Thinking of doing a 'machines' refill...

[Malcos]

I had this idea the other day, of making a refill of combinators that processed sound in different ways, as well as coming up with some useful instrument combinators. One of the main things I'm thinking of doing is making some exciters/sonic enhancers. I'll base the audio processing on real-life exciters/enhancers and how they manipulate the sound. This will be a massive challenge for me and I hope I can complete it! I'm looking to finish in mid-late August, and I'm just in the planning stages now.

Does anyone have any other ideas of audio processing units that could be built with the combinator?

[anosou]

I had this idea the other day, of making a refill of combinators that processed sound in different ways, as well as coming up with some useful instrument combinators. One of the main things I'm thinking of doing is making some exciters/sonic enhancers. I'll base the audio processing on real-life exciters/enhancers and how they manipulate the sound. This will be a massive challenge for me and I hope I can complete it! I'm looking to finish in mid-late August, and I'm just in the planning stages now.

Does anyone have any other ideas of audio processing units that could be built with the combinator?

This sounds both like a challenge for you and something wonderful for everyone else :)

I would like a Reason version of Bombfactory's Slightly Rude Compressor, but that's software ;P
Otherwise the 1167 compresor. mmm. http://www.kenetek.com/1176/tabid/174/Default.aspx

If I'm mistaking exciters/enhancers for compressors, sorry. I figured you meant any soun enhancer or dynamics machine

[Tensei]

I would LOVE to have a decent (Harmonic) Exciter in Reason, so I'm wishing you the best of luck on your project, and I hope it will turn out the way you want.

[DJ SymBiotiX]

haha wow, like last night I was like "I should ask somebody on ocr if they have made an exciter in reason". Anyways, I cant wait man!

[avaris]

Bwhaha I'm up for the challenge. If someone can name or point me to some diagrams or logical layouts of some of the popular Exciters/Harmonizers/etc... I'll be glad to see what I can come up with.

Malcos would this include like Advanced Filter Delays, Resonators, etc...? Basically any advanced FX processing devices we can create in Reason?

I've been thinking of creating a Glitch combinator in Reason.

EDIT: After looking through some diagrams of a Harmonizer it would take ~40 devices to recreate something similar. In the Refill you could have a folder labeled 'Harmonizer' and then Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4. In Reason you would just route the signal from Part 1-4 to recreate the entire Harmonizer. Also this would allow people to mix and match different section from the different things that are recreated (Exciter, Harmonizer, Resonator etc...) to make some really cool shite.

[Sir_NutS]

That sounds awesome Malcos, would be very useful for us all. Good luck!

[Malcos]

This sounds both like a challenge for you and something wonderful for everyone else :)

I would like a Reason version of Bombfactory's Slightly Rude Compressor, but that's software ;P
Otherwise the 1167 compresor. mmm. http://www.kenetek.com/1176/tabid/174/Default.aspx

If I'm mistaking exciters/enhancers for compressors, sorry. I figured you meant any soun enhancer or dynamics machine

Yeah, what I want to do though is go more for the exciter/enhancer thing, although most of those include a compressor in the processing chain (by mixing a compressed version of the 'enhanced' signal into the original one). I'll experiment and see what I can come up with, although I don't think it will be possible to approximate any commercial compressor, Reasons ones are already great; although I have already built a couple of combis that are specific effects that use compression as the main component

It will be a big challenge for me, and lot of fun along the way hopefully.

Avaris, if you could build some combis for the refill that would be really kool (if you'd like to), you've got some great ideas there. However, a harmonizer in Reason?! :shock: I can't even begin to image the amount of work that would have to go into that. Getting to select the right key, etc. Although you could do it with multiple matrixes, and you could tune with the vocoder through a Malstrom...

Hmm this has got me thinking about the possibilities! I'll need to do research as I do this and see what other types of audio processing units are out there.

[anosou]

I did realize I was wrong :)

I have no experience of anything like a harmonizer or exciter or whatever, or I just don't recognize the term. Anyway, this will be interesting :) good luck man


Yeah, what I want to do though is go more for the exciter/enhancer thing, although most of those include a compressor in the processing chain (by mixing a compressed version of the 'enhanced' signal into the original one). I'll experiment and see what I can come up with, although I don't think it will be possible to approximate any commercial compressor, Reasons ones are already great; although I have already built a couple of combis that are specific effects that use compression as the main component

It will be a big challenge for me, and lot of fun along the way hopefully.

Avaris, if you could build some combis for the refill that would be really kool (if you'd like to), you've got some great ideas there. However, a harmonizer in Reason?! :shock: I can't even begin to image the amount of work that would have to go into that. Getting to select the right key, etc. Although you could do it with multiple matrixes, and you could tune with the vocoder through a Malstrom...

Hmm this has got me thinking about the possibilities! I'll need to do research as I do this and see what other types of audio processing units are out there.

[avaris]

Haha yeah a harmonizer will take some serious thought, time, and fine tuning.

Although in a quick attempt to make something that resembled one I created something that really enhances the sounds. In general it creates lot of little artifacts to give any sounds more character. I based the signal flows from this 'harmonizer' for the combi.

http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/VWr_106_US-2fc8e366537b84adeaf9f055e4c75d30.pdf

I tested it out on a bunch of different types of sounds. It sounds awesome on bells, strings(especially marcato), plucked sounds, and sin/tri wav based synths. Sounds bad on brass.

Malcos I PM'ed you the combi. Can we post links to the combis we make here? Or are we gonna gather all of them and then release all of them at one time.

[Malcos]

I definitely think we should go the gather and then release route. We could then have it on places like combinator HQ (when it comes back). What should the refill be called? 'Fun machines' sounds a bit lame to me. I'll check out your combi later on today Avaris.

EDIT: Checked it out, very nice on marc strings! It really intensified them and made them a lot thicker. Perhaps you could make one of the combi buttons take off the reverb? After hearing that, I'm gonna start on some combis today!

[Malcos]

Ok I've made about 4 different types of exciter now. I'll be tweaking them over the next few weeks and making a lot more combis. I can see why people use these a lot - after trying them out on some old songs, taking it off makes the whole thing sound so flat! Definitely best used subtly though.

[anosou]

Ok I've made about 4 different types of exciter now. I'll be tweaking them over the next few weeks and making a lot more combis. I can see why people use these a lot - after trying them out on some old songs, taking it off makes the whole thing sound so flat! Definitely best used subtly though.

Lovely, can't wait to hear some sound examples!
Give us a before / after mp3 to get us all worked up mate

[DJ SymBiotiX]

yea totally, i'm really excited I wanna hear some results :D

[avaris]

Here's an audio example of mine. The volume levels should be the same between the dry and wet versions.

http://hosting.thasauce.net/users/avaris/Combi%20Example.mp3

I used a song from ICO for the example.:grin:

[anosou]

Here's an audio example of mine. The volume levels should be the same between the dry and wet versions.

http://hosting.thasauce.net/users/avaris/Combi%20Example.mp3

I used a song from ICO for the example.:grin:

We all like the Glockenspiel 3.0 ;)
Well it sounds pretty cool , nice work

[DJ SymBiotiX]

wow thats really awesome,cant wait till you guys are done

[Malcos]

Lol, yeah kinda takes the piss me just talking about it. Here are some sound examples of what kinds of things I have so far. I just slapped the preset I made on most of these, although I made them tweakable to suit the needs of any song:

'Aphex' type exciter (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/aphexone.mp3)
This song is called 'In Space', a song I did a few years ago. I've put the exciter in between the mixer and the mastering combi for best results imo. Exciter kicks in at 0.14, (not that I needed to tell you that).

Bass boost with exciter (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/Bassboostwith.mp3)
Came up with my own type of exciter here, with added bass saturation as well to balance things out. Not that this song needed any more bass.

Today's example (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/newex.mp3)
A sample of a song I did today, had to add the exciter as well! Kicks in at 6 seconds, leaves at 18 seconds. This is more realistic of how it would actually be used.

Drum kits (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/kits.mp3)
Just layered factory soundbank samples with some processing all wrapped up in combis.

Rexstutterer (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/rexstutterer.mp3)
Ok so basically this uses a delay to hold the sample for a short period of time. It's better to program the automation for the 'hold' button on the sequencer otherwise it's very tricky to get the timing exact.

This is most of what I've got so far!

[anosou]

Lol, yeah kinda takes the piss me just talking about it. Here are some sound examples of what kinds of things I have so far. I just slapped the preset I made on most of these, although I made them tweakable to suit the needs of any song:

'Aphex' type exciter (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/aphexone.mp3)
This song is called 'In Space', a song I did a few years ago. I've put the exciter in between the mixer and the mastering combi for best results imo. Exciter kicks in at 0.14, (not that I needed to tell you that).

Bass boost with exciter (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/Bassboostwith.mp3)
Came up with my own type of exciter here, with added bass saturation as well to balance things out. Not that this song needed any more bass.

Today's example (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/newex.mp3)
A sample of a song I did today, had to add the exciter as well! Kicks in at 6 seconds, leaves at 18 seconds. This is more realistic of how it would actually be used.

Drum kits (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/kits.mp3)
Just layered factory soundbank samples with some processing all wrapped up in combis.

Rexstutterer (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/rexstutterer.mp3)
Ok so basically this uses a delay to hold the sample for a short period of time. It's better to program the automation for the 'hold' button on the sequencer otherwise it's very tricky to get the timing exact.

This is most of what I've got so far!

REALLY cool. the Rex-stutter is something I really like the sound of and the kits was amazing too. Everything else sounds pretty damn awesome as well but I am a sucker for drums ;)

[Tensei]

Today's example (http://www.malcos.co.uk/ref/newex.mp3)
A sample of a song I did today, had to add the exciter as well! Kicks in at 6 seconds, leaves at 18 seconds. This is more realistic of how it would actually be used.


Let me just say, wow. It's amazing how the mix already sounds pretty cool, but as soon as the exciter kicks in it just starts to totally kick ass, and when it leaves the mix suddenly starts to sound pretty lifeless in comparison. No wonder these things tend to get overused like hell in nearly every mastering chain.

Anyway, more mad props for the work you've already done, it's simply amazing how much hidden potential Reason in fact has, and I can't wait to start using your devices =D

[Sir_NutS]

oh man I want this!

[Malcos]

Ok this should be released in about 3 weeks time. Avaris is working on a few more combis and fine tuning his previous ones. We're both working on demo songs as well as documentation, as I think some of these combis will need quite a bit of explaining!

Any ideas for instrument combis? I haven't got many at the moment...

[avaris]

I got one Instrument combi done. :) It's inspired by reFX Vanguard.

[Malcos]

11 days to go. I made a very strange scratching combi today, and it sounds very weird and I'm now disturbed :???:. I'm near enough finished, bar documentation and anything else I might come up with by accident...

[anosou]

11 days to go. I made a very strange scratching combi today, and it sounds very weird and I'm now disturbed :???:. I'm near enough finished, bar documentation and anything else I might come up with by accident...

wooo! GIVE REFILL! :D

[Sir_NutS]

coincidentally, I've made a few patches that emulate some of the vanguard's presets, and a few days ago I also made a scratching patch, which was pretty fun to mess around with. :p

[avaris]

coincidentally, I've made a few patches that emulate some of the vanguard's presets, and a few days ago I also made a scratching patch, which was pretty fun to mess around with. :p

Sweet. :) Did you use chorus and delays for the scratching?

Haha speaking of vanguard I made an Insert FX that basically sounds like it. You can route in whatever samples you want for the sounds to use. I might make another version after looking at Nexus.

[Malcos]

I emailed Peff and got his blessing to use his beat repeater and xfade combinators as the basis for some of the combis (as they already were lol), I will give him full credit in the documentation/manual.

coincidentally, I've made a few patches that emulate some of the vanguard's presets, and a few days ago I also made a scratching patch, which was pretty fun to mess around with. :p

If you want to share these, let me know and I'll put them in the refill. If anyone else wants to contribute, just send the combinator file(s) to me by Wednesday 8th August with an explanation of how to use it as a text file and I'll put it in a seperate folder in the refill with your name on it.

[Malcos]

Just a little demo to whet the appetite, 8 days till release...

www.malcos.co.uk/ref/Scratch_Demo.mp3

[Sir_NutS]

Sweet. :) Did you use chorus and delays for the scratching?

Haha speaking of vanguard I made an Insert FX that basically sounds like it. You can route in whatever samples you want for the sounds to use. I might make another version after looking at Nexus.

Frankly i don't remember how I did it, I know it involved lots of lfo cv modulation and a few samplers. I will see if i can submit a more polished version, as I made that one almost by accident XD (sometimes I just sit and experiment, and when I get wicked results that I like I save them)

EDIT: Malcos, the scratching sounds cool. Is that combi an insert, or a scratching sound generator? because mine isn't something that you can insert and converts the sound into scratching, although, I might have an idea of how that could be accomplished... gonna try it when I get home.

[Malcos]

Frankly i don't remember how I did it, I know it involved lots of lfo cv modulation and a few samplers. I will see if i can submit a more polished version, as I made that one almost by accident XD (sometimes I just sit and experiment, and when I get wicked results that I like I save them)

EDIT: Malcos, the scratching sounds cool. Is that combi an insert, or a scratching sound generator? because mine isn't something that you can insert and converts the sound into scratching, although, I might have an idea of how that could be accomplished... gonna try it when I get home.

I tried to do a scratch machine but it wasn't working at first, then I gave up and started making a glitch machine, and then I ended up making a scratch machine...lol.

It's an insert effect and you run the audio through it. Then you can use your midi keyboard on the scratch combi and press a key every time you want to 'scratch' the incoming audio. At the same time as the audio is being 'scratched', the original sound is muted (although there is a version of this without the muting) so it sounds like you're actually scratching the audio. I used a delay to do it, taking advantage of the weirdness that happens when you change the delay times with the DDL-1.

Does what I said make any sense? I'm trying to make the explanations as clear as possible for the manual.

[Sir_NutS]

I tried to do a scratch machine but it wasn't working at first, then I gave up and started making a glitch machine, and then I ended up making a scratch machine...lol.

It's an insert effect and you run the audio through it. Then you can use your midi keyboard on the scratch combi and press a key every time you want to 'scratch' the incoming audio. At the same time as the audio is being 'scratched', the original sound is muted (although there is a version of this without the muting) so it sounds like you're actually scratching the audio. I used a delay to do it, taking advantage of the weirdness that happens when you change the delay times with the DDL-1.

Does what I said make any sense? I'm trying to make the explanations as clear as possible for the manual.

yeah, of course, I understood it perfectly. I'm thinking of trying to do it using the rv7000, since it has a "reverse" mode which I can take advantage of to create the "scratch". I've yet to try it but I think it could work, it all depends on how "dry" I can get the output signal to be, so it sounds more like the sound being reversed and fast-fowarded rather than a reversed reeverb being manipulated. We'll see.

[Malcos]

Almost finished......

[DJ SymBiotiX]

dooooooooooooooo it!!! I need it!!!... must have machines refill... *drools*...

[Malcos]

Finished!

www.malcos.co.uk/DSP_Refill.zip

[anosou]

Finished!

www.malcos.co.uk/DSP_Refill.zip

OMG, now I just gotta get home and on to my own computer :(

[avaris]

Forgot to include it. :)

Demo Song RNS (hopefully this will open)

http://hosting.thasauce.net/users/avaris/Fallen%20Angels%20SW.rns

Demo Song mp3

http://hosting.thasauce.net/users/avaris/Fallen%20Angels.mp3

The only instruments I used were:

Harp 8va (2 times)
VNS/VCS strings combination
Bass/VCS strings combination
Old Grand

[Lunahorum]

So is this a reason only type thing. I recently took a look and reason and saw that everything is like virtual hardware where you can flip it around and connect wires. Looked pretty cool. FL studio still working great for me though.

[avaris]

Yup this is just for reason. This whole refill is about flipping the rack around and being really creative with the routings to make lots of really crazy and useful FX combis.

For instance the guitar in the demo song I put together is actually a harp run through one of the combi patches.

[anosou]

this was a great refill guys :) haven't tried everything yet but the things I tried. Wonderful
Keep up the good work
I.O.U.

[V___]

:O perfect timing for my return! looks good (unlike R4), cant wait to try it out (unlike R4)! :P

[V___]

:O

:O:O:O:O:O:O

This refill..... makes my balls wet....

SO awesome, you guys rock, and are amazing, thank you so much for this. Seriously... I would have never thought of so much of this.... my entire concept of sound is expanded and Reason is a new feild of delight, in which I prance and pick dafodils.

I am only disapointed in 1 thing with this....

ONLY 1 THING

....

I wasnt thanked for anything in the documentation (I know I didnt actually do anything, but it still wouldv been nice)

[avaris]

Oh why thank you kind sir. :-P

I prob coulda put you in the thanks section...since you were one of the main influences I started using Reason. Now go make some damn music!