In this installment we are going to build on the FX combinator from last time, 'Pad FX'. If you remember, we sent our dry pad sound through a Unison, stereo imager and reverb, then made combinator controls to control various parameters. We are going to add Thor's filters to this patch to add the unique character of the Low Pass Ladder and State Variable Filters to our Malstrom Pad sound. Modular SynthesisOne thing I like to do is combine various elements of different Reason devices. Subtractor sound with Thor filters? Sure. Why not use the Mod A and B modulators from Malstrom with a Thor sound? This all possible with the right wiring. So, for this example, we are going to create a Thor patch with filters only. We will route the audio from a Malstrom to the filter. Easy. Here's how to do it.
The completed patch should like this. Save it as 'Filter'. Next flip the rack around and route the insert FX L and R to Audio inputs 1 and 2 of the Thor. Route the Thor Audio outputs 1 and 2 to the inputs of the Unison device. The Filter A and Filter B buttons are grayed out. Because we are using the Thor filter now, we can turn off the filters on the Malstrom. Now, lets play our pad sound. I'm using the Malstrom patch 'Ambient Pad 05' from Exodes Massive Synthesis Refill (free). The Malstrom doesn't have a 24db ladder filter, but now it does thanks to Thor!
Let's see what it sounds like with the State Variable Filter in 12db Low pass mode. Nice. You can hear the 'fuzziness' added by the filter -- something you won't get with the stock Malstrom filters.
The Next LevelMBRS routings for variable LFO To take this up one more notch we will give our pad some motion with a variable LFO. This one will modulate the filter frequency of whatever filter we are using with LFO 2. We can control the amount with Rotary 1, and the Rate with Rotary 2. The MBRS settings are to the left. Label Rotary 1 'LFO Level' and Rotary 2 'LFO Rate'. By setting Rotary 1 to a high value, and moving Rotary 2 in real time, we can add some motion to our chord progression. To record Rotary 2, right click on the Thor and select 'Create Track for Thor 1.' Click the record button and move the knob as you record. Agreen box will appear around Rotary 2 when you are done, indicating it is being automated.
So there you have it. A cool way to use Thor filters with any sound in the sound bank. We even added a feature to control the brightness for some real time motion. I hope this gives you some insight about modular synthesis and using the Reason devices as building blocks for new and interesting devices. And by looking over my shoulder as we make these, maybe you can get some ideas of your own. You can also see how one idea leads to another. (and another, and another...) With the advent of Rack Extensions you might even want to wire up some rack extension devices to see what sounds you can come up with. Here is the completed Combi FX patch:
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial.
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This is a real quick tip I'd like to share, that may seem really simple to some, but it gives great results for creating huge, spacious pads. Hope you like it. Step by StepThere are tons of slow evolving pads in the Reason Factory Sound Bank (RFSB). To make them sound big and spacious I have a little FX "recipe" that I use over and over: Synth --> Unison --> Stereo Widener --> Reverb Be sure to use the Reverb preset 'ALL Treetops' from the RFSB for a nice big reverb. The reverb will set the pad farther back in the track and the stereo imager will get the pad out of the way of your lead sound. We want both of these for our pad. You may notice that I put all this in a combinator for ease of use and I programmed the rotary knobs to control the unison, stereo and reverb amounts. Using itI really like the Malstrom pads, and you can find some wonderful ones in the free ReFill -"eXode Massive Synthesis Refill". Download it, it's an awesome Refill. Here is what this pad sounds like on its own with no effects.
Nice to be sure, but kind of up front and in your face. Lets add our combinator to it. 1. Open the Mix Channel above the device by clicking the disclosure triangle to the left of it. 2. Click the 'Show Programmer' button. 3. Load our Pad Fx combinator into the 'Insert FX' slot. Mix channel insert fx I like doing it this way because our combi knobs will appear in the mix channel. What does it sound like now?
Absolutely gorgeous! Try this setup with any pad like sound. You'll be surprised how just a few effects can turn a sound from ho-hum to amazing. Here is the completed combinator insert. Have fun in pad-land! Do you have any recipes for pads?
I'm messing around some more with the Bottle waveform on the Malstrom. This sound is not breathy, but clean. It has something of whistling sound to it, but also a vocal quality. It's still a light, airy sound. I was inspired by the subtle sound of the blown bottles in Pat Metheny's Orchestrion, which you should definitely check out.
This is a sound that uses two malstroms to produce a breathy, bottle kind of a sound. You can experiment with the mix between the 'pure' blown bottle and the breath noise in the Line Mixer that is in the combinator. Don't forget to add reverb!
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 RoutingThor 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. The sound of the week is the dual malstrom from the tutorial earlier this week. To find out all about it, read the tutorial.
In the first part of this series, we talked about using the Combinator to route BC to any parameter in any device. In this installment, we will use CV. Even though Breath is supported in Reason as one of the standard performance controllers along with expression and after touch different devices have varying levels of support for it. In this tutorial I'll discuss a technique you can use to route your breath control information as CV to any device. Let's dive in. Getting StartedLet's run down what we can control 'out of the box' with the various Reason devices. We'll examine the parameters directly accessible via BC from the front panel: Subtractor: Filter 1 Frequency, LFO 1, Amp, FM NN-19: Filter Frequency, LFO, Amp NN-XT: Filter Frequency, Mod Decay, LFO1 Amt, Filter Resonance, Level, LFO1 Rate. Malstrom: Nothing Thor: Anything (via Mod Routing) This is not a bad list at all, and you can, in fact, make tons of great patches with just the front panel controls, except for Malstrom, which has no BC front panel controls. But what if... you want breath to control Subtractor's noise oscillator, or the filter resonance on NN-19, or anything on Malstrom? Or even control parameters on a Scream 4 distortion? Technique Number 2 - RPG-8 Arpeggiator Technique Unique to the RPG-8 Arpeggiator are CV Performance Conrol outputs including Breath! That means we can put the RPG-8 in a Combinator, get our Breath data as CV and route it to other devices. In this two part tutorial we will dive deep into how many parameters we can control using just Breath control. When we blow into a wind controller (ANY wind controller) The breath pressure is converted to a continuous stream of MIDI data in the range of 0 - 127. 0 means we are not blowing at all, 127 means we are blowing pretty hard - hard enough to max out the sensor. When we buy a wind controller, this is really what we are buying - a way to use our breath (and horn fingerings) to control the sound coming from some sound source, either a synth or sampler, or some combination thereof. Getting StartedLet's run down what we can control 'out of the box' with the various Reason devices. We'll examine the parameters directly accessible via BC from the front panel: Subtractor: Filter 1 Frequency, LFO 1, Amp, FM NN-19: Filter Frequency, LFO, Amp NN-XT: Filter Frequency, Mod Decay, LFO1 Amt, Filter Resonance, Level, LFO1 Rate. Malstrom: Nothing Thor: Anything (via Mod Routing) This is not a bad list at all, and you can, in fact, make tons of great patches with just the front panel controls, except for Malstrom, which has no BC front panel controls. But what if... you want breath to control Subtractor's noise oscillator, or the filter resonance on NN-19, or anything on Malstrom? Or even control parameters on a Scream 4 distortion? Let's dive in. Technique Number 1: Combinator to the RescueIf you create a combinator and put a device into it, you can use the Combinator Programmer to control any parameter on that device. In this example we'll work with Malstrom, because presumably, you can't use BC (Breath Control) with it. This is a Combinator with a Malstrom in it, and nothing is set up in the Modulation Routing section. Did you know that Breath is a valid Source in the Modulation Routing section? Reason 5 Combi Source Parameters Here are the parameters I have available in Reason 5. I'll just select Breath and route it to what I want, in this case the Master Level on Malstrom, but it could be any parameter on any device. Voila! Instant Breath control over the output volume. I can even scale this so that the volume change isn't so drastic. I'll set it to 64-100. Now when Reason receives my Breath data in the range of 0-127, it will be linearly mapped to 64-100. The really sweet thing about using the combinator this way is that I can swap out the Malstrom patch and the Combinator routing holds - so any Malstrom patch I load into this thing will automagically be breath enabled. The other great thing about this technique is that mapped knobs and controls actually move when you blow. This gives you a visual indication as to how you are controlling the sound. Tips and Tricks
Finishing UpAs I mentioned above, you can load any Malstrom patch into the Malstrom in the Combinator you just created and will instantly gain some degree of breath control. Check out the Malstrom patches in the Reason Factory Sound Bank. Or, you can get tons of Malstrom patches in the free refills section of Propellerheads web site.
I highly recommend 'eXode - Massive Synthesis ReFill', which contains all of the other eXode ReFills on the page, plus some previously released commercial ReFills. If you scroll way down the page you will find '1001 Malstrom Refill' which is just what it says. It's a little more electic, but there are some useful patches if you dig around. In part two we will convert Breath data to CV and see what we can do with that. Happy Malstrom-ing! After months of programming and tweaking, I'm pleased to announce our first commercial ReFill - the Cyclone Wind Synthesizer for Reason. I wanted to create a Combinator that is a tool kit for Reason for wind controllers. The main idea is to load any sound into a Combinator and have it gain a great degree of breath response without having to reprogram each and every sound.
I've largely succeeded with this ReFill, and you get 50 presets and an extensive user guide to get you started. I think you're really going to like it. Learn more at the product page. |
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