Controlling external apps with Reason

[fZd]

Hi helpful friendly forum human beings,

I am fairly new to Reason (basically joined a band on keys), but am otherwise deep in LX design and automation (through QLab and ETC EOS); I would like to make an LX design (and maybe later even videos) that play back based on / in synch with our backing track playback in reason; So, my first thoughts on the matter:

- Play an LTC audio track from Reason - via a free/unused physical output on the sound hardware, and route it back to an input on that or a different device, and use that timecode to trigger stuff - downside, as far as I can tell, reason only uses one sound device, so I can't use an internal/virtual Soundcard for the LTC playback, and/or would need to make an aggregate device - none of these options really appeal to me
- Play back MIDI Timecode OR a MIDI note at the beginning of a track (and maybe more dropped in at appropriate times?) - but again, using a particular Virtual MIDI output that is coupled to a Virtual MIDI input, so that I can route this signal internally to another program
- Play back OSC trigger messages - thus far, I could not see anything in Reason about having/supporting OSC.

I did an admittedly short search in the forum, but maybe I am not asking the right questions .

Any tip(s) would be appreciated - I am sure there must be a way, right?

Cheers,
Freddy

[mcatalao]

Hi!

So reason already passes SMPTE timecode via midi, or ableton link so, check the manual here:

https://docs.reasonstudios.com/reason13 ... anced-midi

However, to my knowledge this just sends timecode and allows sync'ing and i think the LTC process also only syncs so for the matter it won't send events other than start stop and timecode.

For automation, you could have some more interesting stuff happening via midi, if your application supports it.
You can have reason communicating smpte midi or even ableton lynk with an app in your pc, but for events, like for example a lighting app that responds to midi notes, you can use reason's midi output device and control the software as it is a midi device.

For midi sending to other software, i use LoopBe (i'm on pc, don't know the equivalent for mac), it has been stable and quite usefull. You also have loopmidi, midi yoke, etc. If you're on a mac, OSX already has a midi studio tool that does this (i think, mac os users's validation needed!).

[w1pl0c]

I control eos thru reason with my home setup. It's a small one but I think it's rather effective. Download OSC/Par for 20$. you can load up as many instances as needed to create auotmation lanes for your lighting parameters. I recorded subs for independent fixtures of Intensity, R, G, B, A, W, strobe In eos. You could use OSC to do other things in eos as well like cue advancing, go to cue X, sneak, etc. But I like the simplicity of only needing to look at the daw once it's set up and only needing one cue.

[Baylo]

This is way out of my sphere of knowledge, but I did see this video a while back that might be relevant?

https://www.youtube.com/live/YeC5Pv58iZ ... 4YxP34s5_6

[fZd]

Hi MC,

Thanks for the input! I am currently working with a single Note through a MIDI Output Device track to signify the start of the track, and then trigger a cue list with pre-waits in QLab to trigger EOS... not the most elegant for sure, but indeed using the Mac's own Midi Studio IAC bus for internal MIDI routing. Unfortunately, Reason does not seem to do MTC = MIDI Time Code, but instead MIDI Clock, which is not supported in QLab or EOS as far as I can see.

Ultimately, there seem to be a plethora of ways to skin this cat, and I'll see what else is possible to cut down on intermediate steps (see the interesting OSC thread below).

Thanks again for your answer!

Cheers,
Freddy

Hi!

So reason already passes SMPTE timecode via midi, or ableton link so, check the manual here:

https://docs.reasonstudios.com/reason13 ... anced-midi

However, to my knowledge this just sends timecode and allows sync'ing and i think the LTC process also only syncs so for the matter it won't send events other than start stop and timecode.

For automation, you could have some more interesting stuff happening via midi, if your application supports it.
You can have reason communicating smpte midi or even ableton lynk with an app in your pc, but for events, like for example a lighting app that responds to midi notes, you can use reason's midi output device and control the software as it is a midi device.

For midi sending to other software, i use LoopBe (i'm on pc, don't know the equivalent for mac), it has been stable and quite usefull. You also have loopmidi, midi yoke, etc. If you're on a mac, OSX already has a midi studio tool that does this (i think, mac os users's validation needed!).

[fZd]

Hey mate,

Sounds fascinating, and it would be nice to allow for cues to go straight into reason somehow, but reading the documentation of OSC/PAR (and sadly there's no trial), I can't quite get my head around how I would be able to insert cues as such on an automation track, even just for simple go-to-cue commands - would you mind sending an example with screenshot(s), before I buy the thing ?

Thanks a lot!

I control eos thru reason with my home setup. It's a small one but I think it's rather effective. Download OSC/Par for 20$. you can load up as many instances as needed to create auotmation lanes for your lighting parameters. I recorded subs for independent fixtures of Intensity, R, G, B, A, W, strobe In eos. You could use OSC to do other things in eos as well like cue advancing, go to cue X, sneak, etc. But I like the simplicity of only needing to look at the daw once it's set up and only needing one cue.

[fZd]

Certainly some neatness in there!

Good to know what is possible and with what tools, I love this kind of integration - though for now, I am just chasing the easiest/fastest way to integrate with Eos, ideally without having to set up and listen to specific events corresponding to cues in Eos, but rather just use their existing OSC syntax and keep it all in the daw .

This is way out of my sphere of knowledge, but I did see this video a while back that might be relevant?

https://www.youtube.com/live/YeC5Pv58iZ ... 4YxP34s5_6

[w1pl0c]

I'd have to build an example and I don't have time for that any time soon. But I will say if you want to dabble in OSC to control apps from your DAW, you can find many ways to use. Kinda depends on your knowledge of OSC Syntax.

OSC PAR has been very a capable solution for me. OSC Par loads as a vst, and allows you to use the daw timeline for OSC commands. I'm not an expert but OSC Par is a great tool for the price. Thanks deadmau5.

I use it to integrate with resolume too. Very fun to have control over lighting, video, and audio at the same time with low latency (i7, 64gb ram, 8gb VRAM)

Cheers

Hey mate,

Sounds fascinating, and it would be nice to allow for cues to go straight into reason somehow, but reading the documentation of OSC/PAR (and sadly there's no trial), I can't quite get my head around how I would be able to insert cues as such on an automation track, even just for simple go-to-cue commands - would you mind sending an example with screenshot(s), before I buy the thing ?

Thanks a lot!

I control eos thru reason with my home setup. It's a small one but I think it's rather effective. Download OSC/Par for 20$. you can load up as many instances as needed to create auotmation lanes for your lighting parameters. I recorded subs for independent fixtures of Intensity, R, G, B, A, W, strobe In eos. You could use OSC to do other things in eos as well like cue advancing, go to cue X, sneak, etc. But I like the simplicity of only needing to look at the daw once it's set up and only needing one cue.