Saturday, December 31

Happy New Year!



Happy New Year! I hope this past year has been a good one for you and yours... Since this is the time of year where people reflect, I thought I'd make a list of tops for me this year:

1. Reason 6 - The Props bring it all together in one straight forward package of music making software.

2. Reaktor Razor Ensemble - Finally someone creates an additive synthesizer that's easy to navigate. While Razor can certainly do the Wob Wob sounds used in it's ad, I really love it for leads and sub basses. Nice one Native Instruments and Errorsmith!

3. Robot Koch's The Other Side - This album has been the soundtrack to my Fall and Winter. Buy it now!

4. Nucleus SoundLab Pantheon III - Yes I worked on this refill, and while I'm proud of my own sound design on P3 what keeps me coming back to it is the quality of work by everyone involved in the project. And if you haven't picked this up yet, you have until January 7th, 2012 to qualify for the 30% discount ;-).

5. Moog Slim Phatty - While the Slim Phatty was released at the end of 2010 I didn't get my paws on one until the local big box store had a model on display this year. Lovely analog oscillators and a smooth Moog Low Pass Filter - what's not to love? Seeing as I have $800 set aside for one, expect this on my 2012 list as well ;-).

6. Novation Impulse 49 Key Model - Leave it to Novation to create a 49 key midi controller that finally breaks the $399 (USD) barrier while still retaining quality keys. Don't get me wrong, I won't be trading my SL MKii in for one any time soon (the faders on the SL are much much better), but for those in need of a new controller on the cheap it's a no brainer!

7. Tom Pritchard Sound Design - Mr. Tom Pritchard has long been one of my sound design heroes. His patches have a playability that I think a lot of other designers miss and his 2011 foray into commercial sound design with the Tom Pritchard Sound Design moniker couldn't please me more. Read my review of FatBank for more information.

8. Apparat's Devil's Walk - Two years in the making, Apparat's Devil's Walk album melds electronica with rock and pop into a polished lp perfect for long winter strolls in the snow. With the help of Joshua Eustis (of Telafon Tel Aviv) and friend Fredo Noguerira, it's no wonder this album is so fantastic.

9. Sonic Couture's Broken Wurli - The Wurlizter 200a has long been my favorite electric piano and Sonic Couture's Broken Wurli for Kontakt (and Kontakt Player) captures the magic of that sound for those of us without the space for one. This library was recorded with a 200a borrowed from Neil Davidge, producer for Massive Attack, who describes the piano as having "a dodgy distorting speaker that sounds great.”


10. Miles Davis Live In Europe 1967 - The first in a series of bootleg releases from Sony, Live in Europe 1967 captures the second legendary Miles Davis Quartet in fine form on 2 CDs and a DVD. A sort of missing link between Kind of Blue and Bitches Brew, Live in Europe is a must have for jazz afficionados!

Special Mentions: 2011 has been a great year to be a Reason user, with a slew of new refills at Rackflip.com (I'm currently eyeing Floe and Missing Pieces OctoPulse Thor) as well as a new refill from legendary Reason user Ed Bauman with EditEd's 88mph Vol.1, plus a number of great new refills from Harald Karla at Soundcells, the only tough part has been deciding where and what to spend your hard earned money on!

Have a wonderful 2012!

Silverbird Live Reaktor Ensemble how to use breakbeat


"Hi, this is a video to show some features and the workflow of the Reaktor Ensemble: "Silverbird Live" from a.goc and j.kanzler
This example is with a breakbeat
A great reaktor groovebox......
Best regards." -moresound4u

Friday, December 30

QuNeo 3D Multi-touch Pad Controller



QuNeo is a 3D Multi-touch Pad Controller being developed by Keith McMillen, who has constructed instruments and controllers for the likes of Bob Weir, Laurie Anderson, John Paul Jones and the Kronos Quartet! QuNeo is open source and currently has a kickstarter campaign running with over $100,000 pledged (with an initial $15,000 goal.) Here's the info from kickstarter:

QuNeo is a different species of pad controller for electronic musicians, DJs, VJs and DIY hackers. While it covers all of the functionality of other pad controllers, QuNeo adds the power of touch recognition in other dimensions.

Features:

Tactile Pads, Sliders, Rotary Sensors and Switches

Each of the 27 pads, sliders and rotary sensors are pressure, velocity, and location sensitive. Even the 17 switches respond to how hard you press.

LED Light Feedback

A remarkable lumination scheme combines variably diffusive elastomers with 251 multi-color LEDs providing visual feedback that is immediately responsive and delightfully informative. Man and machine are coupled through light, feel and sound.

Trigger Pads

16 square pads provide 127 levels of Velocity response. And X-Y location. And continuous pressure. For each pad. Times sixteen.

Rotary Sensors

2 rotary sensors allow you to scrub, trigger, stretch, pinch and play phrases and sound files, manipulate continuous controllers and more . Each rotary sensor measures angle, pressure and distance from the center.

Multi-touch Sliders

9 touch sensitive sliders can be mapped to fader and effects controls. LEDs within each slider act as VU meters or remind you where you were. Multi-touch lets you select a length between two fingers to set stereo locations or filter resonances. Tapping a slider can mute or toggle any track or function.

Switches

The switches are located in smart groupings to select samples, fader banks, and transport controls. Each of the switches can scan up and down through files at speeds variable with your touch. Great for quickly locating that perfect fill or telling your looper you really meant it.

The Size of an iPad.

QuNeo is the size of an iPad and can fit in iPad accessories such as mic clips, stands and more.

Class Compliant and Open Source Development Kit

QuNeo works with USB, MIDI or OSC and will communicate with your favorite music software environments right out of the box. More advanced users and programmers can use the development kit and API to create their own code to respond to QuNeo's sensor data. Hack away to control your world in ways never before possible!

Only 10 days left to pledge $200 USD (or more) for your own 1st edition QuNeo @ kickstarter. This is your chance to rock a QuNeo before they're available to the general public!



Thursday, December 29

Koadij / Beats & Poles


"Hank walks into a pole dancing studio and all hell breaks loose."

Directed by David Dutton - duttonfilms.com/
Music by Henry Dutton
Lighting by Fernando Camarena
The Dancer - BAD ABY - omgitsbadaby.com/

Jam Session 6 "Better":

Jam Session 6 "Better" from David Dutton on Vimeo.

GRID Reaktor Ensemble


GRID is a new Sound Sequencer Reaktor ensemble from Icebreaker Audio available for £20 ($30/€24 approx.)
GRID is designed to be a sound sequencer, it is neither a drum machine nor a sequenced synthesizer, but some kind of hybrid of the two. GRID was designed to have no tabs and a single set of controls for the sound source. The central part of GRID is the 8×8 matrix sequencer. This is where the patterns are created using 8 steps along the x axis and 8 voices along the y axis. Voices are like partials of an additive synthesizer, or like notes in a scale. They can be either depending on how you with to use GRID. Each voice can have its own pattern length, allowing for interesting polyrhythms.

Key Features:

- 8 voice sound sequencer controlled from an animated 8×8 grid
- 42 presets with 4 patterns per preset (a total of 168 patterns)
- Per voice pattern length
- Analog and digital sound generation modes
- 2 modulation step sequencers and an LFO
- Filter and delay effects built in
- “Glitch” controls to add chaos and noise
- Automatic tempo-synchronization when used in a host
- Preconfigured TouchOSC templates for iPad and iPhone

Buy GRID today @ www.icebreaker-audio.com/products/grid/


GRID Audio Demos by Icebreaker Audio

Wednesday, December 28

Bernard Childcare Trust ReFill!


James Bernard has long been one of my musical heroes - for both his formidable music and work with Propellerhead. If you're a Reason user chances are you know his wife Nicole passed away earlier this year after a 2 1/2 year battle with Leukemia, leaving behind 4 young children. The Bernard Childcare Trust ReFill is a collaborative effort between six refill producers with the goal of passing all proceeds on to the Bernard family to help with their care.

The contributors:

Nicholas: DrDist/Odarmonix,
Ed: Bauman Productions,
Marco: Koshdukai’s Music(al) Reason(Ing)
Rob: Reason101.net,
Robb: Reason Patch-A-Day,
3rd Floor Sound: 3rdfloorsound.com
with special e-commerce help from Theo (New Atlantis Audio): www.rackflip.com

Contents:

- 47 Combinators
- 54 Thors
- 6 Kongs
- 108 Samples
- 41 NN19s
- 9 NNXTs
- 16 Malstroms
- 13 Subtractors
- 15 Effects
- 4 Rex loops

Purchase the Bernard Childcare Trust ReFill today for $20.73!

DEMO Bernard Childcare Trust refill by 3rdFloor

Addendum: If the Holidays left you short on cash you can also donate to the trust fund set up for the Bernard children by buying James Bernard's Guidance single with Olivia Broadfield, available thru jamesbernard.bandcamp.com for $1.99!

Soundcells Nordic Red!


Soundcells released this amazing new FREE refill for Christmas called Nordic Red, but having been visiting my sister in Oregon I just got around to downloading it today. Here's the lowdown, Nordic Red is based on samples from the legendary Nord Modular G2X Synthesizer. The G2X's modular environment made it great for creating self-playing patches, called "Noodles", which is what Nordic Red is based upon. These patches are great to use as soundbeds for starting tracks or creating ambient washes of sonic delight. Some of my favorite of the twenty included combinators are Fragments, Machine, Nightlife 2 and War Neuroses. In addition to the NNXT and combi patches is a folder containing the raw sample material, making it easy for anyone to use the material in any sampler of their choosing - I'm planning on loading some of these into a few of my favorite Reaktor granular synths later today ;-). Info on how to get your copy of Nordic Red for FREE can be found at www.soundcells.de

DER OTO

As you probably know, OTO updated the Biscuit recently from being an amazing 8bit distortion and effects device to also include a digital monosynth and 16 track sequencer with a firmware update available for free to existing owners. Here's one of the first videos I've seen of the new functions by duncanperson:


"Demo featuring the new OTO machines Biscuit update: DER OTO, and a bit of reverb and delay from the space echo. A really nice sounding digital synthesizer with the analogue filter on the back end! All sequencing done within the biscuit itself. This video also shows the new vinyl overlay for DER OTO - go buy one to support this amazing FREE update from oto machines." -duncanperson

Monday, December 26

Jonsi - Gathering Stories

New animated video from Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi for the track "Gathering Stories", from the film "We Bought a Zoo". The video was designed by Crush Creative who describe the project with: "a lot of sleepless nights and overtime went into creating this magical video,which features a huge menagerie of animals and our hero going on a epic journey across ice and desert." Check it:

trying_skanner

If you own Reaktor, make sure to download Native Instruments' Skanner, a FREE Reaktor ensemble NI made for the Holidays. Here's SoftSynthPortal running thru some of Skanner's sounds:

CRB DIAMOND 725 - Vintage Rhythm Box 1973

Here's another vintage rhythm machine video by AnalogAudio1, this time featuring the rare Italian CRB Diamond 725 from 1973! Dig the kick and snare on this bad boy:

Sunday, December 25

Sonic State Tempest Analog Drum Machine Review!

Watching Nick Batt review the new Tempest Analog Drum Machine is almost as good as getting one for Christmas:


"A review of the latest partnership between two of the most well respected synth designers around. This is a 6 voice analog drum machinesynthesizer." -Sonic State

Saturday, December 24

Reason Wizardry October Issue in Full!

As a Christmas gift for the holidays this year, Nucleus SoundLab has posted the entire October issue of Reason Wizardry to Youtube! This issue is on Reason 6's new Alligator effect - from the basics to creating your own gating patterns. And speaking of Nucleus SoundLab - all products are currently 30% off until January 7th! If you haven't picked up the Pantheon III ReFIll yet, now is the perfect time!

Chick Corea on Analog Synths Live

Jazz legend Chick Corea talks about using Moog synths on the Return to Forever reunion tour:


"Chick Corea took a moment from his 2011 tour with Return to Forever IV to talk about the role of various analog synthesizers in his on-stage sound."
-Moog

Olivia Broadfield Remix Competition!

Remix Olivia Broadfield's Reason 6 demo song "Say" for a chance to win $1000 in prizes - including Balance! Though, I think I'd rather the prize was a date with Olivia ;-). Check it:


"In conjunction with TUAW.com, Propellerhead and Soundcloud, UK singer-songwriter Olivia Broadfield is giving remixers the opportunity to walk off with over $1000 worth of prizes, including a Balance interface, Reason 6 music production software and Pro membership to Soundcloud. All you have to do to is put your own twist on Olivia's song Say, to enter just email olivia@propellerheads.se
Good luck!" -Olivia Broadfield

Friday, December 23

October 2011 Reason Wizardry Video in Full!

As a present from Nucleus SoundLab for the Holidays, here's the October 2011 issue of Reason Wizardry:

Wednesday, December 21

Native Instruments Skanner


Native Instruments has released a brand new Reaktor ensemble for the holidays called Skanner and the best part is it's FREE! Skanner is a sample based synthesizer designed by Stephan Schmitt, the father of Reaktor and designer behind some of Reaktor's greatest ensembles (like Spark and Prism.) Native Instruments describes the synthesis method on NI.com as:
SKANNER ingeniously mixes sampler and synthesizer. The two oscillators ‘scan’ a sample; at low frequencies you get the ‘scratch’ sound of the sample being read back and forth, while at higher frequencies the dominant force is the oscillators being shaped by the sample waveform. The resulting sounds are raw, dirty and highly unpredictable – from simple sine waves to walls of noise.

Sounds fantastic! Go to Native-Instruments.com today to download Skanner for Reaktor 5.6.2.

Tuesday, December 20

Reaktor Effect: Drev's Phase Phucker

Jess Hewitt of Drev expounding on his latest magical Reaktor ensemble the Phase Phucker, dig it:

Sunday, December 18

micronaut - Experiment 10

Chris Randall, purveyor of the Analog Industries blog and 1/2 of Audio Damage uploaded this new improv today:


"Short improvisation. Yamaha CP80B, DSI TETR4, Korg Monotribe, Eventide Space and TimeFactor, Doepfer modular, Roland RE-201. Sequenced from Naught Panther Phaedra running on an iPad." -Cranda11

REASON 6 + TENORI-ON = Awesome!

VJFranzK experimenting with Tenori-ON and Reason6:


"Super Versatile SoftSynth controlled by Unique Sequencer! There are amazing possibilities here - this should get you started. To do this, you will, of course, need a USB to MIDI adaptor - there are many brands available." -VJFranzK

WURLITZER SWINGIN' RHYTHM

Vintage Rhythm Box BOX 1975:

"The WURLITZER SWINGIN' RHYTHM is a rare small analogue rhyhtm box with 5 rhythms. The rhythms are mixable. TEMPO and VOLUME controls.

It also has 5 drum pads (actually drum buttons). The drum sounds are: BASSDRUM, BRUSH, SNARE ROLL, BLOCK, and CYMBAL. The drums sound interesting and somewhat "dirty". I don't know exactly if it sounded cleaner as new - maybe the aging process of the components lead to its typical sound :-)" -AnalogAudio1

Saturday, December 17

RE-201 Space Echo & DRM1


"short progressive video with the Roland RE-201 space echo and the Vermona DRM1 mk3. Analogue beauties. Second high hat channel on the DRM recorded clean and not sent through the space echo. Recorded and sequenced in Ableton Live. All effects processing done by the RE-201."
-duncanperson

Caribou On Stage with Ableton

These videos were linked in the Ableton newsletter that hit my inbox yesterday. They feature the touring Caribou band and their use of Ableton Live on stage. Really dig the second "Behind the Scenes" video... on a related note, I'd been wondering what John Schmersal had been up to lately, good to see he's touring with Caribou:

On Stage:


Behind the Scenes:


And just in case you don't know who John Schmersal is, put some Enon in your pipe and smoke it:

Friday, December 16

M83-Midnight City live on Carson Daly


via M83

Four Tet - Moma


Here's a new Four Tet track, called "Moma", from the forthcoming compilation record We Are The Works in Progress, coming out January 10th on Asa Wa Kuru Records. The album is being curated by Japanese musician Kazu Makino (of Blonde Redhead fame) and is being made to help support victims of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011; with proceeds going to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund and Architecture for Humanity. Looks like it's going to be a dazzling lp from the tracklisting:

1. Moma - Four Tet
2. No Face - Karin Dreijer Andersson
3. G Song - Terry Riley
4. Nightcrawler - Nosaj Thing
5. Berceuse - John Roberts
6. Penny Sparkle - Blonde Redhead
7. Bird On A Wire - Pantha Du Prince
8. In Here The World Begins - Broadcast
9. Drip - Liars/Blonde Redhead
10. Curve - Deerhunter
11. Stalagmite - Stalactite
12. Castles In The Grave - John Maus
13. Bamboo House - David Sylvain/Ryuichi Sakamoto
14. Song Seven - Interpol

Four Tet - Moma by Four Tet

Propellerhead Artist Interview: Surkin

I'm always stoked when Propellerhead releases a new artist interview! Being unfamiliar with the countless of sub-genres in electronic music, I have discovered many talented artists thru this series; and this time around is no exception with the interview of Frenchman Benoit Heitz aka Surkin:


"When a young Benoit Heitz saw a friend's computer running Reason he had an epiphany: "His computer isn't better than my parent's computer. That means I could be making music." He started out not knowing the first thing about drums or music in general. Three years later he was touring the world as an international DJ. Surkin had us over to check out his wild yet danceable cut-up sample work." -Propellerhead

Thursday, December 15

Stillicide

Saw the below video on the ace art & design blog The Fox is Black. The video, titled "Stillicide", features the animation of Eric Ko a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, and the music of Alex Cook aka Attics/ADCo. Dig it:


"RISD fall 2011 intermediate animation final project." -Eric Ko

Wednesday, December 14

Audio Damage Kombinat Dva Overview...

the one and only swiss army knife of audio destruction:


"This is a short look at the highlights of Kombinat Dva, our multi-band distortion plug-in. Kombinat Dva is available only in the Audio Damage store." -Audio Damage

How to make a punchy house bass in Reason


"Propellerhead Software's product specialist Mattias Häggström Gerdt shows you how to make a punchy house bass combinator in Reason based on the patch "Harsh House Bass" from the Reason Factory Soundbank."
-Propellerhead

Tuesday, December 13

Harry Coade Novation Impulse Routine

Harry Coade getting down on the new Novation Impulse midi controller. Speaking of Impulse, I checked one out at the local big box music store the other day and was quite impressed with it - only thing chintzy are the faders... but let's face it, Novation had to cut the corner somewhere to make these so damn cheap. Check the Champion Sound:


"Performance by London artist Harry Coade putting the Novation Impulse controller keyboard through it's paces. The movie was shot in East London and is a Dub-influenced Big Beat routine with Ableton Live in the background." -Novation

Tempest - Live demo tutorial of features and sounds

I've seen quite a number of videos on youtube showcasing the DSI Tempest's drums, but ttaralli's demo is one of the first to present the thick analog bass and lead sounds the Tempest can create:


"I've had the Tempest for a few days and decided to share some of the things the Tempest can do live. All of the sounds in this video are from the Tempest. Nothing has been mixed (sorry I just threw this together on a whim). There are no external Effects or synths used. This is quickly turning into on of the best pieces of gear I've ever owned and the OS is still in Beta. OS 1.1.2

FX used
Roll
Delay
LP Filter knobs
LP Filter on the touch pad
ADSR to shorten the main synth sound
Reverse"

-ttaralli

Reason 6 - Creating Linear Drum Loops

Here's a new video from The Loop Loft on"Creating Linear Drum Loops". Speaking of The Loop Loft, they currently have a Holiday Sale on their loops - 35% off with the code "holidaysale". Check it:

Monday, December 12

Drev's Delaystable Reaktor Effects Ensemble

Jess from Drev uploaded this playlist this morning explaining the Drev's Delaystable Ensemble available in the Reaktor User Library, where it's described as:
A MIDI triggered stutter effect using a "trap-delay." Rather than simply buffer audio, this effect traps the audio in a continuous delay feedback loop. Depending on the delay used and interpolation, the sound can be mangled or destroyed to create new tones.

Check it:



"This is a video explaining my Reaktor effect Delaystable." -Drev

Lemur iPad app - step sequencer with Reason 6 granular patch


"adapted the stepSeq_4 module from the JazzMutant team to create a multi value step sequencer that triggers a granular combinator patch in Reason 6. This is definitely a way to obtain more musical results from the Lemur - Reason combination, but it lacks transport synchronization.

The granular patch is a derivation of one posted years ago on the propellerhead website." -Peff

Bluewater VST - Lazerbass Boot Camp

Brent Kallmer is back with another in depth look at a Reaktor ensemble - this time Lazerbass, with Lazerbass Boot Camp! Dig the downtempo example around the 1:36 mark:


"Bluewater VST's "Lazerbass Boot Camp" finally demystifies one of the most devastating VST synths available today. Visit lazerbassbootcamp.com/ to learn more..." -Bluewater VST

Saturday, December 10

Neo-Soul Keys™ for Reason 6

Damn, this Neo-Soul Keys ReFill sounds fantastic! Dig the low bark:


Via GospelMusicians

Sonic LAB Review: Korg Monotron DUO and DELAY


"Just in time for Christmas, Korg bring on two new Monotrons - are you tempted?" -Sonic State

Tracks Interact 1: Ableton Live Sidechain compression

Berklee's Loudon Sterns looks at sidechain compression in the video below, particularly concerning track interaction. Don't have Ableton? Many of these tips can be done with Reason 6's sidechain input! Dig it:


"In this series, Berkleemusic.com facilitator Loudon Stearns covers five ways tracks can interact with audio effects using Ableton Live. The first installment, Sidechain Compression, shows how a compressor can be used to create an interaction between a synth and an acoustic bass part. The Post FX and Post mixer routing points are examined as well as compressor specifics.

You can study with Loudon Stearns at Berkleemusic.com in the Advanced Production with Ableton Live, and Composing and Producing Electronic Music courses." -Loudon Sterns

Peak Sound's Reaktor Tutorial 05 - Making a Wind Chime

Peak Sound (aka Peter) is back with another Reaktor tutorial, this time on "Making a Wind Chime". Speaking of Reaktor, don't forget to download the newest NI Reaktor 5.6.2 update, available now in the updates section @ Native Instruments.com!


"Here's a video showing off some modules we haven't seen yet in an effort to build a wind chime-esque instrument." -Peak Sound

Lemur iPad app - first attempt at controlling Reason 6

Peff putting the new Lemur iOS app thru it's paces with Reason 6:

"Always coveted a Jazzmutant Lemur, but could never justify the cost. So I couldn't pass up the opportunity to work with the iOS app adaptation by liine! This is my first attempt experimenting with the multiball control and physics model to trigger MIDI notes and generate interesting modulation patterns of Malstrom and Echo devices." -Peff

Friday, December 9

twistedtools.com | Make massive layered sounds with TRANSFORM


"This video demonstrates how to use Transform to make massive layered sound effects like the ones heard in the original Transform trailer.

TRANSFORM is an extensive collection of field recordings, sound effects and designed sounds developed by sound designer Jean-Edouard Miclot (a.k.a. JEDSOUND). Bundled with sample mappings for many popular formats, TRANSFORM's painstakingly recorded and processed sounds will find their home in the arsenals of sound designers, editors and music producers alike." -Twisted Tools

Thursday, December 8

New Jackson 'The Night Mail'

Check out this video for the Dublin act New Jackson's "The Night Mail" directed by Irish animator and illustrator Fergal Brennan:


"Video for New Jackson's The Night Mail EP, released this month on Pogo Recordings.
You can buy the vinyl here: juno.co.uk/products/441929-01.htm
soundcloud.com/newjackson
soundcloud.com/pogorecordings
bodytonicmusic.com

This was animated using a DSLR, several Polaroid cameras, and a ton of photocopies.

Directed by Fergal Brennan

Animation Assistance by
Leigh Arthur
Helena Egri
Renate Henschke
Richard O'Shea

Special thanks to
Cliona, Davey, Jeannie, Mark, Richard, Renate, Scott, Sean & Yvette,
& the lady from the photocopy shop

More info at:
mynameisfergal.com
renatehenschke.com
richardoshea.com"

-Fergal Brennan

mimumachine [reaktor.ens] - a snapshot jam #1

Fantastic looking Reaktor ensemble:


"the mimumachine is an native instreument's reaktor ensemble sequencing 7 sample-slots for pure idm/mnml-glitch-madness. this is a quick jam / tour thru a few snapshots with the use of the morphing-feature and demonstrating just a few of the core-features whilest editing some sounds and sequences in realtime. this .ens is based on deadbeats. virtual circuit bent was done by mimu.eu 's ovenbroed & einmeier."
-maria ovenbröd

Maxing Your CPU in Ableton with Kill Paris

Kill Paris, the man behind the great Sound Design Sundays videos is back with a video on using the Freeze Function in Ableton to Max out your CPU for crazy results:


"Using the freeze function in Ableton Live to push your CPU beyond the max. In this tutorial, I demonstrate this by layering multiple instances of Massive." -Kill Paris

Wednesday, December 7

Lemur for the iPad!

The news every iPad owning musician wanted confirmed - Lemur for iOS! At $49.99 it ain't cheap, but still an iPad + the app is probably less than a second hand Jazz Mutant Lemur, plus you can play Words With Friends on an iPad between flights:


"Lemur is a professional iOS controller app that doesn't cut any corners. It lets you control anything, any way you want. Lemur can control DJ software, DAWs, VJ software, visual synthesis software, stage lighting and more. Any software or hardware that can be controlled by MIDI or OSC can be controlled by Lemur.

Major stadium-touring acts such as Bjork, Deadmau5 and Daft Punk use Lemur on stage. The original hardware version was introduced to the public in 2004 and Lemur software now benefits from nearly 10 years of development. These are just two of the reasons Lemur is the name cited when talking about multitouch control.

Find out more on liine.net"

-LineTV

Eowave Domino

Here's a video of the Eowave Domino synthesizer posted on Vimeo by combat_silence. Dig the filter:

"All the Drugs" - work in progress

Lovely gear pron in this video from Karim More featuring the new DSI Tempest, a Moog Little Phatty, as well as a Roland JX-3P and additional synths. Dig it:

"Recording sessions for a new song. No playback, all shots show the actual takes being recorded. I'll update the video as the recording and mixing goes along." -Karim More

Reason 6 SSL Mixer explained on Peak Eleven

Here's a great rundown of Reason 6's Mixer by Mike from PeakEleven.com. As many of you probably know, Reason 6's mixer is modeled after the legendary SSL 9000k by Solid State Logic. The end of the video where Mike says "and remember You Rock my friends" made me smile:


"Video showing the Reason 6 SSL Mixer with the full channel strips and master bus compressor. The mixer was introduced in Propellerheads Record and then became integrated in Reason when version 6 was released.

This mixer is modeled after the SSL 9000K Mixing Console which is one of the most legendary mixers in music production history."
-Mike @ Peak Eleven

Tuesday, December 6

SVIIB - The Night


NYC's School of Seven Bells have a new album coming out in February called "Ghostory" on Vagrant Records/Ghostly International. SVIIB vocalist Alejandra Deheza says of the title “Everyone has ghosts... they’re every love you’ve ever had, every hurt, every betrayal, every heartbreak. They follow you, stay with you.” The first track from the album, "The Night", is available for download on ghostly.com. Check it:

School of Seven Bells - The Night (New Song) by Vagrant Records

*photo courtesy of Will Calcutt

Monday, December 5

EditEd4TV Chordal Strummer V.1!

It's people like Ed Bauman that make the Reason community so great! Here's a look at his Chordal Strummer Combinator included in the fantastic Reasonable Help 2010 ReFIll:


"Chordal Strummer V.1 is part of my Reasonable Help 2010 ReFill for Propellerhead's Reason music software. This Combinator allows you to play very realistic guitar strumming sounds with a single key press. Granted, nothing beats a real guitar, but this is a great solution for those that don't have access to a real acoustic guitar." -EditEd4TV

Shigeto - Lineage


Here's a reason to look forward to the New Year - Shigeto's Lineage ep, available January 31st on Ghostly! Check it:


"Zach Saginaw consistently grounds his music in a deeply personal, familial context; his grandmother inspired two releases, his producer aliases, Shigeto and Frank Omura, both reference family names and it's not for nothing that his latest release as Shigeto is titled Lineage.

While only Saginaw could speak to the ancestral motivation being referenced on the eight instrumental songs that comprise the mini-LP, Lineage, it's easy to see it as an acknowledgement of debt to musical forebears, reverent respect due to the jazz, hip-hop, funk and folk that animates these eight songs. And while these elements aren't new to Saginaw's work, never has he demonstrated such complete command of his material. Each song is a complex constellation of sounds and ideas, but his compositional focus and restraint grounds songs that are otherwise cosmically inclined." -Ghostly

Sunday, December 4

HANUS TRANSIDRUMS U-77 - VINTAGE RHYTHM BOX 1975

I love old rhythm machines from the 70s. I have nearly a dozen of them, from Acetones to Seeburgs... but I've never heard of this Hanus Transidrums U-77 before, which has some particularly lovely snare and clav sounds, check it:


"This is a weird and pretty rare analog rhythm box from Holland. It came out 1975. It has 12 free combinable rhythm patterns. CANCEL switches for BONGO and CYMBAL on the right side. A label on the bottom says, the manufacturer is "Hanu" or Hanus". Nice vintage sound!" -AnalogAudio1

Reason 101 Gator Articles


If you're using Reason 6 you need to check out Rob @ Reason 101's latest articles on the Alligator Triple Filtered Gate Device. Part 1 is a great introduction to the Alligator device, complete with a front and back panel legend of every parameter and function of the gator. Part 1 also includes information on how to set up a Dry/Wet knob for an Alligator based Combinator and best of all how to program your own Alligator patterns using additional Reason devices! Part 2 is where Reason 101 becomes more like Reason 202, with information on adding filter movement, using external effects with Alligator and using multiple Alligators for a "Double-Gate-Filter-FX Channel". Probably the coolest thing I learned from these articles was from the front panel legend - the shift knob "shifts" the patterns forward and backward by a +/-16. As the legend states "Nice to automate pattern shifting" - indeed! Nice work Rob. And don't forget if you're hesitant to jump in and create your own patterns (or just want to check out some great patches by another Reason user), Rob's Pureffects ReFill has 200 original Alligator patches - along with 1,000 more patches that use Reason's other fantastic devices including The Echo, Pulveriser, Scream, RV-7000 and Line 6 amps, all for $49 USD!

Tascam iM2


The new Tascam iM2 stereo microphone turns your iPod Touch, iPhone and/or iPad into a "high quality" field recorder! With adjustable microphones, onboard preamp and limiter this looks like the perfect kick around kit for capturing sounds on a daily basis. The iM2 is compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 4G, iPad and iPad 2 models and is made to run with the new PCMRecorder app available for free on iTunes (designed by Chris Randall of Analog Industries blog.) Here's the specs:

- Stereo condenser microphones for iPhone 4, iPod Touch or iPad dock connection
- High-quality stereo condenser microphones - same as our best-selling DR-series recorders
- Microphones adjustable 180 degrees front to back
- Built-in analog to digital converter and microphone preamp for low noise recording
- 125dB SPL maximum level for recording loud shows without distortion
- Switchable limiter attenuates high-level signals to prevent recording overload
- Adjustable input level control
- Powered through iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch dock connector
- USB input allows the iPhone or iPad to be charged from a USB connection or optional TASCAM PS-P515U
- CD-quality digital recording (44.1kHz/16-bit linear PCM)
- Compact size ideal for mobile use
- Compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 4G, iPad, iPad 2
- Dimensions: 2.3" W x 2.2" H x 0.75" D
- Weight: 1.05 oz

Friday, December 2

Krush from New Atlantis Audio


Brand spanking new Reason ReFill from New Atlantis Audio called Krush and it sounds fantastic:
"Tape, tubes, turntables and top-secret “krustification” processes bring you this beefy set of gritty drums for Reason. With over 100 original samples and 140 Kong .drum presets, Krush is a beatmaking toolkit overflowing with authentic oldschool vinyl sampling character.

Original tube-processed samples were captured to analog tape, and then meticulously combined with isolated vinyl artifacts for that dead-real vintage sampling feel, direct to the trusty MPC. 90’s hardware timestretching, resampling and other “ancient secrets” provide the final digital finishing touches.

Krush comes loaded with drum presets conveniently organized for fast access and auditioning directly from Kong. Mix, match and tweak your way through this library to craft endless kits of your own. Thick kicks, crusty snares, gritty hats and percussion, and a slew of stabs, fx and musical elements for your beat-based productions."

Specs: Includes 140 Kong Drum Presets, 106 Samples, a handful of Bonus Rex Loops and Kong Kits

Available for $9.99 from Rackflip.com

Krush Reason ReFill by Rackflip

Thursday, December 1

November 2011 Reason Wizardry Now Available!


The November 2011 issue of Reason Wizardry is now available for download for subscribers! This month features a special look at the Neptune Pitch Adjuster and Voice Synth originally added in Propellerhead's Record and now featured in Reason 6. Subscribers should check their e-mail inbox for download instructions... not a subscriber? Go to www.nucleus-soundlab.com today and start on your own path to Reason Wizardry!

Wednesday, November 30

Supacut Live by Ned Rush


"Supacut live is a maxforlive audio effect device that pastchies/rips off the supatrigga and livecut plugins. The buffer update sets how often the buffer records. The supacut rate sets how often the edits happens. The edits are set via 2 probability tables. One sets various playback effects, the other sets the rhythmic variations of the retrigga. Download from maxforlive.com... Thanks. NED RUSH MOTHER FUCKER!" -Mr.Ned Rush

How to create a gated delay effect in Reason


"Propellerhead Software's product specialist Mattias Häggström Gerdt shows you how to great a gated delay combinator in Reason based on the patch "Echodile" from the Reason Factory Soundbank." -Propellerhead

Tuesday, November 29

Présentation et Test de Propellerhead Balance


"Visitez notre store http://store.reasonfrance.fr pour découvrir tout l'univers du Home Studio et nos Refills.

Présentation et Test de Propellerhead Balance : déballage, installation de Reason Essentials, raccordement de Propellerhead Balance et branchement de synthé, guitare, basse, micro actif et passif" -ReasonFrance

Reaktor Tutorial 04 - Scaling, Plucks and Wobbles


"A video explaining how to scale certain modules in Reaktor, and why."
-peaksound

Tempest - one of the first sounds


via ubikac

Tom Pritchard Sound Design - Vast ReFill


465 new Combinator patches from legendary Reason sound designer Tom Pritchard aka Stompp! Here's the down low on Vast:
Tom Pritchard Sound Design presents Vast for Reason versions 4 and above – a unique ReFill packed with 465 inspiring, innovative and incredibly useful Combinator patches. These Combinators make the most of Thor’s modulation possibilities to create expressive, rich sounds that are full of movement and are incredibly playable. Every patch has been meticulously crafted to sound detailed and interesting whilst sitting comfortably in a useful frequency range, so you can easily drop any of these patches into a mix and get down to writing some great music without having to tweak them.

Vast contains 100 atmosphere & FX patches, 42 bass patches, 58 keys and polysynths, 100 leads and monosynths, 100 pads and 65 sequencer based synths. The sequencer can be switched off at the push of a button for each of the sequenced synths, giving you an extra 65 mono and polysynths if you’d like to use your own sequences. Using Vast is like having a new sound module inside Reason. Combinator control mappings are set to be useful – all patches give you control of the amplitude envelope so you can quickly sculpt these sounds to your needs, whilst the Mod Wheel allows you to get some juicy variety in tone, and the buttons allow you to alter the timbre of the patch and activate or deactivate the reverbs and delay designed for every Combinator, so you can quickly get these sounds working with your music. Click on the player below for demos of each category.

Pick up Vast today for £45 from tompritchardsounddesign.com!

UPDATE: Tried Vast for the first time this afternoon, particularly the Keys and Poly folder and man is it good! Many of these patches use velocity sensitivity to alter parameters like pitch, filter frequency and of course volume in ways that make them feel like so much more than software. Seriously, buy yourself Vast for the holidays, you're with it!

Monday, November 28

Phaedra iPad Sequencer First Look...

As if Moog's new Animoog app wasn't reason enough to buy an iPad:


"This is a quick overview of the highlights of Phaedra, the "analog" style four-channel MIDI sequencer for iPads, coming soon from NaughtyPanther.

In this video, Phaedra is driving a DSI TETR4, a Doepfer modular synth, a Korg Monotribe, and an Eventide Space and TimeWorks. No DAW is used in the sequencing. Everything is being clocked from Phaedra." -Cranda11

Sunday, November 27

Propellerhead Balance Unboxing / Review


"www.macmixing.com - Mixing it up with Apple.
Today I am going to show you Propellerhead's NEW awesome recording interface, Balance. This is an interface meant to work with Reason Essentials and Reason 6. Balance works great for all recording situations and is a great compact recording interface. The design of Balance is completely sleek and has a high quality build. Balance connects to your computer via USB and has many inputs including XLR's with phantom power. Balance also includes two output monitor jacks as well. Direct monitoring is a strong point for Balance and also has a clipping feature to prevent unwanted clips and pops. Reason Essentials comes with Balance to get you up and running in minutes. With Reason Essentials you get six main instruments to produce music with, as well as the sleek redesigned interface to record all of your audio together with your music productions. For more on Reason Essentials, Reason 6, and Balance visit Propellerheads website!" -macmixing.com

Saturday, November 26

Some Velvet Sequencer


Chris Randall, under the Naughty Panther moniker, is designing an "analog" style four-channel MIDI sequencer for the iPad called Phaedra. Below is a first look at Phaedra in action clocking NLog Pro's arpeggiator:



update:

"Phaedra's MIDI output all working now." -Cranda11

Friday, November 25

Robot Koch "Island featuring John LaMonica" Live


projectmooncircle.com

Custom Kontakt Sampler - GRID MACHINE//SLICE


"Custom Kontakt Sampler. LoopTV video demo of the IDM Drum Kit version of the GRID MACHINE//SLICE Kontakt Sampler, new from Loopmasters and Channel Robot.

Loopmasters and Channel Robot are very proud to present a fantastic new concept for Kontakt Sampler users which combines Channel Robots unique design elements in the Kontakt environment, with the cutting edge samples from Loopmasters sound archives." -LoopTV

Thursday, November 24

Native Instruments Thanksgiving Offer!


Native Instruments is offering a whopping 50% off three brands for Thanksgiving - Traktor, Komplete, and iMaschine! Offer is good from November 24 - 28 - jump on it, cause nothing says "thanks" like spending money on yourself ;-).

Missing Pieces- Octopulsethor - Pads Demo 1

Below is a first look at some of the pad sounds from Navi Retlav's new Missing Pieces - Octopulsethor ReFill for Reason 6! Resonant Filter reviewed the Missing Pieces - Feedback Echo ReFill back in September and Octopulsethor sounds like another fantastic refill from Navi! And with 666 total patches for the low price of $36 USD you know you can't go wrong ;-). Check out the video and be sure to download the demo refill of Octopulsethor @ naviretlav.com


"This is Preview of Pad sounds from Missing Pieces- Otopulsethor Refill for Reason 6. More info and price here : www.naviretlav.com/refill" -Navi

Tuesday, November 22

DSI Tempest Tr-808-Demolition


"All beats in this Tempest video were created solely using the onboard Tr-808 samples. It took a while to make the sounds....." -dreamprobe

Conn Min-O-Matic Rhythm Box Analog Drum Machine


via trashbaggage

Monday, November 21

Reaktor Tutorial 03 - Envelopes and Macros


"A video explaining the uses and functions of Envelopes and Macros. Feel free to ask questions!" -peakssound

Twisted Tools - Jedsound's Transform


New from Twisted Tools - Jedsound's Transform:
"TRANSFORM is an extensive collection of field recordings, sound effects and designed sounds developed by sound designer Jean-Edouard Miclot (a.k.a. JEDSOUND). Bundled with sample mappings for many popular formats, TRANSFORM’s painstakingly recorded and processed sounds will find their home in the arsenals of sound designers, editors and music producers alike.

TRANSFORM features over 1.6 Gigabytes of 24-bit/96khz audio, all meticulously embedded with Soundminer enriched metadata and processed using a plethora of sound design tools, such as Symbolic Sound’s Kyma. Whether you’re a sound designer needing a massive Hollywood impact, an editor looking for a radio stinger or a musician wanting to add some ice crunch to a snare…or bass wobbles made from a processed moose, TRANSFORM has something for you.

To increase productivity and speed up workflow, Transform comes with sampler presets for the EXS24MKII, Kontakt, Battery, Maschine and Reaktor as well as the all new MP16c sampler for *Reaktor. To top it off, we’ve included MP16c templates for Maschine, Kore and TouchOSC for the iPad, as well as bonus material by Richard Devine."

Sunday, November 20

Floe from New Atlantis Audio


New Reason ReFill from New Atlantis Audio - Floe:
"In the tradition of the acclaimed and best-selling Polar Elements, Floe is an all new collection of stunning ambient winter-themed Combinator instruments and ensembles. Icy pads, bone-chilling frozen soundscapes, arpeggiated motifs and more.

Floe is powered by a brand new set of our custom-designed 24 bit granular field recording soundscapes, 80MB worth, with loop points and root notes embedded within for easy mixing, matching and experimentation. Drop these source files into any sample player in the rack to create new instruments of your own, or drop them directly onto your Reason timeline and loop away.

If you are creating soundtracks, ambient, new age, chillout, downtempo or just need to inject some dramatic and chilly vibes into your music and scoring projects projects, this ReFill is for you.

Floe is compatible with Reason 5 and up, with a handful of patches making use of some of the new effects in Reason 6."

Specs: Includes 30 Combinators, 80MB Source Samples

Floe Reason ReFill by Rackflip

Saturday, November 19

Elektron Octatrack + Machinedrum UW = Friday Tweak


"A little improv/tweaking with the octatrack and his new friend the machinedrum. All sounds are coming out of these two machines. The MD is fed into the octatrack where it gets processed and sampled. The machinedrum samples itself as well. The bass line is coming from the Octatrack via a single cycle wave. Drums are mostly from the MD but there is also a kick drum sample coming from the OT." -n3bsvid

Friday, November 18

Additive Synthesis with Lazerbass Preview


"Preview of the Additive Synthesis with Lazerbass tutorial which is now available from www.platinumears.com/tutorials.html

This preview serves as a general introduction to additive synthesis. The full video plays for 30 minutes and covers every section of the interface with reference to a spectrum analyser where appropriate."

-IIRs

Reason Courses

New Effects in Reason 6 (Reason Courses Level 2 Module 13 Excerpt):

More information @ www.reasoncourses.com

Thursday, November 17

Octatrack + MD UW + XBase 888 + Prophet 08 + SEM Pro = DeneDana


"A little jam featuring all hardware gear.

Hardware:
Elektron Octatrack
Elektron Machinedrum UW+
Jomox Xbase 888
DSI Prophet 08
Oberheim SEM Pro"

-n3bsvid

Wednesday, November 16

DSI Tempest Logic Sync Dance


"Showing of the DSI Tempest syncing to Logic 9." -dreamprobe

A Day in the Studio with Balance


"When Uprock Audio in Sacramento, California got their hands on the new Balance with Reason Essentials package they set about on a new creative project. The plan was simple enough: They wanted to record a song with a local artist, produce it, then sample it, remix it, and turn it into a second entirely new hip hop song... all in one day!

We captured the process, spoke to Dean and John at Uprock Audio about the project, and put it all together into a music video. You can hear the song that resulted from their day's work and get a glimpse into the social aspect that Uprock Audio uses for inspiration, motivation, and just plain fun."

-Propellerhead

Propellerhead Artist Interview: Olivia Broadfield


"Olivia Broadfield would be the first to admit that a common question when people see her name is "Who is she?" But she also realizes that their common follow up is "Why is she outselling everyone but Owl City on the iTunes chart?" Olivia is a self-producing artist who is more than just a gifted songwriter. She's has a gift for music publishing as well.

Where most bands finish their album, pile into a van, and start touring it around the country, Olivia takes to the modern online social networks to reach music supervisors and publishing companies. She has secured some of the most coveted film, tv, and commercial placements around, reaching audiences of millions with her music in the process. Most recently, Olivia was featured on Grey's Anatomy. It's a music placement which has made household names of artists like Imogen Heap.

We sat down with Olivia to hear about her early songwriting, what inspires her, and see how she's using Reason to create synth hooks from her vocals."

-Propellerhead

Wurlitzer Key Note Visualizer

Been on a bit of a Wurlitzer Electric Piano kick lately (in no small part due to Sonic Couture's Broken Wurli) and came across this great video of Kevin Henkel jamming on one plugged into something called a "Wurlitzer Key Note Visualizer". Can you imagine how cool this would be in a dark smokey jazz club on the bandstand? Dope:


video courtesy of Dr0id1

DSI Tempest & Mandelbulb 3D


"A Mandelbulb video processed in After Effects with music created on a Dave Smith Instruments Tempest, with Eventide Space & TimeFactor for Reverb & Delay." -Puzzlegob

Tuesday, November 15

MOTIF 10th Anniversary : Message from Chick Corea


Yamaha

peaksound - Reaktor Tutorial 2

Filters Selectors Signal Types:

"A video explaining how to use filters, selectors, and the difference between event and audio signal types."
-peaksound

dubspot - Building instruments in Reaktor


"Dubspot Electronic Music Production and Sound Design Instructor Evan Sutton explains how to make basic connections and building a subtractive synthesizer using Native Instruments Reaktor's Built In Modules in this new tutorial. There are many levels to Reaktor's hierarchy. In the last tutorial, we spent most of our time on the Instrument level, making small changes and swapping out effects. If you missed the first tutorial, you can find it here.

In the second installment, we'll go even deeper and build our own instrument from the ground up. We'll be using Reaktor's Built In Modules, which are tools that range from simple math to complex signal processors. Many of these modules are the basic tools used in modular synthesis. We'll use these to build a simple synthesizer with one oscillator and an amplitude envelope. Remember to keep the volume down while you're setting up your modules.

It's important to explore basic signal flow in Reaktor. There are infinite possibilities for experimentation, but these concepts are the starting point for building larger and more complex ensembles."

-dubspot

Monday, November 14

Moog Voyager Wedding Cake!

How cool is this:


Congratulations Michael and Denise!
(video courtesy of j3ffw0j0)

Sunday, November 13

Telefon Tel Aviv - The Sky is Black

From the Telefon Tel Aviv Facebook page:
"OH hey also I just got the masters for the "Sky is Black" EP that will be coming out soon on BPitch Control. It's bawss because Ellen Allien did a remix and Matthew Dear did one, it's like a cover. Both are great. And now "Sky" gets a formal release, after sitting around for about five years."


via RSJacobs

Prophet 08 + Cluster Flux + Xbase 888 = 80s


"A little 80s inspired improv with the prophet 08 going through the cluster flux. XBase 888 comes in mid way.

Hardware:
DSI Prophet 08
Moog MF-108M Cluster Flux Moogerfooger
Jomox XBase 888"
-n3bsvid

DSI Tempest Tr-909-Destroyer


"The DSI Tempest is loaded with Roland Tr-909 samples and this video shows off what you can do with a very simple beat." -dreamprobe

Intro to M4L-Controlling Video With Audio


"Ablecation.com presents-Intro to Max for Live, Controlling video effects with audio.
Zeal's Vizzable Pack- http://zealousy.com/2011/01/vizzable/
Iwebcamera-http://www.drahtwerk.biz/EN/Products/iPhone/iWebcamera.aspx"
-Ablecation

Simple IDM Track Using Only Audio Damage Plug-Ins...


"This track, inspired by Autechre's "Corc" from LP5, is a demonstration of using Audio Damage effects and instruments to create an entire track. "
-Audio Damage

Friday, November 11

Audio Damage Filterstation Overview


"This is a quick overview of Filterstation, our stereo filter plug-in."
-Audio Damage

Reaktor Tutorial 01 - The VERY Basics


"A video going over some basic concepts of Native Instrument's Reaktor. More videos coming shortly. Feel free to ask questions! -peaksound

Sepalcure - Pencil Pimp


SEPALCURE // PENCIL PIMP
from the album "Sepalcure" out Nov 21st 2011 on Hotflush Recordings (HFCD006)

Director: Thor Erling Brenne
Producer: Tim & Joe
DOP: Martin Edelsteen
Production Design: Ulrika Westergren
Offline: Erik Aster
Online: Mathias Theisen/Hocus Focus
Art Director: Sougwen Chung
VFX: Sougwen Chung & Cato Lauvli
Styling: Brynjar Bredesen

Executive producer: Tamsin Glasson

With: Emir Mulaosmanovic, Guro Bøe Linnet & Kari Skotnes Vikjord

Thursday, November 10

The Dewanatron Novitiate

Introduction:


Demonstration:

"Here is an introduction to the demonstration of the Dewanatron Novitiate- a one-of-a-kind instructional synthesizer designed by Dewanatron for the Bob Moog Foundation. The music you'll hear in the video was created entirely with the Novitiate (except drums, of course)."
-Automatic Gainsay

Synth in a Book


Konkreet Performer + MeeBlip + Custom Case, see story @ konkreetlabs.com

Wednesday, November 9

TONAL AXiS - Fallen E.P.


TONAL AXiS, aka Richard Hider, has a 4 track ep available in the FIXT Store right now for .99 cents a track! I first became aware of Richard's music from the two demo tracks he made for the release of Nucleus SoundLab's Pantheon III Reason ReFill. The Portsmouth U.K. based Hider has also worked with Rob Papen, LinPlug, and Mackie, as well as creating remixes for the likes of Subsonar (Tim Bran) and Lucia Holm (Sunscreem). I particularly dig the track "Unknown Territory" which RIchard told me was created with Rob Papen VSTs and mixed down using Propellerhead's Record! Pick up the Fallen ep from TONAL AXiS today @ FIXT Store.

Fallen E.P. by TONAL AXiS

pNORTNAOMI - Spine : Tremor (Stem)


"This is the original soundscape that is underneath the triggered samples in Spine: Tremor. I recorded the the thunder storm via a Zoom H2n and ads a great dimension to the synthetic sounds. The synthetic scapes were created in Graincube with custom samples and I really couldn't emphasise how great I think Graincube is and I recommend it to everybody for sounscapes and sci fi sounds. Reason 6 proves to be great with Audio material like this as you can route linear Audio tracks all over the place and Alligator is also good for splitting the signal further." -pNORTNAOMI

Monday, November 7

FatBank ReFill Review!


If you've been reading Resonant Filter for long, you've probably realized that Tom Pritchard, aka Stompp, is one of my favorite sound designers on the Reason platform. His patches have an "organic" instrument quality to them that make them both playable and listenable. When I first started doing commercial sound design work myself, Tom was nice enough to critique many of my early patches and his insight into creating great combinator patches has been priceless to me... so needless to say when I found out about his new solo venture, Tom Pritchard Sound Design, I was psyched! With this article we're going to specifically look at Tom's latest creation - FatBank; but for starters I asked Tom about his choice to go out on his own at this time after creating so many amazing free refills, and of course his work on many classic soundbanks for Nucleus SoundLab, this is his answer:
 
"Contributing to Nucleus SoundLab has been fantastic, and Jeremy is an absolutely lovely man to work with - very encouraging and supportive and really passionate about what he does. The main reason I'm going solo is just to try and make this a full-time gig; I've been through five pretty miserable day jobs in the last few years and I want out. I'd have loved to have tried doing this sooner but it's only with the support of my partner over the last year that I've had the confidence to really consider it. With digital distribution commonplace it's possible to enter the sound-design market with extremely low overheads, and with more people than ever before making their own music there's plenty of space to carve out your own niche. It's not like there's cuthroat competition as a lot of these things complement each other. You'd be surprised at some of the software companies that have excellent working relationships when you'd expect them to be pretty fierce competitors."



Let's start by taking a closer look at FatBank: this refill consists of 50 combinator patches broken down into three folders - Basses, Leads and Sequences. The Basses folder holds 12 Bass combinator patches that run the gamut from thick analog sounding tones to sizzling deep Techno triads. The 8 combis in the Leads folder are terrific as well and flavored with just the right touch of effects to make them sit well in a mix. The final folder, Sequences is the largest, with a whopping 30 patches. This folder has everything from leads to basses to lush chordal progressions, that all use Thor's Step Sequencer. However, if you don't care for pre-made sequences don't fret, Button 4 is assigned to turn off the sequences, so you can use the patches from this folder in any way you see fit! Every combinator in FatBank has the four rotaries and buttons on the front combi panel assigned to the most useful parameters for that particular patch. Generally the rotaries are assigned to control the Amp envelope properties, with the occasional tone, effect or filter envelope allocation. Also in the Sequences folder some combinators have Rotary 1 assigned to the rate to enable easy customization of the sequence for the user's song. The four button controls are a little more varied, generally being assigned to turn on effects, determine legato/retrigger, add harmonization and of course enable the sequence in the latter folder.



With a name like FatBank you'd expect the Basses folder to contain many patches using Thor's Analog Oscillator (which it does), but many of my favorite Bass combis in this refill use some unexpected Oscillator choices on the low end. Like the "Sexy Bass Chord" combi with it's four unique oscillators (FM Pair Osc, Phase Mod Osc, Multi Osc and Analog Osc.) Of course sometimes you just want that classic analog sound and "Squarepants" has that in spades! This patch is made up of two Thor synths, the first of which uses two Square shaped Analog Oscillators routed thru two Low Pass Filters that sculpt out just enough of the high end to give the patch that classic synth sound. The authenticity of the sound is furthered by LFO's modulating the pitch of the second oscillator (the first by 15, the second by 22 when the mod wheel is open - for a sci-fi type sound.) The second Thor in "Squarepants" houses the other oscillator, a Saw shaped Osc which is sent thru a LPF followed by a HPF, giving the patch just a touch of sheen. One thing I noticed about many of the Bass combis was the use of a PEQ-2 Parametric EQ cutting the bass just around 125hz or so. I asked Tom about this:

"On those EQs, try inverting the gain (so instead of being -64 or whatever it is it'll be +63). You should hear some really unpleasant muddy resonance. Even when it's not emphasised it really stands out to me. I don't like that in my basses so I get rid of it - I think it's around 150hz or so. I tend to use notch filters to get rid of it, I can't remember why I didn't here - it might have been to do with EQs colouring the sound less."



Let's look at the Leads folder, partcularly "Do It!". This lead patch is made up of two Saw shaped Analog Oscillators (the second sync'd) with an additional White Noise Oscillator sent thru a Low Pass Filter (6 Ladder Slope) then routed thru Thor's shaper set to maximum drive on the Peak setting and finally thru a High Pass Filter which cuts everything below 260hz. The Shaper really softens the sound of the patch from a more nasally searing lead to a classic analog hazy sound. This patch also uses velocity to control the envelope amount on the Low Pass Filter (but not the volume of the amp) which makes the patch incredibly playable! This patch has a lovely reverb (RV-7000) that's introduced with Button 1, as well as a dark ping pong delay (RV-7000 as well) enabled with Button 2. These effects patches reminded me of the lovely effects patches included in Stompp's Ambient Textures ReFill from 2006, which made me wonder if there were any plans for a TPSD all effects refill in the future:

"It's unlikely there will ever be a release devoted solely to FX but it's quite probable that at some point I'll program a whole load of FX patches as part of a larger release - much like I did with the Ambient Textures ReFill. Especially now that we have the new FX devices in Reason 6, The Echo is awesome!"



The largest section of Fatbank is the Sequences folder. As mentioned in the lead paragraph these patches use Thor's step sequencer for some awesome sequences, but can be turned off easily with Button 4, for those interested in creating their own sequences. As a mediocre keyboard player at best I love these combinators! They're great for coming up with song ideas and it's very easy to open up the combinator and transform the sequences into your own creations. One of my favorite Sequences combinators is the "Move Ya Feet" patch.  This combi utilizes the Mod Bus section to route the audio from Filter 1 and 2 to the inputs on Filter 3 bypassing Thor's Amp Envelope section.  I asked Tom about this:
 
"If you look at Osc 2 you'll notice the semi is +7 above Osc 1. Basically, as long as Osc 1 & 2 are different (and it doesn't have to be by much, nudging one of the Tuning values a few cents out will do it) routing the two filters to Filter 3's L & R input is a quick way to get stereo - if you flip the rack you'll notice the instructions for it as the third section under 'Some Routing Examples' - 'True Stereo Synthesis'."

Another thing I noticed about the Sequence patches is that many of the combis use Key Note in the mod bus section to modulate the Amp Gain by a negative amount.  I found this quiet interesting and asked Tom about this technique as well:
 
"It means that when you play a note in a higher octave the gain is reduced. Try setting it to 0 - play a note between C3 and C4, now play a note between C6 and C7. It just sounds really loud and harsh. I use the key note functions to help give the sound its own frequency space, if you have a sequence that spans different octaves then you don't want one end to be unbearably loud, it'll clash with other elements in the mix and sound painful. Sometimes presets dominate the entire frequency range and it's really irritating when you want sounds you can just drop into a track - sure a patch might sound great on its own, but patches that cover the entire frequency spectrum will cause havok in a mix."

FatBank has quickly become one of my new favorite refills! It's Tom's attention to detail and contemplation of how a sound will fit in a song that really sets these patches apart. And with the low price of £5 there's no reason not to pick up FatBank today! After checking out these patches I had to ask Tom what's next for TPSD:

"The first two releases were pretty small attempts to test the water, see if this would work - so far it seems to. The next release is pretty huge in size by comparison - I'm 200 patches in and it's not even half way done. It's my firm belief that the most important aspects of any patch are sound quality and playability and I'll never compromise on either. It's taken me quite some time to get this far and it'll take me considerable time to get this finished, but I'd like to see a release before the end of the year. I won't say too much about what it is just yet but I want to show people just how much potential there is in Reason's synths. Computer Music Magazine reviewed Arps Volume One this month (issue 171) and notably said "You'd never guess that the moody metallic percussion of patches like 'Bali' are the product of pure synthesis, and this sort of thing is the highlight of the pack" - I want to build on that and make wonderful, inspirational sounds."

You can pick up FatBank as well as TPSD's Arps Volume One @ tompritchardsounddesign.com. Thanks Tom!