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Now that we're
in the third part concerning
"audio" and taken into
consideration that what you are about to
read is written well over 5 years after the
previous chapter, first a little
introduction and update.
Thing have
well progressed since the time this tutorial
first started seeing light. Right now, in
2021, 5 years later than the previous
chapter, I have purchased Reason 11 and a
bunch of other stuff and am amazed by the
many tutorials you can find on the internet,
for example on You Tube. Still, I see very
little about using Reason and I see a lot of
usage of the DAW's that is similar to what
many producers of techno et cetera do. I've
been talking about that in previous chapters
so I won't repeat it here, but I would like
to focus on the very reason that I started a
section called "Audio".
Of course,
it is Audio rather than MIDI. Audio, as in
"sound". And in the end, that is
what we intend to do. Sound
production.
MIDI, one
shots, loops and even stems, these are only
the building blocks to create your
(instrumental) Reggae track or riddim. And,
to create that Reggae riddim is only the
first step in what is a three step process
to produce a track you can release.
Phase
1: Composition/Production
This is
the part we predominantly have been
dealing with in this tutorial even though
we touched on the next phase. Basically,
produce a Reggae track and save different
instruments away under different track,
changing them into multi tracks. We'll
close that process in (one of) the next
chapter(s).
Phase
2: The Mixing process.
This is
where we open the multitracks in a
multitrack setting, where we mix the
multitracks in and out into s stero file
or track.
Phase
3: The Mastering.
This is
where you finalize the track and make it
audible.
It used to be quite a thing to be able to
create multitracks to use. Sometimes, the
difference between the first and the second
phase would blur. It still does with a lot
of producers but they have not really an
excuse for that other than laziness because
almost any DAW will perfectly provide you
with the possibility to create what I would
call a composition environment and a mixing
environment.
composition environment
In short, this is the environment wherein
I create my Reggae track (and add vocals and
their sound recordings). I use MIDI, One
Shots, Loops, Stems and even my own
recordings. Take a look at the picture below
(Click to enlarge):
What you see is the sequencer window for
a track I did called "I Help".
This is the music and the vocals. The Drums
and the Guitar make use of One Shots. I used
Drum sounds from several LOOPMASTERS packs
(Dub Drops and Ariwa) to program a drum line
and one of the packs available on the
Dubroom for free for the guitar.
Next, I used a MIDI keyboard to play the
Piano, the Organ the Horns and a Clavinet. I
took the Clavinet from a free pack by Native
Instruments, the other instruments came
standard with Reason 11.
It all started with the bass. I purchased
a bass guitar for just under 100 Euro, used
a Bass Amp Plug-In that came with Reason 11,
and played the bassline into an audio track
in Reason's sequencer. Needless to say, I
did the same with my singing. More about
audio recording later, because that will
need some extra things other than just a
computer.
Here is the rack window (click to
enlarge). This is the virtual hardware I
use. The Drums are pre-mixed as well as the
Riddim section.
In the end, everything lands in the
console/mixing board. In Reason's case, that
is a simulation of the wonderful SSL mixing
consoles.
This is where I decide which instruments
are louder and softer in the mix. Don't look
to the green lights too much, it is just a
single moment. You see that the Bass and the
Kick are the loudest in the mix, drums a
little lower, riddim a little lower, horns
even lower and clavinet in the back. The
vocal recording is loud again. There is no
effect. Everything is dry.
I then solo every track and save the
tracks as audio files. In the case of this
tune, I have 7 channels to mix. So first I
need seven wave files, each one carrying one
instrument. And they need to be in sync. I
call these files "multi tracks",
but you can also call them
"stems".
Of course you can also use stems in the
composition environment. In Reason 11 and
virtually all current DAW's (Even
the completely free Cakewalk Sonar by
BandLab), MIDI and Audio work in perfect
sync. You'll have to insert the stem at the
right place though, just like you would
place a loop.
For recording your own vocals,
instruments or whatever, things get a bit
tricky and not in the least because this is
where you'll need something more than just a
computer. Yes, to record your own keyboards
you'll need a MIDI keyboard so we have
stepped outside the computer already in a
way, but for recording audio you'll need
something more, because you'll end up with
latency.
See you in the next chapter for recording
audio in the composition environment!
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