The Controller panel

This is the main Combinator panel. Like standard instrument devices it features Pitch and Mod wheels and various controls.

About the virtual controls

The four Rotary knobs and buttons in the middle of the Controller panel are “virtual” controls that can be assigned to parameters and functions in devices contained in the Combi.

These controls are by default not assigned to any parameters in new Combis.

•	You assign parameters in the Modulation Routing section of the Programmer panel (see “Using Modulation Routing”).

•	Movements of the virtual controls can be recorded as automation.

•	Each control can be assigned to any number of parameters.

•	Clicking on the label for a Rotary or Button lets you type in an appropriate name for it.

The Pitch Bend and Modulation wheels

The Pitch and Mod wheels on the Controller panel will mirror the corresponding actions on your master keyboard, just like for standard instrument devices.

When a Combinator device has Master Keyboard input and the Combi contains several instrument devices these will all receive pitch bend and modulation data.

The settings in the instrument devices determines what happens when applying pitch bend or modulation.

•	For example, moving the Mod wheel could apply vibrato for one device and change the filter cutoff frequency for another device.

•	Pitch Bend will also be applied according to individual settings in the Range field for all instrument devices in a Combi.

Run Pattern Devices button

This can be used to start/stop all pattern devices included in the Combi. This works exactly as pressing the Run button on the pattern device panel. The on/off status of this button is not saved with the Combi patch. Pressing play on the transport panel will automatically activate “Run Pattern Devices”.

In the Reason Essentials Factory Sound Bank, Combi patches containing pattern devices have “(run)” at the end of their patch names.

Bypass All FX

This button allows you bypass all effect devices in a Combi. It works as follows:

•	All insert effect devices in the Combi are switched to Bypass mode.

•	All effects connected as send effects to a mixer device are switched off.

•	Clicking this button will not affect effect devices that were bypassed or turned off already.

Select backdrop...

This function allows you to change the “skin” of the Controller panel. You can design your own labels for the assignable controls, and change the color and look of the whole panel.

Select the Combinator and choose “Select Backdrop...” from the Edit menu.

The Image browser opens, allowing you to select image file in the JPEG (.jpg) format.

The dimensions of the image file should be 754 x 138 pixels.

The knobs, buttons, patch name display and patch buttons cannot be redesigned.

If you wish to design your own text labels for the virtual controls, you should first remove the original text labels.

Click on a label, remove the current text and press [Enter].

To remove a Backdrop, select “Remove Backdrop” from the context menu.

The original look of the Combinator panel is restored.

About template backdrops

It is possible to customize the Combinator front panel graphics with a user-designed skin. In the Reason Download section at the Propellerhead website is the “Combi and Kong Backdrop Templates” zip file, which contains PhotoShop (‘.psd’) files which can be used as starting point for designing your own Combinator panel graphics. See the “Read Me.txt” file in the Backdrops folder for more details.

Two templates are available, one in the JPEG format and the other in the Adobe Photoshop format (.psd).

The .psd (Photoshop) template contains multiple layers, which are useful when customizing backdrops.

You have to save any backdrops created in Photoshop as JPEG files before you can use them in Reason Essentials.