Exploring the Subtractor

Today we are going to be taking a look at a new instrument in Reason: the Subtractor!

The Subtractor is a kind of instrument called a synthesizer. A synthesizer is an electronic instrument. It lets you make all kinds of original sounds by combining different frequencies together. In general, synthesizers don't sound like sounds you make with traditional instruments (guitars, pianos, trumpets, etc.). Instead, they have the ability to be shaped into lots of different sounds, from really cheezy ones to really deep and emotional-sounding ones.

Today we're going to get familiar with the different types of sounds that you can use with the Subtractor...

First of all, where do you think you click to load new sounds?

Once you've clicked on the folder, you will go into the usual file browser. To find the Subtractor sounds, go to: Reason Factory Soundbank>Subtractor Patches

The main categories of sounds that you can load into the Subtractor are:

• Bass*
• FX
• Mono Synths*
• Pads*
• Percussion
• Polysynths*

The ones with a star next to them are the ones that I consider to be the most important.

So here is your assignment for today:

1. Go to the Pickupdropoff folder and copy the file called Subtractor Practice.rns to your folder.

2. Open the file and listen to the beat. I have created a Redrum and a Subtractor already to get you started.

3. Create two new Subtractors (Create>Subtractor Analog Synthesizer).

4. In each of these Subtractors, you are going to load a sound that you like from one of the four main categories (Bass, Mono, Pad, Poly).

5. Record yourself playing something that goes along with the part that I've already made. (Hint: if you really can't think of anything to play, you can figure out the notes that I played and just play the same thing with a different instrument).

6. Once you record two parts that you like, start copying those parts to make the song longer.

7. Save this file as "(your name)_Subtractor practice.rns"

Note: Anyone who turns in this beat to Mr. Runde will get extra credit on the next quiz:

- If you make the two Subtractors and just play the same part on everything: 1 point

- If you make the two Subtractors and play some original parts: 2 points

- If you make the two Subtractors with original parts and extend it out for the whole song: 3 points.

FYI.

Music Production feat. MC Do D.A.T.

Today's and Friday's classes will feature a special workshop on lyric writing and artistic perspective by Davin "Do D.A.T." Thompson. Dat is a performer, educator, and veteran of the Bay Area hip hop community. He is a member of the Oakland-based group, The Attik, and has shared stages with a number of hip hop legends, including Dead Prez, E-40, and KRS-One. He is BAVC's resident Lyric Coach.

Fixing your performance (Quantize function)

One of the biggest advantages to using a software program like Reason is the fact that you don't have to be a great keyboard player to make really polished sounding performances - the program can help you fix the notes that are a little off.

The function that lets you do this is called the Quantize function.

How do you use such a magical thing you ask? Very easy.

Here are the steps for quantizing:
1) Record yourself playing something with the keyboard
2) Go into the Edit View by pressing this button:  

3) Now click and drag a box around all the notes you want to fix. The notes that are dark red and brown are the ones that are selected.  

4) Click on the Quantize button:   

5) Listen back to the performance. If certain notes sound weird, manually move them where they sound better.

Exploring the NN19

After you finish today's quiz, I want you to make a beat that uses at least 2 NN19 samplers with different instruments loaded into them.

For example, you could create one NN19 that has some strings, and another with a synthesizer sound. Try to pick instruments that sound different from each other, maybe one low-pitched and another high pitched.

Mr. Runde's Hot Tip of the Day: if you have a sound that you like, but just want to make it sound lower or higher, hit the button called Octave on your Oxygen 8 keyboard.

Your beat should...

• Be at least 24 bars long.
• Have a Redrum with at least one 32-step drum pattern
• Have two separate NN19s, each with a different sound

Friday Quiz 9/19/08

Click on the picture below to see a larger version:

Keyboard Basics (part 3) - the Major Scale

Recap: how many possible notes are there?

Right, 12. But just because you have all these possible notes to work with, doesn't mean that they will all sound good with each other.

A scale is a set of notes that sound good with each other.

The two most common scales are the Major and Minor scales. Generally speaking...

• the Major scale sounds happy/upbeat. You hear it a lot in pop music.
• the Minor scale sounds more sad or intense. You hear it a lot in hip hop and other harder styles of music.

What you should know about scales is that they are created by the way the notes are spaced out by the amount of space between each note. Take a look at the keyboard:


When two notes are right next to each other, it is called a half step (for example C to C#).
When two notes have a note in between them, it is called a whole step (for example, C to D).

How much space is in between E and F?

OK, so now that we know about whole steps and half steps, I'm going to reveal to you the formula that will let you make a Major scales from any key on your keyboard...

Major scale formula:

W-W-H-W-W-W-H

Once you know the formula for a scale, it doesn't really matter what key you start on. You can always make the kind of scale that you want. Today, we are only focusing on the Major scale, so let's hear for ourselves what I'm talking about...

For today's assignment, please do the following:

1. Copy the file called "Major scales.rns" to your folder from the Pickupdropoff.
2.Open the file.
3. Create an NN19 Digital Sampler. (There will already be an NN19 in your rack. Don't worry about this.)
4. Load a piano patch into the NN19. For example: Reason Factory Sound Bank>NN19 Sampler Patches>Pianos and Keyboards>BRIGHT PIANO.smp
5. Hit the Play button (spacebar) to listen to the tempo of the metronome.
6. Now practice playing the C Major scale up and down in time with the metronome - play a note in time with each click. If the tempo is too fast, slow it down.

This is the order of the notes you will play: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C-C-B-A-G-F-E-D-C

7. When you are confident about being able to play this, go ahead and hit the Record button and then Play to start recording. When you are done, hit Stop.
8. Hit Play to listen to your performance. If you like it, move on to the next step, if not, then delete your performance and start again.
9. Now move your markers so that L = 5 and R= 9.
10. Pick another white key (I recommend G or D) and figure out the keys of the Major scale starting from this note. When you've got the notes figured out, record yourself playing this scale and show the instructor.
11. Save the file as "(your name)_Major scale.rns"

Remember the formula!

W-W-H-W-W-W-H

Keyboard basics (part 2) - Black Keys

Yesterday we took some time to learn about the keys of the keyboard.

How many different notes are there?

Which ones have we learned so far?

So, today, we're going to talk a little bit about the remaining notes - the ones on the black keys.

The black keys don't have their own letters like the white keys do (ABCDEFG). Instead, the black keys are named by where they are in relation to the white keys.

A black key that is to the right of a white key is called a sharp.

A black key that is to the left of a white key is called a flat.

Here are the symbols of sharps and flats:
Here is what they look like on an actual keyboard:
What do you notice about each of the black keys?

OK, here is the important thing about black keys:

Black keys each have two names because they are always to the right of one white key and to the left of another.

Confused? It's actually not so tricky. Think about it...

There is black key in between F and G. If you're going up from F, then it is called F sharp. If you're going down from G, then it is called G flat.

Simple right? Prepare yourself Thursday for the Major Scale!

Keyboard basics (part 1) - White Keys

Congratulations! After 3 weeks of learning how to use the Redrum Drum Machine, we are all getting pretty good at making drum beats. Now we're ready to start looking at the other cool instruments and sounds that Reason has to offer.

There are two goals for today:
1) Learn the keys of the keyboard
2) Learn how to create an NN19 sample player and load sounds into it.
Keys of the Keyboard

OK, here's one thing you need to understand: there are only 12 notes that you can play!

Here is what they look like:


Now, you may be thinking, "But I've seen a piano before and I know they've got a lot more than 12 of those things on them". Take a look at this picture of a full sized piano keyboard:
Notice any patterns?

So, basically this whole keyboard is made up of sets of these 12 notes repeating. A set of 12 notes is called an octave. As you go to the right, the pitch gets higher, as you go to the left, the pitch gets lower, but there are always just 12 notes.

"What are the names of these notes, Mr. Runde?" you ask.

• The white keys are just the first 7 letters of the alphabet (A-B-C-D-E-F-G) repeating over and over.
• The black keys are extra things called sharps and flats.

We'll talk more about the black keys later, but for now lets concentrate on the white keys:
What is the name of the first note on the left? What happens when you go 12 notes to the right? What do you think the next white note to the right will be?

So, if you play each of these white keys in order, from C to C, you will be playing what is called the C Major scale. We will be working on this tomorrow but for now, just REMEMBER...

The white keys are just the first 7 letters of the alphabet (A-B-C-D-E-F-G).

The NN19

The NN19 is a type of instrument called a sampler. It lets you load the sounds of all kinds of instruments and play them with your keyboard.

Loading sounds with the NN19 is simple. Let's practice loading a piano sound into it:

1. Go to Create>NN19
2. Click on the folder icon in the upper left corner of the screen
3. Go into Reason Factory Sound Bank>NN19 Patches>Pianos and Keyboards
4. Find the patch called Bright Piano.smp and double click on it.
5. Now when you play some notes on your keyboard, you should hear the sound of a piano. Practice playing the C Major scale and pay attention to what it sounds like. What kind of feeling does it have?
6. When you are finished, try loading different sounds and pay attention to which ones sound cool.

Quiz 9/12

Super easy quiz today.

You are going to make me a beat that has 2 different 32-step patterns in the Sequencer Window.
For this quiz, please do the following:

1. Copy the Reason file called "Quiz 9-12.rns" to your folder. You can find it in the Pickupdropoff folder or get it from Mr. Runde.
2. Open the file and listen to the piano melody.
3. Create a Redrum Drum Machine.
   
4. Make a 2-bar (32 step) beat to go with the piano melody. Copy the pattern into the Sequencer window.
5. Copy both the drum beat and the piano melody so that they end on Bar 9.
6. Create a second 32-step drum beat on Pattern 2 in the Redrum.
7. Copy that into the Sequencer starting at Bar 9 and ending at Bar 11.
8. Now Copy the piano melody one more time so that it starts on Bar 11.
   
9. Copy your first beat so that it goes with the piano melody to the end (starts on Bar 11, ends on Bar 15.)The final song should look something like this:
10. Go to File>Save As and change the name of the file to (your name)_Quiz 9-12.rns.
11. Turn put a copy of the file in the pickupdropoff folder or turn it in to Mr. Runde.
12. Have yourself a lovely weekend!
    

More 32 Step Practice (Copying and Pasting Regions)

Today we're going to do 2 things:

1. Practice making beats that are 2 bars long (aka 32 steps)
2. Start to build our songs by copying and pasting regions in the Sequencer Window.

First of all, what are regions?

Regions are the building blocks you use to put together a song in Reason. They look like colored blocks in the Sequencer Window. Like this...

We have been creating regions everytime we did Copy Pattern to Track with the Redrum.

The cool thing is, once you've got a region in the Sequencer Window, you can copy it as many times as you want to quickly stretch your beat out.

To copy just do this:

1. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard.
   
2. Click and drag the region you want to copy to wherever you want to put it.
   

OK, so your assignment today is the following:

1. Get the file called "Calabria.rns" from either the Pickupdropoff folder, or from Mr. Runde's Jump drive.
2. Open the file and listen to the melody.
3. Create a Redrum drum machine and make a 2-bar (32 step beat) to go along with it.
4. Copy the pattern to the Sequencer window (Copy Pattern to Track).
5. Now Copy and Paste both the drums and the saxophone regions so that they end on Bar 9.
6. Save the file in your folder as (your name)_Calabria.rns and raise your hand to get the second part of the assignment from Mr. Runde.

Don't forget to turn off the Enable Pattern Section on your Redrum!!!

Making longer beats (32 steps)

Today we're going to work on making longer beats

So far, we've been making beats that are 1 bar long (aka 16 steps) with the Redrum. In the real world, a lot of beats are longer than that. It's easy to make a longer (say 2-bars) pattern in Redrum.

2 simple steps:

1. Increase the number of steps. Question: If you normally have 16 steps to work with and you want to make your beat twice as long, how many steps should you increase it to?

2. Use the toggle switch to choose which set of steps you are working on. If you normally work with Steps 1-16, but you just made your beat twice as long, which other set of steps are you going to need to work with.


And that's pretty much it.

Your assigment today is to make a beat that contains...

• A pattern that is 32 steps long.
• A pattern that is 16 steps long.

1. Copy the file Redrum 32 Steps.rns from the Pickupdropoff folder (or ask Mr. Runde for his jump drive) into your folder.

2. Open the file and hit spacebar to listen to the melody.

3. Now load some sounds into the Redrum and make a 32 step beat to go with the melody. Use Copy Pattern to Track to get the beat into the Sequencer window.

4. When you've finished with that beat, put the L marker on the 3 and the R Marker on the 4. 

5. In the Redrum, go to Pattern 2. Set the # of Pattern Steps to 16 and make a new beat.

6. When you finish, used Copy Pattern to Track to get it into the Sequencer.

7. Turn off Enable Pattern Section. 

8. Hold down the Option button on your keyboard and click and drag your first beat (32 steps) over to the right so that it starts on Bar 4.

9. Move the L marker to the 1 and the R marker to the 6.  

10. Hit Play (Spacebar) and listen to the whole beat.

Quiz 9/5

For today's quiz, all I want you to do is make a short beat that includes the two main things we've covered this week:

1. Loading individual sounds into the Redrum.
2. Getting your patterns into the Sequencer Window.

This beat can be super short (as short as 2 bars, if you want), but it should include:

• At least 4 different drum sounds (bass, snare, hi hat, etc.) not from a premade drum kit. (4 points)
  
• At least 2 different alternating patterns. (6points)
  

MOST IMPORTANT PART:

When you finish making the beat, you need to SAVE the file as (your name)_quiz 9-5-08.rns and then turn in a copy of the file to me.

You can turn it in in one of two ways:

1. Put it in the dropoffpickup folder (Dropoffpickup>Runde>dropoff>Period 5)
2. Copy it onto my jump drive. Raise your handand let me know you want to do it this way.
   

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Switching between two Redrum patterns

OK, so now we're familiar with making our beats in Redrum and we know how to load our own sounds.

Now let's take it a step further and make a beat that automatically switches up on its own. In order to make that happen, we need to start working with the Sequencer Window, which is the part at the bottom of your screen.

The Sequencer Window is the part of Reason where you can record notes and build a song.

For today's assignment, we're going to learn how to get your beats out of Redrum and into the Sequencer so that you can switch up the beat.

1. Open the file called "2 Redrum patterns" (check board for instructions on how to get the file.
2. Change the Tempo to 76 BPMs.
   
3. There should already be a Redrum created for you. Please load the following sounds into the following slots of the Redrum:
1. Slot 1 (Bass) - BD_Boomer
   
2. Slot 2 (Clap) - Clp_Boom
3. Slot 3 (Snare) - Sd3_SupaFunky
4. Start by working with the Clap: click on Boxes 5 and 13.
5. Now add the Bass: click on Boxes 1, 4, 7, 11 and 14.
6. Now we're going to work with a different pattern, so click on Pattern 2.
7. In Pattern 2, select the Snare (Slot 3) and click on Boxes 1, 4, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15 and 16.
8. OK, here's where it gets slightly tricky...you need to use the Left (L) and Right (R) Markers in the Sequencer Window to mark off a small section. All you need to do is move the R Marker onto Bar 5.
   
9. Once you've done that, click on the Pattern 1 button.
10. Now go to the Edit Menu at the top of the Screen and Click on Copy to Track.
11. Now adjust the L and R markers so that R is on 9 and L is on 5.
12. Click on Pattern 2.
13. Again, go to Edit>Copy Pattern to Track.
14. What you should have now is 2 different beat patterns of 4 bars each.
15. Set the L Marker back to the very beginning of the song (Bar 1). The whole song should be able to loop now, switching off between the two beats automatically.
16. For a final touch, unmute the Track called NN19 by hitting the Red M button and listen to the whole thing playing together. Sound familiar?
17. When you're done remaking this beat, go ahead and Save it in your folder as (your name)_A Milli.
18. IMPORTANT:  Please also put a copy in my dropoff folder (Pickupdropoff>Runde>dropoff>Period 5)

And you're done for today!

Creating custom drum kits in the Redrum

Last week, we got familiar with loading different drum kits into the Redrum. This week, we're going to be focussing on loading individual sounds.

Why would loading individual sounds be a cool thing?

So, we remember that to load drum kits, we just click on the folder icon in the bottom left corner and then go to Reason Factory Sound Bank>Redrum Drum Kits. From there you just go through the different folders' styles of music and find one you like, right?

Loading individual sounds is a similar process, but you do it from a different section of the Redrum. Instead of going to the folder icon in the lower left part of the drum machine, you click on the folder icon at the top of each indidual drum sound: From there, navigate to the following folder:

Reason Factory Sound Bank>Redrum Drum Kits>Xclusive Drums Sorted

What do you see inside this folder? What do you think are in these subfolders?

Using the Xclusive Drums gives you the freedom to mix and match all the best drum sounds Reason has to offer. This way, you can really start to make your beats sound the way you want them to without settling for the preset drum sounds.

Assignment:

Create a customized Redrum drum kit that has at least one instrument from each of the following categories:

• Bass drum
• Snare or clap
• Hi Hat
• one other instrument of your choice (Rimshot, Cymbals, Hi Percussion, Low Percussion, etc.)
  

Now make an original beat using your customized sounds.

If you finish making your own beat, click here to learn how to remake a famous beat.