 |  | make music on your PC |  | | By Jack Lyon | | (1/27/03) |
Over the last decade, the computer made itself an essential musical instrument for any budding Beethoven. Unfortunately, it can also be harder to play than a banjo and a bagpipe put together. There are samplers, drum machines, sequencers, mixing tools, effects tools, editing tools--you nearly need a PhD from MIT to understand it all. Luckily, Reason tackles a ton of the confusion by rolling several musical tools into one. All you need to create a complete instrumental masterpiece is a sound card and a little imagination.
Rack it up
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Anvil Studio |
Record and edit multitrack MIDI and digital audio.
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Midi Maker |
Create professional-grade MIDI files without a keyboard.
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N-Track Studio |
Create original multitrack recordings.
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Reason makes use of a huge sound bank of sound samples via MIDI. In a nutshell, this means you can create drum beats, sound effects, and synthesized melodies with nothing but the software and your PC. However, you cant record any sound, such as vocals or natural instruments. To record and edit music, youll want a sound-editing tool such as Cool Edit 2000 or Sound Forge. Reason is a little overwhelming at first glance if you've never used a rack of digital instruments. On Reason's virtual rack youll find a drum machine, a few synthesizers, a loop player, and a mixing board. Its OK if you have no idea what any of that means--it becomes clear after a few minutes of exploring. Keep in mind that hooking a MIDI keyboard up to your computer is incredibly helpful in creating music in Reason, but isnt required.
Get experimental
The Reason interface is split into two parts: the instruments in the rack, and the sequencer found at the bottom of the screen. Think of the sequencer as the sheet music that plays all the instruments above. Youll find a separate track in the sequencer for each instrument in the rack above. To access any instrument, click its corresponding track in the sequencer. When an instrument is active, youll see a circular icon next to the instruments name in the sequencer. If you have a MIDI keyboard attached, just start pounding the ivory to hear the sounds of the instrument. Each instrument, be it a drum machine, a synthesizer, and so on, has dozens of different sounds for you to choose from. Look for the red lettering and the arrow keys on each rack instrument. To try a new sound, click the arrow keys. If you dont have a keyboard, you can use a handy tool called the Matrix Sequencer. Right-click any synthesizer in the rack, choose Create, and then Matrix Pattern Sequencer. Here youll find a virtual keyboard in a grid form. Do a little experimenting and youll crank out some very funky sounds in a matter of minutes. You can also add effects to each instrument, such as distortion and reverb. Right-click any instrument in the rack and go to the Create menu to see all the effects you can apply.
Record it
If you have a little ditty in mind that youd like to record, go to the sequencer and click the appropriate instrument. To the right youll see several white bars with three vertical markers labeled L, R, and P. L marks the beginning of the song, R the end, and P displays where in the song you are. Click the Stop button and the P marker goes back to the beginning of the song. Click the Record and Play buttons at the bottom of the sequencer and anything you play on your MIDI keyboard will be recorded in the sequencer track you have activated. If you dont have a keyboard, click the bar icon in the upper left-hand corner of the sequencer. This will put the sequencer in edit mode, complete with a virtual keyboard that you can play with your mouse. To record notes, click the pencil tool found above the sequencer and click any grid square to the right of the virtual keyboard. The longer the bar you create, the longer the note is played. You can go through this process for each synthesizer in the sequencer to create a song with several unique sounds and melodies.
Kick out the jams
Once youve got a tune youre happy with, select "Export loop as an audio file" under the File menu. A pop-up dialog appears that lets you dictate your sound format and bit rate. In the demo version, exporting and saving is disabled, but nearly all other features work. Keep in mind that this software is incredibly deep. People who have used it for months continue to find new and cool features--it definitely takes some practice to get the hang of. The trick is to keep experimenting.
Jack Lyon, former director of CNET Hardware, splits his time contributing to CNET and building brand-savvy online games as cofounder of AstroManic Studios.
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