Creative Reason Projects – Page 5

45 – RPG-8 Arpeggio Fun (Pt.3)

And now for the third and final installment of my series which explores the RPG-8 in depth. In this tutorial, I’m going to go a little deeper and explore the CV and Pattern possibilities, using the Arpeggiator for some versatile sound control techniques.

You can download the project files here: advanced-arp-setups. There is one .RNS file which contains the 3 setups discussed below. In addition, the 3 separate Combinators are included. The whole thing is in a zip file. Open them up to follow along with the ideas below.

The RPG-8 CV Inputs

The 5 CV inputs on the back of the RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator — The 5 CV inputs on the back of the Arpeggiator

Before jumping into the setups, it’s important to know some of the more advanced CV options that are available on the back of the RPG-8 device. These include the following 5 CV inputs:

Gate Length CV In
Velocity CV In
Rate / Resolution CV In
Octave Shift CV In
Start of Arpeggio Trig In

Note that if you use any of these CV connections, the changes that they affect on your Arpeggio will not be reflected if you “Copy Arpeggio Notes to Track.” In other words, if you see the blinking light at the bottom of the CV connections on the back, AND you copy your arpeggio notes to track, the notes will not sound as intended (or with any CV input changes). But as I said in the first part of this series, there’s really very little need for you to copy the notes to track in the first place. Instead, keep any RPG-8 devices included in the .RNS file. This way, you’ll never come up against this problem.

Note: When using the CV inputs, the incoming CV is merged together with the setting on the front panel. For example, if your Gate Length is set to 40, and a CV value of +10 is sent to the Gate Length CV Input, then the resulting Gate Length will be 50. Same goes for the first 4 CV inputs. “Start of Arpeggio Trig In” is either in an “on” or “off” state, and therefore, this rule doesn’t apply.

If you look at how this graphs to the front of the RPG-8, you can make the following connections, which should help you to visualize what part of the RPG-8 is being controlled via CV:

The front of the RPG-8 highlighting which parameters can be modulated via CV input (on the back).

If you think about this for a moment, it takes a little to wrap your head around the concept. You are using CV to control a device, which in turn controls another device. That’s the gist of it. So armed with this knowledge, here are a few Arpeggiator setups to showcase some advanced Arpeggiator setups. Bear in mind there are probably a million and one ways to set things up. This is simply just a little taste of what can be done.

Note: For the following setups, you should add a simple chord that runs the length of 4-8 bars in a clip on the Combinator’s sequencer track. Then set the Left / Right locators at the start/end of the clip. In the transport bar, click the “Loop” button so that the clip loops over and over (see the project download .RNS file for reference). This ensures you can hear the effect of the Arpeggiator (s) as you play around with the settings.

Using 2 Arpeggiators to Control a Single Sound Source

This is a great way to get familiar with using both the CV input connections, as well as the Pattern section. First, let’s look at the video, and then I’ll briefly outline the setup.

In this setup, you create a Combinator with a 6:2 line mixer. Then create a Malstrom. Set up a basic sound, as shown below. Then add an RPG-8 device underneath the Malstrom. It will automatically be routed to the Malstrom’s Note / Gate CV inputs.

The front of the Malstrom Panel, with the sound I've chosen to showcase this Arp setup

Now create another RPG-8 underneath the first. Flip it around and route the Note CV output into the “Shift” CV input on the Malstrom. Send the Gate CV output of the second RPG-8 into the “Start of Arpeggio Trig In” on the first RPG-8. The note is now controlling the “Shift” parameter of the Malstrom’s sound. And the Gate is now controlling when the first Arpeggiator is going to start triggering (or rather, retriggering).

On the second RPG-8, press the “Pattern” button. Enter in a new pattern by skipping over a few steps (clicking the pattern step lights just above the Pattern window).

Now test it out by playing it. Notice that the notes played in the second RPG-8 determine how high or low the “Shift” parameter goes, and the “Gate” of the second RPG-8 determines the Starting of the first RPG-8 (retriggering). Since you entered a pattern on the second RPG-8, this pattern will determine when and which notes will be sent from the second RPG-8 to the first (as well as to the Malstrom).

The main CV routings on the back of the rack. Note the Subtractor's LFO1 is going into the Spider A Splitter.

The real fun comes when you start applying various modulations to the Combinator Rotaries and buttons. For example, try setting the “Pattern” of the second RPG-8 as the source for Rotary 1. Now you have a real-time pattern switcher. That’s just one example.

Controlling and Controlled by a Single Sound Source

In this setup, we’ll use Thor to both Control the Arpeggiator, which in turn is used to control the note/gate of the Thor sound source. It’s kind of cannibalistic because you’re using parameters on Thor to control a device which in turn is controlling itself. But you can get some really nice results this way. Here’s how it operates:

The first thing to do is create a Combinator with a 6:2 line mixer. Then create a Thor and RPG-8 device in that sequence. Everything will be auto-routed. Add in your favorite Thor patch. After this is done, create 4 CV parameters in Thor’s Modulation Bus Routing Section (MBRS) as follows:

LFO 1 : 100 > CV Out1

Mod Env : 100 > CV Out2

LFO 2 : 100 > CV Out3

Global Env : 100 > CV Out4

The front of the rack showing the Thor settings and MBRS routings.

In this way, Thor has four modulations that can be applied to all four CV inputs on the back of the Arpeggiator. Next, flip the rack around and lead each CV Modulation Output to the four CV inputs in the RPG-8, respectively. From there, it’s just a matter of tweaking the settings for the front panel Thor modulations, as well as the front of the RPG-8 parameters and the trim trim pots on the back of the RPG-8 (Remember that the RPG-8 CV Inputs merge the incoming signal with the front panel parameter settings, so you have to strike the right balance between the CV input trim knobs and the front panel equivalents). All three of these things (Thor modulations, RPG-8 CV input trim knobs, and RPG-8 front panel settings) determine the final sound of the Arpeggio coming out of Thor.

The back of the rack showing the Thor modulating the RPG-8, which in turn is creating Arpeggios for Thor

Bringing Multiple CV Sources together with the RPG-8

In this type of setup, I’ll use the Waveforms in a Malstrom to affect parameters in an RPG-8, and in turn use 2 RPG-8 Arpeggiators to affect a Thor sound source.

In this setup, create a Combinator with a 6:2 Line Mixer. Then create a Thor device, and RPG-8 device under that. This RPG-8 will auto-route to the Thor device. Then create another RPG-8 underneath that, and finally, holding the shift key down, create a Malstrom device under the bottom RPG-8. Make the following additional CV connections at the back of the rack:

Thor LFO 2 Output > RPG-8 1 Rate/Resolution CV Input (Trim Knob = 12)

RPG-8 2 Note CV Output > Thor’s CV 1 Modulation Input (Thor’s front MBRS panel should be “CV In1 : 100 > Osc2 Pos”)

Malstrom Mod A Output > RPG-8 2 Octave Shift CV Input (Trim Knob = 64)

Malstrom Mod B Output > RPG-8 1 Gate Length CV Input (Trim Knob = 127)

The front of the Thor device has an Analog Oscillator in the first slot and a Wavetable in the second slot, both going through a low pass ladder filter in Filter Slot 1. See below for the settings:

Once this is done, set up the Malstrom to use both curves. The Curves should be set as follows:

Mod A: Curve #3 (square wave) set to sync with a rate of 5/4

Mod B: Curve #2 (double saw wave) set to sync with a rate of 1/4

The following shows the settings:

The Malstrom Mod A and Mod B curves used to Modulate the Arpeggio

Now take a listen to what you’ve created. As in the previous examples, let the sound loop as you make any final settings to the Curve/Rates in the Malstrom, CV trim knobs on the back of the RPG-8 devices, and Arpeggiator settings on the front of the Arp devices. Remember, what I’m providing here are just a few examples of what can be done. There’s so much more you can explore on your own. So take it as a template and come up with your own designs.

Where do you go from here?

Anywhere quite frankly. Another thought I had, which I haven’t tried yet, is to try using the Arpeggiator to control the parameters of the Thor Step Sequencer. I haven’t tried it yet or worked on anything in that respect, but I think you could definitely find innovative uses like this.

I think, when it comes to the RPG-8, there are several interesting possibilities. Just always keep in mind the notes on the sequencer need to be on the Arpeggiator track. This one tip is the one that most pops up when people are trying to figure out how to use the device. So place clips either on the Arpeggiator track, or if the Arpeggiator is inside a Combinator, place the clips on the Combinator and ensure the RPG-8 is “receiving” notes in the Combinator’s Modulation section (it does by default).

So there you have it. A few different approaches to using the RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator in Reason 4 or 5. As you can see, there’s a lot of flexibility to the device. Even those who claim to be purists; drawing in their notes by hand in the sequencer or playing them out on a keyboard controller should be encouraged to take a look at this versatile device. It’s not just for arpeggiating notes you know. Like Thor, there’s a lot under the hood of this device that may go unnoticed, even by professionals. I just hope this encourages them to take another look at one of my favorite Reason devices. Until next, time, thanks for reading and watching, and please leave a comment if you like what you see or you have any questions.

44 – RPG-8 Arpeggio Fun (Pt.2)

In Part 2 of my exploration of the RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator, I’m going to dig a little deeper under the hood and see what kind of fun we can have with it. The arpeggiator is usually used to enhance the synth devices. But with a little tweaking, we can apply it to other areas as well, like Kong and Redrum, as well as using it to create multiple arp lines from the same synth. So let’s get busy.

To start, the project files for both Part 1 & Part 2 can be downloaded here: arpeggiator-fun. The files are fairly self-evident. You have one .rns file which shows you the basic RPG-8 setup, and a few combinators to showcase some of the tricks I’ll show you. The file is available in zip file format.

Creating a Left/Right Double Arp Setup

Creating an RPG-8 to control a device is all well and good. But how about kicking it up a notch. Let’s create two Arps that are controlling the left and right audio signals and affecting them with different Arpeggios (actually, in this tutorial the Arpeggios are similar, but travel in two different directions and have different “Insert” parameters to play slightly different arpeggios left and right). In this case, create a Subtractor, adjust the parameters to get a synth line that you like (melodies work well). Then create an RPG-8 underneath and the Arp device auto-routes to the Subtractor. Once this is done, select both the Subtractor and RPG-8, right-click and Duplicate the Devices and Tracks. The following shows the routing setup at the back of the rack. Note that I also split the device signals and sent one audio pair through a Unison device to fatten it up a bit.

The Subtractor and RPG-8 routing at the back of the rack to set up your melodic synth lines.

The Subtractor becomes the perfect experimental sound source, because this synth is monophonic to begin with. The video below shows in more detail how this setup is put together.

Using the RPG-8 to Control Kong

This is just a quick little look at a different way you can play Kong. Everyone is always looking at new ways to use the Kong device, so here’s a new one. This procedure explains how you can pair the Kong device with the RPG-8 Arpeggiator. This opens the possibilities to use the RPG-8 to act as a sequencer for your drums, and if you turn up the rate you can get some wonderful glitch sounds out of Thor.

In this setup, you create the Combinator with a 6:2 Mixer (the mixer is optional though), and then the Kong device. Create the RPG-8 under the Kong device and it automatically routes up with Kong via the 4 outgoing CV cables.

Note: In the following three setups (with Kong, Redrum, and the Dr.OctoRex), the methods only use the Gate trigger, meaning that the Arpeggiator is only controlling the Gate of the drums. Kong doesn’t have internal CV pitch controls, so you can’t directly control the pitch of Kong. However, it should be noted that if you use the Arpeggiator to control Redrums, you could send the Note / Gate CV cables of an RPG-8 into the Gate / Pitch CV input on an individual drum. This type of setup allows you to create 1 RPG-8 device to control 1 drum in Redrum. So you can imagine a setup that uses 10 RPG-8 devices to control all the drums in a Redrum Kit. Try that out if you want pitch control (and who said Redrum was obsolete?).

The routing on the back of the Combinator: The Kong and RPG-8 Arpeggiator

From here it’s a walk in the park to use the Arpeggiator to trigger Kong. You just need to create some notes on the sequencer in the usable range of Kong (either C1 to D#2 or C3 to B6). To do this, add the notes in the Combinator track in the sequencer, and with the note clip selected, open the Tools Window (F8). Then use the “Transpose Notes” function, select “Random” and enter the minimum/maximum note value and press the “Apply” button. Done.

Here’s the video to show you the setup details:

Using the RPG-8 to Control a Redrum

Now let’s see if it’s possible to have an Arpeggiator trigger the Redrum, so that Reason 4 drummers aren’t left out in the cold. The downside to using an Arp to trigger the Redrum is that there are no single set of CV connections to trigger the device as a whole. You could trigger the gates of each drum separately. However, you can’t trigger all drums at once. What’s needed is a workaround. And this workaround comes in the form of putting the entire setup inside a Combinator and having the Arpeggiator trigger the Combinator via its CV connections.

Create the Combinator as you did previously with the Kong setup. Then add your Redrum with your favorite kit. Now, instead of creating the RPG-8 under the Redrum, go outside the Combinator and create it underneath the Combinator itself. This will automatically connect the CV cables to control the Combinator. Once this is done, move the RPG-8 inside the Combinator (so you can save the entire Combinator patch later).

The alternate Redrum routing where the Arpeggiator triggers the Combinator and any devices inside.

Now, as we’ve done before, we can create some notes on the Combinator lane and adjust them from C1 to A1, which is the usable range of the Redrum device.

See below for the video which details this setup.

Using the RPG-8 to Control a Loop — That’s right, a Loop!

Ok so this one is a little out there. You’re going to get some very glitchy results, but in the same way we can Arpeggiate the Redrum, we can also arpeggiate the Dr. OctoRex loop player. Keep in mind this is really going to get glitchy. So be prepared. Because you’ll need to really really experiment with this one to get something you like out of it. And it’s ultimately completely unpredictable. But here’s the idea in the following video:

Now let’s look at the issue of Pitch. Since the above videos show you how you can use the Gate of the Arpeggiator to trigger the gate of the drum devices, we need to do a little adjustment to set up the Pitch correctly. With the Redrum, for example, you can set up the Arpeggiator to trigger the Gate / Pitch CV inputs on each individual drum. On the Dr. OctoRex, you can leave the Gate CV out from the Arpeggiator where it is in the Combinator, but move the Note CV out cable to the Osc. Pitch input on the back of the Dr.OctoRex. Here’s a video which outlines how these methods are achieved:

So those are just a few ways you can play with the RPG-8 to create interesting melodies and experimentation. Do you have any other ideas you would like to share when it comes to creative Arpeggios? Anything you would like further explained? Drop me a comment and let me know.

43 – RPG-8 Arpeggio Fun (Pt.1)

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you a few interesting ways you can use the RPG-8 Arpeggiator in Reason 4 and above. We’ll first cover the basics and then move into more interesting territory in Part 2. For this tutorial, I’ll run through setting up an RPG-8 device, and then explore all the device parameters.

To start, the project files for both Part 1 & Part 2 can be downloaded here: arpeggiator-fun. The files are fairly self-evident. You have one .rns file which shows you the basic RPG-8 setup, and a few combinators to showcase some of the tricks I’ll show you. The file is available in zip file format.

Arpeggios for Dummies

The RPG-8 is a device that allows you to play arpeggios. What’s an arpeggio? In simple terms, it’s a “broken chord” whereby the notes of a chord are played successively rather than simultaneously. To think of this in simple piano terms, if you were to play three notes in a triad (first, third, and fifth, for example), you would place all three fingers on the three different notes and press the keys at the same time. This produces a chord. Instead, an arpeggio plays the chord in succession: your first finger goes down on the first note, second finger then goes down on the third note, and third finger then goes down on the fifth note. The notes are played one after the other.

Setting up the RPG-8

Before jumping into an explanation of setting everything up and exploring all the parameters, I thought I would put together this video and show you visually and audibly how it all works. Then you can read the full explanation below.

Setting up the RPG-8 is fairly easy. Create your sound device (Subtractor, Malstrom, Thor, NN-XT, for example), then create the RPG-8. Everything is automatically routed up for you. From then on, all you need to do is enter some notes on the RPG-8 track (NOT THE SOUND DEVICE), and you’ll hear the Arpeggios playing from those notes. Of course, if you set up the RPG-8 inside a Combinator, you might want to create a special track for the RPG-8 in the sequencer — though placing notes on the Combinator track will trigger the RPG-8 to play (because the RPG-8 is set to Receive notes in the Combinator). Just make sure that any notes you want to play arpeggiated should reside on the RPG-8 track or in the Combinator that houses the RPG-8 and you’ll be safe.

Default routing for the RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator

It should also be noted that the RPG-8 is a monophonic device. In other words, it’s one note at a time. You can create polyphonic setups by duplicating the device (both the sound source and the RPG-8) and then sending the audio output from both devices to different channels on a mixer or merging them together using a Spider Audio Merger/Splitter. This is a common setup or workaround to making your arpeggios polyphonic. Yeah, it’s a bit of a pain. But it’s not a major hassle either IMHO.

RPG-8 Parameters

So now that you understand how an arpeggio operates, we can easily make a few connections on the RPG-8 device. Open one up and you’ll see the following controls:

The RPG-8 Front Panel, with all the Parameters shown

Note: The RPG-8 is divided into 3 main areas. On the left, you have the “Midi-CV Converter” area. Translated into english, these are your “Keyboard” controls. This includes the Velocity knob, Hold button and Octave Shift settings. Generally, these controls relate to how notes are input from the keyboard controller (or other midi controller device). In the middle, you have the “Arpeggiator” controls, which affect the way the arpeggios operate. Finally, on the right side, you have the “Pattern” section, which can add a separate internal rhythm to the arpeggios.

Velocity: As with any other device, the Velocity value is determined by how hard you play your keys on the keyboard. The harder you play, the louder the notes will sound (depending, of course, on the velocity levels you set up in the device being controlled). When this knob is set fully right, you are in manual mode, which means the velocity is determined by how hard or soft you play the keyboard (this is the default). If, however, you set the knob anywhere else on the dial (left of the manual position), the velocity level is fixed, based on the dial. For example, if you set the knob to 64, then no matter how hard or soft you play the keyboard, your velocity level will remain on 64 (ie: 50% or half-level velocity).

Hold: This is one of the best features of the Arpeggiator device in my humble opinion. Using this simple button can free you up to do other things on your keyboard while the arpeggio continues. The way it works is you turn it on, then play a chord. Then lift your hand off the keyboard (Release). Notice that the Arpeggio continues to play? Now play a new chord. The new chord will overwrite the old chord and continue to play. Turn the “Hold” button off, and the arpeggio stops playing. In this way, you can continue to maintain an arpeggio playing while jumping off to play other devices. Or you can create a series of Arpeggiators and play different rhythms on each device to have them all running their own rhythms and chords simultaneously, without ever entering more than one chord on each device. One of the most useful features of the RPG-8 to be sure!

Note: If you have the Arpeggiator On/Off button (see below) turned off, adding a new note will not overwrite previous notes. Instead, the Hold will leave the gate open, meaning the notes will be “additional” to the previously held notes. This may be what you want or intend. But usually, you want the notes replaced when they are held. Still, it’s nice to have options.

Octave Shift: This allows you to transpose the notes up or down 3 octaves each way. You can use this to shift notes up or down an octave in a “live” setting, or if you find you’ve input notes on the sequencer that are too high or too low, you can adjust them here. Nothing too exciting, and I think the idea behind this feature is pretty self-evident.

The Arpeggiator’s “On” button: 99% of the time you’ll want to leave this button on. It simply turns on/off the Arpeggiator section of the device. See the above note for a situation where you may want this button turned “Off.”

Mode knob: This can be thought of as the “direction” of your arpeggio. If you think in terms of the previous triad I was explaining, up would play the root, third and fifth in succession, while down would play the fifth, third, and root. Up/Down would play the root, third, fifth, third, root. Random would play the notes in a random order. Finally, manual creates arepeggios that move in the same direction that the notes are played when they are input. Input a C1 and then a C2 and then a C0, the notes will arpeggiate up from C1 to C2 and then down from C2 to C0. It basically follows the direction you play manually.

Octave: This determines the range of your arpeggio. Using our example, If you set this to 1 octave, the arpeggio will not stray from the octave that is played. The triad will be played in succession and within the octave that is initially input. If you enter 2 Octaves as your parameter, the triad will play within the range of the current octave plus an additional octave above. It’s important to note that the octave range increases. It does not decrease. If you wish to extend the range one octave below the current octave, an easy solution is to set the Octave Shift parameter to “-1” and then select the “2 Oct” button. This essentially places the arpeggio within the two octave range; one octave below the current octave AND the current octave being played. Sounds confusing, but becomes obvious once you start applying the parameters to an arpeggio which is currently playing.

Insert: Probably the most complicated aspect of the Arpeggiator section, the best way to think of the insert function is to understand that it injects a rhythm to the Arpeggio by altering the sequence of notes being played. This is another one of those “great to have” features because it can add a lot of interest to the sound, without having the arpeggio sound static or dull. “Hi Insert” will start by inserting the highest note, then play the next note in the arpeggio sequence; inserting the highest note after each subsequent arpeggio note (after every second note). “Low Insert” will start by inserting the lowest note, then play the next note in the arpeggio sequence; inserting the lowest note after each subsequent arpeggio note (after every second note). 3-1 and 4-2 are more rhythmic in nature and don’t actually add any new notes into the sequence. “3-1 Insert” plays 3 notes forward, and then goes back 1 note, then starts playing 3 more notes from there. “4-2 Insert” plays four notes forward, and then steps 2 notes backward, and plays the following 4 notes. Hi and Low Insert can be thought of as introducing new notes, while 3-1 and 4-1 Insert simply reshuffles and restarts the arpeggio sequence at a different point in time (either 1 note back after 3 notes are played, or 2 notes back after 4 notes are played).

Here are some examples using real-world arpeggios for a C Major chord (C, E, and G) with the Inserted notes listed in rounded brackets and restarted notes listed with square brackets (with the Arpeggio Mode set to “Up” and the Octave setting set to “1 Oct”):

No Insert: C – E – G – repeat

Low Insert: (C) – E – (C) – G – repeat

Hi Insert: (G) – C – (G) – E – repeat

3-1 Insert: C – E – G – [E] – G – C – E – [C] – E – G – C – [G] – repeat

4-2 Insert: C – E – G – C – [E] – G – C – E – G – [C] – E – G – C – E – [G] – repeat

Notice that the 4-2 insert is identical in sequence to the “No Insert” setting. This is because the way the algorithm works on a triad is indiscernible to not having any insert set. If you were to create a 4-note chord, however, the 4-2 Insert will have a noticeable difference. The moral of this story: Insert values sometimes don’t have any effect on the arpeggios you are playing.

Rate knob: This determines how fast the notes are played. Very simple. You can have it free-form, meaning that the rate is not tied to the song’s tempo, or you can have it synced, meaning the speed is tied to the song’s tempo.

Note: if you want to tie the rate parameter to a Rotary within a Combinator, you can expand the capability by assigning both the Free Rate and Sync Rate to the same Rotary and then tie the sync parameter to a button. With this setup, you can use one Rotary to change both the free and sync rate, and switch between the two via the sync button on the Combinator. Easy as pie!

Gate Length knob: This determines when the gate is triggered. If it is fully left, the gate is “tied,” meaning that the gate is always on. In other words, the notes are meshed together and seamlessly play from one to the next, with no “breather” or “break” between the notes. If the gate length is further to the right, the gate breaks up the notes more and give a sort of “staccato” feel. Fully right and the gate makes the note extremely short, if not inaudible.

Single Note Repeat button: This is one of those parameters I think should be under the “Keyboard” section, but anyway. It basically determines how the Arpeggiator works when single notes are played. If left on (default), playing a single note triggers the gate over and over. So the note repeats based on the “Gate Length” setting. If turned off, any single notes that are played will not repeat, but playing multiple notes at once (polyphony) results in the Arpeggiator being triggered. This can work very well if you want to play a monophonic synth line, and break into an arpeggio when more than one note is played simultaneously. Very dynamic when used correctly.

Pattern button: This turns on the “Pattern” section of the device. The pattern section can best be described as a mini-matrix or mini sequencer inside the RPG-8. You can use the +/- “Steps” buttons to reduce or add steps into the pattern. By default, when you turn on the pattern, all steps in the pattern are enabled. This means the arpeggio plays through from the beginning of the pattern until the end. If you click on the pattern step buttons above the pattern window, you end up removing notes inside the pattern. This means the pattern will “skip over” those steps and move on to the next step which is enabled. It’s very similar to the way the Thor step sequencer works. Use the shuffle button to add a sense of shuffle or swing to the pattern (similar to the shuffle button on other devices like the matrix and Redrum).

Note: One really neat thing is that you can program the pattern to be changed on the fly by controlling it via one of the rotaries on the Combinator. This gives you access to 127 different patterns. However, if you automate it directly in the sequencer, you have access from -32768 to +32767 pattern variations. That’s a total of 65535 pattern variations. Yup. You got that right. So automate this sucker in the sequencer if you’re in the studio, and map it to a combinator if you need to play it live.

Note: The pattern window helps to show you which notes are playing within the arpeggio. It can play the full range of notes from C-2 to G8, but the pattern window will only display notes from A-2 to D#7. That’s why the notes appear so flat. It has to show 8.5 Octaves worth of notes (103 notes in total). But it does! Perhaps that’s where the “8” comes from in the name of the device?

So that’s the RPG-8 in a nutshell. Stick with me and I’ll show you some further tips on how to use this device in my next tutorial. Drop me a line and let me know what you think so far, or if you’re looking to do something specific with the device. I’d be happy to try and help you out. All my best!

42 – Stacking Modulated Filters

In this tutorial I’m going to show you two things: 1. How to Stack multiple filters together to process a sound, and 2. How to use Thor’s filters to supplement other devices in Reason that don’t have those same filters (think of the Formant and some parts of the State Variable Filter).

You can download the project file here: stacking-filters. This is a zip file that contains the .rns file with the two Combinators used in the making of this tutorial. Those same two Combinators are provided separately as well. The files work with Reason 4 and above.

Stacking Thor Filters (In a Nutshell)

Before jumping into the tutorial, if you are a primarily visual person (or just a YouTube whore), you can watch the video below to see the process outlined:

It should be noted that this is merely one method to stack a few filters. I find this method gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to processing the sound, because you can adjust the amount of filtered sound which is mixed with the original sound (in other words, parallel processing). So let’s get started.

First off, Create a Main 14:2 Mixer at the top of your rack. Then create a Combinator. Then inside the Combinator, create in order a 6:2 Line Mixer, RV7000, Spider Audio Merger/Splitter, and Malstrom. Then holding the shift key down (to prevent auto-routing), create a Thor synth device.
Flip the rack around (Tab) and create the following routings: Remove the Malstrom Main A/B Outputs and reroute them to the Main Left/Right splits in the Audio Splitter. Then send one pair of splits to Channel 1 on the Line Mixer. Send another Split into Thor’s Audio Input 1 & 2. Then Send the Left/Right Audio outputs from Thor into Channel 2 on the Mixer.
The view of the back of the Rack before all the routing.

The view at the back of the rack after all the routing -- we'll get to the second Thor's routing in a bit. . .
Flip back around to the Front (Tab). In the Malstrom, turn on Oscillator 2, and set both Oscillators to “Sawtooth*4” and both Waveshapes in Mod A and Mod B to “Curve 2.” Set the ADSR envelopes of both Oscillators to 40/127/127/75, respectively (This turns the sound into a much more progressive slow-moving Pad). Route Oscillator A to the Shaper and Oscillator B to the Filter B (Note: Do not turn on the Shaper). Set Filter A’s Frequency to somwhere around 116 or so. Set Filter B’s Frequency to somewhere around 106. This is so that we remove a bit of harshness in the final sound we’ll be building up. Set Oscillator A’s Cent value to “+7” and Oscillator B’s Cent value to “-7” which detunes the Oscillators from each other.
The Malstrom settings
Moving to the Thor, Turn Oscillator 1 Off, and uncheck the “1” button which routes Osc.1 to Filter 1. You don’t need Oscillators in Thor. We’re only using the Filters in Thor. Turn on the Formant Filter in both the first and second Filter Slots and set up Filter 1’s X/Y value to “0/127” and Filter 2’s X/Y value to “127/127.” Turn off the Filter Envelope’s “Gate Trig” button as well so that the Filters are not affected by the Filter Envelope. Then enable Filter 2 to be sent to the Amp section (the small arrow that leads from Filter 2 to Amp). Turn on the Tempo Sync for LFO2 and set the Rate to 6/4. Finally, set the Amp Envelope’s ADSR to the following values: 396 ms / 29.6 s / -0.0 dB / 6.98 s.
Next, in Thor’s Modulation Bus Routing Section (MBRS), enter the following slots/lines:
Slot 1 – Audio In1 : 100 > Filt1 In

Slot 2 – Audio In2 : 100 > Filt2 In

Slot 8 – LFO2 : 100 > Filt1 X : -100 > Filt2 X

The Thor Filter settings and Modulation Bus Routing Section (MBRS) settings.

The first 2 slots are telling Thor to take the audio input of the Left and Right Audio cables we set up previously, and sent them to Filter 1 and Filter 2 respectively. From that point onward, the signal travels through Thor as it normally would and then outputs to Channel 2 on the Line Mixer. The last line is what modulates the filter parameters in Thor. This basically creates a cross-over between filter 1 and filter 2 based on the default Sine wave in LFO2. Ok so far.
Now with the Thor still selected, right-click and select “Duplicate Devices and Tracks.” In the duplicated Thor, set the LFO2 rate to 2/1 and change the Filter 1 X/Y value to “0/0” Then change the slot 8 line in the MBRS to the following:
LFO2: 100 > Filt1 Y : -100 > Filt2 Y
Flip the rack around and connect another split pair from the Audio Splitter to this new Thor’s Audio Input 1 & 2. Then Send the Left/Right Audio outputs from the new Thor into Channel 3 on the Mixer.
Flip back around to the front of the rack and on the Line Mixer adjust the following:
Channel 1 : Aux = 34; Level = 36; Pan = -14

Channel 2: Aux = 50; Level = 92; Pan = 18

Channel 3: Aux = 53; Level = 90; Pan = 22
Finally, let’s take a look at the RV7000. Truth be told, you could enter whatever preset you like here which would work for a Pad sound. So enter your favorite RV7000 Patch. My settings were a low HF Damp, High EQ, with EQ turned on, and a lowering of the EQ curve on the low end with the gain set on the high EQ end to affect the midtones more than any other area. I also smoothed out the curve and made a few adjustments to the overall Reverb default “Hall” settings, as shown below.
The RV7000 settings for the Hall Reverb

The settings for the Reverb's EQ.

Now give it a play and see how it sounds. By layering the filters and sending Left and Right to different filters that are modulated with a simple Sine wave, you can create some very complex tones that you couldn’t get using the Malstrom on its own.

Quickly Converting to a Whole New Sound

Now we can do a few interesting things with our setup. For example, duplicate the Combinator and change all four filters to “State Variable Filters.” Set the Resonance in the two filters in the first Thor to 54 and 82 respectively. In the second Thor, set both filters to “BP” mode and set the first filter’s Frequency to 3.28 kHz and Resonance to 38. Set the second filter’s Frequency to 158 kHz and Resonance to 50. Reduce the Attack and Release settings on the first Thor’s Amp Envelope a little bit. And Reduce them completely on the second Thor’s Amp Envelope. You can also use the Mod Envelope to affect the Resonance of the filters as I have done here:

Switching Filters and a few Parameters to get a completely different sound

Solo each Channel on the Mixer and see if the levels are ok. I found I had to insert a Maximizer after the second Thor just to boost things a bit. Trial and error is the key.

Finally, go into the Malstrom and change the two Oscillators to use the “JewsHarp” graintable in both. Reduce the Filter A & B Frequencies to your liking, and have a listen by playing a few notes. You end up with a very different sound altogether; like a slow meandering rumble. With just a few minor changes you get all sorts of different sounds.

The Malstrom Settings for this brand new sound. Use the JewsHarp Oscillators

Where do you go from here?

Anyplace you like is the short answer. But try out different filters and different Malstrom Oscillators. You could also insert a Scream device with some mild settings to completely alter the sound. Or try your hand modulating the filters in different unexpected ways using different LFO waves and rates. The sky is really the limit.

The only thing I might be wary of doing is creating delays on any of the parallel signals, as this can cause some phase shifting. But that might be something you are trying to achieve. It’s really up to you.

Let me know what you think of this tutorial and please add your comments if you come up with something far more interesting than these designs. I’d love to hear your own sound designs and creations. Until next time, good luck in all your endeavors.

41 – Layered FM Pair Oscillators

In this article, I’m going to tackle a very simple idea from which you can end up creating several interesting patches. The idea is to create several layers of the FM Pair Oscillators in multiple Thors, which are mixed together for a final output that sounds very thick and rich, and is capable of several sounds from Bell-like high pitched to Deep thick Organ sounds (think the Wedding March to get a mental picture of where this can take you). So jump on the train and let’s go for an orgasmic FM ride.

If you really can’t wait and just want to get to the good stuff, here it is: Layered-FM-Pair-Synthesis. The download contains 4 Combinators that are variations on the Multiple FM Pair Oscillator Synthesis. The Combinators are in a single .rns file which is zipped up. Try playing around with the different Rotaries and Buttons to come up with a wide variety of sounds. It’s like an extended Thor FM Pair Oscillator playground.

When I was building my FM 4-Operator System way back when, I went over most of the basics of FM synthesis. So I won’t rehash that again here. Instead, I’m going to outline one idea that I’ve noticed with FM which I’m hoping will help you build better patches. The idea is simple but very powerful, and if you haven’t played around with FM yet, you’ll soon realize it. The idea is this: when you have a modulator that is a multiple of the Carrier (or vice versa), you end up with very harmonic sounds. If you use a Carrier / Mod combination that are not multiples of each other, you end up with inharmonic sounds. This makes perfect sense when you read the technical description of what inharmonicity means. Namely, that when you depart from whole multiples of the fundamental frequency, you end up in a land where things start sounding strange (how’s that for a technical description?)

So we can start making some interesting musical choices based on this idea. Namely, if we want something very harmonic, we can build ourselves a patch with Oscillators that contain exact multiples of the fundamental frequencies. If we want something outside this harmonic realm, we can mix things up and create odd relationships between Carriers and Modulators, and even between Oscillators. Let’s start off by seeing how we can create a “Harmonic 12-Oscillator FM Pair Synthesis Combinator” — in 3 parts below:

The idea behind this is pretty simple, you set up 6 Thor devices and place an FM Pair Oscillator in both Slot 1 and Slot 2. The “Slot 1” Oscillator’s Carrier and Mod are set to 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, and 6/6 respectively. The Oscillators in slot 2 continue from the first Thor (7/7) to the sixth Thor (12/12). In this way you have a layer of 12 Oscillators in total. However, you can effectively double the settings using some clever button assignments so that you can have button 1 affect the Modulators, and button 2 affect the Carriers. When pressed, the Carrier/Mod buttons are set to double their values, providing 4 different settings as follows:

Both buttons off: Carrier/Mod are set from 1/1 up to 12/12
With the Mod button on, but the Carrier button off: Carrier/Mod set from 1/2 up to 12/24
With the Mod button off, but the Carrier button on: Carrier/Mod set from 2/1 up to 24/12
With both Mod and Carrier buttons on: Carrier/Mod set from 2/2 up to 24/24

The Combinator also allows for many other settings, as follows:

Rotary 1: Adjusts the FM knob on all Oscillator’s at the same time.
Rotary 2: Allows you to mix between Oscillator 1 and Oscillator 2 on all the Thor devices at once.
Rotary 3: Adjusts the Detuning amount by 12 ticks between Oscillator 1 and 2 on all the Thor devices at once.
Rotary 4: Adds some Reverb to the final audio output of all the Thors mixed together.
Button 3: Selects between only having 1 Oscillator per Thor (in slot 1), or having both Oscillators turned on (both slots 1 & 2).
Button 4: Turns on the Chorus setting in all the Thor devices (the Chorus is set to the default, but don’t be afraid to play around and get a Chorus setting that you like).

The FM Layers shown from the front inside the Combinator.

The Thor routings shown at the back of the rack inside the Combinator.

I’ve also included a few other variations on this style of patch in the project files (found at the top of this article). I’m not going to go over all the settings in those patches, as you can open them up and see for yourself. Play around with the settings and you will see that it offers a wide variety of sounds.

That about does it. And now that you have some of these ideas down, have a go at putting together multiple layered Analog, Wavetable, Phase Modulation, or Multi-Oscillator creations, using some of the techniques outlined here. And if you have any great creations that you’ve made or any ideas that you would like to share, I invite you to do so. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

All my best for now.

40 – Thor Oscillator Wave Mods

In this tutorial I’m going to jump into Thor’s oscillators and show you how a simple method to cycle through the oscillator’s waves (Carriers, Modulators, Phase Mod Waves) can create lots of unexpected outcomes (a la Glitch). It can also allow you to modulate the Oscillators in a way you might not have thought about previously.

The project files can be downloaded here: Glitch-Oscillatoriffic. This zip file contains a single RNS file with 2 different Combinators. You can use the mute buttons on the main mixer to highlight each Combinator and play with each one individually.

I also wanted to say thanks to Geoff Wakefield for talking over this idea through an email exchange. Your ideas are great, as is your music Geoff! Keep up the great work. And go check out his music here: http://soundcloud.com/raven-2741.

First, here’s a video that outlines the basic concepts of modulating Thor’s oscillator waves:

Modulating Thor’s “FM Pair” Oscillator’s Carrier and Modulator

The main trick here is to keep all the devices inside a Combinator so that you can use CV to trigger the Rotaries of the Combinator. The Modulation Bus in the Combinator is used to set up the Oscillator’s Carrier and Modulation waves in the FM Pair, so that when CV is cabled into Rotary 1 & 2, the CV triggers a “cycling” through the different waves. This in turn affects the sound coming out of Thor. You then use the Malstrom’s Mod A & Mod B to supply the CV source, which is sent to the Rotary 1 & 2 CV input.

Also in the Modulation Bus of the Combinator, you’re going to set it up so that Rotary 3 and Rotary 4 (sources) are set up to adjust the Malstrom’s Mod A and Mod B (the destination). You can adjust the Min/Max settings to be as wild and crazy (full 0/31) or as tempered as you like (1/3, for example). In this way, you can not only adjust the Carrier / Modulation waves of Thor’s Oscillator with Rotary 1 and 2, but you can also adjust the Modulation Curve settings of the Malstrom’s Mod A and Mod B with Rotary 3 and 4.

Modulating Thor’s “Phase Modulation” Oscillator’s Wave 1 & 2

Now that we have the basic concept down, it’s a snap to transfer this same idea over to the Phase Modulation Wave 1 and Wave 2. Simply switch the Thor oscillator in slot 1 to “Phase Modulation” and then go back into the Combinator Modulation Bus, and change Rotary 1 and Rotary 2 as follows:

Rotary 1 > Osc 1 Phase Modulation Wave 1

Rotary 2 > Osc 1 Phase Modulation Wave 2

Note: the actual Min/Max settings, as shown earlier, can be anything you like, depending how crazy you like things.

Modulating Thor’s “Wavetable” Oscillator’s Tables

Now instead of the Phase Modulation oscillator, switch to the Wavetable Oscillator. Personally, this is my favorite oscillators for this type of technique. The variety and timbre of the sounds make it a really nice glitch mayhem device for the task. In using it though, there’s only 1 parameter we can effect, which is the actual Wavetables themselves. So switch Rotary 1 in the Combinator Modulation Bus as follows:

Rotary 1 > Osc 1 Wavetable Table

Once again, the actual Min/Max settings are up to personal taste.

One Step Further with the Oscillator’s “Modulation” Parameter

When it comes to any of these oscillators, there is a “Modulation” parameter that you can also control using CV. For example, when using the FM Pair oscillator, you can have CV control the “FM Amount” knob. When using the Phase Modulation oscillator, you can use CV to control the “PM Amount” knob. When using the Wavetable oscillator, you can use CV to control the “Position” knob.

If you want to do this, you can borrow from one of the existing CV cables coming from the Malstrom and split it using a Spider CV Merger/Splitter, then send one split to the original Rotary destination and send another split into Thor’s CV in. Then it’s a matter of going into Thor’s Modulation Bus Routing Section (MBRS) and entering the following:

CV In1 : 100 > Osc1 FM Amt / Osc1 PM Amt / Osc1 Pos

If you set the FM/PM/Pos on Oscillator 1 very low, then using a high Amount (100) in the MBRS makes sense. If, on the other hand, you set the FM/PM/Pos knob very high, using a lower setting (-100) makes more sense. It depends which direction you want the CV to influence the knob (upward or downward).

Now that we’ve done 3 different Oscillators, I’ll leave you to work your magic on Thor’s “Multi Oscillator” — yes, you can certainly have a lot of fun with that oscillator as well.

Bringing it all Together

If you look in the project file, you’ll see a few Combinators that take this whole idea a step further by creating a 6:2 Mixer in the Combinator, and then creating three sets of devices (each set contains a different Thor Oscillator, 1 Matrix to use the Mod A/B curves, and an Equalizer at the end of the signal chain, which is then sent to the line mixer and back out to the Combinator’s “From Device” input).

Here’s a video that goes through the steps needed to build one such Combinator:

The idea is a simple one. Have a different oscillator in each of the Thors. Set up the amp envelope any way you see fit. I find a high Decay, Sustain, and Release setting works pretty well, but again, you may have a different preference. The Malstrom Modulation Curves are there for you to use to affect the Thor oscillator waves or even the Modulation knob of the oscillator. This is where experimentation comes in.

The back of the Rack showing the main components of the Combinator and how the devices are routed.

Finally, you have an Equalizer which is applied as a dynamic insert effect used to split each of the Thor sounds into their own specific range along the stereo field. This way, you can set up three oscillators and have each oscillator represent a place along the spectrum: Low, Mid and High. This way, you can balance out the sounds and let them shine in their own frequency range, without interfering with each other. Of course, these are all just suggestions. You might find some other ways to set things up for yourself.

The front of the Combinator, showing all 3 EQ devices to spread out the Oscillator sounds across Low, Mids, and Highs.

I hope this opens up some new creative avenues for you. There’s a lot more that can be done with the Thor oscillators, and this just attempts to scratch the surface or get your feet wet. Don’t be afraid to jump in though, and create your own masterpiece. Oh and if you do, please feel free to share it here. The more we see your ideas, the more we can learn from each other.

39 – Kong Beat Repeater

This time, I’m going to work off my previous OctoKong device with a series of loopers and show you how to add Beat Repeat and LFO Panning ability inside Kong. The pads are used to trigger both of these effects on and off as a toggle. Hopefully this shows a little more of the capability you can achieve with Kong.

Welcome once again to another little trek down Reason lane. This time, I’m going to work off my previous OctoKong device with a series of loopers and show you how to add Beat Repeat and LFO Panning ability inside Kong. The pads are used to trigger both of these effects on and off as a toggle. Hopefully this shows a little more of the capability you can achieve with Kong.

Here’s the Beat Repeater project files. There are two Beat Repeater Combinators inside an RNS file (zip file). You can download it here: Kong-Beat-Repeaters. The first Beat Repeater under the mixer uses one pad to trigger the Beat Repeater (turning it off and on), and another pad to cycle through all 16 synced steps inside the DDL-1 Digital Delay Line. There’s also an LFO Pan Pad, which turns panning ability on or off. The second Combinator is a different way you can apply Beat Repeating inside the Kong device. It sets up 3 pads with 3 different Beat Repeat settings.

A big thank you to Peff at Peff.com and Hydlide at The Sound of Reason website. They got me thinking about Beat Repeating in general. Have a look at Hydlide’s Beat Repeater tutorial video and be sure to look up Peff’s great Beat Repeater Combinator which is included in the Record Factory Soundbank (in the Effects > Delay folder).

So here’s how you can create a Beat Repeater triggered from a Kong Pad. The Kong Pad is a velocity-sensitive toggle to turn the Beat Repeater on and Off. A second Pad acts as a correlated synced Step Time switch that cycles through all 16 Step units in the Digital Delay Line:

Next, this video shows you how to set up an LFO Pan trigger on another pad in Kong. In the same way, this is a velocity-sensitive toggle to turn the Panning on and off. The harder you press the pad (or key on your keyboard), the heavier the Panning becomes (the amount of Panning is increased the harder you hit the pad). What’s even nicer is that the panning affects both the dry signal and the Beat Repeat signal. Check it out here:

As you can see, the process can be very useful, especially when you set up a lot of loop devices or other synth devices and hook them up into the Mixer inside the Combinator.

The front of the Reason rack showing all the devices in the Kong Beat Repeater (minus the mixer)

The back of the Reason rack showing the Kong Beat Repeater-related connections.

A few notes about the Combinators

Both Beat Repeaters work by processing any audio that is connected to the Mixer inside the Combinator, so you can Beat Repeat any audio that is connected to the Kong or not. So don’t let this setup stop you from adding any audio, even that which is not triggered by Kong. Great flexibility here.
The Beat Repeater pads and LFO Panning Pad are all velocity sensitive. This means the amount of these effects can range from very low to very high, depending how hard you hit your keyboard or Pad controller.
Beat Repeater 2 provides 3 pads with 3 different Beat Repeaters (all with different settings). The cool thing about this Combinator is that you can use them in tandem by pressing 2 or all 3 of the pads together to apply a lot of variation to any of the sounds coming out of Kong.
In Beat Repeater 2, feel free to change any of the settings on the 3 different DDL-1 devices, to create custom effects that suit your own purposes. For example, change the step, unit, or resolution settings of any of these devices to come up with your own custom beat repeaters.
After all is said and done, you can still add any parameters to the Combinator knobs and buttons. Since all this CV trickery only uses the 4 new Combinator CV inputs, it leaves all the Combinator Rotaries and buttons free for you to program as you wish.

Feel free to post a comment if you find these useful or to make any suggestions on ways you can improve these Combinators or alternative ideas. I’d love to hear from you. Until next time, happy Reasoning!

38 – Kong as Scene & FX Selector

Calling Kong a “Drum Designer” is like calling a Computer a “Typewriter” — sure that may have been the original intent, but it’s so much more. Here I’ll show you a whole new side to Kong. This tutorial will use Kong as a mini Scene Selector, to imitate Ableton Live’s Session view and then also use it as an Effects selector for any audio you like. In this way, you can switch between clips (Rex Loops) and Scenes (groups of Rex files). We’ll also use one of Kong’s pads to cycle through as many FX as your processor can hold. Hours of fun.

It’s very easy to think of Kong as a “Drum” designer because of course that’s what it is called. And indeed that is its primary purpose. However, it would be a mistake to think of Kong as only a “drum” programmer. That’s like calling a Computer a “Word Processor” — sure that may have been the original intent, but it’s just so much more. Here I’ll show you a whole new side to Kong. This tutorial will use Kong as a mini Scene Selector, to imitate Ableton Live’s Session view and then also use it as an Effects selector for any audio you like. In this way, you can switch between clips (Rex Loops) and Scenes (groups of Rex files). We’ll also use one of Kong’s pads to cycle through as many FX as your processor can hold. Hours of fun.

To start, I’m going to use a Combinator I came up with which you can download here: OctoKong-Scene-Selector-3. It’s a single Combinator inside an rns file. The Kong inside the Combinator has been given its own track because I find it easier to play the Kong outside the Combinator and place all the midi data there, as opposed to sequencing midi data on the Combinator track.

A little Off Tangent: Recreating Ableton “Live” in Reason?

As an aside, I have to give a huge thanks to Dioxide for inspiring the idea behind this Combinator. He wanted to try to mimic Ableton Live’s Scene / Clip system. This comes pretty close and allows you to select between different clips in a mini 9-pad way. The pads along the right side trigger all the loops within their respective rows, while the pads on top cycle through that specific row’s Rex loops (8 loops in total). When you open it up, you’ll have to press the “Run Pattern Devices” button on the Combinator. This sets all the loops running freely. I’ve also set up the first 3 buttons on the Combinator to act as your “Mutes” — so you can mute any of the columns at any point in time. You can also play each loop individually by playing the other pads alone or in combination. In this way, it’s a mini scene/clip selector for Reason.

If you’re interested, here is a 2-part series on how to create that patch:

But moving on, the real focus of this article is that lonely little pad 16 up there in the top right corner. What to do with that little pad all empty and lonely. Let’s add a ton of effects and use the pad to cycle through each of those effects one after the other. Let’s load in as many as your CPU can handle!

Well, actually, let’s focus on the PROCESS to add in as many as your CPU can handle. I’ll give you the tools and know-how to add in a few effects, maybe 4 or 5, and then you can use the same technique to load up as many effects as you like. This way, you can take the FX Pad in any direction you like. Sound good? Ok. Let’s get started.

Adding 5 FX at once, and tying them to the Pad

The basic idea is to send all the FX into a separate Mixer and then back out to the main output. All the levels of all the channels are turned off and CV is used to determine which channel gets heard. The first Channel is the original (untouched) audio without any FX applied. Then you have five different FX applied to the audio chain which goes through the different channels on the mixer. The CV is then sent out from the two Thors and turns up each respective channel to level 100 on the 14:2 Mixer. The Thor Step Sequencer is used to move step by step through the different FX, and the Pad (Pad 16 here) is the main catalyst moving the step sequencer forward.

The main FX setup. Yeah I know it looks crazy. But follow the video and you can't go wrong. Try to understand the concepts, and you can add any number of effects. — The main FX setup. Yeah I know it looks crazy. But follow the videos and you can't go wrong. Try to understand the concepts, and you can add any number of effects.

In conclusion, pad 16 cycles through all 5 Effects devices. And the cool thing is you can create any number of devices inserted into the chain. So if you want to create custom FX devices, you can insert them into the chain in any way you like. You can also create more than just 5 tied to a single Pad in Kong. But I think this shows you a pretty good example of the possibilities. And that’s what I hope you take away from this.

So what do you think? Any other interesting ideas or uses for the new Reason 5 devices. Is it time for me to move on to Neptune? As always, comments here are welcome. And stay tuned for more to come. Good luck in all your Reason projects!

37 – Dr. OctoKong Looper

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to use Kong and the Dr. OctoRex together to create some continuous looping fun. You’ll learn how to continually loop and play a series of OctoRex files with Kong. This way each pad turns the loop on and off as a toggle, with Velocity sensitivity too.

You can download the project file here: DrOctoKong1-v4. There are 2 RNS files containing 2 Combinators in this zip file. Both Combinators contain the Kong device and 10 Dr.OctoRex devices. The first rns file shows you ways you can play the loops and switch from slot to slot to cycle through all 80 loops. The second one is an update I did which shows how you can use a separate pad to Re-Trigger the loops at any point while they are playing. Keep in mind that what you need to play is the Kong device, and not the Combinator (though you could play the Combinator if you want to. But it might be easier to lay down the midi note clips on the Kong track so you can see what’s going on inside Kong itself). Also, make sure you press the “Run Pattern Devices” button on the Combinator. Alternately, press the “Play” or “Record” button on the Transport. This ensures everything runs as it should.

To see how this setup works, take a look at the video below.

So here’s the basics of how it all works

You create your Kong device without any audio routings. Then you create a series of up to 16 OctoRex devices, all with their audio routings sent to different channels on a 14:2 Mixer. Load them up with your favorite Rex files, flip the rack around and send the “Gate Out CV” from each pad in Kong to the “Master Volume CV In” on each Dr. OctoRex device. Then press “Run Pattern Devices” on the Combinator to initiate the “Run” button for all the OctoRex devices at once (or alternately, press the “Play” or “Record” button on the Transport), and your pads become a play/stop loop toggle for each of the attached OctoRex devices.

The Routing necessary on the Back to link up the Kong with the Rex files

The front panel of the Combinator and Dr.OctoRex devices - Turning on "Run Pattern Devices" will enable all the Rex files to continuously run

A few notes here:

The way it works is by having the Rex files continuously looping and running. All the Pad is doing is turning up the volume. For this reason, the rex files are free-running and do not re-trigger when the pad is pressed again. But as I said in the video, don’t let this discourage you. It’s still a very simple and great way to play the Rex loops from Kong.
The best way I’ve found to play the loops is by using the Keys from C1 – D#2 on your keyboard. I haven’t tried using a Korg or Akai pad controller to play the loops in this way, but I have a feeling if you do, the pads will end up running the loops continuously without a way to shut them off (you’ll have to press the pad with your mouse directly on the Kong device to stop it again). It’s a little quirky, but I’ve tested the keyboard, and it works great. Press a key and the Rex file sounds. Lift up the key and the Rex file sound stops.
One of the benefits of this setup is that the Pads (or keys rather), are velocity sensitive. The result is that the Rex loop volume can be controlled via the Velocity of your pads. This adds a nice dimension to your loops and dynamics to your sound.
You can setup the Rotaries and Buttons as I did here. For each Dr. OctoRex, you’ll need to set up the following Modulation parameters in the Combinator’s Modulation Bus Routing:

The Combinator's Modulation Bus Routing - Just a suggestion. ;-) — The Combinator's Modulation Bus Routing - Just a suggestion. 😉

Taking things a step further

One thing you can do is load up the other slots of the OctoRex devices, and then tie the Loop Slot to a free Rotary (you’ll have to give up one of the parameters above). This way, you not only have the ability to play multiple loops using the Kong device, but you can also switch slots for new Rex Loops by turning one of the Combinator Rotaries. Add to that the various parameters you can tweak at the slice level of each Rex loop, and you have some very powerful fun at your fingertips.

I decided to go ahead and implement this. However, I realized that there’s a nice little way to keep all our parameter automation in place in the Combinator, and still provide the ability to switch from loop slot to loop slot in all the OctoRex devices. It’s really not too complicated. Here’s a video to show you how it’s done.

The nice thing about this method is that it uses the new CV inputs on the back of the Combinator in conjunction with Thor’s step sequencer and triggering provided by Pads 15 and 16. So you can see how some of the Reason devices can be interconnected and operate together to provide some useful functionality.

The idea that you can trigger 80 Loops (and if you used all 14 pads you could trigger 112 loops!) using a single Kong can be pretty overwhelming, but can provide some interesting chaotic possibilities. And even structurally, you can create some amazing songs using little more than Rex loops. For example, think of having each OctoRex device contain 8 loops related to a single instrument. So the first OctoRex contains your drums, the second contains the basslines, the third contains guitar loops, and so on. You have a complete band that you can switch from verse to chorus with one press of a key or a pad.

Extra Bonus: Let’s add some Effects

Here’s a quick video to show you how to simply add an FX or two. I’ve also updated the main project file so be sure to download that at the top of this post. For now, here’s the method I used to show how to add the effects to some of the free pads. There’s also some Delays and Reverbs on two other pads that you can cycle through (5 delays and 5 reverbs). The cycling is somewhat similar to how the Loop Slot Changers work on Pad 15 and 16, except the audio gets split between a bunch of different FX devices with different settings. I didn’t go over how to set that up, but you can look at the file and figure out the routing. Hope you have lots of fun with this one. I had a really great time making it. And now… the video:

Re-Triggering the OctoRex Loops

This video is an update to the main tutorial above. A big thanks has to go out to EditEd4TV at Bauman Productions for helping me figure out how you can re-trigger all the loops as they are playing. Essentially, it uses the note function of the Thor step sequencer to start the loops from the beginning again. Very cool indeed. I also placed the finalized file in the project file download at the top of this article. So go check it out there. And if you want to know how it was put together, check out the video below:

As always, any comments or suggestions or ways we can improve upon this are welcome. So please let me know what you think and what other ideas you might have. And have fun Reasoning!

36 – Let’s Talk Compression

Let’s start talking about Compression. In one of my previous tutorials, I showed a way you could use Kong to parallel compress a Kick Drum. So that was one method. But here are a few others that everyone should know about, especially if you’re working on most dance music genres.

Sidechain Compression (aka: “Ducking” or “Gating”)

This is a basic concept that everyone should know. But the twist is that we’ll use Kong, instead of Redrum, to compress a Thor bassline. This way, when the kick drum sounds, the bass is compressed and “ducks out” of the mix. This ensures the Kick drum cuts through the bass in your track.

Compression can also be used for other things as well. It does not have to be confined to a Kick drum and Bassline. You can use any sound source to duck out any other sound source and create a pumping rhythm like this. For instance, you can use a Kick drum to compress your main synth line. This can create some interesting gating effects if used properly.

Parallel Compression

Parallel Compression occurs when you mix a dry sound source together with that same sound source which has been compressed. In this way you get a wider, fatter sound, and you also get the flexibility of controlling the mix between the dry and wet signals. I put together a video to show you how Kong can be used in a Parallel Compression scenario on YouTube. However, why don’t I show you another way you can use a Redrum to parallel process a Kick Drum (a very common usage of this technique), or an entire set of drums (this is a little more unorthodox because you would usually parallel compress one drum at a time, but just to show you that you have options. . . ). Here’s the video:

Frequency-Based Compression

This approach is a little different, but the concept is similar. A lot of times, you might have a specific frequency that you want to “duck” out of the mix. One method you can use is Frequency-based compression, where you compress only a specific frequency in your mix. This is usually used to remove an unwanted sound, and probably the most popular usage for this kind of compression is “de-essing” where those nasty sibilant “S” sounds are removed from vocals. This is really childs play with Reason and the M Class EQ and Compressor devices. Let’s take a look at how it’s done:

As an alternative to using the M Class Eq device, you can use the BV512 Vocoder. In this way, the sound is colored slightly (and moreso if you use the 512 FFT setting), but it’s still a legitimate way that has its own technique. You can see the video of it below. Try it out. You might come to like this method.

Multi-Band Compression

Of course, there’s also something called “Multi-band Compression” which takes the EQ frequency idea to an extreme. This is usually applied to the whole mix at the end of the signal path, before going to the audio outputs. In this way, you set up multiple compressors each affecting a specific range of frequencies. The concept is not entirely difficult, depending on how many compressors you want to set up. For a really great introduction to multi-band compression, I would advise you to check out James Bernard’s week 7 video tutorial on Multi-Band Compression. In addition, James also has a complete multi-band toolkit available as a free download. So go check it out now if you haven’t already!

So that’s it. I’m sure there are other creative ways you can use Compression, but I hope that begins to inspire you to look at compression as a useful dynamic processing tool or even special effect. If you have any comments on this or any other tutorials, please let me know.