Reason 4 Pencil tool

Support & Feedback Technical Support
1

Hi,



I was doing your tutorial last night entitled Music Production Using Reason.



I’m new to this so might sound vague. But I’m guessing you’re using version three as mine behaves differently.



When I go into Arrange mode, it seems a lot more difficult to use the Pencil tool. It will only allow me to select an entire column in the bar at a time and not drop notes the way you did in module one.



Also if I drag notes around, it replaces the whole bar with what I drag into it instead of adding it to what I had already put there. For instance when you dragged around the percussion sound.



Is that how Reason 4 works now or am I doing something wrong.



Thanks in advance for any help.



Scott.

2

if i understand correctly, it sounds like your quantize control is set to “1 bar” instead of something smaller.

if you look for the Q control in Reason. can’t remember where it is off hand, it should be in the toolbar. there should be an option to select the division size. try setting it to around 1/16 and see if that helps



bry


3

Hi Bryan,



Thanks so much for the quick response. Looks like that’s not it. The Quantize setting is set to a value of 1/16 with an amount of 100%.



I’ve put a screen image at http://gallery.me.com/scott.mcgrath/100013 so I can demonstrate as my description isn’t great.



It shows that I have only been able to select one bar at a time. And although I have been able to drop orange squares next to the selected row (indicating I’ve dropped beats at those bars) as soon as I come off my selected row, they disappear.



Where as in the tutorial, it doesn’t select a bar like that and the chap was just able to drop beats with the pencil. Also as mention when I move beats, it replaces the entire row.



I’ve added a screen print of the quantize settings too.



Thanks again for your quick response and help.



Scott.

4

Hey Scott,



It looks like you need to change the snap to grid size to 1/16 in the top bar beside the small magnet icon. Changing the quantize value will only change anything you choose to quantize (before or after recording with a MIDI keyboard for example) and not the size of the grid in the sequencer window, they are two separate things.



Hope this helps



Graham

5

Hi Graham,



thanks for the quick reply.



No I had that set to 1/16. Sorry my lack of experience probably means I’m unintentionally drip feeding the right information. Sorry bout that all.



I’ve added two more images to that gallery. iCloud



Reason2 is just before I click on the 3rd Beat for BD_Disco_H… and then Reason3 is what happens just after I click on that beat. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with the transport track above as I’m not really up to spead with what transports do yet but I don’t think so as I have the Redrum track selected.



I made these screen grabs include more info so they’re a little bigger.



Thanks again for the responses guys.



Scott.

6

Hey Scott,



I looked at the new images and I think what you need to do is widen out the sequence area using the two small arrows pointing left and right on either side of the section that isn’t darkened/greyed out. In 4 when you first click in a sequence window it highlights the section you just clicked based on the snap value you have set. You then need to open up that area by dragging the arrows otherwise it won’t play anything that is sequenced under the darkened section. Does this make sense? If not I’ll do you a short video demonstrating what I mean.



Graham

7

Graham you’re an absolute lifesaver mate. I don’t know why I didn’t see those large black arrows that look pretty obvious.



I guess because being a newbie I was looking just at the tutorial that was done in a previous version.



Your description did make sense and I’ve go that working now.



Thanks mate. And cheers to others who commented.



Take care.



Scott.

8

No probs mate, things are only simple when you know the answer!