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-- GUIDE: Setting up a complex song (in reason)

GUIDE: Setting up a complex song (in reason)

This guide basically breaks down one of my own tracks to show how a trance song can be setup in reason. Keep in mind that this is simply the way that I personally like to set things up, and is not necessarily the best or most efficeint method. If anyone has other methods, please share them in this post

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DOWNLOAD "CHRONO - A SONG FOR"
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Initial thoughts:

I try to keep my sounds on seperate tracks. Instead of using one redrum unit for kick, hi-hats, claps, snares, I prefer to seperate each. This allows effects to be applied more freely, and also creates an easy way to solo/mute specific parts. It is also usefull for bouncing sounds for track-by-track mastering at the end. I like to refer to this as the "complex" composition method, because sounds are divided and each one has it's own dedicated effects.

Track setup:

Here is a screenshot of the timeline. You can see when certain elements of the song are introduced. This is a pretty standard 256 bar configuration with the climax coming exactly halfway through the song.



Different people use different methodes to start their composition. I generally create the initial sounds in this order:

• kick drum
  
• hi-hats
  
• secondary drum elements (snares, bongos, etc)
  
• secondary synth lines (to establish key)
  
• bass line
  
• atmosphere (pads, rhodes, etc)
  
• main synth line
  
• backup synths
  
• cymbal crashes, snare rolls
  
• effects (whooshes, sweeps, etc)
  

i'm not a reason user so i can't really judge your workflow, but do you really don't use compressors at all? i thinkt that's one thing that make your sounds MUCH more tighter. and it looks that you don't use too much eq..

like i said, i can't check if my points are really true, but i can't find this in your effect description and for me EQ and compressors are my key effects for a tight tune.

I don't use compressors in reason, no. What I do is export each track to a wav file, import into Cubase, and master it there. I throw on compressors and eq that way (waves plugins, blue tubes, tracks, etc).

I just don't like the compressors they have in reason. Maybe it will be improved with reason 3.0's mastering capabilities.

cool mate will take a look when i get time

Awesome. As a newbie to production it's nice being able to follow the final track along on the timeline.

Cant judge by the way u work. But I like the tune u made.

Since as U talk about ur Drum that U wan mute/ solo it. Why not attach all of ur Redrum to Mixer? Just tab it. PLug all the ReDrum 1-10 channel to each channel in the mixer

THats what I thought so.

hehe nice song, very original, nice bass.

Ya nice guide , i also use with NN-19 with my samples and kicks.

I don't use compressors at all , not sure how they work still..can only use them on claps so far.

Yeah I set up songs like that too, except I just use NN19 for all my samples (kick, perc, fx, whatever) but I just don't like the way Redrum works (it's fun to play about with but when making a full track I find just using samplers easier). I like to see everything that's going on just by looking at the sequencer, but I understand not everyone likes having about 1/4 of their screen taken up by just hi-hats

Just shows that with this type of program, everyone can do things their own way

Nice work, Chrono
I do everything the same way (pretty much) except for percussion. I use a LOT of percussion in my tracks and I usually set it up like so:

one redrum for kick (usually 3 or 4 samples go into making the kick), and that redrum goes into the percs mixer channel 1

then i have a redrum for all cymbals, which i export each channel of the redrum through an PE2-EQ and whatever other fx modules which then go into a separate channel of the mixer

then i have however many "whatever-other-percs-i-want" (snares, bongos, et al.) redrums doing the same thing as the cymbals one.

on the percs mixer I have a simple large hall reverb on aux 1 and a compressor on aux 2. I don't even know how to learn to master stuff and I've looked for guides on the forums and they all start a little too complex... i need a noob guide I don't even really understand what it is yet. SO, I just use my little reason compressor, with which I turn the right three knobs all the way down and the first knob about 2/3 - 3/4 up and adjust the aux2 knob of my channels :P

wow, great post!!!! I was wondering what all the various "colours" meant in the timeline. I havent gotten that far yet in Reason

quote:

Originally posted by Euphorica wow, great post!!!! I was wondering what all the various "colours" meant in the timeline. I havent gotten that far yet in Reason

The colours are just different loops that have been created. Reason will randomly assign a colour to different loops so you can tell the difference between things. Each loop can contain MIDI information like notes and controller envelopes. The little red verticle lines in some boxes represent a note being played.. while the darker section on the bottom shows that there is a controller envolope that is currently being adjusted (ie. a knob on one of the rack pieces is turning). I had to zoom out pretty far to get the full song in the timeline, but if you were to zoom in you would see the different coloured blocks more clearly and be able to see what I mean.

how did you find you learned best? playing around with it or reading the manual?

I just played around with it, I didn't even bother with the manual. But I have been using reason since it came out, and also ReBirth before that,, so I've been using it for a couple years now. Some things I still don't even know. Last week I just found out what 'quantize notes' does.. ahah.

One of the best ways to learn it is to just open up the demo songs and see exactly how they are put together.

good stuff. you're way ahead of me. Ive played around with it here and there for about 6 months. not so good with it yet.

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