EditEd4Tv - Reasonable Help 2010 - ReFill ReView

I recently got my hands on EditEd4Tv's "Reasonable Help 2010" ReFill and thought I would post a ReView of it, since I am so impressed.

Ed Bauman is a fixture on the Reason Forums. He is one of the most knowledgable and certainly most helpful guys out there. Many times, I have seen a post start or end with 'Maybe Ed has some ideas on this...' hoping to get a response from the master!

This ReFill is rather eclectic but jam packed with a lot of great stuff. It is a compilation of seriously advanced Reason techniques, packaged up with some great documentation. In fact Ed himself describes his ReFill as "A helpful collection of creative combinators for Reason and Record." It's also important to note that the ReFill is not presented as a collection of patches, but as a collection of Reason song files. This lets the author present little song examples to demonstrate the functionality of each one.

I see this refill as not really a "collection of 764 of the most awesome sounds" but as a toolbox for learning Reason. As you know, I like the toolbox approach - I feel it empowers the user to take their music making and self expression further. Reasonable Help 2010 delivers.

Extensive documentation is given for each patch where you are walked through the inner workings of it. In fact, the included PDF is 128 pages long!

The Patches

BGCylon - this patch makes a 'Cylon' robot voice from your input. This is really fun (especially with kids!) and shows how to make a robot voice in Reason. His use of short delays never occurred to me, but that's what makes this ReFill so much fun -there are little 'aha' moments you experience as you go through it.

GlitchzillaMandelbrot - This a 'glitch' style patch that lets you load up a bunch of Dr Octo Rex loops and switch between them with a rotary control. There is also a beat repeat effect, LFO, filter, and flange control. By automating some of these, and playing some of them 'live' you can create so many cool beats. Then, you can load up your own loops and really go to town. Here is a short example of me playing with this patch.

HeriocPad - This is huge pad sound made up of stacked thors and delays. Since it can be rather CPU intensive he also includes a Low CPU version of the patch.

ChordalStrummer - I've always loved the sound of strummed acoustic guitar. In fact, when I was first getting into sequencing way back in the early 90's I went through a search to emulate acoustic strumming with synths. I finally gave up, and bought a guitar! I thought that it was impossible. Well, I think Ed did it. Dig this strummed acoustic guitar patch. It has got to be the most realistic I have ever heard, and is a great achievement.

VisualCV - This isn't so much a patch as a utility. I've covered visualizing your breath data from your EWI before using some of these techinques, but Ed's VisualCV patch takes it to a whole new level. You get:

• A time sensitive display that shows the CV values as they go by, and you can set the speed. Let's say you have your breath output on your EWI converted to CV. As you play you get a wave moving from right to left in the band display of a BV512 Vocoder.
  
• Moving Thor Rotaries.
  
• Moving Thor Formant filter display
  
• A numeric readout in the MBRS (Modulation Bus Routing Section) of the Thor Device

Visual CV

Seeing your breath data can be invaluable when calibrating the sensor on your EWI for example. Super useful and a creative approach to visualizing CV.

And There's More...

There are unique and interesting effect patches:

• TheAntiquator - realistically add ground loop buzz, LP scratches and pops, system hiss and more
  
• CarRadio - Simulates a radio trying to tune into the station.
  
• Analog Delay - a delay with soft distortion in the feedback loop
  
• VocalEliminator - eliminates the audio in the center of the stereo field.
  

Playable sounds:

• LusciousSpace5thStrings - beautiful strings
  
• HeroicPad - a huge stack of Thors making a very nice analog pad
  
• MethSqueak - a Roland GR-300 emulation
  
• BigFatAnalogSynth - the name says it all
  

Utility patches - 

• ClickTracker - an insert for adding a click track to a song with many configurable options 
  
• NoiseGate - remove hiss from incoming audio
  
• AutoFader - trigger to fade out the end of your song
  

EditEd4Tv_Mastering

The mastering suite included with each song file deserves special mention. Each song file has the EditEd4Tv Mastering suite which I find highly useful and musical. It's very easy to use and sounds great. As you may know, I love the Scream4 and he makes very subtle use of the Scream4 in this mastering combinator. This, to me, is worth the price of admission.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there is a lot here, and the documentation makes it instantly usable. I wish I would've have gotten this sooner because there is so much userful material here. If you are at all interested in learning some advanced Reason techniques, or just want to add some useful tools to your music making toolbox,  I highly recommend this ReFill. A huge thanks to Ed for putting this together and for continuing to advance the state of the art using our favorite software - Reason!

You can get the ReFill here - and tell 'em you heard about it on EWI Reason Sounds!