Audio Geek Zine

I was just listening to some tracks over at the Propellerhead Music Forum.

Some tracks lacked a cohesive “vibe” to them. This often happens when using REX loops.

A loop is a recording of a performance. Depending on how a player plays, what the sequencer was set to, bad editing, or anything in between, the vibe can be very different from what you might get when quantizing. Let’s not go into the quantizing debates.

If you have a loop with it’s feel kicking away in your track and then you sequence along with it, you may notice that the feel/vibe isn’t there. Quantizing may not fix it as the vibe in the loop may not be quantized. Playing it over and over until you get it right may not be helping. What to do? Groove Quantize!

Here’s the steps:
1. Set the L and R in the Reason sequencer. 4 bars should be fine unless the loop is a different length. Set L and R accordingly.

2. Click on REX player.

3. Go to: Edit>Copy REX Loop to Track (or Right-Click).

4. Highlight the REX loop and go to: Edit>Get User Groove (or Right-Click).

Now when you quantize you can use the loops vibe by using “User” in the Quantize drop down menu. This will help things to gel better timing wise.

Listen carefully to the Hi-Hats on the left side of the mix, and the Tambourine on the right side of the mix. Listen to how the groove tightens up in the “Groovy” vs. “No Groove” clips below.

The feel is no longer locked to a rigid quantize but is now vibing the way the Tambourine loop is vibing. The loop used from the Reason Factory SoundBank: Tamb_01a_120.rx2

I also do this with Redrum and Matrix Patterns and other REX loops copied to track.

Thanks, I hope you can use this tip to improve your music.

Anthony aka ScrewMaker