REVIEW: Soundcells’ Analog Signatures v3
Analog Signature v3 – Trigger your music creativity
We have had the pleasure of reviewing the latest Reason Refill from Soundcells, based out of Germany. Soundcells definitely belongs among our absolute favorite providers of high-quality Reason refills, and for other formats as well for that matter. The nice thing about Soundcells’ Refills is the variety and complexity provided covering everything from chip tunes to ambient to synthpop music.
This time we have taken a closer look at the recently released Analog Signature v 3, which is a follow up version 1 and 2 containing some 40 nicely crafted Combinator patches (CMBs) and an additional set of Thor, REX, Scream modules. Being slightly biased, based on the type of music Steelberry Clones are making we must say that the real treat is the MS20 Combinator patches included, all perfectly balanced and with that right low-bass “knorrrr” sound typically for the MS20. The sounds of the Waldorf Microwave and Pulse are so genuine in their sound structure that you can even spot the original pre-sets and inaccuracies that portrayed the original hardware synthesizers. I have added some sample snapshots in the SoundCloud player below, so that you really can see what we mean:
Reason refill sound demo – Analog Signatures v3 by Stereoklang Produktion
So based on the type of music you are in to, and judging from the fact that you are reading this blog, probably indicates that you enjoy the same type of music as we do, this Reason Refill will add those vintage sounds that often are fairly hard to come by. KORG MS20, Waldorf Microwave and Moog are all in there and perfect for punchy bass lines, leads and pads. The Combinator section is probably the one you will use the most, but there is more…
Another thing we really like about the Refills from Soundcells is the fact that they also put in some time to work with some of the effect modules in Reason, such as the Scream Sound Destruction unit, which in our personal view is something often neglected by other Refill providers and even by Propellerhead themselves (judging from the quite poor sets provided with the off-the-shelf Reason package). Soundcells offer smooth and beat enhancing capabilities to your music through the Scream unit that we have not come across anywhere else.
So is everything but glory in this Reason Refill? Well the only part of this Reason Refill that we possibly would have hoped more for is the REX loop section, which in our mind is fairly basic and not so inspiring. If you are looking for standard vintage drumbeats to accompany your tracks, then you will definitely find what you are looking for, but if you are hoping to spice up your tracks with something unique, then you need to look elsewhere.
Overall verdict
Soundcells has done it again, that is delivering a high-quality product that triggers your music creation process
NOTE: We hope to be able to feature the creators behind Soundcells in a later post, so stay tuned
Analog Signature Version 3 – a new member is added to the family
“Analog Signature V3” carries the wits and powers of four vintage beasts into this new era. Moog Source, Korg MS20, the Waldorf Microwave 1 and – from version 3 onwards – the Waldorf Pulse have been accurately sampled in such a way that their charming inaccuracies are still there in this perfect Reason environment in which Soundcells tooks their chance to add polyphony and velocity.
You’ll get 500+ combinator patches containing beautiful analog sounds from the past as well as some mouth watering rex loops covering the old analog drum boxes. The user decides how retro or contemporary the sounds of this ReFill will sound in the music. It all matches almost perfectly with almost everything. Version 2 featured new samples from the Waldorf Microwave 1, 40 new combinator patches and great new backdrops – with version 3 this ReFill is extended even further with 40 combinator patches mainly based on these new Waldorf Pulse samples.
Analog Signature Version 3 Contents:
– 506 combinator patches to keep you busy for quite some time – 40 new ones since version 3.
– Classic synths: Moog Source, Korg MS20, the Waldorf Microwave 1 and the Waldorf Pulse.
-Lots of analog drumbox rexfiles and loads of NNXT patches – the modules folder contains the basic patches which were used for the combinator sounds.
-Extra high realism due to alternate sample switching, mostly three samples per note!
A web address to link to for more info and “Analog Signature V3” only MP3s:
Offering price is 39,90 ,- EUR per Unit (normally 49,90 ,- EUR)
Greenhouse – the Synplant ReFill
Greenhouse” is a small but awesome ReFill which is based on samples coming from the very popular and famous Synplant software synthesizer – probably one of the most innovative plugins of recent years. 35 combinator patches provide an insight into the great and highly characterful sound capabilities Synplant has to offer: Greenhouse patches sound deep and murky – sometimes wishful and dreamy – but overall atmospheric and full of Synplant character… In addition, some “One-Shot-FX” kits are included to let you produce glitchy electro beats. The 24 bit samples were recorded thru an analog mixing console to bring the “real world” flavour into the digital world – ready-to-use within this ReFill…
Greenhouse Contents:
– 35 combinator patches full of Synplant character.
– Deep, murky, evil but also wishful and dreamy are the main keywords
– 39 NNXT patches containing the basic sounds which were used for the combinators.
– 190 Synplant samples, 158 MB uncompressed.
A web address to link to for more info and a “Greenhouse” only MP3:
http://www.soundcells.de
The Greenhouse ReFill is for free!
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
40 years of synth history Reason Refill
Jiggery-Pokery has introduced Retrospective – a ReFill featuring “40 years of synthesizer history”.
The ReFill contains an archive of classic and esoteric electronica, licensed from Hollow Sun, in a package for Reason.
Retrospective includes 550+ NNXT patches with nearly 1Gb of samples, covering a range of analogue and digital sounds, including large sets of sounds from the PPG Wave, Oberheim M1000, Korg M01 and Yamaha FS1R.
Retrospective retails for £39.95. Details below.
The Refill consists of samplesets from the following instruments:
- Yamaha FS1R (143 NNXT patches)
- Oberheim M1000 (114)
- Korg M01 (89)
- PPG Wave (49)
- Roland SH101 (21)
- Eminent 310U (17)
- Hollow Sun 50s Sci-Fi (17)
- Roland VP330 (12)
- Moog microMoog (11)
- Moog Taurus (11) [with per-note samples not in the demo version]
- E-mu Emulator II (8)
- Fairlight IIx CMI (8)
- Mellotron (8)
- Moog Voyager (8)
- Oberheim M12 (8)
- ARP Solina (5)
- Elka Synthex (5)
- Ensoniq SQ-R (4)
- Multivox MX202 (4)
- Dubreq Stylophone (4)
- Moog Opus (3)
- Delicia Melodic (3)
- Yamaha CP70 (3)
- RMI Electrapiano (2)
- Roland RS202 (3)
- Crumar Performer (2)
- Electronika EM-25 (2)
There are default Combinator patches for each instrument, plus 101 layered Combi patches, and the user guide PDF, written by Steve Howell, gives you a brief history of each instrument.
Minimum Requirements
- Reason 4.01
Recommended Requirements
- Reason 5
Programming / Sequencing Accent patterns
“Programming / Sequencing Accent patterns like a TR-808, using the velocity switching patches from the peff 036 – Kong 808 Refill for Reason 5 / R5 + R1.5 duo.
This refill is available from my website: http://www.peff.com/journal/2010/12/0…“
Subtractor is back
It was some time since I last saw a new refill for Reason’s Subtractor synth, but here you go
Ax is a set of patches for the Subtractor synthesizer within Propellerhead Reason. The collection showcases the Reason Device which echoes the classic designs of analog synthesizers and fuses them with features ubiquitous in modern instruments.
The sound set is divided into 6 categories. “Bass”, “Lead”, “Pad”, and “Piano” (one-shot, tonal sounds) each contain 10 patches, “Drums” consists of 30 patches which cover all drum kit components, and “Inharmonic” is comprised of 30 patches which are further divided into two subcategories “Sustaining” and “Non-sustaining”.
The 0.4 MB download includes 100 .zyp files.
Pricing and Availability:
Ax is available now for $24.99
More information:
The Thor goes Moog !!!
SoundCells has introduced something that I personally believe will be a classic: Thor Source Version 3 – the Moog Source ReFill
“Thor Source V3” – when Thor first saw the light of day Soundcells couldn’t resist to test his strength by comparing him to a well known classic from Moog: the Source. Thor’s modular design gave them the chance to rebuild the Source’s details with great accuracy. Then Soundcells copied their favorite Source patches with great ease into Thor and after this they managed to take those sounds numerous steps further. The sounding results however stayed amazingly close to the Source’s character. In this ReFill’s documentary folder you’ll find proof of this. Thor makes the Source polyphonic and velocity sensitive as well. By now you’ll understand that this ReFill goes way beyond only emulating the past. Thor Source offers deep and fat basses, retro and nu style leads, wonderfull keyboard sounds, mouth watering pads, analog drums and more. Version 2 added four sampled raw oscillator settings from the original Moog Source, new combinator patches and new backdrops – with version 3 this ReFill comes with even more samples from the Source…
And let´s not forget to mention the 25 new version 3 combinator patches based on those new samples.Those will be there to give your music an extra greasy analog retro-Moog-bite.
Tweak the rebuild Source sounds in whatever direction using Thor´s tools or just “build” your own Moog Source while using the raw oscillator samples and/or the sampled Source sounds embedded within our NNXT patches. Please always take your time to try every button and knob as well as the Modwheel to get a good taste of all flavours these 214 fine combinator patches will present you with!
Thor Source Version 3 Contents:
– The 25 original documentary patches as described above plus 25 contemporary velocity versions of these patches
– 25 legato versions of the documentary patches, and also 25 legato versions of the contemporary velocity patches
– 69 “processed” combinator patches making full use of Reason’s devices like the RV7000, the Scream and other gear.
This folder is subdivided into 4 sections: bass, keys & leads, misc and pads.
– 45 combinator patches based on the sampled raw oscillator settings and the fully sampled Source sounds which were
added to version 2 and version 3.
– 35 new and grooving rex loops.
A web address to link to for more info and “Thor Source V3” only MP3s:
Offering price is 19,90 ,- EUR per Unit (normally 29,90 ,- EUR)
Introducing the Supersonic Refill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58HcrkNcDD4&feature=player_embedded
In this refill (sound bank), which is compatible with Reason 4 and Reason 5, the user gets access to over 8,000 individual files, such as brand new samples of both digital and analog synthesizers, the entire Fairlight CMI IIx factory library (used with kind permission from Fairlight in Australia) as carefully sampled, re-sampled, edited and looped by Bitley, as well as each single drum sound from basically all (worthwile) drum machines ever made. The new refill contains over 1,000 individual NNXT patches and over 450 (that is four hundred and fifty) combinator patches.
The refill also contains brand new signature patches. It also collects and includes all previous Bitley refills, such as The Prophet (Prophet 5), DaBeat, Orlando JX-10, Patrick Fridh’s D-50 ReFill and DeLight. Brand new material includes multi samples taken from a mint condition Roland Jupiter 4 synthesizer. All in all, this sets to provide the entire range of sounds necessary for each and every one interested in having ALL important synthesizer and drum sounds from the entire 1980s; it’s all here. From the Yamaha DX7 bass sound as used by Howard Jones to multiple variations of Fairlight’s Sararr patch as used by Tears For Fears, Art Of Noise and many others. Not forgetting each and every drum sound that made Prince famous.
Content: About 1,970 separate Reason patches for all instruments, including Dr Rex / OctoRex, Subtractor, Malström, Thor, NN19, NNXT, Combinator, ReDrum. Over 2,5 Gb of raw sample data; 1,2 Gb when packed into the refill. About 40 demo songs and examples. Each patch categorized and easily found through clever placement in the refill. The total development time of this refill has been over 14 months.
More Reason Refills uploaded at Stereoklang
It has been some time since we last uploaded Reason refills on our website for free download, but I believe we have compensated this by uploading 18 Reason refills. All Refills are free to download and use and represents stuff that we have collected across the web, not all is brand new but you ought to find something that you have not seen before.
Here’s a selected list of refills that has been uploaded, there are of course plenty more to explore:
9V_Audio_All_Demos_REX_RMX
AM3_demo
Anti-Gravity_Synths
CHRONIC_MUSIC.COM
Electro_Trance_Free_Pack
Loopmasters_CombinationsReFill
MGP-ChordWaves Refill
ReCombination-Demo-Refill
SamplerBanks.com_Free_NNXT_bank
Sarah_Talks
SongWriterReFill
[ReFill]_Free_Gizmodj_and_AMVST_Refill_Vol._2
[ReFill]_Malcos_Mouth_Refill
[ReFill]_The_Apollo_Refill
[ReFill]_The_Space_Pad_Refill
[ReFill]_The_Whale_Refill
analog_signature_demo
home_piano_free
NOTE: If you are the content creator and owner of the publishing rights to any of these Refills and you feel that we have published anything that should not be publicly available please notify and we will remove it. Mail address can be found in the mid column.
DATAMASKIN
