Reason Tutorials

In recent years there has been a resurgence in interest in old school, 8 Bit video game style sounds both in “chiptune” music and as another sound style in more general dance and indie music. In this reason tutorial I will show you how to emulate this style of sound using the Thor synth found in reason 4.

The 2 main elements we will be using to emulate the chiptune sound are

1. Very quick arpeggiation of note pitch
2. Subtle bit reduction/Clipping

Ok so firstly we will need a Thor, so right click on your rack and create one. Now choose an analogue style oscillator for Osc 1 and it to square wave. Now select a Low Pass Filter (24db Type 1) for Filter 1 setting the Frequency to about half way (850Hz or so) and the Resonance to zero. Now set the Envelope amount for the filter to about 100. The next thing we need to do is add some digital artefacts to the signal chain, we do this by turning the shaper on setting it to “Hard Clip” and setting the amount to about 20.

Osc 1, Filter 1 & Shaper Settings

Set the following parameters on the Filter Envelope. A = 0, D = 4.3 seconds, S = -35 dB, R = 3.5 seconds. And then the following on the Amp Envelope. A = 0, D= 4.3seconds, S= -10 dB, R = 1 second.

We will be using LFO 1 and 2 to simulate arpeggiation in this patch so first set both LFO 1 & 2 to the Square wave waveform and the tempo rate to about half way (around 2.40 Hz), this may seem a bit slow but there is a reason for this which will become clear soon.

Lfo 1/2 & Envelope Settings

The next thing we will be doing will be using the modulation matrix to send both LFO1 & 2 to oscillator 1s pitch. We do this by setting the first modulation source = LFO 1, the amount to about 80% and the destination to Osc 1 Pitch. Now we set the second modulation source = LFO 2, the amount to about -50% and again set the destination to Osc 1 Pitch.

We now have something that sounds like this.

Not the 8 bit chiptune sound you are really after.

But wait a minute didn’t I say something earlier about speeding up the LFOs? Yes indeed we now need to do some more assignment in the modulation matrix. Ok so set the third modulation source = Modifiers, Rotary 1, the amount to 100% and the destination to LFO 1 rate, now set the fourth (and final for this patch) modulation source = Modifiers, Rotary 2, the amount to 100% and the destination to LFO 2 rate.

The Modulation matrix settings

Now play with the two rotary controls on the Thor during playback and you should be able to get a plethora of different crazy 8 bit style sounds just by tweaking the two knobs. Here is an example of the final type of sound you should be getting.

Play With These and see what you get!

Obviously you can experiment further with, extra oscillators, different Oscillator types, adding a Scream 4 set on “bit reduction” to the output of the Thor and so on but as always I like to leave a little something for you to play with. Go forth and experiment.