Combinator reveals Reason's weakness

[aMUSEd]

Why the hell don't some people get it? REASON IS A MODULAR RACK!!

Do you complain when a single sawtooth oscillator in Reaktor or Tassman doesn't rival Ferry Corsten?? I roll my eyes at you.

I agree. I've been trying the demo and I think the Combinator is very impressive. It takes a number of modules and makes them into an ensemble basically - like Reaktor in that respect but not as low level (except it also adds a whole bunch of very cool performance elements too). The instruments and effects in Reason are fairly weak if you consider them on their own but combined (as they were always intended to be) you have a very powerful system for sound production and composition - the Combinator simply makes that a lot easier to do. I never cared about the red herring of VST hosting as Reason isn't a host but these new features are making me think about getting this - the only thing holding me back is lack of audio input - I really don't get why they can't or won't implement this.

[Squids]

I don't expect to convince everyone but for those that respect my opinion, I am telling you that there's more to R3 than you might think. Check this out: http://www.sonicreality.com/news/R3Refills.php

I bought Vocal Textures Pre 3.0, how can I get cool combi patches like that?

World Drums too.

Riley

If you bought Vocal Textures from www.esoundz.com then it is a free upgrade to the 3.0 version. If you bought it anywhere else it is just a $10. upgrade but you get over 50 Combinator patches and even some interesting Matrix set ups for beatbox animated consonant attacks. If you listen to the audio demo this is an example of something that could only be done with Combinators.

I am thinking of even adding an additional free update (for those that own the 3.0 version) because when I was in Sweden I hung out a bit with the Props demonstrator (who ironically actually lives near me in Florida) and I picked up a few ideas on modulating the Vocoder in Reason for the Vocal Textures title. So, for $10. that would be included as well even if it was down the road. Again, if you bought it at our www.esoundz.com store then both updates would be free.

Sorry, free plus the price of the shipping (unless you get it along with an order that qualifies for free shipping).

[Squids]

Layer 2 Albinos in EXT...Or layer 2 WusikStations

ooooohhhh...my cpu go boom! wha happen...?

You didnt happen to see the movie "A mighty wind did you?"

Wha happened? I don't THINK so!

[Squids]

I see squids has posted here and I wanted to say that
the Sonic Reality malstrom and sub patches are really
the best I've come across by far--totally dusting the combinator pad patches in the 3.0 demo. great job.

Hey thanks. We like Reason. It's not perfect. But, it is what it is and it's fun working with what you've got. It's not like you can't rewire it up to anything else when you want more. However, making yourself be creative within a certain area can be good especially for speed of workflow which is important. That's also why I like other all in one solutions such as Cubase+SampleTank for example (or Sonik Synth 2 of course).

To me, the Combinator is like a new sound module in there. Its elements are that you can have its "oscillators" be either a subtractive synth, a graintable synth, a rex player or a sampler and you can layer as many as you probably need too. The other element is the SOUNDS themselves which come from either the rather large new factory sound bank (which SR contributed to) or from third party sources such as what we're doing with our 20+ volumes of refills (expected to grow to many more this year too including sounds for nearly every style of music).

Combinator is a vehicle for more complex sounds and it's hard to see how great it is until you have it and start playing patches from it or make your own. Also, the new fx are great. Here's a couple REALLY cool things you can do with the new effects that most people didn't think about.

1. You can modulate the EQ bands and do some INSANE real time filtering assigning to controllers.

2. The compressor has a CV out of its compressing and have the action of the compressor modulate something else like a filter or vocoder or...

So, you have to explore a bit to find cool things you can do within Reason but that's the fun of owning it. No one says it has to be the only thing you use but when you want to go into "Reason mode" there are some good places to go creatively with it.

[spaceman]

3.5 people..remember your history.

yup.. I'm waiting for that one.. if it doesn't come quickly or it disappoints.. bye bye Reason

[DHR53]

Reason 3.0... it's a double edged sword to me... Endless possibilities, if you have endless time to mess around with it... It took me a lot of time to come up with the templates I used regularly in 2.5, so I'm simply overwhelmed with the possibilities the combinator now holds for patches and templates... I don't want to spend more time making setups than music But beyond my initial trepidations, it really has great possibilities just for simple combinations... I was experimenting last night with just 2 subtractors, a delay and reverb, line mixer and the combinator dials programmed for res., freq., fm. and lfo speed... Easy to set up, but WOW! some impressive sounds for such an easy setup... And I can save it and load it again... I have Logic, and some great plugs (Absynth, FM7 etc.) but it sounds good to my ears...

...Still trying to get the "air" that seems to come from the sound in Logic though... Reason has that sort of "centered" sound, maybe...

[AD80]

yup.. I'm waiting for that one.. if it doesn't come quickly ...

I'm on the same boat actually. Same very slow boat. I'm not upgrading my 2.5 but at the same time I dont want to get rid of it just yet cuz I know 3.5 will be pretty good. I guess we'll meet back here in 2006-7 .

I've never been so frustrated with the development time of a company as much as with the props. Its like they try NOT to updated the software at all just to show that they dont need to. When in reality, they could use atleast SOME minor updates in between the big ones to implement popular feature requests. Bah.

[AD80]

the only thing holding me back is lack of audio input - I really don't get why they can't or won't implement this.

Aint it silly? I know a lot of people (including myself) that have requested that on the forum since 2001.
4 years later still nothing. Same with an arp. And no, I dont want to use the work around with the Matrix. I want a real arp. Fageddaboutit.

[r2101]

combinator reveals reasons weakness...

wow...

i am going to downgrade to 2.5 instantly... i mean... the combinator "reveals"...

...was it (whatever it was in terms of "weakness") ingeniously disguised in 2.5 without the combinator?

[Sascha Franck]

I am telling you that there's more to R3 than you might think. Check this out: http://www.sonicreality.com/news/R3Refills.php

I know you're a nice and cool dude, Squids, but I completely fail to see what this has got to do with Reason at all - others than being some rather shameless self promotion. It's a set of samples - so what?

[shamann]

i am going to downgrade to 2.5 instantly... i mean... the combinator "reveals"...

Perhaps you would have rather the thread be entitled:

"Combinator proves that Reason sucks"?

[shamann]

I completely fail to see what this has got to do with Reason at all - others than being some rather shameless self promotion. It's a set of samples - so what?

Ad copy says they take full advantage of the new features like the Combinator. So perhaps it was to show that new things could be done with v3.

[r2101]

[quote="shamann"][quote="r2101"]i am going to downgrade to 2.5 instantly... i mean... the combinator "reveals"...[/quote]

Perhaps you would have rather the thread be entitled:

"Combinator proves that Reason sucks"?[/quote]

nice :)

[Sascha Franck]

Ad copy says they take full advantage of the new features like the Combinator. So perhaps it was to show that new things could be done with v3.

OK, point taken.

Which things then?

[TeeLangSun]

Reason 3.0... it's a double edged sword to me... Endless possibilities, if you have endless time to mess around with it... It took me a lot of time to come up with the templates I used regularly in 2.5, so I'm simply overwhelmed with the possibilities the combinator now holds for patches and templates... I don't want to spend more time making setups than music But beyond my initial trepidations, it really has great possibilities just for simple combinations... I was experimenting last night with just 2 subtractors, a delay and reverb, line mixer and the combinator dials programmed for res., freq., fm. and lfo speed... Easy to set up, but WOW! some impressive sounds for such an easy setup... And I can save it and load it again... I have Logic, and some great plugs (Absynth, FM7 etc.) but it sounds good to my ears...

...Still trying to get the "air" that seems to come from the sound in Logic though... Reason has that sort of "centered" sound, maybe...

Funny that you should mention "air" because for the last few hours I've been setting up a huge "rewire" template with tons of instruments preloaded and I believe I've achieved the "air" that I was looking for with regards to a number of Strings patches I built. I was very pleased with the quality of what I managed to put together.

Also, I upgraded to Reason 3 totally with "presets" in mind. I was planning for very little "building" of my own and was instead planning to just take advantage of some of the stuff that was provided with this update. What I found was that I'm actually not to shabby at creating cool Combinator patches myself. I mostly started with existing patches and made changes to those to get closer to the sounds that I felt I needed and Combinator was very accomodating.

On another note, after building countless patches into a single song file, my CPU showed absolutely no signs of strain at 1ms latency. Pretty impressive.

I'm planning to see if I can get away with doing all my sounds through Reason except sampling and drums which I will do with a VST sampler and Rewire host. I hope. I'm still not a fan of Rewire itself and my favorite hosts are not at all serious about Rewire so...