Operation Manual

AUDIO BASICS
54
Sample Rate settings for recording and playback
Reason handles all internal audio processing in 32-bit floating point resolution. However, the resolution of the input
and output audio is determined by the hardware audio interface. That is, if you have a 24-bit audio card, Reason will
record and output audio in 24-bit resolution, and if you have a 20-bit audio card, audio will be recorded and played
back in 20-bit resolution.
The recording and playback sample rate can be specified on the Audio tab in the Preferences dialog (accessed from
the Edit menu (Win) or Reason menu (Mac)):
D Select the desired sample rate from the drop-down menu.
Note that the available options on this pop-up menu depend on which sample rates are supported by the audio
hardware.
! Reason supports multiple sample rates in the same song!
Reason allows import (or recording) of audio of any sample rate. If the original sample rate of a recording is differ-
ent than the rate currently set for the audio card, Reason will automatically do a sample rate conversion.
First, a real-time sample rate conversion algorithm is used (allowing the audio to be played back immediately).
Meanwhile, in the background, the program calculates a sample rate conversion of the highest quality, which will
be used as soon as it is calculated. The CALC progress indicator on the transport panel lights up whenever the
program is doing high quality calculations in the background:
The CALC progress indicator on the Transport Panel appears when Reason performs high quality audio calculation
Buffer Size settings
The Buffer Size can be adjusted on the Audio tab in the Preferences dialog (accessed from the Edit menu (Win) or
Reason menu (Mac)):
D Select Buffer Size by clicking and dragging the slider sideways.
The trick here is to find the optimum relationship between audio quality, DSP Load and latency. Experiment with dif-
ferent Sample Rate settings in combination with different Buffer Size settings to get the best result.
A professional audio interface used together with a state-of-the-art computer should normally be able to handle a
combination of a high sampling frequency (96 kHz) and a small Buffer Size (64-128 samples) without problems. A
budget priced audio interface normally requires a lower sampling frequency (44.1 kHz) in combination with a little
higher Buffer Size (256-512 samples).