Reason Navigation - Noob discovery!

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zero-13
Posts: 93
Joined: 16 May 2020

25 May 2020

:shock: Lol, I'm sure I'm the last Reason user to realize this, but after almost three years of scrolling menus and dragging the rack like an animal, I just noticed that the "Home" and "End" keys instantly take you to the top or bottom of the browser instruments, effects, etc. as well as the rack lulz! :redface: :D

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chimp_spanner
Posts: 2908
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

26 May 2020

Also remember that in addition to scroll-wheeling up and down, you can hold shift to scroll horizontally across your rack columns or arrangement.

Also, mouse-wheeling works after you click+drag+hold to start a connection. So if you're trying to connect a device at the bottom of your rack to one at the top and/or to the side, you can use vertical and horizontal scolling while holding the cable to get there quicker. Took me a long-ass time to figure that out! Way better than holding it near the top of the screen and waiting.

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zero-13
Posts: 93
Joined: 16 May 2020

26 May 2020

chimp_spanner wrote:
26 May 2020
Also remember that in addition to scroll-wheeling up and down, you can hold shift to scroll horizontally across your rack columns or arrangement.

Also, mouse-wheeling works after you click+drag+hold to start a connection. So if you're trying to connect a device at the bottom of your rack to one at the top and/or to the side, you can use vertical and horizontal scolling while holding the cable to get there quicker. Took me a long-ass time to figure that out! Way better than holding it near the top of the screen and waiting.
Good stuff, thank you for sharing!

I love these types of workflow / navigation / DAW wrangling tips.

Early on into my Reason journey F3, F5, F6, and F7 were a huge help in making the UI feel less overwhelming.

Another very obvious but huge thing that I only learned about a year ago was right-clicking inputs/outputs to hook things up by name, along with the fantastic "Scroll to connected device".

It might be worth Reason Studios making a dedicated "Reason advanced navigation" video (Maybe this exists already?) that has all the slick ease of navigation tips and shortcuts that people can reference.

Little things like these greatly reduce speed bumps and frustrations early on, and pay dividends in saved time as you progress with the DAW.

GateWatcher
Posts: 15
Joined: 23 May 2020

26 May 2020

It’s useful for newbies like me. Thanks!

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zero-13
Posts: 93
Joined: 16 May 2020

26 May 2020

Found another gem to share, just messing around in note editor right now while manually practicing some music theory! :D

If you have a bunch of clustered notes you can invert any selection of notes:

1. select a few random notes in a cluster

2. While holding Ctrl, drag a large selection marquee around ALL the notes you want to swap the selection to including the already selected notes.

3. After you begin dragging the selection box before letting go and while still holding Ctrl, press and hold Alt as well.

4. Release left mouse, and boom, selection is inverted! :puf_bigsmile:
Attachments
Invert_Selection_(RT).gif
Invert_Selection_(RT).gif (627.72 KiB) Viewed 503 times

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selig
RE Developer
Posts: 11685
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Location: The NorthWoods, CT, USA

27 May 2020

Also, the 1 and 2 key on the keypad take you directly to the loop start/end respectively. I wish there was also a quick locate to front/back of any selection for when you're zoomed in and need to trim the front/end of a selection (Pro Tools has this for years and it greatly speeds up editing for me). My workaround is to Command "L" a selection then use 1/2 to locate, but this looses any loop points. :(
Selig Audio, LLC

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Creativemind
Posts: 4875
Joined: 17 Jan 2015
Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

27 May 2020

chimp_spanner wrote:
26 May 2020
Also remember that in addition to scroll-wheeling up and down, you can hold shift to scroll horizontally across your rack columns or arrangement.

Also, mouse-wheeling works after you click+drag+hold to start a connection. So if you're trying to connect a device at the bottom of your rack to one at the top and/or to the side, you can use vertical and horizontal scolling while holding the cable to get there quicker. Took me a long-ass time to figure that out! Way better than holding it near the top of the screen and waiting.
:thumbs_up:

Excellent tips Chimpspanner.

That last one solves a problem someone mentioned ages ago on here of wanting to be able to use the scroll bar when dragging cables on the back of the rack.
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

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Creativemind
Posts: 4875
Joined: 17 Jan 2015
Location: Stoke-On-Trent, England, UK

27 May 2020

zero-13 wrote:
26 May 2020
chimp_spanner wrote:
26 May 2020
Also remember that in addition to scroll-wheeling up and down, you can hold shift to scroll horizontally across your rack columns or arrangement.

Also, mouse-wheeling works after you click+drag+hold to start a connection. So if you're trying to connect a device at the bottom of your rack to one at the top and/or to the side, you can use vertical and horizontal scolling while holding the cable to get there quicker. Took me a long-ass time to figure that out! Way better than holding it near the top of the screen and waiting.
Good stuff, thank you for sharing!

I love these types of workflow / navigation / DAW wrangling tips.

Early on into my Reason journey F3, F5, F6, and F7 were a huge help in making the UI feel less overwhelming.

Another very obvious but huge thing that I only learned about a year ago was right-clicking inputs/outputs to hook things up by name, along with the fantastic "Scroll to connected device".

It might be worth Reason Studios making a dedicated "Reason advanced navigation" video (Maybe this exists already?) that has all the slick ease of navigation tips and shortcuts that people can reference.

Little things like these greatly reduce speed bumps and frustrations early on, and pay dividends in saved time as you progress with the DAW.
Yeah, would be fantastic, maybe something Ryan and Mattias could cover in one of their excellent Tuesday evening Live Streams?

I just found out today that you can double click any instrument / device in the sequencer (on the track itself, inspector / track panel where the device graphic is) and it will take you to the rack for that device. Only drawback, if it's closed or minimized, it remains so. Tried double right clicking, shift, alt and ctrl variations and still no 'automatically expands / opens' functionality. That would be a worthwhile implementation. Alt double clicking say for taking you to the rack for that device but also expands / opens it, alt for alternative method.
:reason:

Reason Studio's 11.3 / Cockos Reaper 6.82 / Cakewalk By Bandlab / Orion 8.6
http://soundcloud.com/creativemind75/iv ... soul-mix-3

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chimp_spanner
Posts: 2908
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

27 May 2020

selig wrote:
27 May 2020
Also, the 1 and 2 key on the keypad take you directly to the loop start/end respectively. I wish there was also a quick locate to front/back of any selection for when you're zoomed in and need to trim the front/end of a selection (Pro Tools has this for years and it greatly speeds up editing for me). My workaround is to Command "L" a selection then use 1/2 to locate, but this looses any loop points. :(
And if you don't have a numpad, alt/option + left/right jumps between L and R locators!

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zero-13
Posts: 93
Joined: 16 May 2020

28 May 2020

All this gold!

It would be very cool if Reason Studios considered and had time for a nice contextual, rapid fire, advanced-nav & tips and tricks video!

As I was discovering the invert note selection shortcut, I tried to search for it and couldn't find it via Google or in the manual (not saying it's not there, I just couldn't find it) but I did see during this search that Studio One had a video promoting some macros they had for select last note and invert notes, and I thought to myself looks like Reason already had Invert since who knows when, and probably has a ton more somewhat hidden or maybe not often mentioned shortcuts and workflow enhancements.

Anyway, my point being is there are so many nice workflow elements that already exist in Reason, would be great to showcase them, and would be especially helpful to those new to Reason.

I know I'm being way redundant. :)

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