Friday, October 12, 2012

The Kick Toolkit Refill: Available Now!

I've been dropping the occasional hint about a top secret project that I've been working on for months, but it's finally here! Introducing the Kick Toolkit Refill, the first commercial refill from the Reason Patch A Day blog.




The Kick Toolkit Refill is a mini-refill dedicated to bass kick drum sounds and low-frequency sound sculpting, perfect for nearly any genre or style of music.

The Kick Toolkit Refill contains:
  • Kick Drum WAVs: Over 300 unique kick drum samples created using the Jomox Mbase 11 Analog Bass Drum Module, a single voice analog synthesizer fine-tuned for producing a variety of bass drum sounds. Each kick was created specifically for this refill and was sampled at 24-bit resolution, with no outside processing, for the cleanest possible signal and sound.
  • Effects: The Kick Toolkit Refill contains 38 effect patches, using Reason's Scream, RV7000, Pulverizer, and other effect units.
  • Mini-Combis: One or two device Combinators designed specifically for the purpose of manipulating and sculpting kick drum patches and samples. Each Mini-Combi has been programmed with front panel control ranges designed for its limited task to make final tweaks fast and easy. A number of Mini-Combis have also been included to provide presets for devices that do not normally allow for loading and saving patches (ex. BV512 Vocoder). 11 mini-Combis are included, along with 43 additional presets, providing help with compression, equalization, and other general purposes.

So, how does it work and what does it sound like? I have a few demo files, taken from the refill, that I'd like to share with you to give you an idea of what you can find in the new refill. The first is a fairly standard kick drum sample:


Here's another simple kick drum sample that could be used in a number of different projects. As you can see, all of the samples provided have an accompanying NN-19 and Combinator included in the refill, which allows you to quickly play back a clean version of each WAV file. Also included in the refill are a few additional Combinator patches, labeled as "extra," that provide a slightly modified sample playback:


In addition to the deep, thumping kicks you'd expect, I also experimented with using the Mbase 11 Analog Bass Drum Module to create a handful of higher pitched percussion sounds that don't necessarily fit the typical "kick drum" sound. Here's an example of one of these less stereotypical kick drum samples:


Beyond the 300+ kick drum samples provided in the Kick Toolkit Refill, I've provided a few effects and Combinators for use in tweaking your bass drum sounds. Here are two examples of what are essentially just filters, created using Reason's M-Class Equalizer:

  • Kick Toolkit - High Frequency Rolloff ( Combinator )
  • Kick Toolkit - Low Frequency Rolloff ( Combinator )


Given the narrow focus of the Kick Toolkit Refill, this mini-refill is available for only $5 and can be purchased via PayPal. Please use the link in the upper right of the sidebar to make your purchase or use the button below!


Please keep in mind that all refill orders will be filled manually and so it may take up to several hours to redeem, depending on the time of your order. Thank you for your patience and your interest!