Hey guys,

I'm new to Reason and i have a question on how to successfully load the drum patterns you've created with Redrum to your song once you've figured them out and they're ready to be integrated into the song.

It might sound easy to some of you (well, let's be honest...to most of you!) but I'm hitting a wall here! It's really frustrating cause i figured out a lot of other more complex stuff by myself but I just can't find the simple command that enables me to paste different drum patterns into my final song! All my drum sequences are up there in Redrum but I can't get them to the box below and in the order I want!

Yeah sure, I can right click and then "copy pattern to track" but that's just 1 pattern that's gonna repeat itself for the whole damn song! I want to be able to put pattern 1 somewhere, then pattern 2, pattern 3, then 1, ... you get the idea.

I'm literally blocked although all my patterns and ideas are ready, but I have to figure out how it bloody well works first I've tried looking for tutorials for the past couple of hours and fell upon some videos (youtube) but all for Reason 3 which has a slightly different interface when it comes to drum pattern selection with Redrum.

Please help me! Bearing in mind I'm a novice and thus explaining the different steps I must follow in order to achieve my goal clearly (I'm a bit slow)

Hope I'll find some help here, I'm on a killer track and just can't finish it...

assuming you're using reason 4 you need to select the redrum in the sequencer, make sure you're in edit mode, hit the yellow button on the right. then get the pencil tool, and select the pattern you want and write it in in the pattern lane.

If you use "copy pattern to track", Reason will fill the range between the loop-start-end-locators. If you want different patterns in specific ranges, select the desired target range of every pattern via the locators before you hit "copy pattern to track".

Yes i forgot to mention it is Reason 4 indeed.

I figured some screenshots would be more explanatory. Here's a picture when I'm in the edit mode and followed the instructions above. I just don't see what to do.



Actually, I have another question. I used NN-XT to load a sample then I put it in the sequencer using the exact method you described to edit the patterns with (but which doesn't seem to work for me). But the NN-XT by default is on Grand Piano and as you know it allocates the sample you've loaded to a specific key(s).

The problem is each time the sample is played in the sequencer, it also plays the C3 piano note at the same time! How do i shut it up? On the picture, the arrow is to show my sample and the unwanted piano note that gets played at the beginning of the sample each time.





Btw, I've understood the other method using "copy pattern to track" thanks to you but I still find that the edit mode would be easier so I'd like to understand it.

Attached Images

redrum.jpg (93.2 KB, 0 views)

I'll answer the question about the NNXT first because it's the easiest. You just right click on the NNXT and select Initialize Device, which will remove all piano samples.

To go into edit more there is a small giff of three blocks, a red one over a yellow one over a blue one - click on this.

Double click on a group that you've drawn with the pencil in arrange mode previously and then use the pencil tool with the magnet set to 1/16, 1/4/, 1/32 etc. To get the drum pattern right.

You can also play patterns on your Midi keyboard and quantize

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Man, i must be thick cause it just doesn't work for me what you said for the pattern selection.

I go to edit mode, i pick the bars i want to fill with the pencil, and I see a pattern option just above (with the right pattern already selected: A1) then I go back to Arrange mode and nothing happens.



As for the NNXT issue, it's been solved, thanks!

I've uploaded the track I've been working on so you can check it out. It's unfinished to say the least and sometimes the times are a bit awkard. Please bear in mind it's my first song ever...so be tolerant

It's here : http://www.zshare.net/audio/996316307fd87e/

As a matter of fact, I've encountered some issues which I couldn't resolve during the making of this track. At this point, i do everything by ear and hand so to speak, so I'm afraid the timing of certain passages are a bit off.

Obviously that's what the quantization is there for, but all I see is the quantize during recording option (I tried that one once with a sample I had on my keyboard but the results were disastrous).

What should I do to rectify the awkward times in my song? I think that's one essential aspect I've haven't understood yet as a beginner.

As I don't know any better way, what i do is take the sample I want out a song and have it really precisely cut using Soundforge. I've already tried using Recycle to chop it up. But in the event where I want to use the whole sample, I reckon Recycle is of no use.

I've read in another thread someone saying that you have to set the bars, beats and tempo right and then slice the sample. What steps does that entail? For instance the sample at the very beginning of my song, how do I make sure it fits precisely to a beat? is it a matter of trial and error or is there an infallible method?

One last little detail. If i want try to shorten a sample, the "box" will effectively become smaller but not the line representing the actual sample, as in the example below :



How can i shorten the actual sample and not its box ?

I don't have enough time right now to answer most of this, but in regards to the redrum, make sure that you're not deselecting the yellow pattern button after you write in the pattern(s), it will delete the pattern lane and you will hear nothing.

A lot of your queries are pretty basic... quantization is for when you record with a keyboard - If you want to draw notes in time, use the magnet tool.

If you want to shorten the sample, double click on the box and drag the end of the sample back to whatever bar you want it to end at...

In the top-right in recycle, set it to 1 bar, 4 beats, and 4/4 time. eg: If that's at something like 170bpm half the time signature to 2/4 and that should make it around 85bpm.

You can get me at MSN or gmail:

titancow.tmcc@homtail.com
" " @gmail.com

PS: Nice track!

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Hi there,

I'm making some progress over here.

I found a neat way to fine tune a sample and determine the tempo.

What I do is load the sample in the Reason sequencer and then loop it and fine tune the tempo until it fits the number of bars I want, which is usually 2 or 4. It's pretty accurate.

But hey, once the tempo of the track is determined with my main sample, now I'm wondering what method I can use to make the additional samples I bring in fit that tempo!? The problem doesn't occur with shorter samples of course but when I want to bring in longer melody samples, they don't fit! Is there a Reason device that could solve these issues?

Cause yeah, it's really cool now that the sample with the main melody is really tight on the beat, but as soon as I bring in longer samples, as I said, it gets chaotic time-wise.

what do you mean? I might upload a tutorial to recycle on youtube in my free time.

once you set slices - either manually or through the Sensitivity meter, then it will automatically fit to the tempo you want - when loaded into a REX player. Tomorrow or the day after I'll upload a video if you still don't get it.

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