Tag Archives: Reason

Reason: Custom Behringer X-Touch Remote Map Layout

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[10/07/2020 Version 6.2] Hey, I’m Jaëxx. This is the 100% free MJ Enhanced Universal Control 8 channel mixer interface for Reason Studios. (The MJ Enhanced Combo Extender is the 16 channel version and the MJ X-Touch Trinity is the world’s first 24 channel version.) This is a remote map and Lua codecs that run on Mackie MCU Pro, Behringer X-Touch, iCon Qcon, PreSonus FaderPort 8 mixers (mixers that run off Mackie’s Universal Control protocol).

Using a Mackie MCU Pro, Behringer X-Touch, iCon Qcon, PreSonus FaderPort 8, the MJ Enhanced Universal Control mixer interface in Reason Studios (regular and suite) is a single native remote map with no additional man-in-the-middle software to run. Nearly all of Reason’s virtual SSL 9000k mixer is fully controllable for all 8 channels. The MJ Enhanced Universal Control controls Reason natively without messing with creating special sequencer tracks or tedious mouse clicking.

This fixes problems like buttons being mapped in the wrong areas, virtually completely eliminates clip LEDs getting triggered, functions missing entirely (like the EQ Q knobs) while adding enhancements and new features, like comp and gate LED meters, redesigned encoder LED display modes, time displayed by default, global solo and mute off functions, enhances the channel VU meters, introduces new rotary encoder LED display modes, FX return encoder LED meters, illuminated select buttons, completely new “alternative text” mode for displaying additional information and added encoder ring master VU out meters. This enables you to control the entire virtual SSL mixer and channel strip settings including channel selection. This article serves also as a guide / general commentary and I’m sharing it free…

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Am I The Only One Who Hates VST’s?

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I’ve never liked VST’s. Never. There’s just something about them that I find so distracting from the whole music process. And what’s crazy is that I’m one of the only people who feel this way.

There’s a lot of different reasons why VST’s just feel wrong to me, wrong like someone walking outside in the dirt with bare socks and no shoe on. Wrong because…

Pop-up windows kill the immersion

Nearly all music software started out emulating physical music studio hardware. VST’s started out this way too. So it just seems wrong having these floating pop-up windows. The idea of virtual hardware floating on top of another and another…

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Reason: Why RE’s And VST’s Waste Your Time

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Something not a lot of people realize is that most additional instruments and effects you can add to Reason via rack extensions (RE’s) and now VST’s (bleh) not only aren’t needed, nearly all of them are features found in Reason masquerading as new concepts.

Don’t be fooled by fancy audio demos

The hard, unspoken truth about music production is that there isn’t many instruments and effects devices that are doing anything new. How many effects are doing anything actually new? That’s the thing; people aren’t inventing new effect categories… after 40 years of audio design, the music community isn’t going to be coming out with new concepts anytime soon. You’ve got categories like distortion, delay, reverb, repeaters, chorus, unison, phasers, pitch shifting, gaters, amps, filters, EQs… and of which all of these are already built into Reason (with the exception of a repeating device, but that’s why combinator patches exist I guess).

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Studio Hardware Walkthrough

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In this post, I detail the physical hardware I use for my desktop studio setup. Rack, mixer, music devices, audio interfaces, audio analyzers, monitors, speakers, power supplies and desktop configuration.

Rack

The rack is custom-built from two red IKEA tables. I stacked them and keep them in place with two “L” brackets. I then installed rack rails, cutting the metal rack rails with a dremel tool.

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How To Install Half Rack Studio Devices In A Full Rack

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Here’s a guide on how to install half-rack (compact) studio devices the right way (so that two half-rack devices can be installed side-by-side). The bad news is that no one sells any products where you can just mount your half-rack device and install it into your full-sized (normal) rack. The good news is that I was able to modify a $20-$30 rack shelf and I’m gonna’ show you how I did it…

Foreword

What I did was do a major modification to a rack shelf with a lip on the front. This is the rack shelf I got.

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Reason: Using Multiple BCF2000’s Can’t Be Done (Update)

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Update: check out the new post Reason: How To Use Multiple BCF2000’s.

If anyone’s curious on setting up multiple Behringer BCF2000’s together in Propellerhead Reason (to go from 8 channel banks to 16 channel banks, etc)… from what I can tell it can’t be done and no one has provided real evidence of this. Because…

BCF2000’s are controlled by Reason uniquely

I couldn’t get Reason working with two Behringer BF2000’s, setting everything up as it’s intended (both via direct USB and MIDI cascading). When you look at the BCF2000 remote file, you see references for 8 faders groups at a time and no more. Reason loads in a temporary, on-the-fly preset for BCF2000 and BCR2000’s that other DAW’s don’t. This is where the issue happens. Who wants two or more BCF2000 mixers that are controlling the same exact channel banks? It’s stupid, and if you wanted a control surface, go with a BCR2000 instead of a BCF2000.

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How To Paint Your Own Audio Patch Cables

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After creating my own audio patch cable experiment proved unreliable, I ordered some normal, boring looking 1′ (0.3m) black with red and white tipped RCA cables. But I still wanted the cables to have a distinctive look to them. So I decided to paint them. Supplying your own cables, it’ll cost you less than $10 to do it yourself too…

Materials needed

Spray paint. I highly recommend Krylon “Fusion For Plastic” (what I simply call Krylon Fusion). You don’t need any sanding or spray painting primer or none of that stupid mess.

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Reason: Using A BCR2000 To Fully Control The SSL Mixer’s EQ Channel Strip

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[05/10/2020 Version 1.5] I’ve created a way to fully control the entire Reason virtual SSL mixer and (most challenging), select and change mixer channels directly from only one BCR2000. I searched for months and found no one’s accomplished this. I’m sharing this specific method, along with a custom hardware profile (known as remotemap’s), and custom overlay graphics. I’ve also included some tweaks to the BCF2000 that add functionality.

Before creating this method, it wasn’t possible to control the individual channel settings of Propellerhead Reason’s virtual SSL mixer with a BCR2000. Before understanding how to do this, it’s important to understand why so many forum posts, videos and other information regarding Behringer BCR2000 and BCF2000’s are well-meaning but wrong when it comes to Reason. Instead of dumping files online and making people figure it out for themselves, I’m gonna’ explain this situation as no one else has.

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