11.3

USING REASON RACK PLUGIN AS AN EFFECT55
Creating effect chains
• Adding more effects will automatically connect them in series.
• If you press [Shift] and drag an effect up or down in the rack, it will be automatically re-routed, changing the or-
der of effects in the signal chain.
Note that this can change the sound drastically!
It is also possible to do more complex setups such as splits and parallel effect chains. For this you could use devices
such as the Spider Audio Merger & Splitter (see “Spider Audio Merger & Splitter”). This would require you to do some
manual routing by dragging cables on the back of the rack. Read more in “Manual routing”.
All effect devices in Reason Rack Plugin have a Bypass/On/Off switch:
This is normally set to On, but setting it to Bypass lets you temporarily disconnect the effect. Setting an effect to Off
will silence it completely (no sound will be passed through). This is mainly useful if you are using send effects or par-
allel effect chains.
Once you have an effect chain that you're happy with, you could Combine it (by selecting all devices and selecting
Combine from the context menu). This creates a Combinator with all devices. You can save this as a combi patch and
load it into other instances of Reason Rack Plugin or the standalone version of Reason, see “The Combinator”.
Using sidechain inputs
Reason Rack Plugin has four audio input channels: Main left + right and Sidechain left + right. This allows you to
send an additional stereo audio signal into the rack (provided that your DAW host supports this). How you use this is
really up to you, but a common usage would be sidechaining a compressor:
1. Open Reason Rack Plugin as an effect.
For this example, you should add it as an insert effect on a synth pad track or similar.
2. In the rack, add a compressor device with a sidechain input, e.g. the M-Class Compressor.
3. Flip the rack.
4. Click the Sidechain input on the Compressor and drag to connect it to the Sidechain In on the I/O device at the
top of the rack.
(If the I/O device is folded, just hold the cable over the folded device for a moment - it will unfold automatically to
allow you to connect it.)
Connecting the Sidechain inputs of the MClass Compressor.