Today, let's focus on hip-hop beat session with reason. This tutorial is based on the big hit of NAS (Affirmative Action) released in 1996 (The original structure is not online but is in the .reason file in goodies).

The sample base uses a slow tempo (84 BPM) and is very minimal. It consists in a deep bass with a synthesized guitar combined with scratches (.rex files from the default reason library) and some brass instruments.

It is creative commons so feel free to download and play with this tutorial in Reason. If someone wants to put some voice, it will be my pleasure to hear the result!

A quick easy bass line, with a quick brass instrument line accented by guitar on the upbeat. We have the basico to make some ska music.The result would be really better with real instruments but I tried to explore the Reason possibilities to generate and simulate acoustic instruments, using effects. There is still a lot of work to do …

I used the patch FingerBass 1.0.sxt for the bass
I used the patch Gt Hippie 12Str.sxt for the guitar with some reverb (rv 7000) and distortion (Scream 4) effects
The drum is a loop from Acoustic Drums | College 130-1.drex reprocessed with some effects
For the brass instruments Full Orchestra.cmb and TRPS Long ff lite.sxt was used with some reverb and others effects.

You can download the reason project (.reason) here : Atomik Session Ska reason file

Thanks to licensing revenue share from jamendo, my own gift for xmas : balance + reason 6.5

I'll write a full article about this product after finishing playing with it