Introducing the Dr. REX (part 1)

Today we're going to start working with a new instrument called the Dr. REX loop player.

Basically, the Dr. REX is a sampler like the NN19 that you've been working with. Both of these instruments let you load sounds into them and play them back. There are some important differences that we'll get into next time, but for now you will see that the Dr. REX plays pre-made loops of music.

A loop is a short piece of music that can be played over and over. You have already been learning how to make your own loops in this class!

The Dr. REX comes with a whole bunch of loops that you can load into it the same way you load a sound into any of the other instrument. There are three main types of loops that you can load:

• Drum Loops
• Instrument Loops
• Percussion Loops

Once you've loaded a loop, there are two main buttons on the Dr. REX that you need to know so that you can work with it in an actual song. The first one is the Preview button, which lets you listen to the loop.

The second one is the To Track button, which will actually put the loop into the Sequencer Window. The To Track button is basically like the Copy Pattern to Track button in the Redrum. When you press this button, Reason will put the loop in between the L and R Markers as many times as will fit.

Assignment:
1. Open Reason and create a new file.

2. Set the Tempo to 100 BPMs.
2. Create a Dr. REX loop player.
3. Load the following loop: Reason Factory Sound Bank>Dr. REX Instrument Loops>Various Hip Hop Loops>Hhp_Basstarr_093_Chronic.rx2
4. Set the L marker to Bar 1 and the R marker to Bar 9.
5. Click the To Track button.
6. Hit Play and listen to the loop.
7. Now create 2 more Dr. REX players .
8. In the first one, load a sound from the Dr Rex Drum Loops folder that sounds good with the melody.
9. In the 2nd one, load a sound from the Dr Rex Percussion Loops folder that adds more rhythm to the song.
10. Save the file to your folder as "(your name)_DrRex1.rns".
11. If you have time, try doing any of the following:

• Add a Redrum and make your own drum beat to go under your Dr. Rex loops.
• Add a Malstrom/NN19/Subtractor and come up with an original bassline or melody.
• Start copying and pasting the Dr. REX loops to extend your song out to at least 16 bars. Try having the Percussion loop only come in at certain parts (e.g. Bar 5-9, 13-17)