This is just a simple organ style patch. Somewhat inspired by the Brecker patch used on the song 'Cajun' by Steps Ahead. If you want to hear some amazing EWI playing, the album 'Magnetic' by Steps Ahead has some great playing by Michael Brecker. They did a tour promoting the album and they made a live album - it's called 'Steps Ahead Live in Japan'. Highly recommended if you like jazz fusion.

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!

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.

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.

I've been a little lax with the sounds of the week lately - it's been more like the sound of the month. That's what happens when you have to figure life into your life - PLUS I'm working on some really cool new projects. 

Since the gigging season is starting soon (as least for me) I thought I would share some patches for tunes that I'm learning in the pop/cover band I'm in. 

We are playing 'Last Name' by Carrie Underwood, and I'll be covering a banjo and fiddle. On the recording, the fiddle player does a lot with double stops, so I layered in another violin a perfect fourth below the main one. The second violin is only triggered when velocity (translated as attack strength on the EWI) is above 108.

The bottom part of the range is a banjo, just for fun. 

Next time you play a country tune, you can break out the fiddle and banjo! Fun stuff!

The other advantage as a horn player, is that I don't have to lay out this tune, since there are no horns on it. That keeps me musically relevant in the band.

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.

The band I am in is starting rehearsals to get ready for the summer wedding season and I thought I would take a second look at my current batch of patches that I use. 

I thought my 'go to' brass patch could use an upgrade, so I found something in the Reason Factory Sound Bank and converted it to use breath control. 

You can use this sound with your EWI-USB, EWI4000s, WX7-5-11 or whatever wind controller you happen to have and, of course Reason. 

Next week, I'll have some time to beef it up with some effects and put it in a combinator. 

The sound of the week is the dual malstrom from the tutorial earlier this week. To find out all about it, read the tutorial.