User Manual

SYNCHRONIZATION AND ADVANCED MIDI
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About the beginning of the Song
Due to the latency phenomenon, described in “About latency”, Reason needs some time to correct its playback speed
when it first receives the Start command. This can be noted as a small glitch in the audio playback, when the program
starts. If this is a problem, you need to insert a couple of empty measures at the beginning of the Song. Proceed as
follows:
1. Set the Left Locator to “1. 1. 1.0” and the right Locator to “3. 1. 1.0“.
2. Click somewhere in the main sequencer area to move the menu focus to the sequencer.
3. Select “Insert Bars Between Locators” from the Edit menu.
4. Set up the other device/application, so that it also plays two empty bars at the beginning.
About MIDI Song Position Pointers
MIDI Clock actually consists of five type of messages: The actual clock (the metronome that establishes the tempo),
Start, Stop and Continue commands and Song Position Pointers. This last type of message contains information
about positions, so that a program for example “knows” where in a Song to start playback from.
Normally, this ensures that you can locate to any position and activate playback from there. In older devices, Song Po-
sition Pointers might not be implemented. This means that you will be able to synchronize properly only if you start
both devices from the absolute beginning of the song.
About Tempo Changes
Again, due to the latency phenomenon, Reason needs a bit of time to adjust to changes in tempo. If there are abrupt
changes in the MIDI Clock, due to drastic tempo changes in the master, you will note that Reason will require up to
one measure to adjust itself to the change. How long this actually takes also depends on the precision of the incom-
ing MIDI Clock. The more precise it is, the faster Reason can adjust to it.
If this adjustment is a problem, try to use gradual tempo changes rather than immediate ones.
! When Reason is synchronized to MIDI Clock, there is no Tempo readout.
Input Focus and Play Focus
If you activate (external) MIDI Clock sync on the Options|Sync menu, the Transport Panel controls will be disabled,
and Reason will not run unless MIDI Sync data is provided from an external device.
The Input Focus (MIDI + Audio) and Play Focus (MIDI Sync) buttons (located on the Reason Hardware Interface) re-
late to how incoming MIDI and MIDI sync should be handled if there are several open Song documents. If you have
two or more Songs opened, and no MIDI sync is used, the currently selected Song (the document “on top”) always
has Input focus.
If (external) MIDI Clock sync is enabled (which is global for all currently open Song documents), this functionality
changes in the following way:
• If both “Play Focus” and “Input Focus” are activated for a Song, incoming MIDI data, MIDI sync (and Audio)
will be sent to this Song, regardless of whether another Song is currently in focus.
• If only “Input Focus” is activated for Song, and another Song has “Play Focus”, incoming MIDI (and Audio) will
be sent to the former and MIDI sync to the latter (i.e this Song will play back), regardless of which Song is cur-
rently in focus.