If you have a keyboard or other type of midi controller with a few knobs/buttons, you may have noticed that Propellerheads has already mapped several controls for you - try opening a NNXT for example and you will see that the six rotaries on the panel are mapped to the first six rotaries on your keyboard or controller. This is achieved by use of a 'remotemap' file that came as part of the installation.
However potential problems can arise in any of the following scenarios:-
a) your controller type has not been included by Propellerheads
b) the parameters mapped are not the ones you wanted
c) you might want to map a Rack Extension, or
d) you might want to map a VST instrument or effect (as in my case).
Stand on the shoulders of giants they say, so my first port of call was a video from three years ago produced by Fretless Fingers (see link below).
This video addresses scenarios a, b & c, but does not address d.
Since the date of this video, Propellerheads has opened up Reason to include VST instruments and I was keen to work out how to remote map these in Reason for my M-Audio Oxygen 25 keyboard. This video gave me enough of the groundwork to allow me to do that. I just completed my first mapping which was to add Serum onto Reason - and with only minor problems I managed to complete that!
The good news in my case was that there was already a Oxygen 25 remotemap file in the expected location (as provided during the Reason installation). Had there not been, you might want to consider copying and renaming the file from a similar instrument.
However, while the instruments, effects and utilities that form part of the core Reason product were present, there was no in-built support for remote mapping of any Rack Extensions or VST instruments.
So, assuming that you have now watched the video and are comfortable with the basics......
The process in the video is still good, but getting at the data required for VST instruments or effects requires accessing some different files in different file locations. Note - I can only speak here for Windows 10 users (sorry iOS people) but hopefully those using other OS can figure out their own locations.
NOTES:
1. The Propellerheads Authorizer is no longer a relevant source for the company and instrument names, since VST device licences are not held here. For the purpose of adding VST mappings I found that a viable solution was to get the data required from inside Reason - go to the 'Window' tab and then to 'Manage Plugins'. Use the company name and instrument name that you find here. This data is needed for line 1 of the instrument header for Instrument Name, and for line 2 of the header for Company name.
2. You also need to go to a different location to find the device name (for adding to the end of the 'Scope' line of the instrument header). On my PC, this was found in the folder at 'C:\Users\<YourName>\AppData\Local\Propellerhead Software\Reason'. In that location you should find a 'device' file and possibly a 'browser' file as well - it's the device file name you need. Note that you will need to enable access to hidden system folders, otherwise you may not even see the 'AppData' folder.
3. The VST instrument parameter names are found through using the pop-up tooltips, or if this technique does not work on a particular instrument, you can set up a remote edit and copy the control name from the form that appears.
In case anyone got lost in the above description (it is a bit wordy), I've included a working example for the SERUM Synth from Xfer Records. This mapping gives me default control across all patches for the key parameters that I find most useful (Wavetable position, level of unison, detuning extent of unison and volume for each of the A and B Oscillators, plus the main filter cutoff and the master instrument volume).
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//Remote Map template for Instruments Serum_x64
Scope Xfer Records vst.XfsX.Serum_x64_device
// Control Surface Item Key Remotable Item Scale Mode
Map Knob 1 A WTPos
Map Knob 2 A Unison
Map Knob 3 A UniDet
Map Knob 4 A Vol
Map Knob 5 B WTPos
Map Knob 6 B Unison
Map Knob 7 B UniDet
Map Knob 8 B Vol
Map Fader 9 MasterVol
Map Modulation Fil Cutoff
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PS The above example is not formatted on this page very well. Remember to use one tab after the 'Map' but two tabs after the control - e.g. 'Knob 1'.
Also, I had a bit of trouble mapping the mod wheel, but I discovered that. at the top of the remote map file, the name of some of the controls is defined, so that Modulation Wheel becomes 'Modulation' (at least in Reason 10.5).
In practice, this has worked very well for me. Putting in place this mapping has significantly reduced the time it takes me to tweak parameters in getting to the sound I need for a particular project because I'm tweaking the knobs on the keyboard rather than continually leaving the keyboard and grabbing for the mouse. It's also helping me in moving from project to project as I'm starting from a better baseline each time, with the parameters most used already mapped in familiar positions on my keyboard.
Hope you found this helpful, and good luck.
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