NN-XT is the name of the advanced sampler unit in Reason and it is a really powerful device.
In it`s compact form the device has the usual pitch bend and mod wheel, with an extra one for external control, featuring aftertouch, expression pedal and breath - data generated by some MIDI Surfaces. The High Quality Interpolation button, when switched off, can reduce the quality of the samples a bit for CPU saving purposes. It also has global low pass filter and resonance knobs, attack, decay and release amp knobs and one decay knob for the mod wheel. The global volume knob is located on the right.
To open the advanced menu, click the triangle left from NN-XT REMOTE EDITOR inscription.
You might notice that the device features two browsers - the upper one is used for loading whole patches - samples + settings, while the lower one is used to load sample sounds only.
The second browser has sample recording and editing option on the right.
You can load multiple wav / aiff samples. In order to do that, right click on the blue screen and select Add Zone (or just left click on the blue area, deselecting any present samples), then load another sample from the browser.
Now you can use the Sample Browser to load the next sample:
If you use the browser while having a sample selected, what will happen is that the new sample will take the place of the old one. You can also use CTRL+C and CTRL+V to copy and paste sample/s. You can load multiple samples by holding CTRL.
Each of the knobs in that area can be used to set different settings on multiple samples. When you click on sample (or selection of multiple samples with CTRL or SHIFT + Left Click) displayed on the blue screen, the knobs indicators light up showing the settings of that particular sample/s. If two samples are selected simultaneously and have different settings on some knobs, those knobs will have a small letter M indicating that.
Example: We have two samples selected with different sustain and octave settings - note the small letters M (stands for "Multiple") on the top left of each of the knobs. The default value shown is that of the last sample selected.
When you load a sample, you can determine which keys are going to trigger it using the sample zone selector below the keys - you make the range of the selection wider or thinner by leftclicking on the blueish little squares in its left and right ends and moving the mouse with a button held to the desired direction. To move the selector itself, leftcklick and hold on its dark blue area and then move it left or right with the mouse.
The root key is easily recognizable, being differently colored. By default, it moves along with the sample zone selector - if you want to lock it in place, click on lock root keys button above.
Select zone via midi gives you the ability to toggle between zones with your midi control surface based on note and velocity. The solo sample gives you the ability to play the selected sample over the entire keyboard, dismissing all the others during that period.
Set root notes by pitch detection from the Edit menu above can make life a whole lot easier - as the name suggests, the operation detects the pitch of the selected samples and assigns the root note to the corresponding keys.
Here is a visual example:
Now the root note is set automatically on C#:
If you have multiple samples, the automap zones option from the same menu will automatically map the zones based on their root note, so you may use the Set root notes by pitch detection beforehand. Automap zones chromatically maps the zones using singular keys, better suited for percussive sampling. Create velocity crossfades helps you better blending the keys between overlapping zones.
The Group selected zones option allows you to use the same LFO, filtering etc. configurations on multiple zones, treating them as separate groups. The G column, left from the name of the sample shows you the group divisions. The group mono button on the left makes the group monophonic.
The group section has other features, but we`re going to skip them since they have already been described in previous tutorials. We are going to cover the LFO 1 rate later in this tutorial.
Lets look at the knobs below the blue screen:
Using the LO KEY and HI KEY is another way of shortening or widening the selected zone/s range. Same is for ROOT for selecting root note. TUNE is used to fine tune the sample, START and END select it`s starting and ending points accordingly. From the PLAY MODE you can select the sample to either play forward, forward in loop (where the two knobs on the left - LOOP START and LOOP END come in handy), forward-backward, forward-sustain and backward. The names are self explanatory. With the forward-sustain option, you can let a sample play after a quiet key has been released, (duration controlled by the amp envelope below). The loop start and loop end knobs should be at 0%.
The LO VEL and HI VEL knobs let you determine the range of velocity amount in which a sound is allowed to get triggered. If the velocity is lower then the value of lo vel or higher then the value of hi vel, the sound is not triggered.
The fade in and fade out knobs are doing manually what is done automatically with Create Velocity Crossfades from the Edit menu - they smoothen transitions between samples.
Lets say we have two overlapping samples - one is triggered in the velocity range between 1 and 63 and the other between 64 and 127.
To make the transitions between the sounds smoother, you can apply fade out to the first sample (the 1 - 63 range one). The value of fade out is set to 50 - this means that the fading out begins at 50 and is at full mute volume when it reaches 63.
The second sample (the 64 - 127 range one) can have fade in set to 80, meaning that the sample will start fading in at the value of 64 reaching full volume at 80.
This example aims at explaining the concept in the simplest way possible. In practice, you would like to change the second sample`s beginning and fade in volume to be a little lower in order to make a better overlapping crossover.
The ALT knob alternates between overlapping samples. Great for percussions.
The OUT knob routs the selected sample/s to specific output on the back. It has 8 different pairs of outputs...
The device has the usual CV options in the back (input only) and 8 pairs of audio outputs. 1/L and 2/R are the default ones, the others need to have specified samples assigned to them from the front menu.
The other part of the device features many already covered concepts, so we are going to skip some stuff.
In the Modulation section you can select between modulation and external wheel represented by the letters M and X respectively. Both can be switched on simultaneously.
The LFO1 section features a group rate option, which sets the rate based on the knob in the Group section (discussed above). The DELAY knob acts as LFO1 attack parameter.
LFO2 is set to triangular waveform and is set on key sync.
When you shift the K.TRACK knob in the PITCH area all the way to the left, all the notes play the same note. All the way to the right makes each note jump by an octave.
The K.TRACK knob in the filter section uses the keyboard notes to control the behavior of the filter.
A standard AHDSR filter.
The Key to DEC knob in the MOD ENVELOPE section is used to control the decay of the filter by the note pressed on the keyboard.
The delay knob does the same thing as with the LFO (covered above), but affecting the envelope in this example.
Finally, we are going to look at the AMP ENVELOPE section.
The LEVEL controls the loudness of the selected sample/s. The SPREAD knob controls the stereo wideness of the sound.
The MODE selector has the following features:
KEY - Spreads the panning from left to right when moving from lower to higher key.
KEY2 - Spreads the panning from left to right and vice versa.
JUMP - Alternates between left and right panning when new note is being pressed.
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A word about NN-19...
NN-19 is an oldskool device derived from the older versions of Reason. It gets it`s name from the song "19" by Paul Hardcastle - one of the first songs featuring samplers. It can be used instead of NN-XT for CPU saving purposes, where the advancement of the latter are not necessarily required. It`s "sample start" option can offset the beginning of a sample just by a second or two. It has almost no features that haven`t already been discussed in the NN-XT description.
NN-19 has actually got two CV output options, next to the other usual ones.
This is basically all you need to know about the structure of the samplers in Reason. Everything else will come from practical experience.
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