Compressors...

[Dafydd]

So, I know how to use a compressor to make something not play louder than a certain level, I know about sidechaining and all that stuff. Now I want the inverse kind of compressor - the kind that makes a track completely silent if its volume is less than a set level. So, if the signal is below the threshold, it will be silent, but if it's above, it will be audible. How would I go about doing this in Reason?

[Tensei]

What you're referring to is called a noise gate, or gating. I do know that this is possible in Reason, but I really have no idea how to do it, I just wanted to give you the name of it so you could maybe look it up on google or something

[OceansAndrew]

Sounds like you are looking for a noise gate?

i'm not sure where it would be located in reason though, but it's pretty common so it shouldnt be too buried.

edit: omg sniped by Tensei ;_;

[Yoozer]

That's called a (noise) gate.

You can abuse RV7000 to do this.

Initialize the patch.

Switch on Gate Enable.

Set Dry/Wet to 100% wet.

Open the remote programmer.

Go to Reverb

- set it to algorithm: reverse.

- set Rev Dry/Wet to 0

Then, going to Gate, the RV7000 will function as a regular gate that can be controlled by either MIDI or the audio fed into it, and adjust your settings (Threshold, Attack, Release, Hold) to taste.

edit : haha, I don't even own Reason and I knew how to do this in the demo. Woohoo, go Yooz.

[zircon]

This can also be called an "expander". Noise gates are intended specifically to be used on background noise, but the concept of an expander applies to anything. It's just a compressor that works in reverse.

[Dafydd]

Awesome! Thank you very much, I've been looking for this for a long time. Noise gate, huh? How adequate...

edit : haha, I don't even own Reason and I knew how to do this in the demo. Woohoo, go Yooz.

Some people are just better than others, I guess. I have no idea how this thing works or why it's set to the "reverse" algorithm, but it's really cool nevertheless...

[Yoozer]

I have no idea how this thing works or why it's set to the "reverse" algorithm, but it's really cool nevertheless...

It's set to the Reverse algorithm because that was the only one that seemed to have a Dry/Wet control. Turning the RV's own Dry/Wet to Dry would also make the Gate ineffective .

also, maybe 'knew' is the wrong word - 'managed to figure it out with 5 minutes and no manual' would've been better. Truth is, RV7000 can be abused for a lot more fun stuff than you'd expect, as this shows.

[Dafydd]

I think that goes with pretty much all the devices in Reason, the all seem to have so many secrets... Is there a way to do this in reverse, so that if the signal exceeds a certain level, it's completely muted, and then when the signal is low enough, it's unmuted again? So, basically, an inverted gate? This should be possible using the noise gate and some setup of compressors and side chaining but if there's an easier way...

EDIT: Clarified the above as a response to the post below.

[Tensei]

Is there a way to do this in reverse, so that if the signal exceeds a certain level, it kills the sound?

Well duh, you're just describing a compressor/limiter now, that's basically what they do

Edit: Oh never mind, I see what you mean now, I'm stupid