Reason Karaoke Template (How to set up Reason as a Karaoke Player)

How to set up Reason as a Karaoke Player

Hello everyone!

I know this post won’t appeal to all of you, but if you have ever wanted to sing along to your favourite tracks in midi file format (but can’t remember the words) I have found a solution. Of sorts.

I discovered a while back that .kar files are very similar to .mid files. If you change the file extension and resave them as .mid files, they seem to work fine as midi files. You can then import them into Reason if you want, but of course Reason will not display the lyrics from the original file.

If you link Reason to VanBasco Karaoke using the Loopbe1 virtual midi cable, you can press the play on the karaoke player and it will trigger Reason’s sequencer to play as well. If you create a 16 channel template, you can get ID8s to play the file instead of the default karaoke player – in time with the lyrics which are displayed on the screen.

Voila! Reason Karaoke is born!

That way, you get a backing track that’s a bit more inspiring to sing along to than the default midi one if Reason wasn’t connected up.

You need to install VanBasco and Loopbe1, and set Loopbe1 as the midi out device in VanBasco’s options screen. Right click on the lyrics screen and select options, midi and loopbe1.

You also need to set up a template in Reason with 16 midi channels and an ID8 on each channel set to Ch1 for track 1, ch2 for track 2, with Midi in set to Loopbe1 on each track.

Make sure Loopbe1 isn’t muted (it appears as a little midi plug icon near your clock at the bottom of the screen) and you should be good to go!

There is a slight problem, however.

Song changes.

If you import a midi into Reason in the normal way, [File, Import Midi File] it loads up an ID8 for each track. It usually picks a default sound pretty close to what the original sound is. If you import the midi, you get the instrument / patch changes. This is good. But this way there’s no link to the lyric screen.

If you set the Karaoke player to play different tracks, when it gets to the next song on its playlist it keeps sending midi data through to the ID8’s but it doesn’t change the instrument patch. If you change songs, the ID8s stay the same. Not so good.

I set this up in Reaper and Mixcraft using Mixcraft’s acoustica instruments midi sound bank and they switch patches successfully at each song change. They know if the bass is on a different track and switch the track automatically to play the right voice for that song.

I haven’t been able to get Reason to do the same yet unless I import the file in the traditional way (which presumably creates a patch change trigger.)

So if you load up 2 files in the Karaoke Player with the bass guitar on track 2 on the first one and on track 9 on the second one, it won’t select the right voices just by pressing play. They stay the same.

I appreciate that I could import each file separately, or create a playlist and make sure that the bass is always on track 2 or whatever, but I don’t want to. I just want to be able to pick a bunch of midi files and get the patch change info to switch the ID8s at each song change.

You can import the track and line up the original 16 channels with the imported ones.

You can put them side by side in the rack and then change your default piano patch on each channel to the correct one for that channel for that song. But do you want to do that for every song? I don’t!

Does anybody know why the patch switching works in Reaper and Mixcraft but not in Reason? Can we get Reason to behave in the same way? To switch the voices on the ID8’s at each change of song?

I’d love to fix it!

I am not looking for professional recording quality here, just a way of using Reason in a Karaoke session in a fun capacity for parties and so on without any file maintenance (manual ID8 switching) between songs. It wrecks the spontaneity somewhat.

Thanks in advance!

All the best

 

Neil

PS I wouldn’t have thought of this but for getting hold of Josh Levy’s Tick Tick sequencer and seeing how other Reason Forum users have used Loopbe1 to control other Reason devices. Props to you guys!
https://www.propellerheads.se/forum/showthread.php?t=191440&highlight=loopbe1

 Reason Karaoke 2

PPS I have created a Reason Karaoke Template that can be downloaded here:

http://tinyurl.com/kkopkt2

NB You will need to be a registered/licenced user of Reason 7, and you will need to download and install Loopbe1 and VanBasco’s Karaoke Player and configure them correctly with Reason 7 to use this file.

Karaoke Update – Adding Lyrics to Midi Files

This section is a work in progress, and deals with a few workarounds. You need a midi file with a strong accurate melody line, a text file with the lyrics separated by hyphens, and some software to add the lyrics. You cannot add lyrics directly using VanBasco’s Karaoke. I would suggest Cakewalk Express, or the free version of Cakewalk Professional 3.01 (see the links below).

Once you have the midi file with the lyrics added, open it in VanBasco Karaoke Player. This is the program you will see the lyrics in.

Make sure VanBasco is connected via LoopBe1 to Reason (and that LoopBe1 is not muted) , so that when you press play, Reason starts at the same time.

To be honest, its more straightforward to use VanBasco on it’s own, but if you persevere you will find using reason’s voices will result in a much better sounding backing track.

Other Links

If you wanted to add lyrics to a midi file, here’s a link as to how to do it:
http://www.ebay.com.au/gds/Add-karaoke-lyrics-in-a-MIDI-File-Sonar-Cakewalk-/10000000003008227/g.html

Note: These instructions are designed to work with later versions of Cakewalk than the version discussed below.

You would need to add lyrics to your midi file in software like Cakewalk Express, rather than Reason. It’s possible to add lyrics with Cakewalk Professional 3.01, which is very similar to Cakewalk Express and can be downloaded for free at the links shown below.

I have used Cakewalk Express for years and it still works on 32 bit versions of Windows up to Windows 7. I do not think it will work on 64 bit systems.

If you still run a 32 bit system, check out Rich Nagel’s page here for a legitimate Free Version of Cakewalk Professional 3.01 and how to install it:  (NB I have NOT tested on this 64bit systems – and it is most unlikely to run on them to be honest)
http://www.simpilot.net/~richnagel/#cakewalk

Rich writes:
“Anyhow, quite a while back Twelve Tone Systems granted permission to freely distribute the full retail installation of Cakewalk Professional v3.01… which had a suggested retail price of $350 back in 1995! Download it from this web page right Here… and MIDI sequence and compose to your heart’s content :)”

Cakewalk Express 3.01 Direct Download link
http://queststudios.com/roland/utilities/cakewalk3.zip