The Re-Groove Mixer

You may have noticed a button on Reason that says "Re-Groove Mixer" on the bottom right hand side of the screen. We have used this button before but that was only to control the "Global Shuffle" of our ReDrum pattern. Well there's also a way that we can control the shuffle of our individual drum sounds in Reason WITHOUT having to slide each individual sound manually in the grid mode. Using the Re-Groove mixer you will see just how easy it is to make adjustments to your ReDrum pattern. Lets get started.

1. Open Reason

2. Create a Mixer 14:2 (if you don't already have it on your screen).

3. Set your tempo between 80-100bpm for this exercise.

4. Create a Redrum. This exercise is going to be a 64 step beat.

5. Set your "R" on the Track of reason to R5 for a 64 step beat. Turn the "Loop On/Off" to On.

6. For pattern 1 your 1st sound should be a Snare OR Clap. Copy your pattern to the track when you finish.

7. Switch to pattern 2. For pattern 2 your 2nd sound should be a Bass Drum. Pick a bass drum, click your bass drum in on the boxes that sound right to you and copy the pattern to the track.

8. Switch to pattern 3. For pattern 3 your 3rd sound should be a hi hat. Pick a hi hat, click the hi hat on the boxes that sound right to you and copy the pattern to track.

9. Click the orange "pattern" button so that it turns white.

10. Now lets take a look at our Reason track. We should see one ReDrum down there with 3 different lanes for each sound. On each lane you will notice a circle with a red dot, a rectangle and a square with an M in it. Our focus right now is on that Rectangle.

11. On the first lane click the rectangle. Go through the menu and pick A1. On the 2nd lane go through the menu and click A2. On the 3rd lane go through the menu and click A3.

12. Now click on the Re-Groove mixer. Do you notice where it says A1, A2, A3, etc.? Our focus right now is just on the first 3.

13. Press play on your beat (with loop on) and click on the folder of A1. Go to the Reason Factory Sound Bank. Click on Re-Groove Patches. For this exercise lets go to the folder that says MPC-60. Pick any shuffle between 65-75%.

Do you notice how the difference in your drum sound?

14. Now adjust your slide and shuffle for this sound by just a little bit. If you most the slide to the left, the sound will trigger earlier. If you move the slide to the right, the sound will trigger later.

15. Now go to A2 and add in a Re-Groove patch. Load in a patch of your choice and adjust the slide/shuffle.

16. Now go to A3 and repeat the steps above.

Good work.

Save this as (Your Name) ReGroove.

Now start a new beat using this method for your ReDrum pattern. This can ALSO be applied to your original melodies that you have recorded to the track. Once you have your 4 bar drum pattern copied to the track and using the ReGroove mixer, start creating new instruments and try to add at least 2 more instruments such as a bassline, piano or synthesizer.