Clip arrangement in the sequencer is done mainly in Arrange Mode - but could also be done in Edit Mode, if the clips you’re arranging are on the same lane. The descriptions in this chapter refer to arrangement in Arrange Mode, unless otherwise stated.
Clips are created automatically when you record, but you can also create empty clips and add notes and other events in them by drawing with the Pencil Tool.
This will create an empty clip with the length of the current Snap value setting (e.g. 1 bar). To create longer clips, double click, keep the mouse button pressed and drag to the right.
A selected clip is indicated with a thick black border with Clip Resize handles on either side. In Edit Mode, the Clip Resize handles appear in the Clip Overview area.
In the sequencer Inspector, the Position and Length displays shows the start position and length of the selected clip. For selected audio clips, three additional displays are shown: Fade In, Fade Out and Level. If several clips are selected, the displays show the values for the earliest (or topmost) selected clip in the song.
The clip Position display shows at what position in the song the clip begins. The display readout is divided into Bar, Beat, 1/16 Note and Ticks (1/16th note=240 Ticks). The position can be edited according to the descriptions in “Moving clips using the Inspector”.
The clip Length display shows the length of the clip. The display readout is divided into (from left to right) Bar, Beat, 1/16 Note and Ticks. The length can be edited according to the descriptions in “Resizing clips using the Inspector”.
The Fade In and Fade Out displays for selected audio clips show the Fade In and Fade Out times for the audio in the clip. The readout is divided into 1/16 Note and Ticks. The Fade times can be edited as described in “Inspector segment displays”.
The Level display for selected audio clips shows the level of the audio in the clip. The readout is divided into dB and 1/100 dB. The level can be edited as described in “Inspector segment displays”.
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If you hold down [Shift] when you select clips with the selection rectangle technique, any previously selected clips will remain selected.
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This allows you to make multiple, non-contiguous selections: first select some clips, then hold [Shift] and select some more clips, and so on.
Besides the Clip Resize handles, a selected audio clip also has Fade In and Fade Out handles plus a Clip Level handle. These can be edited at any time, either by using the handles as described below, or using the Inspector as described in “Fade In and Fade Out displays (audio clips only)” and “Level display (audio clips only)”:
The Fade settings can be set individually for each audio clip in the song. The fading is non-destructive and can be changed at any time. If Snap is activated (see “Snap”), the set Snap value is taken into account when setting the fade time(s).
The Level can be set individually for each audio clip in the song. The Level setting is non-destructive and can be changed at any time.
You can also draw selection rectangles with the Selection tool, encompassing several clips and delete them all at once. The same rules apply as when selecting clips (see “Selecting clips”).
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If you delete an audio clip which contains recordings that are not used elsewhere in the song, those audio recordings will be permanently deleted! However, if you accidentally erase an audio clip, you can always use the “Undo” function.
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You can also use the Eraser tool to delete clips on the Arrange Pane. The Eraser tool can be used in two ways: you can click on single clips or you can make a selection rectangle encompassing several clips:
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All clip types can be resized by clicking and dragging either of the Clip Resize handles on the selected clip(s). This can be done both in Arrange Mode and in Edit Mode. In Edit Mode, the Clip Resize handles appear in the Clip Overview area.
If you resize a clip and make it smaller, any recordings or events that now lie outside the clip boundaries will not sound, or have any effect, when played back. However, they are not deleted - just masked. If you make the clip larger again, the recordings or events that were masked will become visible and will play back again. See “About masked recordings and events”.
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It’s possible to resize several clips by first selecting the clips, and then dragging a Clip Resize handle on one of the selected clips. All selected clips will be resized by the same amount.
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Select one or several clips on the Arrange Pane and then change the Length value in the Inspector by clicking on the up/down arrow buttons.
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See “Inspector segment displays” for more details on how to edit in the Inspector displays.
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A note or parameter automation clip which contains masked events is indicated by white corners on the left, right or both clip boundaries:
If you resize an audio clip and make it smaller, the masked part of the recording will be silent during playback. If you open a masked audio clip, the part of the recording that will actually play back is shown in the Clip Overview area. The masked part of the recording will appear grayed out on a Comp Row:
In the picture below is an open note clip in Edit Mode with notes and performance controller events, before and after resizing the clip:
After resizing the clip from 8 to 4 bars, all events that begin in bars 5-8 are now masked and won’t play back. All masked events will still be there - and follow along with the clip if the clip should be moved, cut or copied.
Masked events will be a blue color on the Note Edit Lane, to indicate that they won’t play back. The first three-note chord in the masked area is still an orange color. That’s because the notes begin in bar 4 (just before the downbeat) and thus will play back in their entirety, also after resizing the clip.
Masked performance controller events, parameter automation events and pattern automation events will be inactive - but could still affect the masked clip (see “About masked performance controllers and automation events” below). Outside a masked clip, the controller/parameter/pattern values will default to their Static Values in the masked area (see “Static Value Handles”).
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Note that just switching to Edit Mode won’t show masked events. A clip has to be opened before you can view these events. You can remove all masked note and parameter automation events using the “Crop Events to Clips” function on the Edit menu (see “The “Crop Events to Clips” function”).
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Masked performance controller and parameter automation events just outside a clip can still affect the clip, since they affect the curve shape. The example below shows a masked note clip with Mod Wheel performance controller.
The first Mod Wheel automation event to the right of the masked part of the clip determines the direction of the automation curve from the last event in the unmasked area. These types of automation events are not blue, but black and white, just like unmasked events.
The result in this example is that the Mod Wheel value will continue to rise all the way to the end of the masked clip, at which point the value will drop down to the Static Value - in this case “0”.
There may be situations when you want to delete all masked events, i.e. events located outside the left and/or right clip boundaries. This function only works for note and parameter automation clips and will delete all masked notes that begin in the masked clip section, plus any performance controller or parameter automation events:
It is possible to tempo scale the content of clips, i.e. make the clip play back at faster or slower tempos. This can be achieved in two different ways:
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Note that Pattern Automation Clips will only be resized - the pattern tempo in the source device will NOT be scaled but will still be synced to the main sequencer tempo!
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Below, we will describe how to use the scale tempo “tool” to manually “stretch” clips. Numerical tempo scaling in the Tool Window is explained in “Scale Tempo” in the “Note and Automation Editing” chapter.
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Hold down [Ctrl](Win)/[Option](Mac) and click and drag the cursor sideways in either direction to scale the tempo of the clip contents.
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Now, all clips have been tempo scaled and the clip content have been stretched to match the new clip length. Note that the content of all selected clips have been scaled proportionally. The Pattern Clip has only been resized, though. The pattern tempo in the source device has NOT been scaled.
For more details about tempo scaling audio clips, refer to “Tempo scaling Clips” in the “Audio Editing in the Sequencer” chapter.
It’s also possible to select and move several clips by dragging and dropping them to the desired destination. If the Snap function is selected (see “Snap”), you will only be able to move the clip(s) in steps of the selected Snap value.
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You can also use the “Cut” and “Paste” functions on the Edit menu or context menu to cut the selected clip(s) and then paste them at the current Song Position Pointer position (see “Cutting, Copying and Pasting clips”).
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You can use the left and right arrow keys on the computer keyboard to “nudge” the positions of selected clips in a couple of different ways:
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Press [Ctrl](Win) or [Cmd](Mac) and use the Left and Right arrow keys to move the clip position back or forward by the set Snap value.
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Press [Ctrl]+[Alt](Win) or [Cmd]+[Option](Mac) and use the left and right arrow keys to move the clip position back or forward in Tick increments.
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There are 240 ticks per 1/16 note so this is very fine editing - check the tick positions in the inspector when you nudge because typically you won’t “see” the position changes unless you’re working at a high zoom level.
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Press [Ctrl]+[Shift](Win) or [Cmd]+[Shift](Mac) and use the left and right arrow keys to move the clip position back or forward in Beat increments.
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Select one or several clips on the Arrange Pane. Then, change the Position value in the Inspector, either by clicking on the Up/Down spin controls, or by using any of the methods described in “Inspector segment displays”.
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The set Snap value is taken in to account if the function is activated (see “Snap”). It’s also possible to move several selected clips in one go.
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If you want to move several clips in the Windows version of Reason Essentials, press the [Shift] key after you have pressed the mouse button, otherwise pressing [Shift] will select or deselect clips, and that’s not what we want here.
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For a successful result, it’s important that the source and destination lanes are of the same, or similar, type (see “About alien clips” below).
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An alien clip is a clip containing types of event, or different parameter range/resolution, other than that the lane is intended for. For example, if we move a note clip from a note lane to a parameter automation lane, the note clip would become alien and won’t play back on the automation lane:
An alien clip can be distinguished by its red stripes, which indicate that the clip is currently inactive. If you place the cursor over an alien clip, a tool tip appears with detailed information:
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A parameter automation clip can also become alien if it is moved to a parameter automation lane for a parameter with a different range or resolution.
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In most cases, you can resolve this by first selecting the clip and then selecting “Adjust Alien Clips to Lane” from the Edit menu or from the context menu.
For example, if a parameter automation clip for a parameter that has a bipolar (-64 to 63) value range is moved to a parameter automation lane with a unipolar (0 to 127) value range, it will become alien. Selecting “Adjust Alien Clips to Lane” from the Edit menu or context menu will adjust the parameter automation events of the clip to fit the range of the parameter on the destination lane.
If you move note clips that contain performance controller automation events to another track (for a different type of instrument device), there are a few things to note:
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If you have only recorded standard performance controllers (Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel and Sustain pedal) in the note clip, these will usually translate without any problems when moved to another device track.
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If you have recorded non-standard controller parameters for a device in the note clip using the “Record Automation into Note Clip” option (see “Recording parameter automation into Note Clips”) some automated parameters may not have an equivalent parameter in the target device.
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Any lane can only play back a single clip at a time - if you want to mix two clips, put them on separate lanes (note clips) or on separate tracks (audio clips). See “Adding note lanes” and “Duplicating/copying tracks and devices”.
This means if a shorter clip is placed “in the middle” of a longer clip, as in the picture below, the sequencer will play the beginning of the long clip, then the shorter overlapping clip and then the end of the long clip.
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If both clips start at the same position and have the same length, the clip which was moved last will sound. Consequently, the “hidden” clip won’t play back at all.
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To duplicate selected clips, hold down [Ctrl](Win) or [Option](Mac), then click with the Selection Tool and drag a copy of the clip(s) to the desired destination.
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You can use the Duplicate function ([Ctrl]/[Cmd]-[D]) to quickly make copies of clips, lined up after each other and spaced according to the Snap value.
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You can move or duplicate clips using the “Cut”, “Copy” and “Paste” commands on the Edit menu or the context menu. When you paste, the clips will end up at the current song position, on their original lane(s).
If you paste a clip into another Reason Essentials song document, the pasted clip will be placed on the track with edit focus, if possible. Typically, you can just select a track in the other document, place the song position pointer where you want, and paste the clip(s) onto the selected track.
New tracks will be created when necessary. Since all tracks must have a device associated with them, the new tracks will be associated with empty Combinator devices. You can then use the Patch browser on the Combinator to select a suitable patch and device type. The above rules also apply when pasting alien clips and parameter automation clips.
When you cut or copy clips, the song position will automatically move to the end of the selection (or, if Snap is activated, to the closest Snap value position after the end of the longest clip). This allows you to quickly repeat a section of clips in the following way:
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Activate Snap (see “Snap”) and set the Snap value to “Bar” (or to the length of the section you want to repeat).
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The song position is moved to the closest snap value after the end of the longest clip in the selection (provided that the sequencer is stopped).
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When adding labels to several selected clips in one go, they will all receive generic names according to the clip type (e.g. “untitled note clip”). Double-clicking on a label in a clip opens the text field where you can type in the label text.
By default Clips are set to "Use Track Color", and will have the same color as their tracks. You can override this by selecting individual colors from the Clip Color submenu.
All selected clips will be colored according to the selected color. If you record new clips on the lane, they will be colored according to the set track color.
On the Razor Tool’s left edge is a cross-hair which indicates where the split will take place. If activated, the Snap setting is taken into account (see “Snap”).
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Recordings and events in a split clip will always remain intact, e.g. notes in a note clip will not be split even if they span over the split point.
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By using either of the methods described above, it’s also possible to duplicate the “split” section of the clip(s) and then move them to a new destination. Here’s how:
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With the Razor Tool selected, hold down [Ctrl](Win) or [Cmd](Mac) and drag to create a duplicate of the “cut out” section of the clip(s). Then, use the Selection Tool to move the duplicated clip(s) to a new destination.
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Separate clips on the same lane can be joined into one clip. You can also join clips that aren’t directly adjacent on the lane, or clips that overlap each other.
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A single clip is created. If there was a gap between the clips before the operation, this area will be empty - the
original positions of all events in the original clips will be preserved in the joined clip.
original positions of all events in the original clips will be preserved in the joined clip.
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If you join note or parameter automation clips that contain masked events in the area(s) between the clips, the masked events will be permanently deleted! This is to make the resulting clip play back the same as the original clips did before joining. (See “Masked events in note and parameter automation clips”).
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If you join overlapping note or parameter automation clips, the events in the clip which lies on top will replace and permanently delete the events in the overlapped region of the “hidden” clip.
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Joining audio clips basically works in the same way as joining note and parameter automation clips - except when it comes to joining overlapping audio clips. What happens if you join overlapping audio clips is that the clips will be placed on separate Comp Rows - and be automatically comped to a “final” clip. No recording will be deleted. Let’s have a look at the example in the picture below:
As you can see, the entire audio recording in the original clip is preserved - only masked where the overlapping clip is located. If you change your mind afterwards, you will still be able to access the entire original recording.
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If overlapping clips use Fade In and/or Fade Out and the clips overlap in the Fade In/Out area(s), the Fade(s) will be removed after joining.
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Also, if you join audio clips that aren’t directly adjacent, any Fade Out in the first clip and Fade In in the second clip will be removed.
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Select the clips and then select “Mute Clips” from the Edit menu or from the clip context menu. Alternatively, select the clips and press [M] on the computer keyboard to toggle mute on/off.
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The “Match Value” function in the Inspector can be used for matching the positions or lengths of several selected clips to the position and/or length of the topmost selected clip (or leftmost if the clips are on the same lane).
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Click the “Match Values” button to the right of the Position display to move all selected clips to the start position of the topmost clip - or leftmost clip, if the clips are on the same lane.
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Another Match Value function in the Inspector can be used to match the lengths of several selected clips to the length of the topmost (or leftmost if on the same lane) selected clip:
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Click the “Match Values” button to the right of the Length display to resize all selected clips to the length of the topmost clip - or leftmost clip, if the clips are on the same lane.
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Click the “Match Values” buttons to the right of the respective Fade displays and/or Level display to match to the values of the topmost clip - or leftmost clip if the clips are on the same lane.
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After having clicked all three Match Values buttons, all selected audio clips get the same Fade and Level values as the topmost selected audio clip.