Thor – Page 4 – Reason101

24 – A few No-Nonsense Tips

In this tutorial I’m going to outline some of my favorite quick tips that you can use when you find yourself in a bit of a bind with Reason. Hopefully these little tips open you up to a new way of thinking with the software, or else at least point you in the right direction if you get stumped.

In this tutorial I’m not going to outline any grandiose Combinator or showcase some majorly complex CV routing scheme (though I have a few interesting ones that I may show down the road). Instead, I’m going to outline just some of my favorite quick tips that you can use when you find yourself in a bit of a bind with Reason. Hopefully these little tips open you up to a new way of thinking with the software, or else at least point you into a direction in case you get stumped.

All of the tips below came out of a need I had to get out of jail with the software. In other words, I’d find myself at a standstill unable to go further because I’d locked myself in a hole. Here’s a few ways I found to get out and escape. I hope you find these tidbits useful.

Tip #1: Unison = Stereo (It’s not just big fat sound).

The first tip came out of a post I’d seen on the PUF (Propellerhead User Forum) entitled “Confessions.” In this post, a few people had stated that they never used the Unison device, and didn’t really understand what it was for. “I think it has something to do with fattening up the sound, but I don’t really use it and don’t really know what it’s for.” Fair enough. Here’s what I think:

Yes, it fattens up the sound. But it does more than that. For instance, take any monophonic sound device; The Subtractor and Thor come to mind. If you start playing either device, you can tell it sounds monophonic. In the case of Thor, you can do some clever things like add some Chorus and Delay. Perhaps in the Subtractor, you’ll add some ring modulation or FM synthesis, detune two oscillators together. But here’s the dilemma: you add a Stereo Imager after the device and nothing happens? Why?

This is because the Stereo Imager only works on Stereo audio, and since you have a device which is monophonic, nothing is going to happen. The simple fix: add a Unison device between the sound source and the Stereo Imager. Instantly, you’ve turned your sound into a Stereo audio pair going into the Stereo Imager, which can now effect the sound as you want (point of fact, it’s more of a faux stereo, but it works).

The unison device is there to “Stereo-ize” your monophonic sound. At the same time, it fattens the sound by creating multiple detuned voices out of the audio you send into it. Good enough!

The front of the rack showing the Unison device creating Stereo out of Mono

The back of the rack showing the Unison setup

Tip #2: Mixer Pan/Level CV automation is holding me back!

Ever automate the level and/or Pan info on your main mixer in Reason or Record and then realize you can’t alter it at all. For instance, if you send a Subtractor LFO to fully automate the level of your track, you end up unable to alter or change the level to fade it in or out right? Whatever is playing in a clip in your sequencer will be affected by the LFO as is. No fade ins, no fade outs, no changes along the way. Same goes for panning.

Here’s a simple tip to allow you to have both. And again it involves inserting a device between the sound source and the mixer. In this case, it’s another line mixer. Insert a 6:2 mixer between your main mixer and the sound source. Then flip the rack around and move the audio cables from the sound source into Channel 1 on the 6:2 line mixer. Then send some audio cables from the main output on the line mixer into the previous channel on the main mixer. Now you can flip back to the front again and right-click on the Channel 1 level knob, select “Edit Automation” and enter your fade-ins and fade-outs. You can also adjust your panning on this line mixer as well. This will affect the panning of the sound source before it gets sent into the main mixer where the CV is affecting the panning. In this case, the panning is combined together.

The front of the rack showing the Line Mixer inserted between the audio signal and main mixer.

The back of the rack showing the connections for the audio signal.

There you go. Total control over your mix, even when your mix is being controlled by CV.

Tip #3: While we’re on CV, don’t forget you can automate any CV trim knob on the back of any device

I discussed this tip in full here: #7 – Adjustable CV, but it bears repeating. If you want to control the trim pots for any CV connection (you know, the tiny knobs on the back of your devices into which you send the CV cables), simply insert a Thor device between the CV source and the CV destination. Route the CV into the CV in 1 within Thor, and send it out from CV out 1. Then in the modualtion Bus Routing Section of Thor (MBRS), use CVin1 as a source and CVout1 as a destination. Enter 100 as an Amount, and then use Thor’s Rotary 1 as a Scale (also with an amount of 100). Put everything (source/destination devices as well as the Thor “CV Pass-Through” device) into a Combinator, and program the Combinator’s Rotary 1 to adjust Thor’s Rotary 1.

This means that you’re adjusting the Scale amount value using the Combinator Rotary 1. Essentially, this will have the same effect of adjusting your CV trim pot. Sounds complicated, but it’s really quite simple.

Tip #4: Damn it, there’s no CV connection. But I want to automate it with an LFO!

Enter the Combinator to the rescue. For this trick to work, you have a device which has a parameter you want to affect with an LFO (or any other mod envelope or anything you like) and the device with the LFO which is going to affect it. This couldn’t be easier, but it’s not at first obvious. Here’s what you do:

Put both devices in a Combinator. Flip the rack around. Send the CV from the LFO device into the Rotary 1 CV in of the Combinator. Then flip back around to the front, and open up the Combinator programmer. Select the sound device. In the Modulation Matrix, use Rotary 1 as the Source andthe parameter you want affected in the destination device as the “Destination.”

Now, when the LFO is enabled and running, it gets sent along the CV cable and affects Rotary 1 on the Combinator. Rotary 1 on the Combinator in turn is affecting the parameter on your destination device. In other words, the Combinator Rotary 1 is used as a CV pass-through to affect any parameter you like, not just the ones that have CV slots on the back of the devices.

Tip #5: That nasty bypass click.

Not all glitch sounds are good sounds. Such is life when you are dealing with bypass switches in Reason. Sometimes you’ll get this nasty clicking sound when switching from on to bypass or vice versa. Sometimes you’re lucky and you don’t get it. It’s like Russian Roulette audio-style. This is why I never ever use the bypass switch. And also why I never ever automate it. Instead, here’s a few simple ways to get the same benefit without the horrible clicks.

First off, if you’re using a device that has a dry/wet knob, put it in a combinator and tie the dry wet knob to a button or a rotary. There’s your bypass button.

If, on the other hand, you need to get around bypassing an entire Combinator, try this trick. Inside the combinator create a spider and a second line mixer (assuming you already have a line mixer for the main audio). Then split the audio coming into the combinator, and have one split going to the main line mixer and the other going to the second line mixer. Merge the master outputs of both line mixers in the merge section of the spider, and then back out to the Combinator “From Devices” output. Ensure all your FX and Instrument devices go into channels on the main mixer. Leave the second mixer for the dry signal only, and nothing else.

In the Combinator programmer, program a button to switch between the two mixers. So when the button is off, the master level on the main mixer is at 0, while the master level on the secondary mixer is at 100. When the button is on (lit), the master level on the main mixer is at 100, while the master level on the secondary mixer is at 0. The button now acts as a bypass. When off, the signal is bypassed and the audio goes right through the Combinator unaffected. When the button is on, the Contents of the Combinator are enabled and the sound affected can be heard. Instant bypass without any clicking issues.

The back of the rack with the Bypass setup

The front of the rack with the Bypass setup shown on Button 4

Keep in mind there are some things that just can’t be stopped on a dime. For instance, changing the delay time or automating changes to the delay time will result in a very distinct sound, almost like a pitch shifting. You just can’t get around this. That’s the nature of audio. So while bypassing most things works without any side effects, other things can still be noticeable. The idea, however, is to minimize the unwanted audio problems as much as you can.

I hope you found these tips useful. I’ll keep posting more as time permits. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts or your own tips here by posting a comment. Happy Reasoning!

21 – Massive Combi Drum Kit

Turn a Combinator into a 61-synth drum kit that spans the range of the Matrix pattern sequencer so you can use the Matrix to trigger your drum hits. Yes it’s massive. Yes it’s crazy. And yes, you should try it out! Why? Because apart from being time consuming, it’s dead easy to accomplish. And it doesn’t have to break the CPU bank.

This project was a real blast to put together. Essentially it involves turning a Combinator into a 61-synth drum kit that spans the range of the Matrix pattern sequencer so you can use the Matrix to trigger your drum hits. Yes it’s massive. Yes it’s crazy. And yes, you should try it out! Why? Because apart from being time consuming, it’s dead easy to accomplish. And it doesn’t have to break the CPU bank.

Download the project file here: minimal-super-kit. This zip file contains my Minimal Super Drum Kit Combinator with 61 synth sounds that can be played by the Matrix. I’ve added 32 random patterns in the Matrix which is assigned to a Rotary knob so you can dial in a pattern you like. Also, you can turn the matrix off using button 1, so that you can play the drum kit with your keyboard controller if you wish. This is a great flexible way to show off your drum kit creation chops. So enjoy! And when you’ve had it with my own drum sounds, try your hand at creating your own. Read on to find out how.

There’s also a few extra devices in the Combinator, and assignments on the other Rotaries / Buttons which affect the drums globally. Feel free to explore their routings as well if you’re interested. The focus here, however, is turning your Combinator into a massive drum kit which can be sequenced using the Matrix.

Back to Basics: Setting things up

Open up a new document with a 14:2 Mixer and then create a new Combinator. Inside the combinator, create five 14:2 mixers all in succession so that they are all chained one after the other.
The five 14:2 Mixers are chained together.
Create 61 Synths. Yes, that’s right. 61 Synths. These can be any combination of Thors, Malstroms, or Subtractors. one trick before you go nuts copying and pasting is to create one instance of Thor, one Subtractor, and one Malstrom, and then initialize all 3. This way, only one oscillator or graintable is used and it will be light on the CPU. Once you’ve done that, copy and paste so you have 61 different synths and connect them each to their own mixer channel.
Each of the synths are connected to their own Mixer channel.
Now this is the trickiest part of the whole tutorial. Click the “Show programmer” button on the front of the Combinator, and select the first synth in the list at the top. Notice in the Key Mapping area on the left part of the Combinator screen, the key range for this synth spans the entire keyboard range. If you look at the bottom of the Key Mapping area, the value under Key Range is C-2 (Lo) to G8 (Hi). We’re going to change these values so that both read C1. The easiest way to do this is to click and drag upward over the “Key Range Lo” field until it reads “C1.” Once you’ve done that, you can click and drag down all the way on the “Key Range Hi” field. This means that the synth will only be triggered by pressing C1 on your keyboard controller.

The first Synth selected in Key Mapping. See that the range listed is C1 (Lo) to C1 (Hi)

Sweet! Now do this for each subsequent synth, but incrementing each one by one note value upward on the scale. So, for example, the next synth is only triggered by C#1 and the one following that by D1, and so on up the scale until you have the last synth in place at C6. Ta da! Now each synth can only be triggered and played from it’s corresponding note on the keyboard controller. And taken as a whole, the entire kit ranges the same 5-octave span of the Matrix (from C1 to C6).

The last Synth selected in Key Mapping. See that the range listed is C6 (Lo) to C6 (Hi).

Now comes the really fun (but tedious) part. Go through each synth one at a time and sculpt your drum sounds. Go wild. Enter some amazing Kicks, Snares, Toms, Hi Hats, Rim shots, glitch mayhem, or whatever sounds you really enjoy listening to through Reason. Don’t be shy. Jump in and have some fun. And if you’re really hard pressed for some ideas, sift through the Factory Soundbank (FSB) for some inspiration. There are plenty of synth ideas in there.

Note: audition your sounds using your keyboard controller. This way you can hear each note triggering each synth. If you forget your place on the keyboard, minimize your entire stack of synths by holding down Alt as you press on the minimize arrow of one of the devices. This will automatically minimize all devices within the Combinator. Now press a key on your controller and look for the “Note On” light as you press. This “Note On” light will show you which synth is triggered by the note you are playing. Since each synth is tied to an individual note on the keyboard, only a single “Note On” light will flash when you press a single key. Trust me, this is a great time saver when working with so many devices.

Add a Matrix under everything, flip the rack around, and tie the “Note/Gate CV out” cables from the back of thedevice into the Sequencer Control “Note/Gate CV in” on the Combinator. Flip back around to the front again and start dialing in some Note/Gate patterns into the Matrix pattern banks. Or use the right-click context menu to select some random patterns for the various Matrix pattern banks.

Connecting CV cables from the Matrix to the Combi's Sequencer Control section.
Finally, go back to the Combinator’s Modulation Routing section and with the Matrix device selected, enter the following settings:

Rotary 1 > Pattern Select: 0 / 31 (assuming you’ve entered patterns in all 32 pattern banks of the Matrix)

Button 1 > Pattern Enable: 0 / 1

Entering the Matrix Sequencer Parameters in the Combi's Modulation Routing Section.

Keeping Button 1 off means that you can play the Combinator in a “live” situation, accessing the drums to be played in real time and ignoring the Matrix. Turning on Button 1 automates the drums and plays the drums according to what is programmed in the Matrix. Spinning the Rotary 1 knob will select from the 32 Matrix pattern banks. You can also automate pattern changes for the Matrix in the Sequencer if you create a sequencer track for the Matrix.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little exploration of what can be done with a bunch of synths and a Matrix inside a Combinator. You can create some gigantic kits using this technique. And it can be an alternative to using the NN-XT for a sample-based drum kit.

As with any method, there are pros and cons to this approach. I like it because it can be much easier to tweak the sounds later if you want to adjust any of the synth parameters for your various hits. Personally, I feel this can give you more flexibility than storing your kit in an NN-XT. That being said, the downside is that it’s not quite as compact, takes some time to load up in your song, and it’s not sample-based so it’s not as “organic” as samples in an NN-XT can be. Both approaches, however, are valid. It all depends what you’re after.

If you have any other ideas or unique ways in which you’ve created your own kits please share them with us. I’d love to know some new techniques that I may not have thought about before.

Until next time, I hope this inspires you to build some kick-ass drum kits. Good luck!

20 – CV Switching

Learn how to switch between 2 CV sources that control a single destination. This method can expand the number of patterns you use in a Matrix (from 32 to 64) to control a single destination. It can also allow you to switch between two RPG-8 Arp devices or any two CV sources anywhere in Reason and Record for that matter.

At some point when working with CV, you end up wondering if you can expand beyond the limits. For example, if you have a Matrix loaded with 32 pattern banks, you’re going to wonder if you can push it to 64. If you have an Arp applied to an instrument, you’re going to wonder if you can have two Arps applied to the same instrument. I know that’s what I was wondering a few nights ago. And that’s the subject of this article. How to expand upon CV connections by switching between these CV devices in real-time.

You can download the project files in the following zip file: cv-switching. These project files include 2 Combinators that show you how to switch between two matrixes or two Arps on the fly. Both Combinators are connected to the same mixer, so to hear each one separately, just mute/solo each one and press play on the Transport bar.

Switching between 2 Matrixes

First open up a new document, and first place a 14-2 Mixer at the top (if you are in Record, you won’t need the mixer, because everything gets tied to your BIG mixer).
Now, open up a Combinator and holding Shift down, place a sound source at the top (for example, a Subtractor), a Thor underneath that, and then two Matrixes underneath the Thor.
Next, flip the rack around and let’s route the audio up. Route the Left Audio output from the Combinator to Channel 1 on the mixer. Then Route the Audio out of the Subtractor to the Left audio In of the Combinator (From Devices).
Now for the CV routings. Route the CV 1 and CV 2 Modulation outputs from the Thor to the Gate and CV Sequencer Control section of the Subtractor, respectively. Take the Note and Gate CV of Matrix “A” and route them to the CV 1 and CV 2 Modulation inputs of the Thor, respectively. Finally, route the Note and Gate CV of Matrix “B” to the CV 3 and CV 4 Modulation inputs of the Thor, respectively.
Proper CV routings for the Thor and Matrix A & B devices
Flip the rack around. On the Subtractor, select a patch you like, or program in some patch parameters that you want to hear. Alternately, leave the default init patch as it is.
On the Thor, completely initialize the patch by turning Oscillator 1 Off, Bypassing Filter 1, turning off the Mod/Filter/Amp/Global envelopes, and reducing the Range, Polyphony, and Release Polyphony down to zero (0) in the Global section. We’re using Thor purely as a CV switcher between the two Matrixes.
In the Modulation Matrix area of Thor, enter the following:
CV In1 : 0 > CV Out 1

CV In2 : 0 > CV Out 2

CV In3 : 0 > CV Out 1

CV In4 : 0 > CV Out 2

A completely initialized thor, with the proper routings in the Modulation Bus Routing Section (MBRS)
In the Matrix A, fill up all 32 of your pattern banks with random patterns or midi patterns that you want to use to play the Subtractor. Random patterns are just quicker for the purposes of this exercise.
In the Matrix B, do the same. However, note that in the example file I have not loaded any patterns into Matrix B. This is so that you can hear the difference when you swtich between Matrix A and Matrix B. But for practical purposes you’ll want to load up all 32 pattern banks with more patterns with which to play the Subtractor sound source.
In the Combinator’s Programmer, select the Thor device (I call it the CV Switcher) and enter the following settings for the Modulation Routing:
Button 1 > Mod 1 Dest Amount : 100 / 0

Button 1 > Mod 2 Dest Amount : 100 / 0

Button 1 > Mod 3 Dest Amount : 0 / 100

Button 1 > Mod 4 Dest Amount : 0 / 100

The Combinator's Modulation Routings for the Thor device (CV Switcher)
For the Matrix A and Matrix B devices, enter the following programmer modulation (for both Matrixes):
Rotary 1 > Pattern Select : 0 / 31

Now, when you press the play button on the Transport, both matrixes will engage, but only one will be used to play the Subtractor, depending on the on/off state of the first button on the Combinator. This first button determines which Matrix is used (if off, Matrix A is used. If on, Matrix B is used). The first Rotary on the Combinator moves through all 32 pattern banks of both Matrixes, thus allowing you access to 64 pattern banks to apply to your Subtractor sound source.

Everything gets switched using the Thor. And the beauty of this type of setup is that you don’t need to worry about Matrix delay problems. Since both Matrixes are always running, and the Thor is used to switch between them, the switching is done completely in real-time with no latency whatsoever.

Ramping it up with an Arp

I won’t go into too much detail about applying this same technique to an Arp. You have the sample file, and you can open this up and see how it’s done. But basically, instead of two Matrixes, you have two Arps that are going through two Thors (one Thor controls the Note / Gate CVs, and the other Thor controls the Pitch/Mod wheel CVs).

One other difference is that you will need a separate Matrix to play the Combinator (ie: the Matrix Note / Gate CV will be sent to the Combinator’s Sequencer Control). This is to ensure something is triggering your sound source, whereas in the previous Matrix example, the matrix units themselves were triggering the sound source.

Alternately, if you don’t want to trigger your sound source via the Matrix, you can set up two sequencer tracks (one for each Arp device) and add your midi note clips there. If you want to switch between both Arps and have them both playing the same part exactly, just duplicate the note clips on both Arp tracks so they are identical. Or have some fun switching up the notes. Experiment with this one.

Proper routings on the back of the rack for the Arp Switcher Combinator

Where do I go from here?

Using this method you can switch between any two CV sources going to the same destination CV input. So let your mind wander and try it out using a Scream or RV7000 or any filter envelope. Anywhere you use CV, this method hopefully inspires you to try playing around with CV and using it more creatively when working on your songs.

Did you find this tutorial useful or beneficial? Let me know. And as always, if you have other ideas related to CV switching, please share them with all of us.

18 – A 12-Way Filter FX Combi

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!

17 – Auto-Panning Methods

Learn a few different ways to automatically pan your audio back and forth from left to right or right to left in the stereo field using the LFOs of the Reason synth devices or a Matrix pattern device. As you’ll see, these methods are not that difficult to understand or implement.

Here I’m going to go over a few different ways you can automatically pan your audio back and forth in the Stereo field. As you’ll see, the methods are not that difficult to understand or implement. Once you have this process down, you can also go on to do more complicated panning techniques, such as combining waveforms for panning, panning filter frequencies, or panning your EQ to create left to right frequency sweeps. Of course, I’m not going to go into all of these advanced techniques. Rather, I’ll delve into the world of auto-panning slowly to get your mind wrapped around some of the different methods you can use in Reason and Record.

Download the project files here: auto-panning-methods. This is a single .rns file with 4 different Auto-Panning Combinators set up for you. Each one affects the same audio source and then gets sent to their own mixer channels in the 14:2 mixer. Mute/solo the channel you want to hear to listen to the examples. Note that each Combinator in this set uses a different way to pan the signal. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, as you’ll see in the tutorial below.

At it’s heart, panning simply moves your sound from Left to Right or Right to Left in the stereo field. In order for the software to pan your sound, you must set up something that signals the audio to move from one side to the other. Usually, this means assigning an LFO or Mod Envelope to control the pan position of your audio. Since Reason and Record have CV inputs assigned to every channel in their mixers, as well as directly on the Mix and Audio Devices themselves, panning any audio source can be achieved with one simple CV connection. Also note that you can pan a mono signal from one side to the other just as you can pan a stereo signal from one side to the other.

Setting up a simple Pan using the Subtractor LFO1

Here is one of the easiest ways to create your automatic panning using the LFO of a Subtractor device:

Open up your audio source in Record or Reason. This can be any synth device, audio channel, mix channel, etc. The point is that you need an audio source to affect.
Next, create a Combinator. Then inside the Combinator, hold your Shift key down and create a 6:2 line mixer and a Subtractor.
Initialize the Subtractor. This means reducing all the values in the Subtractor to zero (range/polyphony/ADSR envelopes, etc.).
Press the “Tab” key to flip the rack around to the back. Connect the Combinator’s Left and Right “To Devices” to the Mixer’s first channel’s Left and Right inputs. It’s not shown in the image below, but you’ll have to also route the audio source Left and Right output to the Left and Right Combinator input.
Connect the LFO1 CV out from the Subtractor’s Modulation Output section into the Pan CV in on the mixer’s first channel. Then turn the trim knob all the way right. This means that the CV will fully control the panning of the audio source.

The back of the rack showing the Subtractor LFO1 modulating the Pan of the Sound Source.

With this setup, the subtractor’s LFO1 is controlling the audio position in the stereo field. This is a great setup, however, there are two main problems: 1. You have access to a very limited set of LFO waveforms (6 to be exact), and none of those waveforms is a straightforward “sine” wave. And 2. Since the Subtractor is free-running, there’s no way for you to turn off the LFO. It will continually pan from side to side, with the Panning speed based on the Rate in the LFO1 section. I can live with #1, however, #2 is a huge hindrance and is enough for me to say no thanks! Let’s find a better way.

Panning with the Malstrom Curves (a step upward)

Now let’s up the game a little.

Delete the Subtractor we just created, and instead hold the shift key and create a Malstrom device. Again, initialize the device by moving all the faders to zero and reducing the polyphony to 1 and the pitch range value to zero. Turn everything off except for the “Modulation A Curve” — leave that little light on.

The fully initialized Malstrom
Flip to the back of the rack, and route a CV cable from the Mod A output to the Pan CV in on the line mixer.

The back of the rack showing how Mod A is controlling the Pan CV in on Mixer Channel 1

Now the Curve from Mod A is controlling the Panning for the sound source. The nice thing about this setup is that you can turn Mod A on or off, which in turn turns the panning on or off (unlike previously in our Subtractor example). Furthermore, there’s another added benefit: you can select from the Malstrom’s 32 different waveforms. Now that’s some serious power.

Panning with Thor (an alternative)

The Malstrom is great if you want to play with a lot of curves to pan your sound source. However, there are a few advantages to using Thor’s LFO2 instead.

For a detailed run-through of how to setup Thor to auto-pan your sound source, have a look at the video below:

In this situation, you would delete the Malstrom, and initialize a Thor in its place. Send the CV1 Output to the Pan CV in on channel one of the line mixer. Then in Thor’s mod matrix, you use LFO2 as a source and CV1 Out as a destination. Finally, you could set up a button on the Combinator so that when the button was off, Thor’s “Mod Destination Amount” is set to zero (0), and when turned on, it is set to 100. This way, the button acts as a switch to turn the CV on/off. Just have a look in the project files to see how this is set up.

Thor CV1 out going to the Pan CV in on the first mixer channel. Thor's LFO2 being sent to the CV Out1 (in turn routed to the Pan CV in on the mixer)

The benefit to using Thor is that you can assign the LFO2 delay and Key Sync parameters to the Combinator Rotaries/Buttons, which is something you can’t do with the other methods. So it all boils down to how you want to pan your sound. There’s no better or worse way to do it. If you know the panning won’t ever need to be turned off for the duration of your song, you can use the Subtractor. If you need control over the delay and Key Sync parameters of the LFO, then you know Thor is the only choice.

The Matrix (a wild card)

The last way I’m going to discuss is how you can use a Matrix to create your own waveform to affect the panning of a sound source. This is just like the previous methods, except you draw in a pattern inside the matrix, and on the back you connect the Curve CV to the Pan CV input on the first channel of the line mixer. Be sure to change the front panel of the matrix to “Curve” and on the back, select “Bipolar” as the curve selection. Panning is a bipolar process going from -64 to +63 with zero (0) being dead center. So the matrix needs to utilize this bipolar functionality to have the panning work correctly.

The Matrix Curve CV being sent to the Pan CV input on channel 1 of the mixer The Matrix from the front with a Curve setup.

The drawback is that the curves are always in sync with the tempo (which may or may not be what you want), and your rate selection is limited to locked-in resolutions in the matrix. You can’t have any concept of a free-running rate system with this setup. On the plus side, you can draw in up to 32 unique patterns (on each of the matrix pattern banks), and then assign a rotary to the pattern selection to cycle through the different programmed curve patterns.

Now, I’ll show you how the Modulation Matrix is set up on each of the Combinators. Looking at these setups, you can see how each one has a different set of parameters that can be controlled. This is how you determine what the right “fit” is for your sound source. Get to know these inside out and it will become really easy to figure out which one works best for each of your audio scenarios:

From top to bottom: Sub, Mal, Thor, Matrix auto-panner Combinator setups.

So there you have it. A few different ways you can auto-pan your sound source. Things can get pretty interesting if you start crossing pans or inverting one sound source with another, so that when one sound is in the left channel, another sound is in the right channel (hint: use the spider’s “inverted” split to output one CV split to the second channel). You also don’t have to use an LFO to achieve your panning. You can easily draw in automation for the panning knob on the mixer channels and have full control over drawing in the panning curves yourself in the sequencer. Oh there’s lots of possibilities.

So do you have any suggestions or other interesting ways you’ve developed for panning your elements in Reason and Record. I’m always looking for innovative ways to use panning in my mixes. It’s a great way to add some movement and modulation to your pieces. Move up the rate fast enough and you almost have a vibrato or phased effect on your sound, which can add interest. So tell me what you’ve come up with and share it with all of us.

Here’s a bonus little rns file for Sterioevo (see his comment below). He was suggesting using an RPG-8 as a Panning device. Now the problem with this is that the Arp is not bipolar. The notes / gate CV output from the Arp is unipolar. So with a little tweaking, you can create something that comes close. A kind of pseudo-panner using the Arp. This was a pretty interesting technique so I thought I would provide the file here: arp-auto-panner-idea Enjoy!

Selig also had a comment on the Propellerhead forum that is important when talking about panning your audio. I thought I would quote him here, as it’s a very good point:

“The main problem I always had with using the CV Pan input is that the panning only goes half way to either side – I want a panner that goes ALL THE WAY!!! And the easy way to accomplish that is to route the LFO’s CV output (from any synth) to a combinator Rotary Knob’s rear input (cranking the little knob up all the way) and assign it to the mixer’s Panner with the combi’s Programmer. Check it out – NOW you have some serious P – A – N – N – I – N – G ! And all your cool tips will still apply. :-)”

Thor Bells, Pads & Oddities

Here are a few various Thor patches I’ve come up with in the past week. There’s 6 in total, with Bells, Leads, and Pad sounds. Some are eerie, some industrial, and the Bell sound is like a kid with a toy. Just some various sounds you’re free to use.

Download the zip file here: 6-thor-patches

Description: These are a few various Thor patches I’ve come up with in the past week. I was going to provide a few Thor patches to Robb’s excellent site: Reason Patch-A-Day (and yes, that’s a different Robb — you can tell because of the second “b”). However, I came up with more than I expected and so here are a few “extras” if you will.

There’s six patches in this zip:

(Lead) Tightrope Bounce
(Lead) Trance Trauma
Throaty and Bouncy
Footsteps Behind you in the Night
Marauders
Modular Bells

They are basic Thor patches. Feel free to use them in your own projects, and if you do, please let me know so I can post a link to your work here. Also let me know what you think. Comments and discussion are always welcome! And keep checking in here, because there’s much more in store and coming your way soon.

All my best!

DopeTank Free 2010 Refill

DopeTank Free 2010 Refill: A collection of 106 Thors and 15 Combinators made by Heikki Roots (aka Pirnikas or Deep’n’Dark). He was gracious enough to offer this out to the Reason community for free.

Download the Refill: DopeTank-Free-2010

A collection of 106 Thors and 15 Combinators made by Heikki Roots (aka Pirnikas or Deep’n’Dark). He was gracious enough to offer this out to the Reason community for free. Here’s what he has to say about his refill:

When making this refill I wanted to keep the sound phat, clean and musical. Another thing I wanted was making every sound different so there’s something for everyone.Every sound-designer has their own methods and their own taste of how it should sound. I like when there’s lot of edge but not too much. When playing the sound, it should make you wanna play your midi keyboard. Most of the time the modwheel has been assigned to some parameter, sometimes the other buttons & rotaries as well. When playing pads or other patches that you may play as chords, I’ve tried to keep the sound clean.

The Combinator patches:

There’s 15 combinators inside this refill. When layering sounds, you can make extremely rich and big sounds as you can add just as many layers as you want. Another thing are the effects which bring in lot of possibilities to shape the sounds.Sometimes you have an instrument that doesn’t sound that special, but when layering some sounds together, you can make some “killer” sounds. Some of these patches have tweaking possibilities, most don’t. These patches can be used for many genres, like hiphop, electronic but also for pop or film music etc. So get the refill and expand your rack as this refill is free.

The Thor patches:

The Thor patches have been categorized into different folders so it’s easy to find right sound every time. The categories are:

Bass

Fx

Keys

Leads

Mono synth

Modulated

Other

Pads

Poly synth

Sequenced

Voices

What I found great about these patches is the fact that the sound is indeed very clean and crisp. For the combinator patches, there’s a lot of interesting reverb going on in most cases, and the sound is very spacious. Also, what’s nice is that every mod wheel does affect a parameter, so you can vary the sound as you play. The only thing I would criticize is the fact that most of the other combinator parameters or Thor parameters don’t have any modulations assigned to them. I think this misses out on a great opportunity to enhance the patches even further. But putting that aside, the sounds in here are top notch!

Highlights for me were the Combinator and Thor Pads. I think this refill shows off a lot of reverb talent and that comes across best in those patches. I also thought the sequenced and voice Thor patches were really nice, and it’s too bad there weren’t more of these. Perhaps in some future patches or refills, since Heikki has promised more free patches to come in the Propellerhead User Forum.

Thanks for sharing Heikki!

12 – Crossfading Mals & Filters

Since Ed’s Thor Shaper article, I’ve been thinking about how to use this information in real-world examples. One idea is to crossfade the Grain Samples in the Malstrom and another idea is to crossfade all 4 Thor filters to affect one sound source. Lots of fun!

Since Ed’s Thor Shaper article, I’ve been thinking about how to use this information in real-world examples. One thought came from a post I saw on the Props forum. Basically, the issue was that you can’t assign the Malstrom Grains to a Combinator Rotary to effectively switch between the 80+ Grain Samples. It’s pretty easy to assign and switch between Modulator waveforms using a Rotary, but not the actual samples in the Malstrom. So this got me thinking of how you could go about switching between these Samples. And truth be told, there’s probably some really obscure way to do it which uses Thor and some heavy CV connections. But here is something that might just inspire you and be the next best thing.

You can download the project zip file here: crossfading-malstroms-and-filters. This file contains 2 rns files with the Combinator setups explained below. One is a 16-Malstrom crossfader, and the other is a 4-way Thor filter crossfader. I would recommend you download them and open them up as you read. It will make things a little easier that way.

Crossfading 16 Malstrom Grain Samples

In this setup, I’m using 16 Malstrom devices and each device is sent to a Mixer Channel in two 14:2 Mixers. The CV from the various Thors are sent to the Mixer Levels, where the level trim knobs are pushed all the way right, and the Mixer channel Levels are set to zero. If you haven’t already seen Ed’s interesting and enlightening tutorial on the subject, you should read it here: Ed’s Thor Shaper Tutorial. It goes through using the Sine Wave Shaper in Thor to create a 4-way Crossfader. In this way, you can cross-fade between 4 different Malstroms. Each Malstrom’s Oscillator A is set to a different Sample.

Since you have 4 Rotaries, each Rotary is set to 4 Malstrom devices. Giving you a total of 16 different Oscillators. Also, since one or more oscillators will be playing at any one given time, I’ve set up each button on the Combinator to mute the specific series of Oscillators. Button/Rotary 1 affects the first group of 4 (Malstroms 1-4), Button/Rotary 2 affects the second group of 4 (Malstroms 5-8), and so on. Only 10 Malstroms should be applied to a single Mixer because you can only map 10 parameters from any one device to the Combinator, and you need all 10 channel mutes mapped to the various Combinator buttons.

To take this a step further, you could create 6 Combinators, which together would contain the full 82 Oscillator Samples used by the Malstrom. Then you could crossfade between any oscillator you like. The sweet spots for each of the rotaries are as follows:

0 = Oscillator 1 Full Level

42 = Oscillator 2 Full Level

85 = Oscillator 3 Full Level

127 = Oscillator 4 Full Level

Any integer between those values will provide a crossfade between the two Oscillators on either side of the value. This can be seen as a downside or an upside. If you want a pure switch between Oscillator 2 and 4 for example, you can automate the Rotary to go straight from 40 to 85 in your sequencer using a Rotary automation lane. In this sense, you can use the Rotary as a 4-way button switcher between each Oscillator.

On the downside, you couldn’t effectively crossfade between Oscillator 2 and Oscillator 6 (on Rotary 2) the way the current Combinator is set up. But if you Reorganize the way the buttons mute, you could effectively do this. I’m open to anyone who has any other suggestions on how this could be achieved. Another downside is that since a different Malstrom is used for each Oscillator, you’ll have to tweak the settings on each Malstrom to get exactly the sound you want. If you want to keep everything consistent between all Malstroms, you’ll have to do it through automation (the easiest way I think). Simply automate one parameter on the first Malstrom in the sequencer, and copy that automation clip into every other Malstrom’s automation lane. It’s a bit of a pain, but it will keep all Malstroms in line, if that’s what you want.

On the upside, since there are 16 different Malstroms, you can fine tune the sound of each of them separately. If you have all the mutes off, you can effectively crossfade between 4-8 Malstrom sounds/devices at once just by shifting the Rotaries around. This adds some very interesting Sound Layering potential.

As it stands, the first 16 Oscillators from the Malstrom are applied to the 4 Rotaries on the Combinator. As I said, you could build up a stack of 6 Combinators to include all the Malstrom Oscillators. In this way you can build up various sounds and switch between the various Oscillators. Does this help anyone out?

Crossfading all 4 Thor Filters, and then some. . .

Next, let’s take a look at how we can crossfade all of Thor’s filters to affect one synth sound. In this case, it’s fairly simple to set up. First, create a Combinator, and set up Ed’s 3 Sine Shaper Thor’s to handle the CV like the previous example (along with a 14:2 Mixer). Then create a Thor and load up a synth sound. Start off with something simple so that you can really hear the different filters affecting the sound. Then create a Spider Audio CV Merger / Splitter, and send the synth’s Left and Right Audio Outputs to the splitter’s inputs. Create 4 Thors underneath the splitter and send each of the 4 splits to these respective Thor’s Audio Inputs 1 and 2. Finally, send the 4 Thor’s Left and Right Audio Outputs to the first four 14:2 Mixer channels.

The setup with The Sine Shaper CV and Audio outputs from Thor into the Mixer

The Thor Synth Audio being split and sent through the 4 Thor Filters

On the front of the Rack, add a Low Pass Ladder Filter in the first Thor’s Filter 3 Slot. The settings for this filter are shown in the image below. In addition, add the following into the Modulation Bus Routing System (MBRS):

Audio In1: 100 > Filt3 L.In

Audio In2: 100 > Filt3 R.In

The Low Pass Ladder Thor Filter settings on the front Panel

Enter the same settings in the other 3 Thors, but with different filters, so you have the State Variable filter in Thor 2, Comb filter in Thor 3, and Formant filter in Thor 4. While you’re at it, play around with the Global ADSR envelope so that it sounds to your liking for the 4 different filters. It’s ok if these settings are different for each filter. This will just make your sound more interesting. One thing I kept the same across all 4 Thor Filters is the FX section (Delay and Chorus). This way, when the filters are transitioned, the FX remain similar across the board.

Now let’s turn to our Combinator section and do some serious routings in the Mod Matrix. Here’s the settings you will need for each of the Thor Filters (they are the same for all 4, but must be applied to all 4):

Rotary 1 is reserved for the Filter Crossfade, so I’m not going to go over it here. You can see it in the Project File rns.

Rotary 2 > Filter 3 Freq: 0 / 127

Rotary 3 > Filter 3 Res: 0 / 127

Rotary 4 > Filter 3 Global Env Amount: 0 / 127

Button 1 > Delay On: 0 / 1

Button 2 > Delay Sync: 0 / 1

Button 3 > Chorus On: 0 / 1

Button 4 > Filter 3 Global Env Invert: 0 / 1

Mod.W > Filter 3 Drive: 50 / 127

The Combinator Mod Bus Routing settings for each of the Filters

Now, what’s happening is that the Mod Wheel controls the drive amount on each of the Filters, While Rotary 1 cross-fades all the filters. This is the main Rotary, and it has the same sweet spots as the previous Malstrom patch. Rotary 2 and 3 control the Frequency and Resonance of the filters, and Rotary 4 adjusts the Envelope of the filter. Button 4 inverts this envelope. The remaining buttons are left for the Delay, Delay Sync and Chorus. Since all the parameters are the same for all the filters, they all shift together. This can be a positive or a negative. You can’t individually set the filters, but at least they sound pretty good when transitioned. Depending on your ADSR settings for the Global Filter, the Envelope Rotary and Envelope Inversion Button may be different for each filter. But as I said before, this can add some nice variety to the sound.

Use this Combinator as a template for your own sounds. All you have to do is add your own patch into the Thor “Synth” or change the Thor “Synth” to any other Synth or Sampler device if you like. Then you’re in filter crossfading heaven.

A huge thanks to Ed for being the inspiration for these patches. Please let me know what you think and if you can think of any other applications that this crossfading technique can have, by all means share it with us. Until next time, have fun with these.

11 – Creative ReDrums (Part 3)

In this Tutorial, I’m going to show you a few other innovative things you can do with a Redrum device and a little imagination. First, we’ll build upon the drum kit we created in Part 2, and then branch out to show how you can chain your drums together and layer them to give a richer thicker sound. Finally, I’ll point out a few other quick and easy tricks, just to get your inspiration flowing.

In the first Part of this series, I showed you how to punch up your factory soundbank drums, and in the second, I showed you how you can create your own synth drum kit and trigger each drum via the Redrum device. In this Tutorial, I’m going to show you a few other innovative things you can do with a Redrum device and a little imagination. First, we’ll build upon the drum kit we created in Part 2, and then branch out to show how you can chain your drums together and layer them to give a richer thicker sound. Finally, I’ll point out a few other quick and easy tricks, just to get your inspiration flowing.

You can download the project files here: creative-redrums-3 The file contains two rns files with each of the Combinator setups outlined below.

Expanding on the “Electro Drums Combinator”

If you haven’t already, read Part 2 in the Redrum tutorials. After you’ve done that, you can start by downloading the Combinator I created or you can start with a Combinator that you’ve created yourself, because I know you want to stamp your name on your own sounds right?

If you’ve done everything according to spec, you’ll have a pretty expansive drum kit which is filtered through a Vocoder. Now we’re going to change a few of the routings and Combinator mod matrix settings in order to put a new spin on that drum setup.
Open up the Combinator and create a 6:2 Line Mixer at the top of the stack. Reroute the Vocoder Carrier outputs to the second channel of the Line Mixer. This is going to be our “Wet” signal. At the same time, connect the Left and Right Audio Out cables from the Line Mixer, and feed them into the Compressor’s Left and Right Audio inputs. Then connect the Left and Right Audio outputs from the Maximizer into the Left and Right Audio inputs on the Combinator (From Devices). So the signal path goes from the dry signal through the Vocoder, then into the Main Line Mixer, then into the Mastering devices, and finally out of the Combinator.
Next, we’re going to add a “Dry” drum submix which can in turn be mixed in with the wet submix. To do this and also to have full control, we’ll need to create a whole new secondary mix. The easiest way to do this is to duplicate the 14:2 Drum Submixer, and holding Shift down, create 10 Audio Merger/Splitters underneath. Flip the rack around and connect each of the Synth Drum outputs (the Thors) into the Splitter inputs. Then use one split to go to the Wet Drum Submix channels, and a second split to go to the Dry submix channels. This is a bit of a process but it’s an important one as you’ll see in a minute.
Routings from the back of the two Submixers
Now route the entire “Dry” Submix (Left and Right outputs) to the first channel in the main Line Mixer (Left and Right inputs). Flip the rack around and click the “Show Programmer” button on the Combinator. In the Modulation Matrix, remove the “Master Level” settings we previously mapped to Rotary 4. Instead, select the “Main Line Mixer” on the left, and enter the following settings:
Rotary 4 > Channel 1 Level: 0 / 127
Now when Rotary 4 is fully left, the signal is fully wet. When the Rotary is fully right, the dry signal is mixed in with the wet signal. Furthermore, if you want to fine-tune the levels of either the Wet or the Dry drums individually, you can set that up using the levels on either submixer, giving you total control over both your wet and dry drums’ attenuation. If you want to automate the process, create a sequencer track for both the Dry and Wet Submixer and go ahead and automate the levels to your heart’s content.
Rack devices in the Combinator above the main synth drums

Note: In the Combinator I created inside the Project files, I also added an “Instant Glitch” and “Bass Boost” button which can be used to give the drums a completely new feel. I wouldn’t use them together, but separately they can open up a whole new way to play this patch. Also, there’s some other modifications I made to the original drums. I added a Vocoder Bypass switch on button 4, so if you are bypassing the Vocoder, there’s no need to mix in the dry signal, as the signal is already completely dry. So if bypassing the Vocoder, keep Rotary 4 fully left. Otherwise you’ll be doubling the dry signal which may not be desired. And lastly, I mapped Rotary 1 to the Stereo Width, so turn it fully left to create a pseudo-mono effect, and fully right to widen up the stereo field.

The front Combinator Controls

Chaining 2 or More Redrums Together

Another thing you can do with Redrums that can amplify and expand your drum programming is to Layer your drums by chaining them together. Whether you use Redrum patches for your drum sounds, or create a sample-based drum kit and have the Redrums trigger the synths, you can still create layered drum Combinators very easily. Here’s one method to do this.

First create a Combinator and holding Shift down, create the following devices in sequence: M Class Compressor, M Class Equilizer, M Class Stereo Imager, M Class Maximizer, RV 7000 Reverb, 14:2 Line Mixer, 3 Redrums, and 2 DDL-1 Delay units.
Flip to the back of the rack, and Connect the Left and Right Mixer outputs to the Compressor’s Left and Right Inputs. Then chain the Compressor to the Equilizer to the Stereo Imager to the Maximizer to the RV 7000 and then out to the Left and Right Combinator inputs (From Devices). That essentially sets up the Drum Mastering.
Routing for the Mastering in the Combinator
Connect the Left and Right Outputs from the first Redrum to the first channel on the Mixer. Connect the second Redrum’s Left and Right Output through the first DDL-1 unit and then to the second channnel on the Mixer. Connect the third Redrum’s Left and Right Outputs through the second DDL-1 unit and then to the third channel on the Mixer. This sets up our Redrum Audio channels.
Lastly, send the Gate Out CV for the first Redrum’s first channel to the Gate In CV on the second Redrum’s first channel. Then send the Gate Out CV on the Second Redrum’s first channel to the Gate In CV on the third Redrum’s first channel. Repeat this process for all 10 Redrums’ channels. This way, the first Redrum acts as the “Master” Gate triggering the other two “Slave” Redrums in Parallel (actually this is in series, but the effect is that all three Redrums trigger at exactly the same time, which is why we’ve inserted a Delay unit between the last two Redrums and the Mixer).
CV routing between the "Master" (Gate Out) and "Slave" (Gate In) Redrum
Flip the rack around to the front. Bypass all the M Class devices as well as the Reverb and Delay devices for now. Add patches into the three Redrum devices so that you have different drum kits in all three. Then disable the pattern section on the two Redrum Slaves (last two Redrums). Add a pattern into the Redrum Master (the first Redrum — simply select the device, and click Ctrl+R to get a random pattern entered). Then press the Play button and you’ll hear all three Drum kits working the same pattern at the same time. This is your basic setup.
Next, turn On the Delay units and enter some step sequence that sounds good for the second and third drum kits. This is a matter of taste, but if you look at my Combinator file, you’ll see I have the second Redrum’s delay set to 3 steps and the third Redrum set to 6 steps. I also adjusted the levels and Panning of all three drum kits in the Mixer so that it didn’t shatter my speakers and start giving me that beautifully annoying red clip light (Note that I also added a Scream 4 unit between the third drum kit and its associated Delay line. That’s because the drums from the third drum kit sounded a little lacking). By delaying two of the three drum kits you end up with a much fuller sound. However, this can be a bit of overkill as well. If you like, try tuning the Dry/Wet knobs on the delays so that the delay is a little more subtle. Again, it’s all a matter of personal taste.
Finally, adjust your Compression, EQ, Stereo Imaging, and Maximizing using the M Class Devices. What’s more, you should experiment by using separate M-Class devices for each of the Redrum kits and adjust them independantly. In this way, you can have a greater degree of control over the final sound. In fact, if you want to go all out, you should create four sets of M Class devices; 1 for each of the drum kits, and one for an overall mixdown of the three drums together. This can help to really bring the drum mixes together.

The whole idea here is to choose drum kits that work well together and don’t clash. They should compliment each other. Some ways to ensure they are complimentary is to choose drum patches in the same or similar vein (all Dub kits or all Electronic kits). Another way is to EQ each drum kit so that it has its own place in terms of frequency. A third way is to pan them and mix their stereo width so that they also have their own space within the stereo field. This, of course is beyond the scope of the tutorial, but it’s all a matter of your own personal taste. Keep experimenting!

If you look at the Combinator Mod Matrix, you’ll see that I’ve mapped the second rotary to the pitch of all 30 drums in the 3 Redrum devices. This is a great way to quickly change the pitch of all the drums in the Combinator. The downside is that since you use 10 routings per device in the Mod Matrix, you lose the ability to map anything else from the Redrum devices to the Combinator. So I’ve opted to show you how to map the pitch to the rotary instead of mapping the pattern sequencer to a Rotary control. However, if you want to automate the Pattern Sequencer from the first Redrum, simply create a sequencer track for the Redrum, then automate your patterns directly in Reason or Record’s main sequencer. A few more clicks, but it’s still fairly easy to program.

Where do you go from here?

This is definitely not the end-all-be-all when it comes to the Redrum. There’s a lot more you can explore, such as mapping some of the other parameters to the Rotaries, for example the drum level knobs, or the main Resolution knob. You can also automate pretty much every element of the Redrums in the main Sequencer. In addition, you can layer your own synth sounds on top of each other to create some pretty massive synth drum kits. Hopefully this at least gives you a few new ideas when it comes to programming your drums. I know after 3 tutorials on the subject I’m done working on the Redrum for a while. Time to get back to working on some synths again.

So do you find these setups useful? Do you have any setups that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear about them. Feel free to comment and let me know. And thanks for taking the time to read these tutorials. Your feedback and comments are very much appreciated.

Ed’s Thor Shaper Tutorial

I’m always amazed with EditEd4TV’s ability to analyze what should be a simple signal path. He literally blows my mind when it comes to this technical stuff. And I find myself reading it about 5 times before some part of it actually sinks in. And of course the real fun comes in figuring out just “what” musically you can do with this information. So not to disappoint, Ed is back with a great tutorial on the inner workings of Thor’s Shaper feature, and more specifically the “Sine” wave inside the shaper. If you feel brave enough, my young paduan learners, then venture forward where quite honestly no man has gone before. . .

Download the project files here: EditEd4TV_ThorShaperFiles. They contain an Excel spreadsheet with the settings for various sine wave values/positions, as well as Ed’s 4 source cross-fader which was designed using the Shaper’s Sine wave. Quite a brilliant design idea.

Thor’s Shaper can produce a number of interesting distortion effects when processing an audio signal from any of the three oscillator slots, but one of the more arcane features of the shaper is the processing of CV data. In this setup I’m routing the mod wheel data, 0-127, into Filter 1, which is in bypass mode (no filter), which is then routed into the Shaper, set in the sine wave preset. So that you don’t bypass the learning here, I’m not providing the patch, as it’s better to get your hands dirty and learn the hard way, so let’s make this specific patch before moving on:

Processing CV data through Thor’s Shaper

First, create a Thor device and initialize the preset if necessary.
Next, set filter slot 1 to bypass.
Deactivate oscillator 1 routing to filter 1, and activate it for filter 2.
Activate the routing button to send filter 2 to the amp (it’s directly below the Shaper’s Drive knob).
At this point, if you set the Step Sequencer to Repeat mode, and press the Run button, you should hear a basic repeating pulse coming from oscillator 1. If you don’t hear this, go back and check your settings before moving forward.
Next, in the Step Sequencer, move the Steps knob on the far right so that we have only 1 step. For this single step, set the gate length from 75% to 100%. At this point, if you press the Run button you should hear a single pulse that drops in volume. Change the oscillator type from sawtooth to a sine wave for a more pleasant tone, and raise the amp envelope sustain level from -21.8 dB (default) to full 0.0 dB. At this point you should hear a steady sine wave tone. Again, if you don’t hear this, go back and check your settings before moving forward.
In the Modulation Bus Routing Section, make the following assignment:
Source -> Amount -> Destination -> Amount -> Scale

Mod Wheel -> 100 -> Oscillator 1 pitch
At this stage, if you raise the mod wheel you should hear the pitch rise and fall as you move the mod wheel – this is direct control with essentially linear control/results. Change this amount value to 0 for the time being.
Now activate the Shaper, change the mode to Sine, and in the Modulation Bus Routing Section, make the following assignments:
Source -> Amount -> Destination -> Amount -> Scale

Mod Wheel -> 100 -> Filter 1 Audio Input

Shaper -> 100 -> Oscillator 1 pitch
At this stage, if you raise the mod wheel you should hear the pitch first rise, but then suddenly begin to fall. This is the sine wave of the Shaper controlling oscillator pitch. At the default of 37, you’re hearing just a portion of what’s available in this shaper setting. For a nearly perfect full sine wave cycle, set the Shaper Drive value to 50. If you listen carefully to the results, you’ll hear that with the Mod Wheel at full 127, the pitch is slightly higher than with the Mod Wheel at 0. To verify that things are off a bit, create an Analog Oscillator in oscillator slot 2, set the type to sine wave, and engage the routing button to filter 2 for oscillator 2. With the Mod Wheel at 0, you’ll hear the two oscillators in perfect sync, but with the Mod Wheel at 127, they’re off a bit. To trim this, in the Modulation Bus Routing Section, modify the previous assignment to this:
Source -> Amount -> Destination -> Amount -> Scale

Mod Wheel -> 100 -> Filter 1 Audio Input -> 2 -> Rotary 2
You should hear Oscillator 1 pitch drop a bit. Now turn up Rotary 2 and you’ll hear the pitch rise to meet up with Oscillator 2, which is unaffected by the Mod Wheel. A Rotary 2 setting of 62 is nearly perfect. Sweep the Mod Wheel from 0 to 127 and you should hear the full sine wave cycle, landing nearly perfectly with both oscillators showing the match.

Through painstaking research, I went through and found the settings for various sine wave values/positions. You can view the chart in the Project Files download (above).

To plot out a sine wave in Excel, the magic number we’re working with is 20.21267. The A column serves as our Mod Wheel range. In the B column we find the result of a formula which works with the Mod Wheel values and multiples of the magic 20.21267 value.

When you open the spreadsheet you’re seeing the 1/4 cycle output in the chart:

Copy the E5 to I5 range and paste into the E22 to I22 range and you’ll see the result in the chart:

It’s a nearly perfect cycle of a sine wave. To chart out two full cycles, copy and paste E9 to I9:

One thing to keep in mind here is that the CV output limits change as you raise the Drive value. At a 1/4 sine wave setting (Drive value at 0 and a scale value of 34 with Rotary 2 at 0), the Shaper will output a CV value of +50 (it’s not entering the negative range of the bipolar output). At the 4 sine wave settings (Drive value at 91 and a scale value of 2 with Rotary 2 at 4) the Shaper will output a CV vale of +/- 29. The spreadsheet changes all of this for you, and adjusts the chart accordingly.

Viewing the CV value in Thor

To view the CV value in Thor, let’s first make sure we’re seeing true +/-127 values from the Mod Wheel, so place this Thor inside a Combinator, and in Thor’s Modulation Bus Routing Section, make the following assignment:
Source -> Amount -> Destination -> Amount -> Scale

Mod Wheel -> 100 -> CV Out 1
Now route CV 1 output on the back of Thor to the Combinator’s Rotary 1 input. In the Combinator’s Modulation Routing Section, make the following assignments:
Source -> Target -> Min -> Max

Rotary 1 -> Mod 12 Destination Amount -> -100 -> +100

Rotary 1 -> Mod 13 Destination Amount -> -27 -> +27
Change Combinator knob 1 from 63 to 64. This visualization isn’t perfect, but it’s fairly close. Raise the mod wheel and note the two amount values in Thor’s Modulation Bus Routing Section rising with the mod wheel. At full throw, they should add up to 127, and at 0 it’s approximately 0 (you may see negative values). Now modify the previous assignment to this:
Source -> Amount -> Destination -> Amount -> Scale

Shaper -> 100 -> CV Out 1
Raise the Mod Wheel and you’ll find the values range from approximately +34 down to -36. This is basically a range of 70, so we can essentially call this +/- 35.

So… what is all this good for? What are the applications? I don’t know yet, but it does potentially open up a lot of possibilities for those folks out there with creative and curious minds. One design is a 4 source cross-fader, which is included in the Project files (download above). The Combinator is within a Reason file for maximum compatibility with everyone out there.

Inside this Combinator you’ll notice that the Shaper Driver values for “CV2” and “CV3” Thor units are set for 42, which to my ears extended the fade out time for the mixer faders to a better sounding value. The “CV2” and “CV3” Thor units are identical, except via the Combinator Modulation Routing section, CV3 Thor’s Mod Wheel values are inverted, so the full throw is 0, and the lowest position is 127. This is essentially allowing you to send that sine wave backwards (not upside down) via the Combinator knob. I know, that’s confusing a bit, but sit and stare at your screen for a few hours and it might make sense – it took a while to figure it out, and now it makes sense to me, but it wasn’t easy at first. These Thor units send bipolar CV data to raise and lower the mixer volume levels. When the values go into the negative, those CV values are of no use to the mixer, thus the channels remain at 0 volume. The other Thor, “CV1 and CV4” is sending out linear CV values as opposed to sine wave shaped values – these are being offset via a DC offset value from the two Step Sequencer CV values, one for each CV output. To add a bit of crossfade between 1&2 and between 3&4, adjust Rotary 1 on the “CV1 and CV4” Thor.

Well, that’s about it – hope this is mind-bending for you all.

Ed “EditEd4TV” Bauman

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