Slice handling

Selecting Slices

A selected slice is indicated by being highlighted in the waveform display. To select a slice, use one of the following methods:

By clicking in the waveform display.

If you hold down [Alt](Win) or [Option](Mac) and click on a slice in the waveform display, it will be played back. The pointer takes on the shape of a speaker symbol to indicate this.

By using the “Slice” knob below the waveform display.

Via MIDI.

If you activate “Select Slice Via MIDI”, you can select and “play” slices using your MIDI keyboard. Slices are always mapped to consecutive semitone steps, with the first slice always being on the “C1” key.

If you play back a loop with “Select Slice via MIDI” option activated, each consecutive slice is selected in the waveform display as you play the keys.

You can edit parameters during playback.

Editing individual Slices

There are two basic methods you can use to edit individual slices in Reason Essentials:

•	In the Waveform display of the Dr. Octo Rex device.

This is used for making playback settings for a slice.

•	In the Sequencer.

Here you can edit the notes that play the slices. There is a special REX edit lane for editing REX slice notes, with the notes indicated by the slice numbers instead of by pitches. Editing notes in the sequencer is described in the “Note and Automation Editing” chapter.

Editing in the Waveform Display

Here you are able to edit several parameters for each slice, by first selecting the slice and then using the knobs below the waveform display. If you want to edit a single parameter for several slices at once, a more convenient way would be to use the Slice Edit Mode, see “The Slice Edit Mode”. The following slice parameters can be set:

| Parameter	| Description
Pitch	Allows you to transpose each individual slice in semitone steps, over a range of more than eight octaves.
Pan	The stereo position of each slice.
Level	The volume of each slice. The default level is 100.
Decay	Allows you to shorten individual slices.
Rev	Allows you to play back individual slices reversed (backwards)
F.Freq	Allows you to modify the Filter (cutoff) Frequency of individual slices. This value is added to, or subtracted (if negative) from the FREQ value of the synth panel, see “Filter Frequency”.
Alt	Allows you to assign slices to an Alternate group (1-4). Slices assigned to any of these four Alt groups will be played pack in a random fashion within each group, see “About the Alt parameter”.
Output	Allows you to assign individual slices to separate audio outputs (1-8). If the REX loop is in stereo, there is also an option to select individual output pairs (1+2, 3+4, 5+6 or 7+8) for individual slices.

If you have made settings to any of the parameters listed above, these will be lost if you load a new REX file into that Loop Slot.

About the Alt parameter

The Alt parameter in the waveform display can be used to create a more “live” feel to your Rex loops by alternating samples within each individual Alt group. For example, if you assign all snare hit slices in the loop to the Alt 1 group, the snare samples will be selected and played back randomly each time these slices appear in the loop. Then, you could assign all hi-hat slices to the Alt 2 group and so on. The result will be a loop that plays back differently every cycle.

In the example below, slices 3 and 6 have been assigned to the same Alt group. Here, we have used the Copy Loop To Track function five times to generate notes from the loop slices, just so you can see the note distribution. As you can see, slices 3 and 6 have been distributed randomly for each loop cycle:

This randomization within each Alt group also occurs when you play back the REX loop using the Run function - and when you use Pattern Automation in the main sequencer.

The Slice Edit Mode

A very convenient way of editing several slices at once is to work in Slice Edit Mode. In Slice Edit Mode, you can edit one parameter at a time for all slices in the loop.

1.	Click the Edit Slice Mode button.

The waveform display switches to show the REX loop in Slice Edit Mode.

2.	Select the parameter you want to edit by clicking on its name below the REX loop.

The parameters that can be selected are: Pitch, Pan, Level, Decay, Reverse, Filter Frequency, Alt Group and Output.

Here, we have selected the Pitch parameter.

3.	Edit the Pitch value for each individual slice by clicking, or drawing across several slices, in the display.

Now, the Pitch parameter can be edited for all slices in a single sweep.

To reset the selected parameter to its default value for one or several slices, hold down [Ctrl](Win) or [Cmd](Mac) and click on the desired slice(s), or draw across the slices in the waveform display.

4.	When you are finished with one parameter, select another parameter and repeat the procedure by drawing values for the slices in the waveform display.

If you have made settings to any of the parameters listed above, these will be lost if you load a new REX file into that Loop Slot.