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REASON 4 - it's actually here!


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Yeah you can route audio from other sources and use anyway you feel like it. You have to use the mod matrix on thor to route the audio where you want it. You can route it in almost anywhere. You can also use external audio in to as frequency modulators for Thor's oscillators.

To run audio through Thor you also need some type of midi signal being sent to thor at the same time the audio is coming through. Stupid? YES. But then again it prob boiled down to some crazy thing with the programming.

IMO the best way to do it without sacrificing the step sequencer in thor is to have the same midi being sent to thor and whatever device you are using for external audio at the same time. Make sure under 'trigger' you have the midi box selected if you choose to use Thor as an FX device. If you want to use Thor's OSC in combo with external audio right now this is the only way I know how to do it.

If you don't care about using Thor's step sequencer as a modulation source and just wanna run other audio through it here is a combi as an example. Make sure the sequencer on Thor is running for it to work.

http://avaris.studios.googlepages.com/GlockenThor.cmb

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whoa... intense! Thank avaris, but as for not sacrificing the step sequencer in Thor, how do I send the same midi data to my external audio device and Thor at the same time without having to use two sequencer tracks? I thought whatever midi you send to the combinator it simultaneously sends to all the devices within itself... but when I try making a patch with my external audio device, Thor (with the step seq. turned off and the midi box turned on), spider audio, and a mixer, it doesn't work =/

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Do any of you with R4 know if Rewire with Live and other DAWs is working properly?

I know your set-up is a bit rewire-intense. But I haven't hear ANYTHING that says it's any change from before. The only thing I've thought of is that you can't sync Reason and Live and do timesig changes in Reason. meh, a small price to pay.

visit the official propellerheads forum and ask :) (you have registered your copy... riiight?)

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I have a registered copy of 4, but still waiting for it to be shipped here :).

I think it's supposed to be here today!!!!!!!!

AH!! You're going to be so happy :D

I found a thor preset and started making a new remix in a matte rof minutes. Using timesig automation and all! THIS my friends, is a two-hours first-time-R4-wip:

http://soundscape.escariot.net/private_files/CrashFunkWIP.mp3

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  • 2 weeks later...

I HAVE IT! R4 IS IN MY HANDS RIGHT NOW! But man, going and checking out the stuff at Guitar Center was so much cooler than actually getting R4, I got to play with turntables, huge mixer tables, midi controllers and other neat hardware gear. I've never really done this before, so my first experience can be summed up as: IT WAS AWESOME. I would have probably left that store with thousands of dollars worth of equipment if I had any money. I've become a sucker for tangible knobs, faders and hardware devices ;P

EDIT: Woo, my midi-2-usb cables should arrive soon too, this is gonna be great :D

And also, the two orkester demos in R4 are the same ones they used in R3, they aren't new :/

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I hope I'm missing something simple here. I know there's an edit for the [qwerty] keyboard mapping for most of the play control stuff (right-click is my god), but is there a way to edit the shortcuts for the edit tools as well?

(And if not... "Dear Prop, go learn UI platform schemes from Luxology.")

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can someone tell me what the deal is with this stupid new sequencer? Why do you have to use clips? Can you turn them off somehow and get everything back to normal? I really don't see the point in having to select and open up a clip in order to edit its contents, or being unable to copy a few notes from a longer clip into somewhere else without either splitting the clip or selecting and opening and then copying the notes you wanted... seriously, the sequencer is so much more complicated and difficult to use now. Why did they change it? I'm guessing it has to have benefits or else they wouldn't have changed it, but all I see is the downsides...

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Dafydd, that's what I thought at first and was somewhat disappointed as well, but working with it a bit more, I dunno, it just grew on me and with the addition of the keyboard shortcuts to cycle through tools (cursor, pen, eraser) I've noticed I've been sequencing stuff much faster. Just give it some more time and make a short silly song or two to experiment with it, I think you can learn to like it like I did.

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Can someone tell me what the deal is with this stupid new sequencer? Why do you have to use clips? Can you turn them off somehow and get everything back to normal? I really don't see the point in having to select and open up a clip in order to edit its contents, or being unable to copy a few notes from a longer clip into somewhere else without either splitting the clip or selecting and opening and then copying the notes you wanted... seriously, the sequencer is so much more complicated and difficult to use now. Why did they change it? I'm guessing it has to have benefits or else they wouldn't have changed it, but all I see is the downsides...

Ohhhh, I haven't got Reason 4 yet (I'll wait till Christmas or new year), but I always group everything I play and then double click to open the piano roll if I want to copy notes. I guess I wouldn't have to change my personal style for the new sequencer then...?

Have they added any new samples or is it just only Thor that has new sounds? Is the new quantisation method more difficult to use, now they've moved it somewhere else completely?

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They've added thor and regroove patches to the factory soundbank. I believe that they also added some random patches here and there, like some for the NN-XT and some for combinator and etc. I think the orkestor soundbank may be exactly as it was in R3, but I'm not sure (porbably is though).

The hovering toolbox thing is pretty neat, I don't think the quantization is anymore difficult now, it's just in a different place sort of. They put a lot of good shortcuts and stuff into the toolbox though, I'd say it only makes things a bit faster, easier and more organized, just like adding the shortcuts on the keyboard to switch between tools (pen, eraser, razor, etc.) helps speed things up quite a bit.

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ok, here are some initial impressions:

I installed R4 yesterday and tried it the whole night and part of this morning.

The sequencer: This will get a LOT of time for me to get used to it. My mixing takes a lot of note-writing and the way it is now it's kinda more complicated to do so. Recording notes from my keyboard will take some used to as well. however I like the changes on the way you handle groups and stuff. At last I can name groups and organize them, and also have different lanes for each automation which is pretty neat. However the automation itself is giving me a hard time to get used to the new system, I've always liked more the curves.

Also I would like to see a "close all" button to close/open all lanes in the sequencer (maybe there is one and I haven't seen it yet). The good news is that the tool window makes life SO MUCH EASIER. Randomizing velocities, note lenght and adjusting them has become so much easier and intuitive, I can't really go back to the old ways now.

One thing I do miss is the ability to stretch a note without the snap by pressing shift while I drag them. Seems like that option is gone and I have to click/unclick the magnet every time. bummer.

Thor: Oh sweet jesus. This is a monster of a machine. It will take me A LOT of time just to learn the way it routes the sound through the envelopes/filters etc. but this is one hell of a machine that was much needed. There are a TON of presets, so many that i don't feel the urge to make my own synths, unlike when i first used subtractor! (But I'll still make my own sounds anyways, I'm stubborn like that). The modulation matrix helps keeps the rack clean of mad cv routing and it's pretty flexible.

Whereas Maelstrom was good for certain kind of sounds and subtractor for others, Thor can do practically ANYTHING, and do it right. I still love my subtractor but i think I will start seeing it less in my mixes XD.

The Arpeggiator: Pretty nifty tool. It wasn't as intuitive as i thought it would be but it gets the job done. I didn't mess around much with it but from what I heard in the demos it can be a very cool tool.

ReGroove Another cool thing that at first got me totally lost. This can really give the songs (and specially drums) a very human feeling. No more relying on global shuffle =).

Overall it looks a bit cleaner and with more emphasis on organization and productivity. I will still have to struggle with the new sequencer and there are some things that I really miss(specially some shorcuts) but overall the changes are great and really needed (TEMPO AUTOMATION AT LAST!)

Expect some Thor patches on my next refill :P

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  • 4 weeks later...

sorry to bring this topic back up but god the sequencer for R4 changed in a crappy way!

I mean yeah some things like the effects lanes and stuff are niffty but like the other dude said, GOD i'm pissed off at how u have to "join clips" or extend them in ways that don't make any sense! Why didn't they just keep the same functionning!

Anyone heard of some possible paramater changes that might help?

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sorry to bring this topic back up but god the sequencer for R4 changed in a crappy way!

I mean yeah some things like the effects lanes and stuff are niffty but like the other dude said, GOD i'm pissed off at how u have to "join clips" or extend them in ways that don't make any sense! Why didn't they just keep the same functionning!

Anyone heard of some possible paramater changes that might help?

It's a matter of getting used to it, also I don't sequence a lot I mostly record so for me it isn't a problem.

Anyway in the Reason 4.0.1 beta there's some improvements to clip-handling, amongst other it's easier to get in to the clips.

I'll keep you posted on other changes.

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as fast as this may seem im actually getting the hang of this thing i hated so much a few hours ago

I've just finished something i could've created with reason 3.0, so i guess im happy =P

still have some issues with it but i think ill get through this lol

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Lol, this is EXACTLY what I explained to the previous guy who came in here complaining about the sequencer, it really just takes a short while to get use to it, even I at first was somewhat pissed with it. Anyway, I hope this is a lesson learned: listen to Knives :D

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After I stated in my quick preview, The sequencer would take me some time to get used to it, and it did, but right now I can say that I never want to look back at the old sequencer. This one is MUCH improved and when you figure how things work, you actually do things easier and better. The old way of managing groups was a mess and now that I have this I can clearly see that, same with automation clips. Also the ability to record several lanes of melodies under the same sequencer track with the click of a button is a godsend, specially if you have a keyboard.

In the end I can now clearly see the improvements and although it's not as intuitive as, say, fruity loops' sequencer, right now is just as powerful and flexible, if not more.

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Lol, this is EXACTLY what I explained to the previous guy who came in here complaining about the sequencer, it really just takes a short while to get use to it, even I at first was somewhat pissed with it. Anyway, I hope this is a lesson learned: listen to Knives :D

you may be right but,

It's still very much a bitch when i load a song from 3.0 to 4 because everything feels and looks so different in the sequencer =0

very uncomfortable

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