Section 4: More Instruments
In this tutorial we will learn how to:
Basics of the NN-XT
Using the Scream
Learn the basics of the Digital Vocoder and Audio Splitter
Using Matrix Curves
Make sure you understand everything that’s covered in the previous tutorials, as I won’t be so thorough in this section. I’ll concentrate more on the theory side of the instruments rather than the practical.
Basics of the NN-XT:
The NN-XT is basically the same as the NN19 but slightly more advanced. Its advantage over the NN19 is that you can manipulate the samples better as there are more options and a bigger edit window. The downside is that you can’t automate anything apart from the main knobs and at the top. In this tutorial I will cover the basics of how to get by using the NN-XT. Learning how to get the best from it takes a while but as a beginner you won’t need those skills.
-Create a new song with Mixer and an NN-XT attached.
You will notice the NN-XT is half minimized by default.
-Click on the little ‘play’ button that’s to the right of ‘NN-XT Remote Editor’ sign (see below)
This will open up the remote editor. Yep it does look a little confusing at first.
-Okay let’s load in a patch (browse patch button) from Reason Soundbank>NNXT Sampler Patches>Piano called FM Bell.
I’ve used this patch, as it’s fairly easy to understand. You’ll notice 9 different instances of the .aif format FM Bell load up.
-Click the first .aif in the window called DK BELL1C1.aif.
This highlights the file and you can see the note stretches from C-2 to E1 in the window. This is confirmed by looking at the Hi-Key and Lo-Key knobs that are at the bottom of the window. Basically what this is telling the XT is when you play notes from C-2 to E1 then play this file. If you double click the file then you can load a different sample in its place, although we won’t do that just now. When you play C3 on your keyboard it will play the file BELL1C3.aiff.
You may be wondering why it loads different samples that sound the same. This is because although they are the same instrument they are not the same sample.
There’s a good reason for this. If you recorded a real piano note at C3 and load it into the XT as an .aif or .wav you first would set the ‘root key’ to C3 to tell the XT what note the original sample is then when you press C3 it will play the sample at the original speed. If you then pressed D3 it will automatically play the sample faster (pitch up) so you hear the note D3 and so on. This is okay for a few notes higher or lower but once you get higher or lower up the octave you start to notice 2 things. Firstly because the note plays faster the higher you go the length gets shorter so low notes are very loooong and high notes very short; this sounds unnatural especially when it’s a classical instrument like a piano. Secondly the actual sound quality diminishes and even goes out of tune, which is especially noticeable on the low notes and very high notes. So the solution is to record several notes from up the octave scale and use them. Our FM Bell sample has 9 original samples from the range of C-2 all the way to C8 nearly one sample per octave. The perfect instrument would be one that uses an original sample per note i.e. 12 samples per octave. With 120+ samples though the patch would be pretty huge so a good piano patch like ‘B Grand Piano’ in the Reason Soundbank has one sample for every 5-6 notes.
Have a look at the FM Bell sample again and note that the names correspond to the ‘Root Key’. The first sample is BELL1C1; the C1 is the root key. The sample BELL1G1 has a root key of G1. This is the original note that the sample is recorded in. The Reason Soundbank is helpful in that it names each sample by its root key but don’t expect this from all patches.
To load an individual sample into the patch you click the ‘Load Sample’ button. Make sure no other sample is highlighted before you do this as it will replace the sample rather than insert a new one. The main advantage of the XT is that you can assign many samples to one note. Take an Orchestral String for instance. You want a Bass, Cello and a Violin to play all at once. You can either load 3 NNXT and have 3 different Seq lanes or combine them all in one NNXT so they all play automatically together. Load the patch ‘Strings All’ from the Strings folder to see a good example of this. BSS_LF and BSS_LMP both play together when certain notes are pressed.
This covers the basics behind the NN-XT. I won’t go into further detail as the rest is covered under the layouts and standards heading later. Hopefully though you’ll be able to load your own samples in and set them up using the edit window. Remember to get the Root Key right especially when loading in a vocal or drumbeat. As with the NN-19 setting the Root Key to C3 means the sample is unchanged i.e. as you would hear it using Win Amp or other Win Player.
Using the Scream:
You probably have already messed around with the Scream so I won’t spend too long discussing it as it’s fairly easy to understand and you always have the Help file to refer to.
The scream is a distortion effect that you can add to any instrument. It’s created the same way any effect unit is and can add some awesome effects when programmed correctly. You can make your own effects or use the default ones from the Reason Soundbank by clicking on the ‘Browse Patch’ button. There are a few problem areas you have when using the Scream. Firstly it can be very ‘Mid Rangish’ (I just made that name up). The great sound the Scream creates comes at a price as it really kills off a lot of frequencies making samples lose some of their warmth. Secondly because the Scream is so over-powering it will sometimes make the connected instruments knobs unresponsive e.g. changing volume or filters on the instrument will not have the same effect than what they did before the Scream was connected.
Using the Vocoder:
The Vocoder is a fairly confusing instrument at first but once you know how it works it’s just a question of finding the sample (modulator). It works by using two signals and combining them together to produce the classic ‘robotic’ sound. The effect has been popular in pop music recently, the most famous being Posh Spice who was accused of using it to cover up her crap singing voice.
In this section we will learn how to set up the Vocoder to give a robotic sound to some singing vocals.
First you will need to download this Vocal:
-Start off by creating a new tune and adding a mixer and an NN-19.
-Load vocvocal into the NN19 by clicking on the ‘Load Sample’ button.
-Add the note C3 that runs from bar 1 to 5 and set the BPM to 100 (see picture below)
You should hear some chick singing a really naff vocal.
-Create a Subtractor and load from the Reason Soundbank>Subtractor Patches>Polysynths a patch called Ahaggar.
-Attach a standard RV7 Reverb to the Subtractor to turn it into a stereo signal. Set the Dry/Wet to about 64.
-Again make a note similar to the NN19 in Edit Mode but instead of C3 add the notes C4 and G3.
-Also increase Amp Envelope Decay and Sustain to 127. This stops the sample fading away and is discussed later in this section (check the picture below).
This Subtractor is going to be our Modulator in theory, but the way we are going to wire it turns it into the Carrier but don’t worry about this. Have a listen to the patch you’ve just loaded. Adding the Vocoder will merge this sound with the vocals, which we will do now.
-Next up we create a Vocoder by right clicking on the Reverb and selecting Create>BV512 Vocoder
This will create a Vocoder to the Reverb on the Subtractor. If you press TAB you should see a wire going from the Subtractor to the Reverb, 2 wires going from the Reverb to the Vocoder and 2 wires going from the Vocoder to the Mixer. If you press play the Subtractor will not play. This is because the Vocoder needs two input signals for it to work so let’s connect the NN-19 to it.
-Disconnect the NN-19 from the mixer and attach the left ‘Audio Output’ on the NN19 to the ‘Modulator Input’ on the Vocoder (see picture below).
Notice how I’ve moved the Vocoder so it’s placed in between the 2 instruments. This is done by clicking on the Vocoder and dragging it above the Subtractor. It is still wired the same and doesn’t effect it in anyway it’s just easier to see how the cables are wired.
Okay now if you play the tune you should get a Robotic sounding vocal. If you play with the dry/Wet knob on the Vocoder you can mix the original vocal with the robotic one. Also play around with the Decay, Shift and HF Emph to change how the sample sounds. The only one you can’t touch is the Vocoder/Equaliser switch, as this will turn the Vocoder into an Equaliser, which I won’t go into because it’s pretty useless.
If you don’t get the robotic voice you’ve either wired wrong or something is muted or turned off. Remember you’re now using 2 instruments so they both need to be un-muted to hear the sound.
Using other devices:
In the next part of the tutorial I want to show you how the Matrix can be used to manipulate sounds. If you read the Matrix tutorial from the previous Section then you’ll know its Curve Signal can be very useful for changing sounds or panning. We will do the same here but you’ll learn some important techniques.
-Hold down ‘Shift’ key and right click on any grey/silver area of the Vocoder and choose Create>Matrix Pattern Sequencer.
Holding down ‘Shift’ turns off the Auto Connect when you create a device. This is very handy in this case and many others you come across so remember it.
You should now have a Matrix that sits under your Vocoder.
-Press TAB to view the back of the Matrix and connect the Curve CV to the ‘Shift’ on the back of the Vocoder.
-Turn the Matrix to Bi-Polar mode.
-Now from the front of the Matrix switch to Curve Edit Mode to bring up the Curve bars.
-Right click on the window and select ‘Randomize Pattern’.
As you can see this completely randomises the pattern and after playing you’ll notice how the Matrix can manipulate sounds when wired through the input channels of another instrument or effect.
Try connecting the Gate CV on the Matrix to the Filter 1 Freq on the back of the Subtractor and also the Note CV to the OSC Pitch in the Subtractor. Okay it probably sounds awful now but you now understand how versatile the Matrix can be.
Let’s now take a quick look at the Audio Splitter. This device is quite handy when you want one sound to go to something like the Vocoder and one to the Mixer. In this exercise we will take the signal from the Subtractor and split it in two. One will go to the Vocoder as before and one straight to the Mixer.
-Create a Spider Audio Merger/Splitter underneath the Reverb.
-Press TAB to view the back and disconnect the Reverb from the Vocoder.
-Now connect the Reverb to the A (L) connection (right hand side of the device called Split Input) on the Spider.
You will notice the 4 sets of connections to the right of the A(L) and B(R). These are the output connections for the Subtractor Reverb you just connected (see the picture below). We can now send the sound from the Subtractor Reverb to 4 different locations. Let’s send one to the Vocoder.
-Click on the ‘Split Output 1 Left’ connection and drag the cable up to the ‘Left Carrier’ connection on the Vocoder like we had before. This should automatically connect the right side too.
You should hear exactly what you heard before you disconnected the Vocoder from the Reverb when you press play. Next we will connect the second to the Mixer but this time we wont drag the cable, we will try another technique.
-Right click on the ‘Split Output 2 Left’ connection and you will see a list of all the instruments and effects you have loaded.
To connect to the Mixer simply select Mixer plus the channel you want to connect it to. Make sure it’s a free channel though otherwise you’ll disconnect something like the NN19. Reason again will auto-connect the right channel. Check the picture for reference.
You can always tell if you have connected to a channel that’s already occupied because Reason won’t auto-connect the right cable.
You now have the Subtractor doing 2 things. It’s a stand-alone instrument and also a Carrier for the Vocoder. Using the Splitter is very handy when you already have a lead and wouldn’t mind using it as a Carrier/Modulator as well. Rather than create a second instance of the Device you can split the signal.
The Merger works in very much the same way but obviously reversed. You can connect 4 sounds from different instruments and have them connected to the same channel in the Mixer. I use this a lot in drumbeats were I’ve sent the bass drum, snare and hats off to separate Reverbs and then merged them back together.
In the next tutorials we will look at Reasons standard instrument layouts and engineering and mastering.