I am a fan of the Audiomatic device which ships as a free Rack Extension with Reason (version 7 or higher). Not only does it sound great using the warm Tape, the pumping VHS, the noisy and tickling Vinyl, the trippy Psyche or any of the other super useful presets, it is in fact the most simple way for creating contrasty sounds in a mix.

Over the years I have learned that contrasty sounds are the most important thing for creating an interesting mix. It’s that tension in sound you can get by blending/mixing sounds together which are each others opposites. It’s a challenge to make the extremes to blend together nicely.

It’s a must to have both thin sounding and thick sounding sounds in a mix. Or to blend distorted with none-distorted tracks.

The Audiomatic is also a great device to overcome decision stress. You can simply limit yourself by using nothing but Audiomatic devices for mixing when working in Reason. Using the Bright preset when you need more high end (don’t forget to explore the lovely saturation the Bright preset can add to the sound!). Or user the Bottom preset for quickly adding more weight add the bottom range.

This method offers the kind of layered approach like when you’re using sampled loops from all kinds of sources. Or the cool sounds you cab get by using a mixture of old and new hardware. Use the Cracked preset to make some stuff sound really dirty. Or use the Circuit preset for creating a low bit sampled sound.

Trust me: it is fun and real easy!