HOW DO I PROFFESIONALLY LAY ACCEPELLAS ON REASON 4

[abZ]

Oh pish... Reason is as good as it comes. You wanna chop up audio? You can do it in Recycle, or Audacity for pete sakes. You wanna get real creative, do it in NNXT. Just cause YOU cant do it well doesn't make Reason any less of a top notch tool. Boycott Reason because its not as inclusive as you wish it was? Please. Propellerheads is a top notch company, they do any and everything you see any other DAW maker out there doing. They made a fairly closed system, but add enough details to keep the most inquisitive minds reeling. I say we boycott Windows for not allowing AudioUnits. Lol. Please....

I don't get the boycott thing either. Just don't use it if you don't like it. Simple things. I wouldn't automatically assume just because someone doesn't like Reason that they don't know how to use it or aren't proficient with it. I was a whiz with the program but I am ecstatic that I don't have to use it anymore. If you take the time to learn something else, I guarantee you will be thankful for it. No need to say why, you will know why when the time comes. But the truth is, and they made it even more apparent with the release of Record, is that they are trying to corner the beginners market. That is not to say that everyone that uses it is a n00b or anything like that but it's the truth. And almost everyone that uses it from the beginning gets trapped with it. Your more traditional DAW's seem intimidating from the Reason users point of view. I know this from experience. Sometimes we have threads like this, let's face it it happens too often but X reason users post like it was a Reason Anonymous meeting lol.

[futures_untold]

Reason is powerful, but the workflow sux ballz.

My workflow in Reaper is as follows.

Drag 'n' drop any format audio sample from the desktop directly onto any track I wish on the sequencer.

Click once on the spot I wish to slice. Press 'S' to slice/split the sample in two.

If the sample is slightly out of time, I hold down 'Alt' and left-click drag the edge of the sample until it snaps with the quantisation grid. If the sample is the wrong pitch, I press the toolbar buttons I saved which allow me to adjust a samples pitch by semitones or octaves.

That process saved me using two programs (Recycle and Reason), allowed me to see the actual waveform peaks as I chopped the sample (no triggering samples with midi for me thanks), and allowed me to correct the timing and pitch intuitively (changing pitch without changing the playback rate and vice versa, not possible in Reason AFAIK).

As I said, Reason is powerful, but the workflow sux ballz.

[b166er]

I don't get the boycott thing either. Just don't use it if you don't like it. Simple things. I wouldn't automatically assume just because someone doesn't like Reason that they don't know how to use it or aren't proficient with it. I was a whiz with the program but I am ecstatic that I don't have to use it anymore. If you take the time to learn something else, I guarantee you will be thankful for it. No need to say why, you will know why when the time comes. But the truth is, and they made it even more apparent with the release of Record, is that they are trying to corner the beginners market. That is not to say that everyone that uses it is a n00b or anything like that but it's the truth. And almost everyone that uses it from the beginning gets trapped with it. Your more traditional DAW's seem intimidating from the Reason users point of view. I know this from experience. Sometimes we have threads like this, let's face it it happens too often but X reason users post like it was a Reason Anonymous meeting lol.

True, i'll concede to that. I'm technically proficient in Ableton, Reason, and Cubase, to a fault, and can find ways to do in each what I can do in one in most situations. I just hate hating for the sake of hating, or the sake of "I cant figure it out, so its gotta be shitty software". Its fine if you have a specific issue that you dont like something but it doesnt make or break the software. It just means you have to find a way around the problem. I think thats what made electronic music that in itself. Like when I see kids asking whats the best software to make techno or dubstep. When kids were first messing around with a new musical style, they werent asking whats the best ** to make this style.. They were just fucking around and "oh shit, look what i did"! Your tools should really never limit you. Cant make that sound Skream makes? Make a different one. Your reese isnt like Dj X's Reese? Good! Make it better! And for this post, try loading up the acapella in NNXT and fuck with it, Watch what happens. Thats how you make music... to me...

[Ongelegen]

Reason is powerful, but the workflow sux ballz

Def a legit reason to boycot! /sarcasm

For real tho, i get you, things could be better. Appearently reaper suits you better, go for it. I tried reaper and didnt like it much, maybe cuz i didnt take enough time to get in it properly. But that doesnt mean ima gonna tell peeps to boycot.

[futures_untold]

I think you're right about making tunes your own and being creative/experimental.

I found after using Reason for several years that it was forcing me to work in a certain way, and that certain simple things were a chore. Chopping up acapellas in Recycle and adjusting the loop start length of samples spread across different zones in the NN-XT take away from the immediacy and fun that making music should be about.

I dislike Propellerheads ethos because they are taking a corporate approach to an artform I enjoy dearly. Reason, Record & Recycle = 'Divide and conquer' to me.

Every other mainstream program can do all of those things using in built tools. Propellerheads charge $$$ for all three programs combined.

[abZ]

Reason is powerful, but the workflow sux ballz

Def a legit reason to boycot! /sarcasm

For real tho, i get you, things could be better. Appearently reaper suits you better, go for it. I tried reaper and didnt like it much, maybe cuz i didnt take enough time to get in it properly. But that doesnt mean ima gonna tell peeps to boycot.

You need to learn keyboard shortcuts to use Reaper and a lot of other sequencers properly. I think that is why Reason users seem to gravitate to Ableton eventually because you really don't need many shortcuts to get efficient with it. I basically just use the tab and the copy and paste that everyone uses.

[futures_untold]

Reaper certainly works better for me. It is horribly shit out of the box, but once it has been customised, it kills it. I can auto chop a sample with one click and explode/spread every slice to a different channel each with its own FX with another click.

By switching the pitchshifting/timestretching mode of the samples I chop, they can function exactly like REX's anyway

[abZ]

I think you're right about making tunes your own and being creative/experimental.

I found after using Reason for several years that it was forcing me to work in a certain way, and that certain simple things were a chore. Chopping up acapellas in Recycle and adjusting the loop start length of samples spread across different zones in the NN-XT take away from the immediacy and fun that making music should be about.

I dislike Propellerheads ethos because they are taking a corporate approach to an artform I enjoy dearly. Reason, Record & Recycle = 'Divide and conquer' to me.

Every other mainstream program can do all of those things using in built tools. Propellerheads charge $$$ for all three programs combined.

That is exactly it, certain things become a chore you are exactly right. Same here. I would get to the point where I wanted to add a new break or sample or something and I would sigh because I had to open soundfordge, acid and recycle to get it done. Things got fun again for me when I started to get good with live which by the way took about 2 or 3 months. Pretty painless.

[futures_untold]

You need to learn keyboard shortcuts to use Reaper and a lot of other sequencers properly. I think that is why Reason users seem to gravitate to Ableton eventually because you really don't need many shortcuts to get efficient with it. I basically just use the tab and the copy and paste that everyone uses.

I would say that for any serious programming, customising the keyboard shortcuts is a good idea.

I've done this for Photoshop as well as Reaper, and I can achieve things quicker and with less ballache than before.

All about saving balls in 2010!

[Ongelegen]

I think you're right about making tunes your own and being creative/experimental.

I found after using Reason for several years that it was forcing me to work in a certain way, and that certain simple things were a chore. Chopping up acapellas in Recycle and adjusting the loop start length of samples spread across different zones in the NN-XT take away from the immediacy and fun that making music should be about.

I dislike Propellerheads ethos because they are taking a corporate approach to an artform I enjoy dearly. Reason, Record & Recycle = 'Divide and conquer' to me.

Every other mainstream program can do all of those things using in built tools. Propellerheads charge $$$ for all three programs combined.

Fair point, well it doesnt bother me that much. I have no need for recycle. So spending 500 on R+R is around the same as other daws. All i want is to enjoy producing, R+R gets me that

[abZ]

You need to learn keyboard shortcuts to use Reaper and a lot of other sequencers properly. I think that is why Reason users seem to gravitate to Ableton eventually because you really don't need many shortcuts to get efficient with it. I basically just use the tab and the copy and paste that everyone uses.

I would say that for any serious programming, customising the keyboard shortcuts is a good idea.

I've done this for Photoshop as well as Reaper, and I can achieve things quicker and with less ballache than before.

All about saving balls in 2010!

Well it is certainly not a bad idea but I guess but I am a slow learner when it comes to shortcuts. Photoshop yeah, it makes it a hell of a lot quicker but again I am slow with that as well.

[futures_untold]

I'm waiting for Reason VSTi anywayz

Then I could use Malstrom + all the combinator patches I've made without the hassle that is rewiring....

FL runs as a VSTi, Reaktor does it, but Propellerheads.........

Boycott 'em for being slow to respond to consumer demands and industry trends.... (jus trolling now hehe, peas)

[b166er]

I think you're right about making tunes your own and being creative/experimental.

I found after using Reason for several years that it was forcing me to work in a certain way, and that certain simple things were a chore. Chopping up acapellas in Recycle and adjusting the loop start length of samples spread across different zones in the NN-XT take away from the immediacy and fun that making music should be about.

I dislike Propellerheads ethos because they are taking a corporate approach to an artform I enjoy dearly. Reason, Record & Recycle = 'Divide and conquer' to me.

Every other mainstream program can do all of those things using in built tools. Propellerheads charge $$$ for all three programs combined.

Look, I'm not here to tell anyone what should be better to them or such, and I can truly understand your frustration about the appearances of Reason. Its funny you say that Reason detracts "from the immediacy and fun that making music should be about." I know many that are on the other side of the coin, that Reason is too quick to sketch a track out. and I think that's one of the reasons we see too many immature works from Reason artists, its so easy to start a track and finish it that one glosses over the details that make or break a track. The time consuming issues that detail heads love. What makes one bar stand out from another bar.
But to say Props is going corporate is a bit ridiculous. I mean they are a business and the idea of business is to make money, so... But I'm pretty much sure Steiny and Apple are wayyyyy ahead in the corporate world, and I think Logic almost has the most perfect DAW, and they listen to their user base a good deal. Props is still low in the chain all things considered. They made a closed system, I could only imagine because it almost guaranteed a tight system that ran low on resources. Even to this day I can have some 40 plus instruments and effects and barely put my proc at 40%. And I cant tell you the last time reasons crashed. Its almost the same way Apple locked Logic down to apple systems. They keep it tight and right.

[futures_untold]

And back on topic, if you don't have Recycle, use Audacity to save multiple segments of the acapella as individual samples. this can be made easier by only chopping on the grid lines (set to which ever grid resolution you like)...

Import the samples into Reason as a chromatic jobby (in the NN-XT) and hopefully you can manage to align your vocal samples with the instrumental as you see fit.

[Blue Patterns]

I've come to learn the mahority of the shortcuts for Ableton. for as long as I've used DAWs I never bothered....Logic, ACID..never bothered.

but it helps workflow for sure

[futures_untold]

I agree that both Steinberg and Apple are waay more corporate.

I don't use Steinberg products any longer after becoming disillusioned with their approach to sequencer 'track types' (audio, midi, group, etc). Personally, I find Reapers any track does anything approach easier and quicker to work with. Admittedly, it took many years of learning to get to the point where I understood what I was doing enough to realise that I actually prefered one system/program over another.

I've never had the money for Apple products, and have always hated their 'lifestyle improvement' advertising ethos. I must admit that Logic rawks though hehe. (Shame I'd have to drop above average prices for the hardware to run it...)

I conceed your point about stability though, both for Reason and Logic.

People buy Pro Tools and UAD cards because they work 99.999% of the time, which is crucial in some settings.

[b166er]

I agree that both Steinberg and Apple are waay more corporate.

I don't use Steinberg products any longer after becoming disillusioned with their approach to sequencer 'track types' (audio, midi, group, etc). Personally, I find Reapers any track does anything approach easier and quicker to work with. Admittedly, it took many years of learning to get to the point where I understood what I was doing enough to realise that I actually prefered one system/program over another.

I've never had the money for Apple products, and have always hated their 'lifestyle improvement' advertising ethos. I must admit that Logic rawks though hehe. (Shame I'd have to drop above average prices for the hardware to run it...)

I conceed your point about stability though, both for Reason and Logic.

People buy Pro Tools and UAD cards because they work 99.999% of the time, which is crucial in some settings.

Any track does anything? Interesting. I just love diving in to a new DAW and seeing what its all about, maybe Ill take a cheap plunge with Reaper and check it out. And for the record Im really not that big on Reason. I like it for what it is, but its definitely not the end be all of DAWs. And I think Record was just about stupid, Id rather them integrate Record and call its Reason: The Final Chapter..lol.

[step correct]

Reason is powerful, but the workflow sux ballz.

My workflow in Reaper is as follows.

Drag 'n' drop any format audio sample from the desktop directly onto any track I wish on the sequencer.

Click once on the spot I wish to slice. Press 'S' to slice/split the sample in two.

If the sample is slightly out of time, I hold down 'Alt' and left-click drag the edge of the sample until it snaps with the quantisation grid. If the sample is the wrong pitch, I press the toolbar buttons I saved which allow me to adjust a samples pitch by semitones or octaves.

That process saved me using two programs (Recycle and Reason), allowed me to see the actual waveform peaks as I chopped the sample (no triggering samples with midi for me thanks), and allowed me to correct the timing and pitch intuitively (changing pitch without changing the playback rate and vice versa, not possible in Reason AFAIK).

As I said, Reason is powerful, but the workflow sux ballz.

Hmm, I think I'll download reaper and rewire with Reason for this.

[b166er]

How exactly would it work if you rewired Reason to do Reaper functions? Would you have to record the stuff in Reaper first?

[futures_untold]

Reaper can be daunting/annoying for new users who haven't learnt it's interface.

Allow me to make demoing Reaper infinately easier for you with some handy tips quoted from this thread ---> http://www.dubstepforum.com/topic91084.html

The Reaper Questions & Answers Thread

This thread has been created to discuss Reaper. Feel free to post any questions or tips you have regarding Reaper below. Links to useful Reaper resources and tutorials appreciated!

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Useful links

Reaper download ---> http://www.reaper.fm/download.php

Reaper based complete music studio ---> http://www.dubstepforum.com/free-portab ... 73393.html

DSF Reaper Q&A thread ---> http://www.dubstepforum.com/topic91084.html

Reaper forum ---> http://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20

Reaper colour themes ---> http://stash.reaper.fm/tag/Themes

Reapers Manual. (Contains a useful clickable contents list on the first or second page) ---> http://www.reaper.fm/userguide/ReaperUserGuide3141.pdf

Books on Reaper ---> http://www.reaper.fm/userguide.php

SWS extensions ---> http://www.standingwaterstudios.com/new.php

Colours toolbar ---> http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=48049

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How to get the piano roll.

Hold down Ctrl-left-click to draw a new 'item' anywhere on the main sequencer. Once you've drawn a box, double click on it and the midi piano roll will be displayed.

This can be simplified in the Preferences menu (Ctrl-P or 'Options' menu > Preferences) Got to the 'Mouse' tab and tick the "Click+drag in empty area of track draws item in 'pencil mode'" box. this means you don't even have to hold down the ctrl button to draw a new item in the sequencer. Just Left click and drag a new box, then double click the box to bring up the midi piano roll.

A quick tip about the piano roll. You can change it to 'drum mode' from the 'View' menu within the midi editor. This makes using drum samplers slightly easier, especially when combined with the 'Named notes' mode available from the same View menu.

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Metronome

Go to the 'Options' menu. Listed halfway down is the metronome settings option. Click the 'enable' box to switch it on.

I'd assign it to a toolbar or keystroke, as it seems you reach for the metronome a lot.

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Assigning actions and tools to keystrokes or toolbars.

Click 'Show Action List' in the 'Actions' menu (or press the ? key). Go down the list of actions and click 'Add'. Press the keystroke you wish to use and press OK. (A keystroke could be one key or a combination of keys pressed together like Shift-S or something)

To create custom toolbars, right click on the main toolbar or the floating toolbar. This brings up the Actions editor, only in 'toolbar' mode. You can also access this editor via the 'Menu Editor' button in the main actions editor.

There is a drop down menu at the top of the actions editor which selects which 'view' you edit. Thus, if you want to customise the menus and toolbars in the midi editor, this drop down menu is where you can select to customise the midi editor.

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Custom Themes and Icons

Remember that you can assign any icon to your custom toolbars, and that icons can be edited directly in any graphics program. In fact, any of the images Reaper uses for its GUI can be edited directly in a graphics program.

The images and icons can be found in the following folder > C:\ > Program Files > Colour Themes > Default

For more info on customising Reaper

Themes ---> http://stashbox.org/v/238949/WT_Power-of-Pink.pdf

Advanced themes ---> http://www.reaper.fm/sdk/advtheme/

Midi colour maps ---> http://forum.cockos.com/showpost.php?p= ... ostcount=6

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SWS and other extensions

Finally, I'd strongly recommend downloading the SWS extensions for Reaper. These give extra functionality to Reaper such as 1-click beat slicing and 1-click zoom on a waveform etc. These are useful for using Reaper as an audio editor amongst other things.

Another great adition to Reaper is the colours toolbar. This allows you to colour any sequencer channel or any item on that sequencer to any colour you like. If you prefer multi colour visual guides, this isn't to be missed!

Download it here ---> http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=48049

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Customising Reaper for audio editing

The most common things you'll want to achieve are simple edits, reversing audio, normalisation and effects processing etc.

Although Reaper by default doesn't make the best audio editor, it can be customised to be a perfect audio editor. This is done by using Reapers 'Action' customisation features and SWS extensions. I'll explain further below.

First of all, audio editors allow users to zoom right into a waveform. This allows for really precise edits. To accomplish this in Reaper, download the SWS extensions and assign the horizontal/vertical zoom actions to a toolbar or keyboard shortcut. This will allow you to select a waveform, press one button and be zoomed in solely on the waveform you wish to work on.

Reaper allows you to chose different methods of displaying ultra-zoomed waveforms in the Preferences window. Go to Options > Preferences > Media > Sample-level Waveform view.

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You may also find it useful to assign the 'reverse item as new take' and 'normalise' commands to either a toolbar button or keyboard shortcut.

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To slice audio in Reaper, you can simply place the play head at the point on the item you wish to slice and press 'S'... This splits the audio non-destructively, meaning that the file itself isn't split, only playback within Reaper.

If you wish to bounce only part of the item split in half, you can assign the double 'double-mouse click' action to automatically place the loop marker at each end of your selected item. This enables you to render the audio selected in the normal fashion using the 'Render selection' command within the Render window.

On the topic of slicing, one can assign the 'Dynamic split selected items' command to a button on the toolbar. This gives you automatic slicing and gating features that are better than Propellerhead's Recycle for auto-slicing drum loops etc.

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There is an SWS action for applying the current effects to the audio and resetting the channel volume to 0dB. This allows effects to be rendered 'offline' directly onto the audio as a new take at the click of a button. This process is destructive, although the process renders a new take of the file instead of ruining the original file.

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Another idea is to include the item 'fade type' selection action to a toolbar button. This will allow you to do precise and controlled fade ins & outs and quickly choose the fade curve most appropriate to your material.

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Creating effects buses in Reaper

With the addition of multiple track routing in Reaper 3.5, setting up effects buses has now been made quicker and easier.

How its done:

1> Create a track to use as your effects bus.

2> Select all the tracks you'd like to send to the effects bus. (Hold down Ctrl and click on each track to select it, or, select the top track, hold down Shift and select the bottom track... All tracks in between the two will be selected...)

3> finally, hold down Shift & drag the I/O icon from any selected track to anywhere on the channel being used as the effects bus. This routes all the selected tracks to the single track being used as the effects bus.

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That info should help you enjoy using Reaper as much as I do!

Pat