Propellerhead Reason Spécifications

3.0stand-alone music production instrument,14 Channel Expandable Mixer,Analog Polysynth,Graintable Polysynth,Digital Samplers,Mastering Tools,REX-l

INSTALLATION 8 About the Audio Hardware The audio hardware is the computer equipment that converts the digital signals from Reason to analog audio si

WORKING WITH PATCHES98About PatchesA Reason patch contains settings for a specific device. As explained in the chapter “The Browser”, patches can eith

WORKING WITH PATCHES99D If you click on the patch name display on the device panel, a pop-up menu will appear, listing all patches in the current brow

WORKING WITH PATCHES100! Note that you can save a patch under the same name and location without having the save dialog appear by holding down [Option

12D Song File Handling

SONG FILE HANDLING102About Self-contained SongsThe song is the main file format in Reason. A song contains the device setup and all settings in the ra

SONG FILE HANDLING103Song InformationSelecting the Song Information item on the File menu opens a dialog in which you can supply various information a

SONG FILE HANDLING104Saving a SongTo save a song, proceed as follows:1. Set up the self-contained settings as desired (see the previous page).2. Pull

SONG FILE HANDLING105Creating a New SongTo create a new song, select New from the File menu. This makes a new song document window appear.D By default

SONG FILE HANDLING106Exporting as an Audio FileWhen you have created a complete song, you may want to mix it down to make it playable for other people

D Index

INSTALLATION 9 About MIDI Interfaces While it is possible to use Reason without an external MIDI controller (by playing patterns and loops only, or d

INDEX108AAlter 81ASIO Driver 8, 13Audio Card Driver 13Audio File Formats 45Audio Hardware 8, 44Audio Levels 46Audio Out 44Audio Out Clipping 46Auditio

INDEX109Initialize Patch 100KKey CommandsSyntax in Manual 36Transport 64Zooming 59Knobs 36LL Marker 68Latency 14Left Locator 68Levels 46Locations (Bro

INDEX110RackNavigating 48Turning around 52Randomize 81Reason Factory Sound Bank see Factory Sound BankReason Setup Wizard 12Reason Song Archive 104Rec

INDEX111TracksAbout 58Connecting to Devices 62Creating 61Deleting 63Duplicating 62Moving 62Naming 61Routing MIDI to 62Selecting 61Transport Panel 64Tu

INDEX112

INSTALLATION 10 Installing the Software Running the Installer Now it’s time to install the actual Reason software: D Insert the Reason CD labeled “Pr

2 D Setting Up

SETTING UP 12 About this Chapter This chapter describes the settings you need to make before you can start using Reason. These are necessary in order

SETTING UP 13 About the Preferences The basic settings for audio and MIDI are done in the Preferences dialog. This is opened from the Edit menu (or,

SETTING UP 14 Mac OS X D Select the option that corresponds to the hardware you want to use (the built-in audio connectors or some additional audio h

SETTING UP 15 Setting up MIDI In Reason, MIDI keyboards or remote control devices are called control sur-faces. MIDI input from control surfaces is

SETTING UP166. An image of the selected control surface model is shown, often along with some information text - read this carefully.For some control

SETTING UP17Other functionsD To edit a surface, double click it in the list (or select it and click Edit).This lets you change its name and MIDI port

C 2005 Propellerhead Software and its licensors. All specifications subject to change without notice. Reason is a trademark of Propellerhead Softwa

SETTING UP183. At the middle of this page, there is a section entitled “Default Song”.You have three choices: “Empty Rack”, Built In” and “Custom”.Sel

3D Quick Tutorial

QUICK TUTORIAL20About this ChapterThis chapter is a quick introduction to the basics in Reason, laid out as step-by-step tutorials. At the end of the

QUICK TUTORIAL21You may also want to add some effects to the music. In this song, there are two effect devices connected: a delay and a chorus/flanger

QUICK TUTORIAL22Now you could try playing the Subtractor synth “live” (provided you have a MIDI keyboard or similar hooked up):7. In the sequencer, cl

QUICK TUTORIAL23It’s possible to play the drum machine device via MIDI in the same way, but let’s try creating a pattern with the built-in pattern seq

QUICK TUTORIAL2417. Click the Select button for one of the drum sounds.In Redrum, you add drum beats for one sound at the time.18. Click on the first

QUICK TUTORIAL2532. Click and drag the Filter 1 Freq slider on the Subtractor panel.The changes you make will be heard immediately.33. Click stop twic

QUICK TUTORIAL26Guided TourOn the following pages you will find a brief “guided tour” through the program. This helps you get familiar with the differ

QUICK TUTORIAL27The Transport PanelThe panel at the bottom of each song document window is called the transport panel. It contains transport controls

D Table of Contents

QUICK TUTORIAL28The DevicesThe following devices are available in Reason:Reason Hardware InterfaceThis device handles Reason’s communication with your

QUICK TUTORIAL29Line Mixer 6:2This is a simple mixer with 6 stereo channels and one stereo effect send/return. It can be used in situations where basi

QUICK TUTORIAL30In addition, the NN-XT also allows you to create layered sounds, where two or more samples can be played simultaneously. This is done

QUICK TUTORIAL31The MClass Mastering effects consists of four high quality sound processors, suitable for (but not in any way restricted to) use as ma

QUICK TUTORIAL32RV-7 Digital ReverbThis is a reverb effect with ten different reverb algorithms, ranging from hall and room simulations to special eff

QUICK TUTORIAL33PEQ2 Two Band Parametric EQWhile the mixer device has basic two-band EQ on each channel, sometimes you may need some more precise cont

QUICK TUTORIAL34

4D Common Operations and Concepts

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS36About this ChapterThis chapter describes some general methods and techniques employed throughout Reason. It also conta

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS37SlidersTo move a slider, click on the slider handle and drag up or down.D You can also click anywhere on the slider to

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 5 Installation 6 Welcome!6 About the manuals7 What is in the Reason package?7 Requirements8 About the Audio Hardware9 About MIDI

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS38Tool TipsIf you position the pointer over a parameter on a device panel and wait a mo-ment, a tool tip will appear. Th

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS39UndoVirtually all actions in Reason can be undone. This includes creation, deletion and reordering of devices in the R

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS40Window TechniquesUsing more than one Reason Song windowYou can have several Reason Songs open at the same time. Each w

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS41Scrolling and ZoomingReason offers a few different options for scrolling and zooming in the rack and the sequencer.Scr

COMMON OPERATIONS AND CONCEPTS42D You can also click and drag with the Magnifying Glass to create a selection rectangle.The view will then be zoomed i

5D Audio Basics

AUDIO BASICS44About this chapterThis chapter contains some useful information about how audio is handled by Reason. Some of it may seem a bit technica

AUDIO BASICS45About Sample Rates and ResolutionsSample rate and resolution are properties of digital audio, which determine the quality of the sound.

AUDIO BASICS46About Audio LevelsWhen playing back in Reason, you should keep an eye on the Audio Out Clip-ping indicator on the transport panel. If th

6D Managing the Rack

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 71 Introduction to the Combinator 72 What is the Combinator device?73 Creating a layered instrument Combi patch - a tutorial75 Ab

MANAGING THE RACK48About this ChapterAs you have seen by now, the central part of Reason is the rack. This is where you create and configure your devi

MANAGING THE RACK49Selecting DevicesSome operations (e.g. cutting, copying and deleting devices) require that you select one or several devices in the

MANAGING THE RACK50In this example an RV-7 reverb device is moved:4. Release the mouse button.The device(s) are moved to the new position and the othe

MANAGING THE RACK51A Quick Note on Routing! This section only describes the basics in routing. For detailed de-scriptions of routing procedures and po

MANAGING THE RACK52Manual RoutingTo connect devices manually, you need to flip the rack around to see the back. This is done by pressing [Tab] or sele

MANAGING THE RACK53D You can change an existing connection in the same way, by clicking on one end of the cable and dragging it to another connector.U

MANAGING THE RACK54Routing MIDI to a DeviceThere are several ways to send MIDI from a control surface to a Reason device, as described in the Operatio

MANAGING THE RACK55Note that the mixer channel tape strips show the name of the device directly connected to the mixer! This means that if you have an

MANAGING THE RACK56

7D The Sequencer - Basics

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS58About the SequencerThe sequencer is your main composition tool in Reason. This is where you record notes, controllers, device

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS59Sequencer window handlingThe sequencer area below the rack.The basic window techniques in Reason have been described on page 4

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS60Working with the sequencer in a separate windowThe sequencer window can be detached from the rack and used in a separate windo

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS61A note about using Reason with two monitorsIf you have a computer system with two monitors, you can do the following:D Use one

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS62D You can also select the next or previous track in the list by using the up and down arrow keys on the computer keyboard.D It

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS63Deleting TracksTo delete one or several tracks, select them and press [Backspace] or [Delete].D If the track to be deleted (an

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS64About the Ruler, Song Position and LocatorsRegardless of which view mode is selected, you will find a horizontal ruler at the

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS65Setting Up for RecordingBefore you can start recording, you need to make some settings:Tempo and Time SignatureThe tempo and t

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS66Recording more tracksOnce you have recorded something, you can continue recording on other tracks, while hearing the first rec

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS67Playback and Positioning! If you are using ReWire, transport functions can be handled by ei-ther application. See the Operatio

1 D Installation

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS68Using the LoopIn loop mode, the sequencer will repeat a section over and over again, during playback or recording. You specify

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS69What else can I do in the sequencer?This chapter has only touched briefly on the capabilities of the sequencer. In the Operati

THE SEQUENCER - BASICS70

8D Introduction to the Combinator

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMBINATOR72What is the Combinator device?The Combinator is special device that allows you to save and recall any combi-nation of

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMBINATOR73About external and internal audio routingAt the back of a Combinator you can find the following audio connectors:D Com

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMBINATOR74If you flip the rack around, the Combi outputs have been auto-routed to inputs on the mixer device, but as the Combi i

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMBINATOR757. Select a NN-XT from the Create menu.The NN-XT is added to the Combi, with its L/R Master outputs auto-routed to the

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMBINATOR76D You can change Key Range values by clicking in the Key Range Lo/Hi fields and moving the mouse up or down with the m

9D Using Pattern Devices

INSTALLATION 6 Welcome! Thank you for purchasing Reason 3.0!Version 3.0 is the third major update of Reason, and this time we have designed the updat

USING PATTERN DEVICES78About this chapterAs of this writing, Reason includes two pattern-based devices: the Redrum drum computer and the Matrix Patter

USING PATTERN DEVICES79Selecting PatternsEach pattern device has 32 pattern memories, divided into four banks (A, B, C, D).The Bank and Pattern button

USING PATTERN DEVICES80Let’s say you have a 16 step pattern with resolution set to 1/16. The length of each pattern step is then one sixteenth note, a

USING PATTERN DEVICES81Pattern FunctionsWhen a pattern device is selected, you will find some specific pattern functions on the Edit menu (and on the

USING PATTERN DEVICES82

10D The Browser

THE BROWSER84BackgroundAbout ReFillsA ReFill is a kind of component package for Reason which can contain patches, samples, REX files, Soundfonts and d

THE BROWSER85About the BrowserThe Browser is a special file dialog that appears when you open songs or load patches, samples or REX files, from within

THE BROWSER86Opening the browserYou can use any of the following commands to open the Browser dialog (what file types you can browse for depends on wh

THE BROWSER87Show pop-up menuThis is only available in the Patch browser (it is otherwise grayed out). It deter-mines what patch types are shown in th

INSTALLATION 7 What is in the Reason package? When you purchase Reason, the package contains the following items: D The Program Disc CD. This contain

THE BROWSER88Info and detailsThe Info section in the left corner can show Song/ReFill splash images and the Details section will show information abou

THE BROWSER89About hierarchic and flat listsIn certain circumstances the Browser will display a flat list without any folder hi-erarchy. In such cases

THE BROWSER90Selecting multiple filesIt is possible to select multiple files in the Browser, by using standard [Shift] or [Ctrl] (Win)/[Command] (Mac)

THE BROWSER91Special instances of cross-browsingThere are a few instances when replacing an existing device by browsing might lead to lost connections

THE BROWSER92Using the Search functionThe Search function allows you to search for files by name and/or type. Search criteriaThe Browser mode (patch,

THE BROWSER93Opening filesWhen you have navigated to the desired folder (on your hard disk or within a Re-Fill) and located the desired file, you open

THE BROWSER94D By selecting the folder, the currently selectable contents of the Fa-vorite list is shown in the Browser list.What is selectable/shown

THE BROWSER95Handling Missing SoundsSampler patches, drum machine patches and Soundfonts contain references to samples - files on your hard disk. The

THE BROWSER96SelectingThe Replace and Search Locations functions (see below) are performed on the files that are selected in the list. This allows you

11D Working with Patches