Widening the stereo field with a delay unit

Mebbe you've got an instrument that sounds super mono. It's smack dab in the center. Sounds ok, but pretty blah. (For an example, listen to my saw wave synth in my Ecco 2 mix >_<. Wish I knew this when I made that song ) This is what you do. In between the instrument and the mixer somewhere, drop in a delay unit onto only ONE of the two stereo channels you are dealing with. Make the delay be around 10ms. More delay will make the sound sound like it is 'wider' in the stereo field. The delay machine should be 100% wet. You may have to fool with the panning amount on the delay so that the stereo channels sound equal.

Example .rns

The Unison rocks.

I like the unison machine a lot. It can often make a track sound much wider in the stereo field much like the delay trick above. Just keep the detune knob all the way down and keep it reasonably dry. It can mess up stuff though, if you are going for a really realistic sound like on strings and such. Make it really wet and detuned, drop it on a synth and some kickass results may..be yeilded. (Hmmm was this trick a bit too obvious? meh)

Pads with Rhythm!

The vocoder is nifty! Attach some synth pads or strings to the carrier input of the vocoder and some type of drum pattern to the modulator input. Gives some strings some sweet rhythms. If you want to use the same drum pattern that you are running regularly in the song, but don't want to have to build it again in another drum computer, use a Spider audio splitter to split the drums. One audio signal to the mixer (or whatever machine), and one to the vocoder.

Examples: "Adjusting to Reality" Mostly recognizeable at the end.
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Sweet echo stereo pattern thang

I learned this one from FFMusicDJ when we were workin on our collab. It works well if you want some nice, dreamy piano echo delay stuff. Create two delay units as send effects from the mixer. Pan one somewhat to the left and one somewhat to the right. Make one a three step delay and one a four step delay. Should create a nifty echo-y piano. Though, if you want to have reverb on these echoes and not just the original source piano, things get a bit more difficult. Create a Spider audio merger and splitter. Merge the two delay machines' outputs to the spider, then send the spider's now combined audio output to a new reverb machine (pass though, not send effect!) and then back to an Aux in. Hurrah! (I thought that last part up )

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Reverb Patterns

I figured this out while trying to think how to replicate the oscillating/fluctuating nature of the reverb on the lead melody in BT's "Flaming June" (amazing). While I didn't really replicate it, I came up with something somewhat similar in concept. Create a reverb machine as a send effect on the mixer (probably preferably the new RV7000 unit). I connect my RV7000 back to the mixer as a new track instead of the normal Aux IN method for greater control over the volume, but it's probably not terribly important. Now normally, you would want to make a matrix curve and send the CV data to a CV jack in the back of the RV7000 that controls the dry/wet balance, but it doesn't have a CV jack for that parameter . So, you'll have to automate it. Create your new track in the sequencer and assign it to the RV7000. Draw like a saw wave or sin wave pattern in the automation track to control the dry wet amount. Screw around with your automation till something sounds good, then copy paste (maybe make a group) to your heart's content. I also have a bunch of effects running in the audio chain in between the RV7000 and mixer (like a Scream..sounds pretty good with some 'tape' sound destruction).

Example: "Thinking Different"
Example .rns

Break stuff!

Only if you have ReCycle. Break your song apart and create a tight broken groove! Set the left and right loop markers over one main section of your song and export loop as audio (might wanna mute the drums from this). Open that junk up in ReCycle and cut it as you see fit. Save, then import that back into Reason with a Dr. Rex. Now you've got a sampler full of little slices of your song! You can get some interesting, funky grooves going with this. (Audio is so much fun. I heart audio) You can also use the Dr. Rex for premade drum loops, but I don't.........because I don't suck.

Examples: 3:39 - End in "Activity Unbroken"
3:01 - 3:56 in "Ecco The Tides of Time - Drift"
2:47 - 3:29 in "Thinking Different"

Crazy junk with audio

Exporting something as audio then bringing it back into Reason as a sample in say, the Drum computer or Dr. Rex can be fun if you do things like reverse it (in an audio editor outside of Reason), or make some crazy pitch shift automations on Dr. Rex or the drum computer. Good for ambient/weird effects. Makes you sound inventive and artistic!

Example: Not too many really specific examples, though I do weird stuff with my voice in my DDR remix, and with some trumpet stabs in my new song "Thinking Different". You may not notice this stuff though.

Drum management

I usually make a mixer just for my drum machine if I am going to be doing major drum work with lots of effects and stuff. This way it is easier to add effects to only how many drum samples you want (not the whole drum machine) and you just get some more flexibility with volumes and stuff like that. You'll have to turn around the rack and hook each drum sample to a separate mixer track. I usually don't chain the mixers and just hook the new drum mixer's output to a single channel on the main mixer, so I can control the overall volume in one more place in a manner that is just like if I had directly connected the drum machine.

Easy drum fills (contributed from EmptyMy from OCremix)

Create a delay and connect it to your drum source (redrum or dr rex).
Set feedback to somewhere between 50-70. Then play around with the wet/dry knob as the beat is played. If you use a keyboard with wheels as midi controller, you can use a wheel to controll wet/dry. The result is often very cool.