The Reason Thread

[ch4rlie_2k]

Been producing bout 4 years, n honestly have hit a brick wall with trying to master reason. All my bass sounds sound muddy! Tried this tried that. Twiddled mi digitts off. This heres for all reason heads (not haters) out their to share Any Tips/shortcuts/Basses/Pads anytn t help me and others to break that plateu.

[linedamage]

Propellerheads have said themselves that Reason wasn’t made for mastering, number 4 seemes to sound a little better but still muddy as eck.

Try using the rewire function, or use Reason to make the sounds you want and sequence them in another app

[deion]

which is the best programme to rewire it to.. without being to complicated?
ive only been producing for a qouple months but proper into it.... i feel that im starting to know reason more in depth now and heard that cubase is the best to rewire but its quite hard to understand..... could you reccomend anything else or should i jst go for cubase???

[twatty vagitis]

Propellerheads have said themselves that Reason wasn’t made for mastering, number 4 seemes to sound a little better but still muddy as eck.

Try using the rewire function, or use Reason to make the sounds you want and sequence them in another app

its not Reason that sounds muddy, its your lack of skills in making the bass and kick drums sit well in your tracks. As for mastering, you shouldnt really master your tracks yourself anyway, but if you want too Reason has the tools to do it. Easiest way to master in Reason is to export your tune at 24bit, bring it back into an empty rack using the nn19 or nnxt, then use the M-class units to tweek your sound.

To the original poster, there are a number of things you need to do to get bass and kicks sitting well in your mix. EQ them both, roll off the really low freqs of the kick, then choose a freq where the kick sounds its most punchiest, or where you feel you want it to come through the clearest, and take away that freq from your bass, not entirely but enough for your kick to sound pounchy whilst having ur bass still nice and strong. Compress your bass to accentuate the parts, if you want a strong attack etc.., side chaining can be usefull too, you can side chain to the point where its noticably making a big diff to the sound of the track, alot of techno/house producers use extreme side chaining to give them a kindof warping sound between the kick and the bass, but a more subtle side chain will still allow that extra millisecond of punch from your kick to come thru.

there are other things like re-sampling etc that will also help you acheive a much less muddy bass.

this months computer music mag has some tips on getting the most out of your synth bass lines and it was quite an intresting read.
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/page/com ... evastating

Dont listen to this "Reason sounds shit" or "Reason cant do strong bass" bollox, because thats just not the case

good luck, an post up some results

[linedamage]

its not Reason that sounds muddy, its your lack of skills in making the bass and kick drums sit well in your tracks.

No mate, I didn’t say reason was incapable of producing a fat sound, or that "reason sounds shit", but it’s no good for a mix down. I know a lot of friends who went through collage with reason; all of them choose Cubase or other software to mix down.

I'm a massive Reason head for the sounds you can get out of it, but there's a definite advantage to using it along with other apps out there.

edit: Doich, just stick with it, theres plenty of instruction vids floating about the web (have a scout around youtube/torrent sites) give it a bit of time and you'll get the hang of it.

[twatty vagitis]

its not Reason that sounds muddy, its your lack of skills in making the bass and kick drums sit well in your tracks.

No mate, I didn’t say reason was incapable of producing a fat sound, or that "reason sounds shit", but it’s no good for a mix down. I know a lot of friends who went through collage with reason; all of them choose Cubase or other software to mix down.

I'm a massive Reason head for the sounds you can get out of it, but there's a definite advantage to using it along with other apps out there.

So why say "number 4 seemes to sound a little better but still muddy as eck" ?

i dont get it, especially when it is totally possible to get a very high quality mix down in reason when you focus your attentions on good production techniques

[linedamage]

So why say "number 4 seemes to sound a little better but still muddy as eck" ?

i dont get it, especially when it is totally possible to get a very high quality mix down in reason when you focus your attentions on good production techniques

Scuse my colloquialism, ‘muddy’ as in cloudy and ‘eck’ as in slightly - cause as clean as it sounds now it’s still not as clear as it could be. This isn’t some personal attack on Reason, I just feel there’s a definite advantage to coupling it with another program to finish your sound.

There’s plenty more people around including the people who wrote the software who feel the same, doubtless it takes years of skill to get the most out of a program, I’m just speaking as someone who’s found it useful to use other tools.

[caos]

I dont mean to advertise but i have a Subtractor soundpack i made for sale...the details are on myspace if you're interested

[Sub Shifter]

you have to concentrate




____________________
www.virb.com/syanide

[Sharmaji]

you've gotta mix with really low levels in reason; keep everything out the red and even the yellow-- the mixer just can't handle high levels.

mixed a track i started in reason yesterday; was the hardest thing to mix down i've come across in a while. the basic sounds in it really do need a lot of distortion/eq/saturation/whatever to work. From what i hear, reason4 is a vast improvement on that.

also: forgo reason's track compressor and just use the mastering comps if you can-- MUCH better sound quality. and the scream distortion machine makes pretty much everything sound better.

[gravious]

It is possible to get a good mixdown in reason, but it does generally require plenty of work eq-ing and sorting out levels and the like.

However, I find that the stereo field in reason isn't quite as wide in most other sequencers, and that the general sound of a mixdown when you bounce it down to a wave file isn't quite as good.

Bouncing down or rewiring the different tracks in reason into another program (e.g. Cubase, Ableton or equiv) can help get wider and louder mixdowns I reckon.

But generally there isn't an easy way to do it, a lot of it is trial and error, and the same mixdown tips for most programs apply equally in reason. As usual, worth checking the production bible on this subforum.

[decklyn]

you have to concentrate




____________________
www.virb.com/syanide

I'm a reason hater (I'd still rewire it for shits and giggles), but you should be able to get some decent mix downs in it - all the tools are there. Blaze is correct.

What I would say is that some of the tools are not quite there. Specifically the compressor made me slump and frown and immediately close the application. However, Reason does offer a tremendous value and would absolutely be great in helping people learn about hardware and production. It can rewire so if you get a bit more advanced and want to hop into a new environment, but are attached to reason, you can stick with reason and work in another environment at the same time.

Post your tune here and people will tell you exactly why it's muddy and exactly how to fix it using
eq (try this: boost kick at 100hz and cut below 100hz, and have bass strong below 100hz and cut at 100hz),
panning (pan the kick very slightly left, and the bass very slightly right), sequencing (try starting the bass just after the kick, rather than simultaneously, this way you hear the clean attack of the kick before you feel the bass)
and compression (adds dynamics control and stability where needed - can really balance out a bass that is all over the place).

Once you've got all the basics sorted, you can use some effects such as reverb and delay to add some high end sparkle and space. MAKE SURE AS FUCK YOU DON'T HAVE REVERBERATING BASS FREQUENCIES (below 100hz).

[gomb]

I do my shit in reason. f yeah.

[auan]

Post your tune here and people will tell you exactly why it's muddy and exactly how to fix it using
eq (try this: boost kick at 100hz and cut below 100hz, and have bass strong below 100hz and cut at 100hz),
panning (pan the kick very slightly left, and the bass very slightly right), sequencing (try starting the bass just after the kick, rather than simultaneously, this way you hear the clean attack of the kick before you feel the bass)
and compression (adds dynamics control and stability where needed - can really balance out a bass that is all over the place).

Massive tips right there.

Someone on this very forum - I think it might have been forensix(mcr) - said they highpass EVERYTHING in a mix apart from the sub. Definitely worth a try.

[grievous_angel]

no - filter subs too.

you want bigger bass, cut below 30hz.

guess who told me that...

[feasible_weasel]

no - filter subs too.

you want bigger bass, cut below 30hz.

guess who told me that...

Rolf Harris??

[Sub Shifter]

you have to concentrate




____________________
www.virb.com/syanide

I'm a reason hater (I'd still rewire it for shits and giggles), but you should be able to get some decent mix downs in it - all the tools are there. Blaze is correct.

What I would say is that some of the tools are not quite there. Specifically the compressor made me slump and frown and immediately close the application. However, Reason does offer a tremendous value and would absolutely be great in helping people learn about hardware and production. It can rewire so if you get a bit more advanced and want to hop into a new environment, but are attached to reason, you can stick with reason and work in another environment at the same time.

Post your tune here and people will tell you exactly why it's muddy and exactly how to fix it using
eq (try this: boost kick at 100hz and cut below 100hz, and have bass strong below 100hz and cut at 100hz),
panning (pan the kick very slightly left, and the bass very slightly right), sequencing (try starting the bass just after the kick, rather than simultaneously, this way you hear the clean attack of the kick before you feel the bass)
and compression (adds dynamics control and stability where needed - can really balance out a bass that is all over the place).

Once you've got all the basics sorted, you can use some effects such as reverb and delay to add some high end sparkle and space. MAKE SURE AS FUCK YOU DON'T HAVE REVERBERATING BASS FREQUENCIES (below 100hz).

____________________
www.virb.com/syanide

[netics]

Hi, just intalled my copy of reason 4 and its caused this problem to the whole computer. Basically, since I installed it every sound in windows now seems to have a echo / reverb effect to it. This is really annoyin as whenever I try to listen to music or watch a movie it sounds like im trying to do it in a long hallway or summit!

Any help would be much appreciated on this issue.

[3rdeye]

Hi, just intalled my copy of reason 4 and its caused this problem to the whole computer. Basically, since I installed it every sound in windows now seems to have a echo / reverb effect to it. This is really annoyin as whenever I try to listen to music or watch a movie it sounds like im trying to do it in a long hallway or summit!

Any help would be much appreciated on this issue.

hey mate, heard this annoying reverb once before on a friend's pc. cant remember exactly what the fault was but it was to do with the soundcard as you'd expect... think he had to get a new one after that i'd get that checked out man

[roqqert]

never got that problem and ive reason 4 installed... maybe you got pwnd by the uploader ^_____________________^ !