7.1

SONG FILE HANDLING
417
Saving Songs
Saving a Song
You will always be able to save your Songs in Reason. It doesn’t matter if you’re running in authorized or unauthorized
(Demo) mode.
The “Save” function
To save a Song, proceed as follows:
1. Hold down [Ctrl](Win) or [Cmd](Mac) and press [S], or select “Save” from the File menu.
If this is the first time you’re saving the song, a file dialog will appear where you can specify a name and destina-
tion.
2. Specify a name and destination for the Song and click “Save”.
Once you have saved a song, selecting “Save” will simply save it under the same name and in the same location,
without showing a dialog.
q It’s also possible to automatically include all samples used by the Reason devices and make the Song “self-
contained”. Refer to “About Self-Contained Songs” for details about how to include your own samples in your
songs.
q To reduce the file size of your song, you can use the “Save and Optimize” command described in “Saving and
optimizing a Song”.
q It’s also possible to include detailed information about your song. Refer to “Including Song Information” for
more details.
The “Save As...” function
To save an existing Song under another name and/or in another location:
1. Hold down [Ctrl]+[Shift](Win) or [Cmd]+[Shift](Mac) and press [S], or select “Save As...” from the File menu.
The “Save As” dialog appears.
2. Specify a new name and/or new destination for the Song and click “Save”.
q Using the “Save As...” function will automatically optimize the Song (see “Saving and optimizing a Song”).
Saving and optimizing a Song
When you record audio in the Sequencer, the recordings are stored in your Song document. If you remove recordings
in your song while editing, there might be “empty” areas left in the document, similar to a fragmented hard disk. To
“defragment” the Song document, and thus reduce the file size, you can use the “Save and Optimize” command on
the File menu. Note that the “Save and Optimize” command can only be used on previously saved Song documents.
D Select “Save and Optimize” from the File menu.
The Song will be optimized and saved at the original location.
! Note that saving and optimizing a Song could take a couple of minutes if you have lots of audio recordings in
it. Therefore, the best alternative would probably be to use the “Save” command while you’re still working with
your Song, and then use the “Save and Optimize” command as a final step when you’ve finished editing.
q Using the “Save As...” function also automatically optimizes the Song.
q In some situations, it’s possible to reduce the file size even further by deleting any recordings you haven’t used
in your Song. See “Delete Unused Recordings”.