.1030 Commercial Sneak Peek: Rob Anselmi's Pureffects, Part 2

Rob was kind enough to send along a fairly large assortment of patches from his Pureffects ReFill, enough that even while posting several a day, we have many days worth to share. So, today, the focus falls on Reason 6's Pulveriser effect, with two designed specifically for percussion and two more meant for processing guitars. I'm especially fond of the hi-hat patch, but they're all great.

• Pureffects - (Guitar) Let The Distortion Drive You Mad ( Pulveriser )
  
• Pureffects - (Guitar) Simple Wah 1-16 ( Pulveriser )
  
• Pureffects - (Hi Hat) Hi Rez Lifter ( Pulveriser )
  
• Pureffects - (Kick) Amp Mod Kicker ( Pulveriser )
  

As promised yesterday, I also had the chance to have a virtual chat with Rob about his process in creating the Pureffects ReFill. The first part of our Q&A is provided below and talks about the origins of the refill and how it moved from idea to completed project.

Q.  How does a project like Pure Effects start for you?  Did you set out to design a new refill from the start or did you find yourself creating patches that eventually made sense to bundle as a refill?  And, once you got the idea to do a refill like this, how long did it take you to go from initial inspiration to completed product?

A. For me, the problem is not so much how to start a project. It's more about how to finish all the projects I want to get done or have inside my head. I keep a few notebooks that I use to jot down ideas and thoughts, and what makes me start a project is a combination of interest and originality. I don't want to work on projects that don't interest me. Otherwise, I'll get bored with it quickly, or else it becomes "drudge work." I much prefer doing something that keeps my interest. That way, I don't tire with it and it's actually "fun." I think every project should be "fun," whether it's venturing into a different musical style, or working on a sound design idea that I haven't tried before.
Second, it's a matter of looking at the marketplace and trying to come up with a unique angle or creative new product. It's the same with creating Combinators in Reason. I don't want to create the same thing over again. Or the same thing that others have created. I try as much as possible to create ideas that I haven't seen before, or putting a new twist on existing Combinators.

This whole idea of being unique where ReFills are concerned is rather difficult, because there's such a plethora of ReFills in the marketplace. But I had never seen a ReFill that focused purely on effects. So that was my starting point. It also helped that I was part of the team that developed new sounds and effects for Reason 6. When I saw that Reason 6 was focused on introducing The Echo, Pulveriser, and Alligator, three new effect devices, it became a natural progression and the idea for Pureffects was born.

As for how long it took to create Pureffects, that's a complicated answer. Some of the ideas for the Key and Kong-based effects processors were previously done a year or two ago. I just combined those ideas with the single-device patches to produce live effect processor devices. But when I seriously started on Pureffects, it probably took about 6 months to complete. However, the new effect device patches probably took about 3 months to complete.

I remember some days creating upward of 50 patches per day. Other days I worked on no more than 3 or 5 per day, mostly fine-tuning the Combinators or getting the levels right. I still probably have over 2,000 patches that never made the cut for Pureffects. It was a massive project for me, and took considerable time out of each and every day. I remember thinking at the end of it that the last thing I wanted to do was look at another effect device for a very long time. That's when I switched gears and focused on producing a whole mess of songs, which later became the double "Dark" & "Light" CD / Remix project.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for more of my discussion with Rob, as well as a few more Pureffects exclusives.

.1029 Commercial Sneak Peek: Rob Anselmi's Pureffects, Part 1

If you've spent any time reading through the Propellerheads' User Forum or have visited the excellent Reason 101 blog, you're no doubt familiar with Rob Anselmi and his incredible and varied output. One of our community's most helpful and prolific members, Rob somehow manages to juggle a successful blog filled with top notch tutorials, a friendly presence on PUF, and a series of intriguing music releases on CD Baby, but did you know that Rob also designs and sells his own refills?

I reviewed the excellent Generations Refill a year and a half ago and I still think Rob's "mega-modular" approach to sound design is a little ahead of its time and the ultimate expression of Reason's rack approach. Rob's latest refill, called Pureffects, promises to be equally as deep as Generations, but with a different focus and approach.

With 1,250 patches, ranging from simple reverbs, amps, and distortion effects to complex FX banks controlled via Kong's pads for live performances, Pureffects is sure to have something for everyone. I know, I know, that's a comment that sounds suspiciously like hyperbole, but given the amazing depth of the Pureffects ReFill and it's hundreds of patches, I feel confident standing behind it.

Rob has been a longtime friend of Reason Patch A Day and generously provided me with a handful of patches from his new refill. These patches are an exclusive to Reason Patch A Day and can't be found in his already illustrative demo found on his new refill's page, along with demonstration videos and a purchase link.

Today's patches include four reverbs from the 100 RV7000 patches included in the Pureffects ReFill:

• Pureffects - The Black Room ( RV7000 )
  
• Pureffects - Long Wandering Hall ( RV7000 )
  
• Pureffects - Small Space A ( RV7000 )
  
• Pureffects - High Gain Short Arena ( RV7000 )
  

Be sure to return tomorrow for a few additional Pureffects ReFill exclusives and a chat with Rob about his processes and philosophies in creating this new, versatile tool.

Propellerhead's Figure Is Now Available!

I'm likely the last person to know this, as I'm traveling this week, but the Figure app for iPhone has been approved and released. Get it for $0.99 if you're living in a place where dollars are used.

My first impressions? It is, as many have already complained, a toy. That being said, it's a fun toy. I'm looking forward to my flight home tomorrow, because I know exactly what I'll be doing in the aisle seat in row 24.

For what its worth, it looks amazing on the iPad. Those of you who have tried upscaling iPhone apps on the iPad know what a mess that can be, but the clever Propellerheads have made some wise choices in their design of the app, making it gorgeous on the larger iPad screen. A native version would be terrific (universal, please!), but this might be the first app I've upscaled that doesn't look it.

Thanks to the ever excellent Resonant Filter blog for the speedy heads-up! Thanks, Lewis!

.1000 Thank You

I'm not really one for spending a lot of time patting myself on the back. When it comes to this blog, I view it much like I view a lot of things, feeling it's better to keep my head down and continue moving forward, rather than trying to draw attention to what I've already accomplished. Having said that, the 1000th post is a fairly significant milestone, so I feel like I should say something.

The first thing I should say is that the number 1,000 is actually a bit meaningless. When I first started Reason Patch A Day I would post a couple of patches at a time, and occasionally I still sneak an extra patch into a post here and there. So, I can't really say that I'm celebrating 1,000 patches when the actual number is a little higher.

Nor can I say that I've put up 1,000 posts. Posts where I've highlighted the music of my readers, which are some of the most fun for me, aren't given a number because they aren't patches. I don't number my occasional editorial posts either, so like the number of patches, the number of posts is actually a bit higher than that 1,000 number.

Still, there's something in our brains that seems attracted to large, even numbers like 1,000. So, regardless of what that number should be or what it might actually mean, I guess it is cause for celebration. And, perhaps more importantly, its a cause for thanks.

So, after 1,000-ish posts and 1,000-ish patches, my thanks go out to you, the reader. I would have stopped this strange experiment a long time ago if it wasn't for the emails, comments, reader contribution patches, songs, unsolicited praise on forums, and support I've received along the way. So, thank you everyone for making Reason Patch A Day a destination on your internet travels. Whether or not you realize it, your gentle, sometimes unspoken nudges over the past few years have kept me going, so thank you!

Bragware Report: 3 New Tracks, by Nikolai Bonamente

Reader Nikolai Bonamente (formerly known as 1.44 MB) and I were trading a few emails recently and he let it slip that he's been sticking a PAD sound or two in most of his recent songs. He said:

Just thought I'd let you know your "spicknel" pad is getting an outing in my latest track "Afgan Hound" up on the cloud and "mugwump" is included on the track "times draggin" just below it.

And...

I've just been playing with adding another bassline and string section to "Taratop" and realized it features "Torpidity" really quite prominently!

Nikoali knows how much I enjoy hearing what other people have done with the patches here and was letting me know about his recent tracks as a courtesy, not a quest to get yet another mention here on Reason Patch A Day, but I can't think of any reason not to post his new tracks. This is a blog about making music, after all, so there's always a reason to listen to something new.

Afgan hound by Nikolai Bonamente

Times Draggin by Nikolai Bonamente

taratop by Nikolai Bonamente

Be sure to let Nikolai know what you think about his tracks by leaving him a comment on his Soundcloud page. Thanks, Nikolai!

.968 Commercial Refill Sneak Peek: 1985, Part 2

Yesterday, Ben from 3rd Floor Sound shared a couple of patches from his 1985 Refill, the Tenderness emulating "Public Tender" and the combined lead patch "Voices Carrying." Today, Ben is providing O.M.D. mimicking "So In Love" and two additional patches that were inspired by and created from some of his more faithful emulations, Massive Organ and Cathedral Monster.

Ben took a few minutes to answer some of my questions about his refill and his process.

This refill is obviously fueled by nostalgia. Were there any particular sounds from the era that stood out for you as being necessary for this refill?

Oddly enough it didn't start out with the nostalgia in mind. I'd just been wandering around 4 or 5 Reason forums and kept seeing the same question in every one: "How do I make "x" sound from song "y?" I always tried to answer these posts, thinking that even if I didn't get it exactly right, I'd be learning as I went. Did that for who knows how long before I realized I loved doing it, so I picked a year at random and checked out the end of the year billboard chart to see what songs were in there. It started becoming nostalgic after I was listening to all these great songs from when I was a kid in order to pick the instruments. You automatically connect them with specific memories and get a little lost in your mind. It becomes even more fun when I finish an instrument and get to try to learn how to play the song -- occasionally well enough that it might be slightly recognizable.

When it came down to it I included every sound from the year that I could make with synths, so there are a few songs that didn't get represented in the refill because they were recorded entirely with guitars, etc. There were also a few that used the same sound as another song, so those didn't get included. Thinking about it now though, there are a couple instruments that had to be there aside from those in the standard ultra-popular songs: the bass (pretty sure it's a minimoog) in Starpoint's Object Of My Desire was one of those. I don't even remember that song being on the radio, but that bass is perfection in the studio version of the song. Another was that clanky synth in John Parr's Naughty Naughty -- the sound just screams 1985. Well, that sound and John's incredible mullet. That was a tough one because it's layered over a bass playing the same notes a good part of the time.

How did you go about creating your emulations for these classic sounds?

It really came down to having a song playing in the background, opening up a Thor with an analog oscillator and finding the basic wave that matched most closely. Sometimes it's instantly apparent that you're listening to a saw with a quick filter on it, for example. From there it's a matter of additional oscillators and little tweaks to get it just right, but sometimes it can be like playing Jenga: sounds are so well blended that if you try to pull one out the others fall apart. There were cases where I brought songs into Adobe Audition (3.0) in order to use the program's spectral frequency display, where you can visually select notes and frequency ranges to delete them. It's not perfect, but it can be helpful when you're trying to hear instruments that were obscured in the mix. You reach a certain point where the stack of Jenga blocks is swaying back and forth, and that's when you move into Reason. Then it's a matter of moving left to right in Thor, oscillators to filters to envelopes and LFOs to effects. When it's done I try to program the Combinator to either have the options I would want or that the instrument came with, assuming I can find out what it was. Sometimes that's a mystery and it's fun to make it do weird things that people won't expect when they bump the Mod Wheel or click a button.

Were there any sounds that you wanted to create, but just couldn't get right? Can we expect to hear them in an update or follow up refill?

Oh there were a bunch of those, and they were nearly all drums. This was just before Reason 5 came out so Kong wasn't available. I played around making drums using Thor off and on, but there's only so much you can do that way. I'll definitely be revisiting 1985 to get that worked out eventually, at which point I'll post it with a really cheap upgrade price.

There was at least one sound that was giving me fits though. The strings in Raspberry Beret. It seems simple, but at the time I could have sworn it was evil. Hopefully I've learned a couple tricks since then that will allow me to hit it just right. I will pin that one down even if I have to... okay, no, I'm not going to go and try locating Prince.

Wow, this got a little long-winded, didn't it? I may need to get out more.

Thanks for giving us a look at your process, Ben, and providing Reason Patch A Day with its first potential kidnapping threat.

• 3rd Floor Sound - Cathedral Monster ( Combinator )
  
• 3rd Floor Sound - Massive Organ ( Combinator )
  
• 3rd Floor Sound - So In Love ( Combinator )
  

If you're interested in learning more about the 1985 Refill or purchasing another refill, including the new Theory Refill, you can find more information at 3rd Floor Sound.

.967 Commercial Refill Sneak Peek: 1985, Part 1

Almost a full six months ago, I felt the undeniable fatigue of burnout creeping into my work on the blog and I took a break of week or two to try to recharge with my family. When I came back, I promised a few changes, and embarrassingly, never really followed up on them, aside from quickly throwing together a new PAD Challenge.

I'm not sure what held me back from moving forward on a few of the other changes I mentioned, but its certainly past due that I get to them, because there were some neat ideas in that original list, most specifically offering sneak peeks at a few commercial refills making the rounds in the Reason community.

The first commercial refill we'll be looking at here on Reason Patch A Day is 3rd Floor Sound's nostalgic 1985 refill, a part of their Historical Refill Series. Described as "a set based on the instruments used to top the charts over the last 30 years," for those of you who came of musical age in the 80s like I did, this refill is bound to put a smile on your face with surprisingly accurate emulations of sounds you grew up with, as well as patches that more generally mimic the sounds of the time.

Ben at 3rd Floor Sound was kind enough to share a few patches from his 1985 Refill to give you all a peek at what sounds he has in store for you:

• 3rd Floor Sound - Public Tender ( Combinator )
  
• 3rd Floor Sound - Voices Carrying ( Combinator )
  

Come back tomorrow for a couple of additional patches from the 1985 Refill and a brief Q&A with Ben about his work and what inspired him to create such a focused library of sounds.