Soundtracks/Sound Effects live with Reason Kong Instrument

[maentrop98]

I've been trying to find the best way for a really long time to accomplish what I'm trying to accomplish. I have a midi controlller/keyboard with two octaves and several drum pads and knobs (The Akai MPK Mini). I want to be able to use the different pads (or keys) to play different sound effects or songs that I can alter the volume of while they are playing. I'm using it in concordance with the Kong Drum Designer to DM a dungeons and dragon campaign and had mixed success with it. It's been easy to assign the songs and sound effects I want to do different sections of my keyboard, but the main problem is that for songs longer than a minute, the Kong Kit has a natural decay that makes the music incredibly quiet. Opening the SHOW DRUMS AND FX tab let me find a setting for the decay of the sound (screenshot attached)

Screen Shot 2018-07-30 at 11.09.53 PM.png (530.59 KiB) Viewed 928 times

but I can't set it anywhere beyond 50 seconds. I know the Kong drum kit isn't probably designed for what I'm using it for currently, but does anyone know a better way to play full music tracks live and alter the volume of seperate tracks (or even just the overall master volume using the keyboard) and not have the music fade? Another instrument on Reason perhaps? Or does anyone know a way around the Kong's built-in decay feature? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[botnotbot]

You might get more mileage out of bouncing the longer tracks out to REX loops and putting them into a Nurse Rex in your Kong kit.

Cool idea, by the way! I've been wanting to add something like this to my own campaign.

What kind of sounds that you are using, by the way? And where did you get them? I'm curious to hear more!

[maentrop98]

I'm pretty inexperienced with reason, could you explain how I would go about "bouncing" them to REX loops like you recommended?

I'm using some personal compositions I made using garageband, a couple soundtracks from various sources (like Adventure Zone tracks from https://griffinmcelroy.bandcamp.com/ , a couple songs from Portal 2, and then some sound effects like one encounter that involves a sort of Lynx that materializes out of a computer monitor, complete with a terrifying roar (the windows startup noise amplified to hellish levels), damage taking noises (an error) and a defeat noise (the windows shutdown pitched out of wack and cut up to evoke an image of a computer that was smacked with a baseball bat)

[Reasonable man]

Are any of the samples paying back at the same time? Grouped together sort to speak?
There is a way of doing this with an nn-xt combinator but that way works best if you have for eg 4 to 8 seperate song sections (or grouped song samples) that are always playing together and you can toggle between these sections using the buttons on the combinator.

The thing about the nn-xt s that it as a fw-loop mode so the specfic sample (or grouped samples) are always playing and you can set it up so that you toggle beween grouped samples using the buttons on the combi . The samples or grouped samples would be going into a 14;2 line mixer inside the combi via seperate outs at the back of the nn-xt and a matrix can be set up to trigger each group of samples by setting the matrix step lenght to 1 and using a solitary 1 tied note to trigger each sample/group , for eg ....if your first sample (or group of samples ) in the nn-xt is set to root note c3 then you would use pattern A1 on the matrix to trigger that sample by entering a note value of c3 and so on ( matrix has up to 8 patterns per bank) with each patten st on a step duration of 1. Bit of wiring involved but if you need a sample or grouped samples continously playing so you can either fade them in and out or toggle between them then you need the fw-loop mode that ony y=the nn-xt has (i think anyway)

[Carly(Poohbear)]

I would say you can use Kong as a trigger and have it going to a sample and hold, this in turn will play the note you want, say in the NN-XT, the same pad will turn the note on and off, you can have a release setup so it fades out or have it short so it just cuts out.

Would something like that be helpful? If so I will do a quick video on how to set it up...

[Reasonable man]

That sounds more like what he;s looking for Poobear. You should do that video regardless!

[botnotbot]

Even though others are recommending another direction, I'll explain the REX approach more carefully so that you can make your own choice.

The way to bounce an audio file to a REX loop is by opening the comp editor on the audio file. (Select the audio file, click 'Comp Edit' button).

Then you can right-click, look for the Bounce sub-menu, now the 'Bounce to REX loop' option is available.

Drag the REX file from the Song Samples in the browser and drop it on a Kong pad. Now whenever you hit that Kong pad, the audio will play in its entirety.

You can use the drum assignment feature of Kong to assign another pad to target pad 1, but then set it to the 'Stop' trigger type.

I recommend a quick YouTube search to find Props' Kong tutorial if you get lost.

[Carly(Poohbear)]

Even though others are recommending another direction, I'll explain the REX approach more carefully so that you can make your own choice.

The way to bounce an audio file to a REX loop is by opening the comp editor on the audio file. (Select the audio file, click 'Comp Edit' button).

Then you can right-click, look for the Bounce sub-menu, now the 'Bounce to REX loop' option is available.

Drag the REX file from the Song Samples in the browser and drop it on a Kong pad. Now whenever you hit that Kong pad, the audio will play in its entirety.

You can use the drum assignment feature of Kong to assign another pad to target pad 1, but then set it to the 'Stop' trigger type.

I recommend a quick YouTube search to find Props' Kong tutorial if you get lost.

I don't know Kong that well, mainly use it ti trigger other instruments, I like that idea, when you hit the stop pad does it just stop or does it go into the Release stage ?
The only down side I can see is it will use up 2 pads to control one sound... but saying that you could add several Kongs to a combinator, use the key map to split them up and control the others via the NoteView player (highly recommended) or the RPG-8.

You should do that video regardless!

I'll knock a quick tip out


PoohBear

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[Carly(Poohbear)]

That sounds more like what he;s looking for Poobear. You should do that video regardless!

Here you go

Thoughts?



PoohBear

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[Reasonable man]

That sounds more like what he;s looking for Poobear. You should do that video regardless!

Here you go

Thoughts?



PoohBear

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My Soundcloud Page ....... Nektar Mappings
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I'm thinking your probably an evil genius. Well not evil but i guess you could be evil if you used your midi routing powers wrongly ha ha. I'm gonna download this at have a proper gawk at it . My brain dosn't work this way.
Up until the last few months i've completly ignored that thor step sequencer until i finally found a way to granualize a snare hit using audio in - step seq trig so yea its definatley an overlooked tool and this opens up more possibilities . Cheers man.

[OverneathTheSkyBridg]

Have you considered lining up all the tracks you want to use in the sequencer? Make an audio track for each background track, looping where needed, and use the SSL mixer to fade in and out things as needed. Just have this playing constantly on loop. You could also use a Kong for any one shot fx.

Sent from my SM-G955W using Tapatalk

[Carly(Poohbear)]

I'm thinking your probably an evil genius. Well not evil but i guess you could be evil if you used your midi routing powers wrongly ha ha.

Never mess with a man with a fully loaded Reason full of CV8x4's and EMI's LOL