Reasonable Grooves

By Joe Gore

Last month we talked about how the new ReWire capability in Pro Tools 6.1 lets PT users integrate two powerful audio programs, Reason and Live, within their Pro Tools sessions. We took a quick tour of Reason and learned how to pilot its software synths via Pro Tools MIDI tracks. This time we'll revisit some of those moves, then take on two of Reason's crafty rhythm tools, Redrum and Dr.REX.

If you didn't catch last month's Pro Tools-meets-Reason column, you can do so here. And if you haven't yet downloaded the Reason demo, snag a copy here. Before opening Pro Tools, configure Reason for your system as summarized last month. Once again, PC | Mac is a basic, one-of-everything song template to use as a starting point for your explorations. You might also consider changing the settings in Reason so the program opens to this default template rather than its usual rollicking Stockhouse dance theme. To do so, bring the Reason app to the foreground and go to the Preferences menu. Under General, select Default Song, click on the folder icon, and navigate to the "Reasonable" file.

Stripping Down
For the last six months our columns have been built around successively complex variations on a simple rhythm one-bar drum loop. Since we're about to look at ways to slather on even more groove layers, let's turn the clock back and return to the bonehead loop we started with back in May. Download it PC | Mac , laid out in a simple Pro Tools session.

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Let's modify the session so that we can access Reason's synths, drum boxes, and loop players. In Pro Tools, create a new MIDI track and a stereo audio track using Command/Ctrl + Shift + N. Name them something like "ReasonMIDI" and "ReasonReturn," like so:

Next, insert the RTAS Reason plug-in on the new audio track, which automatically opens the Reason application. Beware the Pro Tools/Reason tempo bug! Instantiating Reason will probably change your Pro Tools tempo to that of the default Reason song. The Pro Tools tempo should be 107, so reset it if necessary.

Finally, click on each of the Reason insert buttons and set the output to MixL-MixR.

Synth Check
Test the hookup by playing some of Reason's virtual synths again. (You could probably skip this step, but it's fun.) Record-enable the MIDI track and set its output to SubTractor, Malstrom, or NN-XT 1. Remember how to browse Reason patches? Bring the Reason app forward, click on a folder icon to the right of any synth's patch name field, and navigate to the relevant folders within the Reason Factory Sound Bank. If you get lost in the browser, just click the "find all refills" button in the upper-right-hand corner.

Another friendly reminder: Since you'll be spending some time switching between applications when using Pro Tools with Reason and/or Live, it's worthwhile to master the fastest way to do so on your platform. You might consider using a third-party program-switching application, such as Keyboard Maestro for Mac.

Play some synths over the loop. Add extra MIDI tracks if you want to stack parts. But don't bother creating additional audio-return tracks — Reason RTAS mixes all Reason sounds via a single stereo return. If you want to isolate a single Reason instrument on its own Pro Tools track, you'll have to solo that instrument via the Reason mixer and print it to audio within Pro Tools.

Synthed-out yet? Then let's turn to Reason two specialized groove tools and, in the words of the late, great Johnny Cash, "get rhythm."

A Giant Step
Reason's Redrum is a fresh take on an old analog idea: the step-sequencer drum box. As with the Reason synths, you can play Redrum via your MIDI controller, but it also includes its own retro-style sequencer that automatically syncs to Pro Tools via ReWire.

With its simple ten-voice architecture, pushbutton-style controls, and 32-pattern program memory, Redrum looks straight out of 1971. Except that it boasts up to 64 sequencing steps, hundreds of factory drum sounds, extensive editing options, and the ability to stock the device with your own samples. Try out some sounds: Assign Redrum as the output for your Pro Tools MIDI channel, then switch to the Reason screen to import some sounds via the usual click-the-folder-icon method.

Play C1 to A1 on your MIDI keyboard to hear the ten default sounds. Try it with the Pro Tools track rolling till you find a set of tones that sits nicely with our starter loop. (I went with "R&B Kit 01" because the kick tone is so clearly differentiated from the one in the audio loop.) If your fingers find a pattern you dig, by all means record it into the Pro Tools sequencer. But don't give up till you try the step sequencer.

At its default setting, Redrum offers a one-bar loop in 16th-notes. You program patterns for each drum voice by highlighting its select button, then pushing the keys. Start with the kick on Redrum module 1. Select it and press these keys (unless you find something cooler).

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The Redrum sequencer starts whenever you press "Play" in Pro Tools or Reason. But you can run it independently of the Pro Tools sequencer by clicking directly on the "Run" button.

Note that you can program in three accent levels by choosing a setting on the Hard/Medium/Soft switch before punching the buttons. Better yet, you can just leave the setting on the default of medium, and specify alternate dynamics via key command: Hold down the option key while clicking on a step button for a softer note, and hold the shift key for a harder one. Try varying the above pattern by making the first hit loud (red) and the second one light (yellow).

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Try writing parts for some other voices: perhaps the module 2 snare on sequencer step 5, or the module 4 shaker on steps 3, 7, and 11 — you get the picture.

Note that each Redrum track has its own mute ("M") and solo ("S") switch. You can also audition the sound on each module via the little arrow key. You can situate each individual sound with the pan and level controls, route them to Reason effects through the "S1" and "S2" sends, and modify the tones using synth-style pitch, length, tone, and velocity knobs. (Example: Lower the Redrum kick for a full 808 effect.)

The quickest way to stock Redrum with sounds is to load an entire preset bank, as we just did. But you can also browse for individual drum voices by click-holding on any of the patch-name fields:

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Deep Drum
As you can see, Redrum is deeper than it may first appear. Here's a super-fast summary of a few other features:

• You can extend the sequence length to as many as 64 steps, though you can only view 16 steps at a time. You edit longer sequences by selecting groups of 16 via the "Edit Steps" control.
• You can set a variable amount of flam for any sequencer step. Click the button to the right of the flam control, click the sequencer steps where the flams should fall, and dial in the desired amount.
• If you dare, pull down the Reason "Edit" menu with Redrum highlighted. These options not only let you cut, copy, and clear patterns, but also modify them via displacement (the shift left/right commands), randomization, or "alter" (a sort of "randomization lite"). You can mutate either a single drum voice, or all the drums at once. Play with it — I guarantee a surprisingly high percentage of interesting results.

Paging Dr.Rex
Reason's other rhythm tool is Dr.Rex, a REX-file loop player. "REX" is another proprietary Propellerheads protocol (say that three times fast!) derived from their ReCycle application. It divides audio loops into tiny, hit-by-hit slices that can be tempo- and groove-shifted much like MIDI files. (Digidesign's Beat Detective and Bitshift Audio's PhatMatik are ReCycle descendents.)

ReCycle isn't included with Reason, and it's not even available yet for Mac OS X. But that doesn't mean you can't reap some REX benefits right now. Reason includes hundreds of "REXed" drum loops ready for harvesting. You can also buy thousands of pre-REXed loops from third-party audio companies.

Select Reason's Dr.Rex instrument and open a set of sounds from the browser.

Just click on any loop in a bank — they all become available when you click-hold on the Dr.Rex loop-name field. Audition them via the Dr.Rex "Preview" button.

Note how each pattern is displayed in waveform view, with a marker for each accent point within the pattern.

With REX files, Reason doesn't play the entire audio file the way Pro Tools plays a file. Rather, it assigns a MIDI note to each slice, then places the pattern via a MIDI sequence. Check it out. Once you've found a pattern you like, click the Dr.Rex "To Track" button. This writes a short MIDI pattern onto the sequencer field, at which point you can modify the data just like a regular MIDI sequence.

But the quickest and dirtiest way to modify the loops is directly from the Dr.Rex control panel. You can pitch-shift the entire sequence via the "Transpose" knob, or run the pattern though synth-style ADSR filter and amplitude controls. Or you can screw with individual slices by selecting one (spin the "Slice" knob) and adjusting its pitch, panning, level, and decay independently from the remainder of the loop. As with Redrum, it can get very deep, very fast.

Keep On Plugging
Don't forget that you can do a world of additional damage to these sounds once they've entered Pro Tools. For example, you can fatten up some of the weedier-sounding Reason synths with analog tape and tube simulators such as McDSP Analog Channel, Antares Tube, and Phoenix from Crane Song. Or rough them up with Line 6's Amp Farm and IK Multimedia's Amplitube guitar amp simulators. Or pump them through filters, vocoders, or GRM's monster-psycho tone-torture devices. In other words, tones that may not thrill you as Reason presets may knock you out after a bit of Pro Tools processing.

More Reason to Explore
There's a great deal more to Reason than we can cover in a few brief columns. (We didn't, for example, look at routing Reason instruments through the programs effect modules.) Consider this a sketchy executive summary of a feature-packed program. Explore some more — but save a little energy for next month, when we'll look at using Pro Tools with another killer program: Ableton's Live 3.0.

Click here to read previous columns.