Granular Effects in Reason 4.0
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 | 10:34 pm and filed in Reason, Combinator.
Reason Users who attended the Producers Conferences in the UK, DK or LA this year, probably saw my demo of building a granular type of effect in Reason 3.0 using the NN-19 as the primary sound generator. (NY people saw the beat repeater combi : ) Thanks to some new features in Reason 4.0, this patch has taken shape into a completely new device with some very useful features.
I’ve got a little youtube clip online that demonstrates using a snare drum sample in the patch to create some crazy elastic zipping sounds. The combinator is being triggered from a sequencer track, and the patch actually tracks the pitch from the MIDI notes. With the right sample content, the grains respond to a chromatic scale, and you will hear the snare at different pitches.
It’s not exactly granular synthesis, but the results are pretty close.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:33 am
Hey Kurt! I really want this Combi Patch BADLY! Would you be so kind to post it? Or send to me? This is freakin stuff.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
It still needs a bit of work and probably a slew of preset patches before I’m comfortable with releasing it. I’ll let you know when I’m looking for testers
It’s easy to make your own though. It’s based on a sample start modulation with pulse train triggering gate events. If you have PTR2.5 or PTR3/ refer to the Control Voltage chapter–There’s a project that describes triggering samples by non standard means.
You can also refer to Josh Mobley’s Reason 4.0 demo track. He has a similar patch in there that tweaks the vocals.
Shameless plug warning: we cover how to build Josh’s granular patch in the Music Production with Reason 4.0 video
October 12th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Oh check this clip out as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1GElnwAXn8
October 16th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Thanks Kurt, I just checked out Justin’s tut’s as well. I’ll be waiting for the packed stuff because currently my time is very limited. But it’ll be a pleasure to test both your and Justin’s stuff (and promote it then).
October 16th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Ahhh btw: I’m a real PTR buyer.
Bought it from amazon. 
October 16th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
[…] Reason guru Kurt Kurasaki aka Peff has build an original combinator for build as a demosntration for The Producers Conferences. The combinator is a custom granular audio manipulation initially build for Reason 3, and now, thanks to some new features in Reason 4, it was updated with some very useful features … read more about the granular combinator. […]
January 7th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Hey Peff, I’m very interested in the granular effects Combinator. Is there any way to control the sample start knob in the NN-XT via MIDI controller?
February 6th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I haven’t tried it, but I think the best way to do this with the NN-XT is to use the Velocity to Sample Start Modulation on a NN-XT sample zone. Then connect an RPG-8 to the NN-XT and map the velocity knob to your controller. Trigger the sampler through the RPG-8 then adjust the velocity knob to sweep the sample start position.
February 17th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
hi Mr Peff !
Your granular patch is simply the best one i have ever seen ! incredible ! Shall we have this in download please ? Or shall i test/promot it for you ? i have tried to do this in reason since a couple of years but with no success
…Or should you make a little quick tutorial to show us how to build it if you don’t realy have time to finish your patch ?
Thank’s !
Ps : i’m sorry if my english is not very good , i’m a Reunion Isle guy .