Section 1: The Basics
This will show you the basics of making your first tune.
In this section we will learn:
Latency
Creating a new tune
Creating a Mixer
Creating a Subtractor
Adding notes in the Sequencer Window
Adding Reverb and Delay Units
Before you start you need to read the Reason Help file on the Transport Panel. This is relatively easy to understand; it’s where the Play buttons, BPM and Loop options are. I’ll go into detail about the other parts on the Transport panel in later tutorials. Throughout the tutorial I will be using yellow text to signify something that needs to be done. If these aren't follwed then you'll find the tutorial alot harder to follow in later sections.
It's also worth noting that to get the best out of Reason a good set of speakers is essential. Computer speakers are quite simply shit, you'll will never get a good professional sound if you're producing with them. If you serious about music then speakers and a good amp are essential purchases and should be next on your shopping list. If you're really serious then get some good Monitors (production speakers). Next on the list would be a good set of headphones (Sennheiser are recommended) followed by a midi keyboard (unless you're a pianist in which case it would come first).
Ok first lets set our preferences right to start with.
-Click EDIT>PREFERENCES and set ‘Default Song’ to empty rack. Change the page so it’s on the ‘Audio’ page and check what latency you’re running at. Reason will set its own default, usually 50ms, which is fine for now.
If you have a built in sound card or cheap one then as your tune progresses you’ll probably have to increase it.
What is latency?
Basically is how fast your computer processes the sounds from you playing them until you hear it on the speakers. The lower the better, 0ms would be instant sound. Usually 50ms and below is decent enough but…. If your sound card or processor isn’t top notch then it’s likely you’ll need to increase it, as tunes become more CPU demanding. If you find the tune stuttering, popping or jumping while playing then too low a latency is usually to blame and you’ll need to increase it. Does it matter? Hell no… unless you’re playing live or recording from a midi keyboard in real time (you can temporarily turn in down while recording).
Audio Card Driver should be your Primary Sound Card/Driver, unless you have ASIO, in which case you may want to change it but at this stage its not important.
-Now click on ‘File>New’ to create a new song if you haven’t already got an empty rack!
You will have a hardware interface on show. Press ‘TAB’ and it’ll turn the rack around. Channels 1 and 2 are basically your sound card, that’s all you really need to know for now. Press ‘TAB’ again to show the front.
The Empty Rack
Creating a Mixer:
The first thing you always need to do is create a Mixer!
- Right Click on the blank space underneath the hardware interface and you’ll get a list of all the instruments and FX units on Reason. You need to select the ‘Mixer 14:2’.
This will create the main mixer and also ‘Auto-connect’ it to Ch1&2 of the Hardware Interface.
-Press ‘TAB’ and you’ll see its Master Out (Left and Right) connected automatically. Press ‘TAB’ again to switch to front view.
The Mixer is fairly easy to understand. Master volume is on the right and your instruments connect to the 14 channels, which are all stereo and have their own volume levels. You can also connect FX Units (which the Aux 1-4 knobs are for) to Mixers but first we will create an instrument.
If you make mistakes or do something you think you shouldn’t have done then always use ‘Undo’ from the Edit menu or simply press Ctrl+Z. Reason doesn’t have a very good undo buffer so it can only undo about 10 changes which can be very annoying sometimes.
Creating a Subtractor Unit (Sub):
-Right Click on the blank space under the Mixer and Select ‘Subtractor Analog Synth’.
This will Auto-Connect the Subtractor to the nearest Mixer. You’ll notice the Mixer has ‘Subtractor 1’ in Channel 1 on its left hand side. Press ‘TAB’ and see how it’s wired. You’ll notice that there is only one lead from the Audio Output of the Sub to the Mixer. Yes, the Subtractor is mono, when you connect just one wire to a stereo input on Reason it treats it as a Mono signal and plays it through both Left and Right speakers.
While we’re here lets load up a sample.
-On the Sub top left corner you’ll see ‘init patch’. Click on ‘Browse Patch’ just to the right of this (see picture below) and in the load window click on Reason Factory Sound Bank. It will show all Patches for different instruments, you need the ‘Subtractor Patches’ at the bottom.
-Click the ‘plus’ signs and select ‘Bass Guitar’ from the Bass folder.
You’ll notice the ‘init patch’ has been replaced with the sample you loaded. You can only load Subtractor patches into a Sub (not waves or rex files).
When you created the Sub you would have noticed Reason opened a new window. This is the ‘Sequencer Window’. There are 2 Windows in Reason, the first shows you the instruments (the Mixer etc.) and in this tutorial I’ll call it the Instrument Window. The second, the Sequencer Window, lets you program notes etc. and each instrument in there is called a ‘Track’. Check the picture below.
The Sequencer Window (Seq Window):
This is the hardest thing for a beginner to grasp. It's where you program notes and change volume of instruments while the tune is running. You can maximise or minimise these windows by clicking the ‘Max’ button directly to the right of the window.
You should have only one ‘Track’ in there for now called ‘Subtractor 1’. You can change this name to what ever you want. In the Instrument Window, on the left of the Sub there is a sticker with the name ‘Subtractor 1’, click on it and change its name to ‘first sub’. You’ll notice the Sequencer Track also change name to what ever you typed.
Now lets listen to what we loaded into that Sub.
-In the Seq Window you need to click the ‘Switch to edit mode’ button that’s in the top left corner.
This will show the music keyboard. You may want to max this window to see what you’re doing! If you don’t see the keyboard make sure ‘first sub’ track is selected and ‘Show key lane’ button is switched on. Press on the music keyboard with your mouse. It should play the bass guitar we loaded earlier. Now we need to program a tune.
Programming your first notes:
Make sure the tune is at the start (double click ‘Stop’). Next to the ‘Hand Tool’ (the hand) is a window with either BAR or 1/16, set this to 1/8. Zoom in vertically and horizontally so you can see what you’re doing (the plus and minus zoom buttons at the right edge and bottom edges of the window).
-Now click the ‘Pencil Tool’ (the pencil) and click on the blue part to the right of the keyboard. It will draw a red block 1/8th long. Change the 1/8 to BAR and see what happens. You can delete a note by selected it and pressing ‘delete’ on your keyboard.
Try to copy the pattern in the picture below.
Notice the first note is twice the length of the others (1/4 length). To do this select the note, click on the black dot and drag to the right.
You will also need to learn to use the loop function in the transport window. As you can see in the picture above the loop is set 1,1,1 on the left and 3,1,1 on the right. This will loop the first 2 bars. You will notice 3 lines in the picture above with the letters L/P/R. The L and R are where your current loop is set.
If you’ve copied the tune or made your own it will probably still sound a bit dead. Lets add some basic FX before moving on.
Creating FX Units:
Here we will add some Reverb and Delay directly to the instrument.
Display the Instrument Window again so you can see the Sub and to the left in the grey area above the bottom left screw
-Right Click the mouse and select Create>DDL1 Digital Delay Line. This will connect a Delay directly to the Sub.
-Press ‘Play’ to listen how this affects the bassline.
Most the FX Units have a dry/wet knob, which by default will be set to 127. This is too high for most FX, playing at this level will cause your notes to play out of time, an important note to remember. Reduce the dry/wet on the Delay to 32.
Press ‘TAB’ and look how the Delay is wired to the Sub. You’ll notice firstly that it’s now a true stereo signal (2 wires L/R) and that the Delay is connected to the mixer (note the name on Ch1 of the Mixer). You may notice the other knobs such as feedback or pan but we’ll look at those later in the tutorial.
Now lets create a reverb in the same way as you did the Delay.
There are two options here now: click on the grey part of the Sub again or click on a Red area of the Delay. Each will give a different result.
-Clicking on the grey will connect a Reverb to the Sub (SUB>REVERB>DELAY>MIXER).
-Clicking on the Red area of the Delay will connect a reverb to the Delay (SUB>DELAY>REVERB>MIXER).
At the moment it doesn’t matter what you choose but it’s worth remembering later as it can produce slightly different sounds when using lots of FX Units! To create the reverb click Create>RV7 Digital Reverb. Turn the dry/wet down to 20 on the reverb.
It’s important to remember that turning any effect unit ‘Off’ will turn the instrument off too. If you want to turn the effect off then switch the effect to ‘Bypass’.
The bassline should now sound a bit fuller and in stereo. Tinker with the dry/wet settings to fine-tune what you prefer.
As a beginner you’ll probably think more is better when it comes to effects but usually it’s the opposite. Effects such as reverb especially on basslines and low-end frequencies can cause ‘muddiness ‘ in the mix so it’s always best to use them subtly.