Following on from my previous MiniNova Remote map and Codec for Reason I have also made one for the Bass Station II!
This turns the Bass Station II into a pretty cool MIDI controller.
With this I’ve mapped the most used controls like Filter Frequency/Resonance and also Amp/Filter envelopes to Reasons main synth like Thor/Subtractor etc. I’ve also made the Osc Filter Mod the main Volume for these devices.
note: Most all of the Bass Station II’s controls are also mappable. 😉
You can even control the Faders in the Mixer section using the BS II’s envelope faders(very handy for quick mixing).
The included Remote Map is intended as a start for you set up and control your favourite Reason devices and Rack Extensions so please feel free to use it as you wish.
For details about Remote and where to put the files on your Mac/PC please visit Here
For the Bass Station II Remote Codec and Map click Here
And if you find a use for this and like it, please feel free to leave a comment.
The included Remote file and Map are for Novations MiniNova and they will turn this awesome synth into an even more awesome simple controller for Reason! I’ve included mapping for most of the built in synth devices in Reason which will allow for the most essential controls such as Filter Cutoff/Resonance and ADSR envelopes, Combinator knobs etc. Below is a list of the devices I’ve added, and I’ll leave it up to you to get accustomed to Remote Maps so that you can add your own. More information about remote visit Propellerheads here: https://www.propellerheads.se/blog/control-remote
Combinator: Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release knobs control the 4 Combinator dials. Mixer 14:2: Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release knobs and the ones below control the first 8 channel levels. Line Mixer 6:2: Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release knobs and oscv1sync/osc1density control the 6 channel levels. SubTractor Analog Synthesizer: Filter and Resonance control(guess what?), and Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release control the Amp Envelope. THOR Polysonic Synthesizer: Same as above Malstrom Graintable Synthesizer: You get the idea NN19 Digital Sampler: etc…. NN-XT Advanced Sampler: etc… Dr.REX Loop Player: etc… Redrum Drum Computer: Filter Knob controls main Volume Kong Drum Designer: Filter Knob controls main Volume ID8 Instrument Device: Filter Knob controls main Volume Radical Piano: Filter Knob controls main Volume EMI: Filter and Res are mapped to CC 71 and 74(filter and Res) Parsec: Can’t remember Predator RE: Filter and Resonance control(guess what again?), and Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release control the Amp Envelope. ReDominator: Filter and Resonance control(guess what?), and Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release control the Amp Envelope.
There are 13 dial controls(3 rows x4 knobs plus the Filter knob) that I’ve made available on the MiniNova for Reason most of these I find are the ones that I mainly use whilst making music.
I have included the main Filter, the Filter row, Amp row and Osc row below. Just use the Performance selector to toggle between each set of four knobs(see the image above).
You can of course also latch any of these controls to other parameters and I hope that you find a use for the Remote Codec and Map for yourselves and feel free to adjust/amend as you wish. This is only intended as a starting point for you to ‘roll your own’ and I hope you have fun with it.Â
If you do download and use the files then please feel free to let me know in the comments section.
I have also created a similar Remote Codec and Map for Novation Circuit using the same mapping principles(might be slightly different) which you can downloadhere
Llamasoft this week are releasing their first game for the Playstation Vita. TxK is based on an old retro game called Tempest where you basically shoot your enemy on a simple 3D vector playing field.
The Vita remake looks fantastic and what is also great is that the soundtrack is awesome. I may be a bit biased as I provided two tracks ‘Trance One’ and ‘Space Flight’ for it but the other tracks are so damn good too!
Here’s a screenshot provided buy a fellow moosician(as I don’t have a Vita)
This was a fantastic opportunity for me and thanks go to Jeff Minter and the llamasoft team for bringing a great game to the Playstation Vita.
We have also now released the Original Soundtrack on Bandcamp.
I’ve just received an Editorskeys Reason specific editing Keyboard to check out and review.
If you were not aware of Editorskeys then let me tell you a little bit about the company. Originally Editorskeys made available sets of stickers for specific computer software to overlay and stick on to your existing PC/Mac keyboard to give you shortcut commands most commonly used in your favourite editing software. These sets are still produced of course but there is now a range of custom made keyboards for various audio/video/graphic editing software. They also produce other items such as USB microphones, vocal booths, studio acoustic foam etc. You can check out their other products here:- http://www.editorskeys.com
Anyway onto the review.
The keyboard itself is USB and the cable is a really good length. The front casing is made from aluminium and the base is black plastic. The build quality is really very good and you would expect it to be at its price point.
The keys are low profile and similar to what you would find on Apple Mac keyboards.
One thing you won’t find on these are stickers! All the keys are custom produced and printed with the relevant shortcuts and standard QUERTY lettering.
Editorskeys have worked on these keyboards closely with Propellerhead Software to produce these and you can certainly tell by the quality and the use of the Reason Logo onboard. It certainly is reassuring to see that the new graphic EQ F2 key is there so these have been developed with Reason 7 compatibility straight out of the box.
The shortcuts themselves are colour coded so functions that use the Control key are red and the ones that use the Shift key are black. If like me you forget what key combination does what then you’ll be thankful that you have most if not all the commands at your finger tips. It certainly helps speed things up with productions and is extremely useful without having to refer to a manual to find out a forgotten keyboard shortcut.
They key action itself is very reassuring surprisingly having not used a low profile keyboard before now, and I’ve quickly become accustomed to it.
One thing I would have liked would have been a wireless version. I’m not sure wether Editorskeys have plans to produce wireless ones in the future. I certainly hope that they do.
Now onto the price…
It will retail at £49.99 for the PC version when it’s available(it is also Mac compatible).
There will also be an Apple Mac version available at £89.99 which uses a genuine Apple keyboard.
Initially I thought that this is too much money for just a keyboard with shortcuts on the keys but after looking at the build quality and design I would highly recommend it!
It really does help speed up your workflow!
I would have liked to have seen a wireless and backlit version of the keyboard(for those dark studio nighttime sessions) and maybe a USB hub built in, but maybe we will see something like this in the future.
There is also a very generous 3 year warranty included which shows that this company take pride and believe in their products quality and longevity.
Overall a fantastic product!!
Pros- Quick and easy editing in Reason
Excellent build quality
Attractive design
Nucleus SoundLab has just released the BFD Core drum ReFill for Propellerhead Software’s Reason. They have teamed up with FXpansion and Reason sound designers to bring a high quality selection of drum and percussion hits from one of the best sound libraries around.
Here’s the breakdown of what’s included:
3.6GB of high-qualtiy FXpansion drum samples
16 Velocity Layers
3-5 Discrete Mic Positions
Alternate Sample Playback
57 NN-XT patches
7 Kicks
8 Snares
18 Toms
14 Cymbals
4 HiHats
6 Percussion Elements
75 Combinator drumkits
Lite version of all patches included
2200+ MIDI drum loops
If you are in need of high quality drums for your music then I would highly recommend this Refill!
Each sound designer has carefully crafted each kit so that it fits into your productions with little or no effort whatsoever.
From hard hitting rock drums, reggae, pop to film-scores there’s plenty to get your compositions sounding professional and much more natural. I’m not great at programming percussion so having 2200+ midi files included is a great feature too.
BFD Core is compatible with Reason 6+ however the included NN-XT patches will open in Reason 3 onwards.
So, what drum kit samples are included in BFD Core??
Cymbals:
Paiste 2002 18 Crash
Paiste 2002 20 Crash
Paiste Ride 22
Sabian Crash AAX 14
Sabian Splash HH 10
Wuhan Chinese 12
Zildjian Crash A 16
Zildjian Crash K Custom 22
Zildjian Crash Z Custom Med 16
Zildjian Cym A Custom 17
Zildjian Ride Breakbeat 18
Zildjian Ride Flat 22
Zildjian Ride Old K 22
Zildjian Ride Z Custom 22
Hihats:
Paiste HiHat 2002 Heavy 14
Sabian Hihat AA 14
Zildjian Hihat A Custom Dark 15
Zildjian Hihat Z Custom 15
Kicks:
DW Collectors Kick
Gretsch Kick
Ludwig Vistalite Kick
Orange County Kick
Pearl Masterworks Kick
Pork Pie Kick
Rogers XP8 Kick
Snares:
Bleuifuss Snare
DW Black Mirra Snare
Ludwig Black Beauty Snare
Ludwig Supraphonic 400 Snare
Orange County Snare
Pearl Piccolo Snare
Slingerland Snare
Trick Snare
Toms:
DW Collectors Floor Tom
DW Collectors Hi Tom
DW Collectors Mid Tom 2
DW Collectors Mid Tom
Ludwig Black Oyster Floor Tom
Ludwig Black Oyster Hi Tom
Ludwig Vistalite Floor Tom 1
Ludwig Vistalite Floor Tom 2
Ludwig Vistalite Mid Tom
Orange County Floor Tom
Orange County Hi Tom
Orange County Mid Tom
Pearl Masterworks Floor Tom
Pearl Masterworks Hi Tom
Pearl Masterworks Mid Tom
Rogers XP8 Floor Tom
Rogers XP8 Hi Tom
Rogers XP8 Mid Tom
Misc Percussion:
Blue Jam Block Stick
Cabasa Metal
Cowbell Medium
EcoTamb
Group Claps
Red Jam Block Stick
I think that Nucleus SoundLab has included quite a selection, I would have liked to have seen a few more sounds included like brushes and maybe some more hand percussion but I think that value and especially quality wins out over quantity.
The sounds themselves feature multiple mic positions and velocity layers contained in Reasons NN-XT sampler which features alternate sample playback so you almost never hear the exact same sounds play back in succession.
The Combinators feature various kits programmed by NSL’s team of talented sound designers to cover a wide variety of styles and genres and they are huge! Be warned as the Multi output Combinator patches use a lot of ram, but thankfully there are Lite versions of all patches so that if you have below 4gb of ram you are still able to make use of this wonderful Refill.
You can always roll your own kits anyway with the 57 included NN-XT patches.
So what do I think of this Refill?? I’m quite simply amazed at the attention of detail that has gone into creating every single one of the patches, it sounds so good and to have a fine selection of BFD drums in Reason is quite simply astonishing.
Well done all involved!! I can’t wait to see if anymore collaborations between NSL and FXpansion are going to happen.
Pricing isn’t bad either because for a limited time it’s only $69 CAD(intro price until December 5th 2012) Regular price $99. Click Here to visit Nucleus SoundLab
With the release of Reason 6.5 and Essentials 1.5 I’d like to introduce you to one of my favourite Rack Extension plugins!
Buffre Beat Repeater is an audio looping device that repeats and scrubs audio in sync with song tempo. Buffre is a performance effect, playable from a MIDI keyboard or control surface, and supports Reason control voltage routings for automated looping, stutter and glitch effects.
Introductory price is $49/€39 (normally $85/€69)
This is seriously fun to use over the whole mix and I just love the fact that you can do everything so easily with your midi keyboard/controller on the fly.
This is the first Rack Extension by Peff but I hear that there are many more in the works.
SonicCharge has just posted the back of its Bitspeek Rack Extension for Reason 6.5 and Essentials 1.5 on Twitter. If you’re not using Twitter I’ve taken the time to post a picture here.
Propellerhead Software have today revealed more details on another in house Rack Extension device for Reason 6.5 and Essentials 1.5.
Pulsar is a dual LFO device that can be used to drive other sources such as Thor. It’s also a nice mono synth(which is neat).
Pulsar will also be FREE to 6.5 and 1.5 owners if you download it from the Rack Extension Store once the updates are live.
No more details on release date as yet but I’m sure I’ll post details here when the time comes.
It’s been a good week so far for Reason 6 releases.
Today my friends at Nucleus Soundlab have released Filter Research 3. This is an effect Refill for use in Reason 6 and upwards.
I have the previous versions and I must say that I was hoping for a third instalment that utilised the newer effects from the Reason 6 rack.
200 effect Combinators included.
6 Epic Combinators – including 60+ minutes of HD video documentation.
Each patch uses a at least one new Reason 6 effect device – Pulveriser, The Echo and Alligator.
Each Combinator has all 4 rotaries/buttons uniquely assigned – as well as the Pitch-Bend/Modwheel.
All Combinators created from scratch.
130+ page PDF manual describing each Combinator in-depth.
Requires Reason 6+.
As you can see from the specs this is going to be a fantastic addition to Reason 6+ and there’s also an included 60+ minute HD video to show just what this Refill is capable of.
TONAL AXiS 