Reason works as a standalone program, but for our purposes, we will be controlling Reason through DP, and routing Reason audio output to DP for recording and further processing. In this arrangement, Reason runs in Rewire Slave Mode, with Digital Performer as the Rewire Host (or Master Device). Rewire is a technology developed by the developers of Reason for interapplication MIDI and Audio. It made a bit more sense when interapplication MIDI and audio wasn’t available within the Mac OS. Now it is a bit of an annoyance, but necessary to learn and use.
Important things to remember when using Reason and DP in rewire mode:
- Launch DP first, then Reason second. Reason will show “Rewire Slave Mode” in its audio interface scribble strip.
- Don’t use a mixer in Reason. DP will handle mixing. Connect your instrument devices directly to the audio interface. Left channel always goes to odd numbers; Right channel to even numbers. If you have a mono device, skip a channel to hook up the next device in proper sequence.
- Reason automatically creates sequencer tracks for each device. Delete these tracks in Reason. Select the track instrument icon, then choose Delete Track from the Edit menu. (not delete track and device) The reason for this deletion is to keep Reason from listening to MIDI input independently of DP.
- Create Reason audio inputs to an audio track in DP. You have to do this before making MIDI connections between Reason and DP.
- Make your MIDI connections by choosing Reason:bus 6 from the MIDI output popup for a MIDI track, and choosing the device by name from the branch menu.
- Repeat these previous two steps for each device in Reason. Each device in Reason gets its own audio output track in DP, and at least one MIDI controller track in DP.
When you want to quit, remember to save your Reason work in Reason. DP won’t save anything with Reason.
Quit Reason first, then DP.
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