Opening Songs

Opening a Reason Essentials Song

To be able to open a Reason Essentials Song (or Reason Limited Song) you need to run Reason Essentials in Authorized mode. If you’re using Reason Essentials in Demo Mode (unauthorized), the “Open” item on the File menu is removed and replaced by “Open Demo Song”. This allows you to open only the factory made Reason Essentials Demo Songs (see “Opening a Reason Essentials Demo Song”). See “Running Reason Essentials on an authorized computer - or with an authorized Ignition Key hardware” and “Running Reason Essentials with Internet Verification” for details on how to authorize Reason Essentials.

To open a Reason Essentials Song:

Double click the Song file in Windows Explorer (Win) or in Finder (Mac).

Or, if you want to open a Song file from within the program:

1.	Hold down [Ctrl](Win) or [Cmd](Mac) and press [O], or select “Open” from the File menu.

The Browser appears (if it was hidden) in the Song window .

If no Song document was open on the Mac OS X version of Reason Essentials, Reason Essentials temporarily opens an empty Song document to be able to show the Browser. When a Song has been loaded, the empty document closes.

2.	Navigate in the Browser to the desired folder on disk or within a ReFill.

See “Using the Browser” in the “Sounds and Patches” chapter.

3.	When you have located the Reason Essentials (.ree or .reedemo or .rltd) Song file, select it and click “Open” (or double click the file).

The song opens in a new document window.

You can have several Songs open at the same time if you like. This allows you to drag and drop (and copy and paste) patterns, clips and patches between songs. However, all open songs consume some memory and processing power, so you might want to close songs you don’t need for the moment.

It’s possible to have Reason Essentials open the last song you worked on as soon as you launch the program. See “Opening the last Song at program launch” for more information.

If the “Missing Sounds” window appears

If the song includes samples or REX files, and these have been moved or renamed since the song was saved, the program will inform you that it cannot find all files. You can then choose to either manually locate the missing files, to have the program search for them or to proceed without the missing sounds. For details, see “Handling Missing Sounds” in the “Sounds and Patches” chapter.

If “Missing Device” panels appear in the rack

When you open a Reason Essentials song made by another user, it may have been created with Rack Extension devices that you don't have. All such missing devices in a song will be replaced by generic “Missing Device” placeholder devices. See “About missing Rack Extensions” for more information.

Opening a Reason Essentials Demo Song

Reason Essentials Demo Songs are factory made songs that demonstrate how Reason Essentials can be used in various musical projects. If you run Reason Essentials in “Demo Mode” (unauthorized), you will only be able to open Demo Songs - but not regular Songs. If you run Reason Essentials in authorized mode, the Open Demo Song item is available in addition to the regular Open item.

Select “Open Demo Song” from the File menu and select a Demo Song from the sub-menu.

You could also select “Download more Demo Songs” from the sub-menu. This will open your default web browser and direct you to the Reason Essentials Demo Songs page on the Propellerhead web site. On this page you can download additional Reason Essentials Demo Songs to your computer. You will then have to use the “Open Demo Song” command from the File menu to open the downloaded Demo Songs.

You can also download more Reason Essentials Demo Songs by selecting “Download more Demo Songs” from the Help menu.

You can have several Demo Songs open at the same time if you like. This allows you to drag and drop (and copy and paste) patterns, clips and patches between songs. However, all open songs consume some memory and processing power, so you might want to close songs you don’t need for the moment.

Opening the last Song at program launch

It’s possible to instruct the program to automatically open the last Song you worked on each time you launch Reason Essentials. You select this on the “General” tab in the “Preferences” dialog.

1.	Select “Preferences” from the Edit menu (Win) or “Reason Essentials” menu (Mac) and then click the “General” tab.

2.	Tick the “Load last song on startup” checkbox.

When you launch Reason Essentials the next time, the last saved Song will automatically open in a document window.