Beginners Guide To Modulation In Reason

This sounds way more difficult than it is! In the above image, you can see what this looks like. This image shows Thor and Thor’s mod matrix, but most synths with a mod matrix look quite similar. If you click inside the cells of the matrix a list of appropriate values will be displayed in a menu, pick the one you want and you’re good. Let’s take a look at the settings in the matrix

• To the left, we have the modulation source. In this case, it’s LFO 1.
• To the right, we have the things that we want to modulate, in this case, it’s the filter 1 frequency.
• In the middle, we choose the amount. This allows us to control the severity of the effect.
  • To adjust the time-based element we go to the LFO and make adjustments there.
  • You can also adjust the filter frequency knob on the filter to pick an appropriate center point.

Now that you’ve had a go, why not experiment a little. Most synth sounds you make will benefit from some changes over time and a synths mod matrix is filled with possibilities. The more you play, the more you’ll uncover.

Using automation in reason’s sequencer is not only a great way to modulate something, it also allows you to have complete control over what happens when, by how much, and for how long.  That it is also very visual is a bonus, as is the newly added curved automation. 

There are two ways in which you can draw in your automation; you can either draw it in by hand or assign the automation to a knob or slider on your MIDI controller and record it in as if it were an instrument. Today, we are going to look at how to draw it in by hand. We can even use the same Thor Synth we used in the Matrix example in the previous section.

• Right-click on filter 1’s Frequency knob and select Edit Automation from the Menu.
• Press F7 to head over to the sequencer and you will now see that you have a newly created automation lane.
• Draw an automation clip in the new lane at the point where you want the automation to occur. 
• Select the clip and press Enter on your keyboard (or double click the clip).
• Press W to change to the pen tool and start drawing in those points.
  • You can also double click new points into being.
  • Or, leave the pointer tool active and press Alt and click where you want your points to be.
  • If you hover the mouse cursor over a line between two points, you can make the automation line curved.
• Press play and see and hear your automation change the knobs position/value.

This is probably the modulation method I use the most. It’s quick, easy and it provides you with the ultimate level of control.

Reason’s modular environment and it’s resemblance to hardware is more than just a nice thing to look at. Flipping the rack around provides us with a whole other playground where we can route things in creative ways to achieve extraordinary outcomes. 

For this method, we are going to venture around the back of the rack. If you’ve never used Reason’s CV connections, don’t worry as what we are going to do in a moment is easy. Dungarees, sockets sets, and soldering equipment not required. 

It’s really no different to the first method we looked at. We will still be using the modulation matrix, only instead of using an LFO as a modulator, we are going to use CV from Pulsar.  Using our same Thor patch, we are again going to modulate the frequency knob in Filter 1.

• Drag in an instance of Pulsar.
• Press TAB to flip the rack around.
• As shown in the main pic for this section, run a CV cable from an output from Pulsar to the CV 1 input on Thor.
• Then we head into the modulation matrix and tell Thor what to do with the CV signal we’ve connected it to.
  • Click on the source cell and select CV Input > 1.
  • Set the Amount to taste, in our case 100.
  • Set the destination to Filter 1 Frequency.

Pulsar isn’t the only device that can supply a CV signal and Thor isn’t the only device that can accept one. Try substituting Pulsar for the LFO output on another device, Dr. Octo rex for example.