.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.