Our brand new Reason Level 1 course provides students with all the knowledge necessary to start making music with Reason. As well as being guided through all the main areas of the software, the modules also provide more general information about music, performance and production.

At the end of the course, students should have all the basic skills required to produce their own tracks, with the 15 modules going from the jamming stage right through to final mastering. Students are even introduced to important sound creation methods, such as sampling and synthesizing.

The online Reason course is presented in a series of online videos that you can watch where and when you prefer, with a full complement of accompanying downloadable materials for your future reference.

Check out the free module below and click here to download the free information pack without any obligation to buy.

Module Details

1. Introduction and Setting Up

This module is designed to give you a quick tour of Reason and Record, to give you an idea for each section of the software and how they relate to each other. There is also a guide to authorising and setting up the Preferences, which are the first things to do when you load up the software.

2. Starting a Song... What is MIDI?

This module is designed to teach you how to get started with a new song and the basics of MIDI, explaining what it is and how you can use it to create melodic and rhythmic tracks. There is a guide to creating note clips for instruments in the rack, which can be recorded in by playing or drawn in using the pencil tool, as well as some tips for the most important features to consider when editing MIDI.

3. Working with Loops

This module teaches you how to work with audio loops in Record and Reason, either by using Rex loops or importing audio directly.

4. Programming Drums I - Intro to ReDrum

This module teaches you how to create drum parts with the ReDrum instrument, both internally and using tracks in the sequencer. Then, there are some techniques for how to start to arrange a song by creating and laying out the different parts into sections.

5. Recording Audio

This module teaches you how to record audio into a song, which is only possible with Record and version 6 onwards of Reason. Various considerations and methods of recording are shown as well as how to edit the recorded audio after recording.

6. Basic Processing - Compression and Filtering

This module gives you a guide to using insert effects on devices in the rack, beginning with two of the most popular – compressors and filters. There is a demonstration of how each effect works and some of the different ways they can be used, as well as a brief introduction to envelope modulation and the types of sounds it can create when filtering a signal.

7. Programming Drums II - Intro to Kong

This module teaches the basics of working with Reason’s powerful drum instrument Kong, showing how a beat can be constructed and then edited both in the sequencer and on the device itself. There is also a guide to the application of grooves to tracks, enabling their rhythm and feel to be tweaked to create more character and unification between parts.

8. Introduction to Sampling - Using NN19

This module teaches the basics of sampling, explaining what single- and multi- sampling are and how they can be used to create a variety of different instruments, both acoustic and electronic. As well as providing a guide to each of the main sections on NN19, which covers all of the most important parameters in each, there are examples of how samples can be recorded, imported and edited in order to create classic bass and vocal patches.

9. Introduction to Synthesizing - Using Subtractor

This module provides an introduction to the world of synthesizing. There is a guide to Reason’s Subtractor synth, showing how the instrument is constructed and how each section can be used to produce different types of sound. There are also examples of how various techniques can be used to create patches like a classic LFO bass and a dirty lead with velocity effects.

10. Mixing Part I - Levels, Panning and EQ

This module teaches you the basics of mixing a song, beginning with setting appropriate levels for each track, explaining metering and decibel ranges, then moving onto the other mixer controls available. Then, we move onto another important area of music production, equalisation.

11. Mixing Part II - Reverb, Chorus and Delay

This module shows how to apply send effects using the mixers in Reason and Record in order to improve the sound of a mix. There is also a guide to some of the different effects most commonly used as send effects, including reverb, delay and chorus.

12. Introduction to Mastering

This module shows the main considerations for mastering a track, beginning with the ways in which compression and EQ can be applied and then moving onto some techniques not seen so far, including limiting and stereo imaging. There is also a guide to removing clicks and pops from tracks, and creating an audio file of the finished song.

13. More on MIDI - Remote and ReWire

This module explains more about how to control the software remotely using a MIDI keyboard or control surface, both those with advanced control facilities and those without. The automatic systems for controlling are explained as well as the way that these can be overridden to create your own custom setup. Then, there is a guide to ReWire, explaining the basics of how it works and providing a few different examples of situations in which it might be used.

14. Introduction to Combinator and the RPG-8 Arpeggiator

This module introduces the Combinator and RPG-8 devices, showing what they are individually and how they work, then how they can be combined with other devices to produce an instrument patch complete with various effects and performance controls.

15. Bonus Module - New Features in Reason 7 Part I

This module teaches some of the new features in Reason 7, including the addition of slice markers in audio clips, which allow precise timestretching of individual sections of recorded or imported material. The ability to create Rex files from audio clips is also included, showing how to edit them on the device to further transform loops in interesting ways, as well as how the new effects device Audiomatic Retro Transformer works.