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Propellerhead Reason - 2.0 Getting Started Guide

1. POS REASON The Sequencer Basics gt Similarly to reattach the sequencer window to the rack either se lect Attach Sequencer Window from the Windows menu or click the button Note that the button for detaching the sequencer window is only available in the rack The button for reattaching the sequencer though is available both in the rack and in the sequencer m The Attach Sequencer button on the sequencer and in the background on the rack Another way of reattaching the sequencer window is by closing it Note also that the rack is still the main window for the song which means that closing the song will close the sequencer window as well About the Transport You ll notice that when detaching the sequencer fromthe rack there will be two instances of the transport on the screen one in the rack and one in the se quencer window This is for convenience since it allows you to control playback and recording regardless of which window is the active one Should you wish however you can fold one of the transports in the same manner as with any other device in Reason Folding and unfolding devices is described on page 53 To make the rack or the sequencer the active window when they are separated you can use the keycommands Command 1 Mac Ct1 1 Windows and Command 2 Mac Ct1 2 Windows respectively A note about using Reason with two monitors If you have a com
2. Xt REAS CIN Welcome Thank you for purchasing Reason 2 0 This is the first major update of Reason This means that this program by soft ware standards is still just a kid Nevertheless it seems that Reason has al ready to some extent changed the way people think about making music with computers A fact that naturally makes us extremely proud And believe us when we say that even though this may be the first update it certainly isn t the last A strong driving force for us at PropellerHeadQ uarters is the communication with all the people around the world that use our applications for expressing themselves One meeting point for all of us is the song archives and message boards on our web pages This is a unique forum where professionals and be ginners meet on equal tems to exchange music and ideas Even more impor tantly it s a forum open to you Share your experiences by communicating with us and others and by uploading your songs for others to hear We think you will appreciate the feedback from other Reason users all over the word just as much as we appreciate the feedback we get from you So see you on the Pro pellerhead web Yours truly The Propellerhead Software Team www propellerheads se POS REASON Installation About the manuals This is the Getting Started manual covering the basic features and procedures in Reason It also contains a tutorial section and a guided tour to help you
3. Opening files When you have navigated to the desired folder on your hard disk or within a Re Fill and located the desired file you open it by double clicking it in the file dis play or by selecting it and clicking the Open button The browser will only display files of the relevant type For example if you have selected the Browse Synth Patches function for a Sub tractor synth device only synth patches will be listed POS REASON The Browser Handling Missing Sounds Sampler patches drum machine patches and Soundfonts contain references to samples files on your hard disk The same is true for songs that contain sam ples in sampler or drum machine devices or REX files If any of these files have been moved renamed or removed when you try to open the patch or song Rea son will alert you that files are Missing Some sounds could not be found IF you have moved them to other database folders you can try Search amp Proceed If you want to continue without the samples click Proceed For more details click Open Dialog Search amp Proceed Proceed Open Dialog Cancel Click one of the four buttons Search amp Pro Reason will search for the missing files in all database folders ceed e ifall files are found the song or patch will be opened without further ado e Ifone or more files cannot be found the Missing Sounds dialog will appear see below Note that the file search will look at
4. 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 click ing the pan knob above the fader and dragging up or down Dragging up will tum the knob clockwise dragging down will tum it counter clockwise You may also want to add some effects to the music In this song there are two C reat effect devices connected a delay and a chorus flanger These are connected as ng a new song send effects from the mixer allowing you to specify how much of each mixer channel signal should be sent to each effect In this tutorial we will start with an empty rack to let you add your own devices 13 Raise the Aux send level knobs at the top of a mixer channel THOM SCI Send 1 is connected to the delay while send 2 goes to the chorus flanger 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 2 Pull down the File menu and select Open 3 Naviga
5. IST ID DD EI IE DE DD I A Sixteenth note pattern with shuffle In Reason you can activate or deactivate shuffle individually for each pattem in a pattem device However the amount of shuffle is set globally with the Pattern Shuffle control on the transport panel Eu is DELE J ION AS SHUFFLE ED IN p4 r The Shuffle on off switch in the Redrum left and the Pattem Shuffle control on the transport panel right Clearing a Pattem To clear empty a pattem select it and use the Clear Pattern command on the Edit menu or device context menu Note that clearing a pattem doesn t affect the pattem length reso lution or shuffle settings Using Cut Copy and Paste By using the Cut Copy and Paste Pattem commands on the Edit menu or de vice context menu you can move or duplicate pattems between devices of the same type The following rules apply Copy Pattem makes a copy of the currently selected pattem and places the copy on the clipboard gt Cut Pattern moves the currently selected pattem to the clipboard This is the same as first performing Copy Pattem and then Clear Pattern gt Paste Pattem copies the pattem on the clipboard to the selected pattem location in the selected device This overwrites the selected pattem with the one on the clipboard Transferring patterns between Reason songs If you want to copy pattems between different Reason songs you use copy and paste 1 Open both songs
6. LA Dr Rex Drum Loops E Music Loops Co nnig Sampler Patches Other Samples EI Redrum Drum Kits Subtractor Patches 508 MB gt 169 MB 4 5 MB 4 Zuwonga Patch Bonanza opens it for navigation just like a folder Furthermore if a song makes use of components from RerFills Reason will tell you which ReFills are required Reason File Formats The following table lists the file formats that you can browse and open using Reason s browser File type Song Published Song Subtractor Patch Malstr m Patch NN19 Sam pler Patch NNXT Sam pler Patch Redrum Patch REX files Extension sn ps sp drp RZ rcy or Description This is the main document format in Reason It contains your music and the setup of the rack along with references to any used samples and loops or it can contain the actual samples and loops if you have made the song self con tained A published song is a self contained song in tended for playback only It cannot be changed its components cannot be extracted and it is not possible to export it as an audio file This is a patch for the Subtractor synth device containing all panel settings You store your synth sounds by saving Subtractor patches This is a patch for the Malstr m synth device con taining all panel settings You store your synth sounds by saving Malstr m patches This is a patch for the NN19 Sampler device co
7. A REAS CIN Operation Manual by Synkron Ludvig Carlson Anders Nordmark and Roger Wiklander 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 expect 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 2002 Propellerhead Software and its licensors All specifications subject to change without notice Reason is a trademark of Propellerhead Software All other commercial symbols are protected trademarks and trade names of their respective holders All rights reserved Xt REAS CIN Table of Contents SOFTUARE O Y Y O O Ol Table of Contents Installation Welcome About the manuals What is in the Reason package Requirements About the Audio Hardware About MIDI Interfaces Installing the Software Setting Up About this Chapter Setting up the Audio Hardware Setting up MIDI Input Setting Sound and Patch Search Paths Setting the default song Quick Tutorial About this Chapter Playing a Song Creating a new song Guided Tour Common Operations and Concepts About this Chapter Conventions in the Manual Making Settings Tool T
8. S nap restricts movement to specific positions This is especially useful when you are editing in the se quencer moving material creating events etc but it will also affect the result of moving the song position in the ruler To set up and activate Snap proceed as follows 1 Pull down the Snap pop up menu and select a value If you select Bar you will only be able to move the song position to the be ginning of bars The other options restrict movement to the corresponding note values 2 Activate Snap by clicking the button next to the pop up menu ME JE ES 23 33 In this example Snap is activated and set to quarter notes This means you can move the song position to exact quarter note positions only POS REASON The Sequencer Basics Using the Loop Mute and Solo In loop mode the sequencer will repeat a section over and over again during playback or recording You specify the section to be looped by setting the left i To mute a track means to silence it so that no data is sent from the track during and right locator playback This can be very useful when you are trying out different versions of an Setthe left locator the start of the loop by dragging the L marker arrangerrent for bringing elements in and out of the mix during playback etc in the ruler i f on To mute silence a track click in the M column in the track list mee you can hold down O pion Mac or Call Windows and
9. e Any computer that runs Mac OS X version 10 1 or later e A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard or similar Mac OS 9 e Power Macintosh with 604 604e G3 or G4 processor or better see the note below 166 MHz or faster e 128 Megabytes of RAM e CD ROM drive e Mac OS 9 0 4 or later e 256 color monitor or better 800x600 or larger e A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard or similar e OMS 2 xor later included Reason takes advantage of the Altivec Velocity Engine instruc tions used in the Macintosh G4 processors which enhance perfor mance Please observe that Virtual Memory must be deactivated under Mac OS 9 x With Virtual Memory activated it will not be possible to run Reason at all Windows Intel Pentium 2 or better 233 MHz or faster e 64 Megabytes of RAM e CD ROM drive e Windows 98 ME 2000 or XP or later e 256 color monitor or better 800x600 or larger e A 16 bit Windows compatible audio card preferably with an ASIO or Di rectX driver Microsoft DirectX only if the card supports it e A MIDI interface and a MIDI keyboard or similar POS REASON Installation 7 About the Audio Hardware The audio hardware is the computer equipment that converts the digital signals from Reason to analog audio signals for connection to an amplifier head phones or similar This equipment could be a standard stereo sound card the built in audio hardware on a Macintosh or some more adva
10. rates are supported by the audio hardware Most standard sound cards support 44 1 kHz and various lower sample rates in which case you should select 44 1 kHz for best audio quality About using high resolution audio Reason has the capability to play back samples with practically any resolution This means that if for instance 24 bit samples are loaded in a sampler or the Re drum playback of the samples can be in 24 bit resolution as well If you are us ing such samples and want Reason to play them back in their original high resolution proceed as follows 1 Open the Preferences from the Edit menu or Reason menu and se lect the General page 2 Under Miscellaneous at the bottom of the page make sure the option Use High Resolution Samples is checked Miscellaneous CPU Usage Limit alz Y Use High Resolution Samples Ds Changes take effect when new Samples are loaded If this is activated and if your audio card supports it Reason will play back high resolution samples in their original resolution If this option is not activated Rea son will play back all samples in 16 bit resolution regardless of their original res olution Exporting audio Reason can export audio e mixdown the song or a section of the song as an audio file see page 92 for details When you do this you will be asked to spec ify a resolution 16 or 24 bit and sample rate 11 96 kHz for the file Importing audio When loadi
11. vel by oa ng di s affected by dit veloc Optiony I A It click I MEDIUM OFT BYR AMI 21 Select another drum sound by clicking its Select button and pro ceed in the same way until you have a drum pattem you want to use 22 To stop the playback click the Run button again POS REASON Quick Tutorial Now try recording some synth notes in the sequencer 23 Click in the In column for the synthesizer track in the sequencer so that the MIDI connector symbol appears 24 Click the record button in the transport panel The button lights up indicating record standby mode The Play button The Fast Forward button CELO i LJ PoE g dE PACE The Stop button The Rewind button The Record button 25 Click the play button Recording is activated and the drum machine pattem automatically starts playing 26 Play your MIDI keyboard while listening to the drum pattem 27 When you re done click the stop button 28 Click stop again to move the song position to the beginning of the song You can also click and hold the rewind button 29 Click play to listen to your recording Finally let s record some automation of a synthesizer parameter In this example we autorrate the cutoff frequency of the filter Filter 1 Freq but you can auto mate any parameter you like 30 Rewind the song to the beginning again 31 Make sure the Overdub Replace switch just below
12. you can limit the scrolling direction to horizontal or vertical only Zooming with the magnification sliders Some areas also allow you to zoomin or out using magnification controls Either click the or magnification icon to zoomin or out respectively or click and drag the magnification slider gt Where applicable different panes can be scrolled and zoomed indi vidually ee Poor In the sequencer there are separate view controls for the Key edit lane and the Controller lane Zooming with the Magnifying Glass tool Another way of zooming in the sequencer is to use the Magnifying Glass tool This tool lets you zoomin and out both horizontally and vertically just like the magnification sliders do However the Magnifying Glass tool offers a few more possibilities The following applies By clicking once in a lane with the Magnifying Glass you zoom in by the same amount as when clicking the icon on the magnifica tion slider twice To zoom out with the Magnifying Glass click while keeping Op tion Mac Ct Windows pressed You ll notice that the sign in the Magnifying Glass tool changes to a sign gt If the lane has a vertical magnification slider as well clicking with the Magnifying Glass will also zoom in out vertically by the same amount as when clicking the and icons on the magnification slider once By holding down Shift when clicking you
13. 2 Select the pattem you want to copy 3 Select Copy Pattem from the Edit menu or the device context menu You can also hold Command Mac or Ct Windows and press C to copy 4 Make the other song active This is done by clicking in the song window or by selecting the song from the Windows menu 5 Select the bank and pattem location to which you want to copy the pattem Note that any pattem already stored in that location will be overwritten 6 Select Paste Pattem from the Edit menu or the device context menu You can also hold Command Mac or Ctrl Windows and press V to copy Pattem Functions When a pattem device is selected you will find some specific pattem functions on the Edit menu and on the device contex menu Below the three basic types of pattem functions are listed However the exact names and functionalities de pend on the device type refer to the electronic documentation for details Shift The Shift functions move the notes in a pattem one step to the left or right or transposes them one semitone up or down depending on the device This function can be used for interesting rhythmic or melodic effects or as a way to rectify pattems for which the first step isn t on the proper downbeat Randomize The Randomize functions create random pattems These can often be great starting points and help you get new ideas Alter The Alter functions modify exsting pattems Note that there must
14. 39 Initializing 86 Master Tune 44 Missing Sounds 85 Metronome Click 63 Saving 85 MIDI Selecting 84 Connecting 9 Pattern Shuffle 72 Routing to Tracks 60 Patterns Setting up inputs 17 Alter 73 MIDI Connector symbol 60 Clearing 73 Missing Sounds 80 Cut Copy and Paste 73 MME Driver 9 15 Muting 71 Mouse Knob Range 34 Programming 72 Mouse wheel 40 Randomize 73 Multiple Undo 37 Running 70 Mute 66 Selecting 71 Shift 73 N Play 64 Naming Preferences dialog 14 Devices 52 Preview Browser 79 Sequencer Tracks 59 Publish Song 90 Numerical Value Editing 35 Punch In Out 63 REASON Index R R Marker 66 Rack Navigating 46 Turning around 50 Randomize 73 Reason Factory Sound Bank see Factory Sound Bank Reason Song Archive 90 Recording 63 Redo 37 Rerills About 76 Downloading from Browser 81 Listing in Browser 79 Replace vs Overdub 64 Requirements 7 Resolution Audio 43 92 Resolution Pattern 72 REX files 77 Right Locator 66 Routing Automatic 49 Manual 50 rps files 90 Run button 70 S Sample Rate About 43 In Exported Audio 92 Samples Extracting from Self contained Songs 88 File Formats 77 Missing 80 Save Song 90 Scrolling 39 46 Self Contained Songs 88 POS REASON Index Sequencer About 56 As separate window 58 Viewing 57 vs Pattern Sequencers 70 Shift 73 Shuffle 72 Signature 63 Sliders 35 Snap 65 Solo 66 Song Archive 90 Song Information 89 Song Position 65 Songs Creating Default 91 End position 9
15. Edit menu 3 Select the other device of the same type in the same song or an other song 4 Select Paste Patch from the device context menu or the Edit menu The settings of the first device including Redrum and NN19 NNXT sample references are applied to the second device POS REASON Working with Patches Note that you can save a patch under the same name and location Note also that you cannot save into a ReFill This means that if you Note that this operation simply copies the settings from one device to another Adjusting the settings on one of the devices will not af fect the other neither are the settings connected to any patch file on disk Inrtializing Patches Sometimes it is useful to start with a clean slate when creating a synth sound a drum kit or a sampler patch This is done by selecting Initialize Patch from the device context menu or Edit menu This sets all parameters to standard values Initializing NN19 NNXT Dr Rex or Redrum devices will also remove all sample file references allowing you to start from scratch Xt REAS CIN SOFTWARE 88 About Self contained Songs The song is the main file format in Reason A song contains the device setup and all settings in the rack as well as everything you have recorded in the sequencer However this is not always sufficient Should you open your song on another computer or send it to another Reason user you would also have to
16. Freq slider to change the brightness of the synth bass sound The reason why you should start with a mixer device is that all sub sequent devices you add will then automatically be connected to a mixer channel That concludes the first tutorial Now let s move on to creating a Reason song from scratch gt REASON Quick Tutorial 6 Pull down the Create menu and select Subtractor Analog Synth 9 Click the folder button on the Subtractor panel and then Redrum Drum Computer This opens the Patch Browser dialog You have now added two instrument devices to the rack If you look in the nu sequencer you will note that two tracks have automatically been added one E TRACTOR Feson Suba Path T B POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZER Peon Macia djs aassage for the synthesizer and one for the drum machine or el II Reason Songs ReDrum Samples and Kits I REX files Samples and Sampler Patches Y Subtractor Patches la Reason Factory Sound Bank a Llao a BER Ge 3 Redrum 1 Now you could try playing the Subtractor synth live provided you have a MIDI keyboard or similar hooked up 7 In the sequencer click in the In column for the synthesizer track to the left of the name so that a MIDI connector symbol is shown 10 Click the Find All ReFills button at the top of the dialog This symbol indicates that incoming MIDI is routed to the track And since the track is connected to the Subtractor de
17. I Show Splash on Song Open Author s Web Page to yoursite here Launch Browser Author s Email Address your email here Cancel Help For example if you plan to send the song to other Reason users this dialog al lows you to add contact information comments about the song etc Further more if you save a published version of the song in the Reason Song Archive on the Propellerhead web site see page 90 vital information can automatically be extracted by the web archive engine and displayed with the song file The dialog contains the following items Text in Window Title The text you add here will be displayed directly after the file name in the song window s title bar More Information This is where you add notes and comments about the song Song Splash Allows you to add a picture to the song If the Show splash on song open checkbox is ticked the picture will be displayed when the song is opened To add a splash picture click the folder button at the upper right comer and lo cate and open the picture file in the file dialog that appears Splash pictures must be JPEG files Windows extension jpg with a size of 256 x 256 pixels To remove the splash picture fromthe song click the cross button Author s Web Page Allows you to specify your web site The user can go directly to your site by clicking the Browser button to the right provided he has a working Intemet con
18. Note gt If the track is connected to a device the device will be renamed too Typically after creating a new device you can rename its sequencer track automatically changing the name of the device The reverse is also true That is renaming a device will also change the name of its sequencer track Selecting Tracks To be able to manipulate a track or edit its contents you need to select it You select a track by clicking on its name in the track list Am i e e 8 Synth 1 Rhythm 2 Slide Phase Da Bass Selected tracks are highlighted in the list Selecting a track will automatically scroll the rack to bring the corresponding de vice into view POs REASON The Sequencer Basics You can also select the next or previous track in the list by using the up and down arrow keys on the computer keyboard gt Itis possible to select several tracks by pressing Shift and click ing This allows you to e g move or delete several tracks in one go However you can only edit the contents of one track at a time the top selected track will be edited see the electronic documentation Don t confuse selecting a track with routing MIDI to a track see be low Routing MIDI to a Track The nomal way of routing MIDI to a device in the rack is to go via the sequencer When MIDI is routed to a track in the sequencer the notes and controller data are automatically echoed to the corresponding device the
19. Player plays REX files audio files created in ReC ycle another Propellerhead Software product ReCycle is a program designed especially for working with sampled loops By slicing a loop and making separate samples of each beat ReC ycle makes it possible to change the tempo of loops without af fecting the pitch and to edit the loop as if it were built up of individual sounds After loading a REX file into the Dr Rex Loop Player you can play it back in vir tually any tempo make settings for individual slices extract MIDI playback data and process the loop with the built in filter LFO and envelopes You can also play the individual slices via MIDI or fromthe sequencer each slice has a spe cific 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 POS REASON Quick Tutorial LEVEL VEL LEVEL VEL LEVEL VEL LEVEL VEL LEVEL VEL LEVEL VEL LEVEL VEL LEVEL LEVEL ui nfor nr Y 23 Y ee fe Erle Erle KISS AZO KIA On As 0 ENT O Nilo RSC ASC 2 LENGTH LENGTH LENGTH LENGTH LENGTH LENGTH LENGTH LENGTH LENGTH LENGTH y GK Y Y 1 1 1 1 1 i LLCO PGA PITCH PITCH PITCH PITCH BEND PITCH BEND PITCH PITCH PITCH F PE afi fh af 4 4 TONE 4 VEL START 4 VEL START VEL START 4 VEL RATE VEL RATE VEL START VEL START VEL TONE VEL SELECT SELECT SELECT ENABLE PATTERN 1 NG _ 116 np HARD MEDIUM PATTERN 4 is 17 32 je SEC
20. To make a copy of a device in the rack hold down Option Mac or Ctrl Win dows and drag it to a new position gt If you hold down Shift when you duplicate the device Reason will attempt to automatically route it just as when you move devices See page 49 Cut Copy and Paste Selected devices can be moved or duplicated using the Cut Copy and Paste Device functions on the Edit menu or device context menu For example this al lows you to copy one or several devices Such as an instrument device and all its insert effects from one Reason Song to another The following rules apply gt Cutand Copy affects all selected devices and work according to the standard procedures That is Cut moves the devices to the clipboard removing them from the rack while Copy creates copies of the devices and puts these on the clip board without affecting the rack gt When you Paste devices these are inserted into the rack below the currently selected device If no device is selected the pasted devices will appear at the bottom of the rack gt If you Copy and Paste several devices the connections between these are preserved gt If you hold down Shift when you Paste a device Reason will at tempt to automatically route it The rules are the same as when moving or duplicating devices by dragging See page 49 A Quick Note on Routing Routing an Effect Directly to a Device Insert gt When you have an instrument device se
21. a scroll wheel see page 39 Where applicable different areas in the sequencer have separate scrollbars and zoom controls pa fine p 100 a THAAL Bay So ee ieee You can also adjust the horizontal magnification in the sequencer area by holding down Command Mac or Ct Windows and pressing or on the standard part of the computer keyboard not on the numeric keypad Command Ctn zooms in while Command CtnN zooms out POs REASON The Sequencer Basics 37 Working with the sequencer in a separate window The sequencer window can be detached from the rack and used in a separate window This could be useful for instance if you are working with a large number of tracks or if you are viewing many sequencer lanes at once Detaching the se quencer will then make it possible to view all tracks or lanes at once without hav ing to resize the sequencer or scroll the view up and down to focus on a certain track or lane The separate sequencer window can be positioned and resized freely both hon zontally and vertically using the basic windows techniques described on page 38 gt To detach the sequencer from the rack either click the correspond ing button in the top right comer of the rack or pull down the Win dows menu and select Detach Sequencer Window Click this button to open the sequencer in a seoarate window Document 1 Rack
22. alone ReBirth Input Machine Birth r w a pii l RE L R 1 2 mix BD 5D TOM PER HH CY MIX BD 5D TOM PER HH cy ACTIVE input machine This device allows you to use Reason in conjunction with Propellerheads clas sic ReBirth application The audio from ReBirth will be streamed via the Re Wire 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 POS REASON Quick Tutorial Xt REAS CIN gt Common Operations and Concepts SOFTWARE About this Chapter This chapter describes some general methods and techniques employed throughout Reason It also contains some terminology useful for better under standing of the program and the manual To make your work with Reason as ef fective and rewarding as possible we recommend that you read this chapter Conventions in the Manual This manual describes both the Macintosh version and the Windows version of Reason Wherever the versions differ this is clearly stated in the text About Key Commands In the manual computer key commands are indicated by brackets For example press Shift C Y would mean hold down the Shift key and press the C key However some modifier keys are different on Mac and PC computers re spectively Whenever this is the case the manual separates the com
23. are running a pattem device separately and start playback of the main sequencer the pattem device will automatically restart in sync with the sequencer gt Pattem changes can be controlled by pattern change events in the main sequencer In other words you can record or create pattem changes in the main se quencer and have them occur at the correct position on playback gt If the pattem device has a built in sound source such as Redrum this can also be played by the main sequencer or via MIDI You can combine the built in pattem playback with playback from the main sequencer or via MIDI For example this allows you to add variations or fills to a basic pattern It is also possible to disable the pattem sequencer totally converting the de vice to a pure sound module This is done by deactivating the Enable Pattern Section switch Fl ENABLE PATTERN SECTION Read more about controlling devices fromthe main sequencer on the electronic documentation Selecting Pattems Each pattem device has 32 pattem memones divided into four banks A B C D The Bank and Pattem buttons for the Matrix pattern sequencer gt To select a pattem in the current bank click on the desired Pattem button 1 8 If you like you can assign computer key commands and or MIDI messages to pattem selection See the electronic documentation gt To select a pattem in another bank first click the desired Bank but ton A B C D and th
24. audio and sent to some kind of listening equipment a set of speakers headphones etc This conversion is most often handled by the audio card installed in your computer on the Macintosh you can use the built in audio hardware if you don t have additional audio hardware installed To deliver the digital audio to the audio hardware Reason uses the driver you have selected in the Preferences dialog See page 15 In the rack on screen this connection is represented by the Reason Hardware Interface CNC E e Oa o CHANNEL CHANNEL2 EH CHANNELS CHANNEL4 CHANNELS EA CHANNELS EZ CHANNEL IE CHANNELE IE CHANNELS EZ CHANNEL 10 E CHANNEL 1 EZ CHANNEL 12 E CHANNEL 13 EZ CHANNEL 14 Ed CHANNEL 15 EA CHANNEL 16 EE AUDIO OUT REWIRE EB ALT 1 9129139 BEI 15 pis 179 188 198 208 21 228 ETEN 25 26 27 28 28 90 31 32 AUDIO CARD rr 33 3435 36037 38 EI 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 07 08 45 50 5152 53 5455 56 5758 59 60 61 62 63 64 hardware interface The Hardware Interface is always located at the top of the rack If you are using ReWire Reason will instead feed the digital audio to the ReWire master application typically an audio sequencer pro gram which in tum handles the communication with the audio hardware This is described in the electronic documentation The Reason Hardwere Interface contains 64 output sockets each with an indi cator and a level meter Each one of these indicators represents
25. be something in the pattem for the function to work on using an Alter function on an empty pattem will not do anything POs REASON Using Pattern Devices 73 POS REASON 74 Using Pattem Devices Xt REAS CIN Background About the Database Reason songs and patches can contain references to other files on your hard disk namely samples wave or aiff files loop files created in ReC ycle REX files see below and Soundfonts sf2 files see page 77 To keep track of all files Reason makes use of a database If you Keep your Reason files within the da tabase Reason can update file paths automatically search for missing files etc gt You specify the search path s for the database on the Sound Loca tions page in the Preferences dialog on the Edit menu or Reason menu as described on page 17 You can specify up to four different search paths However it is normally enough to specify a single path since all underlying folders are automatically included in the database Use the additional paths if you use more than one hard drive CD ROM drives etc see also the note about finding ReFills on page 79 Mallet and Ethnic Redrum Drum Kits Subtractor Patches Factory Sound Bank rfl Reason Sounds An example of the database If the folder Reason Sounds is specified as search path all its subfolders are automatically included in the database It is possible to select the root of
26. click in the The notes and events on the muted track will not be heard on playback ruler 7 H ap In Name Out ba gt Set the right locator the end of the loop by dragging the R marker in the ruler Or you can hold down Command Mac or Alt Windows and click in the ruler Note that Snap applies when moving the locators in the ruler just as with the song position A red cross indicates a muted track To unmute the track click in the M column again Several tracks can be muted at the same time Both locator positions can also be adjusted numerically on the transport panel You can also solo a track by holding down Option Mac Alt Windows and clicking in the M column This mutes all other unsoloed tracks I WB Loor onysorr gt To activate the loop click the Loop On Off button so that it lights up or use the corresponding key command Ona Mac this is under Windows it s both on the numeric keypad Here the track Redrum 1 is soloed indicated by a red frame To tum off the solo function for the track O ption AIt click in the M colunm again Several tracks can be soloed at the same time When you play back in loop mode and the song position reaches the right loca tor it will immediately jump back to the left locator This way the area between the locators will be repeated continuously Muting a track will not affect the notes played from a pattem se quencer in
27. device contains a built in pattem sequencer Unlike the main se quencer in Reason a pattern sequencer repeatedly plays back a pattem of a specified length The typical example in the real world as well as in Reason is a drum machine which plays drum pattems usually one or two bars in length Having the same pattem repeat throughout a whole song may be fine in some cases but most often you want some variations The solution is to create several different pattems and program pattem changes automatic switching from one pattem to another at the desired positions in the song How Pattem Devices integrate with the main Sequencer The built in pattern sequencer in a pattern device interacts with the main Reason sequencer in the following ways gt The tempo set on the transport panel is used for all playback gt If you start playback for the main sequencer on the transport panel all pattern devices will automatically start as well provided their pattern sequencers haven t been disabled see below POS REASON Using Pattem Devices gt You can also run a pattern device separately without starting the main sequencer or other pattem devices by clicking the Run button on the device panel This starts the built in pattem sequencer in the device To stop playback click the Run button again or click the Stop button on the Transport panel ENABLE PATTERN SECTION The Run button on the Redrum drum computer gt If you
28. drag it up or down To move several tracks at once select them click on one of them and drag The order of the tracks in the sequencer is independent of the de vice order in the rack Duplicating Tracks To make copies of tracks complete with all recorded data use any of the follow ing methods gt Hold down Option Mac or Ctd Windows and drag the track to a new position in the track list gt Bring up the context menu for the track and select Duplicate Track To bring up the context menu Ct click Mac or right click Windows on the track in the track list Note that a duplicated track will be routed to the same device as the original You may want to mute one of the tracks or connect it to an other device to avoid double notes etc Deleting Tracks To delete one or several tracks select them and press Backspace or Delete gt If the track to be deleted and this track only is connected to a de vice the following alert message will appear Reason H Delete device The track you are about to delete plays the MATS Sampler named Sampler 1 No other track is assigned to this device Would you like to delete the device az well Select one of the following options Delete Delete both the track and the connected device Keep Delete the track but keep the device in the rack Cancel Do not delete the track or the device About the two Views While the left part of the sequencer area al
29. extract these sounds and make the song refer to them on disk as usual This is done in the fol lowing way 1 Select Song Self Contain Settings from the File menu The dialog appears 2 Locate the sounds you want to extract from the song file and deac tivate their checkboxes or click Uncheck All 3 Click OK to close the dialog Now the program will check for each extracted sound file whether it is available in your database at its original stored location or not gt If the program finds the sound file at the location stored in the song it is simply removed from the song file and the original file reference path is used This would be the case if you made the song self contained yourself and un self contain it on your own computer provided that you haven t removed the original sound files from disk since you made the song self contained gt If the program doesn t find the sound file a file dialog appears al lowing you to select a folder and name for the sound file The extracted file will be saved in the specified folder and the path in the song will be adjusted This would be the case if you got the self contained song from another user for example Song Information Selecting the Song Information item on the File menu opens a dialog in which you Can supply various information about the song Song Information Text in Window Title Song Splash x More Information Add text about Song here
30. get going with the program The more advanced features in Reason are described in the electronic docu mentation a file in Adobe Acrobat pdf format which is installed with the pro gram In that document you will also find reference descriptions of the Reason devices and commands To read the electronic documentation you will need the Adobe Ac robat Reader application version 4 0 or later Since this has be come something of a household utility application chances are you already have it installed on your computer If not run the Acrobat Reader installer included on the Reason program disc For Mac OS users please note that the CD contains two different Adobe Acro bat Reader installers one for MacOS 9 x and one for MacOS X so make sure to select the correct one for your operating system About Mac and Windows Reason runs under MacOS and Windows for operating system details see be low All Reason packages contain program versions for both platforms Every thing said in the manuals applies to both platforrs 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 other operating systems This con tains the Preferences menu item otherwise found on the Edit menu Virtually all screenshots in the manuals are from the Windows ver sion of Reason However the contents of all windows and dialogs are the same on both platfor
31. maja caca g Size FO4 HB Click this button to have Reason re scan the currently shown folder and update the file display Use this if you have changed the contents in a folder while the browser was open if you have added a new disk or CD ROM etc Re scan Files Getting Info The area to the right of the file display is the info area This will show information about the item that is currently selected in the file display Exactly which informa tion is shown depends on the file type For example the info area for samples or REX files contains information about the file format and length of the selected file while the song info area displays comments from the author Song Informa tion see page 89 etc If the selected file is part of a ReFill this will be indicated regardless of the file type For details about the info area see the electronic doc umentation The Preview function When browsing REX files or samples you can audition files before you choose to load one This is done in the following way gt Select the file in the file list and click the Preview Play button to the right The file is played back During playback the Play button is relabeled to Stop click this to stop playback Preview M Autoplay You can also activate the Autoplay checkbox and simply select the file you want to audition The selected file is automatically played back Again click the Stop button to stop playback
32. moved to the left lo cator e Ifthe song position is at the left locator or to the left of it it is moved to the start of the song e Ifthe song position is at the start of the song nothing happens This means you can always click twice on the stop button in stop mode to retum to the beginning of the song Positioning The song position is indicated by the vertical line with the P marker in the ruler There are several ways to move the song position gt Use the rewind and fast forward controls on the transport panel This moves the song position in steps of one bar from its current position That is if you just click once on the rewind fast forward button the song po sition will be moved exactly one bar back or forward To move the song po sition several bars click and hold the mouse button gt Use the transport key commands on the numeric keypad See the table on page 62 gt Click and drag the P marker in the ruler or click directly in the ruler at the desired song position The resulting song position takes the Snap value into account as described below gt Adjust the song position numerically in the value display below the transport buttons The song position is shown as three digits bars beats and sixteenth notes F OVERDUE REPLACE About Snap to Grid The Snap on off button The Snap value pop up 18T Em 1 32 a O 1 32 T ANA The Snap to Grid function from now on called
33. nection Author s Email This is where you specify your email address if you want other Reason users to send you their comments etc POs REASON Song File Handling Saving a Song To save a song proceed as follows 1 Set up the self contained settings as desired see the previous page 2 Pull down the File menu and select Save or press Command Ctri1 S7 If this is the first time you save the song a regular file dialog will appear 3 Specify a name and location for the song and click Save Once you have saved a song selecting Save will simply save it under the same name and in the same location without showing a dialog If you want to save a song under another narre or in another location select Save As fromthe File menu to open the save dialog Publishing a Song If you want to make your songs available to the public e g for downloading on the Internet there is a special file format for this A Reason published song W in dows file extension rps is much like a self contained song but has the follow ing restrictions e The user cannot save any changes to the song e Copy Cut and Paste is disabled e Itis not possible to use the function Export Song Loop as Audio File In a word published songs are locked They are meant for playback only no elements can be added removed or extracted Furthermore a published song contains information about which RerFills are required if an
34. on one of the connectors and select Disconnect from the context menu that appears Dist 1 Phaser 1 v Synth 1 Hiding and Showing Cables You can choose whether you want the patch cables to be visible or not by acti vating or deactivating the Show Cables item on the Options menu When the cables are hidden connectors in use are indicated by a colored dot Checking Connections You can check to which device a jack is connected This is especially useful if the patch cables are hidden but it is also practical if you have a lot of cables or if the two devices are far from each other in the rack gt Position the pointer over a connector and wait a moment A tool tip appears showing the device and connector in the other end i 3 4 56 788 AISSA COO er Connected to N N T 1 0 utput 1 Left hi ain POS REASON Managing the Rack Routing MIDI to a Device There are several ways to send MIDI from an extemal MIDI controller to a Rea son device as described in the electronic documentation However in this book we stick to the most common method to route MIDI via the sequencer With this method incoming MIDI e g from your MIDI keyboard is sent to one of the tracks in Reason s sequencer The sequencer will then pass it on to a device in the rack the device to which the track is routed This way you can select dif ferent devices for MIDI playback by directing the incoming MIDI to different tracks in
35. so on If you like you can rename a device by clicking on its tape strip and typing a new name up to 16 characters For devices connected to a mixer the device names are automatically reflected on the vertical tape strips for the corresponding mixer channels next to the mixer channel faders Similarly tape strips below the Retum knobs show the names of the effect devices connected to the corresponding Retum inputs Note that the mixer channel tape strips show the narre of the device directly connected to the mixer This means that if you have an instrument device routed through an insert effect the mixer channel tape strip will show the name of the insert effect device as this is the device directly connected to the mixer chan nel In this case you may want to rename the insert effect device to indicate the connected instrument gru COMP 01 113 AUTO MAKE UP Grass comme 21 304 y d 4 4 W S N 2G OR The relation between device names and track names When you create an instrument device it automatically gets a track in the se quencer with the same default name Renaming a device will also rename the corresponding sequencer track and vice versa if the following conditions are met e The device and its track has the same name e There is only one track connected to the device Often having the same name for the device and the track is the most practical arrangerrent since it makes it eas
36. that use patches you can select patches in folded mode as well gt Playback is not affected by folding POS REASON Managing the Rack POS REASON Managing the Rack Xt REAS CIN SOFTWARE About the Sequencer The sequencer is your main composition tool in Reason This is where you record notes controllers device parameter automation and pattem changes In this chapter you will find descriptions of all basic procedures recording play ing back and handling sequencer tracks For descriptions of editing quantizing using groups etc please refer to the electronic documentation The relation between the Sequencer and the Rack In the sequencer data is recorded and played back on tracks much like tracks on a multi track tape recorder a me ka Bale A QMHfer ae fine F P E E 21 25 29 33 37 E CAMA AE BEN DEN BE N BI BT EN DE Hg HN N BEN BT BET I EN NNXT 1 EB de ral y Dr REX 1 sr Redrum 1 Erz Sampler 1 Er Synth 1 The tracks are listed in the track list TAT TEN We Sanne baaa aa OP es aaa Recorded events on different tracks A track can be connected to an instrument device in the rack so that data on the track is sent to the device on playback Each track can only be connected to one device at a time but it is possible to have several tracks that all play the same device Note also that when renaming a sequencer track see page 59
37. the record but ton is in the Overdub position This allows you to record more on the same track without removing the pre vious recording D oe Ik ERDUE E z The Overdub Replace switch 32 Click the record button and then the play button Recording starts You will hear the recorded synth notes being played back 33 Click and drag the Filter 1 Freq slider on the Subtractor panel The changes you make will be heard immediately Filter 1 dl 34 Click stop twice to end recording and go back to the beginning of the song If you look at the Subtractor panel you will note that there is a green frame around the filter slider now This indicates that the parameter is automated 35 Play back the song again You will see the filter slider moving exactly as you moved it during recording This concludes the second tutorial POS REASON Quick Tutorial Guided Tour On the following pages you will find a brief guided tour through the program This helps you get familiar with the different devices and their uses The Rack BUSSELECT a a a O o MIDI Input por a TAAA L CHANNELI CHANNEL2 CHANNELS CHANNELS CHANNELS CHANNELG KM CHANNEL CHANNELE Ea 1 za CHANNEL 12 E CHANNEL 13 EF CHANNEL 14 ET CHANNEL 15 1 CHANNEL 16 CHANNELS EH CHANNEL 10 CHANNEL T yi g s P10 112813014 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 2830 31 32 R
38. to proceed with sounds missing and then remove or replace the sounds from the device panels in the rack instead El On the device panels missing samples are indicated with an asterisk before the file names Clicking Cancel will abort the operation i e the song or patch will not be opened POS REASON The Browser Xt REAS CIN SOFTWARE What are Patches A Reason patch contains settings for a specific device As explained in the chapter The Browser patches can either be separate files on your hard disk or files embedded in a ReFill Five device types use patches Selecting a Patch To select a patch for a device use one of the following methods Click the folder button in the Patch section on the device panel PATEH BELEGT mis Subtractor amp Malstr m synth patches contain all settings on the de g Hiakkaual ry vice panel INTERPOL ATION Selecting a patch brings up a new sound just like when selecting programs ane or patches on a hardware synthesizer gt NN19 amp NNXT sampler patches contain information about which Note On the panels of the Redrum NN19 and NNXT devices there samples are used and their settings key mapping tuning etc are also other folder buttons used for loading samples Make sure plus the parameter settings on the device panel you click on the button in the Patch section next to the patch name It is important to note that the sampler
39. want to add elements to an existing recording e g add controller data to recorded notes gt In Replace mode the new recording replaces any previously re corded notes Only the notes in the actual recording area are replaced avoid removing material by mistake trollers See the electronic documentation for details POS REASON The Sequencer Basics It s probably best to use Overdub mode as your default mode to The Overdub Replace switch affects notes only not recorded con Replacing a section of a previous recording If you have made a largely successful recording in which only a section needs to be redone you can use Replace mode for this 1 Select Replace mode Start playback at a position before the faulty section At the start of the section activate recording Re record the section yop Ww N At the end of the faulty section deactivate recording or stop Playback and Positioning If you are using ReWire transport functions can be handled by ei ther application See the electronic documentation Play and Stop gt To play back from the current song position click the play button or press Enter on the numeric keypad gt To stop playback click the stop button or press 0 on the numeric keypad If you click the stop button when the song is already stopped the song position is moved according to the following rules e Ifthe song position is to the right of the left locator it is
40. 2 Exporting as Audio Files 92 Opening 90 Published 90 Saving 90 Self Contained 88 Splash Picture 89 Sound Bank CDs 10 Sound Bank see Factory Sound Bank Sound Manager Default Output 15 Sound Search Paths 17 Soundfont files 77 Splash Picture 89 Startup Song 91 Steps Pattern 72 Stop 64 T Template Songs 91 Tempo 63 Time Signature 63 Toggle Rack Front Rear 50 Tracks About 56 Connecting to Devices 60 Creating 59 Deleting 61 Duplicating 60 Moving 60 Naming 59 Routing MIDI to 60 Selecting 59 Transport Panel 62 Tuning 44 U Undo 37 Use High Resolution Samples 43 V Value Editing Numerical 35 W Web Site 89 Wheel mouse 40 Windows Multimedia Driver 9 Z Zooming 39 POS REASON Index 97
41. Digital Sampler SELECT KEYZONE VIA MIDI SOLO SAMPLE gt SAMPLE KEY START MEE i gt KEY 2 8 Da N HIGH QUALITY PONTAM NTO POLIPHONY Snes Mene Loa c gt BE INTERPOLATION SEMI NOTE ON E e CONTROLLER rn oh LEGATO A EXPR j j o ELIT g BREATH 4 ENY AMT FINE one E et O SOURCE ne FILTER ow ENVELOPE AMP _SENVELOPE ww ww RATE AMOUNT FFRED PRES FO VELOCITY an FILTER PAN DEST FREQ RES The NN 19 allows you 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 modify the sound using synth type parameters such as a filter envelopes and an LFO NN XT Digital Sampler GLOBAL CONTROLS Enslis sh Hor Horn Vib EXPREBSION r Pe cm gt 4 0 000 0 Y SOURCE ER Ginny FREQ RES ATTACK DECAY RELEASE DECAY MASTER INTERPOLATION FILTER AMP ENVELOPE MOD ENY VOLUNE PITCH WHEEL EXTERNAL CONTROL LOAD SAMPLE SELECT ZONE VIA MIDI BOLO SAMPLE Info KEY POLY LFO 1 RATE LA Sample RETRIG PORTAMENTO MODULATION E m F FREQ MOD DEC LFO 1 AMT s a WIX WIX WIX F RES LEVEL LFO 1 RATE VELOCITY F FREQ MOD DEC LEVEL 10 END LOOP START LOOP END PLAY MODE LO KEY HI KEY LO VEL J f i f Ld a r LFO 2 MOD ENVELOPE FILTER AMP ENY 5 5TART ATTACK LFO 1 PITCH BEND RANGE mon GROUP meg ane se TEMPO BP 12 SYNC R LP 6 l FREE RU
42. EWIRE f f AUBO GAND nwm amaaa OOo 575859 60 81 62 63 6 Creative SBPCI IEC mea wy TREBLE TREBLE TREBLE wy ay E Bh ass BW master ass B Bam 8 gt Ags ass Bin ain ain Baus Ags sp fr m ain ain ol AV 7 or DIGITAL REVERB PH 90 ir PHASER Hall MATE AM PATTERN SE n belle Ls LALA des o x Filter 1 O Wavetorm Oct Semi E Phase Mode Kod Track Notch HP 12 BP 12 7 LP 12 Rate On O Waveform Oct Semi Cen LP 24 Legato y Phase MD Mode Kbd Track Freq Res Type Kod Retrig A Mote Por tamen to Poly phony A Touch This is the virtual rack the heart of Reason Atthe top ofthe rack you will always find the Hardware Interface which allows Reason to communicate with the au dio hardware and MIDI interfaces Below this you can add as many different de vices you want or as many as your computer can handle Read more about the different devices below POS REASON Quick Tutorial The Back If you press Tab or select Toggle Rack Front Rear on the Options menu the rack will be tumed to show you the back j The Rack and the Back Ble E E3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 s 10 n 12 13 1 15 16 v 18 1 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3 32 aa AA AAAA AAA AAA ANA AAN COCO C000 33 44 35 36 37 3 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 ANAA AAA LOL AUDIC
43. Fill or a Soundfont within a ReFill Fill Sound this column shows the name of the ReFill S oundfont If there is an font URL Internet address associated with a ReFill you can download the necessary Rerill s from this dialog as described below Status When the dialog appears all files will have the status Missing Files that are found by the auto search function or manually re placed will be indicated as Replaced Selecting The Replace and Auto Search functions see below are performed on the files that are selected in the list This allows you to replace some files manually nec essary if the files have been renamed or are outside the database have the pro gram find other files automatically and skip the rest of the files gt To selecta file click on it in the list You can use Shift Mac or Ctd Windows to select several files gt To select all files in the list click the Select All button When the dialog first appears all files in the list are selected Auto Search If you click the Auto Search button Reason will search for the selected files in all database folders If the program finds a file with the matching name and file type the new path is stored in the song patch and the file is shown as Replaced in the Status colunm gt Since the file search looks at the file names files that have been re named will not be found This also means that if your database contains several files wit
44. IN y Left Meno ia udio Input Right 2 Audio Input Level CV In i DM Left Right MATRIX 1 Sequencer Control Modula on Output Gate Input Audio Ouput Gate D OSC Pitch OD Mod Env Amp Env FS Main O ev OSC Phase Fitter Er Filter Env FM Amount W FOI O Mod Env Filter 1 Freq Here the back panel of each device in the rack is shown As you can see con nections between devices are indicated by virtual patch cables Connections between instrument devices and mixers use red cables connections to or from effect devices use green 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 another on the back panels To tum the rack over again to show the front panels use the same command The Transport Panel MIDISYNC FOCUS Eee Mimo PUNCHEDIN od AUDIO OUT CLIPPING y BB anspare eur Mr ie A z feriae BB msr ae AUTOMATION PATTERN f W Loop onsorr OVERRIDE SHUFFLE The panel at the bottom of each song document window is called the transport panel It contains transport controls and settings that are global for the song such as tempo and time signature shuffle amount CPU load indicator etc The Sequencer The sequencer is located in the area below the rack This is where you record and edit notes controllers device parameter
45. L DELAY LINE MB 1516 u u af BTEPE ART j i 4 h j r UNIT BTEP LENGTH 4 La MD FEEDBACK PAN DAY WET 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 maximum delay time is 2 0 sec onds D 11 Foldback Distortion The D 11 is a simple but highly effective distortion device that can convert mel low synth sounds to screaming leads and basses add grit and dirt to drum pat tems or loops etc ECF 42 Envelope Controlled Filter Zz ECF 42 m ENVERE This is a synth style resonant filter with three different filter modes You can ei ther 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 built 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 pattem sequencer CF 101 Chorus Flanger im GF 101 Orr CHORUS FLANGER CHORUS FLANG m LFa STNE MOO 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 ef fect or as an insert effect connected between an instrument device and a mixer PH 90 Phaser ER The PH 90 is a stereo phaser effect It has s
46. LAY FEEDBACK RATE SYNC MOD AMOUNT SEND MODE pol AV 7 MT or DIGITAL REVERB a go K ur _ A A N Sie DECAY DAMP DRY WET CHORUS FLANG E PH 90 PHASER 1 on CF 104 PHASER FO on CHORUS FLANGER gt x y E y gt aie DELAY FEEDBACK RATE SYNC MOD AMOUNT SEND MODE Bypass RV 7 Lues ECF 42 FILTER 1 ore DIGITAL REVERB 11 ENVELOPE CONTROLLED FILTER en 1 fi fi ODE A CHORUS FLANG m iro Bypass PH QO PHASER 1 CF 101 1 PHASER ifo or CHORUS FLANGER i fi fi i pees es i o r TEN gt x ae Fr DELAY FEEDBACK RATE h SYNC MOD AMOUNT SEND MODE 5 PH 90 PHASER 1 u PHASER N CHORUS FLANG on RV 7 ER a GF 101 pa CHORUS FLANG aa AF pai cs ca us g3 a ort DIGITAL REVERB e DELAY FEEDBACK RATE SYNC MOD AMOUNT SEND MODE 4 Release the mouse button The device s are moved to the new position and the other devices in the rack are adjusted to fill up the gaps can abort the operation by pressing Esc while keeping the mouse button pressed POS REASON Managing the Rack Note that if you start to move a device but change your mind you gt If you hold down Shift when you move a device Reason will at tempt to automatically re route it See page 49 for more info on auto routing Moving devices in the rack does not affect the order of the se quencer tracks and vice versa Duplicating Devices
47. N ype abies sn pan LP 12 LP 24 s KEY KEY2 JUMP DELAY MODE WAVEFORM DELAY KEY TO DECAY FINE K TRACK K TRACK MODE a m a m a PITCH FILTER LEVEL KEY SYNC PITCH LEVEL PAN SPREAD MODE The NN XT just like the above mentioned NN 19 lets you 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 LFO s 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 different samples across the same keyboard range Another useful feature is the possibil ity to set up velocity switched key maps This lets you control which samples in a layered key map will actually sound depending on how hard or soft you play on your MIDI keyboard POs REASON Quick Tutorial Dr Rex Loop Player FILTER FILTER ENVELOPE OSC PITCH lt gt PER ER u m 0 to to SELECT SLICE via MIDI PREVIEW TO TRACK oct FINE ENV AMOUNT Drirex NOTE ON NOTCH HP 12 e BP 12 LP 12 POLYPHONY HIGH QUALITY Lo Bw INTERPOLATION LP 24 m FREQ RES MP MODE AMOUNT a D oo 4 F FREQ F RES F DECAY VELOC T y IE y fe fe N AG AIT N F ENV F DECAY AMP TRANSPOSE SLICE PITCH PAN LEVEL DECAY _ g PAN ES waver I DEST LEVEL A D 8 R The Dr RexLoop
48. REDO empty 2 Create Synth Device 1 Create Mixer Device Now you can no longer redo the undone tempo change POS REASON Common Operations and Concepts 37 Window Techniques Using more than one Reason Song window You can have several Reason Songs open at the same time Each will appear in a separate Reason window complete with rack sequencer and transport bar ar eas Each window can be moved minimized and resized using standard Mac Windows procedures On the Windows menu you will find some itens for arranging the open win dows These are described in the electronic documentation Windows Help Stay on top AG UStipahi to cliente Detach Sequencer Window Cascade Tile Horizontally Tile vertically Sende icons Document 1 ve Olde Song REASON Common Operations and Concepts Views Panes and Dividers On screen Reason is divided into different areas or panes The most obvious example is the rack and the sequencer area but you will also find that the right part of the sequencer area can be divided into several horizontal lanes for edit ing different aspects of your recordings a m wi ale E 88 4 AQeyfine alte te gt Een See Den See Pen Tone Se ve a El ES NN XT 1 Malstrom 1 eT E INAAYA EEEE The borders between the lanes are called dividers You can adjust the height of the lanes by clicking on their divider and dragging up
49. Reason has a very wide ranging MIDI support allowing you to make use of up to seven different MIDI inputs on a multi port MIDI interface or similar This makes it possible to use several different MIDI controllers and play and tweak each de vice in the rack independently or to play the devices in Reason from an extemal sequencer etc See the electronic documentation However in this book we will stick with the standard way of playing Reason via MIDI by connecting a MIDI controller to a single MIDI input and routing this to different devices in the rack via Reason s sequencer With this method you will be able to play and control one device at a time Proceed as follows 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 MIDI page Page MIDI General Sequencer Audio To record intel N keyboard s M dvanced MIDI Sound Locations Port No MIDI Input Channel fi y 3 Pull down the Port pop up menu in the Sequencer section and se lect the MIDI input to which your MIDI controller is connected 4 Check on which MIDI channel your MIDI controller transmits and set the Channel pop up menu to this value The sequencer will only accept MIDI data on one channel at a time This makes it possible to play via the sequencer and use MIDI Remote Control at the sarre time even if you have a MIDI interfa
50. TION EN Bgg ns ee O 116 SOFT Seh se Te STEPS RESOLUTION SHUFFLE EDIT STEPS DYNAMIC FLAM a INTERPOLATION en f f f f f f f f f f f f f en Ice I I I II I I III III III EXCLUSIVE REDRUM m PATCH MIB ger The Redrumis a sample based drum machine with ten drum sound channels You can load samples Wave AIFF SoundFont files and REX slices individually for each channel 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 pattem sequencer allowing you to create classic drum ma chine pattems complete with shuffle and flam options It is also possible to use Redrum as a sound module playing it live from an extemal MIDI controller or from the main Reason sequencer You may for example have the pattem se quencer play a basic drum pattem and add fills and extras in the main se quencer 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 RV 7 Digital Reverb m AV 7 orr DIGITAL REVERB DAY WET This is a reverb effect with ten different reverb algorithms ranging from hall and room simulations to special effects You can fine tune the effect with the knobs on the device panel if you like The reverb is normally used as a send effect DDL Digital Delay Line ara L i BELAY 1 OFF DIGITA
51. To select a custom default song click the Folder icon to the right 2 Use the pop up menu at the top of the Preferences dialog to select and browse to the desired Reason song the General page The name of the selected song will then be displayed in the text box DZ Default Song Pag femea de age enera a Empty Rack General Editing Audio h Mouse Knob MIDI Advanced MIDI Sound Locations m Appearance IV Show Song ReFill Splashes m Miscellaneous V Cable Animation M Show Parameter Value Tool Tip V Show Automation Indication Built in nn Seuss Default Song C Empty Rack Built in C Custom Miscellaneous CPU Usage Limit 80 v IV Use High Resolution Samples Changes take effect when new Samples are loaded Help 3 At the middle of this page there is a section entitled Default Song You have three choices Empty Rack Built In and Custom zZ EG Vi Default Song Empty Rack Built in r Miscelaneos Select which one you want to use by clicking the corresponding radio but ton Xt REAS CIN About this Chapter This chapter is a quick introduction to the basics in Reason laid out as step by step tutorials At the end of the chapter you will also find a guided tour de scribing the different areas and devices in the program Before you proceed with the tutorials you should have con
52. V connectors When the back is shown you can still navigate in the rack by scroll ing by using the computer keyboard etc see page 46 POS REASON Managing the Rack These cables are green indicating effect device connections This cable is yellow indicating a CV connection gt You can change an existing connection in the same way by clicking These cables are red indicating connections between instruments and mixer devices on one end of the cable and dragging it to another connector Using pop up menus 1 Click or right click on a connector A pop up menu appears listing all devices in the rack 2 Move the pointer to the desired device the device to which you want to create a connection A submenu appears listing all suitable input output connections For eam ple if you clicked on an audio output on a device the hierarchical submenus will list all audio inputs in all other devices Biezonment Hardware Interface 1 Miner 1 Eh Sampler DRES Redunn Metin Eiee Reverb 1 Delay 1 Dist 1 k gt Ifa device is greyed out on the pop up menu there are no connec tions of the suitable kind 3 Select the desired connector from the submenu The connection is created Disconnecting Devices Again there are two ways to disconnect devices Click on one end of the cable drag it away from the jack and drop it anywhere away from a jack or Click
53. a connection to an output on your audio hardware or a ReWire channel to another application if you are using ReWire see the electronic documentation POS REASON Audio Basics However the number of outputs available depends on the number of outputs on your audio hardware For example if you are using a standard sound card with stereo outputs or the built in audio hardware on the Mac only the first two out puts will be available In the Hardware Interface device the green indicators are lit for all Currently available outputs cE RLI 11 REJS RET MES bET RE AUDIO OUT REWIRE AUDIO CARD E aia ala av az aa a ae a7 aa oag stereo audio card is used and only the first two outputs marked Bro are In this case a standard Stereo on the device panel are available UDIO 2 BRT Ma ion ara ia is e REWIRE eS EE AUDIO CARD EE EET ESTE EIT EDU 98399 40 2119219344 954614798 hardware interfa Here an audio card with eight outputs is used To send the sound of a device in the rack to a specific output you route the de vice output to the corresponding socket on the Hardware Interface This is done by using the virtual patch cables on the back of the rack as described on page 49 In most cases you will want to connect a mixer device to the Stereo outputs outputs 1 and 2 About Sample Rates and Resolutions Sample rate and resolution are properties of digital audio whic
54. a hard disk as search path thus making the database contain all files on your hard disk However this will make search times much longer since Reason will have to look at a lot of unnecessary files Generally to keep things as snappy as possible you should avoid having files unrelated to Rea son in your search paths About Rerills A ReFill is a kind of component package for Reason which can contain patches samples REX files Soundfonts and demo songs If you like you could compare ReFills to ROM cards for a synthesizer On your computer RerFills appear as large files with the extension rf All sounds included with Reason are embedded in a huge ReFill called Reason Factory Sound Bank which was either installed on your hard drive or kept on the Factory Sound Bank CD depending on the choice you made during installa tion see page 10 You can also download Rerills from other Reason users on the Intemet purchase them from sample manufacturers etc In Reason you can use the browser to list and access the embedded sounds and other components within the ReFills just as if the ReFills were folders on your hard disk Double clicking on the ReFill in the browser Patch Browser NN XT Patch Browser sxt sf2 rcy rex 1x2 Reason Patch Browser NN XT Patch Browser sxt sf2 rcy rex 1x2 Reason Factory Sound Bank Y A e L Demo Songs a Template Songs Reason Factory Sound Bank
55. a pattem device For example if you mute a track that is connected to a Redrum drum machine device the drum pattern played by the device will still be heard However any notes you have recorded on the track using the Redrum as a sound module will be muted as will any recorded pattem changes POS REASON The Sequencer Basics What else can I do in the sequencer This chapter has only touched briefly on the capabilities of the sequencer In the electronic documentation you will find detailed descriptions of the following se quencer functions and procedures Recording pattem changes and control automation Rearranging recorded material in the Arrange View Editing recorded notes controllers and pattem changes Quantizing and using grooves Manual creation of notes and controllers Using groups Importing and exporting MIDI files POs REASON The Sequencer Basics 67 POS REASON The Sequencer Basics Xt REAS CIN SOFTWARE 70 About this chapter As of this writing Reason includes two pattem based devices the Redrum drum computer and the Matrix Pattem Sequencer additional pattern devices may be added in upcoming versions While these two devices are very different in most ways they handle pattems following the same basic rules as described in this chapter For details about the respective devices see the electronic docu mentation What are Pattern Devices A pattem
56. able in Reason Reason Hardware Interface MIDI IN DEVICE BUS SELECT ois iic Hp CHANNEL EZ CHANNEL EZ CHANNELS KZ CHANNELS EZ CHANNELS EZ CHANNELS EF CHANNEL EZ CHANNELS EZ CHANNELS EF CHANNEL 10 EZ CHANNEL 1 EZ CHANNEL 12 EE CHANNEL 13 E CHANNEL 14 EE CHANNEL 15 EZ CHANNEL 16 EE EM ALT 19129139 14915916 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 REWIRE AUDIO CARD o w w H w F f Er Er E23 E23 Ex ELDER od ER EI EI EI EI 47 48 hardware interface This device handles Reason s communication with your hardware The upper half of the hardware interface contains settings for MIDI input allow ing you to select a separate MIDI channel for each device when controlling Rea son from an extemal multi channel MIDI source 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 described in the tutonals earlier in this chapter The lower half of the hardware interface contains audio output indicators with level meters This is where you connect different devices to different outputs on your audio hardware Reason supports up to 64 separate audio outputs How ever if you are only using audio hardware with standard stereo outputs the con nections to the audio hardware are automatically taken care of when you create a mixer device at the top of the rack The Reason Hardware Interface is riveted
57. asked whether you want to save the song Creating a New Song To create a new song select New from the File menu This makes a new song document window appear gt Bydefault the new song will contain a predefined set of instrument and effect devices along with a mixer If you want to start with your own selection of devices or an empty rack you can customize your default song as described below Creating a Default Song If you often start off with the same set of devices patches pattems and settings you may want to create your own custom default song Proceed as follows to specify a song as the default 1 Select New from the File menu to create a new song document win dow 2 Add remove devices and make settings as desired Typically you may want the default song to contain your choice of devices and possibly some pattems You could also make some special routing be tween devices or even add some sequencer data 3 Save the song anywhere you like and under whatever name you like to keep things organized you might want to save the song in the Reason program folder 4 Open the Preferences dialog from the Edit menu or from the Rea son menu if you are using Mac OS X 5 On the General page click the radio button to select Custom in the section called Default Song E Default Song C Empty Rack C Built in gt Custom Miscellaneous 6 Click the folder icon to
58. aunch the program by double clicking the Reason icon or by se lecting the Reason item from the Start menu Fill in the authorization form that appears Your license number can be found on the product authorization card in cluded 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 6 You must have a working Intemet connection to be able to register on line If you click the Register Now button your Intemet 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 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 Con tact menu Mac or Help menu Windows in Reason or by going to www propellerhead se register Insert the Orkester CD in your CD ROM drive Regardless of whether you chose to install it on your hard disk or not this CD will be requested for verification the very first time you start Reason If you chose not to install the factory sound bank on your hard disk insert the Factory Sound Bank CD in your CD ROM drive This completes the installation Since this is the first t
59. automation and pattem changes The left part of the sequencer area is the track list showing the names of the se quencer tracks The colunms in the track list allow you to connect tracks to de vices route MIDI and mute or solo tracks Organ EP Pads Fonky Strat Drums Bass 2 Bass popp n Miser Auto B3 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 the recorded events indicated as colored bars red for notes yellow for pat tem changes and blue for controllers A ruler at the top of the view shows the meter positions O PA A ee a TEE DJa BEBERERE gt i i annn A ds i dla Bass 2 lip A l i Te IG GS Ge ee EP Pads Fonky Strat Drums Bass popp n A E RETTET O E E LD TEN au CAEN Te Mixer Auto B3 eee een ee Se mann nam The sequencer with the arrange view selected When the edit view is selected the right part of the sequencer area will contain one or several lanes showing the recorded data in detail There are specific lanes for editing notes pattern changes controller data etc AE O PO eee PA TO EJ ee FE oei mg go The edit view with the drum lane velocity lane pattem lane and two controller lanes visible POS REASON Quick Tutorial The Devices The following devices are avail
60. aving Patches Saving device settings in a song When you save a Reason song all settings for all devices are automatically in cluded in the song file there is no need to save the patches separately It s important to realize that it s the actual settings that are saved in the Song not references to patches on disk The next ime you open the song all devices will be set as they were when you saved regardless of whether you have removed or edited any patches on disk Saving device settings as patches on disk Even though the device settings are stored in the song you may want to save any settings you have made for a device as a separate patch file This allows you to use the patch in other songs and lets you try out other patches in your song without risking to lose your sound 1 Click the floppy disk button on the device panel amp TRACTOR 5 POLYPHONIC BYNTHEBIZERA A ve Patch 2 In the file dialog that appears specify a location and name for the patch file and click Save gt Under Windows the different types of patch files have different file extensions These are zyp Subtractor patch files xwv Malstr m patch files smp NN 19 patch files sxt NN XT patch files and drp Redrum patch files Under Windows file extensions are automatically added by Reason when you save Under MacOS you can choose to automatically add extensions by activating the Add Ex
61. bring all samples and REX files used by the devices in the song To make this easier Reason allows you to create self contained songs A self contained song contains not only the references to the used files but also the files themselves You can choose exactly which files should be included in the self contained song with the following exception Files that are part of a ReFill cannot be included in a self contained song If your song contains samples or REX files from a Refill other users must have the same ReFill to be able to play the song To specify which files should be included in the song proceed as follows 1 Pull down the File menu and select Song Self Contain Settings A dialog appears listing all samples and REX files used in the song Song Self Contain Settings This song references sounds in the Reason database Checking the sounds below will include that data in the song itself making the song self contained Device Sound Size Part of ReFill Package E m ria 1 la a GtrhC4 way 99K Reason Factory om u Sampler 1 ls laa GtrhC5 way 72K Reason Factory Sound E Sampler 1 amp a GtrhD 2 way 72K Reason Factory Sound a Sampler 1 amp a GtrhD 3 way 62K Reason Factory Sound E Sampler 1 a GtrhD 4 way 88K Reason Factory Sound Sampler 1 amp a GtrhF 1 wav 45K Reason Factory Sound El Sampler 1 amp a GtrhF 2 way 77 K Reason Factory Sound El Sampl
62. ce with a single input only see the electronic documentation 5 Fornow also select the Advanced MIDI page from the pop up menu and make sure the pop up menus on this page are set to No MIDI Input Now the Reason sequencer will receive MIDI data on the specified input port and MIDI channel You may want to leave the Preferences dialog open for the following settings Setting Sound and Patch Search Paths Reason songs and patches can contain references to other files on your hard disk such as samples To keep track of all files Reason makes use of a data base If you keep your Reason files within the database Reason can update file paths automatically search for missing files etc This database consists of up to four different folders on disk and all their sub folders You specify which folders to use as database in the following way 1 In the Preferences dialog use the pop up menu at the top to select the Sound Locations page Reason Page Sound Locations r Sound and Patch Search Paths Reason sounds x lt None gt 2 1 KNone gt 8K kNone gt RK 2 Click the 1 folder button below the heading Sound and Patch Search Paths A file dialog appears 3 Navigate to the desired folder and select it You can select a folder on any drive including mapped network drives un der Windows 4 Click OK The folder is added as the first search path in the database 5 If y
63. ch drum sound channel LENGTH LENGTH gt k 5 u z z Pitch PITEH 1 11 Sh 5 SA TORE 4 VEL START 4 WEL The Select Patch button A E ENABLE E PATTERN PATTERN E a L k BS 7 Now let s start building a pattem By default the empty pattems have sixteen HIGH XUALITY F i E inrenpoLarion vr ahh steps with each step corresponding to a sixteenth note so that the length of a A pattem is one 4 4 bar To make things simple we ll keep this setting for now E CHANNEL 49 EXCLUSIVE POS REASON Quick Tutorial 17 Click the Run button on the Redrum device panel The pattem 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 18 Click the Select button for one of the drum sounds In Redrum you add drum beats for one sound at the time 19 Click on the first step button marked 1 The button lights up indicating a drum beat START 4 WEL SELECT ST ART 4 WEL RATE VEL RATE VEL START 4 VEL TONE 4 VEL ENABLE PATTERN fT 18 16 Be PATTERN EF p a 17 32 SECTION r B gg i Ch 1 16 12 11123 RESOLUTION SHUFFLE EDIT STEPS 5020 You will now hear the sound of the selected drum on the first beat of each bar 20 Add more drum beats by clicking other step buttons Clicking a lit step button will remove the beat an Ye
64. cient to be able to play and record notes and controllers in Reason from the MIDI keyboard If you have a MIDI interface with more than one input it is possible to make more advanced MIDI connections this is described in the electronic documentation POS REASON Installation Installing the Software Running the Installer Now it s time to install the actual Reason software 1 Insert the Reason CD labeled Program Disc into your CD ROM drive 2 On the CD ROM locate the file called Install Reason and double click on it Mac OS note Please observe that there are two separate installers one for Mac OS 9 and one for Mac OS X Please make sure that you use the correct one 3 Follow the instructions on screen About Installing the Sound Banks During installation you will be asked whether you want to install the Reason Fac tory Sound Bank and the Orkester Sound Bank or not 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 synthesizer gt If you choose not to install the Factory Sound Bank you will need to insert the Factory Sound Bank CD into the CD drive each time you run the program gt You may choose not to install the Orkester Sound Bank Unlike the Factory Sound Bank this does not mean you have to insert the Orkester CD into the CD drive each time you run the program It merel
65. device to which the track is connected see below gt To route incoming MIDI to a track click in the In column to the left of the track name A MIDI connector symbol appears indicating that the track will receive MIDI provided that you have selected a MIDI Input port for the sequencer in the Preferences MIDI dialog as described on page 17 8 0 Sau 8 35 Phase Da Bass Y ou cannot route MIDI to several tracks at the same time clicking in the In col unm for another track will move the MIDI connector symbol Disconnecting MIDI In You can tum off incoming MIDI altogether by clicking on the MIDI connector symbol so that it disappears Connecting a Track to a Device To the right of the track name you will find the Out columm During playback and when you play Reason via MIDI this setting determines to which device each track will send MIDI data POS REASON The Sequencer Basics gt To connect a track to a device in the rack pull down the pop up menu in the Out column and select one of the devices A Disconnect Mixer 1 Smrek ECTS In Name Out Dist El Bass Delay 1 Chorus Flanger 1 El Bass Phase da Bass Rhythm 2 Rhythm 1 Slide Phase da Bass Rhythm 2 Rhythm 1 et a Slide The symbol in the Out column indicates to which device type each track is connected Moving Tracks To move a track to another position in the list click on the track name and
66. devices into the rack e A duplicate of the Create menu allowing you to create new devices Sequencer Context Menus If you click in the sequencer the context menu will contain itens related to edit ing Tracks Groups and Events The available items will differ depending on in which area or lane you click Track list Key Edit lane etc and depending on whether you click on an event or not For example the sequencer context menus contain functions for inserting or removing bars adding tracks and grouping changing or deleting events See the electronic documentation for details Undo Virtually all actions in Reason can be undone This includes creation deletion and reordering of devices in the Rack parameter value adjustments editing in the sequencer and tempo time signature adjustments You can undo up to 10 actions gt To undo the latest action select Undo from the Edit menu or press Command Ctri Z The action to be undone is indicated next to the Undo command on the Edit menu For example if your latest action was to delete some device s from the Rack the Edit menu will say Undo Delete Devices Edit Create Options Windows Undo Delete Devic Reda AY Cut Device Canu Devine gt To redo the last undone action undo the undo operation select Redo from the Edit menu or press Command Ctri Y Similarly the action to be redone is shown on the Edit menu About Multipl
67. disable vertical Zooming POS REASON Common Operations and Concepts gt You can also click and drag with the Magnifying Glass to create a selection rectangle The view will then be zoomed in so that the selected area fills the lane Enclosing these notes in a selection rectangle un al E m i 8 E F 8 E e Will zoom in so that they fill the view Scrolling and zooming with the mouse wheel If you re using a mouse equipped with a scroll wheel this can be used for the fol lowing scrolling and zooming operations 3 Scrolling up and down in both the rack and in the sequencer gt By simultaneously holding down Shift you can scroll left and right in the sequencer gt Byholding down Command Mac Ctrl Windows you can zoom in and out vertically in the sequencer gt Byholding down Shift Command Mac Shift Ctr Windows you can zoom in and out horizontally in the sequencer POS REASON Common Operations and Concepts Xt REAS CIN About this chapter This chapter contains some useful information about how audio is handled by Reason Some of it may seem a bit technical but we recommend that you read it to get the most out of Reason How Reason communicates with your audio hardware Reason generates and plays back digital audio a stream of numerical values in the form of ones and zeroes For you to be able to hear anything this must be converted to analog
68. e 64 Left and Right Locator positions the boundaries of the loop see page 66 Transport Key Commands There are fixed computer keyboard combinations for the most important trans port functions Function Key command Stop 0 on the numeric keypad or Retum Play Enter on the numeric keypad Toggle Stop Play Space bar Go to previous bar Rewind 7 on the numeric keypad Go to next bar Fast Forward 8 on the numeric keypad Record on the numeric keypad or hold Command Mac or Ctrl Windows and press Retum Go to Left Locator Loop Start 1 on the numeric keypad Go to Left Locator Loop End 2 on the numeric keypad Setting Up for Recording Before you can start recording you need to make some settings Tempo and Time Signature The tempo and time signature settings are located on the transport panel gt You can specify any tempo between 1 and 999 999 bpm beats per minute The tempo field to the right allows you to fine tune the tempo in steps of 1 1000 bpm The tempo set to 110 094 bpm You can also adjust the tempo in bpm steps by using the and keys on the numeric keypad gt You set the time signature by specifying a numerator left value field and a denominator right value field The numerator is the number of beats per bar and the denominator govems the length of a beat 3 4 time selected Li Tl JB GBA Bl TEMPO Click When you record it is
69. e Undos The concept of multiple undos may require an explanation You can undo up to 10 actions or in other words Reason has an Undo History with up to ten steps Let s say you have performed the following actions 1 Created a mixer 2 Created a synth device 3 Adjusted the Amp Envelope Attack time on the synth 4 Changed the panning for the synth device in the mixer 5 Adjusted the playback tempo in the transport panel After these five actions the Undo History will look as follows UNDO 5 Adjust tempo 4 Change pan 3 Adjust Attack 2 Create Synth Device 1 Create Mixer Device If you now select Undo your latest action the tempo change will be undone and moved to a Redo list UNDO REDO Selecting Undo again undoes the next action in the list the panning adjust ment UNDO 3 Adjust Attack 2 Create Synth Device REDO 4 Change pan 1 Create Mixer Device 5 Adjust tempo If you now select Redo the last undone action will be redone In this case your panning adjustment will be performed again and added to the Undo History again UNDO REDO 1 Create Mixer Device 5 Adjust tempo At this point you still have the option to Redo the tempo change But if you in stead would perform another action e g change the level of the synth device in the mixer this would becorre the action at the top of the Undo History and the Redo list would be cleared UNDO
70. e folder without having to step through each one in tum Ep TRACTOR POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZER DAA Open browser owed Steel zyp Clockwork 1 zyp Clockwork 2 zyp Eye of Needle zyp Meteorite zyp Microwaves zyp Space Bugs zyp Thunder zyp When you select a patch the device s parameters will be set according to the values stored in the patch and the name of the patch will be shown in the patch name display As with any change you make this operation can be undone see page 37 Any parameter adjustments you make on the device panel after se lecting a patch will not affect the actual patch file for this you need to save the patch see below If referenced samples are missing As described above patches for the Redrum NN19 and NNXT contain refer ences to samples J ust like patches samples can be independent files on the hard disk or elements within a ReFill However if sample files have been moved or renamed after a patch was saved the sample file references in the patch will not be accurate If this is the case when you select a patch the program will tell you so You can then choose to either manually locate the missing files to have the program search for them in the database and ReFills or to proceed with missing sounds For details see page 80 Proceeding without locating or replacing the missing samples re sults in silent drum sounds and key zones for the Redrum and NN19 NNXT respectively S
71. e stick to standard stereo connections 4 If possible test that audio plays back properly with the audio hard ware In the case of audio hardware with ASIO drivers you will need some test ap plication for this often included with the audio hardware If you are using Di rectX or MME drivers you can use Windows Media Player application for this About MIDI Interfaces While it is possible to use Reason without an extemal MIDI controller by playing pattems 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 as sume that you are using a MIDI interface and some kind of external MIDI control ler typically a MIDI keyboard gt When installing the MIDI interface and its drivers follow the in structions in its documentation carefully While a MIDI interface with a single input is sufficient you will benefit from having two or more individual inputs This is especially true if you want to manipulate Reason parameters with ex temal MIDI control devices or use the program in conjunction with an exter nal stand alone sequencer groove machine or similar Mac OS X For some MIDI interfaces connected via USB no driver installation is re quired J ust plug in the interface and you re ready to go For other more advanced MIDI interfaces or at least to take advantage of more advanced features like multiple inputs you will need t
72. ected between two other devices the connection between these is automatically preserved The Hardware Interface device at the top of the rack cannot be re moved Reordenng Devices You can rearrange the devices in the rack by moving them in the following way 1 If you want to move more than one device at the same time select the devices 2 Click in the handle area of one of the devices For full width devices this is the area to the left and right of the panel be tween the rack fittings for smaller devices you can click anywhere outside the actual parameters 3 With the mouse button pressed drag the device s up or down in the rack A thick red vertical line indicates where the device s will be positioned Note that the red line can be to the left of a device indicating that the moved device will be inserted before the other device or to the right of a device in dicating that the moved device will be inserted after the other device POS REASON Managing the Rack 47 In this example an RV 7 reverb device is moved In this case the red line indicates that the reverb device will be inserted to the left of the phaser Bra AY 7 E ECF 42 FILTER 1 or DIGITAL REV ERB 1 ENVELOPE CONTROLLED FILTER enw E o A MODE A Br el B a PH 90 PHASER 1 a a cl F 1 ox See CHORUS FLANG 11 PHASER r ifo E or i ERSE ann o AN A B X y gt U Ka e Y AN a K EQ H INC DE
73. ed to set the left and right locators to encompass the desired area If you instead want to export the whole song make sure the End E marker is at the desired end position rat BE I BE EEE m Em zu DE ds The E marker informs the program of where the song ends 3 Check that the song or loop plays back propertly It s especially important that no clipping occurs during playback see page 44 POS REASON Song File Handling 4 Pull down the file menu and select Export Song as Audio File or Export Loop as Audio File A file dialog appears Specify a name location and file type AIFF or Wave for the audio file and click Save This opens a Settings dialog Export Audio Settings Sample Rate 44100 Hz y Bit Depth fie Cancel Help Use the pop up menus to select a sample rate and bit depth reso lution for the audio file 16 or 24 bit audio is supported at a number of different sample rates The exported file will always be a stereo audio file Click OK The program creates the audio file Depending on the length of the song loop this may take a while during which a progress dialog is shown If you are using ReWire you may want to use the Export function in the ReWire master application instead This allows you to include audio from both applications in the exported audio file Xt REAS CIN A Alter 73 ASIO Driver 9 15 Audio Card Driver 15 Audio File Formats 43 Audio Hard
74. ely you can right click in the patch name display to bring up a con Kits in the Reason Factory Sound Bank t ith all th tches in the folder ye EE WBA SEEN DOSE EIER Tolder When you have selected a patch you will note that a sample file name is dis O z TRACTOR played at the top of each drum sound channel in the drum machine There may E also be different parameter settings for the different drum sounds all these set tings are part of a Redrum patch POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZER Drum sound channels SYNTH 1 It s possible to play the drum machine device via MIDI in the same way but let s try creating a pattem with the built in pattem sequencer instead 14 Click the folder button in the lower left comer of the Redrum panel nia n This opens the patch browser for the drum machine allowing you to select a 2 AJO Be le 93 on LENGTH Redrum patch a drum kit Note that there are folder buttons for each drum oo ap sound channel too these let you add drumsamples one by one and create A 48 A your own drum kits PITGH PITCH 5 i E S 7 b s I m S p Ir 5 Load Sample buttons i E 3 a q The selected patch TORE ta WEL TONE 4 VEL STAAT 4 WEL SELECT ENABLE PATTERN PATTERN m paten SECTION Bg HIGH GUALITY iwrenPouation a RUN A qa CHANNEL fas i A E D EXCLUSIVE LEVEL ve LEVEL L l 16 Try out the drum sounds by clicking the audition buttons at the top YT 65 of ea
75. en by now the central part of Reason is the rack This is where you create and configure your devices and make parameter settings This chap ter describes all the procedures for managing the rack that is procedures and techniques common to all devices Device parameter specifics are described in the electronic documentation Navigating in the Rack If the rack contains more than a few devices the whole rack will probably not fit on screen To scroll the rack up or down use one of the following methods gt Use the scrollbar to the right of the rack to scroll continuously up or down gt If you re using a mouse equipped with a scroll wheel you can use it to scroll up or down Use the Page Up Page Down buttons on the computer keyboard to move the view one full screen up or down gt Use the Home or End buttons on the computer keyboard to scroll the top or bottom of the rack gt Pull down a device context menu and select another device from the Go To submenu The rack scrolls to the device you select Note that you can enlarge the rack area by clicking its lower edge the divider between the rack and the sequencer area and dragging downwards This will shrink the sequencer area and make more of the rack visible alternatively you can detach the sequencer from the rack altogether This is described on page 58 You can also make the rack fill the window by clicking the maximize button above the scrollbar to the
76. en click the Pattem button Nothing happens until you click the Pattern button The pattern change takes effect on the next downbeat according to the time sig nature set in the transport panel The Pattem Mute Switch ENABLE fl PATTERN PATTERN SECTION k ig 58 is Je 7 le gt OBGB The Pattem Mute switch in the Redrum and the Matrix Next to the Bank and Pattem buttons you will find an additional switch which is normally activated If you click this to tum it off the pattern playback will be muted starting at the next downbeat exactly as if you had selected an empty silent pattem For example this can be used for bringing different pattem de vices in and out of the mix during playback POS REASON Using Pattem Devices 71 Programming a Pattem The actual programming procedure differs for the different devices see the electronic documentation for descriptions of the Redrum and Matrix respec tively However some basic principles are common for all pattern devices Steps Patterns consist of a number of discrete steps For each step you can enter a note a CV value or various properties depending on the device When you run the pattem each step will be played back in tum and will play a sound or send out the information programmed for this step If you have ever used a drum ma chine this will be obvious to you Pattern Length For each pattem you can specify a length i e how many steps it sho
77. er 1 amp a GtrhF 3 way 88K Reason Factory Sound E Sampler 1 amp a GtrhF 4 way 93K Reason Factory Sound Sampler 2 IV Eg GuitarP LAB aif 221K ER D REx1 da 090 EAO105 1x2 269K Reason Factory Sound TI Vocoder LAB aif 717K M ll BassSli elAB aif 89K y Check All Uncheck All Cancel Help 2 Tick the checkbox in the Sound column for the files you want in cluded in the song POS REASON Song File Handling You can use the Check All button to activate all checkboxes in one go Similarly the Uncheck All button deactivates all checkboxes gt Files that are part of a Refill are indicated by a lock symbol instead of a checkbox since they cannot be included in the song file The rightmost colunn indicates to which ReFill each such file belongs 3 When you have selected the desired sounds click OK The dialog is closed The next time you save the specified sounds will be in cluded in the song file Note that a self contained song file will be considerably larger than the original song file However samples included in a self contained song are automati cally compressed by approximately 50 meaning that the self con tained song will still be a lot smaller than the original song and the sample files combined Un self containing a Song If you have opened a song that is more or less self contained i e contains one or several sounds embedded in the song file you may want to
78. esized sounds allowing users to create and edit multi sampled sounds in special Soundfont editing pro grams The Soundfonts can then be played back in wavetable synthesizers typically on audio cards thereby effectively tuming an ordinary sound card into a sampler The NN XT and NN19 Samplers and the Redrum drum machine allow you to browse and load Soundfonts Regardless of which editing program was used to create them these banks are sim lady and hierarchically organized with folders for instruments presets samples etc The NN XT NN19 and the Redrum lets you load individual samples and presets froma Soundfont bank but not the complete Soundfont The Browser The browser is a special file dialog that appears when you open songs or load patches samples or REX files from within a ReFill or from regular file folders Its appearance varies slightly depending on what type of file you are opening Patch Browser NN XT olx Patch Browser sxt sf2 1cy rex m2 Upright Bass Rex a es lt cua al c Name Lg 3 090 C 1 AccBass rz2 Navigation toolbar B 090 C 10 AccBass rx2 File and E 090 C 11 AccBass 2 090 C 12 AccBass rz2 folder list 090 C 2 AccBass rx2 Propellerhead Software amp B 090 0 3 AccBass z2 118K PowerFx B 090 C 4 AccBass rx2 121K B 090 C S AccBass rx2 60K E 090 C 6 AccBass 1x2 116K E 090 C 7 AccBass rx2 59K E 090 C 8 AccBa
79. evices connected to different outputs in the Hardware Interface If the Au dio Out Clipping indicator lights up you should play back the section again while checking the Hardware Interface Each output socket has a level meter if the red meter segment lights up the output is clipping Lower the output level of the device connected to the clipping output until no clipping occurs REMIRE AUDIO CARD Clipping on the stereo outputs If you are using ReWire If you are streaming audio to another application using the ReWire protocol clipping can not happen in Reason This is because the conversion from floating point audio happens in the other audio application See the electronic documen tation for more information about ReW ire POS REASON Audio Basics Master Tune By default Reason plays back a middle A at 440 Hz which is the standard tuning in most instruments However if you are playing Reason together with other instruments you may want to adjust the tuning 1 Pull down the Edit menu or Reason menu under Mac OS X and select Preferences 2 Use the pop up menu at the top of the Preferences dialog to select the Audio page 3 Adjust the global tuning with the Master Tune control If you like you can adjust this during playback Note that this affects the tun ing of all Sound sources in Reason including the drum machine and loop player Xt REAS CIN About this Chapter As you have se
80. ge Audio Bd Master Tune am MIDI Advanced MIDI Sound Locations Audio Card Driver asio Directx Full Duplex Driver T Y Sample Rate oo Output Latency 46 ms Latency Compensation 46 ms E Active Channels 2 out of 2 stretinel sy Clock Source intema ASIO Control Panel IV 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 Mac OS X gt Normally you should select one of the driver options that start with the word CoreAudio Select the option that corresponds to the hardware you want to use the built in audio connectors or some additional audio hardware that you have installed Other options may be available mainly for compatibility with all possible hardware software configurations Use these only when required Mac OS 9 gt If you are using audio hardware for which there is a specific ASIO driver you should select 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 support for higher sampling frequencies up to 96 kHz in 24 bit 32 bit float resolution and possibly better support for addi tional hardware features such as multiple outputs If there is no specific ASIO driver for your audio hardware you
81. ger driver i e without an ASIO driver However we recommend using ASIO compatible audio hardware only Windows gt If possible you should use ASIO compatible audio hardware i e audio hardware for which there is an ASIO driver ASIO drivers generally provide better performance and lower latency see page 16 gt If there is no ASIO driver available you should make sure your au dio card supports DirectX DirectX is a Microsoft protocol for handling audio and other multimedia as pects gt Asa 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 Extensions However most often this results in large latency values See page 16 making real time playback of instrument de vices difficult or even impossible Regardless of which type of audio hardware or drivers you are using you should follow these basic steps 1 Make sure you have the latest drivers for the audio hardware Please check the manufacturers web site for the latest versions 2 Install the audio hardware and its drivers as described in its docu mentation 3 Connect the stereo outputs of your audio hardware to your listening equipment speakers mixer headphones or similar For information about how to use multiple outputs i e more than a stereo output see the electronic documentation For now w
82. gt When you move a device connections are not affected r P If you instead would like the program to re route the device according to its Creating Mixers new location in the rack hold down Shift when you move it The first created mixer device will be routed to the Stereo inputs on gt the Hardware Device If you create more mixers they will be connected in series using the mixers Chaining connections see the electronic documentation When you duplicate devices by dragging or use copy and paste the devices are not auto routed at all If you would like themto be autorratically routed hold down Shift when you perform the operation Routing a device to the Mixer gt When you create an instrument device synth sampler drum ma chine or loop player it is automatically routed to the first available mixer channel This makes it immediately available for use Routing a Send Effect to the Mixer gt When you have a mixer selected and create an effect device it will be connected as a send effect to the first free Aux Send Retum Examples of effects that lend themselves well for use as send effects are re verb delay and chorus POS REASON Managing the Rack Manual Rout ng There are two ways to route audio from one device to another by connecting virtual patch cables between inputs and outputs and by selecting connections To connect devices manually you need to flip the rack around to see the back froma po
83. h determine the quality of the sound Generally higher sarmple rate and resolution result in better audio quality but also larger audio files and higher demands on computer per formance and audio hardware This table shows some common sample rate resolution combinations Sample rate Resolution Comment 22 05 kHz 8 bit Typically used in situations where small file size is more important than audio quality such as games some multimedia applications sound files on the Intemet etc 44 1 kHz 16 bit This is the format used on audio CDs often called CD Quality audio 44 1 kHz 24 bit These are formats used in professional studios 96 kHz and high end recording equipment To cater for all different situations Reason supports multiple sample rates and resolutions This applies to the following areas Playing back Reason handles all intemal audio processing in 32 bit floating point resolution However the resolution of the output audio is determined by the audio hard ware That is if you have a 24 bit audio card Reason will create audio in 24 bit resolution and if you have a 16 bit audio card audio will be in 16 bit resolution The playback sample rate can be specified in the Preferences Audio dialog ac cessed fromthe Reason menu or Edit menu depending on whether you are run ning Mac OS X or not Sample Rate Buffer Size Note that the available options on this pop up menu depend on which sample
84. h the same name the wrong sounds may be found Replace Clicking the Replace button opens the browser dialog allowing you to manually locate each missing file This allows you to use files outside the database or files that have been renamed The browser dialog will appear once for each selected file in the list Download ReFill If a missing sound is part of a ReFill as indicated in the Part of ReFill Package colunn and there is a valid URL Internet address for this ReFill you can download the ReFill directly from this dialog provided you have a working Inter net connection 1 Select the sound s that use the Refill You should only select several sounds if they use the same ReFill 2 Click the Download ReFill button This launches your Internet browser and takes you to the URL associated with the ReFill 3 A dialog appears asking you to download the ReFill and place it in one of the database folders Do so 4 Click OK Reason automatically scans the downloaded ReFill and locates the files Proceeding At any point you can click the OK button to close the dialog and open the song or patch Note gt For the files you have found status Replaced the new paths will be stored in the song or patch However you need to save the song or patch for the changes to become permanent gt If any file is still missing when you click OK there will be sounds missing in the song patch Sometimes you may want
85. hanges played back fromthe sequencer will happen at their exact position See the electronic documentation For details see page 70 Sequencer window ae EP 229 E Soe Ja wm a be fio In Name ls Po LA DO i Ce fa a ARES ATT E n na u ur eilt Il Lt Pi ir AUTOMATION PATTERN f OVERRIDE SHUFFLE Er The sequencer area below the rack The basic window techniques in Reason have been described on page 38 Here is a quick run through gt You can adjust the size of the sequencer area by dragging the di vider between the sequencer and the rack gt Clicking the maximize button in the upper right comer will make the sequencer area fill the whole document window FINE KBD TRACH be hos e The sequencer maximize button When editing the contents of a sequencer track the right part of the sequencer area can be divided into different lanes Typically you would view the note information in one lane controller curve in another lane etc You can adjust the size of the lanes by dragging the divid ers between them mamanman ma mmt EN plrttstetejefotojofoj 4 REE Am Here the key lane velocity lane and a controller lane are shown You can scroll and change magnification in a number of ways in cluding standard scroll bars and horizontal and vertical zoom con trols as well as with the Magnifying Glass tool the Hand tool anda mouse with
86. ier to keep track of which track plays what Should you want to renarre the track or device independently you need to dis connect the track fromthe device rename and connect it again How to connect a track to a device is described on page 60 Folding and Unfolding If you don t need to make settings for a device you can fold it to make the rack more manageable and avoid having to scroll a lot This is done by clicking the ar row to the left of the device Drirex a a E POLYPHONY HIGH QUALITY LO EW INTERPOLATION MOD WHEEL To unfold the device click the arrow again gt In rack rows with devices of smaller width the fold unfold arrow is placed to the left of the leftmost device and affects all devices in the row gt If you hold down Option Mac or Alt Windows and click the ar row of an unfolded device all devices in the rack will be folded Conversely Option Alt clicking the arrow of a folded device will unfold all devices gt For folded devices no parameters are shown and you cannot make routing adjustments on the backside of the rack as long as the de vices are folded However if you want to make a connection to a folded device you can drag a cable to it and hold it there for a monent This will cause the folded device to automatically unfold and let you make the connection gt Folded devices can be renamed moved duplicated and deleted just like unfolded devices gt Fordevices
87. ime you run Reason 2 0 the Preferences dialog appears Before you can use the program you need to make some settings this is described in the next chapter POS REASON Installation POS REASON Installation Xt REAS CIN About thi C ha Should you need to change your settings at a later stage you can open the Pref IS pter erences dialog from the Edit menu or Reason menu under Mac OS X This chapter describes the settings you need to make before you can start using Reason These are necessary in order to get any sounds fromthe program and Anac to be able to play and control Reason via MIDI EGG SUL WEvICE About the Preferences The first time you launch Reason you haven t yet made any Preference settings For this reason the Preferences dialog will automatically appear GUY WEVICE Reason POSS Gute WENIGE JISGGnhesl DEVICE Preferences k Described herein are only the most important settings in the Prefer ences For information about other Preferences settings see the electronic documentation The Preferences dialog Setting up the Audio Hardware The first thing you need to do is 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 Pa
88. into the rack and can not be removed POS REASON Quick Tutorial B Bass Bass Bass Bass Bass LE Ad Bass Bass Baus Bass Bass 1 Bass Bass mn Ao San Bain ein Sein sein ein seein seein ein ein ain ain ae MASTER This is a mixer with fourteen stereo channels four 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 Subtractor Analog Synth 2 TRACTOR Er k a E p E Filter E POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZER Mad Envelope SUBTRACTOR The Subtractor is a polyphonic synthesizer laid out much like an advanced ana log synth It features two oscillators two filters and a host of modulation func tions allowing for everything from fat basses to swirling pads and screaming lead sounds Malstrom Synth nal 9999 La s rgo note on polyphony 99909 saturate FILTER ENV WA WEB teny Free 9 MALSTROM 1 E SHAPER FILTER AN FILTER E The Malstr mis a polyphonic synthesizer featuring two oscillators two modula tors two filters a waveshaper and a large number of modulation and routing op tions It is based on the concept of Graintable Synthesis and makes it possible to produce amazingly abstract sharp distorted undulating sounds NN 19
89. ips Context menus Undo Window Techniques Audio Basics About this chapter How Reason communicates with your audio hardware About Sample Rates and Resolutions About Audio Levels Master Tune Managing the Rack About this Chapter Navigating in the Rack Creating Devices Selecting Devices Deleting Devices Reordering Devices Duplicating Devices Cut Copy and Paste A Quick Note on Routing Naming Devices Folding and Unfolding The Sequencer Basics About the Sequencer Sequencer window handling Managing Tracks About the two Views About the Ruler Song Position and Locators Transport Controls Overview Setting Up for Recording Recording Playback and Positioning Mute and Solo What else can do in the sequencer POS REASON Table of Contents Using Pattern Devices About this chapter What are Pattern Devices Selecting Patterns Programming a Pattern Clearing a Pattern Using Cut Copy and Paste Pattern Functions The Browser Background The Browser Handling Missing Sounds Working with Patches What are Patches Selecting a Patch Saving Patches Copying and Pasting Patches between Devices Initializing Patches Song File Handling About Self contained Songs Song Information Saving a Song Publishing a Song Opening a Song Closing a Song Creating a New Song Creating a Default Song Exporting as an Audio File Index POS REASON Table of Contents POS REASON Table of Contents
90. ix parameters available on the de vice panel allowing you to create both subtle sweeping sounds and extreme swirling special effects COMP 01 Compressor 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 m PEQ 2 Orr TWO BAND PARAM 31 amp 2 125 250 500 Ik 2k 4k While the mixer device has basic two band EQ on each channel sometimes you may need some more precise control over the tone color For this purpose you can use the PEQ2 This device contains two independent parametric equalizers with controls for frequency gain and Q value POs REASON Quick Tutorial The Matrix Pattem Sequencer The Matrix is a stand alone pattem sequencer somewhat similar to a vintage an alog sequencer A Matrix pattem 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 separate pattern sequencers in one By connecting the Matrix to e g a synth device you can have the pattem se quencer play the device for a repeating synth pattem or control various param eters for rhythmic effects that you cannot obtain using the synth device
91. lected and create an effect that effect will be connected as an insert effect That is the signal This section only describes the basics in routing For detailed de from the device will pass through that effect and to the mixer scriptions of routing procedures and possibilities see the elec Examples of effects that work well as inserts are distortion compression and tronic documentation phaser Reason allows for extremely flexible routing of audio and control signals be Auto routing Devices after they have been Created tween the devices in the rack Basically routing can be done automatically or manually Here follows some additional rules about auto routing devices that are already in the rack Automatic Routing gt To reroute a device already in the rack you can select it and use Auto routing means that Reason makes all basic audio connections for a device Disconnect Device and Auto route Device both on the Edit menu in one go As mentioned on the previous pages auto routing is automatically gt performed when you create a new device and when you move duplicate or paste devices with Shift pressed If you delete a device connected between two devices the connec tion between the two remaining devices is automatically preserved A typical example would be if you have an effect device connected as an in sert effect between a synth and a mixer If you delete the effect the synth will be routed directly to the mixer
92. mands with Mac and Windows indications POS REASON Common Operations and Concepts Making Settings Since a large part of Reason is laid out like a real effect and synth rack almost all parameters are designed like their real world counterparts mixer faders synth knobs transport buttons etc How to make adjustments to these is de scribed separately for each type of parameter below Knobs To tum a knob point at it click the mouse button and drag up or down as if the knob was a vertical slider Dragging upwards tums the knob to the right and vice versa gt If you press Shift and drag the knob will tum slower allowing for higher precision You can also adjust the knob precision with the Mouse Knob Range set ting on the General page in the Preferences dialog This dialog is opened from the Edit menu or fromthe Reason menu if you are running Mac OS X Page General Editing Normal y Mouse Knob Range gt To reseta knob to its default value usually zero center pan or sim ilar press Command Mac or Ct Win and click on it Sliders To move a slider click on the slider handle and drag up or down gt You can also click anywhere on the slider to instantly move the han die to that position gt If you press Shift and drag the slider will move slower allowing for higher precision Multi Mode Selectors Some parameters allow yo
93. ms What is in the Reason package When you purchase Reason the package contains the following itens gt The Program Disc CD This contains the Reason installer OMS installer Mac OS 9 only elec tronic documentation in Adobe Acrobat format and an installer for Adobe Acrobat Reader There will also be additional files such as promotional ma terial demo versions of other Propellerhead Software products etc gt The Factory Sound Bank CD This contains the Reason Factory Sound Bank a large file containing sam ples patches and loops for use with Reason You may choose to install this file on your hard disk so that the CD isn t required when you run the pro gram more on this on page 10 gt The Orkester CD This contains the Reason Orkester Sound Bank J ust like with the Factory Sound Bank described above you can choose to install this on your hard disk eliminating the need for the CD when using sounds from the Orkester Sound Bank see page 10 for more information The printed documentation 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 Requirements Below you will find the minimum requirements for running Reason 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
94. n taining references to and settings for all used samples along with panel settings This is a patch for the NNXT Sampler device con taining references to and settings for all used samples along with panel settings This is a patch for the Redrum drum machine de vice It contains information about which drum samples are used along with all drum sound set tings In effect a Redrum patch is a stored drum kit REX files are created in another Propellerheads application the ReC ycle loop editor They contain audio loops chopped into slices with one slice for each significant beat in the loop By loading a REX file into the Dr Rex Loop Player device you can play back the loop in virtually any tempo with out affecting the pitch manipulate individual beats in the loop extract timing info etc Note that you can also load REX files into the samplers and the Redrum drum machine l File type Samples Soundfont Bank Extension Wav or aif Sf2 Description The NN19 Sampler and the Redrum drum ma chine play back samples in Wave or AIFF format with support for a large number of resolutions and sample rates You can use files of different for mats in the same device one drumsound can be an 8 bit sample the next a 16 bit sample etc The Soundfont format was co developed by E mu Systems and Creative Technologies and is used with many audio cards and software synthesizers SoundFont banks store wavetable synth
95. n the rack If no device is selected the new device is added at the bottom of the rack gt When you add a new device Reason attempts to route it in a logical way For an introduction to the auto routing features see page 49 gt Anew track will automatically be created in the sequencer and routed to the new device The track will have the same name as the device MIDI input will also auto matically be set to the new track allowing you to immediately play the cre ated device via MIDI See page 52 By default this only applies to instrument devices not to mixers or effect devices If you hold down Option Mac or Alt Windows when you create the device the opposite is true i e mixers and ef fect devices get new tracks but instrument devices don t Selecting Devices Sore operations e g cutting copying and deleting devices require that you select one or several devices in the rack This is done according to the following rules gt To select a single device click on it in the rack The selected device is displayed with a blue border 3 re be 4 a OX N j Bypass Bypass pe AV 7 m ort DIGITAL REVERB 11 Sa TRACTOR gt To select several devices hold down Shift and click In other words Shift clicking a device selects it without de selecting any other selected devices 3 To de select all devices click in the empty space at the bottom of the rack 3 To de select one of the selected de
96. nced audio card with several inputs and outputs digital connectors etc Regardless of which you need to make sure the hardware and its drivers are properly installed Mac OS X If you are using the built in audio hardware of the Macintosh In this case you don t need to make any extra settings J ust connect the audio output to your listening equipment speakers mixer headphones or similar and make sure your Mac plays audio propery If you are using other audio hardware You may want to use other audio hardware with Reason e g an audio card with multiple outputs digital connections etc For this to be possible the audio hardware must be compatible with Mac OS X that is there must be a Mac OS X driver available for the card 2 Install the audio hardware and its drivers as described in its docu mentation 3 Connectthe stereo outputs of your audio hardware to your listening equipment speakers mixer headphones or similar For info about how to use multiple outputs i e more than a stereo output see the electronic documentation For now we stick to standard stereo con nections 4 If possible test that audio plays back OK with the audio hardware With some audio hardware a test application is supplied for this purpose no REASON Installation Mac OS 9 If you are using the built in audio hardware of the Macintosh In this case you don t need to make any extra settings J ust connect the audio output to y
97. nected your equipment and made settings for audio and MIDI as described in the previous chapters Playing a Song 1 If you haven t launched Reason yet do so 2 Pull down the File menu and select Open The Song Browser dialog appears Navigate to the Reason program folder 4 Open the Demo Songs folder and select the song Tutonal Song ms 5 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 e ir ov ou REPLACE 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 the start of the song allowing you to play the song fromthe beginning again POS REASON Quick Tutorial 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 Tutorial Song The scrollbar The Mixer If you look at the mixer you will see that each mixer channel has a tape strip
98. ng samples or ReC ycle files into the samplers the drum machine de vice or the loop player Reason supports files of a large number of sample rates and resolutions You can use files of different fonmats in the same device one drum sound can be an 8 bit sample the next a 16 bit sample etc POS REASON Audio Basics About Audio Levels When playing back in Reason you should keep an eye on the Audio Out Clip ping indicator on the transport panel If this lights up the audio level is too high resulting in clipping digital distortion The indicator will stay lit for a short morrert to make it easier to spot AUDIO OUT CLIPPING gt To remedy this lower the master level on the mixer or other device that is connected to the Hardware Interface until Audio Out Clip ping doesn t light up on playback Note that it doesn t matter if the level meters on the individual de vices effects mixer channels etc hit the red Clipping can only occur in the Hardware Interface The technical reason for this is that intemally Reason uses high resolution float ing point processing which ensures high audio quality and virtually linitless headroom In the Audio Hardware device the floating point audio is converted to the resolution used by the audio hardware and that s where clipping may occur If you are using multiple outputs If you are using audio hardware with more than two outputs you may have differ ent d
99. o install a driver Please consult the documentation that came with the interface for details Mac OS 9 Reason makes use of OMS Open Music System a common protocol for MIDI communication on the Macintosh This means that your MIDI interface must sup port OMS and you need to have OMS installed on your computer If OMS isn t already installed you need to do this before using Reason This may also be necessary if you have an older version of OMS installed please check the MIDI interface documentation for any special restrictions regarding OMS versions Proceed as follows 1 2 Insert the Reason program disc into your CD ROM drive Locate and double click the file Install OMS in the OMS folder on the program disc Follow the instructions on screen Use the OMS Setup application to set up your MIDI interface This is necessary to infonmthe system about the existence connections and settings of the MIDI interface Usually how to do this is described in the MIDI interface documentation if not checkthe OMS documentation for the general procedure POS REASON Installation Windows Under Windows no special installation procedure is required just install the MIDI interface and its drivers as described in the documentation that care with the hardware MIDI Connections Connect a MIDI cable fromthe MIDI Out on your MIDI keyboard or other MIDI controller to a MIDI In on your MIDI interface This is suffi
100. often necessary to have some sort of rhythmic guide to help you keep time The easiest way is to use the built in metronome click When this is activated you will hear a click on each beat with an accent on the downbeat of each bar The click is played back during recording and playback You can adjust the volume of the click by using the Level knob Y Sometimes it might be easier to use a drum machine pattem as a rhythmic guide Recording To record MIDI from an extemal MIDI instrument proceed as follows 1 Make sure MIDI is routed to the desired track See page 60 Move the song position to where you want the recording to start Recording always starts at the song position Sampler 1 To move the song position drag the P marker or click directly in the ruler You may want to start a few bars early to get time to start playing Click the record button or press on the numeric keypad The record button lights up to indicate Record Standby mode SEE EN Click the play button or press Enter on the numeric keypad Recording starts When you are done click the stop button or press 0 on the nu meric keypad In Mame rr III a Sampler 1 Recorded notes are indicated as red bars in the Arrange window At this point you may want to move the song position to the beginning of the re cording by rewinding or by moving the song position marker in the ruler and click the play button
101. on it in the file display Database folder buttons While you can get to the database by starting at the desktop and navigating your way down the database folder buttons offer a quicker way Clicking any of these buttons takes you directly to the corresponding database folder search path 1 4 respectively as specified on the Preferences Sound Locations page From there you can open subfolders in the main file display or navigate to a higher folder using the navigation pop up The folder button for which you haven t specified a path are greyed out disabled Find All ReFills button pea es lt fans es es Size Find All ReFill E04 HB Clicking this button will make the program look for all available ReFills and list them in the main file display Patch Browser NN XT Patch Browser sat 22 rey ren m Refils Strings uwonga Patch Bonanza 45 MB The ReFills are listed together even though they may be in different folders on your hard disk If you double click on a ReFill in the list you can navigate within the ReFill and select songs or sounds for opening just as if they were separate files on disk When you click the Find All ReFills button Reason will look for Re Fills in the root folder s of the database in the Reason program folder and on any CD in the CD ROM drive regardless of whether the CD ROM drive is specified as a database search path or not Re scan button
102. ontain the following itens e Cut Copy Paste and Delete Device items allowing you to rearrange and manage the devices in the rack e A Go To submenu listing all devices connected to the current device Se lecting a device from the Go To submenu scrolls the rack to bring that de vice into view e A duplicate of the Create menu allowing you to create new devices e If the device is pattem based there will be various pattem functions C ut Copy Paste Clear Shift Randomize etc These affect the currently se lected pattem in the device e If the device uses Patches there will be functions for managing Patches e Depending on the device there may also be various device specific func tions available For example the drum machine device has functions for ma nipulating the pattem for the selected drumsound only etc Parameter Context Menus If you click on an autorratable control a synth parameter knob a fader etc the context menu will contain the following items e Functions for clearing and editing the recorded automation data for the con trol e Functions for associating computer keyboard commands and or MIDI mes sages to the parameter allowing you to remote control parameters froma MIDI device or the computer keyboard Empty Rack Context Menus If you click in an empty section of the rack the context menu will contain the fol lowing items e A Paste Device item allowing you to paste any copied or cut
103. or down Enlarging the up per lane will shrink the lower and vice versa Dr REX 1 Redrum 1 Sampler 1 Synth 1 1 16 a ta fin O A ee eee ATA NN XT 1 TE EE AAA a mn Detaching the sequencer Malstrom 1 Dr REX 1 sr Redrum 1 Er Caranlar 1 A i You can detach the sequencer pane and tum it into a separate window This al lows you to make the sequencer wider than the rack and use the width of the computer screen more effectively See page 58 Scrolling and Zooming Reason offers a few different options for scrolling and Zooming in the rack and the sequencer Scrolling with the scrollbars Whenever there is information outside the screen horizontal and or vertical scrollbars will appear For example if there are more devices in the rack than can be shown at one time you will be able to scroll the rack up or down by using the vertical scrollbar to the right of the rack Scrolling with the Hand tool In the sequencer you can also use the Hand tool for scrolling the view J ust se lect the Hand tool and click in a lane keep the mouse button pressed and drag in the desired direction O eet EA ee De Pee ee A Be E E DSA en seer ed H Scrolling the Key edit lane with the Hand tool w You can scroll in any direction as long as the lane allows it the Ve locity lane for example is only possible to scroll horizontally By holding down Shift while you drag however
104. ou like specify search path 2 to 4 in the same way It is normally enough to specify a single path since all underlying folders are autorratically included in the database Use the additional paths if you use more than one hard drive CD ROM drives etc When you add sound files or save Reason files you should place them within the database under one of the specified search path folders POS REASON Setting Up Setting the default Empty Rack This is an empty rack Well almost empty since it contains the Ul song Reason hardware interface e Built In This is a built in Reason Song containing a few devices Note that it is not possible to open this song by regular means via the browser since it is not an independent ms file and thus does not reside anywhere in the Reason folder 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 previously created song as the default song This way 1 Open the Preferences dialog from the Edit menu or Reason menu all new songs you create will have the same device setup if you are running Mac OS X Every time you start Reason and every time you select New fromthe File menu a default song opens The standard default song contains a few select devices You can however decide exactly what you want the default song to look like in the following way gt
105. our listening equipment Speakers mixer headphones or similar and make sure your Mac plays audio properly e g by testing the alert sounds in the Sound control panel or the Monitors and Sound control panel depending on the Mac OS version If you are using other audio hardware You may want to use other audio hardware with Reason e g an audio card with multiple outputs digital connections etc For this to be possible the audio hardware must be compatible with the ASIO standard That is it must have an ASIO driver a piece of software that allows Reason to communicate with the card 1 Make sure you have the latest drivers for the audio hardware Please check the manufacturers web site for the latest versions 2 Install the audio hardware and its low level drivers as described in its documentation 3 Connect the stereo outputs of your audio hardware to your listening equipment speakers mixer headphones or similar For info about how to use multiple outputs i e more than a stereo output see the electronic documentation For now we stick to standard stereo con nections 4 If possible test that audio plays back OK with the audio hardware With some audio hardware a test application is supplied for this purpose 5 Locate the ASIO driver for the hardware After installing Reason you will need to copy this into Reason s ASIO driver folder see page 10 Some Macintosh audio hardware comes with a Sound Mana
106. p up menu This is done by pressing Tab or selecting Toggle Rack Front Rear from the Options menu Using Cables For the cables to be visible the option Show Cables must be acti FILTER 1 ENVELOPE CONTROLLED FILTER Awe ae toga L Ou vated on the Options menu See below 1 Click on the desired input or output jack on one of the devices and drag the pointer away from the jack with the mouse button pressed A loose cable appears k Audio Output L R 2 Drag the cable to the jack on the other device When you move the cable end over a jack of the correct type audio CV in put output it will be highlighted to show that a connection is possible 3 Release the mouse button The cable is connected If both input and output are in stereo and you con nect the left channels a cable for the right channel is automatically added On the back of each device you will find connectors of two different types audio and CV Control Voltage used for controlling parameters see the electronic documentation Audio inputs and outputs are shown as large quarter inch jacks while CV input and output jacks are smaller For now we stick to audio connections Dragging a cable to make a connection can be aborted by pressing Esc while keeping the mouse button pressed Audio connectors i Lelt Moni BA Audio Cutput io Right lia Audio Output Gate Out Gate In Pitch GW In C
107. patch doesn t contain the actual sam display ples only information about which sample files are used gt Redrum drum computer patches contain a complete drum kit that gt Select the Browse Patches item on the Edit menu or device context is information about which drum samples are used together with menu the parameter settings for each drum sound Note that the Edit peer reflects which device selected in Na Again the actual samples are not included in the patch only file references you must select me device for the corresponding Browse Patches item to Also note that Redrum patches are separated from Redrum pattems se appear on the Edit menu lecting a new patch will not affect the pattems in the device In both cases the Browser dialog appears allowing you to locate and select the x l A _ cc __ _ _ _ ooo _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ patch on the hard disk or within a ReFill See page 78 for details about the Patches do not include information about any routing done on the Browser back of the device Once you have selected a patch you can step between all the patches in the same folder by using the arrow buttons on the device panel acer We renPoL ar an exclusive POS REASON Working with Patches gt If you click on the patch name display on the device panel a pop up menu will appear listing all patches in the current folder This allows you to quickly select another patch in the sam
108. puter system with two monitors you can do the following gt Use one monitor for viewing and managing the rack only Detach the sequencer as described above and dedicate one of your monitors to the sequencer only To be able to use two monitors you must have an operating system and a graph ics card that supports it Please refer to the documentation for your operating system and possibly the graphics card for instructions on how to set up your system for using two moni tors Managing Tracks Creating Tracks As described on page 46 tracks are automatically created when you create in strument devices in the rack Still you may need to create additional tracks e g for recording effect device automation see the electronic documentation gt To create a new sequencer track pull down the Create menu and select Sequencer Track or select Create Sequencer Track from the context menu in the sequencer The new track will appear below the currently selected track in the track list Initially it will not be connected to any device see below gt You can also create a new sequencer track specifically for a device by using the Create Sequencer Track for Device item on the device s context menu This works the same as when creating a new device i e the new track is connected to the device and has the same name Naming Tracks You can rename a track by double clicking on its name in the track list and typing in anew name
109. right The rack maximize button POS REASON Managing the Rack Creating Devices To create a new device select the desired item on the Create menu This menu is available both on the main menu bar and on the context menus See page 36 for an introduction to context menus Create Options Windows Help Sequencer Track Cut Device Copy Device Paste Device Delete Device Mixer 14 2 subTractor Analog Synthesizer Malstrom Graintable Synthesizer GoTo NN19 Digital Sampler Create Sequencer Track for Mixer NN XT Advanced Sampler AAA Dr REX Loop Player Mixer 14 2 Redrum Drum Computer subTractor Analog Synthesizer Malstrom Graintable Synthesizer NN19 Digital Sampler NN XT Advanced Sampler Dr REX Loop Player Redrum Drum Computer Riv Digital Reverb DDL 1 Digital Delay Line D 11 Foldback Distortion ECF 42 Envelope Controlled Filter CF 101 Chorus Flanger PH 90 Phaser COMP 01 Compressor Limiter PEQ 2 Two Band Parametric EQ Rv Digital Reverb DDL 1 Digital Delay Line D 11 Foldback Distortion ECF 42 Envelope Controlled Filter CF 101 Chorus Flanger PH 90 Phaser COMP 01 Compressor Limiter PEQ 2 Two Band Parametric EQ Matrix Pattern Sequencer ReBirth Input Machine The Create menu on the main menu bar and on a context menu Matrix Pattern Sequencer ReBirth Input Machine gt The new device is added directly below the currently selected de vice i
110. ss 1x2 57K E 090 C 9 AccBass 1x2 64K E 095 C 1 AccBass rx2 61K B 095 C 2 AccBass rx2 58K B 095 C 3 AccBass rx2 101K B 095 C 4 AccBass 1x2 122K Info area B 095 C 5 AccBass rx2 108K B 095 C 6 AccBass rx2 116K 095 C 7 AccBass rx2 126K Preview B 100 C 1 AccBass rx2 108K Pa E 100 C 10 AccBass rz2 121K IB 100 0 11 AccBass m2 128 K T Autoplay B 100 0 2 AccBass rx2 102K E 100 C 3 AccBass rx2 107 K E 100 C 4 AccBass rx2 102K 100 C 5 AccBass 1x2 49K E 100 C 6 AccBass rx2 94K E 100 C 7 AccBass rx2 53K Cancel E 100 C 8 AccBass rx2 55K B 100 C 9 AccBass 1x2 56 K Help E 105 C 1 AccBass 1x2 103k y The Sample Browser dialog Navigating Using the browser is much like using a regular file dialog but there are some ad ditional features on the navigation toolbar Navigation pop up menu and Up button Patch Browser NN XT Patch Browser xt sh cy ren me This is a regular navigation pop up menu listing all folders hierarchically above the current folder Select a folder fromthe pop up menu to go there or click the Up button to go the closest folder above the current one Desktop button The desktop button in the Windows version left and the Macintosh version right Clicking this button takes you to the desktop of your computer In the main file display all available drives hard disks floppy drives CD drives and mapped net work drives will be listed To open a drive or a folder double click
111. t are not purely numerical e g reverb algorithms and synth oscillator waveforms The position values on the transport panel can also be edited by double clicking and typing a new position POs REASON Common Operations and Concepts Tool Tips If you position the pointer over a parameter on a device panel and wait a mo ment a tool tip will appear This displays the name of the parameter and its cur rent value This helps you fine tune settings set several parameters to the same value etc Context menus Context menus are tailored to contain the relevant menu items only allowing you to work quicker and more efficiently with Reason gt To bring up a context menu click with the right mouse button Win dows or press Cti and click Mac If you are using a Macintosh with a two button mouse you may want to set this up so that clicking the right mouse button generates a Ctr click This way you can right click to bring up context menus Drirex LOOP PLAYER Cut Device Copy Device Paste Device E ABRA Delete Device IN Fop PEs Coop ta rack ReLCycle RE Files The Dr REX contex menu The contents of the context menu depends on where you click Basically the fol lowing different contex menu types are available POS REASON Common Operations and Concepts Device Context Menus If you click somewhere on a device in the rack but not on a control the context menu will c
112. te to the Reason program folder and open the Template The Auxsends Songs folder Finally let s try tweaking some controls on an actual instrument device to 4 Select the file Empty Rack ms and click Open change the sound In this example we will use the S ubtractor synthesizer device A song document window appears This consists of an almost empty rack but all devices have parameters that can be adjusted on the device panels in the and there are no tracks in the sequencer same way Normally when you create a new song you would select New from the File menu This command opens the default song see page 91 The built in default song contains a few devices but if you Unless you have a very large screen the Subtractor device isn t visible right now You could use the scrollbar to scroll the rack down but here s a quicker oe have set things up so that the default song is Empty Rack ms you 14 In the sequencer area above the transport panel click on the can just select New from the File menu and ignore step 1 4 name Subtractor in the track list to the left above See page 91 for instructions on setting up the default song The rack is automatically scrolled to bring the S ubtractor device into view 5 Pull down the Create menu and select Mixer 14 2 15 Try adjusting some parameters while the song is playing Amierdsues is created in the rack You may for example want to tweak the Filter 1
113. tension to File Name checkboxin the save dialog this is not required but may be a good idea if you want the saved files to be us able under Windows gt REASON Working with Patches gt If you have selected a patch modified it and want to save it with the modifications you could either save a separate modified version of the patch with a new name or simply overwrite the old patch file on disk As uSual you will be asked whether you really want to replace the existing patch file without having the save dialog appear by holding down Option Mac Alt Windows and clicking the floppy disk button on the device panel Be aware that this overwrites the original patch have opened a patch from within a ReFill modified it and want to save it you need to save it as a separate file Preferably you should also rename the modified patch file to avoid confusion Copying and Pasting Patches between Devices A quick way to transfer settings between devices of the same type is to use the Copy and Paste Patch functions The result is exactly the same as if you had saved a patch on one device and opened this patch on another device this is just a quicker method Copying and Pasting settings is possible with all instrument device types except the Dr Rex Loop Player Proceed as follows 1 Selecta patch and or make the desired settings on the first device 2 Select Copy Patch from the device context menu or the
114. the top of the sequencer display This indicates the meter positions that is the po sitions in bars and beats gt The numbering and detail of the ruler depends on the horizontal magnification IA AU A PO ee ee ee eee sE At a medium zoom setting odd bars will be shown with a bar number and even bars will be indicated by a mark If you have zoorred in fully each bar will be numbered and every 1 32 note position will be indicated by a mark In the ruler you will also find four different position markers each with a separate flag This is the song position indicating at which position playback happens This is the End marker This infonvs Reason about where your song ends see the note below This is the left locator When using the Loop mode see page 66 the left locator governs the start position of the loop This is the right locator When using the Loop mode this govems the end position of the loop 0 REASON The Sequencer Basics Transport Controls Overview The transport panel is located at the bottom of each song document window This is where you activate playback recording fast forward rewind etc Here is a brief overview of the controls to help you find your way in the recording and playback procedures on the following pages Play Fast Forward Stop Rewind Record Loop on off see page 66 F oVERDUB REPLACE Song Position Overdub Replace switch see pag
115. the de vice to which it is connected automatically gets the same name and vice versa 3 ud PITCH WHEEL EXTERNAL CONTROL am unya EE p E 9 A Disconnect Mixer 1 The selected track El Bass is also connected to the device named El Phase da Bass Rhythm 2 ME Phase de Bass Bass Rhythm 1 Ea Phythm2 Rhythm 1 Slide f Slide Seq 3 The icons in this colunn indicate to which device type each track is connected POS REASON The Sequencer Basics It is possible to have tracks that are not connected to any device Notes on a dis connected track will not be heard on playback since there is no device to play them Similarly it is possible to have instrument devices without sequencer tracks The Main Sequencer vs Pattern Sequencers As described in the chapter Using Pattem Devices the main sequencer inter acts with the built in sequencers in pattem devices in the following ways gt The sequencer and all devices use the tempo as set on the trans port panel gt If you start playback for the main sequencer on the transport panel all pattem devices will automatically start as well That is provided the pattem sequencer isn t disabled for a device see page 70 gt Pattem changes will always happen at the start of a bar in the main sequencer regardless of the pattern lengths This only applies to pattem changes made live on the device panel Pattem c
116. the file names only files that have been renamed will not be found Proceed The song or patch will be opened with sounds missing This means that sampler patches drum machine patches and or loop players will not play back correctly On the device panels missing samples are indicated with an asterisk before the file names ia rs TE The Intruder sample is missing Open Dialog Opens the Missing Sounds dialog see below Cancel Cancels the operation i e no song or patch will be opened The Missing Sounds dialog Some sounds couldn t be found probably because files have been moved or renamed on your hard disk Use the buttons below the file list to search for missing files locate them manually or download the required ReFills from the Internet Select All Device Sound Partof ReFil Package Status 9 Redrum 1 Missing El Downlsedkekil Replace Auto Search Cancel Help This dialog appears if you clicked the O pen Dialog button in the previous dialog or if you clicked the Search amp Proceed button but the program couldn t find all missing sounds The main display in the dialog lists all missing files The four columns show the following properties Column Description Device Shows the narre of the device in which the missing sound is used along with a device type icon Sound Shows the name of the missing file Part of Re If the missing file is part of a Re
117. the right to open the file browser 7 Navigate to the song you created earlier select it and click OK The name of the song appears in the textbox SSS SS SSS SSS SSS Se Default Song Empty Rack Built in Me Olde Song ms p gt Miscellaneaus 52 8 Close the Preferences dialog The next time you launch the program or select New from the File menu the new song document will contain the devices and settings you made POS REASON Song File Handling Exporting as an Audio File When you have created a complete song you may want to mix it down to make it playable for other people who don t use Reason Of Course you could con nect the audio outputs of your audio hardware to a tape recorder or similar and simply record the song But if you are planning to bum an audio CD or create mp3 files it s much more convenient to nix down to an audio file using the Ex port functions You can either export the whole song from the start to the E marker or only the loop the area between the left and right locator in the sequencer Proceed as follows 1 Make sure only the main stereo outputs are used That is no devices should be connected to individual outputs output socket 3 and higher in the Hardware Interface device The export function will only include audio routed to the stereo outputs 2 Make sure the Loop End markers are at the correct positions If you want to export the loop you ne
118. the sequencer Proceed as follows 1 Make sure your MIDI controller is connected to the correct MIDI in put on your computer and sends on the correct MIDI channel This should be the MIDI port and channel you specified for the sequencer in the Preferences MIDI dialog as described on page 17 2 In the sequencer locate the track that is connected to the device you want to play If you are uncertain you can pull down the Out pop up menu for each track and check to which device they are routed SELECT HIGH QUALITY HIGH QUALITY Disconnect RN Mixer 1 eae Dist 1 Delay 1 Reverb 1 Chorus Flanger 1 NN XT 1 NN XT 1 Malstrom 1 Sampler 1 Synth 1 Dr REX 1 Malstrom 1 Sampler 1 Synth 1 Dr REX 1 f Y Redrum 1 Redrum 1 3 Click in the In column for the track A MIDI symbol is displayed to indicate that this track will transfer incoming MIDI to its device Vinee I db SAMPLER 3 k 4 Play the MIDI controller You should now hear the sound of the device POS REASON Managing the Rack On the panel of some instrument devices you will find a Note On in dicator This blinks to indicate incoming MIDI notes Naming Devices Each device has a tape strip showing the name of the device When you cre ate a new device it is automatically named according to the device type with an index number so that the first S ubtractor synthesizer you create is called Synth 1 the next Synth 2 and
119. to separately install DirectX since it s inherently a part of the operat ing system 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 Multimedia Extensions the part of Windows that handles audio MIDI etc Using MME often results in larger latency val ues See below POS REASON Setting Up Please be aware that as of this writing Windows XP ships with Di 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 Buffer Size and the corresponding readout for Output Latency Buffer Size c 4096 samples L Output Latency 92 me Latency is the delay between when audio is sent from the program and when you actually hear it The latency in an audio system depends on the audio hard ware its drivers and their settings If the latency is large you will notice that the sound is delayed when you play a device froma MIDI keyboard You may also notice that reactions are delayed when adjusting controls on the device panels for example if you lower the vol urre 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 Please consult the electronic documentation for details Setting up MIDI Input
120. to listen to what you recorded You can undo the recording if you like gt It is also possible to activate recording during playback punch in by starting playback and then clicking the record button Similarly you can deactivate recording without stopping playback punch out POs REASON The Sequencer Basics Recording more tracks Once you have recorded something you can continue recording on other tracks while hearing the first recording play back J ust remember to route MIDI to the desired recording track You can change the MIDI routing during recording if you like This is especially useful when recording in loop mode record the first track then click in the In columm for the next track you want to record and so on Everything you record will be played back on the next loop lap For more info about the loop mode see page 66 Recording more on the same track Overdub Replace If you like you can continue recording over the same area on the same track This can be useful for adding elements to a loop for recording automation of multiple controls or for replacing a faulty part of an otherwise good take Whether the previous recording is kept or removed depends on the Overdub Replace setting DOSE Bl al Eee gt In Overdub mode the new recording is added to whatever was on the Track before When you play back you will hear both recordings This is the mode to use when you
121. u to select one of several modes There are two differ ent graphical representations of this in Reason This type of multi mode selector consists of a button with the different modes listed above You can either click the button to step through the modes or click directly on one of the modes to select it The currently selected mode is indicated by a lit LED This type of multi mode selector is a switch with more than two settings To change mode click and drag the switch or click directly at the desired switch position just as when adjusting a slider Buttons Many modes and functions are controlled by clicking buttons Most of the but tons in Reason have a built in LED indicating whether the button is pressed or not Numerical Values In Reason numerical values are displayed in alphanumeric readouts with spin controls up down arrow buttons on the side There are two ways to change numerical values gt By using the up and down buttons on the spin controls To adjust a value in single steps click on its up or down arrow button To scroll a value continuously click on an arrow button and keep the mouse button pressed le E poLvrelkuv Byclicking in the actual alphanumeric display and dragging up or down with the mouse button pressed This allows you to make coarse adjustments very quickly m AY 7 rr DIGITAL REVERB k This type of control is also used for some parameters tha
122. uld contain The maximum pattem length is different for different devices The pattem length selector for the Redrum left and the Matrix right Pattem Resolution The pattem resolution determines the length note value of the steps When the pattem resolution is set to 1 16 each pattem step will be a sixteenth note when set to 1 8 each step will be an eighth note etc The Resolution control on the Matrix As with the pattem length value you can program different resolution settings for different pattems POS REASON Using Pattem Devices If you change the resolution of an existing pattem the audible effect will be a change of pattem playback speed This may seem strange at first but if you think about it it s logical Let s say you have a 16 step pattem with resolution set to 1 16 The length of each pattem step is then one sixteenth note and the whole pattem plays back over a whole 4 4 bar 16 sixteenth notes one whole bar Now if you change the resolution to 1 32 each step will be a 1 32 note half its original length There are still sixteen steps This means that the whole pattern plays back over half a bar 16 1 32 1 2 In other words the pattem plays back at double speed Pattem Shuffle Shuffle is a mythmic feature that gives the music a more or less pronounced swing feel It works by delaying all sixteenth notes that fall in between the eighth notes i E N Straight sixteenth note pattern
123. vice any notes you play on your MIDI keyboard will be sent to the synth Find All ReFills A ReFill is a kind of component package for Reason which can contain patches sounds demo songs etc Clicking the Find All ReFills button tells the browser 8 Try playing your MIDI keyboard to display all available ReFills What you hear now is the default Init sound of the Subtractor which may not be so inspiring You could start tweaking the parameters to create a sound of your own or you could select one of the included synth patches and tweak this to your liking MIDI routed to the Subtractor track 11 In the browser file display double click on Reason Factory Sound Bank This is one huge Rerill containing a large number of patches and samples that are included with Reason when you purchase it 12 Double click the folder Subtractor Patches This contains a number of folders with different sound categories 13 Open one of the folders select a patch and click Open The settings in the patch are applied and the patch name is shown in the dis play POS REASON Quick Tutorial Once you have selected a patch this way you can step between the 15 Select a Redrum patch in the same way as you selected a Subtrac patches in the same folder by clicking the up and down arrow but tor patch tons next to the patch display The patches are located in category folders within the folder Redrum Drum Altemativ
124. vices hold down Shift and click on it Any other selected devices remain selected You can also use the up and down arrow keys on the computer key board to select the device directly above or below the currently se lected one When you use this method Reason will automatically scroll the rack so that the selected device is fully visible This is a quick way to step through the rack Narrow devices e g half width devices such as the effects are or dered left to right i e pressing the down arrow key will step through the de vices from left to right before moving on the next device row gt If you hold down Shift when using the up or down arrow keys the currently selected device will remain selected This allows you to select a range of devices Adjusting a parameter in a device will automatically select it In other words you never have to select a device before making settings Deleting Devices To delete one or several devices select them and use one of the following meth ods gt Hold down Command Mac or Ct Windows and press Back space or Delete gt Select Delete Device from the Edit menu or the device context menu You can also autorratically delete devices when you delete sequencer tracks If there is a single sequencer track routed to a device and you delete this track you will be asked whether you want to delete the device as well See page 61 If you delete a device conn
125. ware 8 42 Audio Levels 44 Audio Out 42 Audio Out Clipping 44 Automatic Routing 49 B Back panel 50 Bit Depth 92 Browser 78 Buttons 35 C Cables 50 Clear Pattern 73 Click 63 Clipping 44 Computer Requirements 7 Context Menus 36 Copy Device 48 Copy Patch 86 Copy Pattern 73 CoreAudio 15 Create Sequencer Track for 59 Cut Device 48 Cut Patch 86 Cut Pattern 73 D Database About 76 Setting Paths 17 Default Song 91 Detach Sequencer Window 58 POS REASON Index Devices Connecting MIDI to 60 Creating 46 Cut Copy and Paste 48 Deleting 47 Deleting with Track 61 Duplicating 48 Folding 53 Moving in the Rack 47 Naming 52 Routing 49 Selecting 47 Direct Sound Driver 9 15 Dividers 38 Download ReFill 81 E E Marker 92 Enable Pattern Section 70 Export as Audio File 92 F Factory Sound Bank 10 76 File Formats 77 Find All ReFills 79 Folding Devices 53 H Hand tool 39 Hardware Interface 42 High Resolution Samples 43 In Column 60 Initialize Patch 86 K O Key Commands OMS 9 Syntax in Manual 34 Open Song 90 Transport 62 Orkester Sound Bank 10 Zooming 57 Out column 60 Knobs 34 Overdub Replace switch 64 L P L Marker 66 P marker 65 Latency 16 Panes 38 Left Locator 66 Paste Device 48 Levels 44 Paste Patch 86 Loop Mode 66 Paste Pattern 73 Patch Cables 50 M Patch Search Paths 17 M Column 66 Patches Mac OS X audio 15 About 84 Magnification 39 Cut Copy and Paste 86 Magnifying Glass tool
126. ways contains the track list there are two different view modes for the right part Arrange View and Edit View You switch between the two views by clicking the button in the top left comer of the sequencer area The button changes appearance to illustrate which view is se lected Arrange View The Arrange view selected Me goalie 8 Fe Redrum 1 DRES 1 HAT 1 ap Malstram 1 In the Arrange View all tracks are shown with colored bars indicating recorded events Use this mode to get an overview of your arrangement and when you want to perform large scale editing such as rearranging whole sections of your song etc Edit View The Edit view selected gt alla muaa Er 28k aN 7 Se El Redrum 1 DRES 1 HAT 1 Malstram 1 In the Edit View you get a close up look atthe recorded events on a single track at a time When the Edit View is selected the right part of the sequencer area can be divided into several horizontal lanes showing different types of events notes REX slices drum sounds controllers etc This is the view mode of choice for fine editing of your recording for when you want to draw notes con trollers and other events manually For details about editing see the electronic documentation POs REASON The Sequencer Basics About the Ruler Song Position and Locators Regardless of which view mode is selected you will find a horizontal ruler at
127. will use the Apple Sound Manager This is the sound driver protocol that comes with the Mac OS and Reason communicates with the audio hardware using this If you plan to use the intemal audio outputs on your computer please select SM Built in If you have some additional audio hardware Such as USB speak ers installed please select SM Device Name where Device Name is the name of your audio hardware POS REASON Setting Up Windows gt If you are using audio hardware for which there is a specific ASIO driver you should select 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 support for additional hard ware features such as multiple outputs gt 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 For this to be possible you need to have DirectX installed on your computer and there must be a Direct Sound driver for the audio hardware Audio Card Driver Sample Rate Buffer Size The Direct Sound driver for a Creative SoundBlaster PCI card selected rectX version 8 1 and Windows 2000 with DirectX version 7 0 So if you re using one of these operating systems it is not necessary
128. y To create a published song pull down the File menu and select Publish Song Specify aname and location for the published song in the file dialog that ap pears and click Save Note that you don t have to make self contained settings all files except ReFill components are automatically included About the Reason Song Archive On the Propellerhead web site www propellerheads se you will find the Rea son Song Archive This allows you to share your music with other Reason users by uploading your songs no REASON Song File Handling Opening a Song 1 Pull down the File menu and select Open The Reason song browser window appears 2 Use the browser to navigate to the desired folder on disk or within a ReFill See page 78 3 When you have located the song file select it and click Open or double click on the file The song appears in its own document window If the Missing Sounds dialog appears If the song includes samples or REX files and these have been moved or re named since the song was saved the program will inform you that it cannot find all files You can then choose to either manually locate the missing files to have the program search for them in the database and ReFills or to proceed with missing sounds For details see page 80 Closing a Song To close the current song select Close fromthe File menu or click the close box of the song document window If you have unsaved changes you are
129. y means that you will have to do so each time you want to use a patch or other sound from it Installing on hard disk is the recommended option since you will most likely be using the sound banks a lot and access is quicker from the hard disk than from the CD ROM drive You may chose not to install and instead access the files from CD if you are short on hard disk space if you are running Reason temporarily on another computer etc The drawback is that you will have to swap CDs when you want to browse for patches etc Even if you don t install any of the sound banks when you install Reason you can do this at a later stage if you like simply copy the file Factory Sound Bank rfl and or the file Orkester rfl from the respective Sound Bank CD to the Reason program folder 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 Desktop 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 If you are using Mac OS 9 with audio hardware for which there is an ASIO driver copy the ASIO driver into the folder ASIO Drivers within the Reason program folder This makes the ASIO driver available to Reason L

Propellerhead Reason - 2.0 Getting Started Guide

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