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.
The new year must have everyone feeling more creative. We got a Bragware Report a week ago with TheFatControlleR's Dylan & The Seven Drones, then posted the new track Forgiven from Martin Kremser, and while I was literally preparing the post for Martin's song I received an email from Nait Phoenix telling me he just finished up a new song using a couple of old Reason Patch A Day sounds.
If anyone has any comments or constructive criticism for Nait_Phoenix regarding his new track, I urge you to go to his Soundclick page and let him know what you think. Thanks for sharing, Nait! I look forward to hearing whatever else you come up with in the future.
I recently got an email from reader Martin Kremser, letting me know he used a couple of Reason Patch A Day patches on one of his new songs: Forgiven. Martin let me know he used Ba-ba-ba-bass and Iatrogenic on his latest techno song. If the results don't get you moving, you might have to see a doctor.
Provide any constructive criticism you might have by leaving a comment on Martin's Soundcloud page.
Thanks for let us know what you've been up to, Martin!
If you have a track of your own that you'd like to highlight on the blog, please send me an email with a link to your track and a description, so I can post it here. I'm always eager to hear what's being done with the patches shared here, so I'd love to hear from you.
Threads cycle pretty quickly on the Propellerhead User Forum, but a few weeks ago Ben from 3 Floor Sound was nice enough to draw a little attention to my new archive refill by pointing folks in my direction. Thank you, Ben!
The thread was short and short-lived, but was the internet equivilent of getting a bear hug, with a few people thanking me for my work on the blog and posting about their excitement in getting the refills. Thank you all for showing interest in what I've been doing!
One of the highlights of the thread, however, was a song that FatControlleR put together using patches from the Vol 1 Refill. His efforts can be found in the thread or heard here:
As I mentioned to FatControlleR privately, it's always a treat to hear what other people have done with the sounds I've created. Sometimes they sound the same, other things I can't recognize them at all. Thanks for sharing, FatControlleR! It was a lot of fun for me to hear what you've done with my patches.
Probably the most rewarding feedback I receive from Reason Patch A Day is when readers send me emails to share what they've created with the patches posted here. Recently, French artist Ceo1 sent me an email to share a new track that he created using only patches that had been posted during the blog's first few months, back in 2008.
Ceo1 explains:
I like from time to time to write songs under rules (like with only one refill bank, only with a piano, etc.). Often, having rules enables me to focus more on the feel of the piece, rather than wandering through my 10,000 refills (note : I don't actually have 10,000 refills, but you catch my drift).
So, I did it like this with your instruments: I tried them all and felt what could inspire me and started from there to develop a theme. I hit a wall with the 2008 instruments, because even though I find them very neat sounding and inspiring to me, they were a bit similar. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I felt they were in the same category of dark pads or something like that (besides the Paper Towel Tube, of course).
In the end I like what I've done with it, but I'm pretty sure that I can do something maybe better with your other sounds, which I have to try, and that's a whole lot more!
You may remember the name of long time reader Nikolai Bonamente, formerly 1.44MB, who has shared a number of songs here on Reason Patch A Day, stretching back to his two tracks that were a part of the original PAD Challenge in August of 2010.
I've had the pleasure of exchanging more than a few emails with Nikolai over the last year and have been following him on Soundcloud as well. I've been impressed with his ability to crank out the tunes. He seems to turn them out faster than I can listen to them, but I thought I'd highlight one of his more recent tunes, a song called Abandoned Orchard that he posted a couple of months ago.
Abandoned Orchard uses the Rectification patch and might be my favorite track Nikolai has produced. He describes it by saying:
With Abandoned orchard I started off with the bass - playing with it's distortion was very pleasing to my ear - I'd had a few bars lying around for while and then along came the strings which seemed like a really good fit.
Thank you both, Ceo1 and Nikolai Bonamente, for sharing your tracks with me and the readers here on Reason Patch A Day. If anyone has any constructive comments or criticism to offer, please leave them on either Ceo1 or Nikoali's Soundcloud pages, or feel free to leave them a note here in the comments.
If you have a track of your own that you'd like to highlight on the blog, please send me an email with a link to your track and a description, so I can post it here. I'm always eager to hear what's being done with the patches shared here, so I'd love to hear from you.
I've mentioned it on this blog and to a few of you privately, but I've been feeling stuck for a long time. I've created a few tracks in the last couple of years, but the ones I have created have either left me feeling a little cold or have been oddly similar to previous tracks, despite my best efforts to move into fresh territory.
Given my stagnation, it was a real pleasure to put together a new track this weekend, a "ambient dub" song I'm calling Hematoma.
As is usually the case with the tracks I create, nearly every sound you hear in the track comes from a patch that has been posted here on Reason Patch A Day. The only major exception are four drum samples I used from the free sample pack from the excellent Wave Alchemy - Tech House and Minimal sample kit. There are also a couple of patches that have not been posted here, but are available in the Reason Patch A Day Archive Refill.
Remember, if you post a track using any of the patches found here, I want to hear about it. Please send me a message at patchaday (at) earthlink (dot) net and I'll post links to your music here on Reason Patch A Day.
I just got a new email from 1.44MB informing me that he has a new track up on Soundcloud that uses several patches from Reason Patch A Day. The song is called "attention deficit" and can be found on his Soundcloud page or can be listened to using the embedded player below:
As 1.44MB explained, his new track uses "the Piston patch from last week, and the Effect Combinators Campfire, Heft and Rough Around The Edges. As before, any constructive criticism or comments you have about the track are welcome, so jump over to 1.44MB's Soundcloud page and let him know what you think. You can also leave comments here.
I like the track quite a bit, which isn't too surprising, given my weakness for 80s era Tangerine Dream. The bass and atmospheric sounds at around the 2:10 mark definitely has that old school Tangerine Dream sound, as does the synthesizer that comes in around 3:15. Nicely done, 1.44MB!
Have a track of your own that uses patches or sounds from Reason Patch A Day? Let me know by sending me an email and I'll feature your track here on the blog. I can be reached at patchaday (at) earthlink (dot) net.
You might remember reader 1.44MB from the PAD Challenge that took place back in April of 2010.
The PAD Challenge was a pretty simple idea, brought about when another reader, Ruurd Huizenga, sent me a full week's worth of reader contribution patches, effectively giving me a break from my blogging responsibilities. So, having the week off, I challenged myself to create a new track, something I wasn't doing much of at the time (or now, for that matter). That personal challenge to create something new lead to a challenge to my readers and seven fellow Reason users joined me in creating new tracks while Ruurd's unintentional clocked ticked away the week. It was a lot of fun and while I'm not completely satisfied with my own contribution to the challenge, it felt pretty great to get something new done.
1.44MB was the only reader who submitted two tracks to the challenge, Burn Area and Vathi, and participated in the remix challenge a couple of weeks later, remixing my track Breaching the Heliopause and DJ Mad Wax's Ostbanhoff.
After two years of posting reminders that the patches here on Reason Patch A Day are bragware, I recently received an email from 1.44MB telling me that he used the Lone Cry REX file in a track. Finally! Someone willing to brag! He calls the track "'a different petit besoin" and you can find it on his Soundcloud page.
In an email exchange he and I shared, 1.44MB mentioned, "I'd love to figure out how the really good chaps on Soundcloud get such crisp, voluminous sounding tracks," so if you have any constructive suggestions to offer, please leave them for him on Soundcloud.
Thanks for sharing your work, 1.44MB! It's great to hear Reason Patch A Day patches and sounds in action. If anyone else has used a patch or loop in a finished track, I want to hear about it. Leave a link where you've hosted your project in the comments section or send me an e-mail at patchaday (at) earthlink (dot) net and I'll put up a post like this one so others can hear what you've done.
Thanks again, 1.44MB, for being the first to step forward!
