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 .
May 19th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Hello, Mr. Peff, how is it going? I have been reading and watching the post as a Reason User and Sound Designer, im Really impressed how it goes and to get final work in some patches is hard work, congrats for the patch it sounds really cool, and it have gived me the meaning to start to patch one thing similar.
I will keep posting and im looking further to see this one done!!
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