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Reason notes - How to make a hit song!Task 1: A little bit about sound design
Reason is capable of creating many different sounds. We will take a look at the subtractor synth and how you can use for your own sound design. Some possible activiries:
Task 2: Hit a Chord (or two) I have started with a rough guitar rhythm and tried out different SubTractor synth sounds. (You can start with the drums - the Groove if you wish) . How you arrange your chords is called a chord progression. You need to explore different combinations of notes for your song. If you play three or more notes together this is called a chord. A lot of music relies on a basic melody played with chords. How you arrange your chords is called a chord progression. You would normally repeat this basic melody every 8 bars in electronic dance music. There is a lot written about creating songs. You may or may not have some experience as a song writer. It doesn't matter if you are a seasoned pro or a complete beginner. I have included some classic progressions here. You can write them into Reason's sequencer and play them using the Subtractor synth. You don't have to use these. You can make up your own if you wish. For a very cheesy sounding reggae rhythm look at the SubTractor 2 track here. Also see screen grab below:
In the example above we have two bars of B, two bars of E, two bars of B again and then a final happy two bars of F#. That's 8 bars. Just copy and repeat the pattern. For a 16 bar chorus.
B E B F# B E B F# If you want to program some chords and don't know how to write them in Reason. Don't worry. I have included a chord calculator here. This shows you how to write the chords in our Reason software. Task 3: The Groove Creating the Drum sound. Check out the teaching reason resource here - page 12 starts a very well written tutorial on the Redrum sequencer. Try a variety of patterns. Collect screen grabs. Try different drum sound- collect screen grabs and save the reason files - date them and give them version numbers. i.e. bass_drum_1_02_08_v2 Some electronic dance samples
Task 4: The Bass line For simple bass just copy the lowest note from your chord. So if you write a C chord, just write a bass line using only the C note. If the chord is played at C3 just move the bass to C2 or even C1. Look at the reggae classic to see a bass line in action here and screen grab below.
Task 5: A catchy tune Finally you can write the bit of the song that you just cant help whistling to. This melody can be easily created using the instant hit maker here. Again check out the reggae song here to hear the proof! All you need to do is choose any of the "yellow" notes in any order and you have an instant hit. Screen grab below.
Some examples of reason songs Reggae megga hit (reason file) Epic trance smash (reason file) Reggae megga hit final wav file to burn to CD / use in Publisher / Premiere Pro etc.
Task 6 Mixing your song You will need to mix your song. Make sure this is added to your Gantt chart / Plan. See below for some ideas on mixing and final printing of your movie. Look at the following chapters from the student book (pdf here or copies available in your classroom). Which techniques will you use to make your masterpiece? you will need to add them to your final plan later (task 5) 11Exploring effects - creative use of reverb and delay Read the following:
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