Using Reason Live, Suggestions?

[MajorSeven]

I've joined a rock band again, this time as the keyboard player and sometimes guitarist.

My current rig in rehearsal consists of a Dell XPS laptop and a M-Audio 49 key MIDI keyboard hooked up via USB. I'm getting some good sounds out of the Reason Synths and have a few sequences I can run basically on autopilot.

However, I am running into a few questions and limitations on what I want to do.

First is tempo. Reason doesn't have a tap tempo and adjusting mid-song is impossible. I have a click going and my bandmates have no problem playing to it except when the rest of the music drowns out the click. If this is a problem in rehearsal I know it will be a problem live when the adrenaline is going - I've been there before and the tendency is to play 10bpm faster than usual. I've tried rewiring into Ableton and using that tap-tempo, but Reason wigs out and warps all over the place while you're tapping. Ableton also makes switching instruments a little more complicated.

Also with the click, how can I get that to come through the onstage monitors and not through the mains at the club?

Second is triggering samples and loops. I really like what Linkin Park does in playing samples and triggering loops live. With the tempo problem solved I can do the same with Dr. Rex or any of the samplers in reason. I'm thinking about getting a MPD24 or, better yet, an MPC1000 I can have on stage with me.

Last is an outboard audio interface. I'm getting a MOTU from one of my bandmates this week. Will this lighten the load on my CPU?

Any suggestions on what you've done or seen done?

[LevLover]

load ur instruments on X-amount of tracks in Live, and then just arm the track that you want to play just like you do in Reason, not sure how it is harder in Live then in Reason, when in both all you do is arm the track you want to play. if you have a new enough version of Live you can use rex files directly in there instead of having to rewire a dr.rex. the headphone volume controls the metronome volume in Live, i think you can play with the routing on that and ur interface (and the front of house routing with the help of the sound man) to get the click to come thru the stage monitors. the tempo problem is not going to help the samplers in Reason since they don't lock to tempo, only the dr.rex does when there is midi in the sequencer, plus if the there is alot of time between the rex slices, they'll eventually go off beat if the tempo goes far from the original tempo. honestly, doin as much as you can in Live will make your stage life easier, Reason is a great, but Live is better for live performance, hence the name. i'm not sayin you can't work with Reason on stage, but unless you do a lot of prep work and things (ie; the band) stay on tempo, your going to have some less than smooth moments. if you have samples to trigger, dont' bother with a sampler at all, just load them into the cilps in session view, you can't beat session view especially when triggering loops.
LevLove

[The-Supreme-Abstract]

**** Reason, use Ableton. It's much more dynamic, more options, you can control almost every aspect of it with a control surface (midi pad, keyboard). Better audio functions, and you can use VST's which opens up a lot more possibilities than what Reason can offer. Has the tap function you are after.

I just got an mpd24 and it makes Ableton so much more versatile.

[Sakura]

yes u are wright.agreed wid u.

[futureproducers4andy]

I'm starting to gig with Reason/Record and in my mind I'm looking forward to it.

I will use a couple of audio backing tracks with combinators set up mapped to sliders and knobs on my Akai MPK. I will have a couple of synths, a couple of Rex players (thanks to ReCycle) and a bass line or 2.

then I'll set loop markers to play a 32 bar cycle. The Akai has 24 assignable channels, each with 360 degree pots and slider... so each channel can have 3 buttons, three sliders and 3 pots...

So volume, delay (wet/dry) and reverb (wet/dry) on the sliders. For the buttons - mute on/off, modulation effect on/off and maybe solo and for the pots effects amounts... something like that...

One channel for a submix too with Master volume, high pass filter and delay effects... the pot will hopefully switch between the other channels to select playable instruments...

This is the idea anyway... maybe I've overlooked something...