The Back of the Rack | Reason 3 For Windows and Mac

Reason has the potential to get very complicated when you know enough to get greedy about piling up Rack gear. What if you forget how all your devices are hooked up? What if you run out of Mixer channels? There's a whole other Rack view that we haven't exploredit's the back panel view showing how each device is connected.

To see the back of the Rack

With the Rack window active, press Tab. Voilà! You can see all the cables (Figure 3.26).

Figure 3.26. The Rack's rear panel

Hold your mouse cursor over one end of a cable; after a short delay, a tool tip pops up, telling you where the other end of the cable is plugged in.

If you haven't tinkered much with real music hardware, this back view may look like spaghetti. Just remember that you'll add the Rack devices one at a time as you build up the tracks of your own song, and Reason takes care of most of the cabling for you.

The back panel really sets Reason apart from other music software: Reason instruments function just like real studio gearyou can hook them up any way you want, and the cables are easy and fast to move! (And you will never have to crawl behind a patch bay in a cramped studio while holding a flashlight in your teeth.)

So if you are using Reason for the first time, take heart. Reason automatically takes care of the rear panel for you in the same way it handles controllers: You don't have to mess with it if you don't want to.

Doing your own cabling is easy, and you can do some amazing things by cabling instruments and effects to one another. For a few samples of what can be done, see Chapter 9, "Cabling Setups."