Reason 3.0 Tips

  • Thread starter Thread starter BeatsBuY
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Best Tip i Got!

You don't always have to even out the velocity lines to be one consistant hit. Instruments like violins/strings/guitars come to life more when you vary the velosity patern as well as the automation for the pitch and modulation wheel.

pitch and modulation wheels are our friends :)
 
rnb259 said:
You don't always have to even out the velocity lines to be one consistant hit. Instruments like violins/strings/guitars come to life more when you vary the velosity patern as well as the automation for the pitch and modulation wheel.

pitch and modulation wheels are our friends :)
Click to expand...

Yes! Good point. On instruments, you don't really want to even out the velocity lines. I would recomend it on the main drums to add punch. A lot of good points here...
 
^going off that....

If your using strings, automate the faders on the mixer, and slowly fade the notes out.
It will sound more natural than having a constant string note.
 
Sitar

For great sitar sounds, use the Comindator. I think it's under guitars. Just tweak it a little. And USE THE PITCH BEND WHEEL! You can hold the pitch wheel up just a little. Not to much... Then press your key and release the wheel. Keep doing this every time you want an pitch on the note. Might take some practice, but it sounds TIGHT! Then you can really play around with the pitch up and down for string bending effects. Storch is the king of pitch bend. :D

There is also some nice sitar sounds in the Malstrom under "Poly Synths". Just do that pitch bend and you got it. :cool:
 
this is something that i copped from rapmusic.com ENJOY

Digga's Ten Greatest Tips for Making Beats in Reason


Tip #1
Making a piano grimey -
Load up NN-19
Load up Grand Piano
Select HP 12 on the NN-19
On the MIXER
Change TREBLE to 40
Change BASS to -20

Tip #2
Customize your starting setup.
Load a MIXER
Load a REVERB
Load a DELAY
Load a COMPRESSOR
at this point start loading the modules that you normally use
SAVE AS default.rns
This saves time loading up modules for projects
I got several setups for EASTCOAST, CLUB, and WESTCOAST

Tip #3
Drums boring? Creating headnoddin' beats a challenge?
Create your own beat using REDRUM
Load up DR.REX
start surfing through the loops
find the best loop that fits your groove


Tip #4
Need new drums kits?
use DR.REX or NN-XT to create beats using sounds from a drum loop


Tip #5
You ever been in a situation you have a great two bar groove, but dont want it to play the same way the entire time?
Use CHANGE EVENTS
Get your two bar loop
Copy and paste til you have eight bars
Select the PENCIL TOOL on the MAIN SEQUENCER
Highlight the second half of the 8th bar
Right click it
Select CHANGE EVENTS
Goto to alter notes
adjust the value to 25%, 50%, or 75%
Click APPLY
Listen to the results.....
Its a shot in the dark, but REASON can create some interesting grooves
DONT like what you hear, click APPLY several times to listen to more random grooves
Your bound to find something that fits your original groove, works great for creating basslines and chopped up sounding sequences.

Tip #6
Cant find the right bass for your project?
Create your own.
Load a SUBTRAKTOR
You have 32 different wave forms to choose from.
Goto WAVEFORM on the SUBTRAKTOR
You want something sharp, use a triangle wave
You want something smooth, use a sine wave
Next is the OCTAVE
3 and 4 work fine for basses and subs
5 and higher are good for CLUB and WEST COAST synths
Want a more complex bass sound?
Enable the second OSCILLATOR
Adjust the WAVEFORM and OCTAVE as desired
Want your basslines to have smooth transistions from note to note?
Enable LEGATO
adjust PORTAMENTO to 50
Lower the POLYPHONY TO 1 or 2

Tip #7
Guitars sound dull? Want that commercial feel?
Load up NN-19
Load up Accoustic Guitar
Select HP 12 on the NN-19
On the MIXER
Change TREBLE to 40
Change BASS to -40

Tip #8
Want that commercial feelin' 'thin as air' string sounds?
Load up NN-19
Load up Orchstrings
Select NOTCH on the NN-19
On the MIXER
Change TREBLE to 50
Change BASS to -64

Tip #9
What are the best refills to use?
These refills will arm you with a well rounded pallete of sounds for any style of music.

AMG - 160dB Drum&Bass Interface
AMG - 260dB Drum&Bass Interface
Propellerheads - Strings
Latin
Norman Cook - Skip To My Loop
Quadra Story

Tip #10
You want to create Primo style chopped beats or Timbaland-like guitar grooves?
Use RECYCLE with REASON
Piano and guitar samples work great for those styles

** Bonus Tip 1 **
Cant find any good samples to chop up?
Use your own instrumentals
Load up any track, mute the drums
Create an eight bar loop
Export to wave
Load the wave in RECYCLE
CHOP CHOP CHOP
Save REX file
Load up in REASON via NN-XT or DR.REX
Create a new groove


** Bonus Tip 2 **
Want Spanish guitars?
Load up NN-19
Load up Accoustic Guitar
Select HP 12 on the NN-19
On the MIXER
Change TREBLE to 40
Change BASS to -40
Load up RV-7 under the NN-19
Select Hall 2
Change SIZE to -25
Change DECAY to 64
Change DAMP to 30
Change DRY/WET to 127
 
Great tips... Keep this thread bumped and keep posting great tips :cool:

That piano is great, so is the strings, but i cant get the spanish guitar to not sound like shit :(
 
Strings

Hey, I noticed a lot of the mainstream beats have those thin no bass generic strings. I'm sure not feelin that. That's why we are gonna start up that fire... Ya know who's getting lazy on the strings? Jermaine Depree
Agree?
 
Frequency Sweep

NO DRAMA AND FOREVER ON 8 BALL AND MJG 'S LIVING LEGENDS PRODUCED BY SHONDRAE

I was trying to figure out how I could accomplish that sound and what i've learned after experimenting is that if I toggle the rack around and route the Subtractor's LFO to it's Frequency input I can then manipulate the modulation being sent to that sound so that it sweeps it's frequency from low to high. All I had to do next was to find a wave pattern I liked and then sync it to tempo.
 
sorry to interrupt or be off topic but I didn't want to post a new thread about it. anyway I was wondering how to hook up a Yamaha s03 MIDI keyboard to a mac mini (or what is the best way I should say)... thanks and sorry for being VERY NOOB.
 
I'm not familiar with any of those peices of equipment but i'll try and help you out.

1. Is the Yamaha USB connectable? if so, hook it up through your USB port.

2. You may have to go to the same place you purchased the midi board and pick up a midi interface, which is nothing but a cable connecting the midi board to your cpu. If i'm not mistakened there are like one or two different types out there so be sure to either bring the board with you, the manual or print the discription from an online website and bring it to the store so that you or the sales rep picks the right one. Some computer stores like best buy or circuit city may carry them, they'll hit you for about $20-$50. Just get one with the cable don't go for the fancy one with the overpriced software.

3. If a midi cable came with the board, you will probably have to hook it up through the joystick port.

4. If your board isn't USB connectable i would say bring it back and pick up one that is because they are more compatible and the parallel port cables will soon phase out.
 
uhave2buncommon said:
sorry to interrupt or be off topic but I didn't want to post a new thread about it. anyway I was wondering how to hook up a Yamaha s03 MIDI keyboard to a mac mini (or what is the best way I should say)... thanks and sorry for being VERY NOOB.
Click to expand...

You will need a USB midi interface since the mac mini only has usb and firewire. You may want to also get a USB hub since you will run out of ports quick (Use the midi interface on one port and the hub with everything else on the other port)
 
Here's somthing I just learned.

Say you have some type of chord. You want to adjust the velocity of one of the notes. Highlite the note you want to adjust, press and hold the shift key then use the pencil tool to adjust the velocity of that note. If you don't hold the shift key you will be adjusting the velocity of all the notes.
 
Side Chain compression

I was going through the reason help file and stumbled across this. Side-chain compression lowers one signal when another one is present. This is useful when you want to lower a pad while a vocal sample is playing, or lower the sub bass when a kick is triggered, etc. QUITE USEFUL Connect the MClass compressor to the device you want to lower, and connect the second device to the compressor's side-chain input. Then adjust the threshold, attack, and release until you get the desired sound. Peep the help file for more specifics.
 
92_ said:
This is what ya wanna do if you don't have recycle:

-Chop your shit up in a dedicated wave editor.

-Name each sample by numbers (it's gonna make it easier for you to mount them back to their same structure if you need to)

-Then you load them up in your nn-xt

-Assign them to their respective keys. (select all and automap them)

-When all your samples are loaded up, select all of them and turn down the: "k.track" knob on the pitch section of the nn-xt. See Picture
This will make sure the sample plays in its correct pitch and isn't subject to pitchbending over the keys you assign them.

Explanation

-Nito
Click to expand...

shifted topic
 
-Oh man! What a great tip Nito....

-Thanks, but there's nothing to it really...

-Seriously man, this makes it a whole lot easier for those without Recycle

-Yeah, I know...but didn't I post this on another section on this forum?

hehe :p

-Nito
 
Thanks for the great tip 92! Although it may seem obvious, I did not know that you could do that ;)
 
man every day i learn something new about reason...its twice as complex as i could have ever imagined. i never mess with any of this shit you guys are talking about and i am still putting out better beats than i ever have and expirimenting with reason all the time. the one thing i would like to know if anybody knows how to do is to make those kick lines that really drop ala pastor troy's "ATL Ho" among many other examples. i have tried and tried and tried, i dont know if i just dont have the right sounds or if there is some trick to it? anybody got any suggestions?
 
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