Reason - Getting Started with sound creation

We've started looking at how to use Reason. I think this is just because of it's ease of use and the ability to be able to look at the back end of the simulated hardware and change the routing by moving around the cables.

When you load Reason your give it's default screen. For our purposes we want to set up a blank starting point.

In the preferences we need to change the default song to empty rack.

We then open a new track.

First we create a 14:2 mixer, thats 14 mono channels and 2 stereo channels.

Next we create a Subtractor synth

We also need to set up out keyboard so we can play notes back. 

In order to do this we go into preferences again 

Where it says general we select keyboards.

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To connect the keyboard firstly click add.

You can select Manufacture under the drop down it will give a few different brands, you can also click on <other> and find it automatically. 

Once you've found your keyboard controller and added it correctly press ok and exit back into the main Reason screen. You should be able to press a key down and it will play back a sound. If it's the default pre set on subtractor you should get a bass sound playing.

Subtractor has pre sets built in for different sounds, these are sounds some one else has created and designed. If we change the settings of these patches we are manipulating the sound, if we use the pre set we're using someone elses work. 

We want to learn to make sounds from scratch which will be entirely unique to for us to use. So we initialize the patch, ie reset everything. 

No we will have a completely fresh starting point. 

Sound Creation

Wave Forms:

We discused the four main wave forms Sine, Saw, Triangle and Square. 

Sine has little or no harmonic content.

Square has a lot of harmonic content often used for synthesis, bass.

Triangle has little harmonic content

Saw/Ramp has a lot of harmonic content and is also often used.

ADSR

We also talked about ADSR. It stands for Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release. The envelope changes the way sounds triggered.

When we activate a note, the attack determines how long it takes for the sound to start from when the note is pressed. A short attack would mean the note would sound instantly a long attack would mean it would take longer for it to reach the highest level set. Decay is the amount the sound drops after the initial hit. A high level decay and long decay the note would sustain at the highest volume. If you dropped the decays level below that of the maximum attack the sound would at first sound loud and drop down quieter while the note is pressed. The sustain is how long the note is held and the release is how quickly the sound attenuates to unity gain A long release would mean the sound would continue after being released where as a short release would mean it stop instantly. 

Other Factors

Pitch, tone and volume also play a part in sound design but we haven't started to look at that. Being able to adjust a sounds ADSR you can create many different sounds and effects using any simple waveform. 

We adjusted the ADSR to see there effects in the amp envelope of subtractor to hear the dfferences in sound.

Future Assignments:

We will have to make 4 seperate sound patchs for our first assignment. 

A simple bell sound, no effects, quick attack, a singular bell ring.

A sound that is of chromatic percuasion a sound that has no pitch to it/ Xylophone or wood blocks would be an example. 

A slow lazy bass.

And an Organ - which is more difficult ro make.

This willl in a 16 bar loop format. 4 track of each sound.