Here’s an interesting patch that I submitted to the productspecialist@propellerheads.se email in response to their first video in the “Reason Sound Design” series, a new series put out by the Propellerheads to help us all learn a little more about the Combinators inside the Factory Sound Bank, and allow the user community to submit their patches. I love it when they launch a new series!
Here’s an interesting patch that I submitted to the productspecialist@propellerheads.se email in response to their first video in the “Reason Sound Design” series, a new series put out by the Propellerheads to help us all learn a little more about the Combinators inside the Factory Sound Bank, and allow the user community to submit their patches. I love it when they launch a new series!
Here’s the original video in case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know about this new series:
So without further ado, I give you my humble take on this type of technique. . .
The 4-Way X-Fade Echodile Deluxe
Download the .reason file (example) and Combinator patch here in zip file format: echodile-deluxe.
4-Way X-Fade Echodile Deluxe
First, here’s a video to showcase what the Echodile Deluxe sounds like:
An explanation of the Controls:
Pitch Bend: This is connected to the Echo Envelope.
Mod Wheel: Connected to the Delay R Offset
Rotary 1: This rotary crossfades between 4 different Alligator Patterns, and is really the heart of the whole thing. It allows you to blend any two of the four Alligators together using a single Rotary. Ed Bauman came up with the idea of using the Thor’s Shaper set to a Sine wave to fade between four different Mixer Channels. If you want to know more about this little trick, I wrote about it here. So in the interest of full disclosure, I wanted you to know this was not my own idea. A good artist mimics, a great artist steals. According to Picasso anyway.
Note: In order to have all four Alligators Crossfade properly, you will need to either press the “Run All Pattern Devices” button on the Combinator, or press “Play” on the Transport first. Otherwise, the CV-based Thors’ step sequencers won’t start running, and that’s necessary to let the signal pass through them.
You’re also not tied to using these 4 Patterns. You can, of course, change them around to your liking, or else load completely new Alligator Patches into each of the 4 Alligators. In this way, you can really make this device “your own.”
Rotary 2: Echo Feedback. Simple enough. Mix / Max values are 0 / 72
Rotary 3: Shift. Allows you to use the Shift knob of all four Alligators at the same time.
Rotary 4: Delay Time. I ran out of Programmer assignments for the Echo unit, so I had to route this through the P-Pongy Thor’s Rotary 1 and send that into the Delay Time CV on the Echo. So you won’t see the delay move visually on the Echo.
Button 1: Freq. Shifter. The LFO from each Alligator is split out to all three filter frequency bands on the respective Alligators. This way you get some further Filter modulation if you want it. Turns it on or off.
Button 2: Smear. I love this little button. It cranks up the LFO in the Echo to give it a really nice gritty electro quality. Sweetness to my ears.
Button 3: Pingy-Pongy. Turns the Ping Pong of the echo on, but also wobbles both the Ping Pong Panning as well as the Feedback Offset R knob, based on the settings in the Pulveriser.
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.
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.
This is a 12-Way Filter FX Combinator patch (with Shaper – and an Envelope for the ECF-42) which is best used as an Insert Effect anywhere you need it to filter audio. It’s a tightly compact little bugger.
This is a 12-Way Filter FX Combinator patch (with Shaper – and an Envelope for the ECF-42) which is best used as an Insert Effect anywhere you need it to filter audio. It’s a tightly compact little bugger. It took me quite a bit of time to work out the proper programming in the Combinator’s Mod Matrix, because some of the Rotaries and Buttons, as well as the Mod Wheel, have dual functionality, depending which filter you are using. This is why I’m going to provide a little explanation from the vantage point of looking at each device that the combinator is controlling and explaining how those devices are controlled. I think that’s the best approach to show how this Combinator functions.
If you’re itching to get your hands on the Combinator, then go here: 12-way-filter-fx. It’s a zip file that contains the FX Combinator I’m outlining below. For safety sake, please read through so that you understand how this thing operates. Don’t want to open up any black holes in the universe or anything.
A 12-way Filtering FX Combinator system. Deceptively simple looking.
First, A brief background. When I posted a video on YouTube showing how to create a selectable Thor Filter, the focus was on creating a way to route audio through Thor and use Thor’s global Filter 3 slot and be able to switch between all 4 Thor Filters on the fly. This way you could control most of Thor’s parameters from within a single Combinator. That’s great for getting the most out of Thor’s 4 filters. But then Hydlide gave the following comment on his site, The Sound of Reason:
it’s an awesome technique. I sometimes use thor just being an audio processor only because it is the only device that can change filters (all of them) on the fly. In Reason 3 the malstrom was always my default audio input/output source since it didn’t need that much programming and such (just jack the audio signals inside the rear and you are done). However the nice thing with thor is that whole programming part. I can remember I also did a similar setup using filter slot 1. However, that one even becomes more tricky since filter 3 is a global filter (eg: does not need a gate to trigger), with filter 1 you need that same setup with the step sequencer for a gate to retrigger. But it does add that shaper thingy in between. However, in addition, it does add something having the step sequencer running anyways, and use the curve of the step sequencer to retrigger something else (eg: Shaper drive, filter changes etc…).
So two things I got from this comment:
Thor is the only device that can change filters on the fly. [OK, let’s add more filters that we can change on the fly]
That shaper thingy in between. [hmmm. yes indeed. Let’s add that shaper thingy]
So there was my mission. To create a Combinator that could change more than just the Thor filters on the fly, but could also allow you to select a few other filters (namely the ECF-42 and the Malstrom A/B Filters). And also let’s utilize the “Shaper Thingy” in between (since both Thor and the Malstrom have “Shaper Thingies” let’s definitely have the ability to change both and adjust the amount of both).
Oh and hey, while we’re at it, let’s try our hand at squeezing in the ability to utilize the Envelope of one of the filters. And the ability to change filter modes on one of the other filters. Essentially, we’re going for ultimate controllability and in the end you’ll have a 12-way Adjustable filter using a single Combinator. Think you can’t do all of this in a single Combinator. Wrong!
It’s actually deceptively simple to route into a Combinator. And it’s really light-weight on your CPU. The really tricky part in putting this all together is programming the Modulation section of the Combinator. Here’s how it breaks down:
There are three main devices that can be used as filters: Thor (4 filters), ECF-42 (1 Filter with 3 Modes), and the Malstrom (2 Filters: A&B which work globally, and these with 5 variable modes). So 4 Thor Filters + 3 ECF Filter Modes + 5 Malstrom Filter Modes = 12-way adjustable Filter FX. Here are the parameter settings for each of the 3 different devices:
Thor Filter
Rotary 1: Cycles through all of Thor’s 4 filters: Low Pass Ladder, State Variable (on High Pass mode), Comb Filter (+ mode), and Formant Filter.
Rotary 2: Adjusts the full range of the Filter Frequency
Rotary 3: Adjusts the full range of the Filter Resonance
Rotary 4: Adjusts Thor’s Shaper thingy Amount (termed the drive in Thor).
Button 1: When pressed, the Thor filter becomes active. When not lit, Audio routed to Thor is muted.
Button 4: When pressed, Thor’s Shaper Thingy is enabled.
Mod Wheel: Acts as a Shaper selection for the different Thor Shaper waves. When recording using this combinator, I would highly suggest just setting this and forgetting it — in other words, program the automation for the mod wheel in the Reason/Record sequencer, but don’t automate any changes with the Mod wheel. When you adjust the shaper modes using the mod wheel in this way, you’ll hear an audible click which is nasty and you won’t want it saved along with your recording. So set up a shaper wave and then forget about it.
ECF-42 (Envelope Controlled Filter)
Rotary 1: Cycles through the 3 ECF Filter modes: BP-12, LP-12, and LP-24
Rotary 2: Adjusts the full range of the Filter Frequency
Rotary 3: Adjusts the full range of the Filter Resonance
Rotary 4: Adjusts the Filter Envelope Amount
Button 2: When pressed, the ECF-42 filter becomes active. When not lit, Audio routed to the ECF-42 is muted.
Button 4: Activates the Envelope when lit. The Envelope is off by default. Actually, what’s happening is the Matrix inside the Combinator is used as a gate CV to control the Filter frequency of the envelope. Since it is routed through the CV in/out of one of the Thor devices, this button acts as a trim knob control for the free-running Gate CV from the Matrix into the ECF CV Gate in. This makes things instantaneous when switching the Envelope button on / off.
Mod Wheel: Acts as the Velocity setting for the Envelope amount in the ECF Filter. Of course, it won’t do anything unless you have the Envelope enabled (button 4).
Malstrom’s separate A/B Filter processor
Rotary 1: Cycles through the Malstrom’s A/B Filter modes:LP-12, BP-12, Comb+, Comb-, AM
Rotary 2: Adjusts the full range of the Filter Frequency
Rotary 3: Adjusts the full range of the Filter Resonance
Rotary 4: Rotary 4: Adjusts the Malstrom’s Shaper thingy Amount.
Button 3: When pressed, the Malstrom filter becomes active. When not lit, Audio routed to the Malstrom is muted.
Button 4: When pressed, Malstrom’s Shaper Thingy is enabled.
Mod Wheel: Acts as a Shaper selection for the different Malstrom Shaper waves. When recording using this combinator, I would highly suggest just setting this and forgetting it — in other words, program the automation for the mod wheel in the Reason/Record sequencer, but don’t automate any changes with the Mod wheel. When you adjust the shaper modes using the mod wheel in this way, you’ll hear an audible click which is nasty and you won’t want it saved along with your recording. So set up a shaper wave and then forget about it.
A few other notes:
There is no “bypass” option for the filters. In other words, if you turn off buttons 1, 2, and 3, then you won’t hear any audio coming out of the combinator (even though audio is going INTO the combinator). So, to get around this, bypass the Combinator. This way, you will still hear audio going through the Combinator.
If you press play or record while the Thor filter is enabled (Button 1 is lit), Thor will not sound. You need to actually engage this button after playing or recording is initiated. Not sure if there is a workaround for this, but let me know if there is and I can update the patch.
Since each Filter has its own dedicated Line Mixer associated with it, and the first three buttons simply turn the master level on or off (0 at a minimum and 100 at maximum for the respective buttons), then having more than one filter on simultaneously will effectively duplicate the audio and combine the filtered audio together. This wasn’t really intended when I put this Combinator together. Usually, I would think you would want one of the filters on at any given time, and not have them both on in unison. But I’m not stopping you from using it in this way. You might get some interesting effects by enabling both the Thor and the Malstrom Filter, and then using the Shaper for both at the same time.
Further to the point above, if you want to stack filters on top of each other in your audio chain, it’s pretty easy to do. Just put as many copies of this combinator on top of each other and you have an instant stack of adjustable filters in series as an insert effect.
The Pitch/Bend wheel is open if you want to program it to do something above and beyond what the Combinator already does. Not sure what else you could possibly pack in here, but hey, go for it!
So I hope you enjoy this little venture into packing everything but the kitchen sink into a Combinator. Please let me know if you find this useful and if you have any great solutions or better ways to improve on this patch please let me know. Also, if you have a question or want to see me write about something in Reason or Record, please speak up. I take requests too. Until next time, good luck in all your Musical pursuits!
