Reason as a MIDI/CV Source Only

[dpcoffin]

Greetings…and apologies if I'm making some noob gaffs here; just registered and trying to find where, or if, in these fora there's any discussion about setting up and using ver 9 and some of the amazing-looking REs as CV and MIDI mod sources for other software such as Reaktor, Logic, Live, Kontakt… Don't have any hardware yet, so I'm only interested in the soft stuff—so far:)

Haven't used Reason since ver 4, looks like 9 will be quite a different experience! No doubt I'll find it very interesting on its own, but I'm deeply invested in the DAW/plugins route and have been looking around for some system-wide super-modulation approach/device…and stumbled on the notion that Reason might actually be precisely that these days, along with all its other powers (thank you Muff Wiggler!)

Been searching around a bit here for such topics with little luck so far. TIA!

dpc

[Olivier]

First of all, Welcome !

To be honest, i haven't seen the threads myself. You talk about midi and CV in relation to other software. I'm not familiar with how other software uses CV. What i know about reason CV is that you can translate it into an audio signal and send that into a real world modular (which i do daily).
So, i'm not entirely sure what you would expect from reason as a CV source. Other then that i do use Reason CV signals and translate them into real world CV to be used in my modular.

What are the things you are interested in, syncing reason to your DAW ? Sending out LFO's translated into midi ?

I can imagine using it as a midi source shouldn't be a problem at all if you can route midi from reason to your other DAW's then you can just use whatever CV source in R9 and have it translated into midi using an EMI.

[dpcoffin]

Hey Olivier, thanks for responding and the welcome:)

Just using MIDI out from Reason with EMIs might very possibly accomplish everything I'd want, which is primarily to have lots of new, more complex and hopefully surprising MIDI pitch, gate and CC sources to route into Reaktor/Kontakt stand-alone and Logic and Live via the Mac's IAC busses.

I'd never dealt with CV until getting Reaktor blocks (which seem to make any distinctions between audio, MIDI and CV irrelevant at least inside Reaktor). Seems like that can be the case with Reason, too, once you find the right REs.

Hearing lots about CV from all the folks using modular hardware, both alone and with software patched in, it appears that it'd likely be useful/fun for a purely in-the-box system also to be able to access, convert and route around all three signal types… Actually, it was a review of Bitwig 2 with all its built-in modulators that put me on to this idea, as it listed Reason as a similar alternative. As an upgrade, it seems like a much cheaper and actually much more powerful one.

So, maybe all I needed to hear was that, yeah, with an EMI, any CV in Reason can be sent anywhere in the system as MIDI; thanks:) Reason seems right now to have the most robust collection of CV processing devices available in software, in addition to all its other toys and tools. And if nobody else is talking about using it like this, when I get going with it, I guess I'll start the conversation!

[Olivier]

I've not yet worked with Reaktor but i'm planning to.
In Reaktor, are audio and CV interchangeable ? In case you can take in an audio signal, and sent it into a CV input in Reaktor, you could instead of using midi, as a bridge to sent over CV signals, sent cv over as audio signals instead (like in a modular). Translating cv into audio in Reason is not a problem.

[Oquasec]

Been dying to give reaktor away for quite some time lmao.
But the most recent method is indeed the emi one [those with version 7 says it came out on that version]
Before then, all you had was rewire and midi ox/loopbacking.

[dpcoffin]

In Reaktor, are audio and CV interchangeable ?

Not outside of blocks. But as I understand it, the major feature of blocks is this, from the manual (https://www.native-instruments.com/file ... 2_2015.pdf):

The In and Out ports can be used for all kinds of signals, depending on the Blocks’ functionality and application. All inputs and outputs operate at audio rate and in the range of -1 to +1.

[ejanuska]

Reason CV signals are not available outside of Reason without sending them as MIDI CC values over MIDI to a eurorack or other hardware MIDI to CV converter. If you are thinking about making some kind of CV connection between Reaktor and Reason in software that is not going to happen.

[dpcoffin]

Thanks, good/sad to know…

Maybe this will be up next in the slow progress towards opening Reason up…? No breath holding of course:)

Still, as a software source of intricately modifiable CV, even if can only be sent out as MIDI, got any more powerful alternatives to Reason?

[dioxide]

I don't think the replies above are doing Reason justice. There are REs that convert Reason's CV to audio and Expert Sleepers do a Rack Extension. I've even used the entire Main Mixer (using Sends) as a CV mixer loading Pulsar audio LFOs.
https://shop.propellerheads.se/product/ ... ontroller/
https://shop.propellerheads.se/product/audio-to-cv/

Thor can be used to convert between Audio and CV. Pulsar has audio outs for CV and some REs have CV Audio inputs.

[dioxide]

You can pipe MIDI directly between apps or convert CV to audio to pipe between the two apps.

[dioxide]

There is a FB page dedicated to modular and CV use use of Reason. Most examples also use Reason as a sound source but it is still worth looking through.
https://www.facebook.com/Reason-CV-Modu ... 285494893/

[dpcoffin]

There is a FB page dedicated to modular and CV use use of Reason. Most examples also use Reason as a sound source but it is still worth looking through.
https://www.facebook.com/Reason-CV-Modu ... 285494893/

Cool! Many thanks! And for all your earlier ideas!

[dioxide]

Using the Main Mixer as a CV source experiment.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7495870&p=273714#p273714