Propellerhead REASON 1.0.1 User Manual

What's new in Reason 1.0.1?

What’s new in Reason

1.0.1?

This, the latest release of Reason, contains a number of new and improved
functions and features. In this document you will find a list of the most signif­icant new features implemented. For a complete list of minor fixes, including
various hardware compatibility issues, please check the Propellerhead
Homepage at www.propellerheads.se.

Preferences – Audio

The Audio Drivers in Reason have been subject to a radical overhaul, includ­ing completely rewritten ASIO implementation. Due to this, the Audio Set­tings dialog has been redesigned and now includes some new features.
Which of the options described below are available in the dialog depends on
which audio driver you choose.

Audio Card Driver – Windows

This menu lists all the available Audio Card Drivers on your system, and lets
you select which one Reason should use. Which option to select depends on
the audio hardware:

➜

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 you will get 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 additional hard­ware features such as multiple outputs.

➜

If there is no specific ASIO driver, you should select the Direct
Sound driver for the audio hardware. This makes Reason communi­cate with the hardware via Direct Sound (a part of the Microsoft Di­rectX package). 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.

➜

If the audio hardware doesn’t support Direct Sound (i.e. there is no
Direct Sound driver for the audio hardware), select the MME driver
for the audio hardware. This makes use of Windows Multimedia Ex­tensions, the part of Windows that handles audio, MIDI, etc. Using
MME often results in larger latency values (see below).

Audio Card Driver – MacOS

This menu lists all the available Audio Card Drivers on your system, and lets
you select which one Reason should use. Which option to select depends on
the audio hardware:

➜

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 you will get 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 additional hard­ware features such as multiple outputs.

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If you don’t have audio hardware for which there is a specific ASIO driver,
you will use the Apple Sound Manager. This is the sound driver protocol that
comes with the MacOS, and Reason communicates with the audio hardware
using this.

➜

If you plan to use the internal audio outputs on your computer,
please select “SM Built-in”.

➜

If you have some additional audio hardware (such as USB-speak­ers) installed, please select “SM Device Name”, where “Device
Name” is the name of your audio hardware.

Active Channels (ASIO Only)

This displays the number of audio channels (outputs) the currently selected
audio hardware supports. For a regular stereo card, this number will be “2”. If
your audio card has multiple outputs and an ASIO driver is selected for it, the
“Channels” button will be available. By clicking on it, you will be able to select
which channel outputs (stereo pairs) should be active. Active outputs will be
indicated in the Reason Hardware Interface.

Clock Source (ASIO Only)

If you are using an ASIO driver for your audio hardware, you have the possi­bility of selecting a Clock Source. This is used for determining the source to
which audio playback should synchronize its sample rate. If you have an au­dio card and a driver that supports it, you can choose to synchronize to exter­nal sources.

ASIO Control Panel (ASIO Only)

If you have selected an ASIO driver, this button brings up a control panel
window specifically for that audio hardware. This may contain buffer settings,
routing options, synchronization alternatives etc.

Output Latency & Buffer Size

The Output 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 hardware, its drivers and their settings.

If the latency is large, you will notice that the sound is delayed when you play
a device from a MIDI keyboard. You may also notice that reactions are de­layed when adjusting controls on the device panels (for example, if you lower
the volume of a device, you will not hear this immediately but after the la­tency time). Therefore, you want to get as low a latency value as possible.

When you select a driver, its latency value is automatically reported and dis­played in the Preferences-Audio dialog. Depending on the audio hardware
and the driver, you may be able to adjust this value:

➜

If you are running Reason under Windows using a Direct Sound or
MME driver, you can adjust the latency value by using the Buffer
Size slider or the up/down arrow buttons. The highest and lowest
possible values depend on the driver.

➜

If you are using an ASIO driver specifically written for the audio
hardware, you can in most cases make settings for the hardware by
clicking the Control Panel button. This opens the hardware’s ASIO
Device Control Panel, which may or may not contain parameters for
adjusting the latency. Usually this is done by changing the number
and/or size of the audio buffers - the smaller the audio buffers, the
lower the latency. Please consult the documentation of your audio
hardware and its ASIO drivers for details!

➜

If you are running Reason on a Mac using the Sound Manager driver
protocol, you cannot change the latency.

OK, so why not just set the latency to the lowest possible value? The prob­lem is that selecting too low a latency is likely to result in playback problems
(clicks, pops, dropouts, etc.). There are several technical reasons for this,
the main one being that with smaller buffers (lower latency), the average
strain on the CPU will be higher. This also means that the more CPU-inten­sive your Reason song (i.e. the more devices you use), the higher the mini­mum latency required for avoiding playback difficulties.

Latency Compensation

This control should normally only be adjusted when synchronizing Reason to
external MIDI Clock.

Because of the latency problem, you might need to adjust Reason’s play­back in relation to the MIDI Clock sync master, so that they are in perfect
time. The tempo will not differ between the two, but Reason might play
ahead or behind the other application. You might need to adjust this. How­ever, this is something you only need to do once. The setting is stored with
your other preferences, so you don’t need to adjust it again.

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Proceed as follows:

1. Set up the other application so that it generates a solid click, on for
example quarter or eighth notes, preferably with a special sound on
the downbeat. This click can either come from an internal metro­nome or from a MIDI source. If you use a MIDI source, make sure
you pick one that has solid MIDI timing.

2. Set up Reason so that it plays a similar rhythm as the other applica­tion. You might for example use the Redrum drum computer for
this.

3. Start the two applications in sync.

4. Make sure you hear both applications at approximately equal level.

5. Open the Preferences dialog in Reason and select the Audio page.

6. Trim the “Latency compensation” setting until the “clicks” from the
both sources sound at exactly the same time.

7. Close the Preferences dialog in Reason.

Preferences – MIDI

Sequencer Input & Channel

The Sequencer is the “standard” port for receiving MIDI input. This is what
you should be using if you intend to use the Reason sequencer.

Once you have selected your MIDI interface on the Sequencer Port pop-up
(and which channel it should receive on), you can direct incoming MIDI to
any device by just clicking the “In” column to the left of a track name in the
track list.

Preferences – Advanced MIDI

Remote Control Input

The Remote Control input is used for assigning a MIDI port for receiving
MIDI Controller messages. How to use Remote Control is described in the
electronic documentation in the chapter “MIDI and Keyboard Remote Con­trol”.

MIDI Clock Input

Using MIDI Clock, you can slave (synchronize) Reason to hardware devices
(tape recorders, drum machines, stand alone sequencers, workstations etc.)
and other computer programs running on the same or another computer.
MIDI Clock is a very fast “metronome” that can be transmitted in a MIDI Ca­ble. As part of the MIDI Clock concept there are also instructions for Start,
Stop and locating to sixteenth note positions.

➜

By first selecting the appropriate MIDI input using the MIDI Clock
pop-up and then selecting “MIDI Clock Sync” on the Options menu,
Reason is made ready to receive MIDI Clock sync. See the “Syn­chronization” chapter for more information.

Miscellaneous New Features

MacOS Virtual Memory

Reason will now not run at all if Virtual Memory is activated under MacOS.

Devices and Connections

It is now possible to hit [Esc] to cancel drag and drop operations of devices
and cables.

A folded device will now automatically unfold if you drag a cable to it and
keep it over the device for a second or so.

External Control Bus Inputs

The External Bus inputs provide up to 64 MIDI input channels divided into
four buses, each with 16 channels.

➜

These MIDI inputs are primarily for controlling Reason Devices from
an external sequencer.

This could be an external hardware sequencer or sequencer software that is
installed on the same computer as Reason. You should preferably use a
multiple port MIDI interface, so you can select separate ports for Reason and
the other MIDI devices to use, although this isn’t strictly required. See the
chapter “Routing MIDI to Reason” in the electronic documentation.

Remote Control

You can now control the following Transport functions via MIDI Remote Map­ping or Keyboard Remote Mapping:

• Stop

• Play

•FF

• Rewind

• Record

• Loop On/Off

• Automation Override Reset

How to use Remote Control is described in the electronic documentation in
the chapter “MIDI and Keyboard Remote Control”.

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Published Songs

In order to protect any copyrighted material that a Published Song may con­tain from being copied without permission from the originator(s), it is
sible to export Song/Loop as an audio file if you have modified a Published
Song in any way. You can, however, export the Song in its original state.

Published Songs (Windows file extension .rps) created with Reason 1.0.1
can

not

be opened in Reason 1.0.

not

pos-

Dr. Rex

When holding down [Option] (Mac) or [Alt] (Windows) and moving the mouse
pointer over the Waveform Display, the pointer takes on the shape of a
speaker symbol, indicating that the slices in a loop can be auditioned by
clicking on them.

NN-19

You can audition a loaded sample patch or sample by holding down [Option]
(Mac) or [Alt] (Windows) and clicking on a key in the Keyboard display. The
mouse will take on the shape of a speaker symbol to indicate this.

Matrix

To make it easier to find the desired note, an orientation line is now visible in
the grid display when clicking and/or dragging.

Sequencer

Quantize Notes During Recording

The status of this button (on or off) is now saved in a song document.

ReFill Packer

The ReFill Packer is now a part of the Reason package. The ReFill Packer is
an application that enables you to build your own ReFills. A ReFill is a kind of
component package for Reason which can contain patches, samples, Rex
files and Song files. On your computer, ReFills appear as large files with the
extension “.rfl”. Read more about the ReFill Packer in its separate document.

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