Writing in Reason, then mixing in DAW or OTB

[ttauri]

Anyone have experiences writing tracks within Reason (not rewired), and then either rewiring or going out of the box for mixing?

Mostly for processor headroom issues (I run a lot of sampler instances), I'm thinking of taking a stab at writing purely in Reason on my laptop. Like most, not thrilled by the internal sound quality, but wondering if I'll get the mass and body I don't hear while working in Reason when I patch it up to a DAW or console afterwards for mixing. Or whether it'll skew the sound I'm after too much, and then require a lot of extra effort in mix.



Peece,
T. Tauri

[Biggsheff]

Yeah I've have the same question. I have Reason 3.0 been using it for a while until I just got tired of the weak sound. It would be great if I could figure out a way to beaf up the sounds. I have a ton of refills but they just sound too damn flat. I open up a combinator an 2 mailstroms with a RV7000 with a keyboard reverb on one an lower the 2nd mailstrom an octave down. Thats about as good as I can do with it. If anybody has got anymore tricks I would love to hear them. cause I really dont even use reason anymore. I bought a MV8000 and a Triton Extreme, but I'de like to still use reason some way. I hate that all these refills are going to waist.

[ill Factor]

Sup peeps,

Well I myself use reason 3.0 for Sequencing / Writing and Production. I used reason on some released records. I used it on the MatisYahu album "YOUTH" on tracks titled "Time of your song" and "Jerusalem" as well as other Artist releases. Thing about the sound of reason is to totally have the mix bus routed to a good outboard source.. becuase i really love messing with the Dr.Rex and tweaking out samples with the NN19. I just get past the lack of sound quality with running the mixer outputs through a Neve Pre then eqs, and a good converter and back into the box and sounds fine... try just running it through whatever out board gear you have, even a regular mixer makes a difference.

-ill Factor
www.illfactormusic.com

[BigAl]

Originally Posted by ill Factor

Sup peeps,

try just running it through whatever out board gear you have, even a regular mixer makes a difference.

-ill Factor
www.illfactormusic.com

I second this.

Computers can be very cold with no sonic too. Just buss it out into your favorite console and it will sound great. If you have many channels from your converters, buss every track out from Reason audio interface.

[ttauri]

Do you guys find any surprises when patching out? Like: balances that seemed decent in Reason are suddenly out-of-whack when you bypass Reason's internal mixbusses?

Peece,
T. Tauri

[supernova]

Levels are going to be out of whack when you bring them out into the analog domain. There are going to be discrepancies. Just be prepared to deal with it in the analog world but remember, you're going to be a lot happier with the sound of your mix IF you have decent converters and some outboard gear.

My cheap suggestion for fattening bass lines coming from Reason or even loops is running them through an analog filter. Akai makes a good one that is MIDI controllable (MFC 42). Also agree with ill factor: good pres, eq and compression make a world of difference.

ttauri, are you using headphones when you mix on your laptop? Do you have a decent soundcard? Last year, I upgraded from MOTUs (we call them schmotus) to RME convertors (ADI 8) and it made a world of difference.

[ttauri]

Originally Posted by supernova

ttauri, are you using headphones when you mix on your laptop? Do you have a decent soundcard? Last year, I upgraded from MOTUs (we call them schmotus) to RME convertors (ADI 8) and it made a world of difference.

For mix, stuff'll go through the full setup at the lab which is in pretty good shape as far as converters, monitoring, etc go; but for writing, prolly headphones and whatever speakers happen to be around via an Edirol FA-66 (which I'm fairly satisfied with for the level of work I do with it at the mo').

Partly, I'm curious if cutting myself from a lot of mix tools during the composing stage will help me focus better on writing...or if it'll just leave me with way too much mess when I do mix .

Peece,
T. Tauri

[themaestro]

i wish i had all of the sweet outboard gear, but i don't, so i cant reccomend it. I do real basic mixing in reason (except panning) then solo each sound and 'export loop to audio file' Then i import all of those stereo files into a protools session. I run the PAZ analyzer on the master to determine which of the tracks can be split into mono, then i mix away!!! I honestly like the sound of my reason tracks waaaaaaay more than from my motif or mpc. No noise, perfect quality, and once you put the sounds into protools the tracks get huuuuuuge!!!! People always talk down on soft synths, i even feel biased, but noone can deny the sound of reason tracked out into protools and mixed right....