Section 2: Drawing and Automation
Now you’ve learnt the extreme basics let us move onto more advanced techniques.
This section will deal with:
Adding Auxiliary FX Units
Creating a NN19
Copying and Pasting
Grouping Notes
Velocity Control
Basic Automation
Manually creating Seq Tracks
The Line Tool
You will notice on the Mixer you’ve created, at the top of each channel 4 Aux control knobs. These allow you to create FX Units directly to the Mixer and add them to each instrument through the Mixer. Lets add a Phaser to the mixer:
-Right Click on the grey area on the left of the Mixer and select Create>PH90 Phaser.
This will connect a Phaser to the Mixers Aux1 channel, you will notice in the top right hand corner of the Mixer the name ‘Phaser 1’ appears. You can connect 4 of these Auxiliary devices to the main mixer.
-Now find the Channel 1 Aux 1 knob situated near the top left corner of the mixer and increase it to around 70.
Press ‘Play’ and see how it affects your bassline.
Next we’ll look at copying and pasting. First let’s create a NN19 unit:
-Right Click on a blank space at the bottom of the tune in the Instrument Window and select NN-19 Digital Sampler.
As with the Sub it will create a NN19 and a new Track in the Seq Window called NN19 1.
-Load up a new sample by clicking the ‘Browse Patch’ button and load up ‘Orch Strings’ from the Reason Soundbank NN19 patches.
-Select the NN19 1 Track in the Seq Window and click the ‘Edit Mode’ button to get the keyboard up again.
Try copying the pattern below.
At some point you’ll probably want to listen to just the NN19 on its own. Simply click the ‘S’ button on the NN19 1 Track (shown in the picture below). Click it again to ‘un-solo’ it. This is a basic tune but we will learn here to copy and paste.
-Click on the blue parts above the notes and drag and window around all notes so they’re selected.
-Click on ‘Edit’ at the very top and then Copy or simply press Ctrl+C. This will store the notes into Reason buffer.
-Now move the Play Bar so its position is at 3,1,1.
-Click Edit again and Paste (Ctrl+V). This will copy the exact notes to bars 3-5.
Grouping notes makes multiple copying and pasting a lot easier. We will do this with our bassline.
-While still in Edit Mode, click the ‘first sub’ Track and select all the notes and press Ctrl+G.
-Click the ‘Arrange Mode’ button and you’ll notice a coloured box around the notes in the ‘first sub’ lane.
The colour is usually random so don’t worry if it’s not blue. You can now click on this box and copy and paste it to bars 3-5. Remember you need to set the ‘Play Bar’ to the right position before pasting.
You should now have a tune that’s 4 bars long. Next we’ll look at Velocity of Notes.
Velocity isn’t speed it’s volume! When you’ve been in Edit Mode you’ll have noticed a pink Velocity Window underneath the Keyboard Window as shown in the picture below. You use Velocity to program volumes for individual notes.
Lets select our NN19 1 Track and go into ‘Edit Mode’. Make sure ‘Show Velocity Lane’ button is on. You’ll see each note will have its own velocity bar, click on these bars and see how it affects the volume of each note. The lower the bar the lower the volume. You can change the size of the Velocity Lane by moving the mouse to the top border (above the pink) and dragging it up.
You’ll notice the bars and notes change colour. High velocity is red, low is white. Volume isn’t the only thing you can change with Velocity controls. Go into the Instrument Window and look at the NN19. In the bottom left corner is a section called Velocity. If you loaded the default ‘Orch Strings’ then 3 different effects take place when you change Velocity (the 3 knobs that aren’t set to zero: f.env, amp, a.attack). The Amp Vel knob is the volume, the more you move this to the right the bigger effect this will have on the volume. If you move it to a minus figure then it’ll have a reverse effect i.e. volume will be louder the lower the velocity bar. The other two are discussed in later sections but the point is that you need to program these knobs, mainly the Amp, for Velocity Bars to work. If all knobs were set to zero then changing the Velocity bars would have no effect.
Basic Automation:
The first question most beginners always ask is how do I add volume fades, pan effects and pitch wheel while the track is running. This is all done by ‘Automation’. Automation can seem confusing at first but is rather simple to get the hang of.
Lets first Automate the Mixer to pan the Subtractor bass we created.
-Open the Instrument Window and on the Mixer right click the ‘Channel 1 Pan’ knob.
You will get a few options here but the one we want ‘Edit Automation’ is not highlighted. This is because a Sequencer Track has not been created for the Mixer.
That’s no problem as we’ll create one and in the process learn about connecting Sequencer Tracks to instruments.
-Open the Sequencer Window and right click on the ‘dirty white’ area under NN19 1 (see picture below)
-Click on the option ‘Create Sequencer Track’.
This has created a track similar to the other two but no instrument is assigned (called New Track 3 most probably).
-To assign an instrument click on the button just to the right of ‘New Track 3’ and select Mixer 1 (see picture).
-Also change the name of this track to ‘MyMixer’ by double clicking on the name.
-Before we Automate the Channel 1 Pan knob on the Mixer turn it so it’s showing +64 (open instrument window so it show the mixer to do this).
This will move the bassline to play on the right speaker. This will help you understand Automation a little better later.
-As before right click the ‘Channel 1 Pan’ knob in the Instrument Window on the Mixer.
-Now ‘Edit Automation’ will be highlighted, click it and it will open a new lane in the Sequencer window.
-Select ‘MyMixer’ track and check you’re in Edit mode.
You’ll notice now there is a new lane coloured blue. It should be called Channel 1 Pan and have ‘Not Automated’ in it. Use Zoom options to make this lane bigger, you can also turn off ‘Key Lane’ and ‘Velocity Lane’ as you wont be using these with the Mixer. If you cant see the Blue Lane then make sure ‘Controller Lane’ is enabled. Check the picture below to make sure you’ve done it right.
We now need to automate this channel.
-Click on the ‘Pencil Tool’ and click in the blue area.
You’ll notice the ‘Not Automated’ sign disappears and the lane becomes automated. This has now automatically set the bar to where the knob was positioned on the Mixer (+64R). The Lanes range will have +64 at the top, 0 in the middle and –64 (left speaker) at the bottom. Now change the line so that between bars 3-5 the pan changes to the left speaker (see below). You may find it easier to change to BAR (next to the Hand Tool).
If you press Play now you’ll hear the bassline go from Right Speaker to Left Speaker. Look at the Mixer in the Instrument Window and you’ll notice a green box around the Pan knob. This means this knob has become automated. Keep playing the tune and you’ll see the knob move from +64 to –64.
If you need to clear the automation on the lane its very important your Play Bar is in the right place. Automation of the knob occurs even when the tune isn’t playing. Move the Play Bar to 4,1,1 while the tune isn’t playing and look at the knob on the Mixer. You’ll notice it’s on the left speaker (-64). If you deleted Automation from this knob now it would remain on the –64 mark. To delete Automation you simply right click on the blue lane you want to delete and select ‘Clear Automation’. This will show the ‘Not Automated’ sign again.
Although this doesn’t matter to much with the Pan, imagine you’ve spent ages getting the volume levels right and then added Automation to fade the Instrument out only to decide to delete the Fade Out. If the Play Bar is at the point where Volume is at 0 and you delete the automation then the Volume will stay at 0. See the picture below for more details.
You can automate most knobs on any Instrument (except the NNXT). Simply right click on the knob you want to Automate and select ‘Edit Automation’. If you don’t see this option then it’s likely you can’t automate it or you haven’t assigned a Sequencer lane to that instrument. Remember the instrument need a Sequencer Track assigned to it. Reason automatically creates this lane for most instruments but doesn’t for effects units and mixers.
The next exercise is in Automation but we’ll learn how to use the ‘Line Tool’ and a different way to create a Sequencer Track.
Lets Automate an FX Unit on the Strings. Let’s create a Filter on the NN19 we created earlier.
-To do this right click on the bottom left area of the NN19 and select Create>ECF42 Envelope Control Filter
To automate this Unit we need to create a Sequencer Track for it but we wont do it manually like before. This time we’ll try another method.
-Find a grey blank area of the ECF42 and right click so you get a ‘Create’ option come up.
- At the very top you’ll see an option ‘Sequencer Track for Filter 1’, click this and Reason will automatically create a Seq Track in the Seq Window for Filter 1 (see picture below).
Next we’ll look at automating the filter but first you’ll probably want to know how to delete Sequencer Tracks if you’ve made a mistake at some point.
-Right click the Filter 1 Track in the Sequencer Window and select ‘Delete’.
This will give you an option asking whether you want to delete the Instrument as well. If you click ‘Delete’ it will delete the Track and the Instrument, if you click ‘Keep’ it will delete the Track only. Click ‘Cancel’ for now, as we want to keep both.
Ok let’s open the Filter 1 Seq Track by going into Edit Mode. It should be blank, if it isn’t i.e. you can see the keyboard or velocity window then close them.
-Now click the ‘Show Controller Lane’ button and click ‘Controllers’ button to the right. This will give you a list of all Automatable options for the Filter Instrument.
-Select Frequency and you’ll get the Frequency Lane appear, which again will say ‘Not Automated’.
-Use the ‘Pencil Tool’ to automate it.
As before with the Mixer Pan the Frequency Knob becomes automated. You’ll notice this time the range is from 0 going up to 127. It should have automated to what the Freq Knob on the instrument was at the time you made the Automation (default was 64).
-Put the Block Tool to show ‘BAR’ (circled red in the picture below).
- Now click the ‘Line Tool’ and draw a line at 64 from position 1,1,1 going up to 127 by bar 5,1,1. Check the picture below.
Press Play and check the Freq Knob has the green box around. There is a bug in Reason, sometimes Automation wont occur first time you press Play so Stop the tune and press play again if this is the case.
You’ll notice because we’ve set the Block to ‘BAR’ the steps are quite large. Use the Line Tool again but this time change the Block to 1/64. This will give a smooth line. It’s important to note that if you press the Mute Button on the Filter 1 Seq Track or it’s muted by another track being soloed, automation will stop until it’s un-muted. Check the picture below.
If, while the Track is playing you move the Freq Knob on the Filter the Green Box will disappear. Automation will now stop until you press stop or start again. This is basically an over-ride option, handy if you want to try something new while the track’s playing.
Next exercise we’ll automate the Master Volume on the NN19, but you can try doing this yourself. This time the NN19 has a Sequencer Track already made so you don’t need do bother making one. Right click on the Master Volume on the NN19 to automate it. Try copying the picture below. This will fade out and fade in the strings.
Well done you’ve learnt the basics of creating and editing within Reason. Make sure you’re confident using the Sequencer Window, the Transport Panel and creating Instruments. The next tutorials deal with the programming individual instruments such as Redrum, Dr Rex, Malstrom and NNXT as well as the more advanced FX Units like Matrix, Scream and Mclass Mastering tools.