REASON - Please Direct Reason questions here

[SirRus]

hmm ok yeah I know how gating works and what it is, but I've never really done it myself. In any case, there are demo files on this so no need for anyone to go into depth on that here unless there is something special to know about vocal sample gating and/or they are feeling extra generous.

But what about retriggering vocal samples effectively. A lot of times the stutter wont just be gating the original sound file, but it will retrigger the beginning a few times before finishing the clip (I hope I am making sense with this). Any effective way of doing this within Reason or do I need to be editing the clip with a sound editing program?

[Klay]

Hello there, I'm new to Reason and mixing. Very new. Just wanted to get that out of the way. If this post is asking questions that are often asked, I apologize. If you find these questions annoying in how basic they are, I apologize, I doing my best to become more knowledgable in this field. If you don't have anything helpful to say about this post, ignore it. Thank you.

Anyway, I have a few questions. First off, I have a Korg SP-500. I'm curious how I would use sounds from this keyboard and use them for recording in Reason. Is this even possible? I quite hope so.

Next, do people actually use only the sounds in Reason and it's refills to create music? If so, what refills and how can you get the sounds to not sound so...well....just not very good. =\ If not, what do you use to get good sounds?

Third. As I mentioned in the above paragraph, Reason simply doesn't sound that good. That is, the sounds are rather muddled, the quality is poor. Is there any way to make it sound better? Am I doing something wrong, is there something I should know about this?

Thank you taking the time to read and perhaps answer this. If the above didn't make much sense, please point out what part. I have a tendency to leave holes in what I write.

[sgx]

so.. whats the best way to do stutter effects on vocals (or anything?). loading a bunch of wavs into redrum and overlapping and tweaking volumes and omg such a mess, and I'm out of ideas... but being a n00b I have very few ideas so not really all that surprising.

oyeah and if anyone has any other cool mixing effects on vocals (im still learning my way around the vocoder... i have no idea what I'm doing on the backside of the Reason rack) that would be pretty sweet.

help? thanks!

Look at DJ Zenith's post on page 12 here. Check out my responses. This has been gone over

Hello there, I'm new to Reason and mixing. Very new. Just wanted to get that out of the way. If this post is asking questions that are often asked, I apologize. If you find these questions annoying in how basic they are, I apologize, I doing my best to become more knowledgable in this field. If you don't have anything helpful to say about this post, ignore it. Thank you.

Anyway, I have a few questions. First off, I have a Korg SP-500. I'm curious how I would use sounds from this keyboard and use them for recording in Reason. Is this even possible? I quite hope so.

Next, do people actually use only the sounds in Reason and it's refills to create music? If so, what refills and how can you get the sounds to not sound so...well....just not very good. =\ If not, what do you use to get good sounds?

Third. As I mentioned in the above paragraph, Reason simply doesn't sound that good. That is, the sounds are rather muddled, the quality is poor. Is there any way to make it sound better? Am I doing something wrong, is there something I should know about this?

Thank you taking the time to read and perhaps answer this. If the above didn't make much sense, please point out what part. I have a tendency to leave holes in what I write.

To get sounds from the keyboard, you would have to record yourself playing the keyboard with a program (like Goldwave) that is separate from Reason. Reason is designed to be very self contained, thus it does not have support for sequencing other software or hardware. To get your .wav recordings from goldwave or whatever you use, you'll have to load them using either the nn19, redrum, or nnxt samplers. Its..a lot of effort. Not many people bother to do this. If you must use reason for stuff, and you want better sequencing/recording capabilities, you can couple Reason with a more robust sequencer program like Sonar, Cubase, FL Studio, and a few others.

I use a lot of the sounds that Reason came with. I also use a bunch of new refills I got (mostly off of the propellerheads website for free), and sounds I record on my own or rip from other stuff (sometimes I'll pull a nice bass kick or something out of some pro song if I can get it out cleanly ). The majority of the samples that Reason come with are actually very good. You just need to learn how to use them (sequencing well, eqing, good reverb, etc). The synths are pretty good too; again, you need to learn how to program them well and put effects that will make them sound cool on.

Third, again, Reason sounds fine. Look at some example files that came with it, or check out my mixes I have posted as rns files on my site in the tutorials section.

[Klay]

Much thanks SuperGreen.

[Nicole Adams]

Reason is designed to be very self contained, thus it does not have support for sequencing other software or hardware.

Funny, it supports MIDI controllers but not other keyboards.

[humanliteshow]

It supports any keyboard that can send midi out messages.

[Nicole Adams]

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

[Uncle]

Just wondering, how do you choose/make instruments? What I mean to say is: How do you as an individual go about deciding what machine to use for what part of a song (eg using Malstrom for a pad, etc), do you use premade patches or do you create your own sounds (and how do you do that, work with altering parameters of premade sounds or using a base patch and working from there)? Use any additional machines? Just wondering how everybody else gets their sound.

Oh, and if you use refills you got online, where did you find them?

[humanliteshow]

Sometimes it's just a matter of scrolling through presets to get some inspiration. Sometimes I know what sound I want and since I've used Reason for a while, I can pretty much tell what instrument/settings will get me closest to that sound.

In the beginning , really it's all about experimenting and just making music with Reason until it becomes second nature. Just have fun and you won't even notice you're learning!

[Synth]

1.Im trying to set the attack of a NNXT to my pitch blend wheel on my midi controller but the pitch is allready set to it. How do I remove the pitch and switch it to attack?

2. Is their a way to controll 2 or squencer tracks with 1? Fruity Loops has a layer channel but, is thier one for Reason?

[Argitoth]

Easily answered question: Can Reason use VSTI, specifically Slayer 1?

[GrayLightning]

Third. As I mentioned in the above paragraph, Reason simply doesn't sound that good. That is, the sounds are rather muddled, the quality is poor. Is there any way to make it sound better? Am I doing something wrong, is there something I should know about this?

Third, again, Reason sounds fine. Look at some example files that came with it, or check out my mixes I have posted as rns files on my site in the tutorials section.

Yeah SGX covered this one well. I agree with what he said completely. Also Reason sounds great. But unless you know what you're doing compositionally and production wise then nothing will sound good. Reason is capable of professional results and in my opinion rivals $2000 high end synth workstations. Keep learning - no one said making music was easy.

Easily answered question: Can Reason use VSTI, specifically Slayer 1?

No. Reason is not a vsti host.

[Uncle]

Easily answered question: Can Reason use VSTI, specifically Slayer 1?

No. Reason is not a vsti host.

However, if you do wish to use a VSTi, you could theoretically ReWire Reason to a program that supports VSTi and work from there.

Also, I was wondering: As of right now, the lead and accompanying instruments for one song I'm working on uses basic waveforms (saw, triangle, square). The bass and drums are not, however, and while I don't think they're really the problem (they sound fine alone), the waveforms sound pretty unrefined.

So I guess what I'm trying to ask is what waveforms work best in a given part of a song, and how do you create those sounds (synthesized, Malstrom or Subtractor?)?

[humanliteshow]

OK, go back and read what I wrote above. YOU have to decide what sounds good in your songs. If you aren't familiar with the sounds, then this will be by trial and error until you are familiar enough with synths to know ahead of time what you want in a song. No one here can tell you what sounds best in what part of a song.

How do you become more familiar with synths? USE THEM! Just make some music, man. Don't worry about getting everything perfect. It takes a ton of time and effort to make good music. There are no shortcuts to developing talent and skill.

[Synth]

1.Im trying to set the attack of a NNXT to my pitch blend wheel on my midi controller but the pitch is allready set to it. How do I remove the pitch and switch it to attack?

2. Is their a way to controll 2 or squencer tracks with 1? Fruity Loops has a layer channel but, is thier one for Reason?

[Argitoth]

1.Im trying to set the attack of a NNXT...

LOL!!! "Myself wrote" that just made me laugh.

[sgx]

1.Im trying to set the attack of a NNXT to my pitch blend wheel on my midi controller but the pitch is allready set to it. How do I remove the pitch and switch it to attack?

2. Is their a way to controll 2 or squencer tracks with 1? Fruity Loops has a layer channel but, is thier one for Reason?

I don't know the answer to number 1. I haven't done a whole lot with midi controllers other than what's set up by default. Read the manual.

2: Your question doesn't make much sense. Control 2 sequencer tracks with one sequencer track? whut? Maybe you mean control two machines with one sequencer track. No you can't, but you can duplicate sequencer tracks and do it that way.

[Uncle]

OK, go back and read what I wrote above. YOU have to decide what sounds good in your songs. If you aren't familiar with the sounds, then this will be by trial and error until you are familiar enough with synths to know ahead of time what you want in a song. No one here can tell you what sounds best in what part of a song.

How do you become more familiar with synths? USE THEM! Just make some music, man. Don't worry about getting everything perfect. It takes a ton of time and effort to make good music. There are no shortcuts to developing talent and skill.

Sorry, I guess I didn't make myself clear. I think I understand what you mean by saying to "make music to learn to make good music" (and thank you for the advice by the way), but I was just wondering if anybody had pointers as to their methods of choosing a particular synth/machine, not a patch, to play certain roles in the song. I've heard that Subtractor is great for basslines, so I was wondering if anybody else had suggestions.

Also, by "what waveforms work best in part x of a song", I was talking about basic wave shapes (sine, square, triangle etc). I'm thinking of using them to get something of a chiptune sound (until I can think of some other combination of sounds I feel would fit better), and I was wondering if anybody knew a general rule for what kind of basic shape (eg triangle) usually goes where (eg bass or pad). Whether I choose to follow that pattern will be my own choice, but I'd like to have that option as well as placing them on my own; like a general set of guidelines to start with.

Maybe you're right however, learning composition should be my own undertaking. That way, I can develop my own styles and tastes, and eventually my own sound.

[humanliteshow]

That's exactly what I'm saying. If you want to know the components of a certain sound, like a pad or lead, you have all the tools you need to explore it. Open up Reason, make a Subtractor, call up a pad patch, and look at the settings. There are so many different waveforms used for so many different categories of sounds, it's impossible for us to just give you a general list.

Now as far as shaping the sound and making it, for example, a pad, there are some basic starting points, like turn up the attack and release to give it a smooth build up and fade out. Or do the same with the filter envelope to get a long filter sweep as you hold down a note.

For more iin depth insight for synths (far more than we could ever write here!) go here: http://www.soundonsound.com/articles/Technique.php?session=73a25d4ace59ccebb0149ae343f04f57

They have a ton of articles called Synth Secrets that get down and dirty into synthesis techniques.

[sgx]

I was wondering if anybody knew a general rule for what kind of basic shape (eg triangle) usually goes where (eg bass or pad). Whether I choose to follow that pattern will be my own choice, but I'd like to have that option as well as placing them on my own; like a general set of guidelines to start with.

Maybe you're right however, learning composition should be my own undertaking. That way, I can develop my own styles and tastes, and eventually my own sound.

dood - saw waves go "buuzzzz", square waves sound like NES, "sine waves are the simplest/smoothest wave that can carry a pitch, triangle waves sound in between sine and saws, etc....... if you want your bassline to buzz, use a saw, if you want your lead to sound NES, use a square. You can't really set up rules for this kind of thing.

[Julio Jose]

Is there any way to get reason to record the notes i play on my yamaha 175 keyboard?

[Arcana]

Is there any way to get reason to record the notes i play on my yamaha 175 keyboard?

Probably! Okay, so I've been using Reason's demo for about two weeks so take that as an indication as to the quality of my advice, but...

So create some instrument - a subtractor works fine. Make sure that there's a circular MIDI jack by its Track under the "In" Column in the sequencer.

If sounds play, then you're pretty much set. If sounds do NOT play, you have a bit of work ahead of you.

So let's assume the worst. Sounds don't play, so go up to the Preferences section and then check the "MIDI" settings. There should be a box asking where you want sequencer input to come in from. Select your keyboard (don't select its MIDI input - make sure it's your keyboard). Restart Reason and try again.

Once your keyboard works, set your locator bars to where you want to record. Press the Record button on the Transport (or use *). Optionally use the "Click" button to enable metronome clicks. Press play. Play your MIDI keyboard. Press "stop" (or use space) to stop playback. Reason will automatically disable recording after this, so if you want to record again you need to re-enable recording.

By the way, if you use samplers like the NN-19 or the NN-XT, Dr.Rex, or Redrum, many of them don't have sounds attached to all of the keys.

[Julio Jose]

ok. sound plays throught the subtracter, and the circle thing is beside it, but when i hit record and play, then play on the piano, and hit stop after, no notes are recroded. any settings i gotta config?

[Julio Jose]

thnx i fixed problem. it was in the preferences menu

[Arcana]

Does Reason's sequencer offer away for you to view the piano roll for two or more tracks simultaneously?

I have a feeling that you can't and would need to use some other sequencer...