Controlling Mixer Section with MIDI Control Surface

[Sasquatch]

Hi all!

I'm trying to figure out how to control the mixer section of Reason with my MIDI keyboard without overwriting the MIDI mapping for rack instruments.

It's easy to assign individual rack instruments to specific MIDI channels through the Advanced MIDI section. But, can I do something similar with the mixer section?

Essentially, I want to have a setting on my keyboard that has pads and knobs assigned to basic parameters in the mixer section (track levels, mute, solo, etc.). I know that I can "Edit Remote Override Mapping" for individual controls in the mixer section, but doing so overrides the assignments globally. Is there a way to map my keyboard to the mixer section individually, and not have conflicts with other controls in the rack section.

Back in the day, I would do this with the Mixer 14:2 in the rack section, so there was no problem because I could assign a specific MIDI channel to the rack mixer. But, I'm scratching my head over how to do this well in the main mixer window.

Thanks for the help!

[artotaku]

Hi all!

I'm trying to figure out how to control the mixer section of Reason with my MIDI keyboard without overwriting the MIDI mapping for rack instruments.

It's easy to assign individual rack instruments to specific MIDI channels through the Advanced MIDI section. But, can I do something similar with the mixer section?

Essentially, I want to have a setting on my keyboard that has pads and knobs assigned to basic parameters in the mixer section (track levels, mute, solo, etc.). I know that I can "Edit Remote Override Mapping" for individual controls in the mixer section, but doing so overrides the assignments globally. Is there a way to map my keyboard to the mixer section individually, and not have conflicts with other controls in the rack section.

Back in the day, I would do this with the Mixer 14:2 in the rack section, so there was no problem because I could assign a specific MIDI channel to the rack mixer. But, I'm scratching my head over how to do this well in the main mixer window.

Thanks for the help!

You can use the Remote Protocol for that. If you haven´t used Remote yet you should have a closer look at the documentation. Advanced MIDI via Hardware device in contrast is actually an oldschool workaround for certain scenarios. Remote is much more powerful.

When using Remote, you can duplicate the control surface of your MIDI keyboard controller and lock it to the Master Section so it does not interfere with the assignements for the device of the current selected MIDI track in Reason´s sequencer.

A precondition is that the remote codec of your MIDI controller has remotemap file entries for the Master section otherwise you have to add your own mappings. In the remote map file, there are two "scopes" reserved for the Master Section. One scope is for the Master section itself and one for each mix channel. The mix channels follow a naming schema Channel <channel-number>. You can have up to 64 channels in the remotemap.

[Sasquatch]

Thanks Artotaku!

I'm not too familiar with Remote, but it sounds like I should get acquainted with it.

In the meantime, I'm doing this by assigning various mix channels to separate MIDI channels in the hardware interface and control the levels of each channel via my MIDI controller. Probably not the most elegant solution, but it's working for the time being.

Thanks for the help!

[Sasquatch]

Follow up question here:

I've been messing around with some of the Remote maps. I've made basic changes and save the files, but the changes don't have any effect on the way the controls work. As an easy experiment, I switched the pan and level settings on a set of knobs on my controller in the Remotemap. But, when I save the file and refresh my control surface in the preference (unclick and click "Use With Reason") there's no change in the resulting controller behavior.

Am I missing a key step to make sure the Reason "sees" the updated Remotemap files?

Thank you!

[artotaku]

Follow up question here:

I've been messing around with some of the Remote maps. I've made basic changes and save the files, but the changes don't have any effect on the way the controls work. As an easy experiment, I switched the pan and level settings on a set of knobs on my controller in the Remotemap. But, when I save the file and refresh my control surface in the preference (unclick and click "Use With Reason") there's no change in the resulting controller behavior.

Am I missing a key step to make sure the Reason "sees" the updated Remotemap files?

Thank you!

By chance, are you on Reason 12 standalone? If so they changed something where to lookup remote codecs.

On Windows, before 12, all remote maps were in sub folders under c:\ProgramData\Propellerhead Software\Remote\

With 12, there is now another location where remote maps for MIDI controllers are placed that come as part of Reason: c:\Program Files\Propellerhead\Reason 12\Remote\DefaultMaps
If you change the remotemap in the DefaultMaps folder does it have an effect?

c:\ProgramData\Propellerhead Software\Remote\ is still considered but only if the same codec is not in the Default folder or it has a higher version number than the one in the default folder.
And after a reinstallation or update of Reason 12 any manual changes in the default folder might be gone or overriden.

This is at least what I could figure out so far.

[Sasquatch]

Thanks Artotaku!

I'm on Reason 11.3.9 on a Mac.

I'm looking at the file structure for finding Remotemaps now and there's not a Default folder (I didn't expect one since you said this is a change in Reason 12).

The Remotemaps folder is here on Mac: Library/Application Support/Propellerhead Software/Remote/Maps

Scratching my head on this one...

[MixerJaexx]

You need to create two remote maps (both of which are linked to your controller device). The remote map intended for controlling the mixer you’ll lock to the master mix section. This allows your controller keyboard (and other controls) to MIDI follow whatever you want (such as an instrument) while the controls intended to control the mixer stay locked to the mixer.

This is one of the ways device like the Panorama P1 or operate Ableton Push.