Propellerhead Reason - 4.0 Operation Manual

Download

Operation Manual

D Table of Contents

7 Common Operations and Concepts

8 About this manual 8 About this Chapter 8 Conventions in the Manual 8 Making Settings 9 Tool Tips 10 Context menus 10 Undo 11 Window Techniques

15 Audio basics

16 About this chapter 16 How Reason communicates with your audio hardware 18 General Information 20 PC Specific Information 20 Mac Specific Information

51 The Sequencer

52 Introduction 52 Sequencer basics 61 Recording 64 Recording automation 69 About the toolbar 70 About Snap 70 Editing clips in Arrange mode 78 The Edit mode 89 Tool window - Tools page note editing functions 92 Copying patterns to sequencer tracks 94 Automating tempo and time signature 96 Importing and Exporting MIDI Files

97 The ReGroove Mixer

98 Introduction 98 The ReGroove Mixer

21 Sounds, Devices and Patches

22 Introduction 22 Rack device procedures 26 A Quick Note on Routing 29 About patches 32 About ReFills 33 Using the Browser

45 Routing Audio and CV

46 About the various signals that can be routed 46 About Cables 47 Automatic Routing 48 Manual Routing 49 Using CV and Gate

102 Groove Settings 104 Working with grooves 106 Groovy tips & tricks 107 The ReGroove patches in the Factory Sound Bank

109 Remote - Playing and controlling Reason devices

110 About the various MIDI inputs 110 About Remote 110 Setting up 112 Remote basics 113 Locking a surface to a device 115 Remote Override 117 Additional Remote Overrides... 118 Keyboard Control 119 Saving Remote Setups

121 Advanced MIDI - the External Control Bus inputs

122 About the External Control Bus inputs

TABLE OF CONTENTS

123 Using Reason as a ReWire Slave

124 About this Chapter 124 Why use Reason with ReWire? 124 Introducing ReWire! 125 Launching and Quitting 125 Using the Transport and Tempo Controls 125 Synchronization 126 Routing Audio 126 Routing MIDI via ReWire 2 127 Converting ReWire Channels to Audio Tracks 127 Details About Various ReWire Hosts

129 Synchronization

130 ReWire users – Read This! 130 What is Synchronization and MIDI Clock? 130 Slaving Reason to an External Device 131 Slaving Reason to Another Program on the Same Computer 131 Synchronization Considerations

149 Reason Hardware Interface

150 Introduction 150 MIDI In Device 150 Audio Out

151 The Combinator

152 Introduction 152 Creating Combinator devices 153 Combinator elements 153 About internal and external connections 155 Adding devices to a Combi 156 Combi handling 157 Sequencer tracks and playing Combis 157 The Controller panel 158 Using the Programmer

163 The Mixer

164 Introduction

133 Song File Handling

134 About Self-contained Songs 135 Song Information 136 Saving a Song 136 Publishing a Song 136 Opening a Song 136 Closing a Song 136 Creating a New Song 136 Creating a Default Song 137 Exporting as an Audio File

139 Optimizing Performance

140 Introduction 140 Optimization and Output Latency 141 Optimizing Your Computer System 142 Optimizing Songs 143 Songs and Memory Requirements

164 The Channel Strip 166 The Mixer signal flow 166 About the EQ modes 166 The Auxiliary Return Section 166 The Master Fader 167 Connections 168 Chaining Mixers

169 The Line Mixer 6:2

170 Introduction 170 Channel parameters 170 The Auxiliary Return Section 170 Master level 171 Connections

173 Redrum

174 Introduction 174 About File Formats

145 Transport Panel

146 Overview

175 Using Patches 176 Programming Patterns 180 Redrum Parameters 183 Using Redrum as a Sound Module 183 Connections

TABLE OF CONTENTS

185 Subtractor Synthesizer

186 Introduction 186 The Oscillator Section 191 The Filter Section 194 Envelopes - General 195 LFO Section 197 Play Parameters 199 External Modulation 200 Connections

201 Thor Polysonic Synthesizer

202 Introduction 202 Thor elements 203 The Controller panel 204 Using the Programmer 216 Modulation bus routing section 221 Step Sequencer 224 Connections

255 NN-XT Sampler

256 Introduction 256 Panel Overview 257 Loading Complete Patches and REX Files 258 Using the Main Panel 259 Overview of the Remote Editor panel 260 About Samples and Zones 261 Selections and Edit Focus 263 Adjusting Parameters 264 Managing Zones and Samples 266 Working with Grouping 267 Working with Key Ranges 270 Setting Root Notes and Tuning 271 Using Automap 272 Layered, Crossfaded and Velocity Switched Sounds 274 Using Alternate 275 Sample Parameters 276 Group Parameters 277 Synth parameters

225 Malström Synthesizer

226 Introduction 227 The Oscillator section 229 The Modulator section 230 The Filter section 234 Routing 236 The play controls 238 Connections 239 Routing external audio to the filters

241 NN-19 Sampler

242 Introduction 242 General Sampling Principles 243 About Audio File Formats 244 About Key Zones and Samples 247 Automap Samples 248 NN-19 Synth Parameters 251 Play Parameters 253 Connections

284 Connections

285 Dr. Rex Loop Player

286 Introduction 286 About File Formats 287 Adding a Loop 288 Creating Sequencer Notes 289 Slice Handling 290 Dr.Rex Synth Parameters 294 Connections

295 Matrix Pattern Sequencer

296 Introduction 297 Programming Patterns 303 Example Usage

305 RPG-8 Arpeggiator

306 Introduction 306 Using the RPG-8 309 RPG-8 Parameters

313 CV connections 314 Tips and tricks

TABLE OF CONTENTS

315 ReBirth Input Machine

316 Introduction 316 Preparations 317 Routing

319 BV512 Vocoder

320 Introduction 321 Setting up for basic vocoding 323 Using the BV512 as an equalizer 324 BV512 parameters 325 Connections 326 Automation 326 Tips and tricks

333 The Effect Devices

334 Common Device Features 335 The MClass effects

365 Menu and Dialog Reference

366 Reason Menu (Mac OS X) 366 File Menu 370 Edit Menu 386 Create Menu 387 Options Menu 389 Window Menu (Windows Version) 389 Window Menu (Mac OS Version) 390 Help/Contacts Menu

391 Index

335 The MClass Equalizer 336 The MClass Stereo Imager 337 The MClass Compressor 339 The MClass Maximizer 339 Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit 344 RV7000 Advanced Reverb 351 RV-7 Digital Reverb 352 DDL-1 Digital Delay Line 353 D-11 Foldback Distortion 353 ECF-42 Envelope Controlled Filter 356 CF-101 Chorus/Flanger 357 PH-90 Phaser 358 UN-16 Unison 358 COMP-01 Auto Make-up Gain Compressor 359 PEQ-2 Two Band Parametric EQ 360 Spider Audio Merger & Splitter 361 Spider CV Merger & Splitter

TABLE OF CONTENTS

D Common Operations and Concepts

About this manual

This is the Reason Operation manual, where all aspects of the program is described in detail. The first chapters deal with general methods and techniques, e.g. how to route audio and how to handle patches etc. Then follows separate chapters for each Reason device.

About this Chapter

This chapter describes some general methods and techniques employed throughout Reason. It also contains some terminology, useful for better understanding of the program and the manual. To make your work with Reason as effective 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.

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 described separately for each type of parameter below:

Knobs

To “turn” a knob, point at it, click the mouse button and drag up or down (as if the knob was a vertical slider). Dragging upwards turns the knob to the right and vice versa.

If you press [Shift] and drag, the knob will turn slower, allowing for higher precision.

You can also adjust the knob precision with the “Mouse Knob Range” setting on the General page in the Preferences dialog. This dialog is opened from the Edit menu (or from the Reason menu if you are running Mac OS X).

About Key Commands

In the manual, computer key commands are indicated by brackets. For example, “press [Shift]-[C]” would mean “hold down the [Shift] key and press the [C] key”. However, some modifier keys are different on Mac and PC computers, respectively. Whenever this is the case, the manual separates the commands with “(Mac)” and “(Windows)” indications.

To reset a knob to its default value (usually zero, center pan or similar), press [Command] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Win) and click on it.

Sliders

To move a slider, click on the slider handle and drag up or down.

You can also click anywhere on the slider to instantly move the handle to that position.

If you press [Shift] and drag, the slider will move slower, allowing for higher precision.

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS

Multi Mode Selectors

Some parameters allow you to select one of several modes. There are two different 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 control is also used for some parameters that are not purely “numerical” (e.g. reverb algorithms and synth oscillator waveforms).

For the numerical position displays on the transport and in the Inspector (see page 74), values are changed in the same way, but you first select a value increment (e.g. bars or ticks) by clicking in the corresponding value field.

Then you can change the value using the methods outlined previously.

• The position values on the transport panel can also be edited by double clicking and typing a new position.

Song position and Left/Right locators

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. Many of the buttons in Reason have a “built-in” LED or the button itself lights up, 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:

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.

On the transport panel there are numerical fields that display the song position (both in bars. beats, 1/16th notes and ticks as well as in hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds), and the Left/Right locator positions. These all function similarly to other numerical values (spin controls or click-drag), but you make changes for one value at a time, e.g. to change the song position from 3.1.1.0 to 5.1.1.0 you click on the bar value and make the desired change.

Tool Tips

If you position the pointer over a parameter on a device panel and wait a moment, a tool tip will appear. This displays the name of the parameter and its current value. This helps you fine-tune settings, set several parameters to the same value, etc.

By clicking in the actual alphanumeric display and dragging up or down with the mouse button pressed.

This allows you to make coarse adjustments very quickly.

✪

You can turn off these tool tips by deactivating the option “Show Parameter Value Tool Tip” on the Preferences-General page.

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS

Context menus

Context menus are “tailored” to contain the relevant menu items only, allowing you to work quicker and more efficiently with Reason.

• Functions for associating computer keyboard commands and/or MIDI messages to the parameter (allowing you to remote control parameters from a MIDI device or the computer keyboard).

“Empty Rack” Context Menus

To bring up a context menu, click with the right mouse button (Windows) or press [Ctrl] and click (if using a single button mouse on Mac).

If you are using a Mac with a two button mouse, you may want to set this up so that clicking the right mouse button generates a [Ctrl]-click. This way, you can right-click to bring up context menus.

The Dr. REX context menu.

The contents of the context menu depends on where you click. Basically, the following different context menu types are available:

Device Context Menus

If you click somewhere on a device in the rack (but not on a control), the context menu will contain the following items:

If you click in an empty section of the rack, the context menu will contain the following items:

• A Paste Device item, allowing you to paste any copied or cut devices into the rack.

• 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 items related to editing tracks, clips 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, deleting tracks, changing or deleting events.

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 30 actions.

To undo the latest action, select “Undo” from the Edit menu or press [Command]/[Ctrl]-[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”.

• Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete Device items, allowing you to rearrange and manage the devices in the rack.

• A Go To submenu, listing all devices connected to the current device. Selecting a device from the Go To submenu scrolls the rack to bring that device into view.

• A duplicate of the Create menu, allowing you to create new devices.

• If the device is pattern-based, there will be various pattern functions (Cut/Copy/ Paste, Clear, Shift, Randomize, etc). These affect the currently selected pattern in the device.

• If the device uses Patches, there will be functions for managing Patches.

• Depending on the device there may also be various device-specific functions available. For example, the drum machine device has functions for manipulating the pattern for the selected drum sound only, etc.

Parameter Context Menus

If you click on an automatable control (a synth parameter knob, a fader, etc), the context menu will contain the following items:

• Functions for clearing and editing the recorded automation data for the control.

To redo the last undone action (“undo the undo operation”), select “Redo” from the Edit menu or press [Command]/[Ctrl]-[Y].

Similarly, the action to be redone is shown on the Edit menu.

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS

About Multiple Undos

The concept of multiple undos may require an explanation: You can undo up to 30 actions, or in other words, Reason has an Undo History with up to thirty 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”:

At this point, you still have the option to Redo the tempo change. But if you instead would perform another action (e.g. change the level of the synth device in the mixer), this would become the action at the top of the Undo History - and the Redo list would be cleared.

UNDO

5. Change level

4. Change pan

3. Adjust Attack

2. Create Synth Device

1. Create Mixer Device

You can no longer redo the undone tempo change!

REDO

(Empty)

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 areas. Each window can be moved, minimized and resized using standard Mac/Windows procedures.

UNDO

4. Change pan

3. Adjust Attack

2. Create Synth Device

1. Create Mixer Device 5. Adjust tempo

Selecting Undo again undoes the next action in the list (the panning adjustment):

UNDO

3. Adjust Attack

2. Create Synth Device 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

4. Change pan

3. Adjust Attack

2. Create Synth Device

REDO

4. Change pan

1. Create Mixer Device 5. Adjust tempo

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 editing different aspects of your recordings).

✪

By holding down [Shift] while you drag however, you can limit the scrolling direction to horizontal or vertical only.

Zooming with the magnification sliders

Some areas also allow you to zoom in or out using magnification controls. Either click the “+” or “–” magnification icon to zoom in or out respectively, or click and drag the magnification slider.

D Where applicable, different panes can be scrolled and zoomed individu-

ally.

Detaching the sequencer

You can detach the sequencer pane and turn it into a separate window. This allows you to make the sequencer wider than the rack and use the width of the computer screen more effectively.

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. Just select the Hand tool and click in a lane, keep the mouse button pressed and drag in the desired direction.

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 zoom in 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:

D By clicking once in a lane with the Magnifying Glass, you zoom in by the

same amount as when clicking the “+” icon on the magnification slider twice.

D To zoom out with the Magnifying Glass, click while keeping [Option]

(Mac)/[Ctrl] (Windows) pressed.

You’ll notice that the “+” sign in the Magnifying Glass tool changes to a “-” sign.

D 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 disable vertical zooming.

Scrolling the Key edit lane with the Hand tool.

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS

D You can also click and drag with the Magnifying Glass to create a selec-

tion rectangle.

The view will then be zoomed in so that the selected area fills the lane.

Enclosing these notes in a selection rectangle...

...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 following scrolling and zooming operations:

D Scrolling up and down in both the rack and in the sequencer.

D By simultaneously holding down [Shift] you can scroll left and right in

the sequencer.

D By holding down [Command] (Mac)/[Ctrl] (Windows), you can zoom in

and out vertically in the sequencer.

D By holding down [Shift]-[Command] (Mac)/[Shift]-[Ctrl] (Windows), you

can zoom in and out horizontally in the sequencer.

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS

D Audio basics

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 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. In the rack on screen, this connection is represented by the Reason Hardware device.

Outputs that are currently used have green indicators, available but unused outputs have yellow indicators, and any connections made to unavailable outputs have red indicators.

To send the sound of a device in the rack to a specific output, you route the device output to the corresponding “socket” on the Hardware Interface. This is done by using the patch cables on the back of the rack, as described on page 26. In most cases, you will want to connect a mixer device to the Stereo outputs (outputs 1 and 2).

Audio Quality

The general audio quality in a computer based synthesizer system depends on two things:

D The quality of the software calculating the audio.

In our case, this is the Reason DSP (Digital Signal Processing) code.

• Reason uses 32-bit floating point arithmetic for all internal audio operations which ensures the highest possible resolution throughout the signal chain.

• The program supports 16, 20, and 24 bit audio output.

• The program supports sampling frequencies from 22kHz to 96kHz.

• A number of digital audio techniques are implemented that reduce the risk of “aliasing”, background noise, unwanted distortion and “zipper noise”.

The Hardware device is always located at the top of the rack. (Usually, it is folded showing only a blank panel.)

! If you are using ReWire, Reason will instead feed the digital audio to the

ReWire master application (typically an audio sequencer program), which in turn handles the communication with the audio hardware. See the ReWire chapter for details.

The Reason Hardware device contains 64 output “sockets”, each with an indicator and a level meter. 32 sockets are shown on the main panel, and an additional 32 sockets are shown if the “More Audio” button is activated on the main panel. Each one of these indicators represents a connection to an output on your audio hardware (or a ReWire channel to another application if you are using ReWire).

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 outputs will be available. In the Hardware device, the indicators are lit green for all currently used outputs.

There is no technical reason why this program should not sound as good as or better than dedicated, professional hardware.

D The quality of the hardware playing back the sound.

In a PC this is the audio hardware installed. In the Mac it is the built in audio controller or any audio hardware you have installed.

Don’t be fooled by the “16 bit, 44.1kHz, CD quality” tags. How good some audio hardware actually sounds depends on a number of things, its frequency range and frequency response curve, the signal to noise ratio, the distortion under various circumstances, etc. Furthermore, some designs are more prone to disturbance from the other electronics in the computer than others. Such disturbance might add hum or high pitched noise to the signal.

The only advice we can give is that if you are serious about sound, choose your audio hardware carefully!

In this case, a standard stereo audio card is used, and only the first two outputs (marked “Stereo” on the device panel) are available.

AUDIO BASICS

About Sample Rates and Resolutions

About using high resolution audio

Sample rate and resolution are properties of digital audio, which determine the quality of the sound. Generally, higher sample rate and resolution result in better audio quality (but also larger audio files and higher demands on computer performance and audio hardware).

This table shows some common sample rate/resolution combinations:

Sample rate:|Resolution:

22.05 kHz 8 bit Typically used in situations where small file size is

44.1 kHz 16 bit This is the format used on standard audio CDs.

44.1 kHz – 96 kHz

To cater for all different situations, Reason supports multiple sample rates and resolutions. This applies to the following areas:

24 bit These are formats used in professional studios

Comment:

more important than audio quality, such as games, some multimedia applications, sound files on the Internet, etc.

and high-end recording equipment.

Playing back

Reason handles all internal audio processing in 32-bit floating point resolution. However, the resolution of the output audio is determined by the audio hardware. 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 (accessed from the Reason menu or Edit menu depending on whether you are running Mac OS X or not):

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 Redrum, playback of the samples can be in 24-bit resolution as well. If you are using 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 select the General page.

2. At the bottom of the page, make sure the option “Use High Resolution Samples” is checked.

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, Reason will play back all samples in 16-bit resolution, regardless of their original resolution.

Exporting audio

Reason can export audio, i.e. mix down the song or a section of the song as an audio file (see page 137 for details). When you do this, you will be asked to specify a resolution (16 or 24 bit) and sample rate (11–96 kHz) for the file.

✪ If you plan to open the exported file in another application, you should

select a format that is supported by the application. If you’re uncertain, 16 bit/44.1 kHz is a safe bet.

Note that the available options on this pop-up menu depend on which sample 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.

Importing audio

When loading samples or ReCycle files into the samplers, the drum machine device or the loop player, Reason supports files of a large number of sample rates and resolutions. You can use files of different formats in the same device - one drum sound can be an 8-bit sample, the next a 16-bit sample, etc.

AUDIO BASICS

About Audio Levels

When playing back in Reason, you should keep an eye on the Audio Out Clip indicator on the transport panel. If this lights up, the audio level is too high, resulting in clipping (digital distortion).

General Information

Master Tune

The indicator will stay lit for a short moment, to make it easier to spot.

D To remedy this, lower the master level on the mixer (or other device) that

is connected to the Hardware Interface, until Audio Out Clipping doesn’t light up on playback.

You could also use the MClass Mastering Suite combi to ensure that clipping never occurs - see page 335.

! Note that it doesn’t matter if the level meters on the individual devices

(effects, mixer channels, etc.) “hit the red”. Clipping can only occur in the Hardware Interface.

The technical reason for this is that internally, Reason uses high resolution floating point processing, which ensures high audio quality and virtually limitless 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 different devices connected to different outputs in the Hardware Interface. If the Audio 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.

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 tuning of all sound sources in Reason, including the drum machine and loop player.

About Latency

On any personal computer system, there is a delay between the moment you “ask” the hardware to play a sound and when you actually hear it. This delay is referred to as the “latency” of the design. This imposes a problem for any system where you want real time user input to affect the sound.

! See the “Optimizing Performance” chapter for basic information on ad-

justing output latency!

Why is there latency?

Any audio application creates its audio in chunks. These chunks are then passed on to the audio card where they are temporarily stored before being converted into regular audio signals.

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 page 123 for more information about using ReWire.

The storage place for these chunks are called “buffers” (an analogy would be a bucket brigade, where a number of people each have a bucket, and water is poured from one bucket to another to reach its final destination).

The smaller the buffers and the fewer they are, the more responsive the system will be (lower latency) However, this will also raise the demands on the computer and its software. If the system can’t cope up with moving the data to and from the buffers fast enough, there will be problems that manifest themselves as glitches in audio playback.

To make things worse, audio playback always competes with other activities on your computer. For example, under Windows, an output latency setting that works perfect under normal circumstances might be far too low when you try to open files during playback, switch over to another program while Reason is playing or simply play back a very demanding song.

AUDIO BASICS

What is acceptable?

ReWire and Latency

Normally, hardware synthesizers provide you with a latency of 3 to 7 ms (milliseconds – thousands of a second), at least if the instrument is targeted towards a “professional” audience.

On a regular PC, the latency can vary quite a lot. This is an effect of the fact that computers and their operating systems were created for many purposes, not just playing back audio. For multimedia and games, a latency of a 100ms might be perfectly acceptable, but for playing a musical instrument it is not!

• PC audio cards with a MME driver (see later in this chapter) might at best give you a latency of around 160ms.

• The same card with a DirectX driver provides at best around 40ms.

• A card specifically designed for low latency, with an ASIO driver, or the built-in audio controller under Mac OS X can usually give you figures as low as 2-3 ms. This is just as good as (or better than) dedicated hardware synthesizers!

Reason’s built in sequencer is not affected by latency!

When Reason’s sequencer is playing back a song, the timing between notes is perfect! Once playback of a Reason pattern or song is up and running, latency isn’t a consideration at all. The computer clocks the audio between the steps and does this with perfect quartz accuracy! The timing is immaculate!

When you run Reason as a ReWire slave, it is the other program, the Rewire master that is responsible for actually creating the audio and playing it back via the audio card. This means that it is the master program’s latency you will get as a final result.

! When Reason runs as a ReWire slave, what audio hardware you have,

what driver you use, and settings you have made in the Preferences dialog are of no importance at all! All audio hardware settings are then instead done in the ReWire master application!

For information on ReWire, see “Using Reason as a ReWire Slave”.

Reducing latency

There are a few general methods for making sure latency is as low as possible:

D Remove background tasks on your computer.

This might be any background utility you have installed as well as networking, background internet activities etc.

D Optimize your songs.

You might run into situations where you have to raise the Output Latency setting to be able to play back a very demanding song on your computer. Another option would be to actually optimize the song. See “Optimizing Performance” for details.

D Get a faster computer.

This is related to the point above and only required if you find that you need to increase Output Latency because your computer can’t really cope with the songs you try to play.

AUDIO BASICS

PC Specific Information

About ASIO DirectX, MME and the Sound Buffer setting

There are three ways for Windows to access the audio hardware:

All audio operations in Reason are done with floating point calculations (counting with decimal numbers rather than with non-decimal numbers, integers) to ensure the highest possible audio quality. You can get high audio quality on an integer system too, but floating point is effective and accurate when it is available.

Intel and AMD processors are fast at floating point mathematics. Some other lower priced processor have taken shortcuts which reduce their performance in this particular aspect. This will have noticeable effect on the performance of the program. Our advice is:

Via an MME (MultiMedia Extensions) driver

This system has been around since Windows 3.0, and it is this type of driver that is normally installed in the Control Panel and via Plug’n’Play. Most regular sound playback (like when Windows goes “bing” on startup) happens via MME.

• Practically all cards come with an MME driver. If your hardware appears in the System part of the Control Panel, you have an MME driver installed.

• Using audio hardware via an MME driver gives you the longest latency figures.

• Only one program at a time can use audio hardware accessed via MME.

Via a DirectX driver

DirectX is a later system developed by Microsoft to provide developers with more efficient routines to access audio.

• Not all audio hardware come with DirectX drivers. However, drivers for some hardware are included with DirectX itself.

• Using a DirectX driver gives you a shorter latency, between 40 and 90 milliseconds.

! Only use DirectX if you are sure that there is a “certified” DirectX driver

installed for your audio hardware.

✪ If you plan to buy a computer specifically for Reason, you can play it safe

and choose an Intel or AMD processor. Alternatively, make sure you select a processor that is renowned for high floating point arithmetic performance!

Mac Specific Information

Under Mac OS X, all communication with most audio hardware can be handled by the internal built-in audio controller.

D Other options may be available as well, mainly for compatibility with all

possible hardware/software configurations.

Use these only when required.

✪ More information about DirectX can be found on Microsoft’s DirectX

web pages, at www.microsoft.com/directx.

Via an ASIO Driver

Most audio cards designed for serious music and audio use come with ASIO drivers.

• Using a card via an ASIO driver can give latency figures as low as 3ms.

• When you use ASIO, only one program at a time can access the card.

✪ More information about ASIO can be found on Steinberg Media Technol-

ogies’ web pages, www.steinberg.net.

About processors

When you run Reason under Windows, the clock speed of the processor is a major factor determining how many devices you can use at the same time. However, there are other factors that should be taken into account, and one important such factor is “floating point arithmetic performance”.

AUDIO BASICS

D Sounds, Devices and Patches

Introduction

✪ Please refer to the Tutorial chapters in the Getting Started book for

quick-start information on how to create devices and to select sounds and patches.

This chapter deals with the following topics:

D The procedures and techniques for managing devices in the rack.

See below.

D Cable routing basics.

See “A Quick Note on Routing”.

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 12). You can also make the rack fill the window by clicking the maximize button above the scrollbar to the right.

The rack maximize button.

D ReFills and Reason file formats.

See “About ReFills”.

D Handling Patches in Reason.

See “About patches”.

D Using the Reason browser.

See “Using the Browser”.

Rack device procedures

As you have seen by now, the central part of Reason is the rack. This is where you create and configure your devices, and make parameter settings. This section describes all the procedures for managing the rack, that is, procedures and techniques common to all devices.

Navigating 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:

D Use the scrollbar to the right of the rack to scroll continuously up or

down.

Creating devices

Creating new devices can be done by double-clicking on a device in the Tools window - Devices menu (or by using drag and drop). Alternatively you can select devices from the Create menu. This menu is available both on the main menu bar and on the context menus (see “Context menus”).

D The new device is added directly below the currently selected device in

the rack.

If no device is selected, the new device is added at the bottom of the rack.

D 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 26.

D A new track will automatically be created in the sequencer, connected to

the new device.

The track will have the same name as the device. Master Keyboard Input will also automatically be set to the new track, allowing you to immediately play the created device via MIDI (see page 54).

D 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 effect devices get new tracks but instrument devices don’t.

D If you’re using a mouse equipped with a scroll wheel, you can use it to

scroll up or down.

D Use the Page Up/Page Down buttons on the computer keyboard to move

the view one “full screen” up or down.

D Use the Home or End buttons on the computer keyboard to scroll the top

or bottom of the rack.

D Pull down a device context menu and select another device from the Go

To submenu.

The rack scrolls to the device you select.

✪ When you select a device’s sequencer track, Reason will automatically

scroll the rack to make the device visible.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

✪ You can also create devices by browsing patches - see page 39.

Selecting devices

Deleting devices

Some 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:

D To select a single device, click on it in the rack.

The selected device is displayed with a colored border (based on the color scheme selected for your operating system).

D 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.

D To de-select all devices, click in the empty space at the bottom of the

rack.

D To de-select one of the selected devices, hold down [Shift] and click on

it.

Any other selected devices remain selected.

D You can also use the up and down arrow keys on the computer keyboard

to select the device directly above or below the currently selected 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 ordered left-to-right, i.e. pressing the down arrow key will step through the devices from left to right before moving on the next device row.

D If you hold down [Shift] when using the up or down arrow keys, the cur-

rently selected device will remain selected.

This allows you to select a range of devices.

To delete one or several devices, select them and use one of the following methods:

D Hold down [Command] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows) and press [Backspace]

or [Delete].

D Select “Delete Devices and Tracks” from the Edit menu or the device

context menu.

This will delete the device(s) together with the associated sequencer track(s). You can have devices without associated tracks but it is not possible to have a sequencer track without an associated device.

! If you delete a device connected between two other devices, the connec-

tion between these is automatically preserved.

! The Hardware Interface device at the top of the rack cannot be removed.

Reordering 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 (between 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 (indicating that the moved device will be inserted after the other device).

Adjusting a parameter in a device will automatically select it. In other words, you never have to select a device before making settings.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

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.

Duplicating devices

To make a copy of a device in the rack, hold down [Option] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows) and drag it to a new position.

D If you hold down [Shift] when you duplicate the device, Reason will at-

tempt to automatically route it, just as when you move devices.

See page 26.

Cut, Copy and Paste

This is the result. Note that the filter device is moved to the left, to fill out the gap.

In this case, the red line indicates that the reverb device will be inserted to the right of the chorus/

flanger.

This is the result. All three devices are moved to the left, to fill out the gap.

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 allows 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:

D Cut and 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 clipboard, without affecting the rack.

D When you Paste devices, these are inserted into the rack below the cur-

rently selected device.

If no device is selected, the pasted devices will appear at the bottom of the rack.

D If you Copy and Paste several devices, the connections between these

are preserved.

D If you hold down [Shift] when you Paste a device, Reason will attempt to

automatically route it.

The rules are the same as when moving or duplicating devices by dragging. Automatic and manual routing is described in the chapter “Routing Audio and CV”.

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”.

! Note that if you start to move a device but change your mind, you can

abort the operation by pressing [Esc] while keeping the mouse button pressed.

D If you hold down [Shift] when you move a device, Reason will attempt to

automatically re-route it.

See page 26 for more info on auto-routing.

! Moving devices in the rack does not affect the order of the sequencer

tracks and vice versa.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Naming devices

Each device has a “tape strip” showing the name of the device. When you create a new device it is automatically named according to the device type, with an index number (so that the first Subtractor synthesizer you create is called “Subtractor 1”, the next “Subtractor 2” and 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 Return knobs show the names of the effect devices connected to the corresponding Return inputs.

Note that the mixer channel tape strips show the name 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 channel). In this case, you may want to rename the insert effect device, to indicate the connected instrument.

The relation between device names and track names

When you create an instrument device, it automatically gets a track in the sequencer, with the same default name. Renaming a device will also rename the corresponding sequencer track, and vice versa.

Folding and unfolding devices

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 arrow to the left of the device.

To unfold the device, click the arrow again.

D 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.

D If you hold down [Option] (Mac) or [Alt] (Windows) and click the arrow 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.

D For folded devices, no parameters are shown and you cannot make rout-

ing adjustments on the backside of the rack as long as the devices 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 moment. This will cause the folded device to automatically unfold and let you make the connection.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

D Folded devices can be renamed, moved, duplicated and deleted just like

unfolded devices.

D For devices that use patches, you can select patches in folded mode as

well.

D Playback is not affected by folding.

A Quick Note on Routing

! This section only describes the basics in routing. For detailed descrip-

tions of routing procedures and possibilities, see the “Routing Audio and CV” chapter.

Reason allows for extremely flexible routing of audio and control signals between the devices in the rack. Basically, routing can be done automatically or manually:

Automatic Routing

Auto-routing means that Reason makes all basic audio connections for a device, in one go. As mentioned on the previous pages, auto-routing is automatically performed when you create a new device, and when you move, duplicate or paste devices with [Shift] pressed.

✪ If applicable, auto-routing is automatically done in stereo.

Creating Mixers

D The first created mixer device will be routed to the Stereo inputs on the

Hardware Device.

Routing a device to the Mixer

D When you create an instrument device (synth, sampler, drum machine 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

D 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/Return).

Examples of effects that lend themselves well for use as send effects are reverb, delay and chorus.

Routing an Effect directly to a device (Insert)

D When you have an instrument device selected and create an effect, that

effect will be connected as an insert effect. That is, the signal from the device will pass through that effect and to the mixer.

Examples of effects that work well as inserts are distortion, compression and phaser.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Routing an Insert Effect between the Hardware Interface and another device

D If you select the Hardware Interface and then create an effect, the effect

will be connected as an insert effect between the Hardware Interface and whatever device was connected to the Hardware Interface inputs (normally the outputs of a a Mixer device).

This is the intended way to connect the MClass Mastering Suite Combi, at the very end of the signal chain.

Auto-routing Devices after they have been Created

Here follows some additional rules about auto-routing devices that are already in the rack:

D To reroute a device already in the rack, you can select it and use Discon-

nect Device and Auto-route Device, both on the Edit menu.

D If you delete a device connected between two devices, the connection

between the two remaining devices is automatically preserved.

A typical example would be if you have an effect device, connected as an insert effect between a synth and a mixer. If you delete the effect, the synth will be routed directly to the mixer.

Manual Routing

To connect devices manually, you need to flip the rack around to see the back. This is done by pressing [Tab] or selecting “Toggle Rack Front/Rear” from the Options menu.

D When you move a device, connections are not affected.

If you instead would like the program to re-route the device according to its new location in the rack, hold down [Shift] when you move it.

D When you duplicate devices (by dragging) or use copy and paste, the de-

vices are not auto-routed at all.

If you would like them to be automatically routed, hold down [Shift] when you perform the operation.

On the back of each device you will find connectors of two different types: audio and CV (Control Voltage, used for controlling parameters - see “Using CV and Gate”). 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.

Audio connectors

CV connectors

! When the back is shown, you can still navigate in the rack by scrolling, by

using the computer keyboard, etc.

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 from a popup menu:

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Using Cables

Using pop-up menus

! For the cables to be visible, the option “Show Cables” must be activated

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.

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, input/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 connect the left channels, a cable for the right channel is automatically added.

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 example, if you clicked on an audio output on a device, the hierarchical submenus will list all audio inputs in all other devices.

D If a device is greyed out on the pop-up menu, there are no connections of

the suitable kind.

3. Select the desired connector from the submenu.

The connection is created.

! Dragging a cable to make a connection can be aborted by pressing [Esc]

while keeping the mouse button pressed.

✪ To give a better overview of the connections, the cables have different

colors. Connections to or from effect devices are different shades of green, other audio connections are different shades of red and CV connections are different shades of yellow.

These cables are green, indicating effect device connections.

This cable is yellow, indicating a CV connection.

These cables are red, indicating connections between instruments and mixer devices.

Disconnecting Devices

Again, there are two ways to disconnect devices:

D Click on one end of the cable, drag it away from the jack and drop it any-

where away from a jack.

D Click on one of the connectors and select “Disconnect” from the context

menu that appears.

D You can change an existing connection in the same way, by clicking on

one end of the cable and dragging it to another connector.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Hiding and Showing Cables

You can choose whether you want the patch cables to be visible or not, by activating 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:

D Position the pointer over a connector and wait a moment.

A tool tip appears, showing the device and connector in the other end.

About patches

A Reason patch contains settings for a specific device. Patches can either be separate files on your hard disk or files embedded in a ReFill - see page 32 for info about ReFills.

Nine device types use patches:

D Subtractor, Thor and Malström synth patches contain all settings on the

device panel.

Selecting a patch brings up a new sound, just like when selecting programs or patches on a hardware synthesizer.

D NN19 & NNXT sampler patches contain information about which samples

are used and their settings (key mapping, tuning, etc.), plus the parameter settings on the device panel.

It is important to note that the sampler patch doesn’t contain the actual samples only information about which sample files are used.

D Redrum drum computer patches contain a complete “drum kit”, that is,

information about which drum samples are used, together with the parameter settings for each drum sound.

Again, the actual samples are not included in the patch, only file references. Also note that Redrum patches are separated from Redrum patterns - selecting a new patch will not affect the patterns in the device.

D Scream 4 and RV7000 effect patches contain all settings on the respec-

tive device panel.

Selecting a patch brings up a new sound, just like when selecting programs or patches on a hardware effect device.

D The Combinator (Combi) patch format saves all settings and file refer-

ences for each device in the Combi, along with the Combinator’s own settings; key/velocity zones, modulation routing etc.

Any audio or CV routing from/to devices that are part of the Combi is also saved.

! Note that patches for devices included in a Combi are not saved individ-

ually - e.g. if a Combi includes a Subtractor, and you have tweaked its settings, these settings will be saved with the Combi, but will not be saved as a separate Subtractor patch unless you do so from within the Combi - see page 30.

! Apart from Combis, patches do not include information about any rout-

ing done on the back of the device.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

About the “Load Default Sound in New Devices” preference

On the Preferences - General page there is an option (on by default) to load a default patch when creating a device. There are a number of patches for each device that exist outside category folders in the main Factory Soundbank folder for the device. These will be available on the browse list (see page 40) directly after creating a new device which allows you check out a few sounds for a device without opening the browser.

Selecting a patch

To select a patch for a device, use one of the following methods:

D Click the folder button in the Patch section on the device panel.

The Patch section has the same basic layout for all patch devices; a Patch name display, and three buttons (up/down arrow buttons for stepping through patches sequentially, a Folder button to open the browser, and a Save patch button.

The Patch section of a Redrum device.

! Note: On the panels of the Redrum, NN19 and NNXT devices, there are

also other folder buttons, used for loading samples. Make sure you click on the button in the Patch section (next to the patch name display)!

D If you click on the patch name display on the device panel, a pop-up

menu will appear, listing all patches in the currently selected folder - see “About browse lists” on page 40).

This allows you to quickly select another patch, without having to step through each one in turn.

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 10).

! Any parameter adjustments you make on the device panel after selecting

a patch will not affect the actual patch file (for this you need to save the patch - see below).

D Select the Browse Patches item on the Edit menu or device context

menu.

Note that the Edit menu reflects which device is selected - in other words, you must select the device for the corresponding Browse Patches item to appear on the Edit menu.

D In both cases, the Patch browser dialog appears, allowing you to locate

and select the patch, on the hard disk or within a ReFill.

Browser operations are described later in this chapter, starting on page 33.

D 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.

Note that switching patches on a device in this way can also change the actual device! See “About browse lists” on page 40.

If referenced samples are missing

As described above, patches for the Redrum, NN19 and NNXT contain references to samples. Just 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 or to proceed with missing sounds. For details, see page 41.

! Proceeding without locating or replacing the missing samples results in

silent drum sounds and key zones (for the Redrum and NN19/NN-XT, respectively).

Saving Patches

Saving device settings in a song

When you save a Reason song, all settings for all devices are automatically included 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 time 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).

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Saving device settings as patches on disk

3. Select the other device of the same type (in the same song or another song).

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.

✪ You can also select a device and use the Export Patch command on the

File menu.

2. In the file dialog that appears, specify a location and name for the patch file and click Save.

D Under Windows, the different types of patch files have different file ex-

tensions.

File extensions are automatically added by Reason when you save. Under Mac OS, file extensions are not needed but it may be a good idea to keep them if you want the saved files to be usable under Windows.

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.

! Note that this operation simply copies the settings from one device to

another. Adjusting the settings on one of the devices will not affect the other; neither are the settings connected to any patch file on disk.

Initializing 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.

D If you have selected a patch, modified it and want to save it with the mod-

ifications, 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.

! Note that you can save a patch under the same name and location with-

out 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!

! Note also that you cannot save into a ReFill! This means that if you 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. Select a patch, and/or make the desired settings on the first device.

2. Select Copy Patch from the device context menu or the Edit menu.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

About ReFills

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, ReFills appear as large files with the extension “.rfl”.

All sounds included with Reason are embedded in two ReFills; “Reason Factory Sound Bank” and “Orkester”, which were both copied to the Reason Program folder during installation.

Additional Propellerhead ReFills are available for purchase. You can also download ReFills from other Reason users on the Internet, purchase them from other sample manufacturers, etc.

File type

Thor Patch .thor This is a patch for the Thor synth device, contain-

Malström Patch .xwv This is a patch for the Malström synth device,

NN19 Sampler Patch

NN-XT Sampler Patch

Extension|Description

ing all panel settings. You store your synth sounds by saving Thor patches.

containing all panel settings. You store your synth sounds by saving Malström patches.

.smp This is a patch for the NN19 Sampler device,

containing references to and settings for all used samples, along with panel settings.

.sxt This is a patch for the NN-XT Sampler device,

containing references to and settings for all used samples, along with panel settings.

✪ Samples (Wave and AIFF files) are compressed to about half their origi-

nal file size when stored in ReFills, without loss of quality.

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.

Furthermore, if a song makes use of components from ReFills, 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 .rsn This is the main document format in Reason. It

Published Song .rps A published song is a self-contained song in-

Combinator Patch .cmb The Combinator can store/recall combinations of

Extension|Description

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-contained”).

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.

Reason devices. Combinator patches (Combis) will save all panel settings (as well as sample references if used) for all devices that are part of the Combi. In addition, all routing (audio/CV) between devices in the Combi are included in the patch.

Redrum Patch .drp 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 settings. In effect, a Redrum patch is a stored drum kit.

RV7000 Patch .rv7 This is a patch for the RV7000 reverb effect, con-

taining all panel settings.

Scream 4 Patch .sm4 This is a patch for the Scream 4 distortion effect,

containing all panel settings.

REX files .rx2, .rcy or

.rex

Samples .wav or .aif The NN19 Sampler and the Redrum drum ma-

REX files are created in another Propellerheads application, the ReCycle 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 (without 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.

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 formats in the same device - one drum sound can be an 8-bit sample, the next a 16-bit sample, etc.

Subtractor Patch .zyp This is a patch for the Subtractor synth device,

containing all panel settings. You store your synth sounds by saving Subtractor patches.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

File type

Soundfont Bank .sf2 The Soundfont format was co-developed by E-mu

Extension|Description

Systems and Creative Technologies and is used with many audio cards and software synthesizers. SoundFont banks store wavetable synthesized sounds, allowing users to create and edit multisampled sounds in special Soundfont editing programs. The Soundfonts can then be played back in wavetable synthesizers, typically on audio cards, thereby effectively turning 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 similarly and hierarchically organized, with folders for instruments, presets, samples etc. The NN-XT, NN19 and the Redrum lets you load individual samples and presets from a Soundfont bank, but not the complete Soundfont.

Using the Browser

The Browser is a special file dialog that appears when you open songs or load patches, samples, MIDI or REX files, from within a ReFill or from regular file folders.

Apart from standard file folder browsing, the browser dialog offers you several useful functions:

D Search for files by name and/or type - see page 39.

D Use “cross-browsing” to search for patches belonging to any type of de-

vice.

For example, you open the browser from a Subtractor device to browse for a suitable patch. But instead of limiting the Browser to show only Subtractor patches, you can chose to browse for any type of instrument patch. If you select a patch with a different format than the device you “started” browsing from, the original device will be replaced by the new device. See page 38.

D Create Favorite Lists containing shortcuts to your Favorite files for in-

stant access.

See page 40.

D Audition instrument patches, audio samples and loops on the fly.

D Save shortcuts to various locations on your local drive(s).

See page 37.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Opening the browser

You can use any of the following commands to open the Browser dialog (what file types you can browse for depends on which method you used to open the Browser dialog):

D By selecting “Open” from the File menu.

This opens the Song Browser where you can select to open a saved Song.

D By selecting “Browse Patches” on the Edit menu with a patch device se-

lected (or by clicking the “Browse Patches” button on a device panel).

This opens the Patch Browser allowing you to browse patches for the selected device. You can also use “cross-browsing” (see page 38) to select patches for other device types.

D By selecting “Browse Samples” on the Edit menu with a sample device

selected (or by clicking the “Browse Samples” button on a device panel).

This opens the Sample Browser, where you can browse for samples in the supported audio formats.

D By selecting “Browse ReCycle/REX Files” on the Edit menu with a Dr.

Rex Loop Player selected (or by clicking the “Browse Loops” button on a device panel).

This opens the REX File Browser, allowing you to browse for REX loops.

Browser elements

D By selecting “Import MIDI File” from the File menu.

This opens the MIDI File Browser, allowing you to browse for MIDI files.

D By selecting “Create Instrument...” or “Create Effect...” from the Create

menu.

This allows you to browse patches for any device. When you select a patch in the browser (without clicking “OK” in the browser dialog), the corresponding device is automatically created in the background, together with a corresponding sequencer track if an instrument patch is selected. See page 39.

The Patch Browser dialog.

Regardless of what browser mode is chosen (song/patch/sample etc.), the Browser dialog basically contains the same main elements, although items may be grayed out if not applicable. The dialog contains the following elements:

File and folder list

This is the main browser list, showing the contents in a selected root folder - see page

36.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Show pop-up menu

Locations list

This is only available in the Patch browser (it is otherwise grayed out). It determines what patch types are shown in the files and folder list view and thus which patches can be selected. See page 38.

Where pop-up menu

The field above the file and folder list displays the name of the currently selected root folder.

• By clicking in the field a pop-up menu is shown, allowing you to move up in the folder hierarchy (search results and Favorites lists, however, are shown as “flat” lists with no folder hierarchy).

This is a list of shortcuts to different locations. You can manually add any locations (on any local drive) to this list.

Selecting an item in this list will open the corresponding folder/ReFill as the root in the main files and folder list - see page 36.

Favorites section

In the Favorites section of the dialog you can create folders containing shortcuts to patches, samples or song files - see page 40.

Search pop-up and text field

Back/Forward buttons

These arrow buttons allow you to move between the browser locations opened while browsing, much like pages in a web browser. When the browser dialog is closed, the location list is cleared.

These items allow you to specify a search location and to enter a text string to search for, respectively. The Search function is described on page 39.

Info and details

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

The Info section in the left corner can show Song/ReFill splash images and the Details section will show information about the item currently selected in the file and folder list. Exactly which information is shown depends on the file type. For example, samples or REX files contains information about the file format and length of the selected file, while a selected song file can display comments from the author (Song Information, see “Song Information”), etc. If the selected file is part of a ReFill, this will be indicated regardless of the file type.

Audition section

This section contains controls for auditioning samples and REX files - see page 37.

Select Previous/Next arrow buttons

These buttons allow you to move the current file selection up or down in the list. In the Patch or Sample Browser, a selected file (patch or sample) is automatically loaded in the background.

Loading indicator

This icon will light up to indicate that a patch or sample is loading. You cannot play or audition the sound until it is loaded.

Navigating in the Browser

Here, the Patch Browser was opened from a Subtractor device, allowing you to browse for Subtractor patches.

When navigating in the Browser, items are shown as a hierarchical list in a selected root folder, just like in your computer finder.

All folders and subfolders within a root folder are shown, but only files of the relevant type (i.e. songs/samples/patches etc.) can be viewed/selected in the Browser. For example, if you have selected to browse samples for a NN-XT device, only audio samples will be shown in the Browser.

• Click on the plus sign (Win)/arrow (Mac) beside a closed folder to open it. If the folder contains files of the relevant type, these will be shown.

• Double-clicking a folder in the list opens it as the root folder in the Browser.

• The Name, Modified, and Size columns show the name of the folder or file, the modified date (files only) and the size (files only), respectively. Clicking on a column header sorts the files accordingly (i.e. alphabetically, by date saved or by file size).

• You can use the Back/Forward buttons to move between different locations you have opened in Browser. When you close the Browser this location list is cleared.

• The “Select Previous/Next” arrow buttons allow you to move between files in the current list. Folders are skipped.

• The “Where” pop-up list allows you to move up in the folder hierarchy when the Browser points to a specific folder location (see “About hierarchic and flat lists” below).

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

About hierarchic and flat lists

Selecting and auditioning patches

In certain circumstances the Browser will display a flat list without any folder hierarchy. In such cases there will be an extra “Parent” column displaying the parent folder location for all files. The “Where” pop-up will then contain a shortcut to a selected file’s parent folder. Flat lists are shown in the following cases:

• When the Browser is showing a search result - see page 39.

• When the Browser is showing a Favorites folder list - see page 40.

• When the Browser is showing a browse list stored for a device in a saved song see page 40.

Using Locations

To help you to find your files quickly, you can add shortcuts to the folders used to store your samples, patch files etc. to the list in the Locations section. By default, the Locations list contains five fixed locations; the computer Desktop, the Documents folder, the Reason Program folder and the Factory/Orkester Sound Banks.

D Selecting a Location in the list opens it as the root folder in the Browser.

D To add a location, select a folder or ReFill in the main browser list and

drag it into the Locations list with the mouse button pressed.

Any new locations will be added below the list of fixed locations. Manually added locations can be reordered by drag and drop.

In the Patch Browser, selecting a patch automatically loads it in the background (i.e. with the Browser dialog still open). This allows you to preview patches before confirming a selection by clicking OK in the Browser.

• Play a few notes when selecting a new patch to audition it.

• For effect patches you can activate loop playback before opening the Patch Browser from the effect. Once the Browser dialog is open, you can browse to a folder containing compatible patches and step through them to hear how the patches affect the sound.

✪ You can also audition patches for any instrument or effect device - not

just the device you opened the browser from! See “Cross-browsing patch files” on page 38.

Selecting and auditioning samples

For samples and REX loops you can use the Audition controls to preview the audio.

This is done in the following way:

D 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 in the Audition section is relabeled to “Stop” - click this to stop playback.

D To remove a location, select it in the Locations list and press [Back-

space].

The default locations cannot be removed.

D Manually added locations are stored in the Preferences.

! If a stored location has been removed or is unavailable, a warning trian-

gle with an exclamation mark is shown before the location name in the list.

D 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.

About browsing large patches

As stated previously, when you are browsing patches (or samples), these are automatically loaded in the background when selected. Most of the time, this happens instantaneously. Bear in mind, however, that some files (especially big Combinator patches, which can contain any number of devices and samples) can take a little while to load.

✪ If you select a particularly large patch by mistake, you can abort the load-

ing by simply selecting another patch.

Selecting multiple files

It is possible to select multiple files in the Browser, by using standard [Shift] or [Ctrl] (Win)/[Command] (Mac) selection techniques. This, however, does not mean that the selected files can be loaded.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

There are basically two instances where selecting several files in the Browser file list is relevant:

D It is possible to load several samples simultaneously into the NN-XT and

NN19 sampler devices.

See the NN19 and NN-XT chapters for details.

D You can select several files to add them to a Favorites list in one go - see

page 40.

! In cases where several selected files (e.g. patches or songs) cannot be

loaded, the OK button in the Browser is grayed out.

Cross-browsing patch files

Cross-browsing patches is a powerful feature of the Patch Browser. It allows you to browse for any type of patch (instrument or effect - see below), regardless of which device you opened the Browser from.

About instrument and effect patches

Patches are internally divided into two patch categories in the Browser; instrument patches and effect patches (the Browser “knows” what type of patch it is).

This is because instrument patches and effect patches are fundamentally different instruments are played, and effects are used to process sound - and you would logically browse for one or the other, but not both.

When browsing patches from an existing instrument device, the options on the Show menu are:

Cross-browsing - an example:

1. You are playing a Subtractor device but feel that the sound isn’t quite what you had in mind, so you open the Browser to check out some other patches.

2. After browsing Subtractor patches for a while, you still haven’t found the type of sound you wanted, so you click the “Show” pop-up and select “All Instruments” from the menu.

Now you can select instrument patches for any device. You decide to browse a folder containing Malström patches. You can use the Previous/Next buttons to step through the files in the selected folder.

3. As soon as you select a Malström patch in the Browser, a Malström device replaces the Subtractor in the background (the Browser is still open).

The sequencer track which was previously connected to the Subtractor is now connected to a Malström with the patch selected in the Browser loaded.

D Note that the name of the sequencer track is not automatically changed

to reflect the new device.

This may or may not matter. If the track was named “Bass” (and it is a bass sound you are looking for), this obviously works fine. But if the track was named “Subtractor 1” and you end up with another device connected, it might be better to rename the track to avoid confusion.

4. You can continue to browse patches and play your keyboard to audition them.

Each time you select a patch type belonging to a different device, a corresponding instrument device is created in the background, replacing the previous instrument.

• “XXX Patches” (where XXX is the device type you opened the Browser from, e.g. NN-XT).

• “All Instruments” will show patches for any instrument device.

When browsing patches from an existing effect device, the options on the menu are:

• “XXX Patches” (where XXX is the device type you opened the Browser from, e.g. RV7000).

• “All Effects” will show patches for any effect device that uses patches, including Combi patches.

5. When you have settled on a patch - for whatever instrument device - click OK to confirm the selection and close the dialog.

Clicking Cancel will return to the same state as when opening the Browser.

D If you use cross-browsing for an effect patch it works in the same way -

selecting an effect patch of a different format will replace the current effect in the background with a device of the selected format.

Special instances of cross-browsing

There are a few instances when replacing an existing device by browsing might lead to lost connections:

D When a device is replaced by another device type, audio connections

may be lost.

An example is replacing an NN-XT (which can use up to 16 outputs) with a Subtractor (which only has one output).

D When a device is replaced by another device type, CV connections on the

back panel may be lost.

The only connections that are retained between device types are Sequencer Control CV/Gate in.

! If you encounter such situations and you want to restore the original con-

nections, use the “Undo” function. Browsing back to the original device patch will not restore lost connections.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Create Instrument/Create Effect

The Search in pop-up menu

This allows you to browse for any kind of instrument or effect patch. This is essentially the same as cross-browsing, except that you do not start with an existing device.

1. Select “Create Instrument...” or “Create Effect...” from the Create menu.

The Patch Browser opens. Depending on your selection, either “ALL Instrument Patches” or “ALL Effect Patches” is shown.

2. When you select a patch, a corresponding device is created automatically.

If you select an instrument device patch, a corresponding sequencer track will also be automatically be created. Master Keyboard input will be set to the new track so that you can audition the patch by playing your master keyboard.

3. The device will be auto-routed according to standard rules.

E.g. if it is an instrument device, it will be connected to the first available mixer channel - see page 26.

4. Click OK when you have found the patch you wanted, to confirm the creation of the new device and to close the Browser.

About patch formats and sampler devices

As both the NN-XT and NN19 sampler devices can load patches in the NN19 (.smp) and REX (.rx2/.rcy/.rex) formats, there has to be certain rules regarding cross-browsing.

D The basic rule is that the Browser will load such patches into the original

device type (the device you opened the browser from), whenever possible.

Thus, when the patch format is NN19 (.smp) or REX (.rx2/.rcy/.rex) and you are browsing from an NN19 device, the patch will be loaded into this device.

This pop-up menu allows you to select where to search. The options are as follows:

• “Local disks” will perform a complete search of all local drives.

• “User Locations” will search all folders and ReFills stored in the Locations list (except the Desktop).

• “Current Folder” will limit the search to the currently selected root folder (including subfolders).

The Search For text field

This is where you can enter a text string to search for.

D You can specify one or several words, whole or partial.

If you specify more than one word, the search will show results that match all specified words. Text search is not case sensitive.

✪ Note that you don’t have to enter text to use the Search function. De-

pending on the selected Browser (Patch, Sample etc.), you can also simply search for files of the corresponding type in the selected location(s).

Executing the search

D Clicking the “Find” button will execute the search according to your

specifications.

After the search, the search result is shown as a flat list in the Browser, and the Where pop-up field reads “Search result”.

D If you are browsing from any other type of device, these patch types will

be loaded into a NN-XT device.

D If you are using the “Create Instrument” function a NN19 (.smp) patch

will create a NN19 device and a REX patch will create a NN-XT device.

Using the Search function

The Search function allows you to search for files by name and/or type. The Browser mode (patch, song etc.) determines what file type(s) you can search for, just as when you are manually navigating in the Browser.

D A new “Parent” column also appears, listing the name of the parent

folder for each file.

If you select a file you can pull down the Where pop-up above the file list and select “Go to Parent folder” - this opens the parent folder for the selected file.

The name of the containing folder is also part of the search result (given that it contains files of the appropriate type). This means that if you are searching for “Guitar”, all samples or patches with “Guitar” in the filename will be shown, but also all samples or patches contained in folders with “Guitar” in the name.

D If you have searched for patches, you can select to show all patches that

match the search criteria by selecting to show “All Instruments” on the Show pop-up.

This will extend the search result to show all patches that matches the search text. Note that you do not have to repeat the search to do this.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Opening files

Using Favorites

When you have navigated to the desired folder (on your hard disk or within a ReFill) and located the desired file, you open it by double clicking it in the file display or by selecting it and clicking the OK button.

As described earlier, patches and samples are loaded directly upon selection, so clicking OK doesn’t actually “open” the file, it simply confirms the selection, and closes the Browser dialog.

About browse lists

When you click OK to open a file from the Browser, the file and folder list shown at that time is memorized for that device. This is called a “browse list”.

For patches (and to a certain extent samples) this list provides a specific functionality:

D The browse list is what applies when changing patches using the Next/

Previous Patch buttons on the front panel of a device (or from patch selectors on a control surface).

It is also the active browse list that is shown on the patch list opened by clicking in the patch name field for a device.

D For samples, the browse list applies when changing samples using the

Next/Previous Sample buttons on the front panel of a sampler device.

What can a browse list contain?

D When you confirm a patch or sample selection by clicking OK in the

Browser, the resulting browse list will include the files contained in all currently open folders in the Browser.

If you open the Browser again for the same device, the same file and folder structure is shown.

Favorites provide a way to group and order files that may be physically located anywhere on your local drives. Any file that can be loaded in Reason (songs, patches, samples etc.) can be added to a Favorites folder. Only shortcuts to files are added the original files aren’t moved.

This is particularly useful for handling patches. By adding the patches you need for a given situation to a Favorite list, you can determine exactly which patches will be selectable for a device, and in what order. You can then sequentially step through these using patch select buttons on your MIDI keyboard or control surface device. See page 41 for a practical example of this.

D To add a New Favorite List, click the “New Favorite List” button.

An empty folder is created, named “New Favorite List”. The Browser list remains unchanged. If you double-click the folder you can type in a new name for the list.

D To add a file to the Favorite List, select it in the Browser and drag it to the

Favorite List folder.

You can also select multiple files using standard selection techniques - [Shift] and/or [Ctrl] (Win)/[Command] (Mac) - and drag these into the folder in the same way.

D By selecting the folder, the currently selectable contents of the Favorite

list is shown in the Browser list.

What is selectable/shown depends as usual on the current Browser mode. If you select a Favorite List folder that contains samples, these will only be shown if the Sample Browser is selected.

D If you save the current song and reopen it, the items in the browse list

will be shown as a “flat” list, and the “Where” pop-up field will show “Document Browse List”.

In such cases, the Browser will show the “Parent” column, listing the names of the containing folders. The Where pop-up will also contain the item “Go to parent folder” for a selected file.

D A browse list could also be a Search result, or a Favorite list.

Favorite Lists provide a way of controlling/filtering which patches or samples will be available on a browse list for a device - see below!

! Note that if you opened a patch after having used cross-browsing (see

page 38) or used the Search function (see page 39), the active browse list could contain patches in different formats, and stepping through patches from the device panel could change the device type.

D When a Favorites list folder is selected in the Browser, an additional

“Parent column” is shown (just like Search results), listing the name of the containing folder for each file in the list.

Files in a Favorites list have an order, and can not be sorted by clicking the column headers. However, they can be reordered by using drag and drop.

D To remove a file from a Favorite list, open the list, select the file and

press [Backspace].

This removes the shortcut only - the original file isn’t affected.

D To remove a Favorite List, select it in the Favorites section and press

[Backspace].

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

Using Favorites - a practical example

Handling Missing Sounds

Here follows a practical example of how you can use Favorites for patch files:

You are preparing for a live gig as a keyboard player. You know the songs, and you have chosen suitable patches (in various device formats) for each song.

You want to use Reason, but you want to able to switch to the right patch for each song using your MIDI keyboard, and not have to worry about fiddling with the computer during your performance.

Here is how this can be done by using Favorites:

1. Set up a Reason song with a mixer device (and send effects if desired).

2. Create an instrument device, for example a Combinator.

It doesn’t matter which instrument device you choose at this point.

3. Open the Patch Browser from the instrument device.

4. Click the “New Favorites List” button.

A new folder appears in the list. Double-click it and type in an appropriate name.

5. Select to show “All Instruments” on the Show pop-up.

Now you can start locating the patches you need by navigating in the Browser.

6. When you have located a patch that you need for the gig, drag it from the Browser into the Favorites folder.

If this was a patch in a different format than the instrument you created, a device of this type will replace the original device.

Sampler patches, drum machine patches and Soundfonts contain references to samples - files on your hard disk. The same is true for songs that contain samples (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, Reason will alert you that files are missing:

Click one of the four buttons:

Option:

Search & Proceed Reason will search for the missing files in all Locations

Proceed The song or patch will be opened, with sounds missing. This

Description:

added by the user and in all known ReFills.

• If all files are found, the song or patch will be opened without further ado.

• If one or more files cannot be found, the Missing Sounds dialog will appear (see below).

Note that the file search will look at the file names only - files that have been renamed will not be found!

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:

7. Continue to add the patches in the same way until you have all the patches you need.

8. When done, select the Favorites List folder.

The folder is opened in the Browser, listing all the patches you added.

9. Use drag and drop to order the patches according to the set list.

10.Select the first patch in the Favorites list and click OK.

The browser closes with the patch loaded.

D If you have a MIDI keyboard or control surface with programmable but-

tons, you can assign a button to “Select next patch” on the device.

This is described in the Remote chapter.

11.Save the Song.

12.At the gig, open the song, and the first patch will be loaded.

13.When the first song is finished, use the “next patch” button on the device or on your MIDI keyboard and the next patch in the Favorites list will be loaded!

This 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.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

The Missing Sounds dialog

This dialog appears if you clicked the Open Dialog button in the previous dialog, or if you clicked the Search & 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

Device Shows the name of the device in which the missing

Sound Shows the name of the missing file. Part of ReFill/Soundfont If the missing file is part of a ReFill, or a Soundfont

Description

sound is used, along with a device type icon.

within a ReFill, this column shows the name of the ReFill/Soundfont If there is an URL (Internet address) associated with a ReFill, you can download the necessary ReFill(s) from this dialog, as described below.

Search Locations

If you click the Search Locations button, Reason will search for the selected files in all Locations set up in the Browser (except the Desktop). 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 column.

D 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 Locations contain several files with 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 that have been renamed. The browser dialog will appear once for each selected file in the list. The name of the file to look for is shown in the Browser window’s title bar.

Search In...

This function is useful when you need to replace a whole lot of samples and you know where these samples are located. A typical example would be if you have reorganized the folder structure on your computer, and the sample folder has been moved in relation to the folder with a sampler patch or song.

D If you click “Locate”, the Browser opens, asking you to select the sample

directory, i.e. the folder in which you know that the samples are located.

Select either the folder, or a sample in the folder. When you click OK, Reason will search in the selected folder (and its subfolders) only.

Download ReFill

If a missing sound is part of a ReFill (as indicated in the Part of ReFill Package column), 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 Internet connection):

Status When the dialog appears, all files will have the status

“Missing”. Files that are found by the auto-search function or manually replaced will be indicated as “Replaced”.

Selecting

The Replace and Search Locations functions (see below) are performed on the files that are selected in the list. This allows you to replace some files manually (necessary if the files have been renamed or are outside the Locations), have the program find other files automatically and skip the rest of the files.

D To select a file, click on it in the list.

You can use the standard [Shift] or [Ctrl] (Win)/[Command] (Mac) selection techniques to select several files

D To select all files in the list, click the Select All button.

When the dialog first appears, all files in the list are selected.

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. 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:

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

D 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!

D If any file is still missing when you click OK, there will be sounds missing

in the song/patch.

Sometimes, you may want to proceed with sounds missing, and then remove or replace the sounds from the device panels in the rack instead.

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.

SOUNDS, DEVICES AND PATCHES

D Routing Audio and CV

About the various signals that can be routed

This chapter describes the various ways you can route signals in Reason. The following signal types are used:

Audio

Apart from the Matrix Pattern Sequencer, all devices have audio connectors on the back. The audio connectors carries audio signals to or from devices via virtual “cables”.

D Audio connectors are shown as large “quarter inch” jacks.

D Audio Effects devices, which are used to process audio, have both audio

inputs and outputs.

D Instrument devices, which generate audio, have either mono or stereo

left/right audio output connectors.

You do not have to use both outputs for devices with stereo outputs. Use the left output to get a mono signal from a stereo device.

MIDI Routing

There are several ways you can route MIDI from external MIDI devices to Reason devices. This is described in the chapter “Routing MIDI to Reason”.

About Cables

Hiding and Showing

If you have made many connections in Reason, the cables can sometimes obscure the view, making it difficult to read the text printed on the back panels of the devices. You can hide all cables in the following way:

D To hide all cables, press [Command]+[L] (Mac) or [Ctrl]+[L] (Windows),

or (de)select “Show cables” on the Options menu.

When cables are hidden, connections are indicated by a colored connector. Repeating the above procedure make the cables appear again.

D To monitor audio outputs from devices, the signals can be either be

routed via a mixer - or directly- to the physical outputs of your audio hardware.

Typically, if you are using audio hardware with standard stereo outputs, you will most probably use one or several mixers in Reason to mix the audio signals to the master outputs.

CV/Gate

CV (control voltage) signals are used to modulate parameter values, and do not carry audio. Gate signals are also a type of control voltage, but are “normally” used for slightly different purposes.

D CV/Gate connectors are shown as smaller “mini” jacks.

D CV is typically used for modulation purposes.

For example you could modulate one parameter with the value produced by another parameter.

D Gate outputs/inputs are typically used to trigger events, such as note

on/off values, envelopes etc.

Gate signals produce on/off values, plus a “value” which could be likened to (and used as) velocity.

Cables hidden

D When hidden, you can still connect or disconnect cables in the same way

as when they are shown.

See page 48 for a description of the available routing methods.

Checking Connections

It is possible to check to which device a jack is connected (useful if the cables are hidden, or if the connected devices are located far apart in the rack):

D Positioning the pointer over a connector.

A tool tip appears after a moment, showing the device and the specific connector at the other end.

D You can only route CV/Gate signals from an output to an input (or vice

versa).

You cannot route an input to another input or an output to another output.

ROUTING AUDIO AND CV

Color Coding

Cables are color coded in the following way, making it easier to discern between the various connections:

• Audio connections are different shades of red.

• CV connections are different shades of yellow.

• Connections to and from Effects devices are different shades of green.

These cables are green, indicating effect device connections.

Automatic Routing

Auto-routing is when devices are automatically routed according to default rules. Auto-routing is performed in the following circumstances:

• When a new device is created.

• When moving, duplicating or pasting devices with [Shift] pressed.

Automatic Routing Rules

Reason Mixer devices

D The first created mixer device will be routed to the first available input

pair in the Hardware Device.

Routing devices to the Mixer

D When an Instrument Device is created, it is auto-routed to the first avail-

able mixer channel(s).

This cable is yellow, indicating a CV connection.

These cables are red, indicating connections between instruments and mixer devices.

Adding an effect to the Mixer

D 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/Return).

Examples of effects that lend themselves well for use as send effects are reverb and delay.

D If there are no free Aux Sends on the mixer, the effect will be routed as

an insert effect, after the mixer.

That is, the master output signal from the mixer will be routed through the effect.

Adding an effect directly to a device (Insert)

D When you have an instrument device selected and create an effect, that

effect will be connected as an insert effect. That is, the signal from the device will pass through that effect and to the mixer (or to another effect).

Adding an effect between the Mixer and the hardware interface.

D If you select the hardware interface at the top of the rack and add an ef-

fect device, it will be routed as an insert effect between the main mixer and the hardware interface.

This is where you typically would add an MClass Mastering Suite Combi.

ROUTING AUDIO AND CV

CV/Gate Auto-route

D CV/Gate auto-routing occurs when you create a Matrix Pattern Se-

quencer with an instrument device (Subtractor/Thor/Malström/NN-19/ NN-XT/Combinator) selected.

The Matrix Note and Gate CV outputs are automatically connected to the Sequencer Control CV and Gate inputs on the instrument device, respectively.

Manual Routing

By selecting “Toggle Rack Front/Rear” from the Options menu or pressing [Tab] you turn the rack around. On the back of each device you will find connectors of two different types: audio and CV. As mentioned before, audio inputs and outputs are shown as large “quarter inch” jacks, while CV input and output jacks are smaller.

Auto-routing devices after they have been created

Here follows some additional rules about auto-routing devices that are already in the rack:

D To reroute a device already in the rack, you can select it and use Discon-

nect Device and Auto-route Device, both on the Edit menu.

D If you delete a device connected between two devices, the connection

between the two remaining devices is automatically preserved.

A typical example would be if you have an effect device, connected as an insert effect between a synth and a mixer. If you delete the effect, the synth will be routed directly to the mixer.

D When you move a device, connections are not affected.

If you instead would like the program to re-route the device according to its new location in the rack, hold down [Shift] when you move it.

D When you duplicate devices (by dragging) or use copy and paste, the de-

vices are not auto-routed at all.

If you would like them to be automatically routed, hold down [Shift] when you perform the operation.

There are two ways to route audio from one device to another:

• By connecting “virtual patch cables” between inputs and outputs.

• By selecting connections from a pop-up menu.

Using Cables

! For the cables to be visible, the option “Show Cables” must be activated

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.

Bypassing Auto-Routing

D If you wish to create a new device, without any auto-routing taking place,

press [Shift] when creating the device.

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, input/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 connect the left channels, a cable for the right channel is automatically added.

D You can change an existing connection in the same way, by clicking on

one end of the cable and dragging it to another connector.

ROUTING AUDIO AND CV

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).

Using CV and Gate

CV/Gate is used for modulating and triggering device parameters. Each separate Device chapter lists the available CV/Gate connections, the parameters that can be modulated or be used for modulation outputs for the device.

Routing CV and Gate

There are not really any hard and fast “rules” applicable to CV/Gate routing. A few points should be mentioned though:

D The specific “Sequencer Control” inputs present on the Subtractor, Thor,

Malström, NN-19 and NN-XT sampler devices are primarily intended for controlling these devices as (monophonic) instruments from the Matrix Pattern Sequencer or the RPG-8 Arpeggiator.

If your intention is to use the Matrix or the RPG-8 CV/Gate outputs to create melodic patterns using these Instrument devices, you should use the Sequencer Control inputs.

✪ The Matrix Pattern Sequencer can be used in many other ways, besides

creating melodic patterns. For example you could use it to modulate any CV controllable parameter, with the added advantage of the modulation being synchronized to the tempo.

D If a device is greyed out on the pop-up menu, there are no connections 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:

D Click on one end of the cable, drag it away from the jack and drop it any-

where away from a jack.

D Conversely, if you would like to apply Gate or CV modulation to more

than one voice, you should not use the Sequencer Control inputs, as these only function monophonically.

D Feel free to experiment: Use Gate signals to control parameter values

and CV signals to trigger notes and envelopes, if you like.

See the chapter “Matrix Pattern Sequencer” for more tips about using CV.

✪ By routing CV to the rotary controls on a Combinator, you can CV control

virtually any parameter on any device - see page 161.

About the Voltage Trim Knobs

All CV inputs have an associated Trim knob. This is used to set the CV “sensitivity” for the associated parameter. The further clockwise a voltage trim knob is set, the more pronounced the modulation effect.

• Turned fully clockwise, the modulation range will be 100% of the parameters range (0-127 for most parameters).

• Turned fully anti-clockwise, no CV modulation will be applied.

D Click on one of the connectors and select “Disconnect” from the context

menu that appears.

ROUTING AUDIO AND CV

D The Sequencer

Introduction

The icons in this column of the track list indicate which device each track belongs to.

The sequencer is for assembling your songs. This is where you record notes and automation and edit clips and events.

Sequencer basics

About tracks, lanes, clips and events

D A specific instance of a device can never have more than one track in the

sequencer, but a track can have many “lanes”.

The following sections provide an overview of the sequencer including track and window handling.

For quick-start info about how to play back a song and record notes, please refer to the Getting Started book.

Sequencer elements

Toolbar Inspector (context sensitive). Arrange/Edit

Track list

window

A track with corresponding lanes.

D When you play notes or tweak a device’s parameters while recording in

the sequencer, the recorded data will be contained in “clips” placed on a corresponding lane on the track.

Tracks are listed in the track list.

Recorded clips on different tracks/lanes. Some tracks are folded, showing the clips as thin bars.

The relation between the sequencer and the rack

In the sequencer, data for a device is recorded and played back on a track.

D A track is always associated with a specific device in the rack.

Note, however, that a device in the rack does not necessarily need to have a corresponding track in the sequencer.

D The data contained in a clip are called “events”.

Events can be notes, performance controllers or parameter automation.

THE SEQUENCER

Track types

About the two view modes

There are three basic track types:

D Tracks for instrument devices and other devices that receive notes.

Devices such as synths, samplers or the RPG-8 arpeggiator will automatically get a record enabled track when created. On such tracks you can create any number of note lanes, and any note lane can record clips that contain any combination of data (notes/performance/automation).

D Tracks for devices that do not receive notes (effect and mixer devices)

only contain automation lanes.

Such devices do not automatically get a track when created. To automate effect or mixer parameters you need to first create a track for the corresponding device. The number of available lanes is determined by the device - there will be one dedicated lane available for each automatable parameter in the device.

✪ If you press [Alt] (Win) / [Option] (Mac) when you create a device, this

will create tracks for devices that usually don’t get tracks and vice versa.

D The Transport track.

The Transport track is always present at the top of the track list and cannot be moved or deleted. The Transport track can have two lanes; one for automating tempo changes, and one for automating time signature changes. See “Automating

tempo and time signature”.

The sequencer has two basic view modes; Arrange mode and Edit mode. You can switch between these views by clicking the button in the upper left corner of the sequencer.

Arrange mode

Arrange mode selected.

In Arrange mode, all clips on all lanes of all tracks can be shown. Use this mode to get an overview of your arrangement, and when you want to perform clip-based editing such as rearranging whole sections of your song, etc. See “Editing clips in Arrange

mode”.

Edit mode

Edit mode selected.

In Edit mode, you get a close-up look at the recorded events on a track (or a specific note lane on a track in case there are several note lanes). When Edit mode is selected, the right part of the sequencer area can be divided into several horizontal edit lanes, showing different types of events (notes, REX slices, drum sounds, automation, etc.). This is the view mode of choice for fine editing of your recording, and for drawing notes, controllers and other events manually. See “The Edit mode”.

D When you open a note clip for editing, Edit mode is automatically se-

lected.

Automation clips can be opened in either Arrange or Edit mode. Pattern clips cannot be opened, but are always edited directly in Arrange mode.

THE SEQUENCER

Track handling

Selecting tracks

! How to handle note lanes on tracks is described on page 63.

Track elements

In the picture below three tracks are shown. From the top down you have the Transport track (which is always present and cannot be moved or deleted), a Mixer track and a track belonging to a Thor device. The Thor track has Master Keyboard Input (indicated by the keyboard symbol) and two note lanes. The upper note lane is record enabled which is indicated by a lit Record button) and the lower note lane is muted (indicated by a lit Mute (“M”) button.

Routing Master Keyboard Input to a track

The standard 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.

Track specific operations apply to one or more selected tracks.

D Clicking on a track in the track list selects it.

A selected track is dark gray. By default, Master Keyboard Input also follows track selection but this can be changed as described above.

D Selecting a track will automatically scroll the rack to bring the corre-

sponding device into view.

D You can also select the next or previous track in the list by using the up

and down arrow keys on the computer keyboard.

Selecting several tracks and edit focus

D It is possible to select several tracks, by using standard [Shift] or [Ctrl]

(Win)/[Command] (Mac) selection techniques.

This allows you to e.g. move or delete several tracks in one go.

D In Edit mode you can only edit/view the contents of one track at a time

(the last selected track will have edit focus).

D To set Master Keyboard Input to a track/device, click on the track in the

track list to select it.

The device icon will get a red border and a keyboard symbol below it, indicating that the track will receive incoming note data.

D Only one track at a time can have Master Keyboard Input (i.e. note input).

If a track has several note lanes, only one note lane at a time has Master Keyboard Input - the record enabled lane.

D If you select another track the Master Keyboard Input will follow.

✪ This is the “Standard” mode of setting Master Keyboard Input. If you pre-

fer to set Master Keyboard Input independent from the track selection, select “Separated” mode in the Preferences (Keyboards and Control Surfaces page). In that mode, you click the device icon to set Master Keyboard Input to a track, regardless of selection.

Mute and Solo

To mute a track means to silence it, so that no data is sent from the track during playback. This can be very useful when you are trying out different versions of an arrangement, for bringing elements in and out of the mix during playback, etc. To solo a track means all other tracks are muted.

D To mute (silence) a track, click the corresponding Mute (M) button.

The clips on all lanes of the track will be muted.

A red M button indicates a muted track.

To unmute the track, click the M button again. Several tracks can be muted at the same time, in which case you can unmute them all by clicking the “master” M button at the top of the track list.

THE SEQUENCER

D To solo a track, click the corresponding Solo (S) button.

This mutes all other (unsoloed) tracks. Soloed tracks have green S buttons. To turn solo off, click the green Solo button again.

Here, the track Redrum 1 is soloed (indicated by a green S button).

Several tracks can be soloed at the same time, in which case you can turn off Solo for all of them by clicking the “master” S button at the top of the track list.

! Note that you can also mute individual note lanes on a track - see “Mut-

ing note lanes”.

Duplicating/copying tracks and devices

As it is not possible for a specific instance of a device to have more than one track, you cannot copy or duplicate tracks. These operations will instead duplicate/copy both the track (including all clips on the track) and its associated device (and all of its settings). The duplicated/copied device is really just like a separate device but with the same name and settings as the original device although its name will have the extension “Copy” to differentiate it from the original.

To make copies of tracks and their associated devices, complete with all lanes and recorded clips, use any of the following methods:

D Hold down [Option] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows), click on the track handle

and drag the selected track(s) to a new position in the track list.

This will not only copy the track(s) and its contents but also create a duplicate of the device(s) connected to the copied track(s).

D Bring up the context menu for the track and select “Duplicate Devices

and Tracks”.

To bring up the context menu, [Ctrl]-click (Mac) or right-click (Windows) on the track in the track list. The duplicate track will be added below the original track.

Moving tracks

D To move a track to another position in the list, click on the track handle

(the leftmost area of the track) so that it goes dark and drag the track up or down.

Just like when moving devices in the rack a red insertion line is shown indicating where the track will be placed when releasing the mouse. All clips on all lanes of the track will be moved along with the track.

D You can also select “Copy Devices and Tracks” from the context menu.

This allows you to insert the copied track/device by selecting “Paste” from the context menu. The copied track will be pasted below the currently selected track.

! Note that a duplicated/copied device will not have auto-routed audio

connections. To hear the device, flip the rack around and connect the audio outputs to an available mixer channel. You might also want to mute the original track to avoid double notes.

✪ You can also move whole note lanes or individual clips to other tracks - if

you wish to play existing clips using a different device this is the way to go - see “Selecting/moving note lanes”.

Deleting tracks

D To delete one or several tracks, select them and then select “Delete

Track” from the context menu (you can also select this from the Edit menu).

The tracks will be deleted without a warning but you can always use the undo function. See “Undo”.

You can also choose to delete tracks together with their associated devices:

You can use the same technique to move several selected tracks at once. Use standard [Shift]-select or use [Ctrl] (Win)/[Command] (Mac) to select non-adjacent tracks.

! The order of the tracks in the sequencer is independent of the device or-

der in the rack.

D To delete one or several tracks, select them and then select “Delete

Track and Device” from the context menu (you can also select this from the Edit menu).

A dialog will appear allowing you to proceed or cancel the operation.

Creating tracks

As described earlier, tracks are automatically created for devices that receive notes. But for those devices (e.g. effects) that do not automatically get tracks, or if you have deleted a track for an existing device, you need to manually create them:

THE SEQUENCER

D First select the device and then select ”Create Track for (name of de-

vice)” item on the Edit menu. This is also available on the device’s context menu.

The new track will be connected to the device and will have the same name as the device.

! Note that if a track already exists for a device this menu item will be un-

available - a device can only have one track.

Folding tracks

D To fold/unfold a track, click on the track handle arrow.

By pressing [Alt] (Win) or [Option] (Mac) and clicking on the arrow all tracks will be folded/unfolded.

A folded track will not show the individual lanes in the track list, and in the Arrange window clips are shown as horizontal strips. If the folded track has several lanes all the clips on the lanes will be shown as vertically stacked strips in Arrange mode but events and curves are not shown.

A folded track.

Basic sequencer window handling

The sequencer area below the rack.

D You can adjust the size of the sequencer area by dragging the divider be-

tween the sequencer and the rack.

D Basic clip operations (selecting, moving, copying etc.) are available for

folded tracks, although it is generally better to unfold a track if you want to edit its contents, as this gives you a better overview.

D You can also fold only the automation lanes on a track, by clicking the ar-

row next to the automation lanes in the track list.

Track Color

A track can be assigned a color in the sequencer. This works in the following way:

D To assign a color for a selected track select “Color” from the Edit menu.

On the Color submenu a list of available colors are shown.

The selected track color is reflected in all new clips you record or draw on this track (any previously recorded clips on this track will not change color). Track color is also shown in the strip to the right of the track handle in the track list.

D You can select to automatically set a color for new tracks by ticking

“Auto-color New Sequencer Tracks” on the Options menu.

The track color will be a random selection of one of the available colors.

✪ It is also possible to select a color for one or several selected clips - see

“Clip color”.

D Clicking the maximize button in the upper right corner will make the se-

quencer area fill the whole document window.

The key command for this is [Ctrl]/[Command]-[2] (to maximize the rack instead, use [Ctrl]/[Command]-[1]). Clicking the button or using the key command again will return the area to normal, un-maximized state.

The sequencer maximize button.

D When viewing the contents of a track note lane in Edit mode, the right

part of the sequencer area is divided into different edit lanes.

You view the note information in one edit lane, performance controller automation in another edit lane, and any track parameter automation lanes in a third edit lane. You can adjust the size of the edit lanes by dragging the dividers between them and by using the zoom controls.

Naming tracks

You can name tracks by double-clicking on its name in the track list. Note that naming a track also changes the name of the associated device (and vice versa).

THE SEQUENCER

Rack vs. Sequencer scroll focus

Reason has two basic states when the sequencer is part of the rack; either the rack or the sequencer has focus. Scrolling with a mouse wheel or trackpad will correspondingly either scroll the rack or the track list.

• Click in the sequencer area to switch focus to the sequencer, or on a device to switch focus to the rack.

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 sequencer will then make it possible to view all tracks or lanes at once without having to resize the sequencer or scroll the view up and down to focus on a certain track or lane.

Key, velocity and controller edit lanes are shown.

D You can scroll and change magnification in a number of ways, including

standard scroll bars and horizontal and vertical zoom controls, as well as with the Magnifying Glass tool, the Hand tool and a mouse with a scroll wheel (see page 12).

Where applicable, different edit lanes in the sequencer have separate scrollbars and zoom controls.

The separate sequencer window can be positioned and resized freely both horizontally and vertically using the basic windows techniques described on page 11.

D To detach the sequencer from the rack, either click the corresponding

button in the top right corner of the rack, or pull down the Windows menu and select “Detach Sequencer Window”.

The Detach Sequencer Window button.

D Similarly, to reattach the sequencer window to the rack, either select “At-

tach 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.

D You can also adjust the horizontal magnification in the sequencer area

by pressing [G] (zoom out) or [H] (zoom in).

You can also use [Command] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows) and press [+] or [–] (on the standard part of the computer keyboard, i.e. not on the numeric keypad). [Command]/[Ctrl]-[+] zooms in while [Command]/[Ctrl]-[–] zooms out.

D To adjust the vertical magnification, use [Shift]+[Command] (Mac) or

[Shift]+[Ctrl] (Windows) and press [+] or [–] (on the standard part of the computer keyboard, i.e. not on the numeric keypad).

[Shift]+[Command]/[Ctrl]-[+] zooms in while [Shift]+[Command]/[Ctrl]-[–] zooms out.

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.

THE SEQUENCER

About the Transport

About the ruler, song position and locators

You’ll notice that when detaching the sequencer from the rack, there will be two instances of the transport on the screen - one in the rack and one in the sequencer 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.

✪ To make the rack or the sequencer the active window when they are sep-

arated, you can use the key commands [Command]-[1] (Mac)/[Ctrl]-[1] (Windows) and [Command]-[2] (Mac)/[Ctrl]-[2] (Windows) respectively.

A note about using Reason with two monitors

If you have a computer system with two monitors, you can do the following:

D Use one monitor for viewing and managing the rack only.

D 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 graphics 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 monitors.

Regardless of which view mode is selected, you will find a horizontal ruler at the top of the sequencer display. This indicates the meter positions, that is, the positions in bars and beats.

D The numbering and detail of the ruler depends on the horizontal magni-

fication.

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 zoomed 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 informs Reason about where your song ends (see the note below).

This is the left locator. When using the Loop mode (see page 60), the left locator governs the start position of the loop.

This is the right locator. When using the Loop mode, this governs the end position of the loop.

✪ The End (E) marker indicates the end of the song. The program uses this

information when exporting the song as an audio file and when you scroll horizontally in the sequencer area. Playback or recording will not stop at the End marker.

THE SEQUENCER

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.

If you click the stop button when the song is already stopped, the song position is moved according to the following rules:

• Clicking stop the first time moves the song position to where playback was last started.

• Clicking stop a second time moves the position to the start of the song.

• If the song position is at the start of the song, nothing happens.

Fast Forward Record

Song Position

Song Position (time format)

Rewind

Stop

New Dub/New Alt buttons (see page 63)

Play

Loop on/off (see page 60)

Left and Right Locators - see page 58. The “L” and “R” buttons to the right sets the position to the left and right locator, respectively.

Transport key commands

There are fixed computer keyboard combinations for the most important transport functions:

Function

Stop [0] on the numeric keypad Play [Enter] on the numeric keypad Toggle Stop/Play Space bar Rewind [4] on the numeric keypad Fast Forward [5] on the numeric keypad

Key command

This means you can always click twice on the stop button in stop mode, to return to the beginning of the song.

• If you instead use the left locator to mark the start of the song, you can simply click the “L” button to the right of the left locator display to go to this position.

Positioning

The song position is indicated by the vertical line with the position (down arrow) marker in the ruler. There are several ways to move the song position:

D 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 position will be moved exactly one bar back or forward. To move the song position several bars, click and hold the mouse button.

D Use the transport key commands on the numeric keypad.

See the table on page 59.

Record [*] on the numeric keypad or hold

[Command] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows) and

press [Return] Go to Left Locator (Loop Start) [1] on the numeric keypad Go to Right Locator (Loop End) [2] on the numeric keypad Go to the start of the song [.] on the numeric keypad

Playback and positioning

! If you are using ReWire, transport functions can be handled by either ap-

plication. See the Rewire chapter for details.

Play and Stop

D To play back from the current song position, click the play button or

press [Enter] on the numeric keypad.

D To stop playback, click the stop button or press [0] on the numeric key-

pad.

D Click and drag the position 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.

D Adjust the song position numerically in the value displays to the left of

the transport buttons.

• The song position is shown as musical values in the top display, i.e. bars, beats, 1/ 16 notes and ticks (there are 240 ticks per 1/16 note).

• The song position is shown as time code in the lower display, i.e. hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds.

D To adjust values, click on a value field and move the mouse up or down.

You can also select a value field and use the spin control to the right or type in a new value.

THE SEQUENCER

About Snap to Grid

The Snap on/off button.

Using the loop

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 and right locator:

The Snap value pop-up.

The Snap to Grid function (from now on called “Snap”) restricts movement to specific positions. This is especially useful when you are editing in the sequencer (moving clips, drawing 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 beginning 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.

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.

D Set the left locator (the start of the loop) by dragging the “L” marker in

the ruler.

Or, you can hold down [Option] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows) and click in the ruler.

D 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.

D Both locator positions can also be adjusted numerically on the transport

panel.

Click on one of the value fields (Bars/Beats/16th notes or Ticks) and drag the mouse up or down or select a value and use the spin controls.

D To activate the loop, click the Loop On/Off button so that it lights up, or

use the corresponding key command.

On a Mac this is [/], under Windows it’s [÷], both on the numeric keypad.

When you play back in loop mode, and the song position reaches the right locator, it will immediately jump back to the left locator. This way, the area between the locators will be repeated continuously.

THE SEQUENCER

Recording

Setting up for recording

Pre-count

Activating the “Pre” button on the Transport will generate a 1 bar pre-count click before recording starts. Note that anything you play during the count-in will not be recorded.

Before you start recording, you need to make some basic settings:

Tempo and Time Signature

The tempo and time signature settings are located on the transport panel.

D You can specify any tempo between 1 and 999.999 bpm (beats per

minute).

The tempo can be adjusted in bpm steps (left value) or in steps of 1/1000 bpm (right value).

You can also adjust the tempo (in bpm steps) by using the [+] and [–] keys on the numeric keypad.

D 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 governs the length of a beat.

3/4 time selected.

Quantizing During Recording

If the Quantize Notes During Recording switch is activated on the Transport, notes will automatically be quantized when you record them. This is described in detail on

page 90.

Recording notes

When you record notes, a clip is created on the active (record enabled) note lane of the track. The clip will contain all the notes you record (plus any performance controllers used during recording - see page 64).

To record notes from your master keyboard, proceed as follows:

1. Make sure input is routed to the desired track, see “Routing Master Keyboard

Input to a track”.

The track with Master Keyboard input is automatically record enabled.

2. Move the song position to where you want the recording to start.

Recording always starts at the song position.

To move the song position, drag the position marker or click directly in the ruler.

✪ Tempo and Time Signature changes can also be automated by the Trans-

port track - see “Automating tempo and time signature”.

Click

When you record, it is 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 (by clicking the button or by pressing [C]), 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 Click Level knob.

✪ Sometimes it might be easier to use a drum machine pattern as a rhyth-

mic guide.

3. Activate the “Pre” button if you want a 1 bar pre-count click before recording starts.

4. Click the record button or press [*] on the numeric keypad.

Recording starts after the 1 bar pre-count if this is activated, otherwise recording starts immediately.

5. When you are done, click the stop button or press [0] on the numeric keypad.

A clip containing your recorded notes has been created on the note lane in the Arrange window.

A clip’s length is always automatically adjusted to the closest bar position to the right when ending a recording, independent of any Snap setting. Notes and other events contained in the clip are not affected or adjusted in any way other than if you have activated Quantize During Recording - see above.

At this point, you may want to move the song position to the beginning of the recording to listen to what you recorded. The simplest way to do this is to click the Stop button again. This moves the song position to where playback/recording last started.

THE SEQUENCER

D The recorded clip will be selected (indicated by the clip having a border

and handles at each end) and the recorded notes will be visible as events in the clip.

D You can undo the recording by selecting “Undo Recording” from the Edit

menu or by the key command [Ctrl]/[Command]+[Z].

You can also press [Backspace] to remove a selected clip.

D 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”).

Redoing part of a take

You will most probably encounter situations where you want to redo part of a recorded clip but keep the rest. As explained previously this cannot be done by recording over the clip, but there are several methods you can use to remove the part which you want to redo:

D By first erasing the specific notes you wish to redo.

If you double-click the clip you will switch to Edit mode where you can edit (move/ copy/erase etc.) individual note events in the clip - see “The Edit mode”.

D By splitting the clip.

You can use the Razor tool to split clips. This allows you to split a clip before and after the section you wish to redo. Then you can simply erase the resulting new clip (which now only contains the notes you want to redo) and record again. See

“Splitting clips”.

Recording more clips on the same note lane

If you like, you can of course continue recording on the same note lane.

• If you used “Undo Recording” (see above) or deleted the previous clip, this will simply allow you to record another take.

• If you start recording after the previous clip, this will also work as outlined in the previous section, and a new clip will be created.

• But if you kept the clip you previously recorded, and start recording from the same position, you will overdub, i.e. record notes on top of the previously recorded notes.

The following rules apply:

D No previously recorded note events are erased when recording on the

same note lane.

You cannot replace or erase recorded note events in a clip by recording over it. Recording over clips on the same note lane means that all new notes will be added to the note events that were on the note lane before. You will also hear the notes recorded previously as you record the new clip.

D Recording always creates a new clip. If you record over a previously re-

corded clip on the same note lane, the new clip will “engulf” the previous clip where they overlap.

If the new clip overlaps the previous clip completely, the previous clip and all the recorded note events it contained will be completely merged into the new clip. If the previous clip is longer than the new clip, the part of the previous clip that is not overlapped by the new clip will be snipped to a separate clip.

D By drawing a new clip inside the original clip.

If you draw a new clip so that it overlaps another, the new clip will mask all events “behind” the new clip, allowing you to record the section again. See “About over-

lapping clips”.

D By resizing the clip.

This method can be used if the section you wish to redo is at the start or end of the clip. Selected clips have handles the start and end of the clip. By moving the handles you can resize the clip. If you make the clip shorter, any note events in the clip that fall outside of the clip boundaries will be masked and will not play back. See

“Resizing clips”.

! Note that it is in many cases better to record new note data on a separate

note lane, even if you intend to add notes to a previous take (i.e. overdub). See “Adding note lanes and the New Dub/New Alt buttons” for details.

THE SEQUENCER

Basic note lane handling

Adding note lanes and the New Dub/New Alt buttons

You can add new note lanes for an instrument track. This is useful in the following circumstances:

• If you want to overdub notes or performance automation to an existing clip. (Although this can also be done on the same note lane as described previously).

• If you want to record a series of takes on separate note lanes, to later decide which take is “best” (or to edit together a composite).

On the transport there are two buttons named “New Dub” and “New Alt”. Clicking on either one will add a new note lane, but with the following difference:

D “New Dub” will add a new record enabled note lane above the previous

note lane, but will not mute the previous note lane.

In other words you will hear the note clip(s) on the previous lane if you record over the same area on the new note lane. So use “New Dub” if you wish to overdub notes or performance events to an existing clip. The new notes or events will be contained in a new clip, but this method is preferable to overdubbing on the same note lane as it gives you the option of easily redoing the overdub at any later stage. If you want the overdubbed clip(s) to be a permanent part of the clip(s) on the original note lane later you can always use the “Merge Note Lanes on Track” function

- see “Merging note lanes”.

Record enabling note lanes

Whenever a new note lane is created it is automatically record enabled. But if you have several note lanes on a track and you would like to record on a previous note lane you have to record enable it manually:

D Click on the red “Record Enable” button for the lane you wish to record-

enable.

Only one note lane at a time can be record enabled.

Muting note lanes

Individual note lanes on a track can be muted by activating the “M” button in the lane area of the track list. All clips on the corresponding note lane will be muted.

D “New Alt” will also add a new record enabled note lane above the previ-

ous note lane, but the previous note lane will automatically be muted.

Use New Alt when you want to record a new take, but still keep the previous take without playing along with it.

! If Loop is activated and the song position is inside the loop boundaries,

the clip(s) inside the left and right locators will be muted instead of the whole note lane.

D You can also add new note lanes either by clicking the “Lanes +” button

at the top the track list or by selecting “New Note Lane” from the Edit menu.

This works in the same way as “New Dub”, i.e. a new note lane is added and the previous note lane will not be muted.

D You can add note lanes “on the fly” when in record mode (or from play

mode).

A new record enabled lane will be added. If you are in record mode the new note lane will instantly be record enabled so you can continue to record without stopping.

Deleting note lanes

• Don’t confuse Lane Mute with Track Mute - see “Mute and Solo”.

• You can also mute individual clips on a lane - see “Muting clips”.

Naming note lanes

Note lanes on a track are by default named “Lane” (plus a successive number according to the creation order i.e. Lane 1, Lane 2 etc.). You can rename a note lane by double-clicking its name in the track list.

Note that lane (and track) names are not exclusive - you can have lanes and tracks with the same name but it is generally good practice to give them descriptive and unique names.

D To delete a lane, click on the “X” button for the lane in the track list.

If there are any clips recorded on the lane, a dialog opens giving you the option to cancel the operation or to proceed.

THE SEQUENCER

Selecting/moving note lanes

Note lanes are not selectable items in the same way that tracks are. Tracks (when selected) will adhere to track/device specific operations on the Edit menu for example. Individual lanes do not have any comparable edit-related functions.

However, a note lane is selectable in the following circumstances:

Recording automation

In Reason, you can automate virtually all device parameters, creating completely automated mixes if you like. This is done by recording (or drawing) controller events in the sequencer.

D In Edit mode, data for one note lane of a track is shown at a time.

By clicking on a lane you switch the view to the lane you select. See “Editing

Notes”.

D A note lane has a “handle” and can be moved vertically together with all

clips on the lane.

To move a note lane to another position in the list on the same track, click on the track handle (the leftmost area of the lane) so that it goes dark and drag the track up or down. Just like when moving tracks, a red insertion line is shown indicating where the lane will be placed when releasing the mouse.

D Note that it is possible to move note lanes between tracks - this is de-

scribed on page 64.

Merging note lanes

Note lanes on a track can be merged into a single note lane:

D Select the track with the note lanes you wish to merge and then select

“Merge Note Lanes on Tracks” from the Edit menu or the track context menu.

The note clips on all note lanes will be merged to the top lane.

Performance controller vs. track parameter automation

Recording automation can be done in two different ways; either as performance controller automation or as track parameter automation.

D Performance controller automation is automatically recorded in note

clips on note lanes.

Any standard MIDI performance controllers that you apply when playing (Pitch Bend etc.) will be recorded as performance automation in the note clip. A clip on a note lane can contain any combination of note events, performance automation events and parameter automation events.

Performance automation is shown as curves in the clip.

D Track parameter automation creates separate automation lanes on a

track, one for each automated parameter.

Automation lanes are shown in the lane area of the track list and can be created manually or automatically (by tweaking parameters on the device connected to the track while recording). See “Editing automation”.

A percussion track with separate note lanes, one for each drum sound.

The same track after merging.

D Muted lanes or clips on the track will not be included in the merge.

D If there are gaps between the clips on the lanes, several clips will be cre-

ated.

! Note that if there is any performance controller data (e.g. pitch bend) in

several note clips at the same position, only the performance data from the top lane will be included in the merged clip. See “Recording perfor-

mance controller automation” for details.

An automation lane in the track list.

Which method you should use depends on how you prefer to work and the situation at hand. The main differences to take into account are the following:

D If you are planning to record automation on several tracks at the same

time using a control surface device, you have to use track parameter automation.

Track parameter automation has separate, independent record-enable buttons for automation recording. These can be activated for any number of tracks simultaneously, unlike the record-enable buttons for note lanes. (See “Recording automa-

tion on multiple tracks”).

D Performance parameter automation allows you to contain the automa-

tion data in a note clip together with note events.

Standard MIDI performance controllers will always be recorded as performance parameter automation. See below for more details.

! Note that a parameter may be assigned to both performance parameter

and track parameter automation. See page 87 for details.

THE SEQUENCER

Recording performance controller automation

If you use any MIDI performance controllers when recording on a note lane, these are automatically added to the recorded clip. This makes sense as performance controllers are usually recorded at the same time you record notes, as a part of the performance.

Standard MIDI performance controllers are Pitch Bend, Modulation Wheel, Sustain Pedal, Aftertouch, Breath Control and Expression.

To record standard performance controller automation proceed as follows:

1. Make sure the track is unfolded, record enabled and has master keyboard input.

2. Start recording and use one or more performance controllers as you play., e.g. pitch bend and/or mod wheel.

3. Click stop when you are done.

The clip you recorded will now have automation curves visible in the clip along with the recorded note data. If you used Pitch Bend and/or Mod Wheel when recording these controllers will also have a green border around them on the device panel to indicate they are automated. If you play back the clip, the notes and controllers will play back exactly as recorded.

Performance controllers are shown as curves in the note clip. In this picture pitch bend, mod wheel and sustain pedal controllers have been used.

Depending on the type of controller used the performance automation is shown differently in the clip. Controllers with bipolar values (like pitch bend) is shown as a line in the middle when at zero (no pitch bend) with curves going up or down from the zero value. Controllers with only positive values (like Mod wheel) has zero at the bottom of the clip with applied modulation shown as curves going up from the zero value. Controllers with off/on values (like sustain pedal) is shown as rectangular curves (on - duration- off)

D If you open the clip in Edit mode (by double-clicking on the clip), the re-

corded performance data will be placed on different edit lanes.

Click on the “Switch to Arrange Mode” button in the top left corner of the sequencer window to return to Arrange mode. You can also use |Ctrl]/[Command]+[E] to toggle between the views. See “Editing performance controller

automation”.

Performance edit lanes in Edit mode.

D Note that you can record notes and performance controllers separately.

I.e. you can first record notes on one note lane and then record performance controllers on another note lane. The automation will be contained in clips placed on a separate lane and can also be moved or muted separately.

D To edit the automation curves, see “Editing existing automation events”.

D To manually add or delete performance parameter automation edit

lanes, see “Drawing automation events”.

Redoing performance automation

If you wish to replace or redo recorded performance controller data this works as follows:

If you enter record for a note lane that has clips with performance data on it, you will create a new clip that will engulf the previously recorded clip(s) where they overlap. As outlined in the section “Recording more clips on the same note lane” no notes will be erased if you record over clips on the same note lane, but it works differently for performance automation data:

D If you record over a note clip with performance automation data and you

adjust any of the performance controllers used in the original clip, the automation will be replaced with new performance data from this point onward until you stop recording.

If the new clip is shorter than the previous clip, the performance automation in the previous clip will “take over” when the new clip ends.

THE SEQUENCER

About performance controller automation on multiple lanes

Recording track parameter automation

If you have several active (unmuted) note clips with performance controller automation on different lanes of the same track, and these note clips overlap position-wise, the following rule applies:

D Performance controllers in the top lane clip overrides any performance

controllers of the same type in other overlapping clips on lanes below.

The clip on the upper lane has pitch bend down automation, and the clip on the lower lane has pitch bend up automation and note events. The pitch bend affecting the notes will follow the automation curve of the upper clip for its duration. As soon as the upper clip ends, the notes will be affected by the pitch bend up automation in the lower lane.

About the “Automation As Performance Control” option

You can also chose to record any type of parameter automation as performance parameter automation, i.e. the automation will be contained in note clips on a note lane as opposed to being recorded on separate automation lanes.

D This is activated by the “Automation As Perf Ctrl” button below the

transport controls on the transport panel.

When this is activated, any parameter you tweak on the device connected to the track while recording will be recorded as performance automation in a note clip, and no automation lanes will be created.

Track parameter automation is the standard way to automate device parameters. Each parameter that is automated for a device will get a separate automation lane on the track. There are no separate Record Enable buttons for automation lanes, only a global Automation Record Enable button for the whole track.

The Automation Record Enable button.

Before you record automation

Before you start recording automation of a parameter or manually create a parameter automation track (see below), you may want to set it to a suitable “static value”. By this, we mean the value the parameter should have whenever it isn’t automated in the song. Here is why:

D When you first create an automation lane for a parameter either manu-

ally or automatically, its original value will be inserted a a static value throughout the rest of the song wherever there isn’t an automation clip with events present on the lane.

Let’s say you want to create a fade-out by recording a fader movement in the Mixer. Then it’s a good idea to first set the fader to the correct static value (i.e. the value the fader should be set to before you start the fade-out).

The same thing is true if you want to create a filter sweep for a synthesizer, somewhere within the song: First set the filter frequency to the value it should have elsewhere in the song, then record the filter sweep.

This makes it possible to set up a static mix first, and then add some automated parameter changes anywhere in the song while maintaining the static values elsewhere in the song.

While this method is perfect for making a clip self-contained, there are some tradeoffs. If you use this method to record device parameters, you won’t have the same overview as with track parameter automation. You also won’t be able to later mute the separate automation edit lanes, or move them independently.

D The static value can later be manually changed for an automation lane in

Edit mode without overriding any automation.

See “Editing automation”.

Basic procedure

1. Make sure there is a sequencer track for the device.

For devices that can receive note data, a sequencer track is automatically created together with the device. For a mixer or effect device, you need to add a track manually before you can start recording parameter automation.

THE SEQUENCER

D If the device that you wish to automate doesn’t have a sequencer track,

the quickest way to add one is by selecting “Create Track for (name of device)” from the device context menu ([Ctrl]-click (Mac) or right-click on the device panel).

This will create a new record enabled sequencer track for the device, without any automation lanes.

D If the track has note lanes you may want turn off the Record Enable but-

ton for the active note lane (unless you plan to record notes and parameter automation simultaneously of course).

If the note lane already has clips recorded on it, a new clip will be created when you record, that will engulf any previous clips on the note lane that the recording encompasses. Although nothing will be erased, you may end up with a single clip instead of several separate clips and the original clips may also be split where you don’t want them to be split. See picture examples below.

5. Stop recording.

On the device panel, each automated parameter will have a green frame.

The parameters Feedback and Pan are automated.

In Arrange mode, clips on automation lanes indicate the recorded automation data. Clips on automation lanes differ from note clips in that they have a cut upper right edge. Automation lanes only have an “On” button and a “Delete Automation Lane” (X) button.

If you play back the recorded section again, the parameters will change automatically. Outside the clip boundaries, the parameters will have their original settings (the static values they had before you started recording).

Recording more for the same parameter

If you need to redo a section of the recorded automation, or simply record more automation for a parameter, proceed as follows:

Recording automation with the note lane record enabled.

The track is now ready for automation recording. Note that it is not necessary for the track to be selected or for the track to have Master Keyboard Input to record automation. The Automation Record Enable button is completely independent from Master Keyboard Input.

2. Set up the device parameters as you want them (for the static values as explained previously).

3. Start recording from the desired position.

4. During recording, adjust the desired parameter(s), from the device panel or from a MIDI remote control surface.

You can automate any parameter for the device - each parameter you tweak will automatically generate an automation lane and a clip will be recorded on the corresponding lane from the point you changed the parameter.

1. Set up and start recording in the same way as described above.

As long as you don’t touch the parameter, its automation data will be played back normally, and no new clip will be created.

2. At the desired position, adjust the parameter.

As soon as you start changing the parameter value, the Automation Override indicator will light up on the transport panel, and a new clip will be created.

D From this point on, the previously recorded automation will be replaced

with the automation events in the new clip.

Automation recording is different from recording on note lanes where nothing is erased when you record over previously recorded clips. A new automation clip instead will replace any previous automation clip(s) at the same position for the duration of the recording. Automation clips logically cannot be “overdubbed” as you cannot have two clips with active automation data for the same parameter simultaneously.

THE SEQUENCER

3. Stop recording when you are done.

You have now replaced the automation from where you started recording to where you stopped recording. The Automation Override indicator will still be lit but it will go off if you click stop or play on the transport.

D You can also click the Reset button below the Automation Override indi-

cator during recording.

This “resets” the parameter and the automation recording will stop (making the previously recorded automation active again, from that position). You are still in record mode, so as soon as you adjust the parameter again, the Automation Override indicator will light up and a new clip will be created. Basically, clicking the Reset button is the same as stopping recording and starting recording again.

D How to edit automation events is described on page 84.

D See “Adding/removing automation lanes” for a description of how to

manually add parameter automation lanes.

Deleting automation lanes

Deleting an automation lane is done by clicking the “X” button so it goes dark. If the lane has clips on it a dialog appears where you have the option to cancel or proceed with the operation.

Folding automation lanes

You can fold all automation lanes for a track which can make the arrangements a lot less cluttered if you use automation extensively.

D To fold all automation lanes, click the arrow on the handle of the top au-

tomation lane.

All automation lanes will be folded, and clips on the lanes will be displayed as thin horizontal strips, just like note clips for folded tracks.

Moving automated parameters during playback - “Live mode”

Even if you have automated a parameter, you can still “grab it” and adjust it during playback, overriding the automation:

1. During playback, adjust an automated parameter.

The Automation Override indicator lights up on the transport panel. From this point onward, the recorded automation for the parameter is disabled.

2. To activate the automation again, click the Reset button.

This returns control of the parameter to the sequencer.

Recording automation on multiple tracks

Although only one track can have Master Keyboard input, it is possible to record enable any number of tracks for automation recording.

D Simply activate the Automation Record Enable button for the tracks you

wish to record automation for.

D When recording is activated, all automation record enabled tracks will

record track parameter changes from their respective devices in the rack.

This is especially useful if you have multiple control surfaces, controlling different devices in the rack while you’re recording. See the Remote control chapter for details.

D Pressing [Alt] and clicking on the arrow will fold/unfold the automation

lanes on all tracks.

Switching track parameter automation lanes off and on

You can switch off automation lanes by clicking the yellow “On” for a lane button so it goes dark. This will freeze whatever value the parameter had when switching off the automation lane. Clicking the button again reactivates the automation.

THE SEQUENCER

Recording pattern changes

If your song contains pattern devices, you probably want to use more than a single pattern throughout the song. To facilitate this you can record pattern changes in the sequencer (or draw them in manually, as described on page 88).

1. Locate the sequencer track for the device, and make sure the Record Enable Parameter Automation button is active.

You can disable the Record Enable button for the note lane for now as it won’t be needed.

2. Set the desired start pattern on the pattern device.

3. Start recording from the desired position.

When recording starts, the pattern device will automatically start. Although no clip will be created until you change pattern, the start pattern is being recorded.

4. During recording, change patterns with the Bank and Pattern buttons on the device panel.

Make sure to change the patterns slightly in advance - the actual pattern change will be recorded (and happen) on the next downbeat according to the main sequencer time signature.

About the toolbar

The toolbar is located above the track list in the sequencer. It contains various tools for clip and event editing in the sequencer.

From left to right, the toolbar contains the following items:

• The Edit/Arrange mode switch button - see “About the two view modes”.

• The Arrow tool (or Selection tool) - this is the main tool used for selecting, resizing and moving clips or events. This is selected by default.

• The Pencil tool is used for drawing clips and events.

• The Erase tool is used for deleting clips and events.

• The Razor tool is used for splitting clips - see “Splitting clips”.

• The Magnifying Glass tool is used to zoom the sequencer view in or out.

• The Hand tool is used for scrolling the view.

• The Snap pop-up and On/Off switch - see below.

5. When you are done, stop recording.

There will be a green frame around the pattern selection buttons to indicate that pattern changes are automated for the device. A Pattern Select automation lane with pattern clips has also been created.

Pattern automation clips on the Pattern Select lane.

D Pattern automation has no “static value”. If the pattern selection is auto-

mated, patterns will only be played back where there are pattern clips.

Where the pattern lane is empty, no pattern will be played back.

D Each pattern change will be recorded on a downbeat (at the start of a

new bar in the sequencer).

You can move pattern changes to other positions by moving or resizing pattern clips, see “Editing Pattern Change clips”.

D You can punch in on recorded pattern changes, to replace a section of

the track.

D After recording the pattern changes, you can use the function Convert

Pattern Track to Notes, to transfer the notes in the patterns to the main sequencer.

This allows you to create unlimited variations by later editing the notes in Edit mode.

D A quick way to switch between the different tools is to use the

“Q,W,E,R,T,Y” keys on your computer keyboard.

“Q” selects the Arrow tool, “W” selects the Pencil tool and so on, in the same order as the tools are placed on the toolbar.

D You can also manually draw automation clips on the Pattern Select lane

- see “Editing Pattern Change clips”.

THE SEQUENCER

About Snap

Editing clips in Arrange

When you select and edit material (both in the Arrange and Edit mode), the Snap function affects the result. By activating Snap, editing becomes “restricted” to the note values selected on the Snap pop-up menu (the Snap value). The Snap button and pop-up menu are located on the sequencer toolbar: You can also toggle Snap on/off by pressing [S].

Use this pop-up menu to select the Snap value.

Click here to turn Snap on or off.

! Note that you can select different Snap values for arranging and for edit-

ing the contents of open clips. See page 80.

mode

The Arrange mode allows you to view several tracks at the same time, and provides a good overview of the song. This view is used for clip-based editing, such as rearranging clips, adding or removing bars or applying quantizing and editing functions to clips on different tracks and lanes at the same time.

Snap has an effect on the following operations:

D Moving the Song position, Locators and End marker.

When you adjust these markers with Snap activated, they will be “magnetic” to the Snap value.

D Moving clips and events.

When you move one or several clips or events with Snap activated, they will keep their relative distance to the Snap value positions.

D Drawing clips.

When you create clips with the Pencil tool, their start and end positions will be magnetic to the snap value positions. See page 74.

D Drawing events in open clips.

The Snap value determines the smallest note position on which you can draw a note or an automation point. Furthermore, the Snap value determines the smallest length of notes when you draw. See page 81.

D Using the Razor tool to split clips.

See “Splitting clips”.

D Nudging clips or events.

See “Nudging clip positions” and “Nudging event positions”.

D To select Arrange mode, click the Arrange/Edit mode button in the top

left corner of the sequencer area.

You can also toggle between Arrange mode and Edit mode by pressing [Shift][Tab] or [Command]/[Ctrl]-[E].

Selecting clips

A clip is selected by clicking on it (with the Arrow tool). A selected clip has a black border and two handles at each end of the clip.

THE SEQUENCER

To select multiple clips in Arrange mode, click and drag a selection rectangle.

D You can draw a selection rectangle covering several tracks or lanes.

Any clips touched by the selection rectangle will be selected.

D If you hold down [Shift] when you select clips, any already selected clips

remain selected.

This allows you to make multiple, non-contiguous selections: first select some clips, then press [Shift] and select some more clips, and so on.

D You can also use the “Select All” function on the Edit menu.

This selects all clips in the song.

D Another way of selecting clips is to use the arrow keys on the computer

keyboard.

Pressing the right arrow key selects the next clip on the lane, pressing the down arrow key selects the closest clip on the lane below, etc. Holding down [Shift] and using the left/right arrow keys allows you to make multiple selections on the same lane.

D Double-clicking a note clip opens it for editing in Edit mode.

To return to Arrange mode click the “Switch to Arrange Mode” button in the top left corner of the sequencer (or press [Shift]+ [Tab]). Editing clip contents is described from page 78 onwards.

Nudging clip positions

You can use the left/right arrow keys to “nudge” the positions of clips:

• Pressing [Command] (Mac)/[Ctrl] (Windows) and using the left or right arrow key moves the position back or forward by the set Snap value.

• Pressing [Command]+[Option] (Mac)/[Ctrl]+ [Alt] (Windows) and using the left or right arrow key moves the position back or forward in tick increments (there are 240 ticks per 1/16 note so this is very fine editing - check the tick positions in the inspector when you nudge because otherwise you won’t “see” the position changes).

• Pressing [Command]+[Shift] (Mac)/[Ctrl]+ [Shift] (Windows) and using the left or right arrow key moves the position back or forward in beat increments.

Moving clips between lanes

You can move clips between lanes, either on the same track or to lanes on other tracks:

D Simply click and drag the clip to the position want it be on the other lane.

The set Snap value is taken in to account if activated.

About alien clips

D You can move note clips to other note lanes and automation clips to

other automation lanes (if applicable - see below).

It is possible to move a note clip to an automation lane or an automation clip to a note lane but the clip will become “alien” and won’t be active. An alien clip is indicated by having red stripes.

D Double-clicking a track parameter automation clip opens it for editing di-

rectly in Arrange mode.

D To de-select clips, just click anywhere in an empty area.

Moving clips on the same lane

D To move a clip, click on it and drag it to a new position.

To move several clips, select them using standard techniques and use click and drag on any of the selected clips. They will be moved by the same amount but keep relative positions.

D If Snap is activated, you will only be able to drop the selection so that it

maintains its relative distance to the Snap value positions.

See “About Snap”.

D You can also move the start position of selected clips numerically in the

inspector - see “About the inspector strip and selected clips”.

An “alien” clip.

An automation clip can become alien if it is moved to an automation lane for a parameter with a different value range (for example if you cross-browse to another device type).

D In most cases, you can fix this by selecting the clip and selecting “Adjust

Alien Clips to Lane” from the Edit menu.

For example if a clip for a parameter that has a bipolar (-64 to 63) value range is moved to an automation lane with a unipolar (0 to 127) value range it will become alien. But selecting “Adjust Alien Clips to Lane” will scale the clip data to fit the range of the current lane.

The general rules are as follows:

• An automation clip for a parameter with a 0 to 127 range can be moved to another automation lane if the parameter for this lane has the same value range.

• An automation clip for a parameter with a 63 to -64 range can be moved to another automation lane if the parameter for this lane has the same value range.

• An automation clip for a parameter with a 0 to 1 range (i.e. an on/off switch) can be moved to another automation lane if the parameter for this lane has the same value range.

THE SEQUENCER

Moving clips with performance controller automation data to another track

If you move note clips that contains performance controller automation to another track (for a different type of instrument device) there are a few things to note.

Using Cut, Copy and Paste

You can move or duplicate clips using the Cut, Copy and Paste commands on the Edit menu. When you Paste, the clips appear at the song position, on their original lane(s).

D If you have only recorded standard performance controllers (Pitch Bend,

Mod Wheel and Sustain pedal) in the note clip, these will usually transcribe without any problems when moving to another device track.

Just be aware that all devices do not respond to all performance controllers - the Malström for example does not respond to Aftertouch, Expression or Breath performance controller data.

D If you have recorded non-standard controller parameters for a device in

the note clip using the “Automation as Performance control” option (see

page 66) some automated parameters may not have an equivalent pa-

rameter in the target device.

In such cases the automation data for a incompatible controller will simply be ignored.

D Parameters common to most instrument devices (filters, envelopes etc.)

will be transferred to the target device whenever applicable.

Duplicating clips

To duplicate selected clips, hold down [Option] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows) and proceed as when moving clips.

Moving a note lane to another track

You can move a note lane, complete with all clips to a note lane on another track:

D Click on the note lane handle in the track list and drag it to another track.

Press [Option] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows) if you want to copy the lane rather than move it.

If you Paste into another Reason song document, new tracks will be created as needed. Since all tracks must have a device, the new tracks will be connected to empty Combinators - use the browser on the Combinator to select a suitable patch and device type.

The same rules apply regarding alien clips and performance automation as described above.

Using Copy and Paste to repeat a section

When you Cut or Copy a selection, the song position will automatically move to the end of the selection (or, if Snap is activated, to the closest Snap value position after the end of the selection). This allows you to quickly repeat a section of clips, in the following way:

1. Make sure playback is stopped.

2. Set the Snap value to “Bar” (or to the length of the section you want to repeat, if is smaller than one bar).

3. Activate Snap.

4. Select the clips you want to repeat.

Since you can make selections on note lanes on several tracks, this is a quick way to copy entire song sections.

5. Select Copy from the Edit menu.

The song position is moved to the closest snap value after the end of the selection (provided that playback is stopped).

6. Select Paste from the Edit menu.

The copied section is pasted in, and the song position is moved to the end of pasted section.

This operation will always create a new note lane on the track and place the clips on this new lane. All clips on the moved lane will keep their positions.

• The same rules apply regarding performance automation as described above.

• Track automation lanes cannot be moved using this method.

THE SEQUENCER

7. Paste again, as many times as you want to repeat the section.

Deleting clips

D To delete a clip, select it and press [Delete] or [Backspace] or select De-

lete from the Edit menu.

You can also draw selection rectangles with the Arrow tool, encompassing several clips and delete them all at once. The same rules apply as when selecting clips.

Deleting clips with the Eraser tool

You can also use the Eraser tool to delete clips in Arrange mode. The Eraser tool can be used in two ways: You can single click on events or you can make a selection rectangle encompassing several events.

Resizing the clip back makes the hidden notes visible and active again.

D If you resize a clip so that note events still have their start position within

the clip boundaries but the notes “stick out” outside the clip, these notes will still be visible and played for the entire length of the events.

Deleting clips by single clicking

D Select the Eraser tool and click on the event you want to delete.

Deleting events by making a selection rectangle

D Select the Eraser tool, click and hold the mouse button and draw a selec-

tion rectangle.

This way, you can make a selection encompassing several events and delete them all at once.

! Note that a clip doesn’t have to be fully enclosed to be selected - the se-

lection rectangle only needs to intersect or touch the clip.

Resizing clips

Selected clips can be resized using various methods:

D A selected clip has handles at the start and end. By dragging one of the

the handles you can resize the clip.

You can make the clip longer or shorter. Snap, if activated, is taken into account as usual.

D You can resize several selected clips simultaneously.

D You can edit a selected clip’s length numerically in the inspector strip.

See page 74.

D If you want to remove all events outside a clip (or a whole track, affecting

all clips) and select “Crop Events to Clips” from the Edit menu.

This can be useful if you have many “outside events” and find that they make the view confusing when editing open clips.

D The only time Reason will automatically remove events outside clips is if

you join two clips together (see “Joining clips”) and there are hidden events between the clips.

In that case, those events are removed - otherwise the joined clip would play back differently than the two original clips!

About overlapping clips

If you move or resize clips so that two clips overlap the following rules apply:

D Clips or sections of clips that are hidden (overlapped) will not play back.

Each note lane will play a single clip at a time - if you want to mix two note clips, put them on separate lanes.

D If you make the clip shorter, any events with start positions outside of

the clip’s boundaries will not be visible in Arrange mode and will not be played.

The events will still be there although hidden (they are visible in Edit mode - see

page 82), and will become visible and active again if you resize the clip back to the

original length position (or longer).

When resizing the clip making it shorter, any events that fall outside the clip boundaries will be hidden and won’t play back.

D The clip with the later start position will appear on top (and be played

back).

This means if a shorter clip is placed “in the middle” of a longer clip, the program will play the beginning of the long clip, then the shorter clip and then the end of the long clip.

D If both clips start at the same position and have the same length, one of

the clips will be completely hidden, and won’t play back at all.

THE SEQUENCER

Drawing clips

You can draw empty clips in Arrange mode using the Pencil tool. This is useful if you want to manually draw events into a clip.

D Select the Pencil tool and draw over the range you want the clip.

Snap is taken into account. The type of clip you create depends on the lane type (note lane, pattern lane etc.).

Muting clips

Selected clips can be muted:

D Select the clips and then select “Mute Clips” from the Edit menu or from

the clip context menu.

You can also select clips and press “M” to mute them. Unmute by selecting “Unmute Clips” or by pressing M again. Muted clips are shown without colors and with dimmed borders.

A muted clip.

Joining clips

D You can also click and drag with the razor tool to cut out a range, on one

or several lanes.

D To split clips on all tracks and lanes, click (or click and drag to make a

range selection) in the ruler.

Naming clips

You can name an individual clip by selecting it and then selecting “Add Labels to Clips” from the Edit menu (or the clip context menu). A text field is opened where you can enter a name for the clip.

When adding labels to several selected clips in one go, they will all get generic names according to the clip type (e.g. “untitled note clip”). Double-clicking on a label opens the text field where you can enter the label text.

Separate clips on a lane can be joined to one clip. You can even join clips that aren’t directly adjacent on the lane. It works in the following way:

1. Select the clips you wish to join.

2. Select “Join Clips” from the Edit menu or from the clip context menu.

A single clip is created. If there was a gap between the clips before the operation this area will be empty - the relative positions of all events in the original clips will be kept in the joined clip. See also the note about events outside clips on page 73.

D You can also join selected clips that have other unselected clips between

them.

The unselected clips in between will then overlap and mask the joined clip at their original positions.

Splitting clips

You can split clips using the Razor tool in the following ways:

D Clicking with the razor tool on a clip splits it at the click position (taking

the Snap setting into account).

The Razor tool’s left edge has a line that indicates where the split will take place.

About the inspector strip and selected clips

The inspector strip is located above the ruler. Here you can edit clips and events numerically using value fields, or add automation or pattern lanes. What is shown in the inspector strip varies according to whether a track, clip or an event of some type is selected.

For clips it works as follows:

D If no clip is selected (or if the track list has focus), only the Track Param-

eter Automation pop-up (see page 84) and the Create Pattern Lane button are shown.

THE SEQUENCER

D If you select a clip, two value fields appear, showing the clip start posi-

tion (Pos) and the clip length (Len) in bars, beats, 1/16 notes and ticks (in that order).

You can edit these numerical values by selecting a value field (e.g. beats) and dragging, using the spin controls or typing. This will change the corresponding start position (or length) of the selected clip in increments of the selected value. Snap is not taken into account.

D If several clips are selected on the same track lane, the value fields will

show the position and length for the clip with the earliest start position.

Editing values for several selected clips

When you edit values for several selected clips, the changes will always be relative. For example if you raise the clip position by 2 beats when several clips are selected, they will all move by 2 beats, retaining their relative positions.

D If several clips are selected on different tracks (or lanes), the clip on the

uppermost track or lane is shown.

If the uppermost track/lane has several selected clips, the value for the clip with the earliest start position on this lane is shown.

✪ You can also add or subtract to values by typing “+” or “–”.

For example, selecting the Bars value in the Position display and typing “+3” will move all selected clips three bars forwards.

THE SEQUENCER

About Match values

When several clips are selected and their values differ in position and/or length, the Match values button appears beside the corresponding numerical value field (position or length).

The Match values button.

These buttons can be used to match the values so that all clips get the same position or length, respectively. It works as follows:

If you click on the position Match values button all selected clips will get the same start position and the button disappears.

These 3 clips have the same start positions but different lengths so only the length value field shows the Match values button.

Now the selected clips have different start positions and different lengths so both value fields shows the Match values button.

If you click on the length Match values button all selected clips will get the same length and the button disappears.

About subticks

When editing you have a resolution of 240 ticks per 1/16 note, which allows for very accurate positioning. But when you record notes, the internal resolution is even higher (15260 ppq) which means that values can be fractions of a tick (subticks). This is indicated by an asterisk after the tick value.

To round off the value to the nearest tick, [Command]-click (Mac)/[Ctrl]-click (Windows) on the asterisk.

THE SEQUENCER

Inserting and Removing Bars

Editing automation clips in Arrange mode

When editing the overall structure of a song, you may need to rearrange the order and length of whole sections (e.g. make the “verse” two bars shorter, add a few bars to the intro, etc.). On the Edit menu or sequencer context menu you will find two useful functions for this:

Insert Bars Between Locators

This function inserts an empty area between the locators. All clips that intersect the locator positions on all tracks after the left locator are split and moved to the right to “make room” for the inserted area.

Remove Bars Between Locators

Double-clicking an automation clip opens it for editing, but unlike note clips you will stay in Arrange mode and not switch over to Edit mode. This is convenient if you only want to edit the automation events for one specific parameter. How to edit the automation is identical to how it’s done in Edit mode - see page 85 for a description of this.

To close an open automation clip in Arrange mode click outside it (in another lane) or press Return or Escape.

Other editing functions in Arrange mode

You can also apply quantizing (see page 89) and use the edit functions on the Tool window - Tools page (see page 89) in Arrange mode. This is useful since it allows you to edit clips on several tracks in one go.

D You can select one or several tracks and have quantizing or other Tools

page edit functions apply to all notes in all clips on the selected tracks.

Selecting several tracks is done by [Shift]-clicking in the track list. The Tool window - Tools page edit functions are described on page 89.

This function removes all material between the locators. All clips that intersect the locator positions on all tracks after the left locator are split and moved to the left to “fill out” the gap after the removed section.

Clip color

D You can color selected clips independently from track color by selecting

“Clip Color” from the Edit menu and then choosing a color from the submenu.

All selected clips will get the selected color. If you record new clips on the lane, the set Track color applies.

THE SEQUENCER

The Edit mode

The Edit mode allows you to edit events inside a clip. This is where you perform detailed editing of note and automation events.

D To select Edit mode, click the Edit/Arrange mode button in the top left

corner of the sequencer area.

Opening a clip in Edit mode

D To edit the contents of a note clip, double-click it, or select it and press

[Return].

Opening a note clip automatically switches the sequencer to Edit mode.

Double-clicking a note clip in Arrange mode...

Edit mode selected with a note clip open for editing.

You can also toggle between Arrange mode and Edit mode by pressing [Shift][Tab] or [Command]/[Ctrl]+[E].

Selecting what to edit

The Edit mode always shows the contents of a single track (or for a single note lane on a track) at a time. Only one note lane can have edit focus at a time.

D If one track is selected when you enter Edit mode, that track contents will

be shown.

All clips on this note lane will be shown and available for editing but no clips will be open, and the clip events will be grayed out. To be able to edit or draw notes or automation events, you need to open a clip, as described below.

D If the track has multiple note lanes it will show the contents of the cur-

rently selected note lane.

To switch between note lanes, click on the note lane handle.

D You can change track at any time, by clicking in the track list.

This way you can stay in Edit mode and select different tracks and note lanes for editing, without having to go back to Arrange mode.

...opens it for editing in Edit mode. An open clip in Edit mode is highlighted.

D Double-clicking a automation clip will open it for editing in Arrange

mode which is convenient for quick editing of a single parameter.

All track parameter automation clips for a track are shown and can be edited in Edit mode. How to edit automation is described on page 85.

THE SEQUENCER

The Edit mode elements

In Edit mode, the view is divided into various edit lanes which are used for editing different types of events in a note clip (i.e. notes, velocity and performance controller automation events). Any Track parameter automation lanes on the track will also be shown and can be edited in Edit mode.

Overview

Note edit lane

D Next you have edit lanes for performance controller automation.

Each performance controller you use when recording will get a separate edit lane. You can also add performance controller lanes using the Note Lane Performance Parameter Automation pop-up above the vertical zoom controls to the right. See

page 87.

D Lastly, any Track parameter automation used will be shown on separate

lanes.

Note that Track parameter automation does not “belong” to the selected note lane or note clip, and will not be selected if a note clip is open. Clips on Track automation lanes will affect all active note lanes on a track at the same position. Doubleclicking on a Track parameter automation clip will open it for editing. See “Editing

automation”.

About the note edit modes

Velocity edit lane

Performance controller edit lanes.

Track parameter automation lanes.

The picture shows three clips in Edit mode. The middle clip is open for editing. Adjacent clips on the same lane will be visible but the events will be grayed out.

By default, the note edit mode selected when you select Edit mode depends on the device type to which the track is connected. For standard instrument tracks, Key edit mode is selected, for Redrum tracks, Drum edit mode is selected, and for Dr.Rex tracks, the REX edit mode is selected.

You can manually change between these modes by using the pop-up in the upper right corner of the note area.

The note edit mode can be stored individually for each track (or each note lane on a track). The next time you select Edit mode for that track (or note lane), the note edit mode will be the same.

From the top down in the picture, the Edit mode view contains the following elements:

D At the top is the Overview.

The Overview shows all the clips on the selected track note lane. It displays clips like in Arrange mode and you can select several clips on the same note lane. You can perform any clip-based editing in the Overview - it works exactly like in Arrange mode - but you can only apply the editing to clips on the same lane.

D Next is the Note edit lane where you perform all of your note event edit-

ing.

Here you can edit notes for one open clip at a time. The Note edit lane can show one of three Note edit modes (see page 79).

D Below the Note edit lane is the Velocity edit lane where you can graphi-

cally edit note velocity values. See “Editing velocity”.

Key edit mode. The piano keyboard to the left indicates the pitch of the notes, covering the whole MIDI note range (C-2 to G8). Note that the black and white keys are reflected in the background colors of the grid, making it easier to find the right pitch when drawing and moving notes! Use this when editing instrument tracks.

THE SEQUENCER

Drum edit mode. This is divided vertically into note numbers, corresponding to the drum sound

The Maximize Sequencer button.

channels on a Redrum device (and named accordingly, if the track is connected to a Redrum device). Use this for editing drum tracks.

REX edit mode. This is divided vertically into pitches (from C3 and up), corresponding to the slices in a Dr.Rex loop player device. Use this for editing Dr.Rex tracks.

D In all three modes, the actual notes are shown as “boxes”, with the note

length indicated by the width of the box and the velocity values indicated by the color of the box (the darker the color, the higher the velocity).

The basic note editing procedures are the same for all three lanes.

About separate Snap values for arranging and editing

There are two different Snap settings, one for when a clip is open for editing, and one for when no clip is open (e.g. in Arrange mode). Typically, you would set a fine Snap value (e.g. 1/16) for open clips and have the other Snap value set to “Bar” for convenient arranging. You can also choose to turn Snap off in any of these modes, independently of the other setting.

D The Snap value for editing is used whenever a note clip or automation

clip is open (including when an automation clip is opened in Arrange mode).

However, there’s one exception: If a note clip is open in Edit mode and you click in the Overview, the clip will remain open but the Snap value for arranging will be selected. This allows you to e.g. move or resize the clip in the Overview just like in Arrange mode, without closing it first.

Edit mode window handling

Resizing and Zooming

D You can resize or hide edit lanes by dragging the dividers between them.

D Where applicable, the lanes have individual zoom controls and scroll-

bars.

D The Magnifying Glass tool can be used for zooming in and out.

Click to zoom in, and click while pressing [Option] (Mac)/[Ctrl] (Windows) to zoom out.

D The Hand tool can be used for scrolling the view in any direction.

Just click, hold and drag in the desired direction.

D For extensive editing, you may want to detach the sequencer area from

the rack and use it in a separate window.

This is done either by clicking the Detach Sequencer button in the rack or by selecting “Detach Sequencer Window” from the Windows menu.

The Detach Sequencer button.

To reattach the sequencer, either click the Attach Sequencer button (in the rack or in the detached sequencer window) or select “Attach Sequencer Window” from the Windows menu.

D Alternatively, you can also maximize the sequencer area so that it fills

the rack.

This is done by clicking the Maximize Sequencer button or by holding down [Command] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows) and pressing [2] on the left part of the computer keyboard.

THE SEQUENCER

Drawing Notes

Notes are drawn and edited primarily in the Key lane, but all actions described apply to the Drum lane and the REX lane:

Drawing notes

1. Make sure the note clip is open.

If not, select it and press [Return], or double click it.

D To select all notes in the clip, use the Select All function on the Edit

menu.

Make sure that the correct lane (Key, Drum or REX) has focus first - otherwise you may select automation or pattern change events. To set focus to a lane, click somewhere in it (focus is indicated by a thin extra border within the lane).

D To deselect all notes, click somewhere in an empty area.

Moving notes

2. If you want to restrict note input to certain note values (e.g. sixteenth notes), set the snap value accordingly and activate Snap.

3. Select the Pencil tool.

You can toggle temporarily between the Arrow tool and the Pencil tool by holding down [Command] (Mac) or [Alt] (Windows).

4. If needed, click in the piano keyboard display, drum sound list or slice list to find the correct pitch or sound.

5. Click in the note display part of the lane, at the desired position.

A note will be inserted at the closest Snap value position.

D If you just click and Snap is activated the note will get this length.

If snap is off, the note will get the length of the shortest snap value, i.e. 1/64.

D If you instead click and keep the mouse button pressed, you can drag to

the right to set the length of the note.

If Snap is on, the length will be a multiple of the Snap value. Also, see the note about drum note lengths below.

Editing Notes

D To move a note, click and drag it to a new position.

If several notes are selected, all will be moved. The individual distance between the moved notes will be kept.

D If Snap is on, the moved events will keep their relative distance to the

Snap value positions.

For example, if Snap is set to “Bar”, you can move the selected notes to another bar without affecting their relative timing.

Notes can be edited manually by using your mouse in Edit mode, or numerically in the Inspector. Event editing in the Inspector is described on page 83.

Selecting notes

To select notes in Edit mode, use one of the following methods:

D To select a note in an open clip, click on it with the Arrow tool.

D To select several notes, hold down [Shift] and click.

You can de-select individual notes by [Shift]-clicking them again.

D You can also click and drag a selection rectangle around the notes you

want to select.

D You can select the next or previous note on the lane by pressing the right

or left arrow key on the computer keyboard.

Holding down [Shift] and using the arrow keys allows you to make multiple selections.

D If you hold down [Shift] when you drag, movement is “magnetic” to hori-

zontal or vertical only.

This helps you move notes without accidentally transposing them, or transposing notes without accidentally changing their meter position.

D You can also edit the note positions numerically in the inspector.

See “Editing note events in the inspector strip”.

THE SEQUENCER

Nudging event positions

About resizing drum notes

You can use the left/right arrow keys to “nudge” the positions of selected events. It works as follows:

• Pressing [Command] (Mac)/[Ctrl] (Windows) and using the left or right arrow key moves the position back or forward by the set Snap value.

• Pressing [Command]+[Shift] (Mac)/[Ctrl]+ [Shift] (Windows) and using the left or right arrow key moves the position back or forward in beat increments.

Duplicating notes

To duplicate the selected notes, hold down [Option] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Windows) and proceed as when moving notes.

Using Cut, Copy and Paste

You can move or duplicate events using the Cut, Copy and Paste commands on the Edit menu.

Drum notes can be resized as any other notes. However, the result of this depends on the settings of the Decay/Gate switch and the Length knob for the drum sound on the Redrum panel:

D If Decay mode is selected, the drum sound will play to its end, regardless

of the note length.

Or rather, it will fade out according to the Length setting.

D If Gate mode is selected, the note length affects the resulting sound.

However, the maximum length of the sound is set by the Length knob - the sound will be cut off after this length, regardless of the note length. Finally, even if the Length knob is set to its maximum value, the sound will not play longer than the length of the drum sample.

Deleting notes

You can delete notes in two ways:

D Select them and press [Backspace] or [Delete], or select Delete from the

Edit menu.

D Select the Eraser tool and click on the notes you want to delete.

D When you Cut or Copy, the song position is automatically moved to the

end of the selection.

You can use this for repeating events.

D When you Paste, the events appear at the song position, on the original

lane.

You can only paste notes when a note clip is open for editing.

Resizing notes

When you select a note, a handle appears on its right edge. You can click on this handle and drag to make the note shorter or longer.

D If Snap is on, the end of the note will be magnetic to the Snap value po-

sitions.

You can disable this function temporarily by pressing [Shift] when you drag. This allows you to resize the note to any length, regardless of the Snap value.

About masked events

If you resize a clip (making it shorter) events may be masked, i.e. events may end up outside the clip. Such events are not played back and are not visible in Arrange mode. Masked events are visible for open clips in Edit mode.

Masked note events outside a clip have a white border and the background is dark.

Note that just switching to Edit mode won’t show masked events. A clip has to be open to see these events. You can remove masked-out events using the function “Crop Events to Clips” on the Edit menu (see page 73).

D If several notes are selected, all will be resized by the same amount.

D When resizing notes the event may extend outside the right clip edge.

As long as the start position of events is inside the clip, the note will play for the whole duration, i.e. it won’t be cut off when the clip ends.

D You can also edit the length of notes numerically in the inspector.

See page 83.

THE SEQUENCER

Editing velocity

The velocity values of notes can be edited manually in the Velocity lane,

The velocity values are shown as bars, with higher bars indicating higher velocity. Note also that the color of the notes and bars reflect the velocity.

To change the velocity of a note, click on its velocity bar with the Pencil tool and drag the bar up or down. Clicking above a bar immediately raises the velocity to the level at which you click.

You can also edit the velocity of several notes at once by clicking and dragging with the Pencil tool.

D With the Pencil tool selected, pressing [Option] (Mac) or [Ctrl] (Win) will

change the pencil cursor to a cross.

This is the Line tool which is special tool only available in the Velocity edit lane. By dragging across the bars, at the desired height you can quickly draw velocity ramps.

The Line tool is probably the preferred method for creating regular, smooth ramps, or for giving all the notes the same velocity (by drawing a straight line), while the Pencil tool can be used for creating more irregular curves.

! If you hold down [Shift] when you edit velocity values, only the selected

notes will be affected!

This can be very useful, especially in “crowded” sections with lots of notes. Consider for example if you have a busy drum beat, and want to adjust the velocity of the hi-hat notes only. Simply dragging with the line- or pencil tool would change the velocity of all other drum notes in the area too, but if you first select the hi-hat notes in the Drum lane and press [Shift] as you draw, you can edit their velocity without affecting any other notes!

D You can also edit velocity values numerically in the Inspector (see be-

low).

Editing note events in the inspector strip

For note events it works as follows:

D If you select a note event, four value fields appear, showing the event

start position (Pos), length (Len), note pitch and velocity (Vel).

You can edit these numerical values by selecting a value field and dragging, using the spin controls or typing. Snap is not taken into account.

Drawing a velocity ramp with the Line tool.

D Note that when moving the position of events these may end up outside

the clip and be masked (not played).

There will be no warning or indication of this other than you will be able to clearly see if any events are outside the clip boundaries if the clip is open in Edit mode. See page 82.

D If several note events are selected, the value fields will show the values

for the event with the earliest start position.

Editing values for several selected events

When you edit values for several selected events, the changes will always be relative. For example if you change the event position when several events are selected, they will all move by the same amount, retaining their relative positions.

D If several events are selected and their values differ, the Match values

button appears beside the corresponding numerical value field.

Clicking this sets the property (e.g. velocity) to the same value for all selected events, and makes the button disappear. See “About Match values”.

THE SEQUENCER

About subticks

When editing you have a resolution of 240 ticks per 1/16 note, which allows for very accurate positioning. But when you record notes, the internal resolution is even higher which means that values can be fractions of a tick (subticks). This is indicated by an asterisk after the tick value.

To round off the value to the nearest tick, [Command]-click (Mac)/[Ctrl]-click (Windows) on the asterisk.

But in some cases you may want to add empty automation lanes to draw events in clips on the lane rather than record the automation. Automation lanes can be added in several ways:

D Hold down [Option] (Mac) or [Alt] (Windows) and click on a parameter on

a device panel in the rack.

This directly adds an automation lane for the selected parameter.

D You can do the same thing by selecting “Edit Automation” on the context

menu for the parameter.

You bring up the parameter context menu by [Ctrl]-clicking (Mac) or right-clicking (Windows) on the parameter on the device panel.

Editing automation

Automation in Reason is vector-based. This means automation is stored as automation events (points), connected by lines.

A level fade for a mixer channel (upper) and a more complex filter sweep (lower).

D Track parameter automation is contained in automation clips on auto-

mation lanes.

Each automated parameter has its own automation lane.

D Performance controller automation is stored on edit lanes in note clips.

See “Performance controller vs. track parameter automation” for a description of these two automation methods. From here on, track parameter automation is described unless otherwise indicated.

D Once there is an automation lane (and its ON button is lit), the parameter

is automated and will be shown with a green automation frame on the device panel.

Outside the automation clip, the parameter will be set to a static value (the blue line on either side of the clip in the picture above). This can be edited, as described below.

D By using the Track parameter automation pop-up menu on the se-

quencer toolbar you can add or delete individual automation parameter lanes from the sequencer.

Existing automation lanes are indicated by a tick mark on the pop-up menu. Controllers for which there is data (automation) in the track are indicated with an icon. If the device has many parameters you can select the “More Parameters...” at the bottom of the menu. A dialog then opens where all parameters for the device are listed.

Adding/removing automation lanes

This track has three automation lanes. The “LFO2 Amount” lane is turned off (ON button is dark) - this is useful for muting automation temporarily.

Most of the time you will probably simply start recording and tweak parameters to automatically add automation lanes - see “Recording track parameter automation”.

THE SEQUENCER

D If you tick an automation parameter (on the pop-up menu or in the Pa-

rameter Automation dialog), an empty automation lane is created for the track.

D To remove an automation lane, you can either untick it in the list/dialog

or select the “Delete empty automation” item on the pop-up.

Automation lanes that are in use (contain clips) are indicated with a blue automation symbol. Note that removing a used automation lane will delete all its automation data!

D You can also remove automation lanes by using the Delete Automation

Lane (“X”) button in the track list for the corresponding lane.

If you try to remove an automation lane with clips on it, an alert dialog opens where you can select to cancel the operation or to proceed.

Editing existing automation events

As explained previously you can edit automation clips in Arrange mode. They open like a “mini instance” of Edit mode that only shows the selected automation clip’s contents, not the contents of the note lane. Editing automation is the same whether you do it this way or in Edit mode (except the Static value for the automation lane is only shown in Edit mode). The following section describes editing automation in Edit mode.

To edit existing automation events, proceed as follows:

1. Select Edit mode for the track that has the automation you wish to edit.

Use the dividers if necessary to locate the automation clip to edit - these are located at the bottom pane of the window (not in the note clip). Track parameter automation clips have a cut upper right corner. (There might be performance automation edit lanes on the track also and these are edited in the same way but for now we stick to track parameter automation.)

2. You open the clip for editing by double clicking it or by selecting it and pressing Return.

The clip is now open for editing.

D In Edit Mode, the static value is shown to the left in the automation lane.

In this example, the static value is set to 50 - this means that the Filter Freq parameter will be set to 50 everywhere in the song except where there are automation clips for it. To change the static value, drag the handle or double-click and type.

3. When an automation clip is open, you can select, move, copy or delete automation points, just like editing notes in the note editor.

When moving automation events with the Arrow tool, snap is taken into account if activated. You can also resize the clip by dragging the clip handles in Edit mode.

D A selected automation event’s position and value is also shown in the In-

spector.

These values can be edited numerically just like for note events - see page 83.

THE SEQUENCER

About Automation Cleanup

Drawing automation events

D If you find you have gotten too many automation points when recording

or drawing events, you can adjust the “Automation Cleanup” setting to “Heavy” or “Maximum” in the Preferences dialog - General page.

This automatically removes superfluous automation points next time you record or draw events and simplifies the curves. Note that snap also governs the number of points when drawing events - see below.

Drawing automation (left), and after (right).

You can also apply this function to already recorded events manually from the Tool window:

1. With the automation clip open for editing (i.e. with the points showing) chose “Select All” from the Edit menu or the clip context menu.

All automation point will be selected in the clip.

2. Make sure the Tool window is open - if not press the [F8] function key.

This toggles the Tool window show/hide status.

3. Select the Tools page.

4. The Automation Cleanup tab is at the very bottom of the page - click the arrow to open it.

D To add new points, click or drag with the Pencil tool.

The resulting curve (i.e. the number of points) depends on two factors; the selected “Automation Cleanup” setting in the Preferences (see “About Automation

Cleanup”), and the snap value (if Snap is activated).

D Pressing [Alt] (Win) or [Option] (Mac) and clicking or dragging with the

Pencil tool will insert an automation range.

The length of the range is set with the Snap value.

Alt]/[Option]-clicking with Snap set to 1/4.

D When the automated parameter is “stepped” rather than continuous,

there will be abrupt steps between the automation points instead of linear ramps.

Stepped automation.

D If you mask the automation clip, making it longer, the first or last auto-

mation value will be extended.

5. Select a value and then click Apply.

The selected automation events are now thinned out according to the selected settings.

Here, a Mute button on a mixer is automated. The clip contains a single automation point, but its value extends to the start and end of the clip. This means you can adjust the channel mute automation by moving and resizing the clip, without having to open it.

Deleting automation events

D Deleting automation events is done in the same way as deleting note

events. I.e. you can click on points to select them or draw selection rectangles and then press [Backspace] or use the Erase tool etc.

To clear all automation in a clip simply delete the clip (or remove the whole lane to clear all automation for that parameter).

THE SEQUENCER

Editing performance controller automation

Editing Pattern Change clips

To edit, draw or delete performance controllers, open the note clip.

Pattern change clips are viewed and edited in the Pattern Select lane, which is available on Redrum tracks and Matrix tracks:

A pattern change is shown as clips with a pop-up menu area at the top (given the clip is selected).

D When you record pattern change clips, they are automatically positioned

on downbeats (at the beginning of new bars) regardless of the Snap setting.

See “Recording pattern changes”.

D If clips aren’t continuous on the pattern change lane the pattern device

will be silent where there is no clip.

Performance controllers (in this case, Mod wheel) are shown on separate edit lanes at the bottom of the open note clip. The performance controller curves are also indicated in the overview (top), and the clip in Arrange mode.

• You edit performance controller data just like regular automation.

• You can create or delete performance controller lanes for any parameter using the pop-up menu on the right side bar of the note edit lane. This works the same way as for track parameter automation except you cannot mute or delete performance automation from the track list - see “Adding/removing automation lanes”.

Manually adding a Pattern Select lane

A Pattern Select lane is automatically created when recording pattern automation, but if you prefer you can create an empty Pattern lane in the following ways:

1. Select the pattern device.

Make sure no clips are selected

2. Click the “Create Pattern Select Lane” button on the toolbar.

D You can also [Alt]/[Option]-click on the Pattern select buttons to create

a Pattern Select lane.

Special case scenario

Although very unlikely, it is possible to have overlapping track parameter and performance automation for the same parameter. In such an event, the track parameter automation overrides the performance automation. As soon as the track parameter clip ends any performance automation in the clip takes over.

THE SEQUENCER

Drawing Pattern clips

Manually editing pattern change clips

You can draw pattern clips on the Pattern Select lane with the Pencil tool:

1. Activate Snap and set the Snap value to the note position where you want to insert the pattern change clip.

It is probably a good idea to set Snap to “Bar”, at least if you are working with patterns of a length corresponding to the time signature (e.g. 16 or 32 step patterns and 4/4 time signature). However, if you are working with patterns of another length, it can make sense to use other Snap values.when drawing Pattern clips.

2. Select the Pencil tool.

A Pattern pop-up appears in the Inspector. Use this to select the pattern you wish the clip to play.

To manually edit a Pattern change clip, proceed as follows:

1. Select the pattern change clip you wish to edit.

2. Pull down the Pattern pop-up menu to the left in the pattern clip (the down arrow), and select the Bank/Pattern you want to insert.

The selected pattern is shown next to the pop-up menu.

3. Draw a clip for length you want the selected pattern to play.

4. Continue using the same method to draw clips for all the patterns you wish to use.

! Don’t draw pattern change clips with Snap turned off, unless you want

chaotic rhythm changes!

D You can also change Bank/Pattern with the Inspector Pattern pop-up if

the Pencil tool is selected.

Moving and duplicating pattern change clips

You can move, resize and duplicate pattern change clips in the same way as with note or automation clips. However it is recommended that snap is activated (and in most cases set to “Bar”) when you do this.

You can also move or duplicate sections using the Cut, Copy and Paste commands on the Edit menu. Again, the same rules apply as for other clips.

Deleting pattern change clips

D Deleting pattern change clips is done in the same way as deleting note

clips. I.e. you can draw selection rectangles and then press [Backspace] or use the Erase tool etc.

To clear all automation in a clip simply delete the clip (or remove the whole lane to clear all pattern change automation).

THE SEQUENCER

Tool window - Tools page note editing functions

4. Make settings for one of the functions on the page and click the Apply button next to the settings.

All settings can be made by clicking the spin controls, or by clicking in a value field and entering a value numerically. The functions are described below.

The Tool window - Tools page contains some special editing functions. Proceed as follows:

1. Select the clips or events to which you want to apply the editing functions (in Arrange or Edit mode).

The functions are mainly used with notes, but not all; the Scale Tempo function will also affect automation and pattern changes (see below), and Automation Cleanup only affects automation events. Automation Cleanup is described separately - see

“About Automation Cleanup”.

2. Make sure the Tool Window is open.

The [F8] key shows/hides the Tool Window.

3. Select the Tools page.

Quantizing

The Quantize function moves recorded notes to (or closer to) exact note value positions. This can be used for correcting errors, “tightening up” recorded music or changing the rhythmic feel.

In Reason, you use the Quantize function in the following way:

1. Select the notes you want to quantize.

Only the note events will be affected, so you can select note clips or whole tracks if you like.

2. Pull down the Quantize Value pop-up menu on the Tool Window - Tools page and select a Quantize value.

This determines to which note values the notes will be moved when you quantize. For example, if you select sixteenth notes, all notes will be moved to (or closer to) the closest sixteenth note position.

D The Tools page has a number of panes, each with a separate function.

The panes can be folded/unfolded by clicking on the arrow beside the function name.

The Quantize pop-up menu.

3. Select a value from the Quantize Amount pop-up menu.

This is a percentage, governing how much each note should be moved. If you select 100%, notes will be moved all the way to the closest Quantize value positions; if you select 50%, notes will be moved half-way, etc.

THE SEQUENCER

4. Click the Quantize “Apply” button.

The selected notes are quantized.

Quantizing during recording

You can have Reason quantize notes automatically when they are recorded. This is done by activating the “Quantize Notes during Recording” button on the transport, before you start recording. The Quantize settings apply as usual.

Pitch (Transpose)

D This function transposes the selected notes up or down, by the specified

number of semitones.

D You can also Randomize the pitch for selected notes. By setting a Low/

High range the note pitches will be randomized within this range when you click Apply.

Velocity

Adjusts the velocity of the selected notes.

D The Add field lets you add a fixed amount to the velocity values.

To subtract, enter a negative amount. Note that the possible velocity range is 1-

127. Adding an amount to a note with velocity 127 will not make any difference.

In this example, a sloppily recorded hi-hat pattern is quantized to straight 1/4 notes (Quantize value 1/4, Strength 100%).

Random

You can offset the quantized notes using the Random function. The notes will be quantized according to the Value and Amount settings, but the note positions will be randomly offset by the set tick value. E.g. if you set Random to 10 ticks, the notes positions will randomly vary within a +/- 10 tick range after quantizing.

Quantizing to Shuffle

On the Quantize pop-up menu, you will also find an option called “Shuffle”. If this is selected when you quantize, the notes are moved towards sixteenth note positions, but with the Shuffle applied.

Shuffle creates a “swing feel” by delaying the even-numbered sixteenth notes (the sixteenth notes that fall in between the eighth notes). The amount of Shuffle is set with the Global Shuffle control in the ReGroove Mixer - see the ReGroove Mixer chapter for details.

Quantizing to Shuffle is useful if you want to match the timing of recorded notes with pattern devices in the song (if Shuffle is activated in the patterns).

D Fixed allows you to set all velocities to a set value.

D The Scale field allows you to scale velocities by a percentage factor.

Scaling with a factor above 100% will increase the velocity values, but also make the difference between soft and hard notes bigger. Scaling with a factor below 100% will decrease the velocity values, but also make the difference between soft and hard notes smaller.

D Randomize will randomize velocity values by a set percentage value.

D By combining the Add and Scale functions, you can adjust the “dynam-

ics” of the notes in various ways.

For example, by using a Scale factor below 100% and Add a suitable amount, you can “compress” the velocity values (decreasing the difference between the velocity values without lowering the average velocity).

Note Lengths

D Note Lengths allows you to add or subtract values to selected note’s

length. You select length values in the same way as in the Inspector, i.e. select a value (bars, beats, 1/16ths or ticks) and then use the spin controls to set the amount.

D You can also set all notes to the same length by using the Fixed value

field.

D The Quantize Strength setting applies as when quantizing to regular

Quantize values.

THE SEQUENCER

Legato Adjustments

Scale Tempo

This function can be used to extend each selected note so that it reaches the next selected note. You can also shorten the note length for one of two selected overlapping notes to set a gap between them. You specify the desired gap or overlap in the value fields. Note start positions are never changed, only the note length is affected by Legato adjustments.

D Side by Side extends the selected note to the start of the next selected

note.

D Overlap extends the selected note to overlap the next selected note by a

set amount.

D Gap will introduce a gap between selected notes, as specified in the

value fields.

This function will make the selected events play back faster (Scale factor above 100%) or slower (Scale factor below 100%). This is achieved by changing the position of the events (starting from the first selected event) and adjusting the length of the notes accordingly.

The result of applying Scale Tempo with the Scale factor 200% (double speed).

D The buttons Double and Half are “shortcuts” to Scale factors 200% and

50%, respectively.

These are probably the most common values used, simulating double tempo and half tempo.

Gap is set to 1/16 note value.

! This function affects all types of events: notes, controllers and pattern

changes!

Alter Notes

This function alters the properties pitch, length and velocity of the selected notes, in a random fashion.

D The function will only “use” values that already exist among the selected

notes.

For example, if you have selected notes within a specific pitch interval, the altered notes will remain within this pitch interval. Similarly, only velocity values and note lengths that were already used in the selection will be applied by the Alter function. You could say that the function “shuffles” the existing properties in a selection and redistributes them among the notes.

! This means that the less variation there is among the selected notes, the

less the effect of the Alter function.

D You can adjust the amount of Alteration with the Amount value.

✪ This function is especially useful for experimenting with REX loops. Se-

lect some notes on a Dr.Rex track and use Alter Notes to create instant variations, without losing the timing and rhythmic feel of the loop!

THE SEQUENCER

Copying patterns to sequencer tracks

As described on page 288, you can use the “To Track” function when using the Dr.Rex Loop Player device. This creates sequencer notes on the selected track, so that each slice in the REX loop gets a corresponding sequencer note. Playing back the sequencer track will then play all slices in the correct order, with the original timing of the loop.

Similar functions are available for the Redrum and Matrix devices.

The “Copy Pattern to Track” function

This is available for the Redrum and the Matrix. It is useful when you have created a single pattern and want to use it as starting point for editing in the sequencer. You could also use this if you e.g. have created a drum pattern and want to have this pattern play back some other type of device.

Proceed as follows:

1. Set the left and right locator to encompass the section you want to “fill” with the notes in the pattern.

You may want to make sure the length of the area between the locators is a multiple of the pattern length, to avoid “cutting off” the pattern.

• By using the function Copy Pattern to Track on the Edit menu or device context menu, you can copy the contents of the current pattern to a note clip on the selected sequencer track.

• The function Convert Pattern Track to Notes works in a similar way, but converts all patterns in a song to note clips (taking pattern changes into account).

✪ There is also a similar function for the RPG-8 Arpeggiator - see “Render-

ing arpeggio notes to track” for a description.

The procedures differ slightly for the different device types:

Using the “To Track” function for REX Loops

This assumes that you have loaded a REX loop into the Dr.Rex device. For details, see

page 287.

1. Set the left and right locator to encompass the section you want to “fill” with notes for the REX loop.

2. Select the track connected to the Dr.Rex device.

3. Click the “To Track” button on the Dr.Rex device panel.

The slices in the loop will be converted to note events in note clips of the same length as the loop. Depending on the set length one or several clips are created to fill out the locator range,

2. Select the track you wish to copy the notes to.

If you use this function with Redrum, you should normally select the Redrum track. If the device is a Matrix, you should not copy the notes to the Matrix track, but to the track for the device controlled by the Matrix (since the Matrix doesn’t produce any sound in itself). You can also copy the notes to any other instrument device track if you like.

3. Select the device and select “Copy Pattern to Track” from the Edit menu or the device context menu.

D If you selected a track not connected to the pattern device, a dialog will

appear where you can click OK to proceed, or Cancel to abort the operation.

The pattern is converted to note clips on the track (see the notes below). If the length of the area between the locators is greater than the pattern length, the clips will be repeated to fill out the area.

D If the length of the area between the locators is greater than the length

of the REX loop, the clips will be repeated on the track note lane.

This function always creates an exact number of clips, meaning that the last clip may “stick out” after the right locator.

Here, the loop was 4 bars long. Since there are two bars between the locators, the clip will stick out after the right locator.

THE SEQUENCER

Redrum notes

The “Convert Pattern Track to Notes” function

When you use this function with the Redrum, you should note the following:

• The notes will have the pitch of the corresponding drum sound (see “Using Re-

drum as a Sound Module”) and the velocity depending on the Dynamic value.

Soft notes have velocity 30, medium notes have velocity 80 and hard notes have velocity 127.

• You probably want to turn off the “Enable Pattern Section” switch on the Redrum device panel. Otherwise, the drum sounds will be “double-triggered” when you start playback (once by the pattern section itself, once by the main sequencer).

Matrix notes

If you have recorded or drawn pattern changes on a Redrum or Matrix track, you can have the whole track converted to notes, in the following way:

1. Select the track with the pattern changes.

2. Select “Convert Pattern Track to Notes” from the Edit menu or the context menu for the track.

For each bar, the corresponding pattern is converted to note clips on the track (following the same rules as for the “Copy Pattern to Track” function). The track will play back just the same as when you played the pattern device with the pattern changes.

D All pattern automation is automatically disabled after the operation (the

pattern lane is turned off).

This means you can later go back to pattern automation if you so wish, by turning the pattern lane on again.

Redrum notes

• The “Enable Pattern Section” switch is automatically turned off when you use this function.

When you use this function for the Matrix, you should note the following:

• A note will be created for each pattern step with a gate value other than zero. The notes will have the pitch according to the key CV value for the step, and the velocity according to the gate value.

• The curve CV is not copied.

• Make sure that the right track is selected (normally the track for the device that the Matrix is connected to)! Creating notes for the Matrix itself is pointless, as the Matrix cannot produce any sound.

• You may want to disconnect or even remove the Matrix after performing a “Copy Pattern to Track”. This is because you probably don’t want both the Matrix and the sequencer notes to play back at the same time.

Matrix notes

• You may want to disconnect or even remove the Matrix after performing this function. This is because you probably don’t want both the Matrix and the sequencer notes to play the device at the same time.

THE SEQUENCER

Automating tempo and time signature

The transport track can be used to automate tempo and/or time signature changes. It works by drawing or recording clips on automation lanes for the transport track.

Automating tempo

Automating tempo is done much in the same way as with other automation. You can either record the tempo changes by changing the tempo on the transport panel, or you can draw curves in clips on the transport track.

1. Set the desired tempo on the transport.

This will be your static value, i.e. the tempo of the song wherever there is no clip present on the automation lane.

2. [Alt]/[Option]-click in the Tempo field on the transport panel.

This will select the Transport track and create a Tempo automation lane in one go.

4. With the clip selected, press [Return] to open it for editing.

If you like, you can switch to Edit mode - this allows you to edit the static tempo value too.

Now you can draw automation curves in the normal way.

D Remember that Snap applies when inserting points.

You can also change the position of a point numerically in the Inspector.

Here, the tempo changes from 120 to 150 over four bars.

D If you press [Alt]/[Option] you can draw automation ranges for instant

changes between tempo values.

From here you can decide whether to draw clips where you want the tempo to change or to record automation clips by manually changing the Tempo controls on the transport. We will describe how to draw tempo automation clips.

D It is generally a good idea to activate Snap and have the snap value set

to Bar when drawing clips.

3. Select the Pencil tool and draw a clip over the area where you want the tempo to change.

THE SEQUENCER

✪ Even though Reason supports a very wide tempo range, editing is by de-

fault restricted to the range 60 - 250 bpm. This is only to make it easier to work with small tempo changes - if you want lower or higher tempi you can change the range by double clicking the min or max value (“60” or “250” in the picture above) and typing in new values.

Automating time signature

1. Set the desired time signature on the transport.

This will be your static value, i.e. the time signature of the song wherever there is no clip present on the automation lane.

2. [Alt]/[Option]-click in the Time Signature field on the transport panel.

This will select the Transport track and create a Time Signature automation lane in one go.

From here you can decide whether to draw clips where you want the time signature to change or to record automation clips by manually changing the Time Signature on the transport. In the following text drawing time signature automation clips will be described.

D It is generally a good idea to activate Snap and have the snap value set

to Bar when drawing clips.

3. Select the Pencil tool.

When the Pencil tool is selected, a Time Signature pop-up appears in the Inspector. Use this to set the required time signature.

4. Draw a clip over the area where you want the time signature to change.

The time signature will change for the duration of the clip.

D You can change the time signature for the automation clip at any time by

simply double-clicking the clip with the Arrow tool and changing the value on the pop-up that appears.

There is no need to switch to Edit mode unless you wish to change the static value.

5. Continue using the same general method wherever you want the time signature to change.

THE SEQUENCER

Importing and Exporting MIDI Files

Reason can import and export standard midi files (SMF). This allows you to transfer MIDI data between Reason and other applications.

Importing a MIDI File

To import a Standard MIDI File, select “Import MIDI File” from the File menu. The Browser appears, where you can locate and open the MIDI file.

D MIDI files have the extension “.mid”.

Now, a number of new tracks are created in Reason’s sequencer. The tracks will have their original name, with their original MIDI channel added. All tracks will be Combinator tracks, with empty Combi patches.

D All controller data in the MIDI file is included.

This means that standard performance controllers (pitch bend, mod wheel data etc.) are preserved properly and will included in the note clip as when recording in Reason. However, some controllers may “mean” different things for the original MIDI instruments used when creating the MIDI file and the devices in Reason, so some automation clips may be “alien” (see “About alien clips”).

D If the imported MIDI file is of “Type 1”, there will be one sequencer track

for each track in the MIDI file.

D If the imported MIDI file is of “Type 0” (that is, it contains one track with

MIDI events on multiple channels), there will be one sequencer track for each used MIDI channel.

D Any tempo changes in the MIDI file are disregarded.

The tempo in Reason will be set to the first tempo in the MIDI file.

D The Combinators will be empty, which means the imported file will not

make any sound at first.

You need to use the Browser section on the Combinators to select a suitable sound for each track.

Green frames will appear for the automated parameters in the device panels. This helps you locate any unwanted controller data.

Exporting a MIDI File

To export your Reason song as a MIDI file, proceed as follows:

1. Set the End (E) marker at where you want the MIDI file to end.

The MIDI file will contain all events on all tracks from the start of the song to the End marker.

2. Select “Export MIDI File” from the File menu.

3. In the file dialog that appears, specify a name and location for the file.

Under Windows, the file will automatically get the extension “.mid”. Under Mac OS, this is not required. However, if you want the MIDI file to be recognizable under Windows (and by some hardware sequencers), you may want to activate the option “Add Extension to File Name” before saving.

4. Click Save.

MIDI files exported by Reason will have the following properties:

D The MIDI file will be of Type 1, with one MIDI track for each track in the

Reason sequencer.

The tracks will have the same names as in the Reason sequencer.

D Since the Reason sequencer doesn’t use MIDI channels as such, all

tracks will be set to MIDI channel 1.

D The sequencer tempo is included in the MIDI file.

If tempo or time signature automation is used this will not be included.

THE SEQUENCER

D The ReGroove Mixer

Introduction

The ReGroove Mixer combines all the benefits of quantization, shuffle, and groove templates into a single integrated environment, giving you real-time creative control over the feel and timing of individual note lanes. The ReGroove Mixer, which extends from the top of the Transport Panel (and thus appears in either the rack or the sequencer), puts 32 channels of interactive groove control at your fingertips.

If you're familiar with mixing, you're already well on your way toward understanding the ReGroove Mixer. Think of it as a mixer with 32 busses but, instead of these busses modifying the volume of the input tracks, they modify the feel (or groove) of the input tracks. You can route any track or note lane to one of ReGroove's 32 channels, and that track's feel and timing are modified, in real-time, by the channel's settings. Each ReGroove channel can use its own groove template or shuffle amount. In addition, each channel can slide notes forward or backward in time, allowing you to put certain tracks slightly ahead or behind the beat, which greatly alters the feel of your music.

The ReGroove Mixer

Open the ReGroove Mixer (in the main window or in the detached sequencer window) by clicking the ReGroove Mixer button in the Transport Panel.

The ReGroove mixer is divided into two sections. On the left are the Global parameters, and on the right are the Channel parameters.

Global parameters

Channel parameters

ReGroove basics

When working with grooves, you'll make use of three interacting sections within Reason's interface:

• First, in the Sequencer, each note lane can be assigned to any of ReGroove's 32 channels. You assign a note lane to a groove channel by selecting it with the Select Groove pop-up in each note lane.

• Second is the ReGroove Mixer, which contains both global groove settings and channel-specific ones. This is described on the following pages.

• Finally, there's the Groove Settings section of the Tool Window, which is accessed by clicking a ReGroove channel's Edit button. Groove Settings allow you to set the intensity of various groove patch parameters. This is also where you save your own ReGroove patches. See page 102.

Global parameters

These parameters operate globally, rather than channel-by-channel.

Channel Banks

The ReGroove mixer consists of 32 channels, grouped into 4 banks (labeled A through D). Click a Channel Bank button to see and edit its corresponding bank of 8 channels.

THE REGROOVE MIXER

Propellerhead Reason - 4.0 Operation Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

D Table of Contents

D Common Operations and Concepts

About this manual

About this Chapter

Conventions in the Manual

Making Settings

Tool Tips

Context menus

Undo

Window Techniques

D Audio basics

About this chapter

How Reason communicates with your audio hardware

General Information

PC Specific Information

Mac Specific Information

D Sounds, Devices and Patches

Introduction

Rack device procedures

A Quick Note on Routing

About patches

About ReFills

Using the Browser

D Routing Audio and CV

About the various signals that can be routed

About Cables

Automatic Routing

Manual Routing

Using CV and Gate

D The Sequencer

Introduction

Sequencer basics

Recording

Recording automation

About the toolbar

About Snap

The Edit mode

Tool window - Tools page note editing functions

Copying patterns to sequencer tracks

Automating tempo and time signature

Importing and Exporting MIDI Files

D The ReGroove Mixer

Introduction

The ReGroove Mixer