Music Monday: May 12, 2014

Software that we will use: Reason

The following is a short tutorial on the parts of the Reason interface, how to record, and how to create a loop.

Parts of the Reason Interface:

Transport controller: Plays and stops
track.

Time/tempo settings:

beats per minute. Change by using

arrows or double click on the number and
type in tempo. Different genres of music
generally fall in different ranges of bpm.
Click (so you can hear the metronome).
Blue means it is on.

Tap: If you dont know exactly what

number of bpm that you want, you can
tap out the bpm by hand. The software
will calculate the bpm for you.

Arrange window: where everything will

go when you start to record.
In the arrange window, every
instrument will have a different lane
(the horizontal rows in the arrange
window).
Timeline: Click anywhere on the timeline
to play that part of the track.
Note: Reason is a loop based
workstation (i.e. you create a loop
and you can take the loop and copy
it again and again). To make the
looping cleaner, when you click on
the timeline, it will automatically
snap to the beginning of a particular
bar (instead of exactly where you
have clicked).
Play Head: Move the play head to
navigate through your track/song. Click
stop button twice to automatically move
the playhead to the beginning of the track.

Rack System: you can see all your

instruments here and tweak them here to
no end!

Creating a new track:

Create menu >

o Create audio track (where you can record live audio)
o Create instrument track (creates a midi instrument)

Create new instrument track This window pops up:

Click on an instrument, should populate in the rack.

How to play the instrument:

Only a computer keyboard? Window > Show on Screen piano keys

Steps to creating a loop track:

Create a melody by playing around on the keys.

Tap out the bpm using the tap button. Let the computer identify the bpm

Turn on the precount:

(PRE). This function, when you press the red record button, gives you a bar of
clicks to hear the tempo before recording actually starts.
Press the record button, play your melody, then press stop when you want to stop recording.

HINT: holding shift sustains the note you press (like the pedal of a piano).

Cleaning up your loop:

Listen to your track and trim it so that it will loop cleanly.

Use the razor tool

or the arrows at the ends of the track

How do you split a track? (e.g. I like the first part of my track, but want to get rid of the second part)

o
o
o
o

Use the tools:

Pencil: can draw a note
Eraser: delete
Razor: cut a track at a specific point

M: mute tool (the track will look like this:

Make your loop:

Use the left and right locators

Drag the locators so they sit at the beginning and end of your loop. See below.

Press the loop button.

Press play. Its a loop!

Master Volume Control:

In the top right corner of the screen is a master volume and effects control. By default, it is hidden and needs to be dragged into
view. Once youve created an instrument track, you can apply the sliders to it to change the sound. Note the bank of green knobs
that control the effects in the rack. Hitting the numbers that correspond to the layout of the rack (by default: reverb, reverb,
tape delay, digital delay) applies them to the instrument.

Dr. OctoRex Looper

The Dr. OctoRex looper allows the user to insert pre-recorded loops into the song. The folder (the icon can be found at the top
of the machine) is used to select different loops. There is an arrow below the roller control on the left that opens up the second
part of the rack.
To use:
-Click on the folder icon to select a loop.
-Press the run icon to enable the loop.
-If the loop works with the song, turn run off, click the enable loop playback button (immediately above the run button)
and then press the copy loop to track button (located in the Select Loop and Load Slot
*To find more loops, use the Reason Factory Soundbank in the patch browser (the clickable folder icon).

With a MIDI controller, the user is able to rearrange a loop. The different parts of the loop are mapped to different keys on the
controller. With something like a piano loop, the key mapping will correspond to what the original player would have pressed
to create the loop. With this feature a loop can be repurposed and used to create original music.