How to transpose a reason project/ change key of a song for a singer???

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bbs
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11 Nov 2018

Hi, I wanna know how to transpose my reason project / transpose the whole key of my song so that the singer can sing in the right key. So i haven't recorded the audio yet. I wanna change the key of the song before recording. So kind of a capo for my reason project that i can play with to figure out what key the singer feels more comfortable singing in. Does something like that exist?

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aeox
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11 Nov 2018

Short answer is no.

You could change the pitch of the track but it's not going to sound very good. I work with everything in midi so that I can make any changes I need manually.

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splangie
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11 Nov 2018

If it is just sequencer notes you could select them all and then move them up or down to the right key for each track.

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selig
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11 Nov 2018

You can select all clips in the time line that are pitch released (don't select any drum tracks, for example), and then use the inspector at the top of the sequencer to transpose by semitones to the desired key. You won't have to transpose more than half an octave either direction to cover all possible keys. This will work on note tracks (MIDI) and audio and is non-destructive in that you can always transpose back by the same amount.

Quick tip: if you know your transpose amount, for example that you want to transpose up by a fourth, you can type +5 (for five semitones up) into the inspector window for pitch.
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mcatalao
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11 Nov 2018

Man i do this all the time. I have singers that don't get to the second and third vocals up of the chorus. I get the whole song down up to 2 or 3 tones (more than this is too much imho), record the second and third voices, get it up again. Voila! It is 10 times more natural than pitching this things up with the pitch editor and as Selig said, everything is non destructive so the main vocals get to the previous state with no prejudice.

Word of advice though: Be sure to select the stretch and transpose type of every track. It will affect the quality of the transpose algorithm and the result will be WAY more accurate!


PS.:
Timestretch and transpose are 2 features that were really well done in Reason ( i think these got in in Record 1 and Record 1.5 respectively).
I don't see many people talking about them to see the potentiality of these, I might do a little video on them one day!

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mcatalao
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11 Nov 2018

aeox wrote:
11 Nov 2018
Short answer is no.

You could change the pitch of the track but it's not going to sound very good. I work with everything in midi so that I can make any changes I need manually.
Actually as i was saying before, the quality of the time stretch and pitch on reason is one of the best available today.
As long as you select the correct time and pith algorithm, you can do complete project tempo and pitch changes!

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aeox
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11 Nov 2018

mcatalao wrote:
11 Nov 2018
aeox wrote:
11 Nov 2018
Short answer is no.

You could change the pitch of the track but it's not going to sound very good. I work with everything in midi so that I can make any changes I need manually.
Actually as i was saying before, the quality of the time stretch and pitch on reason is one of the best available today.
As long as you select the correct time and pith algorithm, you can do complete project tempo and pitch changes!
:oops: When I pitch anything in Reason I can really hear the difference, it doesn't sound good at all

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bitley
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11 Nov 2018

Select everything except drums, transpose, done. Put the drum tracks at the top of the sequencer and it will be super easy. You can also color the parts to make it obvious, like "all blue tracks / parts can be transposed".

As for the (off topic) audio transposing discussion I think it's better in Reason than in most other daws I've worked with. Like Mc suggested try different algorithms.

I love transposing and do it all the time to kind of refresh my ears if I'm working on a song.

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mcatalao
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11 Nov 2018

aeox wrote:
11 Nov 2018

:oops: When I pitch anything in Reason I can really hear the difference, it doesn't sound good at all
Up to 4 semi-tones up or down, it's really great.
For bigger jumps its normal to get more and more artifacts.

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bitley
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11 Nov 2018

Yup — and for your homemade background choirs the old Abba trick is nice too, transposing (they used analog tape machines but also pitch shifters and vocoders) in order to get different vocal characteristics. You might transpose down -1 for instance, add a new overdub, go to +2, add another one or eight! Spread the panning too. ;) Can sound really exciting in the mix. Experiment! Low voices sound cool down transposed, higher parts can go both ways. Talked parts and rap can be awesome at like -5, Yello & Kool Moe Dee all the way.

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Boombastix
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12 Nov 2018

Another thing you may want to consider when recording vocals is to drop the bpm a little, just 2-3bpm, so they get some extra time to articulate and breathe.

Did that when recorded to tape back in the days, but then you dealt with the pitch shift as well as the tape was slowed down. So easy nowadays!

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bitley
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12 Nov 2018

Yup I wonder if Eminem perhaps dropped the BPM to 50% when he did that ultra ultra speedy rap in the latest hit track? ;) I've been wanting to experiment with that. The algorithms in Reason are so damn good!

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Skimrok
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12 Nov 2018

bitley wrote:
11 Nov 2018
Talked parts and rap can be awesome at like -5, Yello & Kool Moe Dee all the way.
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bitley
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12 Nov 2018



;)

kitekrazy
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13 Nov 2018

aeox wrote:
11 Nov 2018
mcatalao wrote:
11 Nov 2018


Actually as i was saying before, the quality of the time stretch and pitch on reason is one of the best available today.
As long as you select the correct time and pith algorithm, you can do complete project tempo and pitch changes!
:oops: When I pitch anything in Reason I can really hear the difference, it doesn't sound good at all
That's basically with any apps. Back in the day when making my own libraries for Gigastudio the rule was to pitch down than up.

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