Koshdukai's Music(al) Reason(ing)

Record 1.0.1 was just announced ! =D What's all the hassle about such a "minor" fix/update ? Well, for starters, Master Section got the missing "In" I was complaining about in my previous post :D • Advanced MIDI Device: Master Section: In was not available as target That's the good news, the bad news is that I forgot that using Advanced MIDI Device ports redirection to devices, bypasses the Remote layer (where all the conversion/mapping occurs), so... just setting Axiom faders to Channel 16 and redirecting it to the Master Section wasn't enough. Anyway... all to say that, the workaround explained in my previous post, is still valid for the purpose I described. But, it's good news that the missing "In" is now there where it should! Now, the BIG news. IMHO, is: • Import multiple audio files feature added This, to me, was the most important "fix" (i.e. new feature) brought by Record 1.0.1 Record now can really shine as a mastering ...

All the new exciting and cool features one gets with Record 1.0 over Record 4.0 quickly became second nature as I made it my default music production application from the start . I rarely use Reason 4 standalone now, and when I do, I'm quickly reminded of why using Record 1.0 is way better and more along the lines of what I've always wished for Reason in a long time. I only go to Reason 4 now when I need to save something as a Reason file (as opposed to a .record file, impossible to share with Reason-only users) or quickly check something on a device, patch or browse a ReFill without having the hassle of going through the online authorization process of Record (or when I'm on an offline location) if I forgot to bring the Ignition Key (aka dongle) with me. So it's only natural to say (and unfortunate to hear from the developer perspective, I'm sure) that it's easier for me (or any other user, I guess) to remember what's not implemented in Record simply becau...

One of the bugs I reported during Record Beta testing, relates to a Master Section missing "In" target, when trying to redirect MIDI channel data to a specific device. Why would I care about this tiny little forgotten thing? Well, since I'm using an M-Audio Axiom 61, and don't find the fader section useful for Synth parameter tweaking (non motorized faders cause weird and sudden parameter value jumps and I find that distracting) I made my custom M-Audio Axiom Remote codec SysEx block (the bunch of data that gets sent to the recognized controller to set it up properly each time we start Record or Reason) have that fader section send its MIDI data to MIDI Channel 16. This would allow me to "Channel Lock" the faders to the Master Section in Record, so I could easily control the Record's Main Mixer with those faders. ** A little explanation here : When I wrote this, I wasn't aware that the Advance MIDI Device bypasses Remote, so any MID...

Just added this little CV tool in the free download section (on the right): "K's Basics - Random access to a CV values list" It's basically a way to access through CV indexing, a list of 3x32 "cells" of CV values (well, one of the list is within the Note range of CV values, but this example is enough to demo the concept). So, if you're ever in need of generating a specific sequence of CV values controlled by another CV source, this is one way to do it :) It's like having random or sequential access (in whatever direction you want) to a specific custom list of CV or note values, by using a CV controlled "cursor" (just connect the CV "cursor" source to the Rotary 1 CV input and tweak the Combinator modulation programmer Min/Max values to your needs). This device was enough for something I was testing, but I'm sure it can be optimized with some thought and more time. It won't work well in a real-time fast switching situation,...

As I previously mentioned , Thor can have more than the standard known 3 simultaneous OSCs. Here's an example of a 7xOSC Thor: 6 polyphonic OSCs + 1 monophonic OSC (For demonstration purposes, I enclosed this example in a Combinator, allowing easy access to some of the available parameters to tweak. This is completely usable as a standalone Thor patch, and basically that's the advantage of extending the available OSCs) (click to zoom) Low Frequency Oscillator One of Thor's components that can be used as an OSC is the LFO. If you look closely at the available LFO rates, you'll see that the rate can be pushed to audible frequencies (so it's not as "Low Frequency" as one would expect, uh? ;). LFO1 is easy to sync to the keyboard input, making it possible to control its frequency in the usual musical scale. To do the same with LFO2, you'll need to make some modulation routing. The Pitch-Wheel can also be added to the mix, to control both LFO's like a n...

Usually, whenever we need to do some real-time messing with the Sample Start, we usually discard the NN-XT (because there's no way to automate it's sample-based Start/End, and Loop Start/End settings) ... ...and think immediately of the NN-19 because it has, right there, on the upper right corner, a little knob to easily tweak the Sample Start, controllable through Combinator's modulation routing matrix... ...but, there's a way to do the same thing with the NN-XT, indirectly :P There's a NN-XT setting that can be used to do exactly the same thing and be as controllable but through CV and affect all the loaded samples at the same time. :) Turning the NN-XT's Velocity S.Start all the way to the right will mimic the NN-19 Sample Start behavior, controllable by the CV values sent to the Gate CV input at the back of the NN-XT. Now, imagine using Thor's Sequencer Note and Gate/Velocity CV outputs to control the NN-XT (or a NN-19 inside a combinator) taking advanta...

You know that Thor can have up to 8 independent built-in OSC's, 6 of them being polyphonic, don't you? A future Quick Tip will show you how to turn LFO1, Filter1 and Filter2 into perfectly playable sound producing polyphonic oscillators, and LFO2 and Filter3 as monophonic oscillators :P It's even possible to a certain degree to use Thor's Sequencer as a "user-definable" wave-shape monophonic OSC, but... I haven't sorted out some quirks with it, so... forget I mentioned this one ;) (at least for now!)