Tutorial - Tone Fattener 09/01/2011
 I've stumbled across a few techniques here and there for fattening up a monophonic sound, so I thought I would compile a few of them into one blog post. We all could use a fuller, rounder sound, right? With that in mind, I humbly present to you the THK-1000 Sound Fattener!
By the end of the tutorial, we will have created a combinator insert effect that you can use to fatten up any sound. At least, it works for me, maybe it will work for you. Ready? Let's get started! Add Comment  It's time for Thor! With all the work getting Rotator finished, I've been slacking off a bit on the tutorials. It also means I have a backlog of cool stuff I've been thinking about so we will start up again talking about the multi-oscillator in Thor.
Now, the REAL Multi Oscillator tutorial is here on the Propellerheads web site in the "Discovering Reason" series. I'm not going to go into too much detail , and I am going to put my own spin on it to (hopefully) make this relevant to those of us with a wind controller. By the end of the tutorial, we will have created a classic 'blown pipe' EWI sound, but using nothing but the Multi Oscillator in Thor. A natural type sound, created via synthesis only!  Thor, baby! I just got my hands on EWI master Bernie Kenerson's "Thor ReFill Volume 3".
Bernie Kenerson's new "EWI Refill Thor Volume 3" is an awesome collection of Thor patches for Reason 4 and 5 that every EWI player should have in their arsenal. One thing about patch libraries is that they reflect the taste and sensibility of the author. We now know that Bernie is one creative player. His patches sound like nothing I have heard before (but in a good way!). I kept asking myself - "How did he come up with this one?" Read on for my quick review... Sound of the Week - Synth Brass 04/02/2011
 The search for a killer synth brass patch continues. Here is another take on it. I cribbed from the Record Factory Sound Bank. There is a synth brass patch in there that uses three ID8 devices that sounds pretty good - except that the ID8 does not respond to BC and the usual CV tricks don't work because there are no CV inputs! I replaced the sounds with one NN-XT and two Thors to come up with something even better. Personally, I think it's a losing battle to try to emulate a perfect horn section. Maybe that's because I'm a horn player and have been fortunate enough to play is some killer horn sections myself. I just know how good a real section can sound and trying to get it perfect and missing, is worse than not trying. The main thing I like to do is get the same feeling as a real horn section and perform the same musical function as a real horn section, without sounding like cheeseball sampled horns. I'll definitely be using this one on the gig. 
Sound of the Week - OctaveLead 03/23/2011
 This week we have fairly standard moog style lead, inspired by the Magic Moog Refill you can get for free from the Propellerheads web site. This is a particularly expressive patch, and I can see using it on ballads or up tempo electronica.
Sound of the Week - Super OB Airy Clarinet 03/12/2011
 Well, we are still playing around with that basic Thor patch. I'm working on a new project and creating a little library of variations on this basic sound. This patch uses two state variable filters for that distinctive Oberheim sound. Remember, you can beef up this sound with a Scream 4. Try the 'HalfInch' Scream 4 patch found in the Reason Factory Sound Bank (Scream 4 Patches -> Warm Saturation). Try some reverb, too, and have fun.
Route BC Anywhere - Part 3 03/03/2011
This is the final installment of the Route Breath Control Anywhere series, and this time we are using Thor to route our Breath Control. We are going to take our breath data stream, send it to the CV outs on the back of Thor, and from there, to our devices. Finally, I will show you a technique to control the amount of breath data that is sent to each output, and control this via the front panel knobs on the combinator. Technique Number 3: Thor Routing Thor can be used as it was intended - a great synth. However, I have no intention of using it as it was intended! Thor is also an insane data processing unit, and we will use some of those capabilities here. In this case the data we want to process is our incoming breath data.
Magic Moog Refill 02/22/2011
This is just a plug for the Magic Moog Refill available for free on the Propellerheads free refill page.  For some reason I overlooked this before but it is a great little refill. There are a ton of Moog style patches, but the best part is the included pdf. The pdf has a nice history of Moog synthesizers and a tutorial on how the patches were made. If you are just getting into sound design, this is a great place to start learning about the father of all synths, and why things are they way they are on Tho If you are experienced with Thor, the history alone is worth the download. Happy Moog-ing! Sound of the Week - Thor Number Four 01/28/2011
 If you liked the airy clarinet from last week, you'll love the airy lead this week! This patch really cuts through a mix. Play around with the resonance to increase the 'bite' of the sound. Have fun.
Sound of the Week - Thor in Store 01/23/2011
 If you have been following along, we are presenting variations on an analog style patch inspired by a certain classic synth whose name starts with the letter 'M'. Hint: it rhymes with 'tube'. This classic synth had a noise oscillator on it, so this week we add the noise oscillator to our Thor patch. It vaguely resembles a clarinet, albeit one with a lot of breath noise. Note to clarinet students: breath noise is NOT desirable when you are playing a real clarinet. This is not a supposed to sound like a real clarinet. It sounds like a square wave synth oscillator with some air added to it. Clarinet or no, enjoy.
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