This month’s -008` ReFills featured producer is: Top Mass Productions
Check out some tunes on his SoundClick and YouTube pages.
Listen to some of his work and it’s easy to see why he is on his way up!
Rappers can purchase his exc/non-exclusive tracks with and without hooks, from his soundclick..

Production Credits Include:
G Malone, Cash Money Records, H*WOOD

TopMass SoundClick: http://www.topmass.net

TopMass YouTube: http://youtube.com/topmass

I am posting this for the next time you hear someone say:
“Reason’s patches can’t sound like “Plugin-X” or “Producer Y” or “Synth-Z”
Hopefully you can easily explain why that is wrong and then, prove it.
(Instead of just punching the desk and screaming “Combinatooooorrrrrr” like I do.)

I want to stress the importance of using and understanding Reason’s Combinator in your workflow. It is a simple and at first, an empty tool in the reason rack. If we think of Reason’s Rack (front and back!) along with the devices and effects..it is much like a “real world” studio
(In my opinion, Reason is: bigger, smarter, faster, stronger, neater, cleaner, leaner and meaner!)
Anyway, when you get the basics down you will reap the benefits of the mighty combi in any and all of your projects. Now that Record was “absorbed” into Reason 6, we have this great new mixer and all of it’s channels are also represented in the rack by, you guessed it, a combinator…of sorts.

side note: Technically, the inside of the combinator is a rack itself…so Wut we got!?…..racks on racks on racks!! haha

I think of the combinator 3 different ways:

1. Instrument

Here is where we turn our device patches and effects into a clean self contained patch much like a nice big layered preset from an old keyboard workstation. I would guess this is the most common use of the Combinator. It could be for example, any instrument patch with some stacked effects, or multiple instruments stacked up and wrapped up clean in a combi. Perhaps it’s a Dr.Octo Rex based “percussion performance patch” with rotary and button controlled patterns and effects.

2. Insert Effect

A combinator as an insert effect may be a little less common, but then again most of us were used to having one in the rack the moment we open a new project! (the MClass Mastering Suite) The same way you build your stacked and racked instrument combis, you can build your own rack effects using multiple devices and routings. This is the way to invent and save your own vocal strips, guitar effects and so on.

3. Sub or Stem Mixer

If you like separate eq’s and effects on your kicks and snares etc.. chances are that your Mixer is getting full pretty quickly. Clean house! Throw that Redrum or Kong in a combinator, with its own 14:2 mixer then send that drum sub-mix to it’s own channel on the main mixer. Proceed to use as much or as little effects inside the combi and….think how nice that mess will look all folded up in your custom combinator..

Ok that does it for my quick and simple combinator advice. Go stack up some synths and effects of your own and see how easy it is to create a mind-blowing, face-melting, workstation-style patch!
Try mixing a lead synth with a guitar patch or, NNXT strings blended with a pad, etc.

Suggested Reading: @ Propellerheads

Popular Plugins as Combinator Patches | A great thread from Props User Forum!

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Combinator parts I and II by Fredrik Hägglund
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Combinator – Part I
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Combinator – Part II

Visit http://www.propellerheads.se/products/recycle/
ReCycle has recieved a bit of a facelift, GUI-wise.
My personal favorites for the updates include the use of Q,W,E,R for selecting tools and improved zooming & scrolling. If you are a ReCycle owner head to the propellerhead site for the free update.

You can pay as little as $1 If you think its worth $49.. pay that. Only worth $29 to you ? ..then pay only that. If you think its worth two barrels of fish.. then calculate how much money two barrels of fish is worth and pay that.

This is valid only for the month of October so don’t sleep on this!

Watch the video and read more about it here:

http://www.propellerheads.se/paywhatyouwant/

I am proud to announce that SampleFiends has officially been launched!
My cohort Sir Sedric and I have teamed up to create a spot for Multi-Format Sounds & Samples. Our goal is simple, we aim to provide multi-format patches, samples & loops that help you make better beats. We start with “Synth Nation” a 1000+ patch synth ReFill, and our ever-expanding FREEBIE the “Sampler Platter”

Check us out @ www.samplefiends.com

Synth Nation

This Reason ReFill represents over a year of sound design and programming. Every patch has been designed for you to use in any genre that needs original synths. This is a Reason ReFill containing 1000+ Combinator, Malstrom, Subtractor and Thor patches

FREE Sampler Platter

Want some free drum samples, loops, and synth patches? Here’s a little taste of what we have to offer! The Sampler Platter is an ever-growing, never-done project to showcase our sound design. Sign up for the newsletter to find out when we update. Drums samples separate in 24-bit, 44.1Khz WAV.

Reason 6 was officially announced today …and I am about to officially fall out of my chair. So what’s the news? Synchronize your watches, Props say it will be in stores September 30th, 2011. Among other features and enhancements we will get the big mixer, recording, Neptune and there are also 3 new effects units: Pulveriser, Alligator and The Echo.

3 New FX for Reason 6 : Alligator, The Echo and Pulveriser

You should go check the Propellerhead site for the full story plus audio demos and device descriptions. You can also sign up to help test it as they have opened the public Reason 6 beta.

Also Announced:
Recycle 2.2 ((does this mean future version 3!?))
Propellerhead “Balance” Audio Interface
Reason Essentials

Vist the Reason 6 page @ Props http://www.propellerheads.se/reason6/

What do YOU think about this update? Are you uprgrading right away? Leave a comment!

I get a lot of questions about making rolls and fills in Reason so I wanted to make a handful of combinators to help with that. These are very simple utilities that you can use quickly in your beats. The patches are a single Thor and Kong so Reason 5 is required.

Listen to this example beat (.RPS file contained in refill)

The business all happens in the pitch and mod wheel!
(I am using a midi controller with an X Y pad next to the drum pads)
If you dont have an XY pad just record those wheels on your midi keys or draw it in the sequencer.

I guess I could have just put up a Thor patch and called it a day but, that’s not how I roll!
I like to keep it clean in a combi with a skin. By using a Kong and Thor in the combinators it is very easy to trigger whatever we want. Physical or Analog Modeling, Samples in a NN-Nano, or a slice from a Rex file…you get the idea…
In these patches I made the first Kong pad (C1) the main sample, and any keys up from there are the rolling ones. The pitch is controlled by the wheel or rotary knobs, not midi notes. These are very easy to dissect and customize or build yourself, but feel free to leave a comment if you need any assistance.

OR

More details and info are in the blog post here: http://www.008refills.com/2011/07/09/008-rolling-machine-refill/

If you ever asked, emailed, or tweeted me about “old school samples” you should read and view and listen to the presentations at Propellerheads. (and while you’re at it check out Soul School too) Sampling disco (and soul,funk,jazz etc) is where hip hop and rap beats started but now, with these refills, we have: expertly recorded, clearance-free, clean, wide open samples to work with…and that is groovy.

Here is the original Demo Beat I made using ONLY the Disco School ReFill.

Propellerheads Disco School ReFill View it’s product page here: http://www.propellerheads.se/products/refills/discoschool/

Listen to a shorter, cleaned-up version of my beat (and all the demo sounds)
HERE:Disco School ReFill Sound Examples Page