Reason - My feature suggestions

Dear Propellerheads, Reason is great! It's fast, stable and intuitive... but there are some features that I really would like to see soon.... (well, I don't think the Props actually will read this, but I have to get this out of my system! Home made therapy ftw!. ;) )

Here we go...

• The SSL Mixer
• When marking several channels and changing volumes, all selected channel volume sliders should move in parallel.
• Add the dB values on all channels + master channel, so one can easily see how loud the signal is.

• The Rack
• The possibility to lock devices to prevent accidentally moving them, or maybe the option to move devices with right mouse button.
• The ability to set opacity level on the cables.
• The ability to zoom in and out of the rack would be awsome!

• The Tool window
• A page where you can view, open and close open projects(.reason files), and when closing all windows the tool window remains (keeping Reason still running) where you can open a new project. Now it's a bit annoying that Reason quits when closing all windows, when you really just wanted to close the current project and open another one.

• The Sequencer
• I would like to get 'unlimited' vertical zooming, so I can get really close when editing audio (or MIDI).

• Other
• More colors to choose from when coloring channels, clips and tracks! 16 more should probably do.
• Undo history (in the tools window), and be able to undo/redo specific operations.

Phew... Now I feel better and can get back to mixing. :)

Windows 7 & 8: Blue Screen Of Death - Memory Management

Some time ago my main computer started to BSOD on me at different times and for no obvious reason. I was then running Windows 7 and thought it was a buggy driver that caused the problem so I decided to upgrade to Windows 8 instead and hopefully get rid of the problem. With Windows 8 installed the computer worked like a charm, for a while, then the dreaded BSODs was back. Most of the times the BSOD-message was about "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT" or "PFN_LIST_CORRUPT" so I thought I might have a bad memory module and ran Memtest86 at several occasions, but the tests were always good.

Still expecting bad drivers I continuously tried to manually update all drivers but some were tricky to find so I came across SlimDrivers-Free, an application that scan your computer's drivers and automatically download any updates. With all drivers updated the computer still BSODed intermittently.

Searching the net I discovered that I wasn't the only one with healthy memory modules and "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT" BSODs. I read in a forum somewhere that someone recommended increasing the voltage of the RAM, so I tried it out and increased it from 1.8V to 1.82V, and since then I haven't had any BSOD!  Well, I actually got one but that was because of a crashed harddrive and not due to memory corruption.

By writing this post I probably ask for trouble (Murphy's law you know...), but I like living on the edge! :)


2014-03-29:   Oh crap. Just got a Memory Management BSOD again. I guess I'm back to square 1. :(
2014-04-20:   Hmm... no BSOD since last time, my machine still works much better than before the memory voltage increase.

Music creation on a budget - Free VST Guitar Amps

Live4guitar has a great article from 2012 about free Guitar Amp VST plugins! 17 tested amps and 2 Youtube videos where you can hear how they all sound! Check it out!

Free 'Survival' drumkit, until March 7!

Head over to the Bedroom Producers Blog to get a free drum kit from Producers Choice! The kit contains WAV and REX formats! Offer ends on March 7, so hurry up to get it!

Use VST plugins with Reason!

VSTs WITH Reason, not IN Reason. Here's how!

Recently I was trying to find a way to sample any computer sound directly into Reason's units without the need to use Audacity and the "Stereo Mix" audio device. As I was searching the net for answers I came across the software JACK that is an audio routing software for multiple platforms. JACK installs a new ASIO driver called Jackrouter and all programs that can use ASIO drivers can then route audio between them!

In the same time I also came across the LoopBE1 that installs an internal "MIDI-destination" that can be used from within Reason.

The third software I use for VSTs is the VSThost.

I will not describe the installation and configuration process in depth now, but these are the programs you need to be able to make use of VST plugins with Reason.

• Now Start the Jackrouter server (and configure it).
• Open Reason and select "ASIO Jackrouter" as the Audio card driver in Preferences/Audio.
• Create a new External MIDI Instrument, and select the MME LoopBE Internal MIDI.
• Create a new Audio track and select the Jackrouter as input.
• Open VSThost, configure it to use the LoopBE1 MIDI device,  and load the VST plugin you want to use.
• In Jack Control panel, click the Connect button and make the audio connections from VSThost to Reason's inputs.

With this setup, you can play and edit MIDI-notes in Reason, send the MIDI-data to the VST-plugin and then hear the sound from the VST-plugin through the Audio track and record the audio if needed!

It is of course possible to use Reaper, for example, and use ReWire to make use of VSTs, but by using VSThost you don't need to run another DAW at the same time.

So, I didn't solve my "sample all computer sounds directly into Reason"-problem but I found a way to use VSTs with Reason in a pretty simple way!

Happy jackrouting! :)

Startup

Ok, it's time to start a blog. This will mostly be about music production and probably some other stuff that's going on in my life.

Since September 2013 I'm a student at Studio Blue in Stockholm/Sweden, taking part in the "Sound engineer / Producer" program. Music all day, and almost all nights as well! Needless to say, but I'm having a blast! :D

I've been making music for quite a while, starting in the 90's with soundtrackers on my Atari. Today I use Propellerheads Reason 7, and in this blog I will post tips and tricks and maybe some patches to use in Reason.

So, let's see how far this blog will go. ;)