How many racks do you work in?

[Chi-Individual]

I started using Reason in V2 when it was just one continuous rack. But ever since they've allowed for more racks I've never gone beyond 2. The left for all melodies and bass and the right for all drums and percussion. I like to be able to see everything at a glance.

Is anyone else working still in a single rack?

What's your max number?

What's the method/thought process behind your rack set up?

[Billy+]

A rack per layer for me.

But I wouldn't say I'm all over the place, I organise the devices into appropriate layers each with its own rack.

[crimsonwarlock]

I voted 4+. I use a rack for each part of my track: drums, bass, chords, arps, leads, vocals, guitars (if any), etc. This way I always work in one specific rack for the part I'm working on. The first rack, below the input/output stuff, is used for my main buss FX, mastering chain, and notes about the song (using the TMA REs).

[Propellerhands]

Up until like few months ago I wasn't even aware it was a possibility lol. For almost 2 years basically I had no idea how people do it until figured out myself by accident. But I do not find it very useful, so I am working in only one.

[dvdrtldg]

I'm all over the place, usually no more than 3 racks but my composition process is so haphazard that everything ends up everywhere

If love it if Reason had some way of syncing rack/sequencer/mixer so that moving things around in the rack meant that they automatically got moved around in the sequencer & mixer as well

[tomusurp]

yeah i've been using just two, 1 for beat and 1 for vocals. didn't think about having another one for drums until now

[dioxide]

One for each instrument, one for effects, one for a Redrum and one for drum combinators. Sometimes more if I'm in the mood.

[jam-s]

It depends on how much time I have left before a deadline to organise things nicely, but when time allows I usually put my mastering/monitoring FX in the rack column left of the hardware interface and then the sends in the rack with the hardware interface and then right of it I use one column for each group like drums, FX, vocals, synths, bass percussion, etc. nicely colour coded as this is the closest thing we currently have to simulate track folders/groups.

If there is not much time I usually just put mastering stuff on the left, sends in the middle and anything else on the right.

[pushedbutton]

I'll vote for 4+ but I don't agree with that being 'all over the place'.
I've started enjoying using busses to group drums, basses, leads, keys, effects, etc.
I'm not as organised with the racks but definitely like to take advantage of being able to keep things together, not necessarily in the same way I'd use a bus, but if one device is effecting another it's good to be able to have them close to each other.

[klasson]

Usually go with three racks and separate drums, instruments, and sends in each.

[stillifegaijin]

I use two. One for master effects/processing, effect sends, my custom made click track, and any tracks that I have muted but don't want to delete. The second for all my actual tracks and sub mix channels.

[Tweak]

I generally go with a vertical rack per layer. Occasionally I choose to group together the mix channels for these to its own rack space, typically if things have grown large horizontally, and finding things more difficult.

[deigm]

I like the idea of one rack per layer/instrument. I'll have to try that.

Generally, I keep it to two racks because I find horizontal scrolling in the rack a pain.

[Billy+]

I like the idea of one rack per layer/instrument. I'll have to try that.

Generally, I keep it to two racks because I find horizontal scrolling in the rack a pain.

Are you aware you can
Hold shift to scroll horizontally?

[deigm]

I like the idea of one rack per layer/instrument. I'll have to try that.

Generally, I keep it to two racks because I find horizontal scrolling in the rack a pain.

Are you aware you can
Hold shift to scroll horizontally?

I do that all the time in the sequencer but for whatever reason it never occurred to me to do the same in the rack.

Don't I feel silly.

Thank you for the tip!

[MuttReason]

One for instruments, one for beats, one for send effects (insert effects for instruments or beats are in combinators). But only started working with 3 x racks when I got a new ultra wide 4k monitor. The ultra wide format (21:9) is made for Reason, it is great to have 3 x racks all visible side by side at 140% zoom. And the sequencer on ultra wide is great too, can see so much detail in one screen. Same deal when using RRP in Ableton Live.

[AdamMon89]

3 for me.
Mastering + sends on left / Drums and any other percussive sounds center / All other instruments on right separated with the free rack divider RE to keep it tidy.

[tomusurp]

Because of this thread I’ve now changed my template to 4 racks: 1) sends + sidechain effects , 2) tops, 3) tonal, 4) vocals

[crimsonwarlock]

... because I find horizontal scrolling in the rack a pain.

In my setup, every instrument group that has its own specific rack, also goes into a bus-channel on the mixer. That bus-channel is also sitting at the top of the rack it belongs to, so I can jump to every specific rack directly from the bus-channel on the mixer. I do very little horizontal scrolling

Besides this, bussing instrument groups makes final mixing that much easier

[jam-s]

I like the idea of one rack per layer/instrument. I'll have to try that.

Generally, I keep it to two racks because I find horizontal scrolling in the rack a pain.

I have one of my screens in portrait mode so it nicely fits one rack column while the browser is open and then I use the navigator pane in the rack view to quickly go to different rack columns. Colour coding and putting some label/spacer REs in there also helps with quick navigation.

[mcatalao]

1 cause I'm old-school and I like having a vertical monitor.

[strangers]

I use two. One for active devices/tracks and one for inactive that have been bounced. Keeps things clean for my workflow.

[selig]

Lately I've used 3-4 (I voted 3 cause I'm not typically all over the place), and I tend to group by instruments (old habit from tape - if all synths then I would group by function: rhythmic, bass, chords, melody lines, fx, etc). When feeling 'organized' I like putting mastering and FX returns to the LEFT of the master rack (can't remember where I got that tip from), drums/percussion under the master rack, synths/guitars next, and vocals last (if used). If there was a big string arrangement I'd put them in their own rack, and if drums and percussion both dominate they each get their own rack.

[DaveyG]

I mostly use Reason as a plugin so it's one plugin per "instrument" (might include some FX for that instrument) or effect. When I do/did use the standalone it would typically have one rack per track/instrument plus one for the send FXs. But sometimes I just mess about randomly so there is less organisation. I used to have a third way of working where I would drag everything not currently being tweaked/edited into a second rack to get it "out of the way". It wasn't a very efficient way to work!

[Rising Night Wave]

always 4+.