All Reason tutorials for controlling & recording external plugins and hardware

[Reasonistas]

"Reason 7 comes with MIDI out support to bring the sound of your favorite hardware synths and beat machines to the Reason rack".

We also now know it's entirely possible to bypass ReWire and control external standalone and hosted audio plugins (namely synths) using Reason 7's MIDI out support. There have been many threads, documents and video tutorials explaining how this is accomplished. In this thread I will attempt to centralize and organize these resources for Windows and Mac Reason users. Please feel free to contribute if you know of any other resources. This list will grow over time.
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Additional helpful threads
kingdubrock - The Big VST-AU-Audio-Back-Into-Reason Thread
Dogboy1973 - The 'Unofficial ..... Reason has MIDI-output' thread
KenPH - AutoArp “Notes to Track” Using MIDI Out (Mac Only) Tutorial
Ostermilk - Midi out to a Rewired Host Daw
Garland - Reaktor with Reason: A Definitive Document?
FrameLocker - Accompany yourself with AutoTheory
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VIDEO TUTORIALS
WINDOWS

1. DJMrZodiac - HOWTO: Use external Softsynths and VST's in Reason 7 (WINDOWS)
2. muitosabao - Reason 7 - Midi out to Maschine - how to
3. Ther SiteZ- Massive VSTi within Reason. How to set it up!

MAC

1. sinnerfire - How to Record VST Instruments without Rewire_Reason 7_Mac_OSX 10.8.3
2. sinnerfire - How to Sync Kontakt to Reason 7 without Rewire
3. LearnHowToReason - Reason 7 - External Midi / Kontakt
4. Jamie Clark - Reason 7 MIDI Out with Reaktor 5
5. Computer Music Magazine - Using Monark and other instruments with Reason 7
6. A law - Using Plug-Ins (NI Kontakt) With Reason 7

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DOCUMENTS
WINDOWS

1. FrameLocker - Accompany yourself with AutoTheory

MAC

1. Esoteric Sound Design - Using Reaktor with Reason 7.
2. Kester Simm - Native Instruments Reaktor and Kontakt player with Reason on a Mac
3. FrameLocker - Accompany yourself with AutoTheory

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RECOMMENDED (REQUIRED) SOFTWARE
WINDOWS
[*]VIRTUAL AUDIO[/*][/b]

• VB-Cable (http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/index.htm) - virtual audio cable - Donate ware
• JACK audio (http://www.jackaudio.org) - virtual audio streaming - FREE

[*]MIDI[/*][/b]

• loopMidi (http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html) - FREE
• LoopBE30 (http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe30.html) - € 16,90 / US$ 19.90
• Copperlan (http://www.copperlan.org/index.php/qaa/qaa-midi) - FREE

[*]VST HOST[/*][/b][*] ([/*][*]so you don't need a DAW to host VSTs or ReWire[/*][/b][*])[/*]

• vstHost (http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vs...) - FREE - encouraged to donate
• saviHost (http://www.hermannseib.com/english/savihost.htm) - FREE
• Cantabile (http://www.cantabilesoftware.com/) - FREE

[*]ASIO DRIVERS[/*][/b]

• ASIO4ALL (http://www.asio4all.com/) - an asio audio interface with 'loopback' - FREE
• An asio interface with multiple audio ins and outs to run trs cables (physical 'loopback')

MAC
[*]VIRTUAL AUDIO
[/*][/b]

• Soundflower (http://cycling74.com/soundflower-landing-page/) - FREE
• JACK audio (http://www.jackaudio.org) - FREE

[*]MIDI [/*][/b][*](no external software required on OSX)[/*][/b]

• Not Applicable

[*]VST HOST [/*][/b][*]([/*][*]so you don't need a DAW to host VSTs or ReWire[/*][/b][*])[/*]

• VSTLord (http://arne.knup.de/?page_id=32) - FREE
• Audio Plugin Player (http://defectiverecords.com/audioplu...er/index2.html) - US$2.99

[*]ASIO DRIVERS (not necessary on OSX)[/*]

[QVprod]

Now that I see this, I also did a video, but it's for using the EMI with Rewire. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ-1jf4kZHM

[dflynn]

Wait...what's going on here? You have Reason rewired to an audio track in Live, and Kontakt and Minimoog loaded as vsts in midi tracks in Live. Is that right? Then it looks like you're playing the vsts from Reason and getting the audio back from Live into Reason. If that's right, how does that work?

[QVprod]

Wait...what's going on here? You have Reason rewired to an audio track in Live, and Kontakt and Minimoog loaded as vsts in midi tracks in Live. Is that right? Then it looks like you're playing the vsts from Reason and getting the audio back from Live into Reason. If that's right, how does that work?

Reason is Rewired to a stereo track in Live and Kontakt and Minimoog are loaded in Live as well as you pointed out. Rewire keeps the two programs in perfect sync (no latency) while I'm controlling Kontakt and Minimoog in Reason's sequencer with EMIs. All the audio is in Live. 

The downside to this method is that you can't record audio in Reason while doing this, but the advantage of this method is that you can sequence as many vsts as you want with automation and everything in perfect sync all controlled from Reason. When you're done arranging, instead of having to record everything in real time onto an audio track (several passes if you have more than one vst), you just bounce stems out of Live (or whatever DAW you use) and import into Reason for further processing/ mixing.

[Data_Shrine]

Something I don't understand is, normally, does Reason as a slave allows audio-in from an audio card ?
I had to "aggregate" my audio card, because Reason is unable to link the output and inputs by itself. But when I use it with Rewire, it still doesn't allow audio inputs from my audio card. I have double-checked and the aggregate card is selected in my DAW for inputs, since in Rewire the host controls the settings. So, I'm not talking about recording sounds from a plug-in, but rather just my guitar, or some external hardware synth. Right now I have to use the Soundflower method to be able to use the AMPS in Reason while in Rewire, which makes it troublesome.

Is this normal ? The new AMPS are kind of useless if I can't use them normally when in Rewire-mode. Or might it be my audio card ? It's a simple Behringer U-Control UCA200. I only have Reason Essentials 8.1

[QVprod]

Something I don't understand is, normally, does Reason as a slave allows audio-in from an audio card ?
I had to "aggregate" my audio card, because Reason is unable to link the output and inputs by itself. But when I use it with Rewire, it still doesn't allow audio inputs from my audio card. I have double-checked and the aggregate card is selected in my DAW for inputs, since in Rewire the host controls the settings. So, I'm not talking about recording sounds from a plug-in, but rather just my guitar, or some external hardware synth. Right now I have to use the Soundflower method to be able to use the AMPS in Reason while in Rewire, which makes it troublesome.

Is this normal ? The new AMPS are kind of useless if I can't use them normally when in Rewire-mode. Or might it be my audio card ? It's a simple Behringer U-Control UCA200. I only have Reason Essentials 8.1

There's no audio in with Reason rewired. It slaves to whatever DAW (other program) you're using as the master. If you can't get audio input with Reason standalone then you're dealing with an audio interface issue.

[Data_Shrine]

Ok, I see, thanks for explaining.
It's a little disappointing not to be able to record from an audio card while in Rewire. AMP just got kinda (not totally) useless for me :-/  I'm just gonna keep using my main DAW guitar amps for song making then.

[pushedbutton]

Any tips on getting the most out of DMX512 lighting with Reason?

[freeQlow]

Anybody out there connected their blofeld to reason?

Now I own one want to integrate it's dirt to Reason.

[hardwire666]

Hey first post here... I think.lol
Anyway I had been looking for a thread like this for a few days now. However in that time I figured out how to use Reaper as a virtual mixer/VST host for Reason. No ReWire or virtual cable apps. Both DAWS running separately-ish. Reaper comes with an ASIO driver called ReaRoute kind of like their version of rewire, but different and allows for up to 256 channels (mono I believe).

Basic signal path is
interface=> Reaper=> Reason=> Reaper=> Ears.

I did a search and din't come up with anything and I had also been looking for days and found nothing but stale poop. Is there any interest in this? I ask because I tried JACK, VB, and blah blah blah. In the end this was the most painless way to do it. I'm not the best a writing tutorials, but if this is something people are still starving for I'll give it a shot. It would be screen caps and words (sorry no video) but it would be there, and if someone wanted to make a video I'd let them use my stuff for sure.

Also if I'm late to the table, sorry for the irrelevant post.

[apostlethirteen]

Is there anyway to use reason as the master?
I really want to avoid relying on anything else at this point. Too much money spent on reason to do that.

[Olivier]

Is there anyway to use reason as the master?
I really want to avoid relying on anything else at this point. Too much money spent on reason to do that.

You can't use reason as rewire master unfortunately. I really hope thats in the future for us.

[Dan Topic]

Thank you guys for the contribution here! Nice thread.
Has anyone found the way to wire Reason to Cognitone Synfire? What I need is to bring e.g. vocals to Synfire for furter composition building.
Synfire uses ¨drones¨ for this but for Reason it doesn't work, of course. Any idea (if it's actually possible) will be appreciated.

There's a thread about it at Synfire forum but it doesn't seem to work:
http://synfire.com/content/rewire-synfire-and-reason

Thanks in advance.

[microgreg]

I want to assign the 8 Taktile Triton drum pads to activate the 8 OctoRex loop selection buttons, in such a way that I can arbitrarily scroll to, and control, any Specific one of SEVERAL OctoRex devices.

I am easily able to (manually, using Remote Override) map these pads to correspond to ONE instance of OctoRex, but the pads appear to remain Fixed to that one device when I scroll to a different track/device. What I need is for the controls to map to the next, newly selected track/device.

What am I missing?

(Newbie apologize if this is the incorrect place to post this!)

Thanks!

[RequiemMachine]

Just wanted to add for Mac users...Mainstage can also be used as a plugin host. It's $29.99 and includes the new version of Alchemy that comes in Logic Pro X. Well worth it for access to that synth on its own imho.

[StonyLix]

Wait...what's going on here? You have Reason rewired to an audio track in Live, and Kontakt and Minimoog loaded as vsts in midi tracks in Live. Is that right? Then it looks like you're playing the vsts from Reason and getting the audio back from Live into Reason. If that's right, how does that work?

I am doing the same (I think) with: REAPER 5.29. ReWire Reason9 into REAPER... also have Kontakt 5 VSTi...
I have Sibelius 7.5 on deck (and have been studying the blogs for those lessons)

Today I purchased the A-List Drummer Bundle (Black Friday 2016 $99.00)
I'd like to be able to turn the CV outs in a midi track for further manipulation (w/o jumping through too many firey hoops LoL)

Has anybody had any luck with this or other instruments doing the same ?

[mikeobrien58]

Hey all. First-time poster here, and I wanted to thank you all for your contributions. After many hours of trying the tips I found here and elsewhere, and lots of trial-and-error, I have a setup that works really well for me, and allows me to use an external software sound module almost exactly as if it were a Reason Refill; and I thought I should share my findings. I am using Reason 8 for Mac, Native Instruments Kontakt Player 5, and Soundflower, with a Propellerhead Balance audio interface. I am running El Capitan (OSX 10.11.2).

MIDI SETUP
This is well-documented in lots of the resources above, but in brief:

• set up Kontakt 5 to receive MIDI on its virtual input
• set up an External Midi Instrument (EMI) in Reason to send MIDI on the Kontakt 5 Virtual Input
• set up as many EMIs and Kontakt instruments as you like; map the EMIs to the instruments by MIDI channel.

AUDIO SETUP

• install Soundflower. I got mine from here: https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflo ... /tag/2.0b2. (You don't need Soundflowerbed for this.)
• In the Audio MIDI Setup app, create an Aggregate Device. I added my Balance first, so that it lives on channels 1 & 2, and then added Soundflower (64ch) so that it lives on channels 3-66. I named the aggregate device "Balance + Soundflower64".
• Here is the key step: In Kontakt 5, go to Options/Audio and select Soundflower (64ch) as the device -- not the aggregate device.
• Open the Kontakt Outputs window and set up channels for each instrument; then in the instruments window, map the instruments to the channels. I have my first instrument mapped to channels 3/4, my second instrument mapped to channels 5/6. This sends the audio out of each instrument to the virtual outputs in Soundflower.
• In Reason, go to Preferences/Audio and choose the aggregate device as the audio device.
• In Reason, create a new stereo Audio Track for each instrument, and map the track to a pair of channels from the aggregate device. (Note that the channels of the aggregate device will be off-by-two, compared to the channels you just set up in Kontakt.)
• Now you have a virtual instrument in Kontakt, being played from a MIDI instrument in Reason, with the audio playing through a channel in Reason. You can mix it, pan it, EQ it, FX it, etc. exactly like any other instrument in your Reason project. And you can monitor your playback on the Balance outputs, through your studio monitors or headphones.

Hope this is useful to some of you!

Disclaimer: I only figured this stuff out a couple days ago, and I haven't gone through a complete start-to-finish project yet, so there could be road-bumps ahead that I haven't anticipated. As I learn more I'll post here again...

[Oquasec]

Added.