STREAM DECK XL – Control Reason with Keyboard Maestro

[wendylou]

UPDATED Macros
11-OCT-2023

Fixed the macro for Rob Papen PredatorRE Instrument. I decided to better organize Instruments by consolidating each vendor in their own folders, beginning with Reason Studios and vendors of REs and VSTs that I have. If you don't have these other REs and VSTs, edit them to suit, or delete them.

Yes, I'm adding everything, so creating your own curated Favorites page will be key. Plus you can easily copy/paste if you find devices in these Create pages. Still adding Instruments starting with Robotoc Bean. Then I will do the same folder structure for Effects, Utilities, and Players. Then I will go back and add graphics for all devices. After that, the only thing remaining is to add useful tools, commands, shortcuts, and such for Mixer, Rack, Sequencer, Editors, etc.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Screenshot 2023-10-11 at 5.39.52 PM.png

[wendylou]

Screenshot 2023-10-11 at 7.53.51 PM.png (182.88 KiB) Viewed 6162 times

Screenshot 2023-10-11 at 7.53.58 PM.png (115.16 KiB) Viewed 6162 times

[wendylou]

UPDATED Macros
13-OCT-2023

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

ALL Macros have been assigned to buttons! (719 macros to date)

Everything is organized by vendor folders. I tested and all work in Reason. So, when creating your own Favorite profile for Instruments, Effects, Utilities, and Players, you can copy/paste from these. No doubt you have more REs or VSTs I do not have, so just duplicate an existing macro in Keyboard Maestro from either the Instruments, Effects, Utilities, or Players, then change the macro Name, then the Submenu to the vendor name, and the Menu Item to the device name as it appears in the Reason drop-downs. Spelling must match exactly or it won't function! Then assign it to a Stream Deck XL button using the KM Link plugin.

The only thing remaining to do now is add useful tools, actions, editor controls, etc. to the Mixer, Rack, and Sequencer Profile pages – anything to speed up your workflow.

That's it!

[wendylou]

UPDATED Macros
10-NOV-2023 • (738 macros to date)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

ADDED: iZotope Ozone 11 Advanced (18 plugins)
Includes updated Stream Deck XL "Reason KM Edition Profiles" and Keyboard Maestro "Reason Macros.kmmacros".

Control EVERYTHING in REASON using Stream Deck XL's 32 customizable LCD keys

Required:
Keyboard Maestro https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/
Download Free Trial https://download.keyboardmaestro.com/

Stream Deck XL https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck-xl

[wendylou]

FILES
(updated 20-DEC-2023 8:12 PM CST)

Updated the following button icons for the relevant Stream Deck profiles:

• MIXER
• RACK
• SEQUENCER

Download the latest ZIP with all Stream Deck profiles and Keyboard Maestro Reason macros:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

New Icons.jpg (30.57 KiB) Viewed 2824 times

[gullum]

this is kind of a mackie controller with stream deck implanted into it

[iamlalinea]

Yo wendylou
first HUGE thanks

I just got a stream deck and I was looking for a genius way to control reason.

just loaded the profiles and it worked like a charm

gr8 deep work u did there...
I think you should sell it on the Elgato site

I was wondering how can I control the snap resolution 1/4 | 1/8 | 1/16...
is there an option cause there's no key command for it?

[wendylou]

Yo wendylou
first HUGE thanks
I just got a stream deck and I was looking for a genius way to control reason.
just loaded the profiles and it worked like a charm
gr8 deep work u did there...

You're welcome! Yeah, I burned out creating the 700+ commands

I think you should sell it on the Elgato site

I implored SideshowFX, who creates Stream Deck templates for various music and other apps, to also make one for Reason, but they declined. I could not convince them that we were a strong community with many users. So that's when I decided to do it myself and do it better than they ever could!

I was wondering how can I control the snap resolution 1/4 | 1/8 | 1/16...
is there an option cause there's no key command for it?

Yes! There is absolutely nothing Keyboard Maestro cannot control in Reason, including any action that has no shortcut or menu equivalent, such as changing SNAP values on-screen. I have yet to complete all such editor macros, but I will eventually complete this. In the meantime, there are two ways to control anything with Keyboard Maestro that does not have a menu or shortcut command, i.e. clickable onscreen items:

• Use Keyboard Maestro's AI image-matching to find the clickable item, and then add a mouse click. An example of this is my included "DIM -20dB" toggle. KM looks for the Reason DIM button using image-matching and then clicks it. It happens as quickly as if it were programmed directly!

• Use Keyboard Maestro's RECORD macro function to record your mouse movements and then the mouse clicks. It is referenced against an absolute upper-left screen coordinate of 0,0.

I think the more universal solution for all users would be the AI image-matching technique. I can have KM look for:

SNAP.jpg (10.71 KiB) Viewed 2058 times

... and then have it click to the right-hand side where the values are located, and make a macro/button combo for each possible Snap value, i.e. Grid, Bar, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/8T, etc.

The remaining editor and on-screen controls that need macros and buttons created are the final pieces in controlling everything in Reason - the frosting on the cake. So if anyone does any significant work on the various editors that I could incorporate, let me know. Otherwise, when I find my motivation for marathon programming again (I think it's under the couch cushion by the game "diversion" controller ), I'll complete those final controls. Then, the only things it won't include are any VSTs you might own that I don't – but you can easily look at my Keyboard Maestro examples, duplicate them, and alter them as needed to match your VST.

[wendylou]

UPDATE COMING – I resolved. the Keyboard Maestro (KM) error dialogue popups that were occurring on certain buttons!

With the help of Keyboard Maestro forum experts, it was first suggested that the problem may have been that Mac apps sometimes do not populate their menus until activated by a mouse click on the menubar. As my KM macros are looking for matching Menu item names, if the Reason menu was not active, there would be nothing to match. However, after adding a hidden menu mouse click to my KM macros, that did not stop the occasional KM error dialogue popup.

Then I figured it out! This KM error popup only occurred on Stream Deck Multi-Action state buttons that send out round-robin actions, e.g. "Show", then "Hide", then "Show", etc. Reason menus are dynamic and only display options based on the current state. i.e. "Hide Browser" if it is currently displayed, then "Show Browser" when it is hidden. Thus, since Stream Deck's Multi-Action buttons always send out a fixed first command followed by the second command, e.g. "Show Browser", then "Hide Browser", then "Show Browser", etc., the chances for a current state mismatch with Reason is a coin flip. So the solution was to disable KM's "Notify on Failure" which opened the error popup, because a subsequent key press will match the actual state in Reason, and the action will occur. No need to bother users with a momentary error. This is the nature of the beast with multi-action state toggles. You may already be in the state requested in Reason, and because Reason uses dynamic menus that change based on the state, there will be no match until the states match upon the second key press. Note that this issue was only affecting multi-action state toggles. Anyway, the problem is resolved!

I am currently going through the 700+ macros and will disable the "Notify on Failure" error dialog popups on affected macros and will post a new Zip download link shortly. This was the one annoying thing that was taking the fun out of using my Reason KB Edition Profiles. Now, it will be a joy to control Reason smoothly as intended! It's really awesome that you can control everything in Reason with buttons!

[wendylou]

UPDATED Macros – specifically, no more error dialogue popups!
16-MAY-2024 • (738 macros to date)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

FIXED: All "show/hide" Stream Deck Multi-Action buttons have had "Notify on Failure" disabled in their corresponding Keyboard Maestro macros, in addition to adding dual state options to those macros, as suggested to me by the creator of Keyboard Maestro, Peter Lewis! This eliminates the annoying error dialog box that popped up due to a show or hide state mismatch. Now, the experience of controlling everything in Reason is smooth.

Includes updated Stream Deck XL "Reason KM Edition Profiles" and Keyboard Maestro "Reason Macros.kmmacros".

• IMPORT the “Reason Macros.kmmacros” into Keyboard Maestro. (These replace any previous Reason KB Edition macros). Stream Deck XL links to these various KM macros to control Reason via the buttons.

• If not up-to-date, also copy all the Reason Profiles (.streamDeckProfile) into Stream Deck XL.

Control EVERYTHING in REASON using Stream Deck XL's 32 customizable LCD keys!

Required:
Keyboard Maestro https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/
Download Free Trial https://download.keyboardmaestro.com/

Stream Deck XL https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck-xl

See the ReadMe.txt included in my ZIP for directions on how to set-up.

REASON KM Edition.jpeg (207.67 KiB) Viewed 19 times