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Thinking of doing a 'machines' refill...


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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?

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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

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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

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

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

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

Just layered factory soundbank samples with some processing all wrapped up in combis.

Rexstutterer

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!

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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

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

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

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

Just layered factory soundbank samples with some processing all wrapped up in combis.

Rexstutterer

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 ;)

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Today's example

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

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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...

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