The EM Poll

Master Class: All the More Reason (Bonus)

Dec 21, 2007 3:57 PM, By Kurt Kurasaki

           

Extra advice for working in Reason 4.0.

This online bonus material supplements "Master Class: All the More Reason" in the January 2008 issue of Electronic Musician.

Three Quick Tips

Razor tool. Selecting a region by dragging along the timeline with the Razor tool divides and selects all clips at the start and end points of the selection. Quickly glue all the clips in the region by selecting the Join Clips menu item or pressing Control/Command + J. This technique is useful for organizing regions of a song so that verses and choruses are identified in the arrangement.

Masking clips. Clips work in layers, and the topmost layer takes precedence. Rather than making several edits to existing note or automation clips, add a new clip on top of an existing one to mask out events. This is a fast way to mute out a region of notes. It is also a quick method of adding automation changes without having to edit several breakpoints.

Velocity grooves. In addition to changing the timing of notes, ReGroove also modifies their Velocity and length. Even with precise quantization, you can still apply Velocity-only grooves. Disable the timing aspect by adjusting the Timing Impact slider to 0 percent. The timing will remain unchanged, but the MIDI note Velocities will be altered.