This is a quick demonstration of how you can use Kong as an FX unit for other devices or tracks in Reason. Kong comes with a bunch of effects built-in, and, thanks to Reasons modular nature you can use these effects to process anything in your rack.
I used to do this quite a lot back in the day but even now, with the advent of VSTs, there are still a couple of FX in Kong that I like to make use of from time to time. Also, this tip can be used by users of the Reason Rack plugin. So, let’s get to it!
Using Kong As An FX Unit:
We’d like to demonstrate how you can use Kong’s transient shaper on anything in your rack. This effect is suited to anything with a transient and a decay tail. Drum hits are the usual suspects, but you can also use it sparingly on things like Guitar solos. It’s a great way of getting things to poke through a mix a little more. Note: You can use any of Kong’s other built-in effects instead.
Step 1 – Pick a sound, any sound:
Pick a suitable track to enhance. In this case, we picked a snare.
Step 2 – Kong:
Find Kong in the Reason Browser and then drag it, whilst holding Shift, into the rack near or in the snare track.
Step 3 – Routing:
As we are setting this up as an insert FX for this example, we need to click the show insert FX arrow on the track to allow us access to the i/o for this feature. Then, press TAB on your keyboard to flip the rack around. Connect Kong to the snare track, as shown in the above image.
Step 4 – Adding The Transient Shaper:
We’re going to place the transient shaper into the Bus FX slot. To do that, click on the menu arrow next to the bus fx ON button and then select the transient shaper from the drop-down menu.
Step 5 – Tweak To Taste:
Hit play and then play with the settings until it sounds right, and that is that… or is it?
Alternative Step 3 – Setting it up as a Send:
You don’t have to set this up as an insert FX. You could also set it up as a send FX. See Above. If you are likely to want to add a little of this to more than one track, then using a send is a good way of doing that.
We hope you found this quick tip useful. You can find other Reason related tutorials in our Reason Tips section.