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:

• Thor Patches from Mad Wax
  
• Another Contribution from Mad Wax and Vocode Records
  
• Roz Thor Patch From DJ Mad Wax
  

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:

• 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.

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.

Reason 5 Is Coming!

It seems that I am forever behind the curve on these sorts of announcements, but if you haven't already seen the videos and pages, Propellerhead Software have finally announced Reason 5 and an upgrade to Record, announcing version 1.5. The announcement is coming in daily releases and started yesterday with a short video introducing the new Dr. Octo Rex loop player. No word if all of Reasons other new modules will be named after Spider-Man villains, but I am hopeful we'll see the Green Gobverb, Mysteremixer, and a Vulturemetrix EQ in the next few days.

Okay, okay, jokes aside, I think we'll see a handful of new devices, like the Dr. Octo Rex. I think the odds are good that we'll see a new synth, but it's just as likely we won't. It's hard to think of anything that Thor doesn't already cover, except for maybe a physical modeling synth, a la Logic's Sculpture.

If you're a fan of Record's arrangement and editing tools, which I certainly am, I suspect you'll see those tweaks and enhancements making their way over to Reason (which I predicted back in October). Some of those tweaks that Reason users should be excited about are the "Explode" option, the ability to easily move notes between clips, a virtual keyboard, and a number of other tiny tweaks that add up to a better, faster experience. I think multi-core support is almost a given, which for many of us, will make Reason easier to use. As I said, Record is our roadmap toward where Reason is going, and given the time I've spent with Record, I think we're in for some nice, tasty treats.

One aspect of Reason that usually gets overlooked is its hardware integration and stability for playing live. I think using Reason as a live instrument is pretty high on the programmer's priority list, so I suspect we'll see additional upgrades in using Reason in a live setting. Will we see new Reason-specific hardware, a la Live's Launchpad and APC40? I don't know. They may have worked something out, like they did with Line6 in Record, but given how hot grid controllers have been the last year or two, it wouldn't surprise me if we saw a new kind of Matrix device.

I don't know. I'm not much for reading tea leaves or gazing into crystal balls. I will say that Reason 4 didn't initially impress me and it took a few months of use before I grew to appreciate all of the little tweaks that made it such a powerful tool. I don't think I was alone in that experience, so I predict that Propellerheads have been busy creating additions that will really surprise us and make Reason seem as innovative and intriguing as it has always been. Only time will tell.

I'll probably post updates, but they'll be slow coming, so if you're dying for news about the latest version of Reason, you should probably check in with the Propellerheads website and get details from them directly.

.480 Using The Yamaha DD-5 As A MIDI Controller In Reason

This post will probably help exactly none of you, but if any of you are experimenting with incorporating older MIDI gear into your setups, the process might at least be interesting.

As you might remember, a week ago I posted samples from my "new" Yamaha Digital Drums DD-5, explaining that while its built-in sounds may have a fun, cheesy vibe to them, what truly makes the DD-5 intriguing is setting it up to be used as a MIDI controller in Reason/Record. What I didn't get into was that its default MIDI output data is, in a word, strange. Its four pads output to A1, E2, A2, and D#3, making it the very opposite of "plug and play."

There are a couple of things you can do to change this. The first, and most obvious, is to use Reason's "Remote Override Edit Mode" which is what I experimented with to get it working in Redrum. It doesn't take much time and the results are what you would expect, giving you the "hit-here-get-sound-there" effect that you're probably looking for. The problem is that once you have these maps set up, tying each drum pad on the DD-5 to its appropriate Redrum channel, you'll quickly learn that those remote overrides aren't saved as global settings in Reason, instead being settings just for that one song or project. You can work around that, of course, by setting up a Reason or Record song with these settings and saving it as a template file, which you would then load every time you want to use the DD-5 as an instrument controller in a song.

That is, unfortunately, not very practical. I rarely know what devices I'll be using when I start up a new song. Part of the fun in making music is working through that process, picking up gear and blowing the dust off, as you encounter the different needs and inspirations of your latest song. Needing to know which devices you will use, before you start, might not be practical.

The other issue is that your MIDI interface, which accepts the MIDI data from the DD-5 and makes it into something Reason can understand, might not be dedicated solely to your DD-5. As is the case with my own setup, the MIDI interface you use might be more "universal" and sees use with a variety of gear, so mapping the DD-5's drum pads to specific Note Numbers might make it useless for other MIDI gear that require default note assignments, if you unplug devices and plug in new ones, working through your song.

The second option to you is using the DD-5's controls to set its output Note Numbers to match what you need Reason to "hear." The process for this involves several button presses on the DD-5, sometimes done while turning the unit on, but how this is actually done is a mystery to me. The DD-5 Owner's Guide is surprisingly vague on the steps and since the unit doesn't have a screen to provide any kind of useful feedback, its literally a case of fumbling in the dark. Plus, any tweaks or changes you make are erased when the unit is powered off, requiring you to do this every time you use it. Again, not very practical.

So, what can you do? Well, the solution I finally decided upon, which might be useful to you in your own MIDI experiments, is using Reason's NN-XT to map samples to the specific notes being sent from the Yamaha DD-5 (or whatever piece of outdated gear you might be using).

• Yamaha DD-5: Preset Pad Assignments ( NN-XT Patch )
  

If you open up the NN-XT's Remote Editor you'll see that the instrument contains four samples, each one mapped to either A1, E2, A2, or D#3, the MIDI Note Outputs of the DD-5. The specific samples and assignments match the four preset pad assignments that load into the DD-5 when you first power it on, but they can easily be replaced with whatever sounds you might want to trigger using the device's drum pads by selecting the appropriate sample and clicking "Load Sample" to assign a new sample. The mapping stays the same, but keep in mind that the Root resets to C3 whenever a new sample is loaded. You'll need to manually change this whenever you load a new sample if you want to keep its tone intact.

While this isn't quite "plug and play" its a bit faster than using the Remote Override Edit Mode, and if you take the time to set up a series of NN-XT patches with samples mapped to the appropriate pad assignments, you can achieve the kind of quick, flexible access you might need.

So, as I said at the beginning of this tutorial, this long-winded explanation of how I setup my DD-5 probably isn't useful for anyone out there. The odds that any one of you have a setup (or needs) identical to mine are fairly slim, but using Reason's NN-XT to accept specific MIDI notes, especially from old gear, might be a useful tool or technique for you.

A few random tidbits if you are one of the strange few using a DD-5 with Reason:

1. The Yamaha DD-5 continues to make sound through its built-in speaker even while sending MIDI data. This can be hugely annoying, especially if you're using it to trigger sounds the DD-5 isn't making while you're playing it. Turning the volume on the DD-5 down doesn't work, because even at its lowest setting, the Yamaha machine continues to make noise. Just plug a 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch adapter into the DD-5's Audio Out and it'll stop making noise.
   
2. As stated above, remember to adjust the Root note for each sample, if you load new sounds into the NN-XT patch provided. If you create a particular kit that you like, save it for quick access later.
   
3. Also remember that you'll need to adjust the Amp Envelope's Release setting to account for samples that are longer in length than the NN-XT's default setting of only 60 ms. Forgetting to do this will create abbreviated sounds when you play them.
   

Challenge Remix: Ostbanhoff (Thielplatz Imbisstube Remix) and Breaching The Heliopause (Rutherform Appleton Remix)

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:

Ostbanhoff - colorcombination - 124bpm 1.44mbs Thielplatz Imbissstube Remix by 1.44mb

Breaching the Heliopause - 1.44mbs Rutherford Appleton Remix by 1.44mb