Showing posts with label Synth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Synth. Show all posts

Monday, September 1, 2014

More With Ivoks Electromusical Synthesizer

I'm really falling in love with the Ivoks Electromusical Synthesizer by Red Rock Sound. It really seems to hit that sweet spot between ease-of-use and complexity. Or, put another way, its design is simple enough that using it isn't a chore, but deep enough that you're rewarded for spending some time with it. If you like to twist knobs just to see what will happen, real or virtual, Ivoks should put a smile on your face.

Like the patches I shared yesterday today's patches fall into the realm of stereotypical 70s and 80s computer noises, so they tend towards a more raw, piercing sound. Layer some complex delay patterns over them and drown them in reverb to get something a little more suitable for more traditional synth roles.

If you're late in finding these, you can download all of them by clicking here rather than grabbing each individual patch.

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Sunday, August 31, 2014

A Look At Ivoks Electromusical Synthesizer

Have you picked up Red Rock Sound's brilliant Ivoks Electromusical Synthesizer yet? I've really tried to resist the urge to pick up random REs because I'd rather know how to use a few tools really well, than have access to a bunch of tools I don't understand, but something about Ivoks intrigued me and so I bought it a shortly after it arrived.

It really is a fun little synth. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how its Modulator works, so I'm far from really knowing this synth, but I got on a roll yesterday creating a series of synth patches that I thought I'd share. Named after fictional, sometimes megalomaniacal computers from books and movies, I present the CPU series:

The patches sound like their namesakes and are filled with 70's bleeps and bloops. If you're looking for something subtle and smooth, these probably aren't the patches for you, but if you're looking for a sound that's decidedly cro-magnon school, these might scratch that itch. Try them with some heavy, split stereo delay and some dub style reverb.

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Friday, July 11, 2014

Reason Patch A Day Is Back... Well, For Today Anyway!

Since effectively shutting down Reason Patch A Day almost a year and a half ago, I've kept busy making a few new patches here and there, but for the most part it hasn't been the kind of daily effort I put in for over four years. I've been building a few sounds and effects for my own use, but today I got inspired and thought I would share the results of that inspiration with the few of you that still drop in to visit.

Started as an attempt to make an artificial sounding series of percussion hits, the Cricket series grew pretty quickly from "strange noises" into an entire kit of sounds, all created using Reason 4's Thor synth. We're spoiled for options in Reason these days, with a number of capable and powerful built-in tools for drums, as well as a number of new and different Rack Essentials. It's easy to forget how much fun "old" tools can be and I had a blast putting these together today.

I spent a lot of time working with the Mod Wheel on each of these patches, something I rarely do when I put together percussion patches. I am pretty happy with the added effort, however, so if the default sound of a patch doesn't fit your project, move the Mod Wheel up or down to fine-tune it a bit.

While experimenting with the Percussion 6 patch, I started getting sounds that made more sense as bass tones, than percussion elements so I went ahead and created a couple of bass patches that should fit well with the rest of the series.

The next logical step, given that I stepped away from straight percussion patches in this series, was to put together a couple of synth patches. Like the bass patches these were created from the Percussion 6 patch and really benefit from use of the Mod Wheel.

With over thirty patches there is a lot to work with here, but I do feel like the series is still missing a few vital pieces. For example, although there are six closed hi-hat sounds, I haven't provided any useful open hi-hat patches, to say nothing of the complete lack of any toms.. Also, there are the typical missing sounds like shakers, rim shots, and claps, which are a little tricky to build using Thor, but not impossible. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for an expansion of these sounds, but it's not that far-fetched either. If I come up with something else, you can be sure I will post it here.

Enjoy! And, if you use these to create something awesome, please be sure to let me know. I'd love to hear it!

Edit: I stupidly forgot to put any velocity programming into the Cricket series, so if you've already downloaded these, you might want to take the time to grab them all again and get the option for a little expression to your drums. Sorry about that! I'm a little out of practice!

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Sunday, July 7, 2013

26 New Thor Patches From Reason Patch A Day

Reason Patch A Day isn't back from the dead, but with the release of the new iPad Thor app, I've been "mighty" inspired. I thought I'd share a few of my new patches for those few people who still drop by here from time to time.

Enjoy!

Bass Patches



Pad Patches



Synth Patches


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Friday, January 20, 2012

.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.



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.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012

.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:



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.
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