Re: REASONable software looper question

["nicholson_matt" <nicholson_matt@msn.com>]

> That's pretty much what I'm after. Can the Dr. Rex loop
> player in Reason be played via MIDI/USB from the Oxygen8?
> And . . . can the several MIDI control knobs on the Oxygen8
> act as faders for individual loops? The Oxygen 8 can send
> the data but will Dr. Rex respond? That's (in a nutshell)
> what I need to know.

Yeeees, sort of. I think it depends on how you set it up. I have an Oxygen 
8
but I think I still have some learning to do when it comes to making the
most of how Reason accepts MIDI signals. If your loop is sliced, each slice
will be assigned a note. In this case, a key on the Oxygen 8 will only
trigger a single slice. This is sort of helpful if you'd like to sit there
and play the slices in a different order and listen to what it sounds like
on the fly, and you can also record what you tap in. However, if you want 
to
trigger an entire loop with one key, I think the only way to do this is to
not slice your loop. In any case, Dr. Rex can only work with one loop at a
time, so you're not going to be able to assign n loops to n keys unless I
guess you want to go to the trouble of putting all of your loops into one
and adding slices between them. Sounds sort of absurd doesn't it? As you 
can
see, the Dr. Rex player in Reason is not appropriate for playing as an
instrument. If someone else has found a solution for playing n Dr. Rex 
loops
with n keys, I'd be grateful for instructions.

On the other hand with Ableton Live, you can trigger entire loops or even
groups of loops with a single key on an Oxygen 8, which is a far better
method of playing your loops live. Live has two really easy features called
"Edit Key Map" and "Edit Midi Map". Just enable one of the two, and the UI
elements that can accept MIDI input will highlight, click on one of them 
and
press the key or turn the knob and it's set. You can edit the key map to
trigger individual loops or groups of loops (Live calls them "tracks"). You
can edit the midi map to control volume, panning, and even certain elements
of any of the effects plugins you have, this is the best use for those 
knobs
on the Oxygen 8. The same midi programming features also exist in Reason,
but I haven't found a way of getting the most amount of use out of the
Oxygen 8 with it. Furthermore, Reason comes with a MIDI reference so if it
doesn't recognize singals coming from the Oxygen 8, you can program your
Oxygen 8 to send the proper MIDI signals.

In any case, I think Live is far more appropriate for the usage you're
referring to.

-- Matt