Download the Combinator: Auto-Glitcher
Description: This is a Combinator which can be used to apply some Glitchy fun to any audio source you throw at it. It uses a Scream Distortion unit, 3 delays, and 2 Phasers which are controlled by some Malstrom Curves.
Here’s the complete rundown of the Combinator controls:
Pitch Bend: Unassigned
Mod Wheel: Affects the Rate of the Modulation curve which is tied to the Scream Damage Type. Raising the Mod Wheel makes Damage Type switching faster. Lowering the Mod Wheel makes Damage Type switching slower.
Rotary 1: Don’t Touch!: This Rotary is tied to the Damage Type of the Scream, but is controlled by the Malstrom Mod A Curve, and so does not need to be moved.
Rotary 2: Don’t Touch!: Like the previous Rotary, this one is tied to the Body Type of the scream, and is controlled by the Mod B Curve of the Malstrom, so it does not need to be moved.
Rotary 3: Damage: This controls the amount of Scream Distortion Damage applied to the sound source. Turned fully right, and you’re applying about 50% of damage to the signal (64). Turned fully left, and you’re applying very little damage (10).
Rotary 4: Wave: This controls the Malstrom Wave type (Modulation A Curve) which affects the Damage Type selection on the Scream. You can scroll through all 32 different wave forms in real time.
Button 1: Synch Off / On: This turns on the Synch on the Malstrom’s Mod A Curve (which controls the Scream Damage Type switching). When pushed in, Synch is on. When the button is off, the Synch is off.
Button 2: Body Off / On: This turns on the Body section of the Scream. When pushed in, the Body section is on, when the button is off, the Body section is turned off.
Button 3: Multi / Single Delay: This turns on the Multi-tap delay. When the Button is left off, the last delay in the sequence is the only one on (providing a simple delay to your sound source. When turned on, you have a full-on Multi-tap delay assault, with two Phasers in the mix as well.
Button 4: Damage Off / On: This turns the Damage on or off. When the button is left off, the Scream is bypassed, and when the button is on, the Scream unit is left on. It’s worthwhile to note that if you turn off the Damage, The Mod Wheel, and all the Rotaries will do nothing to your sound. The nice thing about Button 2, 3, and 4 is that you can minimize or maximize the amount of Glitch that is applied to the sound. For example, if you want to hear only a single or multiple delay, just turn leave button 4 off. If you want only the damage with no multi-tap, just turn off button 3. And finally, if you want the damage without the body section, just turn off Button 2. In this way, you can control what effects you want applied to your sound.
Other Notes: Feel free to change any of the Malstrom Mod Curves to curves that you like. Of course, for the Mod A curve on the Malstrom controlling the damage type of the scream, you don’t need to change this curve manually. You can change this using Rotary 4 (Wave). Or, if you want, you can also map any of the Curves to the “Wave” Rotary and have them move in unison together (or flip the min/max settings to change things up a bit). Alternately, you can program Rotary 1 to affect both the Damage and Body Types on the Scream, which could free up a Rotary for you. However, it would also mean that the Body type and Damage type would be using the same curve to control both those parameters.
Let me know if you find this patch useful and if you have any other suggestions for ways it can be made better? Or if you have some suggestions for other ways to get some glitchy fun out of Reason.
Another great tutorial Rob!
Thanks Lewis. It’s a little rough around the edges, and this is the first video I’ve posted which uses my voice as well as the computer audio. So the quality might be a little off. But hopefully it gets the message across.
Thanks for the thumbs up!
Nice patch Rob! I like that you did a video explaining how it’s routed and how it sounds! Keep up the great work!
Thanks Adam. Now that I have the process down on how to do the videos, I’m hoping I can do a few more here and there as time permits. I think it’s the easiest way to get the ideas across. It’s a youtube world after all. 😉
What software are you using Rob to capture your computer screen? This looks like a great start to me.
Adam,
Now, once you’ve done that, you can set up a different Rotary (Rotary 4, for example) to control the “Mod A” curve in the Malstrom device. So when you adjust the Rotary 4 knob, the curve changes in the Malstrom, which in turn changes the CV being sent to Rotary 1, which in turn adjusts how the Damage Type moves from type to type. Sounds pretty complex when you write it out here. But if you think it through logically, you’ll see how the shin bone’s connected to the leg bone, the leg bone’s connected to the hip bone, and so on and so forth.
Does that make more sense?
Me again. I might of missed this in the video but what makes those knobs go crazy on their own. Is it control voltage or something else? The control voltage source can be a LFO or something from another instrument right?
Yes! That’s an awesome explanation Rob! Thanks for taking the time to write that out for me. I’ve been going through lately and looking at your glitch patches and also the glitch patches in the factory sound bank (the combi patches) and I’ve just been really hung up on CV’s. Your sentence “you won’t see the knob moving visually though, but rest assured, it’s being controlled by the Malstrom Mod A Curve). In turn, this Rotary 1 knob of the Combinator controls the Damage Type in the Scream (which you DO see visually moving back and forth” really helped tie things together for me.
If you aren’t already, you should be an educator Rob. You explain things very well and I appreciate it!
Oh, and Camtasia looks pretty sweet.
Camtasia is pretty solid. It’s been around for a long time and it does what it does well and simplifies the process of creating a screen capture with audio. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of some of the larger Adobe products, but sometimes simplicity is what you want. At least it’s what I want when it comes to video creation.
All my best,
Rob
If I ever need to do video like that I’ll look into it. Right now when it comes to video, ignorance is bliss. Thanks again.