Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player

Introduction

The Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player is the successor to the trusty Dr. Rex Loop Player, introduced in Reason Version 1. The Dr. Octo Rex can hold up to eight different REX loops at once, in eight pattern memories, and allows you to switch between loops and slices in very flexible ways. The Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player is fully backwards compatible with the discontinued Dr. Rex device. This means that all REX loops that previously used Dr. Rex devices in your songs will now open and play back in Dr. Octo Rex devices instead. The loops will sound exactly the same as they did in Dr. Rex.

The Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player is capable of playing back and manipulating files created in ReCycle, another product created by Propellerhead Software, or bounced from open Single Take audio clips in Reason (see “Bounce Clip to REX Loop”). ReCycle is a program designed especially for working with sampled loops. By “slicing” an audio loop and making separate samples of each beat, ReCycle makes it possible to change the tempo of loops without affecting the pitch and to edit the loop as if it was built up of individual sounds.

ReCycled Loops

To fully understand Dr. Octo Rex you need to understand what it means to ReCycle a drum loop. Imagine that you have a sample of a drum loop that you want to use in a track you are working on. The loop is 144 BPM and your track is 118 BPM. What do you do? You can of course lower the pitch of the loop, but that will make the loop sound very different, and if the loop contains pitched elements they will no longer match your song. You can also time stretch it. This won’t alter the pitch, but will make the loop sound different. Usually it means that you loose some “punch” in the loop.

Instead of stretching the sample, ReCycle slices the loop into little pieces so that each drum hit (or whatever sound you are working with) gets its own slice. These slices can be exported to an external hardware sampler or saved as a REX file to be used in Reason. When the loop has been sliced you are free to change the tempo any way you want. You can also create fills and variations since the slices can be moved around in the sequencer.