Propellerhead have introduced a brand new iOS app today called Take! Dubbed a "creative vocal recorder" the app turns your portable Apple device into a three track recording studio with fx, built-in rhythm loops and one touch recording.
"Sing, rap, hum, strum. Take lets you capture your musical ideas - anytime, anywhere. Take combines the drop-dead simplicity of your voice memos with features custom-tailored to vocalists' needs. Record harmonies along with your voice, blend in effects to sweeten the sound and sing along to inspiring beats and rhythms."
"Building on the latest Rack Extension technology, Synchronous is an inspiring modulation plug-in that offers rhythmically synced effects that bring your music to life. With the built-in waveform tools, you can easily draw and dial in Distortion, Filter, Reverb, Delay and Level for anything from side-chain pumping and tremolos to beat-repeating and tweaked out wobbles.
Synchronous is available for free for all Reason 7.1 users up until June 30, 2014."
Nucleus SoundLab has released the amazing Hyperdrive ReFill for Propellerhead's Parsec Rack Extension. Hyperdrive has 128 Combinator patches and is the bomb-diggity, and I'm not just saying that because I worked on it :-). Check it:
"Hyperdrive contains a full palette of new sounds for Parsec, suitable for a variety of electronic music genres - such as ambient, IDM, trance, or filmscore. Nucleus SoundLab has employed five experienced sound designers to produce a ReFill of truly varied scope. Inside Hyperdrive you'll find their work has produced Blade Runner-esque FX, piercing psychedelic leads, glassy sweeping pads, hybrid Parsec/Thor duets as well deep sci-fi atmospheres.
The same quality customers have come to expect from Nucleus SoundLab is well-represented in Hyperdrive: Unique Combinators with unique Combinator controls; Parsec patches that make up each Combinator are individually available; full categorization of both Combinators and device patches; careful volume-balancing for every single patch. Together, Parsec and Hyperdrive are the perfect combination to propel your electronic music productions to vast new aural galaxies!"
"Propellerhead proudly presents Parsec Spectral Synthesizer — the futuristic sound of additive synthesis for the Reason Rack.
With two independent sound engines, up to 1024 oscillators per voice, a wide range of sound sculpting tools, built-in effects and free modulation routing, Parsec won’t leave you wishing when it comes to sonic horse-powers."
"EQ is probably the most important tool to make sure your mix sounds good. But how do you know where to cut or boost? What frequencies are important? In this video Propellerhead product specialist Mattias lets you in on four EQ tips for a better mix. Learn basic EQ usage, what frequencies matter in a kick drum and more!"
I dig these Propellerhead Artist Feature videos. It's always fascinating to see how different people use the same piece of software. Check out the latest featuring Grieves:
"Benjamin Laub or Grieves as he's known to fans, critics, and rappers the world over graduated from his MPC2000 to Reason after getting introduced to it by his long-time collaborator, Budo. Once he realized the depth and possibility, his production quickly shifted over almost entirely inside Reason. And when Grieves set out to take his latest album on tour he was faced with a problem: How could he get his live band to sound EXACTLY like his record sounds. Being a perfectionist, the nearest facsimile just wouldn't do for Grieves and thanks to Reason's rock-solid stability and legendary backwards compatibility, he had an obvious solution.
Opening up his entire back catalog of production files - years worth of music - Grieves was able to save patches to new document and create a live performance set up that includes the exact sounds off his record, complete with the same effects, same combinator routings, keyboard splits, etc. The result is a perfectionist's dream on stage and a fan's delight. We caught up with Grieves and his new band as they finished up rehearsals in Seattle and took their show on the road with the first show in Portland, Oregon."
Tom Pritchard's latest Reason offering Thorkit II is now available in the PropShop and at Nucleus-SoundLab.com! Thorkit II pushes the boundaries of what is possible with Reason's flagship synth and is a worthwhile purchase for anyone interested in getting some new sounds for the Reason rack:
"Tom Pritchard Sound Design presents ThorKit II for Reason 4+, the sequel to the popular ThorKit ReFill. Inside you'll find 200 new Thor patches! ThorKit II contains 100 lush Chord patches, 50 evocative Polysynth patches, and 50 driving Sequence synths. Chord patches use Thor's Step Sequencer to mimic Chord Memory, a function found on some synthesisers whereby pressing a note plays an entire chord, resulting in some huge sounds. You can deactivate the chord with Button and use these as 100 deep Polysynths if you prefer. Dive back into Thor with ThorKit II!"
"The RV7000 is a high quality stereo reverb that's all about embedding your sound in rich, sophisticated reverb. Regardless if you want the sound of a concert hall, a retro spring reverb or a cramped closet - RV7000 can handle it. In this tutorial we'll take a closer look at its features and what it can do to your music."
New for iPad, Reason's legendary synthesizer Thor!
Thor for iPad puts the mighty Thor synthesizer at your fingertips. Reason's legendary flagship synth delivers a thunderous sound, god-like sound sculpting capabilities and an innovative, lighting-fast keyboard designed for iPad. Thor is a synthesis playground, a flexible sonic workhorse, but above all, an expressive musical instrument for the iPad.
Thor highlights:
• Play Reason's Thor Polysonic Synthesizer on the iPad.
• Load any of the 1000+ expertly crafted synth patches, or create your own from scratch.
• Create your sounds using a palette of multiple oscillator and filter types.
• Play Thor using an expressive touch interface keyboard with aftertouch and strumming.
• Collapse the keyboard to a key and scale of your choice, just like in Figure.
• Move your favourite patches from the iPad to your computer and use them with Thor in Reason
Thor sounds like no synthesizer you've ever heard before - and every single one of them. Where other synths use one specific form of synthesis and one single filter, the Thor polysonic synthesizer features six different oscillator types and four unique filters. What does this give you? Simply the most powerful synth ever created; an unstoppable monster of a sound generator that utilizes synthesizer technology from the last 40 years.
On the iPad, Thor comes with a specially designed interface that's optimized for touch control and the iPad screen. Cleverly designed panels expand and fold at the touch of a button to hide or reveal oscillators, filters, envelopes and more.
The app is divided into three main screens: Keyboard, Knobs and Routing.
Keyboard mode features:
• Piano keyboard with transpose and range control
• Modulation and pitch bend controls
• Assist function lets you select key and scale to highlight chord notes or to collapse the keyboard to only show the chord notes of the selected scale.
• Strum function lets you play arpeggios by holding a chord while strumming across the strum control.
• Two assignable knobs and buttons acts like performance controls
• Settings for polyphony and portamento
Knobs mode features:
• Access to all of Thor's synthesis features
• Three oscillator slots for Thor's six oscillator types: Analog, Wavetable, FM Pair, PhaseMod, Multi Osc and Noise
• Three filter slots for for Thor's four filter types: Low Pass Ladder, State Variable, Comb and Formant
• Three envelopes
• Dual LFOs
• Delay and Chorus
• The Knobs screen is divided into panels that expand and collapse at the touch of a button
• Miniature keyboard to audition your sounds as you are working on them
Routing features:
• Comprehensive but easy to use routing matrix lets you create complex modulation and signal flow setups
• Step sequencer with 16-steps and six channels: Note, Velocity, Gate length, Step duration, Curve 1, Curve 2
General App features:
• Patch compatible with Thor in Reason on your computer
• Move patches to and from your iPad using iTunes or Dropbox
• Sound bank with more than 1000 Thor patches from leading artists & sound designers (Kill the Noise, Richard Devine, Chris Petti and many more)
• Gorgeous retina display interface
• MIDI in - play Thor from an external MIDI source or from another app on the same iPad
• Audiobus compatible - stream audio from Thor to another audio app on the same iPad
• Audio in background option lets Thor keep playing in the background when working with other apps.
One of the most exciting new additions to the Rack in Reason 7 is the External MIDI Instrument. In the latest Reason Micro Tutorial the Props show how to set up this new device with a DSI Mopho:
"The Reason Rack offers nearly endless sonic capabilities. But what if you just want the sound of your favorite hardware synth? Or that weird little drum machine you got half-price. In this tutorial we take a look at the External MIDI Instrument and how it can help you expand your Reason rack with your hardware."
The Reason 7 release is less than two weeks away! Here's a micro tutorial on Audio Slice Markers in Reason 7 to wet your appetite:
"In this Micro Tutorial we take a look at audio slice markers in Reason 7. Whether you're quantizing your audio tracks for flawless timing, adjusting individual notes to re-imagine your phrasing, or just looking to experiment into unknown realms Audio Slice Markers are a powerful tool. And the best part? Thanks to Reason's legendary time stretch, it sounds amazing."
"Ever since Reason 1.0 beatmakers, producers, and button-mashers alike have all loved the venerable old Redrum Drum Computer. And it's easy to see why. Step sequencing drum machines like Redrum or even the classic Roland 808 offer a nearly perfect layout for programming the rhythmic syncopated beats used in so many popular music genres. The 16 buttons, representing the 16 steps in the beat, provide the right blend of predictable beat construction and random experimentation when you want to spice up your beats.
In this micro tutorial, we'll get you started with drum step sequencing and get familiar with the Redrum's layout. You'll soon learn why producers the world over love Kong but also keep coming back to Redrum for that special creative simplicity."
James Wiltshire of The Freemasons shows off Reason 7's parallel processing feature at Red Bull Studios in the UK, part of the Propellerhead Reason 7 UK press launch this month! Video courtesy of soundtechuk. Check it:
"Reason 7 brings tons of new improvements for the mixer, the rack and the sequencer. Integrate your instruments into Reason with MIDI out, audio slicing and audio quantize. Turn your recordings into REX loops. For mixing, we're introducing a spectrum analyzer with visual EQ, group and parallel channels and workflow improvements. To inspire, Reason 7 imports audio from your music library and web formats. The enhanced Factory Sound Bank comes fully loaded with tons of new loops and drum kits. The new Audiomatic Retro Transformer effect adds a futuristic-vintage sound to any tracks."
I love the Propellerhead Sound Design Micro Tutorials. The latest explores Malström, a synth designed by Magnus Lidström (of Sonic Charge fame) back when he had a day job with the Props:
"Malström is a one-of-a-kind synth, begging to be explored. In this tutorial we'll learn the basics of this mean green machine by creating a synth pad sound from scratch. And once you've got a feel for what Malström can do, endless sound design possibilities are just around the corner!"
