Malström Filters, Shaper, Mods
52 Reason / Record Tips – Week 48: Malström Filters, Shaper, Mods
You understand the basics of synthesis and have mastered the Subtractor, you’ve learned about the Malström’s unique “graintable sythesis” technique, and now all you need to know to master the Malström is to understand its special filters, shaper, and mods.
To those who have been following along since week one of Synth School, you’ll see that I’m picking up the pace a little bit now that you’ve built a foundation of knowledge. Believe me, we’ll need this pace starting next week when we tackle the Thor synthesizer!
But rest assured, by the time we’re done you’ll know every synth’s capabilities, strengths, and routings. And most importantly, you’ll be able to think of a sound you want to create, know which synth will get you that sound, and set about making it with skill.
Subtractor LFOs and Mods
More in-depth tutorials coming your way from the Propellerhead studio
After watching the first two Synth School videos you’ve probably realized that the entirety of synthesizer sound design is simply about taking a basic sound wave and reshaping it with basic tools like filters, amp envelopes, phase, other oscillators mixed in, etc. This week we’ll look at the final piece of the SubTractor puzzle: LFOs and Performance Modifiers. When you’re done this video you will have everything you need to start creating some seriously unique SubTractor patches. More importantly, you’ll be ready to tackle the more complicated Malström Graintable synthesizer.
Next week I think you’ll be surprised with how much you already know about it having built a strong foundation in a fundamental synth like SubTractor.
Stereo Width w/ The Haas Effect
New tutorial from Propellerhead
This week I’m going to show you one of the most tried and true methods we have to add stereo width and depth to our mixes: The Haas Affect.
Named after Dr. Helmut Haas for his early research into the effect, the Haas Effect essentially uses short delays to fool your brain into perceiving a stereo sound from a mono source. In mixing we can exploit your brain’s gullibility to carve out wide stereo fields and provide our mixes enough room for center elements like lead vocals or bass guitar.
I’ve made a combinator patch that accompanies this tutorial and it can be downloaded here:
http://www.propellerheads.se/stuff/JB…
Reason Key Commands to Speed up Your Work
Wanna impress all your friends with your mad Reason skillz? This weeks episode will give you all the tools you need to have you blazing around your Reason sessions and make you the envy of all your friends.
Having fun with REX files
It’s time to take a look at some ways to work creatively with REX files in Record. Record allows you to work with REX files in new, cool ways – in this tutorial, we learn a few of them.
More Xmas gifts – this time from the Propllerheads
Propellerhead Software has a Christmas gift for Reason users:
We’d like to celebrate the end of a great year for us by giving the gift of rockin’ out to the Reason user community. We proudly present the Dr. Octo Rex Guitar Collection!
The Dr. Octo Rex Guitar Collection is a free library of acoustic and electric guitar loops for Reason 5.
Patches are organized by style and song key, using the multiple loop capable Dr. Octo Rex, making it easy to lay down a guitar track using natural chord progressions.
The included playing styles cover anything from open strumming to single string riffs and punk power chords.
Pricing and Availability
Dr. Octo Rex Guitar Collection is a free download for fans that “Like” Propellerhead Software on Facebook.
Link:
- Propellerhead Software on Facebook
Mid-Side Processing for Great Masters
Another great tutorial from the Prop-team
When it comes to mastering, one of the hottest things right now is a technique known as “mid-side processing.” As a basic description, mid-side processing uses phase cancellation tricks to isolate the mono information in a mix (bass, vocal, kick drum) from the stereo items (guitars, keys, effects) and then lets you master them separately and recombine them for a very nice sounding master.
This week I brought in two special guests to help me design a mid-side mastering patch for you as well as to help describe the technical intricacies of how this is done. Be sure to visit the links in this video, download the patches, and visit the websites I mention.
http://www.propellerheads.se/stuff/JB…
http://web.mac.com/gilesreaves/Giles_…
http://southern.bandcamp.com/track/he…
Propellerhead Software has released updates for Record and Reason
Propellerhead Software has released updates for Record and Reason, its music production applications for Windows and Mac.
We are happy to announce the immediate release of Record 1.5.1 and Reason 5.0.1 — free maintenance updates that resolve several minor issues in Reason and Record.
Changes in Record v1.5.1 / Reason v5.0.1
- Record
- CodeMeter has been updated to version 4.20b. This version provides better handling of various installation issues.
- The MClass Mastering Suite Combinator appeared on the Create menu when the Japanese language was selected in Record. It has been removed (the way to use mastering combi patches in Record is to load them as Master Insert FX).
- The EQ, Filter and Input Gain settings in the main mixer were not chased properly. This could cause clicks or slight fades in the beginning of bounced or played back tracks.
- There was an audible hiccup (a small pause in the audio) whenever an effect (Wah or Compressor) was switched on or off on a Line 6 Amp device. The Line 6 components have been updated to fix this.
- An interpolation issue could cause a very slight loss of high frequency content when processing audio in Neptune.
- The size of Kong devices in the Record rack navigator was slightly incorrect.
- In rare cases users had to authenticate twice when starting Record.
- Normalize Clip did not work on clips with extremely long audio recordings.
- Reason & Record
- The handling of bad sound drivers has been improved, lessening the risk of a crash due to faulty drivers.
- Added Remote support for M-Audio Oxygen 88.
- Added localized help and documentation in German, Japanese and French. Note: The localized help and documentation files are automatically included when Reason or Record are installed from the DVD. When downloading Reason or Record, you need to download and install localized help and documentation separately.
- During certain circumstances, if a MIDI control surface was locked to a device and the user deleted any device from that song, the program could crash. This would happen if there was another song open and that song was playing back in the background.
- The “Arpeggio Notes to Track” function on the RPG-8 could cause the program to crash if some of the RPG-8 parameters had been automated.
- Saving a patch could in rare cases cause the program to crash. This happened if the user loaded a patch from a folder containing a huge number of patches, then moved the patch file to another folder and finally attempted to resave the patch by Alt-clicking the Save Patch button on the device.
- In some cases, after copying and pasting a sample-based device from one song to another, the pasted device could refer to the wrong samples if the samples were self-contained.
- Cable drawing has been slightly improved.
- Thor’s step sequencer in random mode triggered two voices. This could happen when the “Step” run mode was selected and the direction was set to “Random”.
- The program will occasionally check the available hard disk space. On some systems, these checks could make the user interface temporarily unresponsive.
- Duplicating devices a large number of times could cause a graphical bug in the rack.
- A number of localized (translated) text strings were cut off.
- Voice handling for the NN-XT has been optimized slightly.
- Dr. OctoRex slice numbers were not shown correctly in Edit mode when using the application in German.
- If a song used SoundFonts under Windows Vista or Windows 7, the program could store the wrong path to the referenced samples. As a result, there would be missing sounds next time the song was opened.
- Switching from MIDI sync to internal sync could result in an “Unknown Exception” alert.
- The program could become very unresponsive when working with songs with a large number of self-contained samples.
- Songs or combi patches could load with incorrect settings. This happened if a Combi rotary or button had been programmed to control a certain device parameter, and this parameter had been changed “manually” so that its state conflicted with the Combi rotary/button. After saving and loading, the setting of the device parameter was reset to match the Combi settings.
- When stopping after recording in ReWire mode, the program could freeze for a few seconds.
- Updated some Japanese translations.
- The program could assert when changing to virtual MIDI input settings.
- Kong’s Nurse Rex in Slice Trig mode within a Mute Group would not mute the voice when another pad was triggered.
- A crash could be caused by dragging one or more half width devices and hovering over a Disk Channel device that doesn’t show inserts.
- The function of bouncing several audio clips to new samples or to a new recording could take longer than expected.
- The remote override mode was not completely blocked while the program tried to quit.
- Muted audio clips in Blocks while adjusting the Block Clip offset could look a bit peculiar.
- Sample Editor now handles samples with a sampling frequency below 8000 HZ correctly.
- Names of Mix Channels could become blank in certain cases.
- Bug in the Mix/Disk-channel, which could occur whenever a device was added or removed in the combi of a channel device (insert effects). This bug might show itself by some short clicking sound, artifact or short freeze when adding or removing devices in a channel device. The Combinator was not affected, and also not the master section.
- There was a bug when the user tried to move the notes that were being recorded either by scaling the tempo in the tool window or nudging them with Ctrl-left/right.
- Handling of ReGrooved blocks has been improved.
- NN-Nano now uses High Quality Interpolation when pitching samples.
- Converting pattern automation to notes disregarded pattern offsets incorrectly.
- Automation of aftertouch, expression and breath are now smoothed in Thor.
- ReFill Packer
- ReFill Packer will now preserve tempo maps in AIFF and WAV files.
- The previous version of ReFill Packer didn’t handle files with leading and trailing spaces in their names properly.
- Better handling of how ReFill Packer works when invoked using non privileged accounts.
New drum kits from Propellerheads
Propellerhead Software has announced the immediate availability of volumes 4 and 5 of their Record Drum Takes ReFill series: Folk Rock Brushes and Dry Indie. Here’s what they have to say about them…
Record Drum Takes brings big league rock and pop multitrack drums played by skilled session drummers to Propellerhead Record. Record Drum Takes builds a steady foundation for any rock or pop creation.
Vol.4 Folk Rock Brushes comes as two complete folk rock-sounding drum backing tracks played with brushes. Both have plenty of warmth and character. The track Pite plays along at 80 relaxed beats per minute while Simris plays at 120 bpm.
Vol. 5 Dry Indie offers two tracks that owe plenty to 70s production aesthetics. Their dry sound and tight playing style make these drums perfect for songs in a wide range of Indie related styles. Emmaboda plays at 90 bpm while Lund chugs along in 6/8 beat at 85 bpm.
The differently styled tracks in the Record Drum Takes ReFills all come as multitrack recordings, allowing users to freely shape the drum sound by adjusting the levels of the independent kick, snare, hihat, room, ambient and other microphones. Cut across all eight drum tracks to arrange and rearrange once the drum sound has been mixed to perfection. Play along to the RDT drum arrangements, or paste them into an existing song. The entire drum mix will follow right along, and utilizing Record’s automatic time-stretch, Drum Takes instantly adapts to the song’s tempo.
Included with the ReFills are also multisampled versions of the kits, for adding that extra snare or crash cymbal right where it’s needed.
Although recorded using state of the art technology in a professional recording facility and performed by an experienced drummer with an unmistakable feel–the playing in these ReFills is sparse and to the point: a perfect foundation for any alternative, pop or rock production.
Pricing and Availability:
All five Record Drum Takes ReFills are available exclusively for download through Propellerhead’s web shop today, at EUR €29 / USD $29 each.
More information:
Compression Tips for the Best Mixes
New tutorial from the Prop guys on compression
For many people, compressors are the biggest obstacle between them and a professional mix. But if you know how to use them, compressors are your best tool to achieve that professional mix. Most early interactions with compressors involve cranking them up until they sound horrible and then removing them – wondering why anyone would even want to use them in the first place. This week I’ll explain what a compressor’s actually doing and how to make it work the way you want.
DATAMASKIN
