While there has been a lot of buzz surrounding other Propellerhead news this week, a tragedy has befallen the family of our friend, James Bernard, PH Artists Relations and Reason Specialist. On July 13, 2011, James’ wife, Nicole, passed away. Nicole was 36 years old and was the mother of their four children, Ava, Chloe, Mia and Asher. People in the user community are leaving their expressions of sympathy on on the Propellerhead User Forum in this thread

I’ve also been receiving phone calls and emails from people asking what they could do to show their support. A trust account for James and Nicole’s four children has been established, and people can make a tangible gesture by contributing to this fund. The button below takes you to the paypal portal for the Bernard Childcare Trust:

mØxr is a MaxMSP based application that converts Control Voltages as audio signal to monophonic MIDI note messages. The application must receive two CV signals through audio connections, a Gate CV and a Note CV. While any audio signal can trigger a MIDI note message, mØxr is calibrated specifically for the Note CV values generated by a Thor Polysonic Synthesizer in Propellerhead Reason.

Discussions on the propellerhead user forum inspired me to pursue this idea, which began with the MOTU Volta concept of controlling analog hardware synthesizers with software based CV sources routed to a MOTU hardware interface. Experiments in controlling analog hardware from Reason were very successful, so this was the next logical move. I only have a basic understanding of Max, so this is all experimental and will probably sit as one of those never ending works in progress.

How this works

The connection between Reason+Record and mØxr requires an inter application audio routing extension, such as Cycling74 Soundflower, aggregated with your primary audio interface. CV/Gate data is transmitted from Reason+Record to mØxr through Soundflower, while audio signals to and from the hardware interface pass normally. This allows you to trigger a MIDI hardware synthesizer using Reason CV/Gate signals and track the audio back into Record.

As an alternative to soundflower and setting up an aggregate driver, you can also use a purely digital loopback configuration. If your hardware has unused ADAT Lightpipe connections, a digital audio loop from the output to the input can be configured with a short TOSLink cable. (The shorter the better to reduce latency of light). CV/Gate audio data can be routed from Reason+Record to the ADAT lightpipe outputs, and mØxr can receive them from the ADAT lightpipe inputs.

Things you can do

While some work is involved in getting mØxr operational, there are some surprisingly gratifying results. In addition to triggering MIDI synths from a sequence in Reason+Record, Control Voltage pattern devices like the Matrix Pattern Sequencer and RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator can also be used to drive hardware.

RTFM

Support for mØxr is minimal because there’s no efficient way to tech a system remotely. The documentation is rough, but I’ve attempted to cover the key issues regarding installation and operation. The CV to MIDI conversion process relies on so many different parts working together, so it’s rather difficult for me to provide support without being there in person.

It must be reiterated that mØxr generates a monophonic MIDI stream, so results from polyphonic MIDI sequences are unpredictable. Also, latency varies depending on your driver settings, buffer size, and MIDI configuration. Troubleshooting issues are (somewhat) covered in the documentation.

Download the latest mØxr Documentation

Download mØxr

mØxr is a stand-alone application for MacOS 10.6, and operates side-by-side with Reason+Record duo. Attempts to get it working on Windows have been unsuccessful, but anyone interested in exploring this concept on the windows platform can find the original patches in the MIDIRunner topic in the Propellerhead User Forum

Download mØxr.dmg

- updated 9/18/11 Max 5.1.9
- not tested with Mac OS 10.7 Lion

Huge Thanks to those who attended the Producers Conference in San Diego this past weekend. Dave, Matt, and I agree that It was definitely one of the best events to date, and we look forward to future events in the area.

My presentation, on the topic of compressors and sidechain compression, picked up where I left off during the MMM webcast on CV Basics by going into envelope followers and how they work in the process of compression. Below are links for a couple of the example files including the “home made compressor” patch and the aux bus routing system which allows you to automate sidechain compression.

DIYCompressor.rns

SidechainAuxsend.rns

I’ve decided to hold off publicly releasing the other example files on sidechain modulation, but my offer to examine your mixes and mastering still stands. I would need to see the complete Reason or Reason+Record session with all samples self-contained. Please contact me via email, or facebook.

Also here’s the demo that featured some of the more complex sidechaining processes:

CV Demo (for MMM) Record Mix by peff

Starting Monday May 2, Propellerheads will be hosting live webcasts featuring artists, producers, industry specialists, and engineers from around the planet, including Josh Mobley, Adam Fielding, Mocean Worker, Matt Piper, Olivia Broadfield, DJ LuckyDate, Dave Brown, Jessica Gore (NNXT), Terri Winston, Chris Petti, The Freemasons, Gary Bromham, SoundCloud, Kim Nieva, Ed Bauman (EditEd4TV), James Bernard, Amber Rubarth, Giles Reeves (selig), Gerald Simpson (A Guy called Gerald), and the Propellerhead Crew themselves!

During the live webcasts, you can post questions directly to the presenters via chat, and carry on in a live discussion about Reason, music production, and the music industry. To see the full schedule of events, visit the prop’s website:

MMM Schedule of Events

Next Saturday, May 7, I will deliver a presentation on one of my specialities, Control Voltage Routing This will cater towards those who are not familiar with patching CVs in Reason, but I will certainly welcome questions that are more advanced. Hope to see you there.

The news from Japan is terribly sad and this affects me deeply on a personal level. I have family there. Fortunately, they are safe but still feel anxious over the events of the past few days. I also have many friends there, and if you’re involved in the world of music, believe it or not, you too, have many friends in Japan!

These are your friends who work at Akai who made your MPC; the friends at Korg who made your Kaoss Pad; and the friends at Tascam who assembled your old Portastudio - to name a few. These are also the friends at Technics, who built your 1200s; friends at Yamaha who made your old DX-7; the friends at Sony who developed your CD Player; and these are the friends at Roland who invented the TR-808 that was sampled so you could download a fat bass drum for your new beat.

The devastation of the 2011 Tohoku – Pacific Ocean Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami has put a tremendous toll on our friends, their families, and neighbors, and right now they need a favor. One way to help is through the Red Cross: People in the United States can text “REDCROSS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Also, people in Canada can text “REDCROSS” to 30333 to make a donation.

I can also vouch for the Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund set up by the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California where funds are not reduced for administrative costs: JCCCNC.org

It’s ok if you can’t help with a donation. Next time you hear that 808 bass drop, just think of your friends in Japan, and hope for better days ahead.