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Troubleshooting Reason in Pro Tools
If I had to give a percentage, I would say that over 25% of the email requests I receive from the Pro Tools corner have something to do with using Reason in Pro Tools. So I got to thinking, why not do a Pro Tools corner on Reason troubleshooting? This week I will go over a few of the most common problems users experience while running Reason with Pro Tools and hopefully shed some light on any re-occurring problems you may be dealing with.
Reason Rewire:
This week’s article is designed to hopefully shed some light on a few “known” issues surrounding Reason and Pro Tools and therefore is written for users already familiar with the rewire process. If you are unfamiliar with using Reason inside of Pro Tools, you will want to review the following Pro Tools corner articles before you proceed:
Rewire Single Output
Rewire Multiple Output
Keeping it REASONable:
Propellerhead’s Reason is an amazing production tool, incorporating tons of great instruments and effects into an easy to use MIDI sequencing environment. Via a protocol called rewire, user’s can slave Reason to Pro Tools, harnessing the power of both applications at once. Sounds great right? While using Reason in Pro Tools is fairly straightforward once you get the hang of it, there are a few common issues you should be aware of to keep your workflow running smoothly.
The key to successfully using Reason (or any rewired program) inside of Pro Tools is understanding the concept that Reason is a completely separate program. Reason is designed to run all by itself as a standalone application, therefore it has its own set of preferences for audio and MIDI connections and its own MIDI sequencer that may ultimately end up interfering with Pro Tools.
Problem: Sound is phasing or triggering from the wrong Reason instrument when I try to record a MIDI sequence in Pro Tools.
This common issue stems from the fact that Reason has its own support for MIDI controllers and when not properly configured can result it “double-triggering” or incorrect instrument triggering of MIDI notes. The problem typically occurs only when a user performs or plays their MIDI controller and seems to disappear during playback of existing MIDI data.
When Reason is configured as a stand-alone sequencer, users generally want to set-up their MIDI controllers to work directly inside of Reason, which is fine. When configured to be used with both applications, MIDI controllers will send note data to both Pro Tools and Reason simultaneously, even though all incoming MIDI should be sent exclusively to Pro Tools (the master sequencer in this case). When a note is played, the Pro Tools sequencer passes the note through it’s output to the Reason instrument it is set to control, triggering a sound. Concurrently, Reason pulls the same note into its internal sequencer and triggers the instrument again. The two notes play at roughly the same time, but are off enough to sound out of phase against each other. Sometimes different instruments get triggered, where the correct instrument in Pro Tools triggers along with a completely separate instrument from Reason (depending on which sequencer track that is armed within Reason).
To solve this problem, you must either disable all of your MIDI controllers within the Reason preferences when you want to run it as a Rewire slave, or make sure you mute or disable all of your sequencer tracks in Reason so they don’t play back any incoming notes. Bottom line, you must keep the controller data from flowing into Reason directly, since all of the MIDI data will be recorded and reside within the Pro Tools sequencer. Be sure to re-enable your MIDI controllers when you want to use Reason stand-alone or use the Reason sequencer to record MIDI.
To disable your MIDI controllers in Reason:
From the Reason Preferences, choose the Control Surfaces and Keyboards tab. Make sure all controllers that you will be using with Pro Tools are disabled (un-check “use with Reason”). See Graphic.
Again, remember to re-enable your MIDI controller in Reason when you want to use it in stand-alone mode.
You can alternatively make sure and disable the sequencer tracks in Reason by clicking on the tracks record enable button (it should be “grayed” out as in the image below). If I don’t plan on sequencing in Reason, I often remove the sequencer tracks all together and just keep the rack devices (when you delete a sequencer track in Reason be sure to choose “keep” when the dialog asks you about deleting the device associated with the track).
Subtractor 1 and NN-XT 1 are disabled, NN-XT 2 is record enabled and may cause problems when used with the Pro Tools sequencer.
If you do however wish to record into Reason’s sequencer while running Pro Tools make sure you temporarily disable the MIDI input device inside Pro Tools while you record sequences into Reason. To disable a MIDI input Device in Pro Tools Select Setup>MIDI>Input Devices and uncheck the controller you wish to use within Reason. In may be necessary to re-detect your control surfaces in Reason’s preferences to get it to recognize them properly.
The USB 02 has been disabled as an input device in Pro Tools
Be sure to re-enable your MIDI input device when you’re finished otherwise Pro Tools will ignore all incoming MIDI signals from that controller. Generally this workflow is necessary when recording CC automation into Reason, since the Pro Tools sequencer is not very good at mapping Reason automation.
Bottom line, because you are working with two different sequencers here, there is really no ideal solution for using both simultaneously. To keep things clean I generally stick to using the Pro Tools sequencer only and disable all MIDI controllers within Reason. If you have sequences programmed inside of Reason that you want to move over to Pro Tools, follow my tutorial here.
Problem: Strange noises or “beeps” occur when using loop playback in Pro Tools.
This is a bug in some versions of Pro Tools/Reason. The workaround is to uncheck the Play button, in the MIDI Sync focus part of the Reason transport bar.
Problem: I can’t use “Copy pattern to track” in Redrum, or the Dr. Rex “To Track” function.
This stems from the fact them when Reason is in Rewire mode, the loop start and end points (the L and R in the Reason sequencer) are chained to the Rewire master, Pro Tools in this case. Make a selection in Pro Tools where you want to copy your pattern in the Reason sequencer. Notice that after a selection is made in Pro Tools, the loop start/end point in the Reason sequencer automatically update to the selection start/end in Pro Tools. Note the “Play” button must be checked in the Reason MIDI SYNC section for this to work.
Problem: “Reason couldn’t set-up the control surfaces properly” error.
Again, this problem stems from Reason and Pro Tools wanting to use the same MIDI controllers. Follow the steps outlined above to temporarily disable your MIDI controllers in Reason.
Problem: I can’t automate Reason instruments inside Pro Tools.
Short answer: You don’t want to. Because Reason is a stand-alone program and has it’s own unique way of configuring parameters for automation, you generally want to do all Reason based automation directly through Reason using the Reason sequencer. If you draw in the automation in the Reason sequencer, you don’t have to do anything in Pro Tools. If you want to use your MIDI controller to perform in your automation in Reason, enable your control surface in Reason and disable the input device in Pro Tools as described above. There is a way to configure CCs in Pro Tools to send controller data into Reason’s instruments but I generally find that is way too much of a hassle.
How do I get sequencer data from Reason into Pro Tools?
This was covered in a previous article, “Getting your Reason MIDI data into Pro Tools.”
How do I “print” or record my tracks from Reason as audio in Pro Tools?
Also covered in a previous article, “Printing Virtual Instruments.” The article uses the sample tank plug-in as an example but printing audio is the same for all virtual instruments, including rewired instruments like Reason.
Pro Tools Tid Bits:
• Digidesign’s Reel Tape, a tape emulation suite for Pro Tools, is now shipping.
If you have a Pro Tools related question that you would like me to take a shot at answering or have any feedback, please send it to brian@audioMIDI.com. I will do my best to select the questions that seem to stump the most people.
As always, stay tuned to the audioMIDI.com eNews for the latest reviews and new product info.
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