Longtime readers might remember Ghostly, who submitted a Combinator to Reason Patch A Day based on the old Omnichord, back at the beginning of 2010.
Since then, Ghostly has tackled a similar challenge to what I've been doing here at PAD with an Alesis Micron patch a day blog, and has recently started another patch project for a different hardware synth, the microKORG - Patch A Week blog. With what looks to be an unending amount of energy, Ghostly has even started a combinators & refills blog.
Ghostly recently wrote to let me know that he's had a bit of a crossover with his latest ventures, having created a Reason Refill using samples from his efforts on his microKORG site. He wrote:
The microKORG ADK comprises eight drum sounds sampled direct from the microKORG and mapped in Redrum. I used a Combinator patch from the Discovering Reason website as a basis for my ADK which basically allows almost endless sequencing possibilities through the ReDrum itself and three Matrix Sequencers.
You can find the new refill here, as well as a number of other Reason treats at Ghostly's Combinators & Refills blog. Well done, Ghostly! And, thanks for letting us know about what you've been up to!
I poked a little fun at Nikolai Bonamente (formerly 1.44 MB) during one of my recent Challenge update posts, because during last year's Challenge he managed to produce two tracks, while everyone else worked feverishly to come up with just one. My joke was that even if no one else creates a track for the challenge, we'd no doubt have a couple of tracks from Nikolai to fill our ears and time.
Well, as it turns out, not only did Nikolai manage to surpass his output from last year, but he completely blew my good-natured prediction out of the water, writing a whopping FIVE tracks during the week. This is what Nikolai had to say about his efforts over the last week:
Each song was put together roughly over the course of a weekday evening after work with a beer (or two) and a cat climbing over everything. The production isn't fabulous but as I usually compose and then try to spend some time away from the track to lose familiarity before going back to calm everything down that wasn't going to happen in the tome allowed. Most tracks were put together with Robb's PADs and standard Reason soundbank patches - with the exception of the beats on a couple of tracks being from the Rebirth 808 / 909 refill.... oh and I used Peff's fantastic square bass (free from his site) on a couple as well. Each track up on the soundcloud site has track notes regarding which PAD's were included.
Nikolai's trick of inserting comments where each patch from Reason Patch A Day appears is actually really clever and makes listening along a lot of fun.
This is the last one that was put together on Friday and I think is my favorite of the bunch - it achieves the feel I was going for early this year with Thorong-La and Glide-Plane . While both of these tracks headed off into embellishment land Nomad stays fairly minimal with lots of space and has a sort of lazy drifting lilt that it's name suggests.
An attempt to tweak some acid out of Robbs pads - I've been tooling around with the rebirth refills lately so I wanted something in that general area. This track shows examples of Robb's PADs after a fair degree of tweaking, some nice airly reverb layer percussion and my desire to try sounds that grate a little around the edges in otherwise fairly commercial sounding tracks.
This one came out of nowhere - I think I was a little um tipsy when I knocked it up. In the past I've not been a big beat head, but I'm getting closer so this track again shows experimentation with some of Robb's latest Kong patches.
The result of 20 minutes playing with the rebop rimshot and delay and reverb - I almost did a minimal track with just that oscillating around for 7 minutes. After a while I thought some more percussion and another screeching PAD would go nicely.
This was heading in the direction ambient drum and bass but then took a big swing elsewhere - another attempt to make spooky left field ambient pads dancable.
A truly Herculean effort, Nikolai! The best part is that we all have five new tunes to listen to because of it, so thanks for submitting all of these to the Challenge.
If anyone has any constructive criticism for Nikolai, please be sure to post a comment or two on his tracks via Soundcloud or leave a message for him in the comments section here.
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!
I just got an email from Lewis.72 over at Resonate Filter who let me know he posted a video showing off some of his contributions to the new Filter Research 2 refill from Nucleus Soundlab. Lewis has been kind enough to share some of his creations here on Patch A Day, and if you've liked those creations as much as I have, you'll no doubt enjoy this peek at what he's been up to lately. Check it out.
1.44MB sent me his remixes yesterday to get them in on time, but unfortunately, I got too busy with family stuff to get them posted along with the rest of the remixes I received. As is usually the case, my inability to get them posted should in no way reflect on these remixes. They're awesome:
Not content with just providing two remixes to the second phase of the PAD Challenge, Chris Stallone also sent a remix of Hydlide's Drones2 track. This one is a lot of fun.
I got these remix files from Chris Stallone last night. What Chris may be lacking in verbosity about his remixes, he's certainly not lacking in ambition. Here are two remixes of the track 15728 by Lewis.72:
I added quite a bit to 1.44MB's original track, hence my previous statement about making the song more mine than his, but if we set aside the issue of "ownership," I have to say I really enjoyed working on this song. It feels more like a collaboration at this point than a remix, but it was a lot of fun, either way.
In adding to BurnArea, I used the following patches from Reason Patch A Day:
Here's the first completed remix, DJ Mad Wax's mix of my own song, Breaching The Heliopause. I admitted to Wax in email that I had a hard time recognizing my song in the drum and bass track he built around it, but its definitely in there, under a few additional layers of awesome. Wax had this to say about it:
I took all your remix parts as wavs and made REX files. Rebuilt your original song with the rex files, then began constructing a drum n bass version using breakbeat loops and my own breaks. As I built it, I added some new keyboards for the jazzy feel to complement the sounds I had from the remix, and added the deep bass line.
Lewis.72 just sent me his entry for the PAD Challenge. It took a little longer than a week, but I think it was worth the wait. He writes:
It uses 5 patches from Reason Patch a Day:
Sleepless+HerschelGap - I love this pad and it's the backbone for the track. Homemade4 - this Subtractor patch is doubling up an upright jazz bass patch from the FSB for depth. Solar Bells Callisto and Solar Bells Umbriel - these two patches are the arp sounds. work great together - like chocolate and peanut butter. Stereo Delay - a great effect being used on the arp sounds above.
The sample in the song, of a woman repeating "15728" was taken from The Conet Project, a web resource of so-called "Numbers Stations" on shortwave radios.
The rhythm and percussion patches come from the Reason Factory Sound Bank. I recently rediscovered the "Machines" folder and have been digging the set-up patches. "Needle Groovah" and "Synthi Drum Machine" are two of my favorites and lay down the beat. I changed up the patterns a bit, but they're similar to stock. "Jenkinson Drum Machine" is there to give it a bit of glitchy goodness. Didn't do anything to the pattern, but set it up to run randomly and played with the "loop edits" button to drop the pattern in and out.
I have one of my own patches in the song as well. "Copy Machine". This is one of my favorite effects patches, great for stutters or in this case, transitions. It's available on my blog.
I've used samples from The Conet Project in some of my own songs. Its well worth checking out if you're looking for something a little different to add to your tracks.
I thought I had all of Lewis.72's Combinators, but this one slipped past me, so I was glad to have it pointed out. Thanks, Lewis!
Here's a late entry to the PAD Challenge from reader Jeremy, a funky kind of track that he humbly describes by saying:
I'm not sure if this is legal or not submission wise, but I don't have Record (need more money!), so the vocals were done in Reaper and the stems ran through Recycle and thereafter Dr R.
I'm not very good about talking about my music and I don't know genres and such it seems, so if anything is to be said about it..
Not goofy at all, Jeremy. Thanks for submitting it, even if you did miss the deadline by a day. I think I've said this before, but this is definitely a case of the more being the merrier, so I'm glad to have your submission.
I got this contribution from DJ Mad Wax yesterday, but unfortunately was too caught up in meetings at my son's school, to do anything with it until now. Sorry about the delay in getting this up, Wax!
Inspired by a chance encounter in Berlin, DJ Mad Wax has this to say about his Ostbahnoff "That's a Great Color Combination" track:
Programmed Drums: Goldbaby's Tape 808 and 909 refills Drum Loop: Computer Muzik magazine Reason Patch-a-Day: Thor, Snickers of Shadows; Combi Effect: Airport Music; Maelstron, Fugitive; Maelstrom, Catharis; Subtractor, Rubberband; Additional: various effects from the Filter Research Refill; various use of patching and standard Reason effect devices
Note: I'm mostly deaf, and this was mixed on headphones as my studio is not set up yet. If its too heavy on a frequency, blame the DJ Magic Mike albums and my bass system when I was a teen, or blame my DJ booth years :)
Thanks: to Robbneu for inspiration and the awesome blog.
Read about what DJ Mad Wax is up to at City of Bass.
Thanks Wax! And, thanks to Hydlide, 1.44MB, Chris Stallone, and V2057 for your time and effort in this short challenge. It's been a lot of fun and the results have been really inspiring to me. Thanks for participating.
If you were working on a track, and I think there still might be a couple of you committed to turning one in, you can still get it in to me. Missing the deadline isn't a problem, so send it over and we'll get it posted up here with the rest.
Just got another PAD Challenge song from V2057. He describes his new track, Tarnac 9, saying:
I've been in a frenzy to finish this. Been working on it since wednesday, and its no where done but I wanted to send it out anyway. I used some of your combinators, but I honestly can't remember which ones and there was a lot of heavy tweaking going on. I really appreciate your dedication to Reason/Record, it keeps me motivated as well to work on songs. This song is titled Tarnac 9, under my artist label Lost Integrity.
As is the case with 1.44MB and Chris Stallone, V2057 provided me with an MP3 of his song, which I uploaded to the Patch A Day Soundcloud. I, in no way, claim any ownership of his work and all rights belong to V2057.
Like 1.44MB, Chris Stallone shames me by turning in two songs in the time I took me to only complete one. He has only a few comments about his new songs, but those comments are provided below:
"sunrise" i made in the week and spent more time on (various patches. yours, hydilde, L72 & my own)
"space clouds" is only hours old and i only used your patches although i tweaked alot of them
i dont think i completely finished them but i'd send them anyway
As is the case with the submissions from Hydlide and 1.44MB, feedback is welcome and appreciated, but please keep the comments constructive and in the spirit of this challenge.
I received these two tracks from 1.44MB last night and instantly felt inadequate. I started the challenge and only came up with one song, while 1.44MB managed to crank out a couple during his lunch break! Sigh. Good job, 1.44MB!
Of his songs for the Challenge, 1.44MB says:
Burn area is pretty similar to a lot of stuff I make whereas Vathi is much more upbeat. I'd like to be more upbeat more of the time but I feel I (my tracks) sound cheesy when I try. So, cheesy or not, I want to push Vathi out there for comments to see how I might be able to tweak it to sound a little cooler?!. Apart from your latest subtractor drumkit (which isn't really used with enough variation here) Vathi doesn't include much PAD input hence I've included Burn Area which is 100% PAD...... and in the spirit of the challenge only took 2 lunch times to lash up!
Please note that 1.44MB provided me with MP3s of his songs which I uploaded to the Patch A Day Soundcloud. I, in no way, claim any ownership of his work and all rights belong to 1.44MB.
Hydlide was the first person to get his entry to me, sending in Drones2 yesterday, stating:
I started on friday with one 'experiment', it failed... however, I did make this huge pad from the ground up. So I re-used that in a new production where I made a new rack, took the pad again and worked with that as a basis.
There's some heavy stuff going on in this track, and everything was build from the ground up. I mostly used the subtractors as the main synthesis, added some samples left and right to fill up the transitions and went heavy on the drums (thats what I very often do these days).
I used one section of your patch a day blog, which was (ironically) a loop (Renoise DrRex post). I couldn't find the right angle making it sound electro beat like as I originally planned (hence the first experiment kind of failed on me).
But then again, genre doesn't matter.. so, i threw in a combi of ambience, house and progressive all together. I don't even know if there's a genre that is related to this style. But then again, I often blend certain styles together and go from there.
Please leave any contructive criticism or thoughts you might have about Hydlide's track in the comments. Also, be sure to check out Hydlide's website The Sound of Reason. He has an incredible number of tools and tutorials for Reason available at this site and on YouTube, so go take a look.
I've been promising and hinting at this for a while now, but I finally set up a SoundCloud account for Reason Patch-A-Day. And, to borrow an old and tired phrase, since I would ask you to do anything I wouldn't do, I've uploaded one of my own songs.
The song is fairly old and so not all of the patches used in it have been posted here on Patch A Day, but half of them have been shared here before. You'll find Bug Chorus, Charon Bells, Thin Metal Sings, Titan Bells, Bug Hiccup, and Naiad Bells all within the song and on this blog.
Surprisingly, I haven't posted Soft Protest, Cough Tone, Snare Boost, Enoch Mod, Elusive Pad or Bass Bellows, the other patches I used when putting together this song. Enoch Mod is a modification to the Enoch patch provided, I think, in one of the Flatpack demos, so I don't think I'll be posting it here (that's a little too close to outright theft for my tastes), but the others may appear here in future posts if I can find them.
So, do you have any songs you would like to share? Send me an email at patchaday (at) earthlink (dot) net with your MP3 or RNS and I'll drop it into SoundCloud. Your songs aren't required to feature only Patch A Day patches, but please be sure to let me know which patches you did use, so I can mention it in the post and possibly link to those patches in your song write-up.
