10 Steps to Your First Sound in Propellerhead Reason!

So you've installed Propellerhead Reason (or downloaded the demo) - now what?

I'm going to assume you already have Reason open, so now it's time get some sounds out of it!

1. Go to File and choose New. This will create an empty rack with a Mixer already loaded in.
2. Go to Window and choose Detach Sequencer Window. You now have two windows: the Rack and the Sequencer.
3. Go to Create and choose SubTractor Analog Synthesizer. This puts the instrument in your Rack and a lane for it in the Sequencer. In Reason 4 all instruments are created with a patch already loaded so ...
4. Go to the Sequencer window and in the top LEFT corner there's a small square with three coloured horizontal lines. Click on it. This opens the Piano Roll - look for a Piano Keyboard to the left, inside the Sequencer.
5. Click anywhere on the Piano Keyboard and you should hear the instrument playing that note. Don't like what you hear? No probs ...
6. Got to the Rack window. In the top left of the SubTractor you'll see a thin window with red writing - click on it and you get a drop down menu. Choose a new patch. Repeat until you find one you like.
7. Ok, back to the Sequencer. At the top of the window, next to the button you pressed earlier you should see a series of buttons - an arrow, a pencil, a hand, etc) - click on the Pencil. This allows you to draw notes straight into the Sequencer.
8. Make sure the Subtractor icon to the left in the Sequencer is outlined in red. If not click it. Now you can draw notes for it in the sequencer.
9. Simply click in the sequencer where you want the note to start and drag the mouse for the length of note you need. Repeat as needed.
10. Once you've finished drawing your notes in, you can click the Play button at the bottom of either the Rack or Sequencer to hear what you've got. Ta da! (Don't forget to go back up in the Sequencer and click on the Hand again, otherwise every time you click in the Sequencer you'll leave a note!)

Steps 1 to 10 will work for every instrument in Reason except:

1. The Combinator - because it's not an instrument; it's a carrier for other instruments, however you can load a Combinator patch that's good to play like an instrument:

• Go to Create. Choose: Create Device By Browsing Patches (this will open the Reason browser). Click on: Combinator Patches (this will give you more folders).
• Click on a Folder you like the sound of and inside you'll find Combinator instrument patches.
• Click on one and it will load up just like the Subtractor did and you can do everything as outlined above for the Subtractor.
• Now, if you go to the Rack, you'll see the Combinator has buttons on the left. If one says: Run Pattern Devices, you may have to click it for the patch to sound. Also, if you click: Show Devices, you can see what instruments & effects the Combinator is made up of! Cool for getting ideas to make your own Combi!

2. Dr.Rex Loop Player. Like the name says, it's a loop player. If you load one into the rack you can preview its loop patches. There's a Preview button at the top of it near the middle - press it to listen. You can change patches the same way as for the Subtractor, by clicking in the thin window. Find one you like? Click: To Track and it'll put it into the Sequencer for you.

This might be a good spot to tell you about the locators in the Sequencer. If you look at the Sequencer you'll see some vertical lines and at the top they have letters: P (for Play: it moves when you press play), E (for End; this is where your song ends) and R (for Right) and L (for Left). All of these are movable by clicking and dragging up near the letter. When you're working on a tune and you press To Track on the Dr.Rex it will lay the loop only between where you place the R and L locators, so you need to keep that in mind.

3. ReDrum Drum Computer.

• Go to Create and load one up.
• Click the Run button at the bottom on the left. You'll see the little red light running across the top of the white squares to the right. Ok. Click on some of those white squares. You should hear percussion.
• Above that you have 10 channels. #1 should have it's Select button lit. Click Select for #2.
• Go back to the white squares, click on more of them. You've added more percussion. You should start to see where this is going. You're building a rhythm track.
• If you want to change drum kits: same as above: Click the small window, choose a different drum kit.
  
• To stop click on Run again.

And that's basically it. The user's manual (which is a PDF file in your Reason folder) is a must read and will take you much deeper into the possibilities for sound creation.

Have fun!