Waveform Wednesday: Sampling in Reason - Sound Collage Contest Tips

The Learning Center's Sound Collage Contest has begun! We recorded audio samples of construction sounds, and you can use them to make a piece of music and compete for nearly $3,000 worth of prizes from iZotope and I.K. Multimedia.

Before you start this tutorial, download the samples for the contest (and read the rules and regulations) at this link.

Reason is a powerful tool for sampling. In this tutorial we'll explore the NNXT Advanced, the Kong Drum Designer and the Redrum.

Sampling
A sample is an audio file. Samplers play back audio files in a variety of ways. A sample map determines which MIDI keys trigger which samples, and at what pitch.
Add an NNXT to your Reason rack. Right-click on it and initialize patch (this will dump the patch and all the samples loaded into it), and flip open the NNXT's Remote Editor.

To add samples, click the browse sample button (not the browse patch button) located at the bottom of the screenshot below.










In the SCC5_Download folder, choose an audio sample. Using the Remote Editor, you can have the sample play forward, backward, looped, change the root pitch, start time and more.

Now add a Kong Drum Designer to your rack, and again right-click on it and initialize the patch. Open the Show Drum and FX area, and add an NN Nano Sampler. As with the NNXT, click the load sample button to add an audio sample.

The Kong is great for rhythmic elements, listen through the samples and find some percussive elements to load.

Now add a Redrum device, initialize, and load samples onto the individual tracks.

Using the select buttons on the tracks, the run button, and the trigger buttons, you can create a pattern sequence.

There are Reason classes available! New to the program? Take Reason Essentials. For the topics in this blog post, take Reason Sampling, and Reason Drum Production with Kong. Click here to view our calendar of training sessions. You can also sign up for a music software tutor at this link.

Good luck on your Sound Collage!

-by LC Tech Blog contributor Chris Fitzgerald