EQ Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 50)

CHEAT SHEET PROPELLERHEAD REASO N 4 by Craig Anderton Cheat Sheet delivers concise, explicit information on how to do specific recording/audiorelated tasks. This installment describes cool features and techniques involving Reason 4. BETTER SAMPLE PLAYBACK Some people erroneously believe that Reason’s sound quality doesn’t equal dedicated hardware—they probably have the “low bandwidth” option enabled in SubTractor or the NN19 (a holdover from the days when computers had much less power), didn’t check “High Quality Interpolation” in the NN-XT, or didn’t select “Use High Resolution Samples” under Edit > Preferences > General. If checked, 24-bit samples loaded into the NN19, NN-XT, or ReDrum play back with 24-bit resolution; otherwise, they play back with 16-bit resolution. COMPRESSOR SIDECHAINING While DAWs are just starting to implement sidechaining, Reason’s MClass Compressor already includes sidechaining—hit Tab to flip the rack around to reveal Sidechain In jacks for the left and right channels. Bonus: The compressor’s Gain Reduction signal is available as a control voltage. BETTER MIXER EQ On the back of the ReMix mixer, a switch in the lower left chooses between “Compatible EQ” and “Improved EQ.” Use Compatible for projects created in older versions of Reason; for new projects, use Improved. The CPU hit isn’t much, and the quality is better. MIDI-TO-CV CONVERTER The RPG-8 can serve as a MIDI-to-CV converter when the Arpeggiator is set to Off. For example, make the RPG-8’s track active in the Sequencer, and send the RPG-8 Gate and CV outs to a SubTractor synthesizer. But instead of routing the RPG-8 Mod Wheel out to the SubTractor’s Mod Wheel in (the default), you can send it to Pitch, Filter 2 Freq, or Amp Level, which do not have corresponding amount controls in SubTractor’s Mod wheel section. COMPLEX LFO PATTERNS Reason can produce sample-and-hold control effects, as well as more randomized modulation, by feeding multiple LFO outputs into a Spider CV Merger, then sending the Merged output to the parameter you want to control. For example, for a synced sample-and-hold filter effect, use square LFO waveforms (try setting sync on one to 1/4 and the other to 1/8T) and send the merged output to something like Thor’s Filter 1 Freq input. REASON’S BONUS EQUALIZER In addition to the MClass equalizer, PEQ-2 parametric EQ, and ReMix channel EQs, the BV512 vocoder has an equalizer mode with up to 32 bands—select Equalizer instead of Vocoder with the switch to the left of the display. You can even do primitive “room tuning” with this if you insert the vocoder as the last processor in the signal chain. EFFECT MONO/STEREO IN/OUT Some of Reason’s effects sum the inputs to mono before creating a stereo output, some are stereo in/stereo out, some do mono in/stereo out but not mono in/mono out, etc. To see how a particular effect handles signal flow, Tab to the back of the rack, and check the small graphics toward the left side of a device. For an explanation of what the graphics mean, go to page 334 of the PDF Operation Manual (located in the documentation folder). MORE HEADROOM The MClass Equalizer has a low cut switch that reduces response below 30Hz at 12dB/octave. Insert this at the output to remove any subsonics. Patching this before a compressor will also allow the compressor to work more efficiently, as its control mechanism won’t be influenced by subsonic signals. BETTER DISTORTION (AND OVERALL SOUND) Reason will run at 96kHz (go Preferences > Audio > and choose the desired sample rate from the drop-down menu). Don’t think 96kHz makes a difference? Choose a really distorted patch in Scream, and you’ll hear a definite smoothness in the high frequencies that you just don’t get at 44.1kHz. THE TRUTH ABOUT CLIPPING Reason uses 32-bit floating point math for internal calculations, yielding virtually unlimited dynamic range. As a result, clipping that occurs within Reason itself (e.g., an effect meter goes “in the red”) won’t produce audible distortion. However, clipping at the hardware interface will. It’s a good idea to leave the Hardware Device unfolded, and check the Audio Output meters from time to time to make sure they’re not distorting. IF YOU DON’T LIKE PATCH CABLES . . . Type “L” (not Ctrl-L or Command-L, as erroneously stated in the Operation Manual) to show/hide the patch cords on the back. Jacks that are in use have a colored “hole” with the same color as the patch cord that normally connects to it, and you can see where it connects by placing the cursor over the jack—a “tooltip” style of text appears, describing the connection. MORE EFFECTIVE VOCODING You’ll get the most noticeable vocoding effects if the carrier sound you use has lots of harmonics (e.g., a synth sound with an open filter and sawtooth waves). Not enough harmonics? Patch a Scream4 between the carrier source and the vocoder carrier input. COPY RIGHT To copy a Reason device quickly, Ctrl-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac) on a device’s “rack ears” and drag it into an empty space in the rack. THE MIDI GUITAR CONNECTION Reason makes a great sound module for MIDI guitar because it’s easy to load up six devices, put the MIDI guitar in mono mode (separate MIDI output for each string over its own channel), and assign each device to a string. MIDI IMPLEMENTATION There’s some confusion about how to control Reason parameters via MIDI, as it’s possible to use custom control mappings. But for most applications, especially when rewiring into a host, it’s best to use the default MIDI controller numbers for the various parameters. A comprehensive MIDI implementation chart is located in the Documentation folder (in the Reason directory). 50 EQ MARCH 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - March 2008

EQ Magazine - March 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In Tool Box Dream Theater Nick Drake LO-FI Recording Tricks Guitar Trax Bass Managment Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Tascam Gigastudio 4 Cakewalk Sonar 7 Crane Song Avocet Cad Signature Series Mic Packs Waves GTR3 Kjaerhus MPL-1 Pro SE Ableton Live 7 Centrance Micport Pro, Tapco LINK.midi 4x4, Multi-Gigabyte USB 2.0 Memory Sticks Digital Redux Electrotech, Nine Volt Audio Action Drums, Big Fish Audio Hadeeth 2 Room with a VU

EQ Magazine - March 2008

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