Koshdukai's Music(al) Reason(ing)

I've had the opportunity to work on a very interesting and exciting project for a couple of months, so my current ReFill project will suffer a bigger delay than I was expecting. Nonetheless, I'll try to release some free stuff 'till the final release of it :) Any comments and suggestions about the ReGRAINZeR demo file are welcome, even if I don't comment back, I read'em all! :)

I've decided to release a little demo .RPS file with the latest version of ReGRAINZeR and wait a while to see what happens :) About this little demo: It uses 2 demo units. One applied to a drum REX dual loop Combinator, and the other to a guitar REX also dual loop Combinator. Both units are using the C1 to B1 MIDI keyboard octave keys. Key mappings are shown on the help screen, on the right of the device. On that screen, P stands for Pitch Wheel, M for Mod.Wheel and R1 for Rotary 1. Gate effect (stutter) is activated by pressing D1# or through Aftertouch, if that option is turned on. Speed is controlled by the Mod.Wheel. External Control CV Output is not implemented on V.0.6.x After listening to the example performance made with both units, you can (should) mute or delete the performance clips and play a bit with each of the ReGRAINZeR demo units. You could also copy any devices+tracks of a song of yours and paste it within this demo song, and after some rack rewiring at the back, ...

...and more on the way :) I'm releasing some Remote Codec packs for the M-Audio MidAir MIDI Wireless Keyboard series and two other more obscure keyboards I own. So here are the links: Trust (mini) MIDI Keyboard Remote Codec (this one will support the infinite 'Program Change' Value-to-Delta algorithm, because this little keyboard does something quite useful: as soon as 'Program Change' reaches 128 it restarts at 1 again. It also does the reverse of course, when reaching 1, if 'PROG -' is pressed again, it jumps to 128. This allows me to make it truly endless to the "eyes" of Reason, no matter at what value the keyboard is, it will always return a +1 or -1 delta to Reason. This is why I made Patch selection the default control for this one) QuickShot MIDI Composer Remote Codec (just a simple generic codec, with correct name, thumbnail picture and 'Data Entry Fader' set to control every device 'Master Volume') M-...

...and more on the way :) I'm releasing some Remote Codec packs for the M-Audio MidAir MIDI Wireless Keyboard series and two other more obscure keyboards I own. So here are the links: Trust (mini) MIDI Keyboard Remote Codec (this one will support the infinite 'Program Change' Value-to-Delta algorithm, because this little keyboard does something quite useful: as soon as 'Program Change' reaches 128 it restarts at 1 again. It also does the reverse of course, when reaching 1, if 'PROG -' is pressed again, it jumps to 128. This allows me to make it truly endless to the "eyes" of Reason, no matter at what value the keyboard is, it will always return a +1 or -1 delta to Reason. This is why I made Patch selection the default control for this one) QuickShot MIDI Composer Remote Codec (just a simple generic codec, with correct name, thumbnail picture and 'Data Entry Fader' set to control every device 'Master Volume') M-...

Last night I had a go at trying to make a continuous Value-type control like Program Change be interpreted by Reason as a Delta-type control, so it could be used with Remote's Additional Overrides "Target Track (Delta)", "Select Patch for Target Device (Delta)" and "Select Keyboard Shortcut Variation (Delta)". And it works great :D !!! This is no "Absolute" substitute unfortunately but it gets the job done. As an example, if you have your controller's Program Change set at 35 and go to Reason's menu "Options", "Additional Remote Overrides" and set the "Target Track (Delta)" to "Program Change" (don't forget that this only works with my custom Remote codecs right now), then each increment or decrement on Program Change will translate as a +1 or -1 delta to Reason. So, if you have the 1st track selected and go from 35 to Program Change 34, it'll generate a -1 delta hence doing nothing i...

It's so cool to receive emails like these ^^ Anyway, the story behind this is really simple. I own a M-Audio Axiom 61 and a MidAir 25 and two more generic (and much simpler) MIDI keyboards. The default Remote settings of the Axiom has some awkward choices and even bugs (as an example, there's a collision between the reMIX and the Select Track buttons), so I had to make my own custom version of those settings. I also made a version to support my M-Audio MidAir 25 (and the MidAir 37 too, since it looked fairly simple to support, even without owning one to test). ...and just because it's there, I also added the "Program Change" as another possible value-type control to be used. One never has too many controls :D My intention was to make these available for free, to anyone in need of them , but then I thought it would be a good idea to check the Remote SDK first and see if I was missing any cool features unknown to me. So, I applied to be a " Remote™ Codec Deve...

While checking some LIMS'09 videos at SonicState I just bumped into another 3 examples of live loop use (like the LiveLoopBox combinator): and and another one

As promised , here's the video explaining how to get live audio input in Reason :D (the unofficial way, of course, because the only official and proper way would be through Record !) WARNING : If you're a ReBirth user, and you still need to use it ReWired to Reason, do not install ReWuschel! (better make this clear) This is really old news, but I still keep bumping into Reason users that don't know this is possible or how easy it is to do. This little trick is really only useful to those that don't own a DAW or those wanting to use Reason effects in a live situation, including the advantage of playing side-by-side with a saved song and an included track with the recorded automation of all the effects tweaking and mix levels automatically applied to the live feed in a live performance. Then, I also take the opportunity in the video to show the LiveLoopBox I talked about in earlier posts :) There are two versions: GlitchLoopBox simply allows to change on the fly the ...

Ok, so, after finishing V.0.5beta, solving the little issue with Velocity, I'm now changing some simple things on the control front. Substituting the Rotary 3 & 4 functions "+AUDIO source Level" & "Volume" with a more standard "Gain" & "Dry / Wet" mix knobs. I was also hoping to implement in V.0.6beta a Master/Slave chaining option by leaving a well marked CV output pair at the back (Note+Gate), so one could chain various ReGRAINeRs, spawning various instances through the keyboard map while controlling all the slaves through the Master one (the 1st, the only one in need of a controlling sequencer track for selected input) but there's a problem with RPG-8's MIDI-CV convertion... it's implementation is incomplete, so this makes this idea impossible to implement with Reason 4 at least :( I've even tried using Thor's flexible routing to send captured Gate signals through a CV out, but its still MonoCV so... still n...

PLEASE DON'T!!! Please, don't send me any patches or combinators you're working on and you're planning on selling or even releasing them for free in the future. This puts me in an uncomfortable and awkward position of having no chance to refuse it (because you already sent it) and even if I simply delete the attachment without opening it (which I do), I'll never be sure if someone in the future will claim something like "oh, but that combinator you made was my idea! I sent you that combinator and you copied the idea" brrrr... I hate to think of such situation. In this age where it's so easy to illegally copy someone's work and distribute it for free without the author's consent, to me, even worse is idea stealing and releasing something without proper credits to the ones involved. At least, the illegal copies (usually) keep the credits of the rightful authors of the thing (which I hope will be the case with any of my soon-to-be-released ReFills...

Still solving an issue I'm not comfortable with. The current version is Velocity sensitive, so to work properly, the user must press the keyboard keys with enough velocity to make sure it sustains the loop properly and also cuts completely the audio source. This will be optional in the final version, because I also found it cool to have it for further expressiveness, controlling the Wet/Dry mix through Velocity. So, Button 4 will switch Keyboard Sensitiveness ("Keyb.Sense") ON, being OFF by default. This setting already disables Aftertouch gate control when OFF (the default), because sometimes that option gets in the way of the performance. I already have a working solution, but it's bulky and will add some unexpected complexity to an already complex device, so I'm still trying to figure out a more elegant way to do it. I woke up with 2 ideas to test. The 1st one looked great on a draft combinator, but failed miserably when applied to the real thing. This fail wa...

Just finished another device, useful for live performances, human-beatbox style or live one-man acoustic or acapella performances with on-the-fly minimalistic rhythm and bass lines. (please check the videos below to get the idea) LiveLoopBox has 4 live sampling audio loops of up to 2secs each (adjustable in steps synced to Reason tempo). You can stack a bunch of'em to get more loop slots for the same audio source by splitting it through some Audio Spiders and then control the group through Remote, as you always can with Reason :) It works by constantly sampling the audio source and maintaining the loop as soon as its triggered. "Wait ?!? Live audio input with Reason ???" :P Well, you can use Reason with live input right now, through ASIO4ALL's ReWuschel (Windows only) or... you can wait for Record :D Anyway, I may come up with other uses for it, in a more traditional sequenced Reason song, which I'm sure will be the main scenario where the device must prove its u...

Well, I have this guideline I try to more or less stick with: If it's something I did mainly with, for or through freeware, its my duty (and I'm glad) to give it back to the community for free. I guess this is the best way to thank the ones before me that made something for free that I could use, and keep the thing rolling :) If I had to buy or pay for something, then I try to jump in the bandwagon and give a run of my dedicated time and effort for the money, as the ones before me also did. I try to make available for free, things that may help to make a point, prove a concept or help fellow Reason users / forum members to understand something, some concepts or some cool ideas that I have no time to develop, planting the seed for someone to take it and further develop it. Things like these pre-Reason4 oldies: So, to answer your question: I'm planning to release ReGRAINZeR (along with other devices I'm still trying to develop) in a future ReFill, sold (hopefully) through...

While browsing the "Feature Suggestions" forum, I saw descathach 's "ReLive" post and decided to explore what could be done about it. So, I'm now playing with REXTrigga (formerly named, incorrectly, as LoopTrigga) a 14 Dr.REX Combinator device, each with it's loop triggering through C2 to C#3. I stopped at 14 loops simply based on using up all 14 channels of a reMIX 14:2 and for what I was trying to do, 14 is more than enough, though its very easy to add more :) Now, to find a place to put this thing for easy downloading... Ah, I guess this one will work. BTW, this is a perfect example of why I kept asking for a Transpose setting for the Combinator :) Related Propellerheads.se Forum posts: ReLive Combinator needs Transpose for each Key Mapping range!!!

As anyone would expect, a real-time grain/loop device relies heavily on the only available on-the-fly sample'n'loop devices Reason provides us (at least up to Reason 4): the echo devices :) ...in this case, the versatile DDL-1 Digital Delay Line device. So, a full stereo ReGRAINZeR with multiple readily available key triggable loops of real-time audio source sampling, can be an overkill if many instances are needed in a song... at least in theory, because I still haven't done any heavy duty tests on complex songs with multiple instances of the device. As you can see in the demo videos ( try watching the 16:9 HD version of demo 2 ), the DSP meter at the bottom left corner shows what happens CPU wise in that song, with one instance of the device running on a Core 2 Duo laptop. I'm still not sure about memory consumption, so I need to run some test for that. Anyway, even if the current full-featured model of ReGRAINZeR proves to be as light as a feather to CPU+RAM resourc...

2nd demo video: (best viewed in a larger version ) 1st demo video: Related Propellerheads.se Forum post: Something I'm currently working on: ReGRAINZeR

Finished uploading the 2nd video showing ReGRAINZeR V.0.2beta (still named ReLOOPeR in the video). Still no word from Turbotito :( ... it would help if I had his email contact instead of relying on PropSW Forum's and YouTube's PrvMsgs :/ I'm tempted to just release the videos and simply obey to any take down notice I might receive afterwards, although that's so not the way I like to do things -.-' ...but, it's a demo song included with every Reason 4 sold, so I guess it would be ok to use it as an example to demo a Reason device, wouldn't it ? Anyway, while waiting, I made some changes to what the F1# to A1# black keys do. Now they have 2 modes as a group: 1/8T loop mode or free wild'n'weird glitch-like mode, since most of the action they did is now made with A1 and B1 white keys. This also freed Combinator's Button 4, maybe I'll use it now to turn off the option of Aftertouch gate effect triggering. So, now, the current version is ReGRAINZeR...

Shot some more videos, with another screen setup, now taking advantage of YouTube's 16:9 HD support, while now trying a firewire digital camera to shoot the actual MIDI keyboard controller being used as I did with the 1st video... but there's still some video latency :( ...guess it's because I had to turn the video graphics acceleration off so the desktop capture software can pick it up. Ah well... I'll choose one of the videos and upload it anyway :) I found something already named Relooper through Google, so I'm renaming the device ReGRAINZeR (naming's getting better'n'better, uh? right... -.-') I still tried using ReGRAINeR but Google found something like that too, some film effect thing. So, after this, I made some changes to (the now named) ReGRAINZeR device. Previously (up to V.0.2beta) I was using all the keys, from C1 to C2 (transposeable), but then I thought of ways to use several instances of the ReGRAINZeR, each mapped to its own octave,...

While uploading the 1st (crappy) video to YouTube it just dawned on me "wait a minute! I just realized I'm using a music that's not mine, to demo the device... oh damn..." So, I had two options: scrap the video, try to compose a really cool tune to demo the device, redo the video. try to contact the song's author, asking if I can use it in my demo. The 1st would be safer but slower (I thought, 'cause I had to come up with a cool enough tune). Also, it would defeat the purpose of demoing the device with a known song, so people watching would recognize what the device was doing to the song. 2nd option could be faster and simpler while accomplishing what I wanted, as I said above. Well, I opted to set the uploaded video to private, and send a private message to the author and... wait :| ...and wait... :|

Just tried using a NN-19 loaded with a plain wave, with a Matrix controlling the note length, and the curve automating the Sample Start + Manual knob... eh, cool effect :D I'm going to try the same with a REX loaded on a NN-XT to see what can be done. More on this (much) later... :) Related Propellerheads.se Forum post: I would expect to see such an OSC available as an option

I've been searching the web for some free desktop video capturing software, so I can make some videos showing ReLOOPeR in action (and future devices, tutorials and stuff). Found some, testing a couple, let's see if I can make it work :) Related Propellerheads.se Forum post: LOL! I know... I don't mind...

Ok, so everything went well and now I'm the proud user of a Virus TI Atomizer (yeah right!) pseudo-emulator, done with and for Reason 4 :D I'm going to play with it for a couple of days to see what more can I add to it, and after that, post a couple of demo videos, showing the thing working and what it can do :) What it can't do (when compared to what I've seen in some Atomizer video demos) is: It can't reverse playback the loops... still couldn't think of a way to do this in real-time with Reason 4, so for now, I'm considering it er... impossible :( It won't be possible to perfectly note-pitch-shift the real-time loops :/ ...although I'm still thinking of a way to simulate this effect with the shorter/higher rate loops, getting a note scaled pseudo-pitch-shifting effect. I already did some tests and it's kinda possible to do an almost note-scaled pitch, but still not perfect, and it's late and I'm tired -.-' At this time, ReLOOPeR a...

My "Reason Premium Edition Bundle" arrived today, YAY!!! :D Just in time to make something I've been experimenting with the R4 Demo for a while. A "Virus TI Atomizer" emulator! If all goes well (and I can put my theories in practice), I'll post a demo video soon to see if anyone's interested in such a device :) Can't wait to get home, install Reason 4 and start playing with it! Related Propellerheads.se Forum post: Status: Delivered!