Arturia V Collection 7

The last time that we tested Arturia’s suite of virtual classic keyboards, we named it “Best Old Skool Soft Synth Collection” in The Technofile Awards. That was version 5, which included the ARP 2600 V, B3 V, CS-80V, Farfisa V, Jup-8V, Matrix-12 V, Mini V, Modular V, SEM V, Piano V, Prophet-V & Prophet VS, Solina V, Stage 73 V, Synclavier V, Vox Continental V, Wurli-V, and Analog Lab (which houses all 6000 plus patches from these synths/keyboards and enables you to quickly sort, filter & combine them). Much has happened since then. Let’s review…

V Collection 6.0 added Buchla Easel V, Clavinet V, CMI V, DX7 V; and upgraded Analog Lab and Piano V, the latter becoming Piano V2.

Buchla Easel V

Buchla Easel V

If you want 1970s West Coast weirdness, you need look no further than Arturia’s Buchla Easel V, which recreates Don Buchla’s legendary semi-modular synth. Easier to programme than one might imagine, it includes a wealth of presets that show it to be so much more than merely a weird noise generator, though it unquestionably excels at generating weird noises.

Clavinet V

Clavinet V

The Honer Clavinet is one of the funkiest keyboard instruments of all time and Arturia’s Clavinet V does a fine job of recreating it on the 0’s and 1’s. However, instead of merely modelling a Clavinet, Arturia includes a Fenderesque amp and a pedalboard’s worth of the sort of stomp boxes that would typically have been used with a Clav during the ’60s & ’70s. These include a compressor, chorus, flanger, phaser, analogue delay, wah, and most importantly auto-wah. Together this combo enables you to recreate a variety of era defining tones.

DX7 V

DX7 V

Love it or loath it, the Yamaha DX7 left an indelible mark, some would say stain, on the 1980s, with its perfect storm of obtuse interface, alien synthesis, and preset for every occasion (and indeed every function band). Instead of recreating the DX7 as was, Arturia has significantly expanded its feature set and combined it with a user friendly interface that serves to unlock the potential of FM synthesis and make the most of these new features.

Piano V2

Piano V2

Piano V is Arturia’s collection of modelled (mostly) grand and upright pianos. V2 adds three new piano models – a Japanese Grand, a Plucked Grand, and a Tack Upright; and offers enhanced mic positioning, improved EQ, and a new stereo delay and compressor. If pianos are your thing, Piano V 2 offers an excellent selection, all of which are customisable.

CMI V

CMI V

CMI V takes an accurately modelled Fairlight CMI as its starting point, then considerably enhances it functionality. Its library of approximately 300 presets includes both the Fairlight’s original library and new presets. However, unlike other virtual Fairlights we’ve seen, Arturia’s CMI V is not merely a ROMpler…it lets you import and edit your own samples…and change their bit depths and sample rates to give them that authentic Fairlight sound. The only restriction is that each sample cannot exceed 30 seconds, which means that if you want to cut up longer samples you’ll need to pre-edit them in another app. But that’s all just the tip of the iceberg, as CMI V adds an additive synth engine with resynthesis, and a spectral synth engine. Furthermore, it allows you to mix, layer, split and sequence up to ten sounds from any combination of these three engines, which, in conjunction with its user friendly interface (in Fairlight green of course) enables you to quickly come up with unique and powerful sounds that are exponential to what could be achieved with the original Fairlight.

V Collection 6.1 & 6.2

V Collection 6.1 introduced NKS compatibility and brought Analog Lab 3’s preset browser to everything in the suite, whilst V Collection 6.2 added resynthesis & playback of user samples to Arturia’s truly excellent Synclavier V…all of which brings us to V Collection 7.

Synclavier V

V Collection 7

V Collection 7 adds three new instruments – Mellotron V, Synthi V, and CZ V, updates B3 V to B-3 V2 and Analog Lab from 3 to 4 and adds over 800 new presets to the various instruments in the collection.

Mellotron V

Mellotron V

The Mellotron was, in essence, the progenitor of the ROMpler. However, unlike the Fairlight that it obviously inspired and all of the digital samplers than followed in its wake, the Mellotron was distinctly analogue. Every time you played a key it triggered a motor to play a tape containing a recording of an instrument at the corresponding pitch. There was a tape for every key and these tapes were held in a frame. In later models the frame could be changed to give different sounds, whereas early models had a fixed number of sounds. It was a beast of a machine that, like all the best analogues, was notoriously sensitive to voltage fluctuations and ambient conditions. Nevertheless, Mellotrons were far cheaper and more compact than an orchestra. Consequently they saw extensive studio use during the ’60s and ’70s by, amongst others, The Beatles, miscellaneous prog rockers, and even a certain Monsieur Jarre.

Arturia’s Mellotron V includes the best of the original Mellotron tape library, up to three sounds of which can be combined as layers/splits. The amplitude envelope of the result can be altered and flutter, tape saturation, and mechanical noise can be dialled in. The resultant patches sound superb, delivering the unique character of a Mellotron, with pristine clarity. Unexpectedly though, and presumably as a result of its developments with the Synclavier V and CMI V, you have the option to import your own samples. Oh Arturia, if you’re trying to seduce us, you’ve succeeded.

Synthi V

Synthi V

Uniquely British, the 3 oscillator semi-modular AKS Synthi and its sonically identical counterpart, the VCS3, are as unique, distinctive and eccentric as it gets. Still used to this day by Jean Michel Jarre and throughout its heyday by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, there is even a VCS3 on permanent exhibition at the Science Museum in London, so Arturia’s Synthi V has much to live up to. Not only does it do so, it goes way beyond the ‘limitations’ of the original by including a modern step sequencer, dedicated beat-syncable LFO, additional effects and…wait for it…four voice polyphony! Naturally there’s a huge variety of eminently useable presets on offer that show off this synth to its full potential, but the real fun comes with creating patches that you never could or would think of making with anything else. If you make electronic music, the Synthi V is a synth you simply can’t afford to be without.

CZ V

CZ V

When you think of the ’80s, the diminutive Casio CZ-101 may not be the synth that immediately springs to mind. At the time, Casio’s answer to Yamaha’s DX7 was snobbishly seen by many as no more than a toy and the appearance of its big brother in an Episode of EastEnders featuring a rehearsal by ‘The Banned’ (don’t ask) did little to add to the credibility of the CZ line. However, the assumption that the CZs were little more than home keyboards was manifestly unfounded. In addition to offering DX like tones, their Phase Distortion (PD) synthesis could do surprisingly warm, almost, dare we say it, Junoesque pads. What’s more, unlike Yamaha’s FM, PD was incredibly easy to understand and program. Consequently the CZs were a bridge between analogue and digital synthesis, at a price almost everyone could afford. Notable ’80s users included Vince Clarke and Salt-N-Pepa, whilst during the ’90s, the CZ-101/1000 provided the de facto organ sound for a multiplicity of house music.

Arturia’s CZ V offers all of the CZ-101’s/1000’s original parameters and even supports importing of CZ SysEx data. However, like the other instruments in V Collection, CZ V goes much further than the original, as it includes additional envelopes, filters, LFOs, effects, and extensive beat-sync-to-host parameters, all of which are interconectable via a modulation matrix. What’s more, it quadruples the polyphony of the CZ-101/1000. Programming is a breeze thanks to its intuitive GUI and there’s a multitude of presets that run the gamut from warm and brassy to cold FM-like FX. How does the CZ V sound? Completely authentic, right down to its modelled DAC.

B-3 V2

B3 V2

Arturia have totally overhauled the B-3 V’s sound engine, making B-3 V2 better than ever, as its library of 50 presets, that run the gamut from gospel, jazz, and blues, to prog, aptly demonstrate.

Synthopedia

Synthopedia

Synthopedia is a library of over 800 brand new “modern sounds” created for V Collection’s various instruments and accessed via Analog Lab 4. Although these sounds are not fully editable, they can be tweaked, resaved and exported. Like everything else in V collection 7, they sound fantastic.

Conclusion

Arturia V Collection 7 is an absolute must have. It puts realistic recreations of some of the world’s most lusted after synths, samplers and keyboard instruments, at your finger tips, for a bargain price. With these latest additions and updates, the best just got even better.

5 bagels

More info: https://www.arturia.com/v-collection/details#en

© 2019, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.

Superbooth 2019 Highlights

There were a raft of new products announced at Superbooth 2019. Here are the ones that caught our eye…and our ear.

U.D.O. Super 6 Poly Synth

U.D.O.’s Super Poly 6 combines FPGA based oscillators and LFOs, with classic analogue VCFs and VCAs, to give the best sounding ‘analogue’ synth we’ve heard since Dave Smith released the Prophet 6. What’s more, it is a true stereo synth…and it’s British. If we had to pick only one thing to take away from Superbooth 19, this would be it!

Korg Nu:Tekt NTS

And if we had to pick two things to take away from Superbooth 19, this would be the second. The first in a forthcoming range of solderless DIY kits from Korg, the Nu:Tekt NTS essentially enables you to build the Dev board for the Korg Prologue into a Monotron style box. Offering one monophonic digital voice and three effects, it doubles as a development tool for the Prologue and Minilogue XD. Although the price hasn’t been finalised, it will be less than a Volca, making it not just extremely powerful, but superb value for money.

Korg Volca Nubass

Korg also announced the Volca Nubass – a vacuum tube synthesizer built around its Nutube tech, that’s designed with acid basslines in mind. #Acieeed

Korg Minilogue XD Module.

Completing Korg’s triode of nu products was a desktop module version of its Minilogue XD.

Novation Summit

Another headline grabber was Novation’s new flagship synth, the Summit, which has two Peaks inside, giving you peak Peak.

Behringer RD-808

Those eagerly awaiting news of the Behringer RD-808 will be pleased to hear that an almost ready to ship version was on demo and sounding great.

Behringer RD-909

Behringer’s RD-909, though still a few months away from shipping, was also on display, and sporting functionality not found on the original.

IK Multimedia UNO Drum Machine

IK Multimedia also showed a drum machine – its brand new UNO, which offers both true analogue and PCM voices, an analogue compressor and overdrive, and performance effects, for just 249 Euros. At that price and sounding as it does, it’s bound to be a hit.

Elektron Digitone Keys FM

Elektron showed a version of its Digitone FM with knobs on…and a keyboard. If you love the Digitone workflow and you love keyboards, you’ll love this.

Rossum Electro-Music Panharmonium

Whenever Dave Rossum, the man who designed chips for SSM and co-founded E-MU, brings out a new product, we’re all ears. He had three new products on display, the Linnaeus Thru-Zero State-Variable Filter , Trident Multi-Synchronic Oscillator Ensemble, and our favourite, the Panharmonium Mutating Spectral Resynthesizer. When it comes to Drum ‘n’ Bass, forget about extreme time stretching on an Akai S1100, the Rossum Panharmonium is the new thing.

Future Sound Systems – STUMM & MAKROW

From one electronic music legend to another, Mute Records’ founder, Daniel Miller, was showing two new Eurorack modules that he has brought to fruition in association with Future Sound Systems.

Ableton CV Tools

On a Eurorack tip, Ableton was showing ‘CV Tools’, a set of 10 MAX For Live devices that provide CV, gate, and clock signals to and from Live 10. Currently it’s a public beta and will see its official release with Live 10.1.

RME M-32 Pro

Ableton CV Tools is at its most versatile with an audio interface that has DC coupled convertors, which, by a happy coincidence, RME offers in its new 32 output 192kHz MADI interface.

Befaco VCMC

Alternatively, for those wanting to integrate Eurorack and MIDI gear via hardware, rather than via Ableton Live, Befaco’s VCMC (which we assume stands for Voltage Control MIDI Control, rather than being a misspelled tribute to Vince Clarke & Martin Gore) lets you do exactly that.

Nektar and Presonus Studio One Integration

The other big software/hardware integration announcement came jointly from Nektar and Presonus who revealed deep integration between Presonus’s Studio One DAW and Nektar’s Panorama controller keyboard.

Gamechanger Audio Motor Synth

For a second year running, the most bonkers (in a good way) thing at Superbooth came from Gamechanger Audio. Last year it was their Plasma distortion pedal, this year it was ‘Motor Synth’, an electrical mechanical synth that uses digitally controlled electro motors in place of oscillators.

MFB 8 Voice Poly Synth

MFB surprised everyone with a prototype of its forthcoming analogue poly synth, which features no less than 3 VCOs and 2 filters, along with 3 Envelopes, 2 LFOs, patch storage and FXs.

Moog Matriach

Moog was out in force, showing, amongst other beasts, its new Matriach, the 4 voice paraphonic for people who want more than a Grandmother, but can’t afford a Moog One; and, of course, said Moog One, for people who can afford one.

Polyend Medusa 2.0

Polyend showed version 2.0 of the firmware for Medusa – the hybrid analogue/digital synth groovebox that it designed in collaboration with Dreadbox.

Dreadbox NYX2

Meanwhile, Dreadbox showed a new version of its Nyx desktop synth.

Steinberg & Mind Music Labs Retrologue

Steinberg showed a hardware version of Retrologue (the retro synth hardware ships with Cubase) as a proof of concept. Not simply a controller, it contains hardware running a very low latency version of the Retrologue VST plug-in. Whether or not it becomes a retail product, however, remains to be seen.

Empress Effects ZOIA

Empress Effects showed its ZOIA, which is everything in a pedal…80 different everythings to be precise, from audio effects to modular synths, to sequencers.

Modal SKULPT & CRAFTsynth 2.0

Modal launched two new synths, which distil functionality from their flagship ‘008’ analogue poly and ‘002’ wavetable hybrid synths, into small desktop units. Skulpt is a 4 voice VA poly synth, whilst Kraft Synth 2.0 is a diminutive mono synth whose size belies its power.

SOMA Pulsar 23

SOMA showed its Pulsar 23, which is a semi modular analogue drum machine that dares to go where no analogue drum machine has gone before. Consequently it is capable of creating everything from conventional pop patterns to out there poly rhythms. Furthermore it is as much a performance instrument as a drum sequencer.

Dubreq Stylophone Gen-R8

Dubreq have been busy reinventing the humble Stylophone as a truly fearsome beast of an analogue synthesizer, which they had on show. Combining an aggressive sound with a touch keyboard it is perhaps best described as a Polivoks in a fist fight with an EDP Wasp.

Analogue Solutions Impulse

Veteran British Eurorack and boutique synth builder, Analogue Solutions, were showing ‘Impulse Command’, their brand new stereo semi modular analogue synth. It features a pure analogue synthesis path built around 2 VCOs, with optional digital effects at the end of that path, plus a sequencer, MIDI and Eurorack integration.

DinSync.org JP-ONE

DinSync.org showed a prototype of its Roland inspired dual VCO analogue synth DIY kit that, in essence, combines the Jupiter 6’s oscillators with the Jupiter 4’s filter, to give what DinSync describe as a monophonic Jupiter. Hence the name JP-One…as opposed to ‘Promars’.

Gotharman’s Musical Instruments Tiny LD

Gotharman showed this cut down version of the Little deFormer 3, which is a 16 part, 8 stereo voice, granular synthesis and sampling workstation powerhouse.

Flame MÄANDER

Flame showed the MÄANDER, a four voice polyphonic desktop Wavetable synth with, unusually, a 12 band filter bank

Sonicware ELZ1

Sonicware demoed the ELZ1, which packs 11 digital synth engines including FM, granular, and 8 bit engines, into a diminutive battery powered unit

Thonk Prok Drums

Thonk showed off the latest updates to their Prok Drums. This range of four DSP based virtual analogue Eurorack drum modules are designed with performance in mind and offer a wide variety of readily morphable sounds.

Pioneer DJ Toraiz Squid Sequencer

Pioneer DJ, under its new production orientated brand, ‘Toraiz’, released a 16 track sequencer, with a raft of functionality that includes 8 voice polyphony per track, scale mode, programmable chord progressions, MIDI, Gate/CV and even Din Sync.

XAOC Devices Sarajewo,

XAOC Devices showed 5 new Eurorack modules – Sarajewo, Jena, Timiszoara, Samara II and Odessa. Of these, the one that really grabbed our attention was Sarajewo, a syncable analogue delay line, with no less than three bucket brigade delay chips. However, it is worth checking out all five modules.

Make Noise Sound Hack Mimeophone

Make Noise was also showing a versatile delay module that lets you ‘colour’ your sound.

Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers Voltage Research Laboratory

Pittsburgh showed its latest invention – a complete Eurorack format analogue modular synthesizer that answers the call of nature, by taking you back to nature.

E-RM Polygogo Stereo Oscillator

E-RM’s intriguing ‘stereo graphic oscillator’ brought ‘polygonal synthesis’ to the party.

Erica Synths Black Double Bass

Erica Synths showed its new Black Double Bass Eurorack module, which sports two sub oscillators and a low pass filter.

MFB 301 Pro Drum Machine

MFB brought its vintage MFB-301 drum machine back to life in the very small form of the MFB-301 Pro.

Specialwaves Mine S

Specialwaves had on display the DNA to let you build your own bespoke MIDI controller?

Soma Laboratories Enner.

And last, but not least, Soma Laboratories were showing something possibly even more bonkers than Plasma Industries Motor. If you’re ever commissioned to do the soundtrack for a sequel to ‘The Forbidden Planet’, you’ll probably want one of these.

© 2019, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.

Korg Collection

Although we loved Korg Gadget when we reviewed it, we thought that Korg had missed a trick by not offering users the full programmability of the classic Korg synths upon which some of its Gadgets are based. Enter ‘Korg Collection’ (stage right), which offers faithful recreations of 6 of Korg’s best loved analogue and digital synths, all classics in their own right.

If you think this sounds familiar, that’s because Korg Collection started life back in 2004 as ‘Korg Legacy Collection’ and went through various editions before being being updated to this modern 64 bit version, which is augmented with the Korg Arp Odyssey, and had dropped the ‘legacy’ from its name.

The 6 synths included in Korg Collection are the MS-20, Arp Odyssey, Mono/Poly, Polysix, M1 and Wavestation. Each uses Korg’s Component Modelling Technology (CMT) to, as you might surmise, model all of the circuit level components (and interactions between them) of the original hardware. However, rather than be constricted by the inherent limitations of that hardware, Korg has enhanced its features whilst keeping its sounds.

https://www.korg.com/us/products/software/korg_collection/cmt.php

The originally monophonic MS-20 is now polyphonic…and has no less than 32 voices! It also offers up to 16 voice unison and MIDI clock synchronisation. The only thing it lacks is the ability to switch between the much loved Korg 35 filter that appeared in early versions and the filter that subsequently replaced it.

The ARP Odyssey, on the other hand, being based upon Korg’s and original Odyssey designer, David Friend’s, acclaimed hardware reincarnation of said synth, provides a switch on the front panel that enables you to change between all three versions of the Odyssey’s filter.

It also has a bank of presets for each filter, which are labelled ‘MK1’, ‘MK2′ and…’Factory’ (why ‘Factory’ instead of ‘MK3’ is beyond us). When a preset from one of these banks is selected, the Odyssey is re-skinned to look like the corresponding version of the synth. However, there is no front panel switch or menu option that lets you re-skin the Odyssey at will, which is a bit of a shame.

Like the MS-20, the Odyssey has acquired polyphony. It has also acquired a very clever little arpeggiator and 6 effects, both of which have been designed to look and function like they were part of the original. With a little creative programming this arpeggiator can be made to function as a 1-16 step sequencer, not just for notes, but for three additional customisable synth parameters – think motion sequences. The only thing it lacks is the ability to switch of individual steps.

The six added effects are distortion, a phaser, a ‘chorus flanger ensemble’, EQ, Delay, and Reverb. Although they may look simplistic, they sound spot on and have clearly been designed to reflect the sorts of effects that were typically used with the ARP Odyssey in the ’70s & ’80s. No finer example of this can be found than in ‘Preset 003: Curried’, which combines some of these effects with arpeggiated sequencing of VCO1 FM Depth & VCO 2 Coarse Frequency, for instant Billy Currie style lead synth solos from Ultravox’s heyday.

The Korg Mono/Poly, offering as it does, a voice count of up to 128 (or 16 in unison mode), an 8 slot modulation matrix with 159 sources and 35 destinations, and two integrated multi-effects processors, appears to have spent the last 35 years necking ‘roids. Without these augmentations it sounds classic, with them it sounds next level and offers perhaps the widest range of sonic possibilities of the four analogues in Korg Collection.

Rounding out the analogues is the Korg Polysix, whose enhancements include up to 32-voice polyphony, up to 16-voice unison, two modulation slots each of which offers 8 external parameters (such as velocity, pressure, pitch bend & breath), MIDI clock synchronization of the modulation generator and arpeggiator.

On the digital side, the M1 includes all of the patches and PCM data from the original M1, the expanded M1EX, and the entire T-series of keyboards that followed in their wake, plus all 32 of the optional ROM cards for the M1/M1EX/T-series and an additional card’s worth of Legacy Collection patches. All in all that’s about 33,000 sounds! It also adds the one thing that the original M1 lacked…resonant filters – HALLELUJAH!

The Korg Wavestation similarly offers over 1500 presets and waveforms from all four versions of the Wavestation i.e. the original Wavestation, Wavestation EX, Wavestation A/D, and Wavestation SR, plus additional waveforms and wave sequences. The only thing it lacks is the Wavestation A/D’s ability to process external audio signals. This is a somewhat surprising omission considering that the Korg Collection includes two stand alone audio effects processors, one of which is the MS-20FX, which is literally an MS-20 dedicated to processing audio; and that the Wavestation A/D’s effects include a powerful vocoder. A Wavestation FX would be a nice addition.

The other effects unit in the Korg Collection is the MDE-X, which uses an algorithm derived from Korg’s Triton family. It offers 128 programs based upon 19 different types of effects that include a range of Reverbs, Delays, flangers, phasers, choruses, a talking modulator, wah wah, compressors, limiters, EQ, distortion, overdrive, and mastering effects.

So how does everything sounds? In a word, fantastic. In another word, authentic. Close your eyes and you’ll think you are playing the real things. As for the MS-20FX, try putting a drum loop through it and you’ll wonder how you ever managed to live without it.

But it doesn’t end there, because Korg collection has one more trick up its sleeve, in the form of ‘Legacy Cell’. This provides you with an additional instrument in which you can combine two MS-20s, or two Polysixes, or an MS-20 and a Polysix, assign dual MDE-Xs to each one, mix their outputs and then send them through a further dual MDE-X. Furthermore it adds 16 real-time performance controllers, laid out as 8 knobs and 8 sliders, and tempo sync. It’s an incredibly powerful tool that’s capable of generating some seriously impressive sounds. It would be even more powerful if one could add the other instruments from Korg Collection (and perhaps combine more than two of them). We hope this is something that Korg will add in a future version.

The only real complaint we have about Korg Collection is that none of the windows are resizeable. This isn’t a problem per se with the ARP Odyssey and Mono/Poly, as they have large, friendly, single window interfaces. Nor is it a major problem with the M1 & Wavestation, which are easier to program than the original hardware, though we think they would benefit from large single window interfaces instead of medium sized multi tabbed ones. But it has to be said that the MS-20’s/MS20-FX’s and Polysix’s GUIs leave something to be desired, particluarly the MS-20’s/MS-20FX’s, which requires programming to take place in an edit window into which not all of the MS-20’s controls fit, forcing you to scroll back and forth using the integral scroll bar, which does not respond to scrolling on an Apple Magic Mouse; and whilst the MDE-X is perfectly usable, it seems needlessly small. However, to be fair to Korg, they have told us that a GUI update is in the works.

Aside from improving the GUI, Korg Collection is pretty much perfect as is. However, as anyone suffering from GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) will tell you, there’s always room for more synths in any collection, and as Korg has an embarrassment of riches upon which to draw, here’s our list of what else we’d love them to add.

Top of out list would be a Korg Mini 700s or 800DV (which, along with the 770, Micro Preset, and SB100, were a large part of the sound of Synth Britannia), followed by an MS50 (and SQ-10/SQ-1), then a Delta (as used by the Human League on ‘Dare’), then perennial favourite the MicroKorg, then an Oasys…and as we already have the effects from the Triton, it seems almost churlish not to include the rest of one…we could go on, but we’d end up just listing everything that Korg has ever made, so let’s conclude by simply saying that Korg Collection is one of the best virtual instrument collections we’ve heard and deserves to be a part of everyone’s sonic arsenal.

More info: https://www.korg.com/uk/products/software/korg_collection/

© 2019, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.

Propellerhead Reason 10

Propellerhead Reason 10 screenshot

 

I remember my first time with Reason. My homie, Alain Whyte had just returned from a tour with Morrissey and phoned me to see if I’d like to check out his latest software purchase…Reason 1.0; so I popped over to his studio. Whilst Al headed to the Kitchen for refreshments, I installed Reason on his Apple Mac. Ten minutes later he returned with tea and biscuits, to find Reason not just up and running, but that I had done an entire drum n bass remix. His jaw dropped and he asked me, “how did you do that?” “Easy,” I replied, “It works just like my studio.” And that, in essence, is the point. At a time when DAWs were clunky, mechanistic behemoths that had almost as much in common with computer programming as music making, Reason changed everything.

Of course, much has changed since version 1.0. But although Reason has grown exponentially in its abilities, the simplicity that enabled me to go from install to remix in ten minutes, without having ever used it before, and without reading the manual, remains.

The biggest and most significant change came fairly recently, in Reason 9.5, when, after years of doggedly remaining a closed system, Propellerhead suddenly opened Reason up to third party plug-ins…and after years of restrictions, being able to run Arturia V Collection and Eventide Anthology X from inside Reason feels so simultaneously right and wrong that it’s like having a Catholic girl feed you a pork and cheese sandwich, on Yom Kippur.

So what’s new in Reason 10? Quite a lot actually!

‘Europa’ is a wavetable synthesizer that was created for “huge, epic sounds”. Its three engines let you choose from simple and complex wavetables, or draw your own. These can be modulated by up to two modifiers, with the results displayed in a handy ‘oscilloscope’. Each engine includes complex spectral filtering, harmonics processing and a versatile unison mode. A mixer delivers the results to one of a variety of filters, and, in turn, to an amp, both of which have their own envelopes (complex for the former, ADSR for the latter). There are also 3 LFOs, a modulation matrix, and effects. In other words, pretty much everything except the pirate twins. In practice, Europa is straightforward to use and capable of producing everything from beautiful 80sesque pads, to in-yer-face EDM basses and leads.

‘Grain’, as the name implies, is a granular synthesizer that allows you to process any samples, granularly. Its refreshingly simple interface (half of which is the same as Europa’s) belies its numerous sonic possibilities. Whilst it is capable of many things, its unique textures are particularly well suited to sound design, experimental music and ambient soundscapes.

‘Klang’, ‘Pangea’, and ‘Humana’ are romplers. Each offers the same set of controls (sample start point, basic modulation, resonant filter, dual envelopes, delay and reverb) in a different skin, with its own specific sound set. Klang has a small collection of tuned percussion such as glockenspiels and wineglasses (though no Kling). Pangea offers a variety of ‘World’ instruments. Humana will make you go ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’, or at least, it will make Reason do so, with its collection of choirs and solo voices. The sounds in all three are excellent, but it would have been nice to have some more of them.

Klang
Pangea
Humana

 

‘Radical Pianos’ and ‘Synchronous Effects Modulator’ are popular rack extensions that used to be available as separate purchases, but which now come bundled with Reason 10.

Radical Pianos combines sampling with physical modelling, to offer three customisable, acoustic pianos.

Radical Piano

 

Synchronous is a multi effects unit with separate sections for distortion, filter, delay and reverb. Three independent, extensively customisable modulation envelopes can be assigned to almost all of the controls in each of these sections. So, for example, you could modulate delay time, filter cutoff and filter resonance, independently of each other, by assigning different envelopes to them (which is easy to do, thanks to a clever interface). This flexibility provides the potential to use Synchronous for everything from subtle sound animation to extreme remixes. It’s a shame that the parameter knobs being modulated don’t revolve in real time to provide some visual feedback, but the effects sound fantastic and Synchronous is a demon on drums.

Synchronous

 

Finally, ‘Drum Supply’ and ‘Loop Supply’, are multi gigabyte sample libraries, offering an immediately useable range of Kong kits, one shot samples and REX loops.

So is it worth the price of the upgrade? Absolutely! If you’re running Reason 9.5, Reason 10 is highly desirable and if you’re running anything earlier than Reason 9, Reason 10 is an absolutely essential upgrade.

MC Rebbe

5 bagels

 

More info: www.propellerheads.se

© 2018, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.

The 30 Best Things at NAMM 2018

1. Our friend Thomas Dolby, getting a lifetime achievement award from Roland (h/t KraftMusic):

2. Our friend Paul White getting all Men in Black with the Game Changer Audio Plasma Pedal – a stomp box that’s so bright you gotta wear shades (h/t Sound on Sound):

3. Waldorf Quantum. The most eagerly anticipated keyboard of 2017/18 is all but finished and perilously close to shipping (h/t Synth Anatomy & Bonedo Synthesizers):

4. Strymon Magneto Eurorack Tape Delay. A virtual 4 head tape delay, looper & spring reverb, in Eurorack format, with extensive CV i/o? What’s not to like?! In fact it gets our award for best Eurorack module at NAMM 2018. But shhh… don’t tell Marvel Comics (h/t Perfect Circuit Audio):

5. The Pioneer DJS-1000. We loved its forerunner – the Toriaz SP-16 and suspect that the DJS-1000 will be the new standard of DJ sampler (h/t Sonic State):

6. BOSS GT-1000. A multitude of amps & stomp boxes, including the algorithms from the fantastic DD/RV/MD-500 & MDP series, with 32-bit AD/DA and 32-bit/96 kHz internal processing? Yes please! (h/t Better Music):

7. Elektron Digitone. Proof that if you wait long enough, everything comes back into fashion…even FM…and here it is with knobs on, both figuratively & literally (h/t Synthtopia):

8. Korg Prologue. This Minilogue/Monologue influenced 8/16 voice hybrid polysynth features two analogue and one digital oscillators and looks as sleek as it sounds (h/t Sound on Sound & Loopop):

9. Rossum Electro Music Assimil8r – The final version of the long awaited 8 channel Eurorack sampler from Mr E-mu Emulator himself! (h/t Sonic State):

10. The Arturia MiniBrute 2 & MiniBrute 2S. Falling somewhere between a MiniBrute and a MatrixBrute, these Brutes feature dual oscillators and 48 point Eurorack compatible patch bay. We prefer the MiniBrute 2S, which swaps its keyboard for a BeatStep Pro style sequencer (h/t SourceDistributionTV):

11. Alesis Vortex Wireless 2 keytar controller. Simply the best Keytar we’ve ever seen (h/t Andertons):

12. SE Electronics RNT. A large-diaphragm tube condenser mic designed in collaboration with audio legend and thoroughly nice guy, Rupert Neve, that’s said to combine vintage quality with the benefits of modern advances (h/t Sound on Sound):

13. Antares Autotune Pro. Better, faster, stronger, but not harder and now with added auto tune 5 classic algorithm option. Believe (h/t Bedroom Producers Blog):

14. Behringer in original synth shocker. It’s called the Neutron and it’s redder than Lenin.

15. Roland TR-808 and TR-909 plug-ins for the Roland Cloud. Following on from the TR–08 and TR–09, Roland is bringing VST and AU versions of the venerable TR-808 & TR-909 to the Roland Cloud. Say Planet Rock, it’s the sure shot (h/t Bedroom Producers Blog):

16. Doepfer Polyphonic Eurorack Modules. They’re made by Doepfer. They’re polyphonic. As David Byrne once said “Any questions?” (Animato Audio):

17. Apple Logic Pro X 10.4. Offering far more than one would expect from a point update, Logic Pro X 10.4’s headline new features include ‘Smart Tempo’, which claims to use “advanced tempo detection technology” to enable all recorded tracks to stay in time with each other without the need for a metronome/click track; a new algorithmic reverb called ‘ChromaVerb’; a ‘Vintage EQ’ plug-in; Celemony Melodyne ARA 2 support; and, best of all, the return of two of our all time favourite plug-ins – Camel Audio’s CamelPhat and CamelSpace, in the form of ‘Phat FX’ and ‘Step FX’.

 

18. Realitone Hip Hop Creator. This grabbed our attention not only because our Publisher/Editor is the world’s greatest rapper, but also for the unintended comedic brilliance of 2:57-3:30 in this video (h/t Sonic State):

19. Teenage Engineering PO-33 K.O. One of three new Pocket Operators, the PO-33 K.O. is a sampler that looks like a lot of fun…with or without added Cuckoo…though undeniably more so with (h/t Cuckoo):

20. Sonnox VoxDoubler. This duo of plug-ins – ‘Widen’ and ‘Thicken’ aim to do what they suggest naturally, with Sonnox quality at a refreshingly economical price (h/t Sound on Sound):

21. Roland’s expanding headband. Whilst you’re waiting for Roland to re-release the Jupiter 8, why not buy a bunch of Roland SE-02s and poly chain them?. Here’s Scott Tibbs demonstrating how huge this sounds (h/t Sonic State):

22. Empress Effects Zoia. The modular pedal that’s anything you want it to be

23. Sim1 XT-1. A pedal that promises to transform your guitar into a classic Les Paul, Strat, Tele, 335, or acoustic…and what’s more it seems to work!

24. Blip Blox. A Fisher Price style synthesizer & beatbox for kids that’s guaranteed to be used almost exclusively by adults.

25. Yamaha CS-80. No, not a re-release, but an original, that was recently unearthed by Yamaha in a spot of office archaeology. What’s more, it’s in pristine condition..or, at least, it was before spending 4 days at NAMM… (h/t Synthtopia):

26. The Waldorf STVC. Contrary to rumours, this is not a case of Waldorf going all Behringer on the Roland VP-330, but an entirely different beast, based upon a re-voiced (and, in our opinion, better sounding) Streichfett. Now all Waldorf need to do is to remove the keyboard and the vocoder and stick it in a box (h/t Sonic State):

27. Keith McMillen K-Board Pro 4. Express yourself! (h/t Kraft Music):

28. Rainger FX Reverb X. Just when you think everything that can be done with reverb and overdrive in a stompbox has been done, Rainger FX’s Reverb X comes along and does something new (h/t Sonic State):

29. Yudo NEUMAN Multi-Touch Keyboard / Synthesizer Prototype. Is this the future? (h/t Synth Anatomy):

30. Ormsby DJENT2018. You can’t mention NAMM 2018 without mentioning this 18 string Tasmanian blackwood and stone (sic) 18 string guitar. It reminds us of the time that Homer Simpson designed a car… (h/t GAK):

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