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How to Use Toxic Biohazard in Reason 4

Toxic Biohazard is a VSTi plug-in, a virtual synthesizer that can be used with audio sequencers, that was developed and published by the Belgian software company Image-Line. Unfortunately, the audio sequencer Reason 4 doesn't support VSTi plug-ins, but you can incorporate Toxic Biohazard into your Reason 4 compositions by routing Reason through a ReWire host that does. A ReWire host is a second audio sequencer through which you can channel your Reason 4 sounds. You can then use all of the samples and instrumentation available in Reason with Toxic Biohazard and any other VSTi plug-ins and effects in your ReWire host.

Things You'll Need

  • MIDI keyboard
  • USB cable
  • Audio sequencer
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Instructions

    • 1

      Connect one end of your USB cable to your MIDI keyboard, and the other to your computer.

    • 2

      Click the shortcut on your desktop or in your Start menu to launch your ReWire host.

    • 3

      Click the shortcut on your desktop or in your Start menu to launch Reason 4.

    • 4

      Open a new project in your ReWire host application and configure Reason 4 as a ReWire slave. Then, load tracks to your ReWire host to connect to your Reason 4 output tracks. The method for doing so will depend on which ReWire host you are using. Check your program's help section or user guide if you are unsure.

    • 5

      Click "File" and then "New" to open a new project in Reason. You can now add mixers, effects and instruments to your Reason rack by right-clicking on an empty area above the sequencer lane and selecting the virtual devices you want to use. When you select a device, it will appear in your rack and be allocated a track in Reason's sequencer.

    • 6

      Route each Reason instrument to a separate track in your host program. You should be able to do this by choosing each Reason instrument from a drop-down menu on each track you've loaded in your host program. The exact method will vary depending on which sequencer you're using as a host. Sequencers you could use include Cubase, FL Studio and Ableton Live. These can all act as a ReWire host and support VSTi plug-ins.

    • 7

      Load another track in your host program and connect it to an instance of Toxic Biohazard. In most programs you'll be able to do this by right-clicking on an empty area of your host's sequencer window and selecting the option to add another MIDI track. You can then load Toxic Biohazard from your VSTi plug-in collection, which should be accessible from your host program's toolbar and select it from the drop-down menu on the track you've just created.

    • 8

      Build your tune in your ReWire host on your MIDI keyboard using Reason 4 instruments and Toxic Biohazard.

Digital Music

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