Cheat Sheet: Propellerhead Reason 4

REASONS 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 bandsselect 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 Reasons 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 wont 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). Dont think 96kHz makes a difference? Choose a really distorted patch in Scream, and youll hear a definite smoothness in the high frequencies that you just dont 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) wont produce audible distortion. However, clipping at the hardware interface will. Its a good idea to leave the Hardware Device unfolded, and check the Audio Output meters from time to time to make sure theyre not distorting. IF YOU DONT 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 jacka tooltip style of text appears, describing the connection. MORE EFFECTIVE VOCODING Youll 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 devices 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 its 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 Theres some confusion about how to control Reason parameters via MIDI, as its possible to use custom control mappings. But for most applications, especially when rewiring into a host, its 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).