Reason Tips

Master Propellerhead’s kickass virtual studio with these expert tips and hacks

Re-route to SSL Mixer

If you’ve got tracks feeding into a rack mixer, such as projects from before Reason 6, and you want to hook them up to the main SSL mixer, it could take a long time to rewire everything around the back… Or, just delete all your old mixers, go to Edit>Select All Devices, then Edit>Auto-route Device and Reason does it all for you.

Keyboard shortcuts and additional overrides

To control Reason’s functions with your QWERTY keyboard, go to Options>Keyboard Control edit mode, select an item, and you can set up a custom shortcut key for it. Remote Override Edit Mode does the same thing, only for controlling parameters with a MIDI controller. And if that’s not enough, you also get Additional Remote Overrides, which let you set up MIDI controller parameters to complete other tasks – undo and redo, moving loop markers, patch selection, and loads more.

NN-XT vs NN-19

The NN-XT sampler has more controls than the NN-19, and it’s probably the first sampler you reach for, but one thing it can’t do very well is automation. It gives you a few global parameters to automate – envelope, filter and master volume – but the NN-19 does a lot more. You can right-click (or Alt-click) almost any control on the NN-19 to create an automation lane in the sequencer, giving you control over Tuning, modulator Amounts, portamento, spread and more. You can also automate the Sample Start time for old-school time-stretching.

Multiband processing

Reason doesn’t come with a multiband processor, but you can make your own. You’ll need the right type of filter… At the back of the Stereo Imager, there are two outputs: the main Audio Output and a Separate Output. Use the switch to select Hi Band, and at the front, select Solo Lo Band. Now when you set the crossover frequency, you have separate outputs for each band. You can feed one band in turn to another Stereo Imager to create another filter, and repeat as many times as necessary.

Instruments as effects

In Kong, route your signal to the Audio Input, and you’ll get access to its Bus FX and Master FX sections; with Thor, send a signal to its audio inputs and use the mod matrix to route Audio InL and Audio InR to Filter3; in Malstrom, connect something to an Audio input, and you’ll get access its filters for left and right channels, the Spread control, and Modulator B.

Free rack extensions

Go to shop.propellerheads.se. Load all the items by scrolling down as far as possible, then Ctrl-/Cmd-F and type FREE to zone in on the booty.