What about those knobs? When knobs on your controller are not moving the knobs in Reason!
By G.W. Childs IV

Reason, as any new or seasoned user may no doubt know, has several knobs within its infinite architecture. A Subtractor for example has around sixty knobs for example and that isn’t including the other small buttons.

Thankfully, rather than using a mouse to drag knobs left and right, up and down, etc. most of us have these wonderful USB keyboard controllers with several knobs meant for just such a purpose. Ideally, we can turn a physical knob with our hands (the way it’s meant to be) and the knob on the screen will turn in the exact same manner.

But what if this isn’t what occurs?

On several occasions, in either clinics or just in random conversation, people will seemed shocked or surprised when I mention that most; if not all USB controllers on the market can and are supposed to control parameters within Reason.

Granted, there are several people that have uncovered ‘Remote Override Mapping’ within Reason which is a very cool feature that allows you to assign any knob, lever or switch on your controller to any knob, button or switch within Reason. But did you know with some very simple steps within your Reason preferences and a phenomenal feature within Reason called ‘Remote’ that your keyboard can be almost fully mapped by default to all of the devices within Reason?

Let’s use the Axiom series by M-Audio as an example…

Out of the box an Axiom, once it has been set up within the Reason (Preferences > Control Surfaces and Keyboards) will work just fine as a keyboard, but most Axiom owners will note that when they pushed the ‘Auto-detect Surfaces’ within the ‘Control Surfaces and Keyboards’ page within Reason ‘Preferences’ that it did not detect the controller at all.

In fact, they probably also noted that when they looked under M-Audio, no Axiom device was listed. As a result, the person installing the Axiom probably decided to just use the ‘<Other> Basic MIDI Keyboard’ setting and left it at that. After using this setting they probably discovered that the knobs on the Axiom would not work by default without the ‘Remote Override Mapping’ as well.

If you are an Axiom owner or an owner of any other controller that did not find your device under preferences, even though your device is installed and working properly, here’s one more step that might help and also make those knobs work!

• Go to www.propellerheads.se
  
  
  
  
• At the top of the webpage select ‘Downloads’
• Scroll down the downloads page and look under ‘More Downloads’
• You’ll find one section that’s specifically for Reason and there will be several different links that can be clicked like ‘Updates, Demos, Refills… etc.’
• In that same area, choose ‘Remote Files’.
  
  
  
  
• A page will appear that lists all of the USB controllers that are supported by Reason. If you were using an Axiom, for example, you would look under M-Audio (who is the manufacturer) and follow the link for your Axiom controller.
  
  
  
  
  
• Download the driver!
  
• Install the ‘Remote’ driver and make sure that Reason is closed while you are doing this, by the way.
• Now, go back in to Reason
• Open ‘Preferences’
  
  
  
  
• Go to the ‘Control Surface and Keyboards’ page within preferences.
• Press ‘Add’ and locate the manufacturer and model of your controller. For an Axiom it would be ‘M-Audio’ and then look for ‘Axiom 49, 61, etc.’
  
  
  
  
• After selecting the appropriate device a cute picture will appear of the appropriate piece of hardware. At the bottom, you’ll see a ‘MIDI Input’ drop down menu. Select the corresponding and available MIDI input for your hardware.
• Close preferences and try creating a Subtractor! Notice that now when you move the knobs on your Axiom, the knobs in Reason move as well!

And that’s all that there is to it! Have fun tweaking the knobs of your controller and if you still have problems… give us a ring!