| Propellerheads (the makers of Reason) have really | | | | one of those things that you don't think you need until |
| done something great with their virtual drum machine, | | | | you've played with Redrum. Everything is viewable and |
| Redrum. The Redrum is a combination of easy drum | | | | no hidden menus need to be accessed! It's good, but |
| samples sequencing, loading and manipulation. | | | | there are of course draw-backs to this. People new to |
| There are ten drum channels in one instance of | | | | Reason may get confused with the layout at first. |
| Redrum, each one with multiple modulation filters and | | | | You can load a whole bunch of drum samples at the |
| options, such as velocity and panning. Along with | | | | same time, and these are pre-determined in the refills |
| panning, another regular is the level rotary knob, which | | | | that come with the program (the standard sound |
| simply controls the level or volume. You can mix and | | | | banks) and the ones you can acquire from third party |
| match the volume of all ten drum samples until you | | | | manufacturers. So instead of picking and choosing ten |
| have a good internal balance. The master level then | | | | different samples and adjusting lots of pots and pans |
| controls the volume of every drum sound inside | | | | to try to get everything to congeal, one can choose a |
| Redrum as it pertains to the global project as a whole. | | | | library of pre-matched samples. These go together |
| What a great way to mix micro and macro with such | | | | very well, and while I don't use them too often, I find |
| ease, huh? | | | | they're good when you're low on creativity or time. |
| One of the most useful options present in each and | | | | The sounds just work together. Right away. |
| every channel strip is the Length control, which can | | | | At any point, there are sixteen button-type inputs at |
| trim the tail off long samples and shorten any other | | | | the bottom of the Redrum. This is where you can click |
| samples to the extent you want. I've found this really | | | | in the drum samples you want, and while you can |
| helpful when modulating hi-hats and snares. These | | | | never see all patterns at the same time here, you can |
| drum samples sometimes don't get to the point as | | | | export the patterns to the main sequencer to keep |
| quick as one might like, so this is one possible use for | | | | track of them there. This is very close to the way |
| this control. | | | | things work in the real world, and Redrum (in fact, |
| The pan option for every strip is also visible all within | | | | Reason in general) has a workflow that will prepare |
| the same window, which gives you a great visual | | | | budding audio engineers and music producers for the |
| indication of where every instrument is at. This is just | | | | hardware world very well. |