Quick Rex Loop Variations With Alter Note

rex loop variations with alter note in the tool window

Picture the scene; you’ve got this really great rex loop that you want to use as the backbone for your track, but you have no supporting rex loops to go with it.  What do you do? You can’t just have the same loop running for 5 minutes. We have a quick Reason tip for that! 

There are a number of ways in which you might alter a Rex loop. You could rearrange the slices manually. Or you could also pull out the individual hits and drop them onto Kong’s pads, for playing/programming. There is also another way, one that will add a little unpredictability to the outcome. Let’s go! 

Quick Rex Loop Variations With Alter Note:

  • Drop a Dr.OctoRex into the rack and load in your drum loop.
  • Copy the loop to track and disable loop playback.
  • Hit F7 on your keyboard to jump to the sequencer.
  • Then, press F8 to bring up the tool window.
  • In the Tool window, open up the Alter Note section. 
  • I then set the Amount to 14%. Feel free to experiment.
  • Select the rex clip in the sequencer.
  • Then press Apply.

Note: You may have to hit Apply a couple of times to get something useable. If things aren’t working out then hit CTRL + Z to get the loop back to its original state. You can then try again. If you get something that’s almost there just hop into the clip and tidy it up by hand. Snares and kicks often need taming a little.

Despite the occasional tweaking, you can usually pull outa few variations from your loop in around a minute. You can literally go from a single loop to half a dozen in very little time and with very little additional adjusting. 

As you’ve got through this quick tip so quickly, you’ve probably got time to try something else. Head over to our Reason Tips category for more!