MIDI drum loops in Reason 12

[Buddy Deal]

Hi,

For years I’ve just used Dr. Octo and Rex files or just drag and drop WAV files for working with drum loops. I’ve recently been acquiring MIDI drum loops, mostly through specials and sales at loop store and now have a modest folder of them. Mostly they are all designed for use with real drum kit sounds, vintage and brush kits etc. However, I’ve never used them before in Reason and was hoping to find some guidance.

Which rack extension(s) is/are best to use when working with midi drum loops? And what’s the normal process for importing them? Would anyone care to explain how they go about doing it, their method and what works best? I’m an Americana singer-songwriter looking to use real drum samples with an organic vibe. Don’t use much electronica drum sounds.

Can I do this in Reason or would I be better off finding a third party app like Addictive drums, EZ drummer or something?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
BD

[Mich01]

Hi Buddy,

I sometimes use mididrumloops and quit often play the drumtracks on my keyboard. I like the instand-drumkits from the ID8 device quit well. But there are some NN-XT-kits in the factory soundbank that has some extended percussion instruments in it.
Besides I have the (old) refill Reason Drum Kits which is transformed into an RE a few years ago with the same name. I don't have the RE but the refill sounds quit good to my ears.
Greetzzz
Michel

[MuttReason]

The Reason Drum Kits (RDK) RE works really well with imported MIDI drum loops. You may need to transpose some drum parts in the sequencer piano roll as some of the RDK isn’t mapped to the GM standard drum map (although core parts of the kit should be fine).

Great thing about the RDK is that velocity data in the MIDI file really takes advantage of the RDK multisamples across different velocity ranges plus ‘round robin’ switching of samples for repeated notes. It can sound v realistic.