My ReDrum Combinator (Reason specific)

ReDrum Combinator Template

In the few years I have been using Reason, I've slowly started to build a default combinator that I can use for my drums, next to a default combinator that I use for all other instruments.

In this walktrough, I'll show you how to build my ReDrum Combinator, and how to effectively use it.

There's a few tricks in this combinator that I use quite often:

• I can apply effects to single drum sounds WITHOUT having to flip the rack and wire it up
• I can apply NY-Style sidechaining to any of the individual drums with the turn of a knob
• I can use my kick and snare sounds to sidechain into other instruments with relative ease

I'll go trough each of these functions and explain how I made it possible.

I won't go into exact settings for the effects and instruments, you can adjust this to taste.

If TL;DR, there are two combinators at the bottom of this page; but you might not know how to use it effectively, and you might find it difficult to expand on this combinator.

Making it easy to add effects to separate drum sounds:

This is an easy one.
Make a combinator, the first thing you'll do is add a 14:2 mixer.

Add a redrum underneath.

The thing I do next is output all the different channels into ECF Filters, and connect these into the mixer at the top.

Then bypass all the filters, so they don't modify the sound before you want to actually use them.

You can stack the filters like this:

[ filter 1 ] [ filter 2]                               [ filter 1 ] [ filter 3 ]

[ filter 3 ] [ filter 4]            OR             [ filter 2  ] [ filter 4] like this ( but then up to 10, for 10 filters)

It doesn't make a big difference, so I'd say it's up to personal preference if you prefer them stacked horizontally or vertically.

Once you flip the rack back you should be looking at something like this:

Easy enough so far, right?

The best part about doing this, is whenever you now want to add an effect to a single drum hit / sample (lets say you want to add a delay to sample #7) all you have to do is drag a delay effect onto filter #7 and it will wire it up for you, without having to flip the rack, and without taking up a valueble aux-effect in the mixer.

Simple and quick NY-Style / Parallel compression for your drums

Sometimes you've got a drum sample that just doesn't really punch trough the mix as you'd like.

You could raise the volume, but then you might be raising frequencies of the sound you don't want emphasised (like low end on a hi-hat, albeit unusual, it might happen).

My solution for this is using NY-Style compression.

All it really is is a sample, beeing split into two outputs, one going into the mixer, the other going trough some EQ and then routed into a compressor, which in turn goes back into the mixer.

It's simple enough to use the 14:2 mixer for this, which is what I do.

I connect two M-Class Equalizers to the mixer, one for all frequencies above +- 200Hz,

and one for the bass frequencies below.

After that I route both EQ's into seperate M-Class Compressors, with a low threshhold and a pretty high ratio.

You can see the EQ and Compressor settings I used, but like I said, adjust to taste.

At the top of the image, at the right side, you can see the two compressors show up in the first and second auxiliaries of the mixer.
Be sure to name your compressors HI NYCOMP (or something) and LO NYCOMP, according to the EQ that goes before it.

Now, all you need to do when you want to make that hi-hat or kick sample punch trough, 

either raise the first AUX send on the drum channel, for the hi's, or the second to raise the bottom end.
Sometimes I even do both, just be sure not to push it too far.

You're trying to get a wee bit more punch and volume, not actually change the sound in any way.

You can save this combinator so far,
You've got seperate effect channels ready to go without the need of any routing, and you've got NY-Style compression to get your drums to really blast trough the mix.
Quite useful already, if I say so myself!

The last step gets a little more technical, we are gonna route some of the ReDrum channels to a splitter and back in to the mixer, so we can easily use these for sidechaning basslines or other melodic elements.

Wiring the ReDrum to sidechain other instruments

This part gets confusing really quick, especially once you already have the combinator set up this far, because it involves a LOT of cables, and flipping the rack right now might already give you a headache.

Don't fret, though, the actual theory behind it is relatively simple, and once you have it all set up, you'll probably never have to give the wiring a second glance.

Plus once you're done, you should be a tad more pro-efficient in wiring things up in the rack!

Lets get to it.

The first thing to note is what samples are we gonna be sidechaining with?

The thing I most commonly see and do, is when the kicks and snares get sidechained.

A little example:

The first part is without any sidechaining. The second half has a low threshold - high compression on the synth. The difference should be very audible.

To make a template for this, keep one thing in mind:

The kick and snare must always be placed in the same slot on the Redrum.
Otherwise instead of sidechaining from a kick, all of a sudden you are sidechaining from some other percussive element, which you don't want your fat bassline to pump along to.
Well you might, but usually, that's not what one wants to do.

Anyway, here is the default I use:

Sample 1 for KICKS
Sample 2 for KICKS (layered on top of the first, or used as off-kicks)
Sample 3 for KICKS (Well, sometimes I use this to add a long bass, but usually this is empty)
Sample 4 for SNARES / CLAPS
Sample 5 for SNARES / CLAPS (layered on top of the first, or used as off-snares/claps)
Sample 6 - 10 for all other percussive elements, hi-hats, reverse snares, fx, ect.

Some might say it's counterproductive to have set locations to put your drums, but I find it very usefull, especially when going back to old files. Your kick and snare midi location will be the same across all of your songs.

Now for the actual splitting.

For this trick we're gonna need a total of 6 Spider Audio merger & splitters.

Name them Kick 1, Kick 2, Snare 1, Snare 2, Sidechain x2 and Sidechain x4.

The first thing you want to do is remove the output from sample 1, 2, 4 and 5.

These should be routed to the filters 1, 2, 4 and 5, if you followed the tutorial from the start.

Connect the first output from Redrum into the rightmost input into the respective Spider Audio merger & Splitter. (That would be Kick 1, on the side which states A(L), and B(R)).

Split it back into the filer you just de-coupled, also split it into Sidechain x2 and Sidechain x4.

Split the second sample output in Kick 2, doing the same, but skip splitting it into Sidechain x2.
Split Kick 2 back in to Filter 2 and into Sidechain x4.

By making a difference between sidechaining with both kicks, or just one kick, you can disable sidechaining for your off-kicks, if you just use the second ReDrum slot to play off-kicks.

Do the same for samples 4 and 5,
going into Snare 1 and Snare 2, respectively.
Then Snare 1 goes back in to Filter 4, and Sidechain x2 and Sidechain x4.
Snare 2 goes into Filter 5, and again, only Sidechain x4 so you can choose to sidechain the second sample or not, as with the kicks.

That's it!

You're ReDrum template is now ready to use in most (electronic) forms of music!
Be sure to save it when you are done!

Testing the Sidechaining

If you want to actually test it on an instrument, create any type of synth / sampler, make it play a long note, and add a compressor. Be sure to have a nice beat running in your redrum before you do this.

Now connect either Sidechain x2 or Sidechain x4 into the Sidechain inputs from the compressor.
Turn the Threshold all the way down, and the ratio all the way up.
Now press play!

To change the effect and duration of the sidechain pump, you can adjust the attack and release knobs.
Play around with it and see the way it changes the entire way your tune sounds!

Downloads and further tips

These are two example templates, one that includes the sidechaining, and one that doesn't.
You can download both and compare them, which might help in understanding the process.

One might say that 10 drum samples isn't a whole lot, and I must agree.
I actually use this combinator, but with two redrums, and two mixers.

All it really needs is a bit more splitting (3 more Spider Audio merger & splitters), one to get the NY sytle compression to work on both mixers, and another to combine both mixers into one sound output.
I'm not going to post this, as I believe once you get a grip on the single ReDrum Template, you should be able to expand it into a double version yourself.
It'll be good practice too, as it means you really have to dig in to the cables.


Here are the two templates you can download:
ReDrum Template (No Sidechain)

and
1x ReDrum Template Blank

Well, thanks for reading, and I hope you got a better understanding of wiring in Reason!

DatAsian

Producers Collective

part of

Majestic Entertainment

Synthesizer Terminology

What is a synthesizer?

A synthesizer, also known as a synth, is an virtual or digital instrument which can form sound with several different methods. It can be played trough a built-in/midi keyboard, or trough a sequencer or arpeggiator. These sounds can then be further modified by changing the parameters that are included in the synth.

So, what's commonly seen in a synth?

Oscillator (Also seen as OSC)

The very foundation of any synth. A oscillator is a waveform generator which loops the wave at such a speed, that a sound is made. The quicker the loop, the higher the pitch (tone). The speed of the loop is called the "frequency". So, higher frequency, is a higher tone.

     Basic waveform types:

           Sine wave - A "smooth" sound, so to say. Gives a clean sound.

           Square wave - The name says it like it is, this wave is built out of square blocks. The square wave gives a very full sound, I find these great for leads.

           Triangle wave - Actually a sinewave, sharpened. Still quite a clean sound, but with a bit more texture to it.

           Saw wave - The roughest in the list of basic waveforms - has a piercing high end sound, that can be filtered out.

These are the basic waveforms that can be used and in turn combined, to create entirely new waveforms, which can even create known sounds that usually are heard in real life instruments, like strings, trumpets, and piano's,

More information about oscillators can be found in the "Oscillator Terminology" section.

Filter

Another essential part of a synth, is the filter.

A simple concept, but (I found) hard to grasp fully. 

In short, a filter "filters" a certain frequency range by eighter passing or rejecting tones above or under the filter frequency. There are usually three parameters linked to the filter:

           Filter Frequency

     Also known as the cutoff point in a filter, this is the point where the filter will eighter cut or pass the tones above or below the cutoff point. How do you know what filter does what, when? 

This seemed daunting to me at first, but it's quite easy to understand once you see it explained, and use it a few timeIn the end, it's just understanding English, but still requires some thought at first.

          High-Pass filter - Passes the high pitched tones. Can be used on hi-hats for example. Also known as a low-cut or low-reject filter.

A high-pass or low-cut filter, with a cutoff frequency of about 78 hZ.

          Band-Pass filter - Passes the tones in-between the high's and low's. Think snares, claps.

          Low-Pass filter - Also known as a high-reject or high-cut filter. Does exactly the opposite of a high-pass filter.

A low-pass or high-cut filter, with a cutoff point around 2500 hZ.

   There are some more commonly used filter types, such as the

          Notch-filter - which actually cut's a very small frequency range. 

     and the

          Peak-filter - the opposite of the notch, this boosts a very small frequency range.

       

          Resonance
    A common knob seen on filters is the "Resonance" or "Res" knob. The only thing this really does, is boost the sound at the cutoff point. This is easier shown than explained, so here:

The small peak a the cutoff point is commonly known as the "Resonance"

At a cutoff point of 25kHz, you see the resonance brings up the sound at just around that point.

For more information regarding filters, go to the "Filter Terminology" section.

        

Low Frequency Oscillator

More often seen as an "LFO", a low frequency oscillator  is exactly what it says it is.
It's an oscillator, in whatever kind of shape you want (or is available in the synth, to be more precise)
9 out of 10 times, the LFO itself will not be making any sound.
Unless you turn the frequency up very high, it's highly unlikely the LFO would even make ANY sound when routed (routing = connecting, wireing) towards your speakers. And doing this kind of means turning it into a regular oscillator, in which case you could just as well use a regular oscillator.

So why do we have LFO's?
To edit the parameters we see in the oscillator and filter sections, of course!
A quick example would be to rout the LFO to the Filter Frequency of your synth.
Turn up the LFO rate (the speed of which it oscillates) to about 1/8'ths, turn up the resonance of your filter slightly, and you should hear the now-commonly-heard sound of a basic wobbble.

Another basic technique would be to route the LFO to the oscillator pitch, giving it a bit of tremolo in the sound.
Maybe rout it to the pan (left/right output) of the instrument, making it sound like the source of the instrument is moving from left to right. That's not all though, you could practically apply an LFO to nearly any parameter in your DAW, like changing the amount of a distortion effect up and down in a wave.

More on LFO's in the "Basic Techniques" section.

Envelopes

If an oscillator is a sound source, and an LFO would be a modifier, we could place envelopes in the same range as an LFO. Like an LFO an envelope can modify anything in your sound.

Better yet, an envelope is almost always used in a synth, if only for the amplitude (the "loudness" of the sound.)

An important thing to comprehend with envelopes is the ASDR model used.
When connected to your amp envelope, ASDR would stand for:
Attack - The time it takes for the sound to reach top volume
Decay - The time it takes after the attack, to move to the sustain level
Sustain - The volume level the sound stays at untill the key is released
Release - The time AFTER the key is released for the volume to drop to zero.

Arpeggiator

An Arpeggiator (sometimes seen as ARP) is a function available on some synthesizers which will actually simply play certain notes on a certain rate.

Simply said, it just turns on the note for a set amount of time, on a set pitch, and then move on to then next "Step" in the arpeggiator.

This could be 16 quick notes in the same pitch, or 10 notes with some shuffle and pitched up and down.
Some arpeggiators even go further than the gating (note on) and the pitching, and allow modification of any parameter in the synth.
For example, every step would turn the frequency knob up or down.

This way you can get complex patterns and soundscapes.

The Arpegiator attached to the Thor synthesizer by Propellerhads. The step sequencer is seen to the right.

Waveshaper

All a shaper actually does (this, together with alot of FX like distortion and overdrive) is change the waveform by eighter cutting the top and the bottom. Note this is one way of waveshaping, I might add more later.

About the DAW Producers Collective

What is the DPC?

The whole point of this blog and the accompanying G+ community is to (first and foremost) teach people the pure basics in music production, then compile the best tutorials found on the net and divide them by software.    

Vision

Seeing as there is a large range of DAW software available nowadays, I found it important to explain the basic terminology and techniques out there, that would apply to any audio workstation.

While you can easily find this information on websites such as Wikipedia, I believe as a beginning producer you are bound to run into one of these problems:

1. The reader doesn't exactly know what he / she is looking for to start out with. With the sheer amount of terms that are used in music productions, it's hard to know where to start.
2. The information found assumes the reader already has some understanding of the terminology surrounding the topic at hand; which makes it hard to grasp a concept as a whole.

My idea is to bring the basic topics used in audio software and explain them in a way that even the layman in audio will understand it. 

Mostly for the people who haven't been producing for a long amount of time, but even if you have alot of the basics in your curriculum already, sometimes there's just this one effect or term that you never completely understood.

I want to try to explain all of it, in a simple and highly visual way.

What will you learn in this blog?

Basic terminology and commonly used techniques.

For example, what is a:

D.A.W?

V.S.T?

Synthesizer?

Oscillator?

And:

What are the basic principles behind creating that now-well-known wobble sound?

What is this "reverb" and what could I use it on?

What WON'T you learn from this blog?

Musical notation, how to play a particular instrument, or how to use a particular DAW/VST.

I won't go into the nitty gritty of what makes a synthesizer tick, I will try to keep the information simple enough so everyone can understand it, but go deep enough so that you have all the basic knowledge to get started in any DAW.

Disclaimer

I did not follow a musical study

I'm no acoustic physicist

I sometimes, have no idea what i'm doing, but, in that case, will try to explain how it will affect the sound.

I will simplify the terms and techniques to a point where everyone should understand it, this doesn't mean
i'll teach you the actual physics and math behind the techniques, to learn this, you will have to go and learn the physics behind acoustics yourself.

Another good site for this is:
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/sound/

So,

I think that's that for my first blog-post. I hope i've been clear, and I hope you'll come back to learn some sound!