Here is another short reason tutorial related to making 8 bit chiptune sounding patches. This time were going to use the Thor polysonic synth found in reason 4.

The most important aspect of this synth is the use of the step sequencer at the bottom of the Thor, to get something that sounds vaguely authentic you will need to play with the note settings of the step sequencer till you get the right sound. Keep this in mind as you play with this patch.

Ok so lets start at the top. Copy the polyphony, oscillator, envelope and delay settings you can see in the 3 graphics below. They don’t have to be incredibly accurate to sound good. After you finished making the patch you can tweak to taste.

chip tune synth poly settings

chiptune synth osc & envelope settings

chiptune synth delay settings

Ok so now on to the meat of how you get that authentic chiptune sound. Its all down to the rapid arpeggios of notes that are played by the thors step sequencer. In the example I’ve used I only used the first 4 steps of the step sequencer just for speeds sake, if you want use 8 or all 16 notes.

chiptune synth step sequncer settings

So first set steps =4

set run mode to “repeat”

now make sure “sync” is on, and that rate is set to 1/64

Now this is the clever bit, in the modulation matrix set up the following routings:

midi gate > 100% > Step Sequencer Trig

midi note > 100% > Step Sequencer Transpose

You’ll note I’ve also assigned the thors two controller knobs to filter and Oscillator balance you can do the same or simply play with these settings manually.

Now if you play keys you will now notice that a 64th note arpeggio that follows your key presses is occurring, it wont quite sound right yet as all the notes in the arpeggio are currently set to c3.

Lets remedy that. Make sure note octave is set to 2. and set each step to the following note vales.

Step 1 = D3

Step 2= C3

Step 3 = G2

Step 4 = D#3

The arpeggio should sound something like this now.

An that’s pretty much it. Play with your own filter settings and step sequencer note set-ups and you should be able to create a variety of new chiptune style patches.

]]> http://www.reasontutorials.net/2009/02/reason-tutorial-chiptune-synth-in-thor/feed/ 0 http://www.reasontutorials.net/2009/02/making-the-bodyrox-yeah-yeah-synth-in-reason/ http://www.reasontutorials.net/2009/02/making-the-bodyrox-yeah-yeah-synth-in-reason/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:22:32 +0000 AikiGhost http://www.reasontutorials.net/?p=247 This tutorial was contributed by our friend luckydatevideos on you tube. Awesome videos and great sound design. A really useful little 9 minute video on how to create that BodyRox Yeah Yeah sound. Its a great sound and this tutorial steps you right through how to make a seriously authentic sounding copy of it. Enjoy. ]]>

This tutorial was contributed by our friend luckydatevideos on you tube. Awesome videos and great sound design. A really useful little 9 minute video on how to create that BodyRox Yeah Yeah sound. Its a great sound and this tutorial steps you right through how to make a seriously authentic sounding copy of it. Enjoy.

Don’t get me wrong reason has always had good synths, the subtractor is still one of my favorite bass synths and the Malstrom is still fantastic for edgy goodness and doing evolving pads. The synths in reason were so good in fact that when Reason 4 was announced I kind of ignored Thor and was fixated on the arpeggiator and the ReGroove mixer (Which to be fair IS absolutely awesome).

Over time I’ve come to realize that this was a mistake. The Thor is a powerhouse, it can be subtle, solid, screechy and sometimes unpredictable in a good way. So in the spirit of “Don’t underestimate this beast like I did” I’ve decided to do a “Top 10″ style list of things I didn’t realize or think about when I first saw Thor. Hopefully some of this will be informative and useful to somebody.

1. Wavetable & Noise Oscillators - If you haven’t already, you really have to have to have a good play with these two oscillator types. The wavetable enables you to make such a vast array of sounds it’s almost incomprehensible. Everything from pianos and organs to twinkly bell like tones and deep dark pad noises. Meanwhile the noise osc is really useful for adding grit to synth tones and for doing analogue style drums (see the Analog Snare tutorial) the noise Osc can also be set to make various types of tuned noise which are really harmonically useful in pads and drones.

Wavetable & Noise Oscs

2. Internal LFO routing - The routing matrix. Well what can one say about this other than “IT’S AWESOME DOOD!!!”. There is such depth to what you can do with the routing matrix that it can sometimes get a bit confusing. The first thing I will say is look at routing the Thors LFOs to various parameters in a subtle way to help give you more evolving sounds. Take a slow “smooth sample and hold” style LFO and route it to a filter or an Osc Frequency pitch or Position setting and hear the results, instant sonic movement in your sound.

Example Routings

3. Routing midi note velocity to multiple things - Ok so we’ve all thought of the obvious routing of velocity to a final output stage low pass filter. The harder you hit a key the more top end is allowed through, the softer you hit the key the more just the bass end is let through. Thats all good stuff.

But what about routing the note velocity to LFO rate (which is in turn routed to delay amount or something else sonicaly interesting?), how about routing note velocity to a 2 filters at once one adding to the output and one taking away? Maybe add another velocity routing to one of the oscillators Position settings? You can be as subtle or extreme as you like with this. If you go far enough you can create patches where almost no two keypresses generate the same sound.

Velocity Routing

4. Routing Matrix “Scale” option - Ok so we have all these crazy routings set up, but we don’t want them to be in effect all the time or we want the option to apply differing amounts of a routing while we are playing with the patch. How do we do it? Simple use the “scale” option in the routing matrix. Essentially this allows you to specify how much of a set routing is controlled by something else. For example you can have an LFO which is routed to a filter, but if you only want this swishing filter movement to come into effect while the mod wheel is pushed up simply set the second “amount” = 100 and the “Scale” = Mod Wheel. Now the amount of LFOing filter you hear is controlled by how much you push up the Mod Wheel.

5. Filter Self Oscillation - For some quite wild and unpredictable results don’t be afraid to turn on the filter “self osc” button and push the filter resonance into the high 110s+ area, this can result in some wild and nasty screaming noises and odd bass end stuff but used in conjunction with a second band low pass or band pass filter (or even routing external audio, self oscillating breakbeats anyone?) this can generate some very usable but odd stuff.

Filter Self Osc

6. Global Envelope - Ok so it sits there all alone and looks a bit “What is this for?”. Trust me start experimenting with routing the global envelope with various settings to unusual parameters (You know something other than amp or filter) and you may well be surprised at the results.

Global Envelope

7. Audio Ins for manipulating audio signals - There are 4 audio in on the back panel of Thor these can be routed to filters and messed with by the internals of most parts of the signal chain. Try routing a breakbeat through some LFOed filters and the Shaper and see what you get.

Audio Inputs

8. Audio Ins Used as a controller in the modulation matrix – You can also route audio signals to things other than filters. You can have the level of audio example routed to an LFO speed or the shaper gain etc. This is wide open for experimentation.

Example Audio Routings

9. Back Panel CV ins & outs - If audio in wasn’t enough there are also 4 CV ins and 4 CV outs to allow Thor to interact with any other device you so choose. Fancy sending the audio level of a signal you are routing through a filter in the Thor out to the arpeggiator speed on an RPG-8 arpeggiator? No problem the Thors CV outs allow you to do this kind of complex routing with ease.

Back Panel CVs

10. The Step Sequencer - To be honest there is so much you can do with this seemingly simple step sequencer that it could fill several extensive tutorials by itself. You can do everything from letting each key press trigger a mini arpeggio to creating some very odd filter and other effects routings with the Step Sequencer. Also remember that you can not just trigger things with the Step Sequencer but you can use other devices to trigger it using the back panel CVs or the Step Sequencer Trig & Step Sequencer Transpose modulation routings.

The Step Sequencer

Simple yet powerful the Subtractor synth has been a part of Propellerheads Reason since version 1. Its is a lovely little utility synth that manages to pack a hell of a lot of oomph in a very small front panel. I have found over the years that the Subtractor is very good for lead and Bass sounds and even now we have access to the Thor the Subtractors filter section still stands up as being better for “Squidgy” bass style sounds.

The Subtractor - Click to enlarge

In fact there is quite a large amount to cover with the Subtractor so in this post I will just try to cover the basics of what each section does at a simple level without going into too much detail.

Oscillator Section
Ok so here is where we generate our initial sound which we will later shape with filters and so on. As you can see there are 3 oscillators 2 standard Oscs and a Noise Osc.

Subtactor Oscillator Section

With the standard Oscs there are 32 different waveforms, these are detailed in depth in the reason manual. The main osc types I use to make 90% of my sounds are the first 4 though (Sawtooth, Square, Triangle and Sine).

Sine: The sine is the purest waveform with the simplest harmonics it works in a number of situations where a smooth type of sound is needed at high ranges it has organ like overtones and is useful at lower tones for adding bass end energy to a sound. For example it is often layered with a kick to give extra low end oomph.

Sawtooth: This waveform has a very rich and bright sound, full of harmonics and overtones. It is great for aggressive lead synth sounds and more modern bass sounds. The Sawtooth wave is the main component of trance and electro house style bass synths for example.

Square: The square wave has a quite “hollow” sound but is also heavy on harmonics. It can be used for hollow old school house bass type noises. It is quite useful in a number of different situations where the aggressiveness of a sawtooth is not needed.

Triangle: Much like the sine wave but with more harmonics, it can be used in similar situations to the sine but where the sine waves smoothness is not as required.

The other oscillator shapes are in fact combinations of the 4 above waveforms in varying degrees but the only way to get to grips with all of them is to experiment.

Just to the right of the wave selector for each oscillator we have the octave control, the use of this should be pretty self explanatory. Set to 2 or 3 for bass end noises and to 4 -6 for lead type sounds anything above 7 is usually not particularly useful for anything other than layering purposes (or upsetting the local dog populous)

Next is the semitone control, this is useful for producing patches that play to oscillators (when you have both turned on) at separate pitches. Generally it can be quite useful to set the two oscillators 3, 5 or 7 semitones apart from each other. experiment with this and see what you can find.

Now we are onto the controls I use in almost every Subtractor patch I make. The cent or tuning controls these are extremely useful for fattening up sounds by detuning one oscillator from the other by a small amount. Generally detune Osc 2 form Osc 1 by about 15-30 cents dependant on how pronounced an effect you want. This will help to make your basses fatter and your leads more piercing.

Finally we have the FM (or frequency modulation) and the Oscillator Mix controls. Frequency modulation is a form of synthesis where the timbre of a waveform is changed by modulating it with a another oscillator, this results in a more complex (and often harsher) sounding tone. FM makes for a less pur but often more interesting and/or harsher tone. The oscillator mix control quite simply sets how much of Osc1 is heard and how much of Osc 2 is heard. All the way to the left and you hear only Osc1, all the way to the right and its just Osc2 and so on.

You may have noticed that I left out the left most controls of the Oscillator section so far. This is because these are the Phase modulation offset synthesis controls and are actually quite complex compared to the other controls in this section. Essentially these controls allow you to generate a secondary waveform for each oscillator, off set that new waveform and then either multiply or subtract the secondary oscillator with the first.

Each Osc has a Phase Offset knob, which determines the amount of the offset and a mode selector (good band) which determines if it will be multiplied (x), subtracted (-) or ignored (0). Many oscillator sync effects and things like Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) can be achieved with judicious use of these controls. Though it may seem complex at first ignore these controls at your peril there’s synthesis gold in them there phase modulators.

Next up we have the noise generator section. These controls allow you to generate various colours of noise. Noise is generally useful in percussive patches and the noise osc is routed through the osc2 section of the mixer along with the main Osc2 signal. Decay sets the length of time the noise will sound for after a key is released and level sets the overall amplitude of the noise.

Finally we have the Keyboard track and the Ring Modulation switches. keyboard tracking should generally be left on for most patches only really being turned off for untuned percussive sounds. Turning on Ring Modulation multiplies Osc 1 with Osc 2 to produce sum and difference frequencies. Ring modulation creates complex and enharmonic often bell-like sounds.

Filter Section

In subtractive synthesis the charcateristics of the filter could be argues to be one of the most effceting aspects of a stnthesiser on its overall timbre. Im glad to say that the Subractor has a rather nice charcterful filter section which alows a lot of different styles of sound to be produced.

Subtractor Filter Section

You have 5 different filter types to choose from in filter section 1.

• 24dB & 12dB Low Pass – The most commonly used filter in subtractive synthesis used for rolling off the the top end of a waveform to varying degrees.
• 12dB Bandpass – Allows a variable width band of frequencies in the middle range through.
• 12dB High Pass – Cuts out the bottom end of a sound and allows the high end frequencies through.
• Notch – Rejects a narrow band of frequencies in the mid range. Almost like the opposite of te band pass filter.

The Filter 1 Frequency controls determines the area of the audio spectrum that the filter will operate in. If for example a 12dB low pass filter is set to 0 then no audio signal at all will be let through. If the same filter is set to 127 then all frequencies will be allowed through.

The Filter 1 Resonance control determines different things for different types of filters. For LP or HP filters the resonance determines how much the area the filter frequency is set to will be emphasised. With Band Pass or Notch filters the resonance control determines the width of the passed or cut area of the frequency spectrum.

The keyboard filter track knob determines how much the filter 1 frequency is affected by which key on the keyboard is being pressed. A setting of 0 has no effcet and a setting of 127 has an obvious and pronounced effcet (assuming the filter is not set to completely open anyway).

The Filter 2 section controls a second Low Pass filter which is connected directly after filter 1 in the audio path. Filter 2 can be used to take off the top end of a signal or to accentuate whatever frequencies at a certain area of the audio spectrum are allowed through filter 1.

The filter link button creates a relative link between the filter frequency of filter 1 & 2. As filter 1s frequency is raised filter 2s frequency is also raised a similar amount.

Envelopes Section

The envelopes section of Subtractor is used to determine how various parameters (pitch, volume, filter, etc) will change over time. Its actually pretty simple but should be examined and understood fully before moving on if oscillators and filters determine a synthesisers character or sound the envelope settings give a synth patch its “Feel”.

Subtractor Envelopes

Envelopes – General Parameters

Attack: This determines the amount of time an envelope will take to reach its peak form the initial key press. Set Attack to 0 and the envelope will hit its maximum value instantly, set it to 127 and it will take many tens of seconds.

Decay: Decay determines how quickly or slowly an envelope drops from its highest level once the attack has peaked. The lower the value the slower the envelope will decay.

Sustain: This sets the minimum value an envelope will attain over the period of decay. If Sustain is set to 127 then no decay will occur, if it is set to 0 then a complete decay to nothing will occur.

Release: This is much like the Decay parameter except that it determines how long it takes an envelope to decay to zero after the key has been released.

There are 3 envelope sections Mod, Filter and Amplitude (Amp), I’ll cover these in reverse order as that is generally accepted as their order of importance.

Amplitude Envelope

The Amp envelope determines how loud each note the subtractor makes is at each point in its life cycle. Generally piano or lead style patches have a low Attack and a medium amplitude release envelope, with varying decay and sustain settings. More pad or drone like sounds will have slower attacks and releases with slow decays.

Filter Envelope

The filter envelope controls the Filter 1 Frequency parameter, there is not much more to be said about it other than most simple instrument patches tend to have an Attack of 0 for this parameter but experimentation and looking at factory patches is in order to see what can be done with the filter envelope.

Filter Envelope Amount

This parameter determines to what degree the filter will be affected by the Filter Envelope. The more to the right this is turned the more obvious the effects of the filter envelope will be.

Mod Envelope

The mod envelope is an amount and destination assignable envelope which can be used to get more interesting sounding and advanced synth effects.

• Osc 1: Assigns the envelope to control the pitch of Osc 1.
• Osc 2: Assigns the envelope to control the pitch of Osc 2.
• Osc Mix: Assigns the Mod Envelope to control the Osc 1&2 mix parameter.
• FM: Assigns the Mod Envelope control the FM Amount parameter.
• Phase: Assigns the Mod Envelope control to the phase offset parameter for Osc 1 and 2.
• Freq 2: Assigns the Mod Envelope control to the Frequency parameter for Filter 2.

Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO) Section

The LFOs are a lot like Osc 1 & 2, in that they also generate a waveform and a frequency. But there are a few big differences. Firstly LFOs only generate waveforms with low frequencies and secondly the output of the LFOs are not in the audio range, they are Instead used for modulating synthesiser parameters. LFOs essentially provide a way to make a synth patch feel more live and give the sound more “Movement”.

Subtractor LFO Section

LFO 1 Parameters

LFO 1 allows you to select the following waveforms for modulation

• Triangle: This is a smooth waveform, suitable for normal vibrato.
• Inverted Sawtooth: This produces a “ramp up” cycle. The LFO sweeps up to a set point, after which the cycle immediately restarts.
• Sawtooth: This produces a “ramp down” cycle, the same as above but inverted.
• Square: This produces cycles that abruptly changes between two values.
• Random: Produces random stepped modulation to the destination. Sometimes called “Sample & Hold”.
• Soft Random: As above, but with smooth modulation.

Available LFO 1 Destinations:

• Osc 1&2: Sets LFO 1 to control the pitch of Osc 1 & 2.
• Osc 2: As above but just for Osc 2.
• Filter Freq: Sets LFO 1 to control the filter frequency of Filter 1.
• FM: Sets LFO 1 to control the FM Amount parameter.
• Phase: Sets LFO 1 to control the Phase Offset parameter for Osc 1 & 2.
• Osc Mix: Sets LFO 1 to control the oscillator mix parameter.

Sync: Clicking this button activates/deactivates LFO synchronisation to song tempo.

Rate: Controls the LFOs frequency.

Amount: Determines the degree to which the elected parameter destination will be affected by LFO 1.

LFO 2 Parameters

LFO 2 is slightly different to LFO1 in so far as it is both polyphonic (a separate LFO is created for each key stroke) and it allows the modulation of a slightly different set of parameters. One further difference is that is always uses a sine wave as its modulation source.

Available LFO 2 Destinations:

• Osc 1&2: Sets LFO 2 to control the pitch of Osc 1 & 2.
• Phase: Sets LFO 2 to control the Phase Offset parameter for Osc 1 & 2.
• Filter Freq 2: Sets LFO 2 to control the filter frequency of Filter 2.
• Amp: Sets LFO 2 to modulate the overall volume useful for creating tremolo.

LFO 2 Delay: Sets an amount of time before the effects of LFO 2 kick in.

LFO keyboard tracking: If this is activated, LFO rate will increase the higher up on the keyboard you play.

Rate: Controls the LFOs frequency.

Amount: Determines the degree to which the elected parameter destination will be affected by LFO 2.

Velocity Section

The velocity section is quite self explanatory. It is a series of knobs that determine how much the pressure of each key stroke affects a number of different synth parameters.

Subtractor Velocity Section

The various velocity parameters parameters are :

• Amp: If a positive value is set, the volume will increase the harder you strike a key. The opposite is true for negative values. If set to 0 velocity has no effect on volume.
• FM: Positive values will increase the FM amount the harder you play. The opposite is true for negative values.
• M.Env: Velocity control for the Mod Envelope Amount parameter.
• Phase: Velocity control for the Phase Offset parameter.
• Freq 2: Velocity control for the Filter 2 Frequency parameter.
• F.Env: Velocity control for the Filter Envelope Amount parameter.
• F.Dec: Velocity control for the Filter Envelope Decay parameter. Positive values will increase the Decay time the harder you play. The opposite is true for negative values.
• Osc Mix: Positive values will increase the Osc 2 Mix amount the harder you play. The opposite is true for negative values.
• A.Attack: Positive values will increase the Attack time the harder you play. The opposite is true for negative values.

“Play” section

This section allows you to load and save patches and sets various parameters that react to the keyboard pitch and modulation wheels.

Subtractor Performance Controls

Load & Save Controls: These allow for the loading, saving and stepping through of patches for the subtractor. Quite and advantage over many real analogue synths.

Pitch Bend and Modulation Wheels

Pitch Bend is used for “bending” notes on a keyboard much like bending the strings on a guitar. The Mod wheel can be used to apply various other modulations.

Pitch bend range: This determines the range of pitch bend available via the wheel this can be set up to 2 octaves.

Modulation Wheel: This can be set to control a number of different parameters at once.

The available Modulation wheel Parameters are:

• F. Freq: Sets the Mod Wheel to control the frequency parameter for Filter 1.
• F. Res: Sets the Mod Wheel to control the resonance parameter for Filter 1.
• LFO 1: Sets the Mod Wheel to control the LFO 1 amount parameter.
• Phase: Sets the Mod Wheel to control the Phase Offset parameter for Osc 1 & 2.
• FM: Sets the Mod Wheel to control the FM Amount parameter.

In each case positive amounts increase the amount of modulation when the mod wheel is pushed up and negative amounts have the opposite effect.

Legato: Legato works best with monophonic sounds. Set Polyphony to 1 and hold down one key and then press another key without releasing the last one. You will notice that the pitch changes but the envelopes do not start again.

Portamento: This determines the amount of time it takes for “glides” between the notes you play.

Retrig: The normal setting for polyphonic patches. Each new key press re-triggers the envelopes.

Polyphony: Determines the maximum number of notes a patch can play at once.

Low Bandwidth: This button can be used to conserve CPU power by taking the top end resolution off a sound. With modern CPUs this is extremely rarely worth doing.

External Modulation sources:

The Subtractor can accept the following MIDI extra modulation sources

• Aftertouch (Channel Pressure)
  
• Expression Pedal
  
• Breath Control

At any time one of these can be assigned to the following modulation destinations

• F. Freq: Filter 1 frequency parameter
• LFO 1: LFO 1Amount parameter
• Amp: Overall volume, would allow you to control a patches volume with a foot pedal for example.
• FM: FM Amount parameter

Rear Panel

Flipping the Subtractor around reveals a plethora of connection possibilities, most of which are CV/Gate related.

Subtractor Rear Panel

Audio Output: This is Subtractors main audio output.

Sequencer Control: The Sequencer Control CV and Gate inputs allow you to play the Subtractor from another CV/Gate device . The CV input controls the note pitch and the Gate input delivers note on/off/velocity.
Modulation Inputs: These inputs can control the following parameters:

• Oscillator Pitch (both Osc 1 & 2).
  
• Oscillator Phase Offset (both Osc 1 & 2).
  
• FM Amount
  
• Filter 1 Cutoff
  
• Filter 1 Res
  
• Amp Level
  
• Mod Wheel
  

Modulation Outputs: These can be used to voltage control other devices, or other parameters in the same Subtractor device. The Modulation Outputs are:

• Mod Envelope
  
• Filter Envelope
  
• LFO 1
  

Gate Inputs: These can receive a CV signal to trigger the following envelopes:

• Amp Envelope
  
• Filter Envelope
  
• Mod Envelope

Note that connecting to these inputs overrides the normal triggering of the envelopes.

CV Input “Trim” Controls: Another thing to note about all the CV inputs is the “Trim” control just to the left of each input. The trim controls allow you to determine the amount by which an external CV source can effect the subtractors internal modulation. The lower the trim control is set the less the effect of any CV input.

By SiKo

Since I like to start with a bass and a kick, here’s how I learned to do it.

Download the song file (You will need this)

Rack preparation
Between the Hardware interface and your (first) mixer place an MClass mastering unit (default one is fine for now).

To get the sound of a pumping and grooving bass/kick combination, I use the kick to duck the bass signal and the combination of the kick and the bass to duck the shadow mixer (leads, samples, ‘the rest’)

I made a combinator patch to set-up the mixers needed. Load this into a combinator:

The kick
I connected the kick to the small (line) mixer.

If you are wondering how I made the kick:

In this song I used a sample. (Found a bunch on forum.isratrance.com, check it out!). Also possible is to use a subtractor or maelstrom to create a kick. A lot of good patches are shipping in the PsyCrafter vol. 1 refill which is very nice if you need good leads, fx and synths for your (psychedelic trance) tracks.

In general it’s more efficient and maintainable to keep things in combinators, so here’s the kick combi:

and the back of the rack:

As you can see, I split the kick audio signal and route one copy into the vocoder’s carrier inputs and one copy of the signal into the modulator input. This allows me to EQ the sound, shift the sound and mix it (via dry/wet) with the original kick sound to get the sound I want. Also I changed the velocity amount (less) on the redrum so we get an equal powered kick no matter the velocity and in this case I changed the length of the sample because the kick sound had a funny sounding tail. (This is just an example emphasizing the modulation possibilities you have for modulating the sound =f the kick).

After comes another EQ to find the nice spot in the kick to emphasize.

The bass
Ok, on to the bass:

Again, you can use samples (The disco bass patch in the FSB is a nice one for psy basses or use subtractor, malstrom or thor.)

I use a malstrom bass from the aforementioned refill. Same tuning tricks apply: vocoder (shaping the sound) and in the case of a synth bass, I use a compressor as well. (Anyway a compressor on the bass is a nice idea, just listen, don’t just follow what I or others are saying J)

To get the machine going

With some smart midi notes (a lot of info to be found in the istratrance forums), it already starts to sound nice together with the kick

But we’re not done!

First of all, to complete the kick/bass combi sound, we want the bass to be ducked by the kick, in order to find that grooving/pumping sound.

Side chaining is the word and I made a combinator to hook up the kick and bass so that you can side chain compress the bass with the kick.

(Sometimes when your bass is velocity sensitive, and pencil/record smart notes, side chaining will not have the most dramatic effect … but it never hurts when done subtly).

The finishing touch

And now for final tuning and mixing: ReGroove!

On sequenced notes (and unfortunately not on matrix and arpeggiator generated notes) you can apply groove templates that alter

- timing (following the chosen template)

- velocity (idem)

- length of the midi notes (idem)

- relative position to the rigid grid

The ReGroove mixer can shuffle the notes as well!

Great on drums, but also on bass … give it a try, and check the .rns where I did just that.

I hope this was interesting to you. Since I don’t have a professional audio background, I might have made mistakes, misassumptions or whatever. So if you think you might add or correct to this post, please don’t hesitate!

Happy grooving, boom out,

SiKo

Everyone’s heard it, or a derivative of it and a lot of people love the sound of the classic “Reese” bass. The reese bass and derivatives thereof have been around for so long now that they are almost as much of a cliché as the 303 acid sound. Yet this doesn’t stop us loving that deep deep warp and wobble in our Drum & Bass and Electro house tracks.

In this tutorial I’ll show you a way to recreate a bass with very similar characteristics to the classic reese but with a bit of “wobble control” so you can vary the sound to your own liking.

First right click and create a Thor in the rack. Now create 3 Analogue Oscillators, Leave them all set to sawtooth. Now lower Osc 1 & 2 to octave 3 and Osc 3 to octave 2. detune the second oscillator by about +15 to 20 cents and detune Osc 3 by about -20 cents. Now Route Osc 1 & 2 to Filter 1 and Osc 3 to Filter 2.

Both Filter 1 & 2 should be set to Low Pass.

Filter 1s settings are Frequency = 380 or so, Res = 60, Env Amount = 35, Velocity Amount=90
Filter 2s settings are Frequency = 40 or so, Res = 0, Env Amount = 35, Velocity Amount=90

Set the shaper coming out of filter 1 on. Settings soft clip drive = 0.

Filter Envelope settings should be A=0, D=4.5, S=-7.6 dB, R= 3 ms.
Amp Envelope settings should be A=0, D=4.5, S=-7 dB, R= 2.3 s.

Finally set Polyphony to 1 and Keyboard mode to “Mono Legato”

Initial Setup - Click to enlarge

This should sound something like this.

Now to add some basic “wobble” in to the sound. First set LFO 2 to about 1/2 way up (2.5 Hz or so) and leave waveform = sine.

Ok so here’s the clever bit. Go to the modulation matrix and set the following routings up

Source = LFO2, Amount =100, Destination = Filter 1 Freq, Amount 70, Scale = Rotary 2
Source = LFO2, Amount =100, Destination = Filter 2 Freq, Amount 80, Scale = Rotary 2
Source = Rotary 2, Amount = 55, Destination = LFO2

So now we have both Filters being influenced by the LFO2 output. But turning the Rotary 2 control not only influences the amount of modulation sent to the filters but also the speed of that oscillation. So now when you tweak rotary 2 you get an intensity and speed change to the wobble.

You’ll notice as an optional extra I’ve also routed the Rotary 1 output to the Shaper Drive so as to allow me to tweak distortion amount and also a negative amount to the Filter 3 frequency (A fully open low pass) to cut off the top end of the sound as it gets more distorted to make for a “smother” sound. Both of these final tweaks are optional extras and not actually needed to get a traditional “reese” sound.

Routing Setup

Finally add a Comp 01 compressor (Settings: ratio = 100, Threshold = 25, Attack = 127, Release =25) to even out volume fluctuations and a MClass Equaliser set to “Low cut” to remove the less than 30Hz rumble .

Compression & Low Cut EQ

You should have a noise something like this now.

Playing with the two rotaries during playback should afford you some interesting sounds, a few examples of which you can hear below.

One of the questions I see turn up on music boards all the time is “How do I get that acid house sound?” or “how do I make a 303 sound?”. So I thought I’d show you the basic settings I tend to use.

Firstly I still find that the Subtractor gives a more authentic “acid” sound than the Thor, even though the Thor has an 18db filter I find the actual sound of the Subtractor filter is better for emulating the 303.

Ok so firstly right click and create a Subtractor then click and create a matrix pattern sequencer to drive it.

Now the settings you need are as follows:

1. Firstly the 303 is a monosynth so set the Subtractors Portamento = 25, Polyphony = 1 and mode to “legato”
2. Set Osc 1 to a sawtooth waveform. Oct = 2, Osc Mix = 0 (IE: 100% set to Osc 1)
3. Set Filter 1 Frequency = 32, and Resonance = 55 on a 24 Db Low pass filter.
4. Set the Filter envelope to Attack = 0, Decay = 44, Sustain = 18, Release = 44.
5. Set the Amplitude Envelope to Attack = 10, Decay = 85, Sustain = 15, Release = 15.
6. Set the Filter frequency Mod wheel amount = 20 and the Filter Resonance Mod wheel amount = 100.

Now you should have something that looks like this

and sounds something like this (If you tweak the mod wheel during playback).

Ok so that’s pretty good but not as raucous or nasty as a lot of acid techno or hard house style tracks would use. So obviously the next step is to add a bit of distortion into the mix.

Simply drop a Scream 4 sound destruction unit in line with the Subtractor and set the distortion algorithm to “Tape” (The Tape is setting is good for making thing s sound a little more analogue and also adding loudness via a little bit of compression). Now set the Tape algorithms speed = 40 and compression = 64.

Your synth should now sound a little more like this.

One other setting you can play with to modify the type of 303 sound you get is the Amp envelope decay (for shorter and longer notes), this was one of the settings that tended to get tweaked on the original TB303.

Ok so many people have big collections of snare samples or even the Reason Drum Kit Refill so why bother creating a snare sound using a synthesizer?

Well for several reasons:

1. Its fun
2. Its educational. You need to know about using the noise oscillators and applying filter envelopes to them.
3. Ive always had a soft spot for Kraftwerk, Jean Michelle Jarre and early industrial stuff like Front 242, and they use analog snares all over the place.
4. The sound of an analog snare is unique and with a bit of tweaking you can definitely have a unique snare of your own.

Ok so first open an instance of Thor and click on the “show programmer” button.

Next set Oscillator 1 to be a noise oscillator and choose the “Colour” setting and turn the “Col” knob to maximum.

Now adjust filter 1 frequency to about 100 Hz and envelope (Env) to maximum and adjust the Filter Env Decay to about 2.3 seconds and finally Adjust Amp env decay to about 1 second and Amp Env Release to about 1 second.

Analog Snare with Thor Image01

You should now have a sound something like this.

Ok so not very impressive. But wait a minute now try layering another noise osc with similar settings but adjust the Color parameter slightly, when both oscs sound at the same time you should get something a little more interesting.

Now try playing with Osc 1 & 2 s Color settings, and the low pass filters Env and Vel Parameters to get varing styles of Snare. You can even try adding a third oscillator to add some static or playing with different Filter types.

Analog Snare with Thor Image02

Now you have the basics its time to experiment. Here are another few sounds made this way.