I've been pretty vocal about my interest, some would say love, of the old 80s and 90s era Yamaha drum machines. I picked up a RX15 on eBay on a lark and have since collected several others, including the RX11, RX17, RX120, and DD5.
They're not as straight-forward to program as the Roland machines and provide static samples, as opposed to synthetic sounds that you can manipulate, so their usability is more limited than the quintessential TR-808 and TR-909s, but they also have a fairly unique sound. And, if you're as cheap as I am, the idea that you could get a couple of crates of them for every Roland machine you could afford is pretty appealing as well.
If you've been even modestly intrigued by the Yamaha machines, or have enjoying the many samples I've posted from them, you have an interesting option available to you. Several months ago, I got an email from a nice fellow named Alex, who wanted to build a RX15 VST using Synthedit. After exchanging a few questions and answers about the machines, his efforts are done and now available online for download.
So, if you want to play with a fairly accurate representation of the RX15, now is your chance. It can be found at:
I can't provide any tech support for Alex's new instrument. I only helped by providing samples and a little advice, but I know that he's worked pretty hard to try to emulate the machine's many idiosyncrasies. Unfortunately, the VSTi is Windows only, so I haven't been able to play with it myself, but thanks for your hard word Alex!
If you've missed the samples I've posted in the past (and were used to create Alex's instrument), you can find them here:
Monday, October 11, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Any Denver-area Reason Users?
Fellow Denver Reason user and blogger DJ Mad Wax and I attended the Robert Henke/Monolake concert last night at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It was a neat evening with intriguing sounds provided by Robert Henke and visuals provided by a local "space doctor," as he was called, running the planetarium controls (if anyone can provide me with his name, please do, I'd like to credit the fine work he did).
The event was heavily attended by visual arts and music students from DU and CU, as well as a huge collection of folks from the local Ableton Live Users Group, so the crowd definitely skewed towards "geeky." In a lot of ways, I think the make-up of the crowd added another layer to the evening, as many folks were interested in the experience as well as the methods.
This got me thinking back to an older "project" of mine that I dreamed up around the same time I started this blog and that's forming a local Reason Users Group. It might be nice to meet up from time to time, grab a cup of coffee or a beer, swap some ideas, and if we're lucky, inspire each other a little. Any readers from Reason Patch A Day interested in joining the Rocky Mountain Reason Users Group? Let me know in the comments or via email at patchaday (at) earthlink (dot) net.
The event was heavily attended by visual arts and music students from DU and CU, as well as a huge collection of folks from the local Ableton Live Users Group, so the crowd definitely skewed towards "geeky." In a lot of ways, I think the make-up of the crowd added another layer to the evening, as many folks were interested in the experience as well as the methods.
This got me thinking back to an older "project" of mine that I dreamed up around the same time I started this blog and that's forming a local Reason Users Group. It might be nice to meet up from time to time, grab a cup of coffee or a beer, swap some ideas, and if we're lucky, inspire each other a little. Any readers from Reason Patch A Day interested in joining the Rocky Mountain Reason Users Group? Let me know in the comments or via email at patchaday (at) earthlink (dot) net.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Reason 101's Generations Refill
Have you taken a look at the new Generations Refill provided over on Reason 101? If you haven't, you should definitely check it out.
I'm usually the first person to be skeptical about new refills. Refills, like this site if I'm going to be completely honest, are a collection of sounds and ideas that suit someone else's music or someone else's ideas. Refills are generally instrument patches and effects that fit someone else's notion of what is clever or what sounds good, and so even when I find one I like, I usually only find a few patches that are useful to me among hundreds of patches that I would rather not be bothered with or required to sift through. So, what makes the Generations Refill different?
Do you remember how you felt when you finally understood how Reason worked and how flexible it was? You realized that the cabling wasn't the gimmick so many people claimed it was and the various devices suddenly made sense. You understood that within Reason, you were only limited by your own creativity. Well, the Generations Refill is a lot like that, but in place of Reason's existing devices and Factory Sound Bank provided samples and Combinators, Rob at Reason 101 has provided a series of Combinators that are meant to be used in the same way that Reason's devices are intended to be used, cabled together in clever ways, to achieve intriguing and sometimes surprising sonic results.
I should explain that a bit more. Rather than provide you with, say, a UN-16 Unison that can be used in a variety of ways, the Generations Refill provides Combinators that fill those same roles, routed with other Combinators saved within song files, so that you're essentially given Combinators filled with other Combinators, resulting in routing and effect options that go far beyond what is usually provided in a refill.
Interestingly, this isn't a one size fits all proposition. The Generations Refill provides a number of setups that will be immediately useful to you. In addition, it provides many useful instrument patches and effect Combinators, allowing you to build your own setups and processing, by creating new routing with tools he has provided. Basically, the Generations Refill is a massive toy box and comes with permission to play.
I've been lucky enough to have seen "sneak previews" of this refill as Rob has built it and I've been impressed and intrigued by his approach. Seeing it as a complete package is even more impressive. While many refills provide you with basic sounds and ideas, the Generations Refill provides you with tools, powerful ones. Simply put, the Generations Refill will be useful to Reason experts and newbies alike and I really can't say enough good things about it. Well done, Rob!
I'm usually the first person to be skeptical about new refills. Refills, like this site if I'm going to be completely honest, are a collection of sounds and ideas that suit someone else's music or someone else's ideas. Refills are generally instrument patches and effects that fit someone else's notion of what is clever or what sounds good, and so even when I find one I like, I usually only find a few patches that are useful to me among hundreds of patches that I would rather not be bothered with or required to sift through. So, what makes the Generations Refill different?
Do you remember how you felt when you finally understood how Reason worked and how flexible it was? You realized that the cabling wasn't the gimmick so many people claimed it was and the various devices suddenly made sense. You understood that within Reason, you were only limited by your own creativity. Well, the Generations Refill is a lot like that, but in place of Reason's existing devices and Factory Sound Bank provided samples and Combinators, Rob at Reason 101 has provided a series of Combinators that are meant to be used in the same way that Reason's devices are intended to be used, cabled together in clever ways, to achieve intriguing and sometimes surprising sonic results.
I should explain that a bit more. Rather than provide you with, say, a UN-16 Unison that can be used in a variety of ways, the Generations Refill provides Combinators that fill those same roles, routed with other Combinators saved within song files, so that you're essentially given Combinators filled with other Combinators, resulting in routing and effect options that go far beyond what is usually provided in a refill.
Interestingly, this isn't a one size fits all proposition. The Generations Refill provides a number of setups that will be immediately useful to you. In addition, it provides many useful instrument patches and effect Combinators, allowing you to build your own setups and processing, by creating new routing with tools he has provided. Basically, the Generations Refill is a massive toy box and comes with permission to play.
I've been lucky enough to have seen "sneak previews" of this refill as Rob has built it and I've been impressed and intrigued by his approach. Seeing it as a complete package is even more impressive. While many refills provide you with basic sounds and ideas, the Generations Refill provides you with tools, powerful ones. Simply put, the Generations Refill will be useful to Reason experts and newbies alike and I really can't say enough good things about it. Well done, Rob!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Please Take A Minute To Vote Over At City of Bass
Friend of the site, DJ Mad Wax, has a blog of his own where he posts some of his occasional music-related and Reason-related insights, as well as some really great music through his Vocode Project label. You may have already checked out City of Bass, but if you have a spare moment, please jump over and vote in DJ Mad Wax's latest poll. He's looking for some feedback on what the future of Vocode Project might be and he could use your help. Click here to vote.
Also be sure to check out some of the bass patches DJ Mad Wax provided in the site's early days:
Also be sure to check out some of the bass patches DJ Mad Wax provided in the site's early days:
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Reason Patch A Day Archive Refill, Vol 1 Updated!
Just over three months ago, I released the "Reason Patch A Day Archive Refill, Vol 1" which collected patches posted here between September 25, 2008 to March 6, 2010. It was made available to anyone who supported the site with either a financial donation or anyone who had contributed their own patches to the site to be shared with their fellow readers.
It was an experiment more than a means to raise any serious money and I'll admit the results have been surprising. I was essentially asking you to pay for something I've already given you for free here on the site, but many of you stepped up and sent in donations anyway. Rob's wonderful video review of the refill over on Reason 101 has brought in a few new donors in the past few weeks and so I would have to say that despite my predictions, the PAD refill has been a moderate success. Thank you everyone who has contributed in some way towards this site's growth for almost two years. Your donations, whether in form of patches for financial contributions, are sincerely appreciated.
My goal when I first put together the refill was not to keep endlessly updating it. It's called "Vol 1" for a reason, as I intended to eventually release a Volume 2, maybe a Volume 3, and so on, but I wanted to thank everyone who has donated to the site at least one more time. So, I have expanded the PAD refill to include patches posted between March 6th and today.
The updated "Reason Patch A Day Archive Refill, Vol 1" contains over 1,000 files, including:
As before, the refill does not contain any of the reader contribution patches that have been posted here. That's not to say they're not amazing patches, worthy of inclusion, because many of them are, but I do feel a little uncomfortable adding them to the refill without permission. I urge you to dig back through the posts here and check out the amazing contributions made by DJ Mad Wax, Ruurd Huizenga, Lewis.72,
Ghostly, Dan Reneer, Darryl Miller, Navi Retlav, Meowsqueak, and Rob Anselmi. All submitted patches are listed with the post tag "Reader Contribution" so they should be easy to find.
Thanks again to anyone who has donated to the site. Your contributions have been appreciated more than you know.
It was an experiment more than a means to raise any serious money and I'll admit the results have been surprising. I was essentially asking you to pay for something I've already given you for free here on the site, but many of you stepped up and sent in donations anyway. Rob's wonderful video review of the refill over on Reason 101 has brought in a few new donors in the past few weeks and so I would have to say that despite my predictions, the PAD refill has been a moderate success. Thank you everyone who has contributed in some way towards this site's growth for almost two years. Your donations, whether in form of patches for financial contributions, are sincerely appreciated.
My goal when I first put together the refill was not to keep endlessly updating it. It's called "Vol 1" for a reason, as I intended to eventually release a Volume 2, maybe a Volume 3, and so on, but I wanted to thank everyone who has donated to the site at least one more time. So, I have expanded the PAD refill to include patches posted between March 6th and today.
The updated "Reason Patch A Day Archive Refill, Vol 1" contains over 1,000 files, including:
- 74 Bass Patches
- 28 Instrument Combinators
- 52 Effect Combinators
- 16 Effect Patches
- 180 Pad Patches
- 136 Percussion Patches
- 131 Synth Patches
- 12 Sampler Patches
- 5 Yamaha Drum Machine Kits (with additional variations)
- Misc Samples
As before, the refill does not contain any of the reader contribution patches that have been posted here. That's not to say they're not amazing patches, worthy of inclusion, because many of them are, but I do feel a little uncomfortable adding them to the refill without permission. I urge you to dig back through the posts here and check out the amazing contributions made by DJ Mad Wax, Ruurd Huizenga, Lewis.72,
Ghostly, Dan Reneer, Darryl Miller, Navi Retlav, Meowsqueak, and Rob Anselmi. All submitted patches are listed with the post tag "Reader Contribution" so they should be easy to find.
Thanks again to anyone who has donated to the site. Your contributions have been appreciated more than you know.
Filter Research 2 Refill Sneak Peek From Lewis.72
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.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Reason 5 Announcement... Updates
Have you been checking in with the Propellerhead website to see what else is coming for Reason?
I'm not a Reason apologist, nor am I a frothing fanboy. I see the warts in Propellerhead software just as well and as easily as other people, but given that I have a blog dedicated to posting new Reason patches, obviously I've found enough things in the software that appeal to me and make sense for my workflow. That isn't to say that I think Reason or Record are the end-all, be-all software solutions for making music. If I felt that way, I wouldn't spend so much time with Logic, Renoise, or the strange collection of hardware and noise-makers I've amassed. However, even after admitting that I see Reason's warts and that I do use other software, when I have some free time on my hands and a desire to make music, I usually reach for Reason.
Why? Well, Reason was my first software tool. I got Logic shortly after I wrapped my brain around Reason, but as intrigued as I was with Logic's possibilities, there was something about Reason that made sense to me. I liked getting my hands dirty, even if only virtually, by messing with routing and I liked the fact that for every limitation I found, there was usually a handful of creative solutions or workarounds if I just looked hard enough. That tinkering, experimental spirit has stayed with Reason from the first version I loaded onto my computer up through version 4, and I think what has me most excited about what we've seen about version 5, is that none of that has changed. Reason, to me, seems to reward creativity. Its software that dares you to be clever and then rewards you when you are.
I don't usually use loops, so Dr. OctoRex isn't very appealing. Blocks? The video on the Propellerhead website says that musicians think in terms of intro, chorus, and fill, but I don't. It's a neat way to arrange things, but again, doesn't look that appealing to me. Neptune? Now we're talking. I don't record vocals, rarely use more than a few spoken word samples, but like other very specific instruments or effects in Reason, such as the BV512 Digital Vocoder and the Redrum Drum Computer, I suspect there will be aspects about Neptune that make it something more than it first appears to be. Using that same spirit of creativity and experimentation, Neptune could be a game changing addition to Record.
So, what about today's announcement explaining that all of Reason's samplers are now... samplers? It seems pretty obvious. It's been talked about and suggested since Reason 1, if my memory serves me, so its a change that makes a lot of sense. Do I support this change? Absolutely. I'd say "it's about time," but the truth is, Propellerheads have always done things by their own timetable, and the users are usually rewarded for their patience.
There's still one more announcement to be made and so it looks like some of my predictions earlier in the week are looking less and less likely. I don't think we'll see a grid sequencer. If you've signed up for the beta, you saw that multi-core support is coming. Also, the brief shots of the screen seem to show a Record-ized sequencer, so those predictions, which weren't exactly going out on a limb, look like they're accurate. Tomorrow? I think tomorrow will be a new instrument, but we'll see... in less than 24 hours.
Given what we've already seen, I have to say my enthusiasm for Reason 5 is building. No individual addition has me drooling into my computer keyboard, but taken as a whole, I think 5 is going to be a nice upgrade. There's still time for that drool-inducing announcement. Tomorrow might be it. But, it looks like Propellerheads are going to continue to allow for and reward creativity. No matter how many new gadgets we get and features get rolled into the software, that core of experimentation remains. That's probably what has me the most excited.
I'm not a Reason apologist, nor am I a frothing fanboy. I see the warts in Propellerhead software just as well and as easily as other people, but given that I have a blog dedicated to posting new Reason patches, obviously I've found enough things in the software that appeal to me and make sense for my workflow. That isn't to say that I think Reason or Record are the end-all, be-all software solutions for making music. If I felt that way, I wouldn't spend so much time with Logic, Renoise, or the strange collection of hardware and noise-makers I've amassed. However, even after admitting that I see Reason's warts and that I do use other software, when I have some free time on my hands and a desire to make music, I usually reach for Reason.
Why? Well, Reason was my first software tool. I got Logic shortly after I wrapped my brain around Reason, but as intrigued as I was with Logic's possibilities, there was something about Reason that made sense to me. I liked getting my hands dirty, even if only virtually, by messing with routing and I liked the fact that for every limitation I found, there was usually a handful of creative solutions or workarounds if I just looked hard enough. That tinkering, experimental spirit has stayed with Reason from the first version I loaded onto my computer up through version 4, and I think what has me most excited about what we've seen about version 5, is that none of that has changed. Reason, to me, seems to reward creativity. Its software that dares you to be clever and then rewards you when you are.
I don't usually use loops, so Dr. OctoRex isn't very appealing. Blocks? The video on the Propellerhead website says that musicians think in terms of intro, chorus, and fill, but I don't. It's a neat way to arrange things, but again, doesn't look that appealing to me. Neptune? Now we're talking. I don't record vocals, rarely use more than a few spoken word samples, but like other very specific instruments or effects in Reason, such as the BV512 Digital Vocoder and the Redrum Drum Computer, I suspect there will be aspects about Neptune that make it something more than it first appears to be. Using that same spirit of creativity and experimentation, Neptune could be a game changing addition to Record.
So, what about today's announcement explaining that all of Reason's samplers are now... samplers? It seems pretty obvious. It's been talked about and suggested since Reason 1, if my memory serves me, so its a change that makes a lot of sense. Do I support this change? Absolutely. I'd say "it's about time," but the truth is, Propellerheads have always done things by their own timetable, and the users are usually rewarded for their patience.
There's still one more announcement to be made and so it looks like some of my predictions earlier in the week are looking less and less likely. I don't think we'll see a grid sequencer. If you've signed up for the beta, you saw that multi-core support is coming. Also, the brief shots of the screen seem to show a Record-ized sequencer, so those predictions, which weren't exactly going out on a limb, look like they're accurate. Tomorrow? I think tomorrow will be a new instrument, but we'll see... in less than 24 hours.
Given what we've already seen, I have to say my enthusiasm for Reason 5 is building. No individual addition has me drooling into my computer keyboard, but taken as a whole, I think 5 is going to be a nice upgrade. There's still time for that drool-inducing announcement. Tomorrow might be it. But, it looks like Propellerheads are going to continue to allow for and reward creativity. No matter how many new gadgets we get and features get rolled into the software, that core of experimentation remains. That's probably what has me the most excited.
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