Reassigning The Function Keys In Mac Os X - Propellerhead Reason Installation Manual

Reassigning the Function Keys in
Mac OS X
When you work with Reason, you will do a lot of navigating between the three main areas - the main mixer,
the rack and the sequencer. The quickest way to switch between these areas is to use the function keys
F5, F6 and F7 (see "Navigating between the areas" in the "Common Operations and Concepts" chapter in
the Operation Manual and Help system for details). Also, the F3, F4 and F8 keys are shortcuts for showing
and hiding the Recording Meter window, On-screen Piano Keys window and the Tool Window,
respectively.
However, on many Macintosh models (especially MacBooks), the function keys double as hardware
control buttons. For example, they might control the volume of the built-in speaker, the display brightness
or keyboard backlight. To make these keys actually work as function keys for software such as Reason,
you need to hold the "Fn" key while pressing them.
This can work perfectly OK, but to get the best workflow in Reason we recommend that you change this
behavior, so that pressing e.g. the F5 key actually sends "F5" to Reason (and you hold down the Fn key to
get the hardware control functions instead). Here is how you change this:
1. Open the System Preferences in Mac OS X and select the "Keyboard & Mouse" item.
The "Keyboard & Mouse" preferences are shown.
2. Select the "Keyboard" tab and make sure the checkbox "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as stan-
dard function keys" is ticked.
Now you can use F3-F8 for controlling functions in Reason. To use hardware control features such as
volume and display brightness, you need to hold down the "Fn" key before pressing the function keys.
Some function keys might also be pre-assigned to Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts, which will have priority
over software such as Reason. This is easily changed:
3. Click the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab in the "Keyboard & Mouse" window.
The Keyboards & Mouse Preferences window shows a list of keyboard shortcuts assigned to system
functions. For example, [Cmd]-[F5] is assigned to turn VoiceOver on or off. In Reason, this is the key-
board shortcut for detaching the main mixer into a separate window.
33
SETTING UP