I felt a little guilty shutting down the blog for the holidays with just one patch, so I blew the dust of some old bass patches and thought I'd post them here. Called "Homemade," this "series" consist of what were literally my first attempts at creating patches in Reason, back when I really started digging in and learning my way around the Subtractor in 2003. They're all very simple patches, but are also very clean, so even though they're all over seven years old, they still see some use in my tracks.
Even though Christmas is still a few days away, we're already swamped with family activities, so like last year I'll be taking some time off from the blog and spending it with my wife and son. Expect things to pick up again after the start of the new year.
Its a pretty big world, with people of many faiths celebrating many different holidays around this time of year. Whatever your faith, or whatever this holiday season brings to you and your families, I hope this time of year is safe, relaxing, and brings you a great deal of joy. I probably sound a little naive, but it seems that all people are at there best this time of year, and I hope we can all remember our better selves as we start the new year.
Take care of yourselves, your families, and if you have a chance, your neighbors. Thank the people who have taken care of you. See you in a couple of weeks.
Reason has been my primary application for making music for several years now, with a few occasional experiments with Logic and Renoise here and there. And while Reason has remained my favorite music making application, using other apps has made me aware of a few limitations.
Some of these limitations are real, some are just psychological, but while I find most DAWs are pretty much the same, there are little ticks and quirks that make their workflow different from what I'm used to in Reason. Logic, which I've used since the eMagic days, works quite a bit like Reason, especially in its latest versions, where Reason insists on clips. The tool that has really captured my attention lately, Renoise, works drastically different.
If you're not familiar with Renoise, its a modern tracker, which uses a vertical sequencer that looks a little bit like a spreadsheet. Samples and notes are triggered using a code-like notation, with specific effects also being triggered using that notation, rather than being drawn in with a pencil tool across a piano roll.
This video shows what I mean much better than I can explain it:
Having spent so much time in Reason, Renoise's workflow is pretty alien, but it does have some interesting advantages. While you're still working on a grid (see DJ Mad Wax's post about this here), Renoise does away with the concept of clips. Your sounds and notes are placed in the sequencer (called the "pattern editor" in Renoise), and while you can have many patterns, which are similar to clips, a default pattern in Renoise is 4 bars long, rather than Reason's 1 bar when you click on your sequencer with your pencil. Patterns, it seems, are more like song sections (chorus, fill, etc), whereas clips are smaller divisions that make up those larger sections.
If it sounds like I'm splitting hairs, it's because I am, but working with longer sections makes a very real impact in how I relate to the music I'm making. This is especially true when it comes to rhythm patterns, as I tend to work them out in Reason using Redrum's own sequencer, and so my patterns are short and often extremely repetitive. Once I get a good groove going with Redrum's sequencer, I'll usually copy it to the sequencer and then make modifications to it, but when I work in Renoise, I tend to work across all four of its default bars, creating what I think is much more interesting beats.
This isn't really a limitation of Reason. Obviously, I could make a very similar workflow happen on its sequencer by drawing in four bar clips and working directly in the sequencer, skipping Redrum's sequencer altogether. As I said at the beginning of the post, some of the limitations I find with Reason are purely psychological (and my own), but the way that the interface in Renoise makes my brain shift gears is pretty interesting to me, and likely has an effect that is as different as using hardware versus working directly on Reason's piano roll.
Today's patch, rather than being an actual patch, is a set of REX files from a rhythm and bass track I put together in Renoise. Using the "kit909" and "bassDnB" instruments, which come with Renoise, I've done very little to these sounds. They're completely "dry," with the exception of the Tal-Dub Audio Unit (using the "Stereo Ambience" preset) on the bass, but they illustrate what I mean about working across all four bars, as opposed to sticking with one or two bar patterns. The bass and snare drums are pretty static, but the hi-hats and bass are a little more unpredictable. This isn't a "night and day" difference, and as I keep saying, completely psychological, but its one of those workflow things that makes us all different.
Renoise is a great piece of software and I urge you to check it out, if you want to try something a little different. The community is very helpful, especially for people just starting out with the software, and its demo is more than generous. I think I used the demo for over a year, before I finally purchased it, so you have ample time to learn how it works, and evaluate if Renoise is for you.
Best of all, starting with version 2.0, Renoise has been able to serve as a rewire master, letting you use Reason and Renoise together. Version 2.5, which is in Beta right now, has a number of really intriguing features, so now is a great time to start working with it.
If you liked the other video, you'll probably enjoy this one too. Its informative and pretty funny.
This is a somewhat ugly synth patch that I just couldn't make sound good in the include RNS file. See if there is a use for it in one of your own projects and let me know what you did to make it work.
I really liked the recent Gen-air-ick Pad and decided to make another bright, but somewhat cliched pad sound. The result is Drought, a pad built using Reason's Malstrom synth.
Drought is paired with the Borealis Combinator in the included RNS file. The result isn't particularly innovative or interesting, but its pleasant to the ear, which is the point of a pad like this one.
If you've been visiting Reason Patch A Day for very long, you already know my fondness for distant, airy sounding pads, the kinds of sounds that feel as if they are about to spiral off into nothingness. I've really tried to stay away from those sorts of pads with the Norse Gods series, but I was only able to resist for so long. So, today, I present Ve, yet another airy, distant pad.
Ve is a pretty silent patch, just on the verge of being overwhelmed by distortion, so you might have a little trouble getting its level right in your tracks. I'd recommend using a MClass Maximizer, rather than pushing the sound within Thor using the Amp Gain or filter Drive sliders. Just a little push on any of those settings will add too much harshness and overwhelm Ve's light tone.
Today's RNS file uses the Ambience Combinator to give Ve a little more breathing room. Heavy processing Combinators, such as Borealis, Interesting, Spacey or Spacey II, seem like too much with Ve, so be careful with how you shape its sound.
When I started Norse Gods almost a month ago, the goal of this series of patches was more about experimentation than any kind of theme, unlike the Cloud or Saturn's Rings series. Those sets of patches had specific roles and methods, such as the Cloud series being a set of pads built in Malstrom, but Norse Gods was just about explore Thor and spending time with its modulation routing bus.
A month and a handful of patches later, I feel like I'm starting to "get" it. Just as I wouldn't consider myself an expert with Subtractor or Malstrom, I certainly don't consider myself an expert with using Thor, but the curtain has been pulled back a bit for me, thanks to the time I've spent playing with it and using it. Freyja might be the turning point, the moment where I started to feel comfortable with the modulation routing bus. In addition to be the turning point, Freyja is also kind of a fun patch, another one of those combinations of pads and synths, with heavy leanings towards pads.
Freyja might work as a synth, but its bubbling, heavy delay sound (created with its LFO and Release rather than any actual delay effects) make it less convenient for that kind of role. Used as a pad, Freyja seems to reveal more of its character, so I've tagged it as a pad, but experiment with it to find the uses that best suit your projects.
Be careful using any delay effects with Freyja. Most delay effects will simply smear it, turning Freyja into a confusing jumble of sounds. It will take a delicate touch to make a delay effect really work, so if you insist on using them, be careful.
Here's yet another dance bass patch, put together using Reason's Malstrom synth. It seems like every time I post a Malstrom patch, I say the same sorts of things about it, going on and on about how much I enjoy working with it. Forever a synth behind, I expect that when Reason 5 comes out, no doubt with a new synth module, I'll start touting how great Thor sounds while everyone else proclaims their love for the newest synth.
Like I did with the Filtered Rhythm Combinator last week, I had a little fun working on the RNS file for 2857, layering a couple of Factory Soundbank drum REX files, a short demonstration of the 2857 bass, and even yesterday's Gen-air-ick Malstrom pad. Also used within the RNS file is the A Little Energy Combinator and Lewis.72's excellent Sway Delay Combinator.
I made a minor mistake in the RNS file, drawing in my pad notes in the bass instrument's lane. By the time I figured out what I had done, I liked it too much to change it, so you'll notice the 2857 instrument has two lanes, each playing different patterns.
Sometimes you don't actually need a strange, gurgling pad built from noise and clicks and distortion. Instead, you need something clean, smooth, and light. You need something a little more... well... generic.
So, while today's patch doesn't challenge listeners or stretch the boundaries of sound design, it does have its uses, especially if you're in need of something a little more typical or basic for your project.
The patches I post here often take long routes to get to their final state. Take today's patch, for example, which started as an attempt to create a good minimal house kick drum. I had the deep bass "thump" I wanted, but needed a nice snap to it, to really give it life. And, as I was experimenting with Thor's Noise Oscillator, I stumbled across what I thought was an interesting crackle.
That crackle made me think, a little, about vinyl pops and snaps, so I decided that I'd skip the minimal house kick and make a Thor patch that would emulate the sound of a vinyl record. Press a key, and you'd get that familiar vinyl hiss, complete with pops and snaps.
Then, of course, I got sidetracked again. So, rather than build the vinyl patch I wanted, I ended up applying even more static and noise, creating a kind of static bath of noise, pops, and growls; the sound of radio broadcasts disintegrating on the far off, icky plans of Antarctica. Or, something like that... I guess.
So, rather than getting a bass kick or a vinyl emulation patch (which I actually don't think is possible using Thor alone), I'm giving you a quiet static pad, something like the sound of Aurora Borealis picked up on shortwave.
There's very little to the RNS file, beyond a held C3 note, and a little bit of processing. I eventually ran the Mysterious Static patch through the A Little Energy Combinator, due to its subtle sound, but there's little else sonic manipulation included in the example file.
Not all of the Norse Gods series of patches need to be eerie, uncomfortable drones. There have been a few bright dance synths, such as Forseti and Hnoss, and today's Lofn continues in that traditional of glossy synth leads.
The Lofn RNS file uses the Simple Smear Combinator to add just the faintest hint of processing in the last few bars. Due to Lofn's heavy delay and chorus effects, built-in using Thor's internal effects, Lofn shouldn't need much in terms of additional processing, aside from a little EQ to keep its sound focused in your tracks. Additional delay effects or heavy reverb will just make Lofn sound muddy, so use a light hand with this patch.
Little more than an ugly, static grumble, Ilmr is a feedback prone squeal of noise and wind.
The example RNS file uses the Vapor Trails Combinator. As is often the case, Vapor Trails tames some of Ilmr's harsher edges, but leaves enough bite that the pad is still ugly and cold.
Much lighter and more optimistic than yesterday's Thor pad, today's Malstrom pad still retains a sense of mystery and distance, thanks to its mixture of the Female Choir and Ambient Chord 1 waveforms.
Most of the pads posted here on Reason Patch A Day benefit from the reverb and delay combinations provided by the various Combinators also shared on this site. Solstice, which sounds airy and distant on its own, seems even better with the Ambience Combinator.
Here's the latest in the Norse Gods patch series, the goddess Hel, a pad as dark and ominous as the realm she rules over. If you're looking for a smooth, light, or bright patch, Hel isn't it, but if you're looking for something more moody and foreboding, today's patch might be a good fit.
The Latent Period Combinator smooths over Hel a bit, giving it a softer, even more mysterious tone, as displayed in the RNS example provided.
Here's another bass patch, this time built in Reason's Thor synth.
Thor continues to intrigue me and the more I work with it, the more I appreciate the flexibility and power available in its bus routing section. Today's patch, Auxiliary, is a poor example of that flexibility at work, but I'm getting more and more ready to call myself a fan of Thor. I've written, at length, the problems I see with the "cult of new," especially in music software, so I admit I'm slower to adopt something fresh. It's taken me a while to really start to use Malstrom well, and while I don't think I'm quite there with Thor yet, I'm having a lot of fun with it. Even as simple of a patch as Auxiliary is, it's a blast build new sounds in Thor.
Occasionally a patch I build for Reason Patch A Day sounds okay, as I'm testing it, but then doesn't really fit well with the additional pieces I use in its RNS file. Or, the patch just doesn't work for some reason, even on its own. I usually scrap these patches and drop them into the trash, but I thought I'd share today's less successful attempt at creating a dance synth using Reason's Subtractor.
While it doesn't exactly sound bad, something about Ticklish doesn't sit right with me. Maybe you can make something out of it.
I've been experimenting quite a bit with using various techniques to tune drum hits in my projects and have found myself using the ECF-42 filter more and more. Given that so many of Reason's instruments already have filters built-in, I'm not sure how much the ECF-42 gets used in your own songs, but I really like its sound and have been reaching for it quite often, especially in conjunction with Redrum.
Of course, as I've explained many times in posts here, when I latch on to a new technique I like, I tend to create it and recreate it, again and again, in new projects I've started, which takes up a lot of time. So, just like the SubWide, Auto-Pan and Frequency Analysis Combinators, which were simple Combinators designed only to save me some time when putting together a song, I present you with the Filtered Rhythm Combinator, a glorified Redrum instrument with decided EQ and filtering on each channel, along with a built-in mixer and send effects for even more control. Its very similar to the Rhythm Combinator, shared back in post #39, so if you're using that patch fairly regularly, Filtered Rhythm will feel very familiar.
Please note that as far as Combinators go, Filtered Rhythm is fairly simple, with none of its rotary controls or front panel buttons mapped to any of the controls within the Combinator. There are just too many specific controls inside of it to use these "shortcuts," so you're going to need to "Show Devices," roll up your sleeves, and work with the specific controls inside. The advantage of the Combinator, in this case, is really just time savings in getting this setup into your project, as quickly as possible.
The downside to this approach is that automation of the individual effects units within the Combinator become a little less straight-forward. To automate a filter or EQ unit (or anything else), open up the Combinator, select the device you want to automate, and then select the "Create Track For" command (found under Edit or through a right-click). Then, move to the new track in your sequencer and select the lane automation you want there.
I had a lot of fun with today's RNS file for some reason, so you'll find a number of Reason Patch A Day sounds and effects in its short 8 bars. In addition to the Filtered Rhythm Combinator, you'll find Be Alert, Drum Box, Ver 2 (used on a bass patch, not a Kick Drum, as originally intended for the patch), Borealis 2, Arp Me Baby One More Time, Nervous, and Subtle Wide, all doing their part to keep the example file from being too dull. I also used a Malstrom pad called Drifting To Jupiter, that I could have sworn I have already posted, but couldn't find anywhere in my Patch A Day files. So, as an added bonus, you get a new pad today, in addition to the Combinator. Download it by clicking its name above or by clicking here.
Update: Reader and contributor Darryl Miller wrote to let me know the links for the Drifting To Jupiter patch were coming up 404. That problem should be fixed now. Thanks, Darryl!
Here's a variation on yesterday's Metaphor synth, another dance synth that is slightly less typical, but appropriate for the same sorts of uses. Plasticine uses the same RNS file as yesterday's Metaphor, but swaps out the Subtle Wide Combinator for the Interesting Combinator, providing a little less of the heavy delay tricks that worked for Metaphor in favor of the sliding sound of Interesting's twin phasers.
Metaphor is a fairly basic, even generic dance synth. Like most synths of its type, it benefits greatly from heavy delay, which is provided via send channels and the Subtle Wide Combinator in the included RNS file.
If you were a fan of Insect Week last year in December 2008, then you should really appreciate today's Proboscis patch. I don't know if we have microphones sensitive enough to listen to butterflies lapping up the nectar from flowers, but if we did, I imagine it would sound a lot like this.
Proboscis uses the Borealis Combinator to good effect in the included RNS file.
Usually when I create a patch I'm aiming for something specific, even if I'm a little fuzzy on the final outcome. I usually plan to build a pad patch or a synth or a bass sound, and tweak until I come up with either something I like or something that has a distinctive sound that might be interesting in a future project. Every once in a while the sound I end up with straddles the line between classifications like "synth patch" or "pad patch" and today's Fugitive Malstrom patch straddles that same line between Percussion and Bass, especially when you add the Getting Lo-Fi Combinator into the mix.
