Getting the Redrum to Play

In the following examples, you're going to be writing a drum track in Reason's Sequencer. You'll open a drum track in the Sequencer and hear your first drum sounds.

If you've created your Redrum, you already have a drum track ready to go; Reason creates a track in the Sequencer every time you add a device to your Rack.

To audition your drum sounds

1.	Move the mouse over the sample list to the left of the Sequencer's Edit mode grid. The cursor will change to a speaker iconyour mouse is now an audition tool (Figure 4.18). Figure 4.18. The cursor changes to an audition tool when you pass it over the sample name column in your drum track.
2.	Click a sample name to hear it.

Troubleshooting: No Sound?

If you're not hearing anything when you play a sample, here are several things to check before you throw your computer out the window:

The hardware interface. Does the green field under Audio Out display a sound card, or does it say No Sound (Figure 4.19)? If it displays No Sound, you need to go to your Reason Preferences and select a sound card.

Figure 4.19. If your hardware interface says "No Sound," you need to choose a sound card in Reason Preferences.

The Mixer. Is there a Redrum 1 label on Channel 1? If not, you need to manually cable the left and right stereo outs from your drum machine to the Channel 1 audio inputs of the Mixer.

Volumes. Are the Channel 1 or Master Volume faders all the way down? Are any of the Mixer channels muted?

Computer volume settings. You might have a desktop audio control that is set to zero or muted. Check the volume controls in the computer's Control Panel in Windows, or the Volume slider and Mute check box in the Sound panel of Mac OS X System Preferences.