bit Windows compatible audio card preferably with an ASIO driver e A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard recommended A I INSTALLATION REASON About the Audio Hardware The audio hardware is the computer equipment that converts the digital signals from Reason to analog au dio signals for connection to an amplifier headphones or similar It also converts analog input signals from microphones or instruments to digital signals that Reason can sample or process in other ways This equipment could be a standard stereo sound ca
65. s perfect 3 Select Paste from the Edit menu The clip is pasted at the end of the first clip and position cursor will move to the end of the copied clip You can repeat the last step as many times you like to create a chain of clips 4 Click the Stop button to rewind the position to the start of the song 5 Move the Right locator to the end of the last clip Lanes atr Lane 1 HOANNE 6 Ifyou now press play on the transport the bass line will sound exactly the same as before in that the clip will repeat along with the Redrum pattern but you now have a good start ing point to continue editing or recording more etc For example you could now edit the notes in one or more clips to create variations How to edit indi vidual note events for a clip in the sequencer is not covered in this basic tutorial please refer to the Op eration Manual That concludes the fourth tutorial You can either keep things as they are and directly go on to the next tu torial or you can save the song to enable you to continue later TUTORIAL 4 RECORDING A BASS LINE SA REASON Chapter 8 Tutorial 5 Adding a REX loop About this tutorial The following tutorial continues from the previous tutorials In this tutorial we shall cover the following e How to add a Rex loop e How to adjust parameters for the whole loop as well as for individual slices Adding a REX loop About REX loops
66. sed together with the RPG 8 although the basic principle is the same for all devices 1 Make sure the Subtractor track is selected and has Master Keyboard input 2 Locate the Filter 1 Freq parameter on the panel This parameter governs the filter frequency i e how open or closed the filter is Filter 1 Hoch HP 12 i BP 12 _ JP lt ipa Ring Mod Frog Ros Type kbd 3 Rewind to the start of the song and hit the Record button Recording starts after the one bar pre count 4 Click on the Filter Freq slider and hold the mouse button down while slowly moving the mouse up and or down 5 Stop recording and click stop until you reach the start of the song As you can see the Filter 1 Freq parameter now has a green border to indicate it is automated Also an automation lane for the Filter Freq parameter has been added on the Subtractor track in the se quencer The automation events you recorded are contained in an automation clip on the automation lane 6 Start playback The filter parameter is now automated and will exactly mirror the slider movements you made during recording Automation recording can be undone at any time just like other recorded events You can also draw automation curves in the sequencer This is described in the Sequencer chapters of the main Operation Manual That concludes the sixth and final tutorial Please refer to the main Operation Manual for compl
67. st when starting playback which could be at the start of the song The third time will move the cursor to the start of the song You can also click the L button be side the locator position display to move the song position cursor there 7 Click the Loop button on the transport so that the button lights up If you now start playback you can see that the first 4 bars as set with the Left and Right locators will loop seamless When the position reaches the Right locator it jumps back to the start of the song and the Redrum pattern will play continuously 8 Click Stop until the position is again at the start of the song See step 6 9 Activate pre count by clicking the Pre button on the transport This will sound the metronome click for 1bar before the recording starts so you have time to get ready During recording the 4 bar section will loop continuously just as when playing back Any notes played will be recorded This means if you play the complete bass line during the first lap of the 4 bar loop you should not continue to play the bass line on the second lap as these notes will be added to the previously recorded notes There is never any risk of erasing data when loop recording but everything you play or tweak will be recorded 10 Click the Record button on the transport panel Recording will start after the 1 bar pre count click 11 Play your bass line along with the drum pattern 12 When you re
68. t in envelope to create rhythmic filter effects of various kinds The envelope can for example be trig gered by a drum machine or the Matrix pattern sequencer CF 101 Chorus Flanger ime CF 101 Orr CHORUS FLANGER rr LFo _ o ni tti d ET A o da da FEEDBACK RATE STNE MOD AMOUNT SEND MODE The CF 101 does double duty as chorus for making textures rich and swirly and flanger for creating sweeping metallic effects You can use it as a send effect or as an insert effect connected between an instrument device and a mixer PH 90 Phaser The PH 90 is a stereo phaser effect It has six parameters available on the device panel allowing you to create both subtle sweeping sounds and extreme swirling special effects UN 16 Unison 1 UN 16 or UNISON TOR a n VOICE COUNT DETUNE DATI WET The UN 16 simulates the sound of several detuned voices playing the same notes simultaneously produc ing a rich chorus like effect with the voices spread across the stereo field if you like GUIDED TOUR REASON COMP 01 Compressor sia COMP 01 COMPRESSORI re a MAKE UP a iow PRESSOR Ta girl 1 pg o i 1 QU This is a combined compressor and limiter It will affect the dynamics of the sound by boosting low levels and attenuating loud sounds Use it for keeping levels even from individual devices or the whole mix for adding punch and power to drums etc PEQ2 Two Band Parametric EQ in DEQ 2
69. te and a mixer device 2 Select Redrum Drum Computer from the Create menu In the sequencer a track for the Redrum is created It is automatically selected and gets master key board input 3 Click the folder button in the lower left corner of the Redrum panel This opens the patch browser for the drum machine allowing you to select a Redrum patch a drum kit Note that there are folder buttons for each drum sound channel too these let you add drum sam ples one by one and create your own drum kits Load Sample buttons LEVEL WEL LEWEL WEL atta n attra rm ee eee LEMGTH LENGTH k Ts PITCH PITCH PITCH 1 nia rir a sf rale Ve rr et oe TORE WEL TONET 4WEL STAAT WEL 3 SELECT REDRUM The Browse Patch button ENAH PATTERN SECTION fa Na m Farch 18600 pn zii BBRD HIGH QUALITY INTERPOLATION D coco CHANNEL 8 5 A ic EMGLUEINE 4 Select a Redrum patch in the same way as you selected a Subtractor patch in the previ ous tutorial The patches are located in category folders within the folder Redrum Drum Kits in the Reason Fac tory Sound Bank this main folder is opened by default PATTERN TUTORIAL 3 CREATING A DRUM SA REASON When you have selected a patch you will note that a sample file name is displayed at the top of each drum sound channel in the drum machine There may also be different parameter settings for the different drum sounds all these setti
70. tegory folders aa 8 egococol JETE eLegak e i a A rah se 4 aa 5 ogee ge 1 F EE U ol L F Gal JR alt 95 oe 39 a cas Gi DJS ST ga E Reamer Fatto Soumi Bark 2712 Proceed Softee AE Par TUTORIAL 4 RECORDING A BASS LINE REASON 3 Double click the Bass folder to open it This folder contains 3 further sub categories Acoustic Bass Electric Bass and Synth Bass 4 Open the Synth Bass folder As you can see the browser now not only displays Subtractor zyp patches but patches for many differ ent devices For example patches with the extension cmb are Combinator patches xwv are Malstrom patches etc 5 Move the browser window so that you can see part of the rack bis Paasan tador Sound Iani O10 Pepe bane Al Go Biy ale os Gra 6 Select a Subtractor patch extension zyp in the browser but do NOT click OK A new Subtractor device has been added to the rack and should be in view The patch you selected can be auditioned if you play a few notes 7 Keep an eye on the Subtractor device and use the Select Previous Next buttons or your up down arrow keys to step through the patches in the browser When you load a patch belonging to another instrument device the corresponding device will replace the Subtractor device in the rack and allow you to audition the patch Cross browsing is a
71. the following e How to open and play back a song e Basic mixer operations This tutorial assumes you have made the necessary setting up for audio If not please re fer to the Setting Up chapter before starting Playing a Song 2 Pull down the File menu and select Open The Song browser window opens were you can open Reason song documents It shows the contents of your hard drive as a standard folder structure much like Windows Explorer or the Finder in Mac OS X but only Reason Song document files can be shown opened 3 Navigate to the Reason program folder This can be found in the Locations and Favorites list in the upper left corner of the browser 4 Select the song Tutorial Song rns Click Open The document window for the song is displayed on screen This consists of a virtual rack with devices this song contains four instrument devices and two effects a sequencer section and a transport panel 6 Click the play button on the transport panel at the bottom of the window Playback starts If everything is properly connected you should now hear Reason play The stop button The play button a TAB 7 Click the stop button to stop playback when you ve heard enough Now try out some real time mixing 8 Click the stop button again This moves the song position to where you last started playback In this case this will be the start of the song allowing you to play the song from t
72. ts and 64 audio outputs However if you are only using audio hardware with standard stereo outputs the connections to the audio hardware are automatically taken care of when you create a mixer device at the top of the rack The lower half of the hardware interface opened by clicking the Advanced MIDI button contains set tings for MIDI input allowing you to select a separate MIDI channel for each device when controlling Rea son from an external multi channel MIDI source Normally you should not have to use this For standard MIDI control of one device at a time in Reason you don t need to use the hardware interface since the MIDI signals are routed through the sequencer as de scribed in the tutorials following this chapter The Reason Hardware Interface is riveted into the rack and cannot be removed Combinator fHlalstrom came aes es PARLA WAAL kF PRACTOR tm ROLY PHOHIC SS HTHEes The Combinator allows you to create new custom devices by combining existing devices Any combina tion of Reason devices can be added to the Combinator and then saved as a Combi patch Example us age includes creating layered instruments instrument effect combinations and effect chains Devices in a Combi can be mapped to velocity key zones and the Combinator also features virtual knobs and buttons that can be assigned to any device parameter or function GUIDED TOUR REASON Mixer 14 2 a na hal z s
73. ulation u ty t Gate Input Audio Output Gate 1 ose pire 3 Op Eny E main 4 Flip the rack back to show the front panel The first tape strip in the Effect Return section of the Mixer now indicates that a Unison device is con nected to the Aux 1 Send Return bus 5 Now turn up the Aux 1 knob for the Subtractor mixer channel and play a few notes The Aux 1 knob now controls the level of the Unison effect When using send effects you should al ways leave the Dry Wet parameter on the effect device to maximum Wet as the Aux knob now con trols the balance between clean and effect signal Also note that any device connected to the mixer can now be processed by the Unison effect simply turn the Aux knob for the corresponding channel to add the effect That concludes the second tutorial If you want to go on to the next tutorial straight away you can keep the current song open TUTORIAL 2 PLAYING DEVICES AND SELECTING SOUNDS POR REASON TUTORIAL 2 PLAYING DEVICES SA AND SELECTING SOUNDS REASON Chapter 6 Tutorial 3 Creating a drum pattern Creating a drum pattern In this tutorial we will describe how to create a drum pattern using the Redrum device If you have kept the song from the previous tutorial open you can skip the first step 1 Select New from the File menu This will open a new song which by default is configured with a Combinator effect patch named De fault Mastering Sui
74. ut soft knee compression and adaptive release It also differs from the COMP 01 in that it doesn t have automatic make up gain allowing for other applications than simply keeping the level even e MClass Maximizer This is a loudness maximizer allowing you to significantly raise the perceived loudness without risking clip ping distortion It consists of an input gain section a limiter section with a look ahead function a soft clip section and a level meter BV512 Vocoder The BV512 is an advanced vocoder device with a variable number of filter bands and a unique 1024 point FFT vocoding mode equivalent of 512 band vocoding for very precise and high quality vocoded speech By connecting the BV512 to two instrument devices you can produce anything from vocoded speech singing or drums to weird special effects A GUIDED TOUR AN REASON Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit 2 Kr i E sibi BESTELOTION OMIT a SCO e This is an extremely versatile sound destruction device featuring various kinds of distortion signal warping and transformation effects There are three main sections Damage where you select a sound mangling algorithm and make settings Cut a three band EQ and Body a resonant body or cabinet simulator excellent for making the sound come alive RV7000 Advanced Reverb The RV7000 is a high quality reverb processor with nine different reverb and echo algorithms
75. vices and sequencer data and can be played Every time you select New from the File menu a default template song without sequencer data is opened with a few selected devices This serves as a suitable starting point for creating your own songs You can however decide exactly what you want the default song to look like in the following way 1 Open the Preferences dialog from the Edit menu or Reason menu if you are running Mac OS X 2 Use the pop up menu at the top of the Preferences dialog to select the General page 5 Preferences Page General v eneral Editing Mouse Knob G Audio Keyboards and Control Surfaces Advanced Automation A Language and Computer Keyboard Trigger Notes While Editing Appearance Reduce Cable Clutter Setting Show For Selected Devices Only O Hide Auto Routed Cables 3 Atthe middle of this page there is a section entitled Default Song You have three choices Empty Rack Built In and Custom Default Song Empty Rack Built in Custom _ Load Last Song On Startup Select which one you want to use by clicking the corresponding radio button e Empty Rack This is an empty rack Well almost empty since it contains the Reason hardware interface A I SETTING UP REASON e Built In When this is selected launching Reason will open a basic demo song Selecting New from the File menu will open a template song w
76. wo modulators two filters a wave shaper and a large number of modulation and routing options It is based on the concept of Graintable Synthesis and makes it possible to produce amazingly abstract sharp distorted undulating sounds A GUIDED TOUR AN REASON NN 19 Digital Sampler The NN 19 allows you to sample and to load samples Wave AIFF SoundFonts or REX files and create multi sample patches by mapping samples across the keyboard Once you have loaded one or several samples you can modity the sound using synth type parameters such as a filter envelopes and an LFO NN XT Digital Sampler ma A q ATE CINT xr mi ie r fa it XT Pros I kam m Fia ih A hE GP Sie iT E Sy oo FELDT So on oe HF ai 7 E ur iL CTET Bi TEE E ent nin I LI BP CPEPLPL wee THE Lid lee feet be mE maire E TEF kn TL MADE feet ALT ni z la ji fan a fan le S te CE ae nto Lees oo EPET EL mN aro F AMF Sverre nrm pam amg The NN XT just like the above mentioned NN 19 lets you sample and load samples Wave AIFF SoundFonts or REX files and map these across the keyboard to create multi sample patches The sound can then be modified using synth type parameters two LFOs two envelopes and a filter In addition the NN XT also allows you to create layered sounds where two or more samples can be played simultaneously This is done by mapping dif

Propellerhead Reason - 5.0 Getting Started Guide

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents