Connecting R3 to Propeller Reason

[chrisc1111]

Hi everyone ,


A friend of mine has recently purchased the Korg R3 synth (he does not have internet access so I am posting for him).

He would like to connect the R3 to his computer, and use this in his music production. He mainly uses Reason (Propeller). He has installed the drivers for the R3, and has it connected to his computer via USB. However, reason only sees the R3 as a keyboard controller, not an external synth.

Could anyone provide information/links/tips on the following?

1. How do you use a hardware synth in reason? Can you get the music source to come from the hardware synth, rather than the reason software synth?

2. How do you configure reason so it knows it has a hardware synth connnected to it? (rather than thinking its just a USB controller keyboard)

3. How do you record your synth on a Windows PC, then use this in your reason tunes? Would a 3rd party piece of software be needed or is this normally possible in music production software like reason.

4. How do you hear your synth output on your PC speakers? I have read it is necessary to connect the audio outs from the R3 to the line-in on your PC. Is it not possible to hear the synth output through the USB?


Sorry everyone for the mass of question.. my friend is very new to hardware based music production...

Any help would be much appreciated. Thankyou all in advance.

Chris C

[meatballfulton]

Can you get the music source to come from the hardware synth, rather than the reason software synth?

Reason is a self contained program, you cannot input external audio. It will accept MIDI input but has no MIDI output.

2. How do you configure reason so it knows it has a hardware synth connnected to it? (rather than thinking its just a USB controller keyboard)

See above, there is no audio input.

3. How do you record your synth on a Windows PC, then use this in your reason tunes? Would a 3rd party piece of software be needed or is this normally possible in music production software like reason.

In theory you could record playing the synth as a WAV file then import the WAV file to one of Reason's sampler players. But I can't imagine bothering to do this.

Is it not possible to hear the synth output through the USB?

No, the USB carries only MIDI information not audio.


So the short answer is he needs more software, some sort of recording software that supports Rewire which is a Propeller interface format that lets other software use Reason as a plugin.

[chrisc1111]

meatballfulton... many, many thanks for your reply.

This has clarified the situation greatly. I explained this to my friend. He is going to buy audio cables so he can hook the R3 into the PC line in. He is then going to use Wavelab to record the R3, then use these samples in Reason. It is disappointing that Reason can not record his synth... I have seen online that other production software can do this.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Have a great Christmas.

Chris C

[Musicworkz]

You friend can buy a light version of Cakewalk or Cubase and have much great functionality WITH Reason and his R3. The DAW will be the host and Reason can be slaved to the program. The DAW will be his main program and he can record audio AND midi data.