The Reason Q&A Thread

[ENZA]

yo,, gotta question that shud probably be in the how to make this sound thread but that pretty much seems to be a black hole of threads and anyways im trying to make this sound with reason. well i can make it pretty easily with massive but my computer can barely handle 4 tracks on reaper :/ so anyways if anyone can help me its the bassy i guess u can say wobbles. i know its got reverb and a low pass filter but i just cant seem to get anywhere near it with thor or maelstrom. but ya any help sud be appreciated

That sounds like it would be easy to make. I had a fiddle but couldn't actually get it to actually sound like that. If you have a fiddle with the cut-off and res on this you might be able to get something simular. http://www.sendspace.com/file/5m308n

sounds alright

i never thought of fkn with subtractor for bass for sum reason so this helps me out either wayyy

thanks.

[daddy mchectic]

sounds alright

i never thought of fkn with subtractor for bass for sum reason so this helps me out either wayyy

thanks.

No problem. I always use Thor or Subtractor for bass.

[Johnst]

So i've been attempting resampling my basses with the nn xt but it seems like the quality of the sample is crap or the nn xt makes it crap. does anyone else have this problem/know what i may be doing wrong?

[kejk]

sounds alright

i never thought of fkn with subtractor for bass for sum reason so this helps me out either wayyy

thanks.

No problem. I always use Thor or Subtractor for bass.

Fuck with the ström - it's MAD.

So i've been attempting resampling my basses with the nn xt but it seems like the quality of the sample is crap or the nn xt makes it crap. does anyone else have this problem/know what i may be doing wrong?

Are you exporting the .wav in the highest possible setting? Is your root note close to the notes you're playing?

[futures_untold]

So i've been attempting resampling my basses with the nn xt but it seems like the quality of the sample is crap or the nn xt makes it crap. does anyone else have this problem/know what i may be doing wrong?

Where are the samples from? If you make them yourself, ensure you save them as 16bit wav as a minimum.

When importing into the NN-XT, ensure the filters are off. Subtractor by default loads with a lowpass filter set halfway down the frequency spectrum, thus filtering out the sound. This may also be happening on your NN-XT patch. Initialise the patch by rightclicking anywhere in the brown area and selecting 'initialise patch'. By using an initialised patch to load your samples into, you can guarantee than no settings from the previous patch are effecting the sound.

It also depends what your root note is and what octave you play the sample at. If you don't change the samples root note, it will playback normally on midi note C3. If you're playing it two octaves lower, then expect it to sound different innit!

Finally, are you sure there are no effects in the signal chain between the sampler and the main audio output? Test the samples in a blank patch with only the NN-XT loaded up. If it still sounds shit, it could be one of three things. The soundcard may be set up to operate at less than optimal settings. The samples may be shit quality to start with. Finally, it may be a case of PEBKAC effecting the computers operation!

[sirminus]

Hi im new to the forum

anyway i was wondering what people use to make their wobble bass and how you do it.
i can get a wobble but they never seem to have much impact or they always seem empty and not very dirty.

Cheers

I do hope you arent trolling!! Theres a great deal of Reason wobble tuts on youtube, i sugest you get searching on there.

But in the mean time, try starting an effects chain under your synth. A unison unit helps to colour the sound nicely, like a chorus. Flange aswell and mess with a scream unit, maybe a little touch of reverb, not much, just to liven things up.

Once you have a wider more vibrant sound, you can then select your whole chain, synth included then duplicate it 2 or 3 times, that will certainly fatten things up loads. Then maybe give them all different filters and values, low, mid, high

I have had some of the same problems.. I can make decent lines, but they arent dark or mean enough... unlike what I might be able to make with massive. Definitely will try dup'ing the synth.

[Johnst]

kejk: what would be the highest possible setting? i've been exporting at 16bits, but maybe i'm missing something else in that method? and DAMMIT i can't believe i didn't think of the root note setting. thank you!

So i've been attempting resampling my basses with the nn xt but it seems like the quality of the sample is crap or the nn xt makes it crap. does anyone else have this problem/know what i may be doing wrong?

Where are the samples from? If you make them yourself, ensure you save them as 16bit wav as a minimum.

When importing into the NN-XT, ensure the filters are off. Subtractor by default loads with a lowpass filter set halfway down the frequency spectrum, thus filtering out the sound. This may also be happening on your NN-XT patch. Initialise the patch by rightclicking anywhere in the brown area and selecting 'initialise patch'. By using an initialised patch to load your samples into, you can guarantee than no settings from the previous patch are effecting the sound.

It also depends what your root note is and what octave you play the sample at. If you don't change the samples root note, it will playback normally on midi note C3. If you're playing it two octaves lower, then expect it to sound different innit!

Finally, are you sure there are no effects in the signal chain between the sampler and the main audio output? Test the samples in a blank patch with only the NN-XT loaded up. If it still sounds shit, it could be one of three things. The soundcard may be set up to operate at less than optimal settings. The samples may be shit quality to start with. Finally, it may be a case of PEBKAC effecting the computers operation!

Futures, let me start by saying i started reading this forum once i got into production 2 or 3 months ago, and i can't even begin to tell you how much i appreciate all you've done, especially in the realm of reason. it's more help than i ever could have believed possible.

ok, on to resampling:
yes, i've been exporting my basses at 16bits, but i'll try a higher quality as well. i make sure to initialize everything immediately, so i don't think that's the problem either.

but again, DAMMIT i can't believe i didn't think of the root note. just to make sure, am i supposed to set the root note on the sampler to the actual note that the sample is?

I'm positive that there are no extra effects, unless they are occurring after the signal goes into the main mixer. i have an initialized NN XT with my sample, which feeds into a combi, which goes into one of the master mixer channels.

I'll try changing the root note and if that doesn't work i'll mess with the soundcard. thank you for all of this!!! again, big ups, you're a saint.

PS- excuse my lack of lingo, but what is PEBCAK?... i'm sure i'm missing something obvious here lol

[kejk]

PS- excuse my lack of lingo, but what is PEBCAK?... i'm sure i'm missing something obvious here lol

Problem excists between chair and keyboard.

[futures_untold]

Hi Johnst

Whether you decide to set a different root note for each sample depends on how it will be used I guess. For instance, If you've only got one sample in the sampler and don't mind the pitching artifacts that are inherent with playing samples slower/lower down on the keyboard, then there is no need to set an alternative root pitch. In the past I've exported every third note over two octaves, then I set the root note for each sample to its original midi key so that each sample is only pitching up or down by two semi tones max. This leads to a more natural sound when repitching.

It sounds as if you've no insert effects running. The combinator doesn't colour the sound in any way by itself, so that ought not be the problem. Did you check for any rogue send effects still in operation off your main mixer?

With regards to your hardware setup, if you provide more info on the soundcard model someone here will undoubtedly be able to shed light on its optimal settings. I'm guessing your on a prefab PC laptop of some sort?

PEBCAK - I'm just having a bit of a joke really

[Johnst]

PS- excuse my lack of lingo, but what is PEBCAK?... i'm sure i'm missing something obvious here lol

Problem excists between chair and keyboard.

ah, so i can't keep my gf's head there while i'm producing? hahaha i knew it'd be something like that...

Hi Johnst

Whether you decide to set a different root note for each sample depends on how it will be used I guess. For instance, If you've only got one sample in the sampler and don't mind the pitching artifacts that are inherent with playing samples slower/lower down on the keyboard, then there is no need to set an alternative root pitch. In the past I've exported every third note over two octaves, then I set the root note for each sample to its original midi key so that each sample is only pitching up or down by two semi tones max. This leads to a more natural sound when repitching.

It sounds as if you've no insert effects running. The combinator doesn't colour the sound in any way by itself, so that ought not be the problem. Did you check for any rogue send effects still in operation off your main mixer?

With regards to your hardware setup, if you provide more info on the soundcard model someone here will undoubtedly be able to shed light on its optimal settings. I'm guessing your on a prefab PC laptop of some sort?

PEBCAK - I'm just having a bit of a joke really

Ok, i see what you mean in terms of the root note now, and i had seen that you exported several different notes, i just didn't really get why until now. Brilliant, as soon as i get home from the library i'll begin working on that. I haven't checked for effects in the main mixer, but i'll be sure to do that too.

in terms of the soundcard, i'll wait until every other possibility is exhausted. and no i'm actually on a macbook. not the most powerful device, but very organized.

[Johnst]

ok thank you again futures and kejk, my sampling sounds much better now.

for anyone who may be able to help though, i really want to start using vocals/remixing, but i can't seem to think of a good way to go about it.
any suggestions?...

[Jak The lad]

For vocals, I tend to use another program called Recycle. This allows you to cut the file without actualling cutting it. It creates rex2 files that can be used in Reason. So a full vocal can be cut into verses or even words. Then import them into the nnxt and you've got a sampler full of your vocal clips.

[Johnst]

For vocals, I tend to use another program called Recycle. This allows you to cut the file without actualling cutting it. It creates rex2 files that can be used in Reason. So a full vocal can be cut into verses or even words. Then import them into the nnxt and you've got a sampler full of your vocal clips.

perfect! thank you, that's exactly what i was looking for. i'll take a look at recycle right now.

[Ongelegen]

Recycle is expensive for what it can do. For half the price you can get record, which gives you the ability to use audio and many other features. Just sayin

[Johnst]

Recycle is expensive for what it can do. For half the price you can get record, which gives you the ability to use audio and many other features. Just sayin

yeah i just figured out how much it is. don't think i have the money for either... but maybe i can make it work still. i suppose there's no good freeware for this?

[futures_untold]

Just been PM'd by Johnst who has provided a link to a nifty way of developing a spectrum analyser/eq in Reason.

Although the video only has 13 bands, you could easily add more stereo imagers and a second (or third) mixer for extra fine resolution.

I've been really interested in a good frequency analyzer for Reason, but it's tricky since reason can't use vst's. i

I looked around Youtube and found this. It's a pretty clever little invention, and it doesn't color the sound like the vocoder method would.

Frequency analyser in Reason ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHR66806sNY

Thank you Johnst!

[Laika]

Recycle is expensive for what it can do. For half the price you can get record, which gives you the ability to use audio and many other features. Just sayin

yeah i just figured out how much it is. don't think i have the money for either... but maybe i can make it work still. i suppose there's no good freeware for this?

You can chop up wav files with the NN-XT and groove-steady mpc style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHt7zHSXUrQ

[sixth sense]

Anyone know if you can get more outputs for Dr. Octo Rex because I'm trying to route each instrument of this loop to separate channels on my mixer but there's only 4 outputs and my loops has more than 4 instruments in it sorry if this doesn't make sense it's my first time using the rex player.

[Bazzle09]

Anyone know if you can get more outputs for Dr. Octo Rex because I'm trying to route each instrument of this loop to separate channels on my mixer but there's only 4 outputs and my loops has more than 4 instruments in it sorry if this doesn't make sense it's my first time using the rex player.

Try loading the rex file into the NNXT as a patch (the top load button) and then you will have 16 outputs and alot more options on each slice.

Rex drum loops usually use the same sounding samples again in the same loop so i doubt you will need all 16 unless its a really individual loop. Even then, you can just cut the remainder and paste into another NNXT and use another 16 outputs.

[atazoth]

So I downloaded a copy of Reason 5, was trying to use it unsuccessfully for like a month on and off in my spare time and just tonight discovered how to get the fucker to make any sound whatsoever.. Been using this virtual midi keyboard and my cracked copy of reason 5 to fuck with synth sounds for a while and then it just stops making noise again. Turned the volume up in preferences and it just wont make sound again..

So is my copy of reason fucked or what?

Thanks