New to Reason - Sequencer Questions RE: Snap and Filenames

[scichosysdom]

Greetings,

I'm in the process of switching to a new DAW and have eyed up Reason for many years, so I finally picked up a used copy of Reason 6 (for technical and monetary reasons I avoided the newest version). I have some initial questions for which I haven't found a definite answer yet. These might be stupid questions.

Background: I had been using Adobe Audition for many years due to the absolute ease of use and functionality inherent to recording audio in Audition, it's a very intuitive experience and if you don't need VSTs/plugins Audition can't be beat for straight up audio multi-tracking. For drums, I used Fruity Loops. Again for what FL does, it's also pretty intuitive. So I start by trying to recreate an existing song as my first real dive into the Reason 6 workflow. I pick a short, simple, song with only a couple different drum beats and 2 recorded guitar tracks. The drum beats are small files exported from FL and are about 1-2 seconds on average. The way I worked in FL was such that I exported every drum beat individually rather than use the "song" structure in FL to export them as a whole song worth of drums. In this way I can always delete them and make changes to one small part of the drums for the song rather than have to export the whole thing every time a small change is made. Tempo is randomly chosen based on how I think it should sound, usually dependent upon the guitar/bass/synth riff that started the song idea. yada, yada. So I'm importing the handful of individual 1-2 second drum .wav's and the longer recorded guitar audio tracks.

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First issue I notice is the snap function. This allows us to snap audio files to the bars, which would be fine if my drum beats always matched up to the bars in the sequencer. But they don't fit into the bars so there's gaps. If I disable the snap function, the files are free roaming, but to an extent that it makes it incredibly difficult to line them up so that they butt up against each other without gaps/overlaps. I have to zoom in until it won't zoom in any further before I can know that they're lined up. In Audition, this was easy. The files could be snapped to the end of the previous file. I've seen the same functionality in other DAWs as well. I really hope this is possible in Reason..

Question 1: Is there a way to snap files to the end of the previous file? Is there a trick to snapping things like imported audio files in a way that retains their original length/tempo? When they were created outside of Reason they don't necessarily match up to the bar structure in our sequencer. Surely I'm not the only one importing parts of songs from files made elsewhere. Maybe I'm just going about it in the wrong way.


Next thing I notice is that the filenames are not visible in the sequencer. My drum tracks are all in the form of .wav files and are named accordingly and I am able to easily see the filename in Audition to verify the correct file without having to listen to it or click through a menu to find out one individual filename. This is imperative for me to quickly visualize my song layout as I can see all filenames and know what's going on.

Question 2: Is there a way to make the filenames visible in the sequencer?

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If I can figure out a way to get these two issues resolved I will be very happy with my choice to switch to Reason. Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

[tibah]

Q1: I believe there is no such feature in Reason. Snap works on the start of the clip, not the end.

Q2: This might be a Reason 6 thing. In Reason 8, the whole lane in the sequencer would be named like the audio it contains, if you import a sample. You also should see the names when using the comp editor, but for now I can only suggest renaming the tracks in the sequencer yourself.

I think the way you work is very "special" in it's own way, if you are that used to Audition and being that audio focused. I guess it's appropriate to say that Reason might not be for you, because its strength is in other areas. Which brings me to - why are you switching DAWs? Maybe the answer would get more useful replies in finding a DAW that suits your workflow.

[Ronin]

If you simply copy paste a file in the sequencer it adds the copy at the end of the file. Same with midi parts in the sequencer.

When you import an audio file it gives the sequencer track the same name as the filename, so not sure what the problem is.

[decibel]

maybe you should look into some of the tutorial videos available for reason so you can get a better feel for what the apps capable of ? company's like groove3, macprovideo.com and askvideo.com are a few of the main ones to look out for and they will probably still have older video tutorials in their library's that are specific to reason 6 etc, once you have sat down and gone through a full tutorial you will have a much better understanding of how to get the results you are looking for, reason can be quite a fast tool to build tracks up once you get familiar with it yeah

[Stranger.]

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[Stranger.]

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[scichosysdom]

Q1: I believe there is no such feature in Reason. Snap works on the start of the clip, not the end.

So snapping only snaps to the grid, correct? Snapping does not relate to the files in the track?

I think the way you work is very "special" in it's own way, if you are that used to Audition and being that audio focused. I guess it's appropriate to say that Reason might not be for you, because its strength is in other areas. Which brings me to - why are you switching DAWs? Maybe the answer would get more useful replies in finding a DAW that suits your workflow.

Not sure what's so special about the workflow I described really, I just added the background information to explain my question better. Perhaps I included too much information and it's causing people to get hung up on it. Forget I said anything about importing the audio files. Approach the question from the point of view that I just recorded 10 different guitar parts and I'm trying to arrange them on one track. Snap to grid is very rigid and not always in line with the length of the track or the position I wanted the file.

So, just to confirm, the files cannot snap to each other independently of the grid layout?

[scichosysdom]

If you simply copy paste a file in the sequencer it adds the copy at the end of the file. Same with midi parts in the sequencer.

Sure that works if the files are to be placed consecutively from the copied source but what if you have multiple files and you're re-arranging them?

When you import an audio file it gives the sequencer track the same name as the filename, so not sure what the problem is.

The problem is when you have more than one file per track. I google imaged Pro-Tools, Cakewalk, Ableton and Cubase just now and every one of them shows filenames on the individual waveform. I was just wondering if there's a setting to show filenames in the sequencer view because with the files not being labeled, it makes it really difficult to arrange recorded parts. This is different than track names, I'm talking about the individual filenames of audio clips on a given track.

[scichosysdom]

why are you switching DAWs? Maybe the answer would get more useful replies in finding a DAW that suits your workflow.

I failed to reply to this in my previous comment.

Over the years, I've used all the other top DAWs and I like what reason has going on. I've used Pro-tools, Cakewalk, Cubase, etc. These particular issues are things that only really cropped up after I started actually making the transition to Reason and ran into them.

I'm not looking for another DAW, I've shopped around and landed on Reason. I don't want to play the glitchy VST plugin game. Chasing new versions of expensive plugins and all that noise, spending time shopping/installing/updating plugins and being outside of the music creation process. I like Reason's all-in-one design and the quality therein. It's a one stop shop for music production.

I'm switching because I don't like where Adobe has gone with Audition. I've used various iterations of the program since it was called Cool Edit Pro beacuse the multitracking experience is/was far superior to others in terms of usability and speed. It gets the job done and it's laid out in a way that makes sense to anyone who has experience using mixing boards and routing subgroups and whatnot. Most people in the music circles don't give Audition any credit but these issues I have with Reason just make Audition's multi-tracking that much more favorable.

I don't think I'm unreasonable by hoping for things like a more robust/versatile snapping system and identifiable filenames on each file in the multitrack. I was just hoping these two items were not things I was going to be stuck dealing with.

[scichosysdom]

Last comment/question, I'll keep it short and to the point.

What do you do, in Reason, when you want to snap a bunch of tracks together whose file lengths don't fit precisely on grid lines? Do you zoom all the way in to each border and nudge them as close together as you can reasonably estimate? Isn't there a better way? That's what I'm really trying to find out.

[aRiver]

Last comment/question, I'll keep it short and to the point.

What do you do, in Reason, when you want to snap a bunch of tracks together whose file lengths don't fit precisely on grid lines? Do you zoom all the way in to each border and nudge them as close together as you can reasonably estimate? Isn't there a better way? That's what I'm really trying to find out.

There is a hack. If you really want to have files absolutely precise next to each other. Although I feel like I might not be understanding you 100% correctly, and will just provide you with a work around that is half assed-not-made-for-this kind of feature.

When you drop a wav file into sequencer it always lands on your player marker. So now we just need to have this marker be at the end of your file. To achieve that drop lets say part 1.wav and find a spot where you like it. Then when you ready to get part2.wav next to it, right click on the first file ( part1.wav) and press "set loop to selection". Now your left and right loop points are exactly on the both ends of the file. At this point you have press ALT+RIGHT ARROW together which will jump your player marker to the right end of the loop selection. Now you can drag and drop your second file in and they will be located exactly next to each other.

Now, as you can see, this is not quite the fastest way of doing things. I'm curious why would you need files to be so close to each other, closer than, lets say, 1/64 snap?

For your second question - the closest you could get it to right click on your pattern / audio files and press "Add labels to clips". So you can have your naming conventions as closer as possible to ableton.

Hope it helps

[Stranger.]

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[aRiver]

lol no way

[scichosysdom]

Thank you! The "add label to clips" is good enough for what I want. A little more work but I'll live.

The other ideas you guys just posted also sound like a close enough approximation to the sort of maneuverability I was looking for. I'm stoked to finally have the ability to record in reason. Thanks for the ideas!

[selig]

If you simply copy paste a file in the sequencer it adds the copy at the end of the file. Same with midi parts in the sequencer.

Sure that works if the files are to be placed consecutively from the copied source but what if you have multiple files and you're re-arranging them?

When you import an audio file it gives the sequencer track the same name as the filename, so not sure what the problem is.

The problem is when you have more than one file per track. I google imaged Pro-Tools, Cakewalk, Ableton and Cubase just now and every one of them shows filenames on the individual waveform. I was just wondering if there's a setting to show filenames in the sequencer view because with the files not being labeled, it makes it really difficult to arrange recorded parts. This is different than track names, I'm talking about the individual filenames of audio clips on a given track.

You can add a label manually to a clip (copy track name, paste as clip label). From then all all edits will show the label, even when cut/copied etc.

Not quite as efficient as PT, but at least a workaround.

[scichosysdom]

I just wanted to share something I found that exactly answers my original question in the OP regarding my files not matching up to the grid in the project.

Anyone who imports files made in another program whose tempo is not known and as a result doesn't exactly match up to the prescribed tempo settings in the new Reason project will run into the same issue. I therefore find those of you who had no idea what I was walking about to be rather suspect...

This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCb3O5c1ou0 explains the situation perfectly. You import a file, it doesn't match the grid, you disable stretch, change tempo accordingly and bounce to new recording. Done.

I did this on the simple song I mentioned earlier that I was using as my first real dive into the Reason workflow and I got my drum recrodings from Fruity Loops to perfectly line up to the new grid. I was then able to re-import my recorded guitar tracks and line them up perfectly. Now each drum track gets a bar of its own in the grid and all is well with the world.

Now I just need to figure out why my redrum tracks aren't matching up to the bars in the project. I haven't tried this method on my redrum tracks yet as I just discovered this trick this morning but I assume there has to be a better way to get redrum to match the project settings right off the bat without having to do this.

[scichosysdom]

Now I just need to figure out why my redrum tracks aren't matching up to the bars in the project. I haven't tried this method on my redrum tracks yet as I just discovered this trick this morning but I assume there has to be a better way to get redrum to match the project settings right off the bat without having to do this.

I read a manual I got with my copy of Reason, in addition to online manuals, plus watched every youtube video I could find on applying Redrum patterns to the sequencer and couldn't find an explanation anywhere as to why my redrum patterns weren't matching up to the sequencer grid/bars. I finally googled the keywords in the magic order and clicked the right amount of links before I found this. So, to answer my own question again, this is the explanation I was looking for regarding redrum and sequencer. https://www.reddit.com/r/reasoners/comm ... sequencer/

I realize redrums technique is very much like drum machines of old, but I've never used one of those before. That's one of the things I do like about Reason, while there is some proprietary file handling and whatnot, a lot of the basic songwriting processes are based on actual equipment so I'm learning stuff that can be applied elsewhere, not just inside Reason. That's one of the things I absolutely hated about pro-tools. It was just a poorly organized collection of proprietary bullshit. Reason is much better in that regard.

Just working all the kinks out of this new DAW experience..