| Using Control Surfaces with Live and Reason
Propellerhead Reason You only need to complete a few simple steps to control Reason from an external controller. (The following will work for all versions of Reason.) First, enter the Preferences panel (Windows and Mac OS 9: Edit > Preferences; Mac OSX: Reason menu > Preferences) and select the Advanced MIDI tab. Next, select the driver for your desired MIDI device in the Remote Control dropdown box. Lastly, enter the Options menu and make sure that Enable MIDI Remote Mapping is selected. You’re now ready to map controllers to settings in Reason. From the Options menu, select Edit MIDI remote mapping. Green arrows will appear on the Reason rack to indicate the controls that are MIDI assignable. If you click on them, a dialog box will appear. You should map Reason’s knobs and sliders to a controller capable of sending MIDI messages 0-127. If you know the channel and controller number, you may enter them into the fields provided. If you do not know this information, simply check the “learn from MIDI” box and adjust the desired knob or fader on your hardware controller. Reason will detect which controller it is, and map the value to that controller. In the case of a button that represents an on/off value, such as a mute or solo, you can enter a note from your control surface if note information is available. You can either type the note into the note field, or check “learn from MIDI” and then tap the key you wish to assign. After you have assigned all the desired fields, go back to the Options menu and deselect Edit MIDI remote mapping. The assignments you just set up will now work as you move the controllers. Ableton Live
All MIDI-assignable settings and fields on the Live interface will be highlighted in blue. To assign a setting to a field, simply click on the field and then press the MIDI note or move the MIDI controller you want to assign it to. After you are done assigning, click on the MIDI icon in the upper-right of the screen or use the keystroke. The screen color will now return to normal and Live will be ready to use with your MIDI controller. |
Many
effects such as fade outs and fade ins tend to sound artificial
when executed with a mouse. As a result, software applications
such as Propellerhead Reason and Ableton Live have built in MIDI
control functionality, enabling the use of control surfaces like
the Oxygen8, Radium49/61, or the Evolution UC-33e to control virtual
faders and knobs in the applications. These controllers put the
power back in your hands and make the computer feel more like
an instrument again. 
To
set up Live with a MIDI control surface, first specify which MIDI
device you want to use in the Preferences. Enter the Preferences
panel (Windows and Mac OS 9: Edit > Preferences; Mac OSX: Live
menu > Preferences) and select the MIDI tab. There are two
available inputs for MIDI devices. To program the controls, click
on the MIDI icon at the upper-right side of the screen. (Pressing
[ctrl]+[M] or [Apple]+[M] will also perform the same function
on PCs and Macs, respectively). © 2007 by M-Audio, All Rights Reserved.