Reason Rack Plugin 13.4 Operation Manual
DAW | Rack Plugin | Reason+ Rack Extensions
Working in the Rack
Devices can be created in a number of different ways:
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Double click an instrument icon to add that device,
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Click "Browse Instruments" or “Browse Effects” to open the Browser with “Add Instrument” or “Add Effect” focus.
Now a device will be automatically created when load a patch.
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or click "Add other device" to add another device from the context menu that appears.
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If there already are devices in the rack, click the Add Device button (or context-click in the rack) and select a device from the menu:
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Select a device from the context menu or select any of the “Add...” items and then select a patch in the Browser and click OK (or double click a patch).
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Drag and drop a device from the Device Palette or drag and drop a patch from the Browser to the Rack.
As you drag a device or patch to the rack, a +-sign is shown together with an orange divider to indicate where the device will be placed:
Adding a Polytone Dual-Layer Synthesizer device by dragging from the Instruments device palette and dropping in the rack.
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When using drag and drop, pay attention to where you drop the device:
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If you drop a device on top of an existing device in the rack, you will replace it.
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Dropping a patch on top of a device means loading the patch (and possibly replacing the device), while dropping in the empty rack or below devices means creating a new device with that patch loaded.
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Select a device in the rack and click the + sign at the top or bottom of the blue frame, to add a new device above or below the selected device in the rack.
The menus give you the options to either create a device by selecting it from the submenus, or to create a device by browsing patches in the Browser. Selecting the top item in the menus (“Add Player...”/”Add Instrument...”/”Add Effect...”) will open the Browser, see “Creating a device by browsing patches”.
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Clicking the top + sign on an Instrument device gives you the option of adding a Player device above the instrument:
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Clicking the bottom + sign on an Instrument device gives you the option of adding an Effect device, and auto-route the effect to the instrument. You can also choose to create a new Instrument device as a new separate instance in the rack.
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The “Add Device” menus differs depending on what device type you select in the rack.
For example, clicking the + signs on a Player device will give you the option of adding more Players only. Clicking the + signs on an Effect device will give you the option of adding more Effect devices, or adding a new separate Instrument device instance below.
#The Device Palette
The Show/Hide Device Palette button at the top of the Reason song window.
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Click the Devices button to bring up the Device Palette (or to hide it).
The devices are sorted in four different groups in the Device Palette: Instruments, Effects, Utilities and Players. The Utilities group contains device types such as mixers, modulation devices, etc. In each device type group the devices are listed in the following sections: Reason Devices, and then by Rack Extension manufacturer in alphabetical order. The Players group is a little special; it contains a number of MIDI “generators” that can be used when recording Instrument tracks in the sequencer, see “Working with Players”.
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To show all devices and device types in one single list, turn off all group buttons.
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You can also hold [Cmd](Mac) or [Ctrl](Win) and click the device type buttons to show the devices of multiple palettes at the same time.
#Using the Favorite tag
Assigning the Favorite tag to devices makes it possible to view only your favorite devices in the Device Palette. Great if the Device Palette is getting crowded by devices you normally don’t use. The Favorite tag is represented by a heart symbol next to the devices in the Device Palette.
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Hover over the device and click the gray heart symbol.
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Repeat the procedure for the other devices you want to tag as Favorites.
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When you’re done, click the "Show Favorites Only" button to only show these devices in the Device Palette:
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To remove a Favorite tag, hover over the device in the Device Palette and click the red heart symbol to remove the tag.
#Filtering the view in the Device Palette
It’s possible to filter (search for) devices, manufacturers and device descriptions in the Device Palette.
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Set the focus to the search/text field at the top of the Device Palette.
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Type in (part of) the device name, or the device description, or the manufacturer you are searching for.
The text you type will also be matched against Device Categories and Tags, see “Filtering on Categories on the Device Palette” and “Assigning Tags to devices”.
In this example we type in “kon” in the Search box and get the following results:
Typing in “kon” results in Kong and Konarie Chirp Synthesizer (3rd party Rack Extension device) as well as for the PS Konsult manufacturer.
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To clear the text in the Search box, click the x button to the right (or press [Backspace] repeatedly).
#Filtering on Categories on the Device Palette
You can apply Category filters to specify what type of devices you want to display on the Device Palette:
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Click the unfold button to the left of the Search field.
Then, click the Categories unfold button and select device types/characteristics by selecting one or several of the Categories:
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Click the unfold button to the left of the Search field.
Then, select device types/characteristics by selecting one or several of the Categories:
Clicking the “Bass” Category displays devices suitable for bass sounds.
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To select multiple Categories, hold down [Cmd](Mac) or [Ctrl](Win) and select.
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You can also use the Search and Categories in combination, if you like.
The functions work exactly the same regardless of what device group (Instruments/Effects/Utilities/Players) you have selected.
#Assigning Categories to devices on the Device Palette
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You can also assign or re-assign Categories to devices, by selecting the desired devices, right clicking one of the devices and choosing the desired Category from the context menu:
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If you have selected multiple devices any Category you select will be applied to all selected devices.
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If any of the selected devices are already assigned to one or several Categories, this is indicated by a
“-” sign to the left of the Category name.
Selecting such a Category will assign all selected devices to that Category and the sign will switch to a check mark instead.
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To de-assign a Category from a device, right click the device(s), select “Categories >” and click the check mark for the Category you want to de-assign.
#Using Tags on devices
It’s also possible to assign Tags to devices, so they will be easy to find when you filter for devices. You could, for example, tag devices with the Tag “Granular” or “Psytrance”. Then, when clicking the “Granular” or “Psytrance” Tags, these devices will show up on the Device Palette.
If you turn on multiple Tag buttons (by [Ctrl](Win) or [Cmd](Mac)-clicking their buttons) - the palette will then only show devices that match all these tags.
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Click the unfold button to the left of the Text field, and then click the Tags unfold button:
By default there are two fixed Tags: “Favorite” and “Hidden”, but you can also create your own tags.
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Click the “+ Add...” text, type in the name you want to use for your new Tag and hit [Enter].
The new Tag now appears as a new button in the Tags section.
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Alternatively, right click a device in the Device Palette and select “Tags > + Assign New Tag...” from the context menu.
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You can delete or rename Tags you have created, by right clicking the desired Tag button and selecting “Delete Tag” or “Rename Tag...” from the context menu.
#Assigning Tags to devices
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Select one or several devices in the Device Palette.
To select multiple devices, hold [Cmd](Mac) or [Ctrl](Win) and click the devices.
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Right click one of the selected devices and choose, for example, the “Favorite” (=heart) Tag from the context menu:
Now, the selected devices have been assigned the Favorite tag. If you click the Favorite Tag button in the Device Palette, only the added devices are shown.
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To assign Tags that you have created yourself, select the desired Tag from the “Tags >” context menu.
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You can use Tags in conjunction with Categories and the Filter (Search) function, so that you can e.g. filter on all Reverb devices with the Favorite tag.
Typing into the text field will then match against device name, manufacturer name, category and tag.
#Hiding devices from the Device Palette
To make the Device Palette look “cleaner” it’s also possible to hide devices that you don’t want to see/use:
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Select the desired device(s) in the Device Palette, right click one of the devices and select “Hide” from the context menu.
Now, these devices will be hidden in the Device Palette. Hidden devices are still available on the Create menus, though.
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If you want to make hidden devices appear again, click the “Hidden” Tag button, select the desired devices and then right click one of the selected devices and uncheck the Hide item on the context menu:
The Hidden Tag will be removed from the device(s) and the devices will re-appear in the regular Device Palette.