Yesterday I wrote about how to stack Combinators in Reason 7.1 & older versions. Today things get easier because I will explain how to do that in Reason 8 or 9. And thanks to the new browser which got introduced in version 8 dragging and dropping presets and devices became the new reality.

Stacking Combinators is something I mention in the manual of my Rockmen ReFill because its presets are meant to be combined. So for this tutorial I will also focus on using the Reason rack for processing a guitar signal.

Step 1: create an audio track

Creating an audio track in R8 or 9 works the same as in older version. So I will refer to the text I already wrote for it yesterday.

Step 2: create an insert effect for the audio track (method A)

You can drag any device or preset directly from the browser into the rack:

• Click on a preset in the browser and while holding the mouse simply drag it into the rack just under the Audio Track you have created in Step 1.
• You’ll see a big orange line with a plus-symbol will appear under the rack device which means a rack device will be added.

• Drop the preset and notice how the device is automatically connected in the right way to Audio Track 1 (press the TAB-key to flip the rack around and see the cabling).

Step 2: create an insert effect for the audio track (method B)

• Right-click on the free black area just below the Audio Track. A menu is shown:

• Click on Create Effect… and you can browse for a patch and select one.

Step 3: stack a second Combinator

We can drag another preset before or after the device we have added to the rack in Step 2:

• Same as in Step 2, simply click on a preset in the browser and while holding the mouse drag it into the rack just under or above the device which is already in the rack.
• You’ll see a big orange line and a plus-symbol will appear under or above the rack device which means the rack device based on the preset will be added in place.
• NOTE: if you try to drag the new preset ON TOP of the device which is already in the rack an orange swap-symbol like this is shown (this means the presets will not be added under or above the rack device but REPLACE it):

If you want to stack another Combinator as insert you must drag it above the device. And if you want to stack a Combinator after the one you already have in your rack simply drag it under that device. Real simple, right?

Auto-routing will do its work perfectly: if you drag a new Combinator effect above the Combinator, Reason will automatically replug those devices for you. What You See Is What You Get: the signal will run through the rack in serial from top to bottom, from the Audio Track into the first device and then into the next device and so on. Using the Rockmen ReFill you can stack Combinators: filters (FTR) and saturators (SAT) before the AMP and MOD (modulators), DLY (delays) and RVB (reverbs) after the AMP. But for those who’d like to experiment, you can stack these Combinators in all sorts of ways.