Introduction to MIDI and Computer Music: Exercise 2

Exercise 2: Getting started with Reason

Reason is a software synthesizer and sampler that runs on both Macintosh and Windows systems. This sort of program is sometimes called a virtual instrument, because it emulates in software the behavior of a real MIDI instrument. So instead of having a big, expensive box that makes sound, you can buy a less expensive program to run on your computer. There are benefits other than cost, but there are also drawbacks — for example, the synthesis complexity and the number of voices you can play are limited by the computer's processing power, and this may not compare favorably with hardware synthesizers. Still, it's an exciting possibility.

What we're trying to do...

Learn how to make a simple rack of devices (instruments) in Reason and "wire up" the connections between the devices.
Set up Reason so that you can play it from a Digital Performer MIDI track and route the audio Reason produces back into Digital Performer.
Make a very short Digital Performer sequence that plays a Reason sound.

What to turn in...

A folder containing a Reason "song" file, which saves your rack configuration, and a Digital Performer file, which contains a sequence that uses Reason.
Name this folder "exercise 2," and put it in your folder on the Music Server.

Putting together a Reason rack...

Reason contains many different types of device: synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, effects units, pattern generators. You set up a rack of devices and connect them with patch cables. This can get very complicated, so all we'll do now is make a fairly simple configuration, using a Mixer, SubTractor (Reason's wave table synthesizer) and an effects unit.

Make sure that Digital Performer is not running. You should NOT see the DP icon in the dock at the bottom of the screen.
When you're doing this the first time, it's a good idea to turn the volume of the Korg down all the way, just to make sure you're not going to hear the Korg when you think you're hearing Reason.
Launch Reason (from the same menu that contains Digital Performer). You get an empty rack, with just the Hardware Interface at the top of the window and a sequencer at the bottom, but no sound-making devices.
Choose Mixer 14:2 from the Create menu, then immediately...
choose SubTractor Analog Synthesizer from the Create menu.
Press the TAB key. The rack swivels around to show you the connections at the back. When you create the Mixer and SubTractor devices (in that order), Reason connects them automatically. If it doesn't do what you want, you can always change the patch cords.
The basic idea of our rack will be to connect the SubTractor synthesizer, which has mono (1 channel) output, to one of the Mixer input channels. Then the stereo outputs of the Mixer will go to channels 1 and 2 of the Hardware Interface. (This is the device that communicates with the outside world — MIDI and audio interfaces, as well as other programs.)
As it turns out, Reason has patched everything together correctly, so you don't have to do anything. Press the TAB key again to return to the front of the rack.
Load a patch bank into SubTractor so that you can select a sound to play.
1. Click the Browse Patch button, which opens a file dialog.
2. Click on Reason Factory Sound Bank in the left list.
3. In the right list, double-click on the Subtractor Patches folder and then any one of the folders it contains. (Scroll the list to see the Subtractor Patches folder.) Double-click any of the files you see there. SubTractor now displays that patch name. The up and down buttons next to the patch name let you select other patches in the same folder.
Play on the Korg keyboard, and click the up and down arrows in SubTractor to select a sound you like.
If you don't hear anything, check the following settings.
- Are the MIDI interface lights blinking when you play the keyboard? If not, is the Thru push-button on the interface in the outward position?
- In Reason, the sequencer track called "SubTractor 1" has a keyboard icon to the left of the track name. This icon should be solid, not dim. If it's dim, click the icon. (This icon is similar to the track record-enable button in Digital Performer.)
- The Mac audio output should be turned up and not muted. To check this, look for the speaker icon in the right part of the menu bar, just to the left of the clock. Click this icon and drag the slider all the way up.
- Make sure your headphones are plugged into the headphone amp, not into the Korg. We want to hear the computer, not the Korg!
- If it's not one of these, and you're able to hear the Korg, then it could be a problem with the audio cable connecting the computer to the headphone amp. Let me know.
This part is optional, but recommended.
Add an effects device to your rack, and patch it between Subtractor and the Mixer.
1. Click anywhere on your SubTractor device.
2. From the Create menu, choose an effect, such as DDL-1 Digital Delay Line.
3. Swivel the rack (TAB key), and check that Reason has automatically patched the effect between the output of SubTractor and the channel 1 input of the mixer. (This is called an insert effect, since you're inserting it between an instrument and the mixer.) If Reason didn't patch this correctly, it's because you didn't select the SubTractor before creating the effect device.
4. Swivel the rack around to the front, and fiddle with the effect controls. You might want to adjust the DRY/WET mix so that you can hear some of the dry SubTractor sound mixed in with the "effected" sound. Note the effect of the bypass button.
Save your rack as a Reason "song" file so that you don't have to re-create your setup later (File > Save).
Quit Reason.

Playing Reason from Digital Performer...

Reason has its own sequencer, but since we already know Digital Performer, we'll use that instead. So we have to get Digital Performer and Reason to talk to each other.

Quit Reason if it's still running.
The connection between Reason and Digital Performer is made using a protocol, invented by the developers of Reason, called ReWire. ReWire carries MIDI messages, streaming audio and synchronization information back and forth between the two programs.
VERY IMPORTANT: To get this to work, you must launch Reason and Digital Performer in a specific order:
1. Launch Digital Performer
2. Launch Reason
Later, when you're done working, Digital Performer will insist that you quit Reason before you quit Digital Performer.
After you launch Reason, open the Reason song file you created earlier, which contains your rack configuration.
Switch back to Digital Performer, and make a new sequence. To switch between programs in OS X, click on the program icons in the Dock, or use the Apple-Tab keyboard shortcut (similar to Windows).
In Digital Performer, make a new aux track (Project > Add Track > Aux Track). The aux track will carry audio (i.e., a sound waveform) from Reason back into Digital Performer.
Click and hold on the INPUT column of the aux track, and choose
New Stereo Bundle > Reason:Mix L 1-R 2
from the menu that appears. The track then should look like the bottom one in the next picture. Make sure the track is play-enabled.
Click on the OUTPUT column of a MIDI track, and instead of a Korg channel, choose a Reason device, such as
Reason : bus 6 > Reason : bus 6-SubTractor 1.
The track then should look like the top one in the next picture.

Digital Performer sends notes from the MIDI track to a particular Reason device, so that the device can render the MIDI data into sound.
So the there is a loop between Digital Performer and Reason:
DP MIDI track [MIDI messages] > Reason device [creates audio] > DP aux track [plays audio]
Record-enable the DP MIDI track that feeds Reason (that is, the track you just configured in the previous step). Now when you play on the Korg keyboard, you'll hear the sound of the Reason device whose name appears in the MIDI track's output column.
One problem you'll have is that Reason will respond to notes coming from Digital Performer via ReWire AND to notes coming directly from the MIDI interface. So it's easy to get a "doubled note" — much like you can when local control is set inappropriately on the Korg.
One way to handle this problem is to disable Reason's response to external MIDI (i.e., from the MIDI interface) when you're working in Digital Performer. Make sure that all of the keyboard icons at the left edge of tracks in Reason's sequencer appear dim. (Click them to make them dim, if they aren't already.)
When things are set up this way, you will hear Reason sound only if you record-enable a Digital Performer track that uses a Reason sound-generating device.
DO THIS: Record a short sequence using one track set to a Reason device. If you want, you can add other MIDI tracks, playing either a Korg patch or another Reason device in your rack. Save your Digital Performer sequence file, as usual.
NOTE: If Reason and DP are running together using ReWire, then you must have a DP sequence with an aux track, configured as described above, or else Reason won't make sound or receive MIDI input.

Remember to follow the exercise submission instructions at the top of this web page!