Ed “EditEd4TV” Bauman’s 88MPH Vol.1 ReFill
Available now at: http://baumanproductions.com/88mph.html
Anyone using Reason should already be sufficiently versed in the work that Ed Bauman has done. If not, then this is the perfect time to get acquainted. Simply put, he’s one of the gurus. And he has recently released a ReFill for version 4 and up, titled 88MPH Vol. 1 (a new volume 2 will be available late 2011 and volume 3 available early 2012). This ReFill packs in 51 Combinators of 80’s sounds; sounds which he used to recreate with utter realism some of the best hits of the 80’s. From Prince’s “1999” to Blondie’s “Heart of Glass,” he is the man who gets grief from YouTube because his perfect recreations (“Re-Covers,” to use a term he coined) fool the video service into thinking they are the original. That’s just how good he is!
So here, I’m going to take a quick look at his ReFill, and also post a demo video I created using the ReFill. I would highly recommend if you are into the sounds coming out of the 80’s or if you want to learn a little more about how to program those sounds, that you pick up this ReFill. It won’t disappoint you.
Ed was also gracious enough to allow me to provide a free Combinator from the ReFill. Since Blondie’s Heart of Glass has always been a great disco classic near and dear to my heart, I thought I would provide one of the sounds taken from that song. You can download the Combinator patch file here: E4TV_Bland E Herd a Class Pulsing Synth. Thank you Ed!
First, here’s what Ed posted about his ReFill:
These are all Combinators with all 4 Combinator knobs and buttons mapped to various parameters. Usually Combinator knob 4 is mapped to volume for convenient live use. The remaining knobs and buttons control anything from filter frequency to reverb amount, reverb time, chorus speed, octave settings, and more. Pitch wheel and mod wheel are mapped as well. About 90% of the ReFill is custom Thor and Subtractor patches, with the remaining 10% made up of NN-XT patches which rely on the Orkester and Factory Soundbank for samples.
Each and every patch has enormous potential, from the default load-in setting to drastic changes when you alter the programmed parameters… try low octave power drones, and for patches with delay try playing staccato notes in tempo, move the pitch wheel and mod wheel, etc. When you load in a new patch, about 80% of the time all the knobs are at either 0%, 50%, or 100%. At first load-in you’ll find the patch to be exactly as I used it in my ReCover, so you can simply deviate from there.
This ReFill is a collection of 51 Combinator patches only; sequencer content is NOT provided. Requires Reason version 4.0 or higher due to extensive use of Combinator and Thor devices. There is not a VSTi version available and it will not natively work with any DAW (though you can of course use ReWire with your DAW of choice in conjunction with Reason/Record): this is a Reason/Record product only.
So the basic idea is that Ed provides you with all the sounds from the original songs, but not the sequencer information. Which means that we can bring the flavor of the 80’s into today’s music, and create our own tracks with them. I did that here:
Here’s a video that Ed put together to promote the ReFill:
And here’s the little demo I put together to showcase a few sounds from Ed’s Refill. Remember that this is just a taste of his refill. Ed is a meticulous programmer, and each Combinator is worth its weight in gold if you ask me. So please support his work:
I hope this gives you a good idea of what’s included in the ReFill and what can be done with these sounds. And might I suggest also having a look at his “Reasonable Help 2010” ReFill, in which you get 50 patches that help teach you how to design sounds and develop better patches. It’s a great tool for the medium or advanced level Reason user. I wrote a review of that ReFill back in January 2010.
A huge thanks to Ed for putting this package together. You truly are an inspiration to all of us Reason users. Please keep doing what you’re doing my friend. You can purchase Ed’s 88MPH Vol.1 ReFill here: http://baumanproductions.com/88mph.html