73 – Pounding The Pulveriser (Pt. 2)

In this next installment of exploring the Pulveriser, I’ll go a little deeper and see how we can use it for more than just Parallel Compression. We can see how we can use it to warm or destroy a sound, and explore some of the CV / audio routing possibilities to get much more out of the device. And while it’s great on drum sounds and good to beef things up, it can be downright scary when used in a glitch environment. So let’s take a deeper look.

In this next installment of exploring the Pulveriser, I’ll go a little deeper and see how we can use it for more than just Parallel Compression. We can see how we can use it to warm or destroy a sound, and explore some of the CV / audio routing possibilities to get much more out of the device. And while it’s great on drum sounds and good to beef things up, it can be downright scary when used in a glitch environment. So let’s take a deeper look.

You can download the project files here: pulveriser-ideas. This zip file contain a .reason file and separate Combinator files that outline some of the ideas you’ll find in this article.

First, a note about Pulveriser Levels.

If you bypass the filter, and keep the volume level at 100, and the Blend knob fully wet, you’ll notice that the audio source going into the device is higher than it would be if you were to bypass the Pulveriser. If you then turn the Blend knob fully dry, you’ll notice that the signal increases even more. This had me confused, so I went about trying to figure out what level the Pulveriser should be in order to give consistent volume levels for what they would be if they were bypassed. From my tests, I found that a Volume level of 64 when Wet, and a Volume level of 44 when Dry made the device consistent with a bypassed audio source. How helpful is this information? Well, it could help to know in the event you want to have more consistency between the levels going into the Pulveriser and the relationship between the Volume and the Blend knobs. I find myself usually turning the volume down quite a bit in my own patches. But again, it depends on other factors, such as Squash, Dirt, and Filter settings. I just wanted to point out what I found while I was doing my own tests.

In the project files, you’ll see a “Dry-Wet” Combinator that is used to affect an Initialized Thor patch. The first Rotary labeled “True Dry/Wet” was used to crossover the Dry/Wet Blend knob to create consistent volumes with the source audio. It’s just a test file, and whether or not this is of any use to anyone, I’ll let you decide. But it was a good test to find out those equivalent values.

Now let’s have some fun with FM and AM inputs on the back of the Pulveriser

There are two Audio inputs on the back of the Pulveriser that are used to modulate the Filter Frequency with external audio (FM – Frequency Modulation) and the Amplitude Output with external audio (AM – Amplitude Modulation). According to the Reason manual, these inputs accept the rate of the incoming audio signal, so play around with the rate of the incoming audio and this also has an effect on the Filter Frequency and Amplitude.

So here’s an idea. Use two Thor Oscillators that are played via Step Sequencer to affect both the FM and AM in the Pulveriser.

Let’s give our Bass some Wobble (is that a Dubstep Bass Wobble I hear?)

The Pulveriser was not only built to provide Parallel Compression and Dirty up your signal with some distortion. It also is quite capable of wobbling pretty much anything you can think of, and synching or unsynching the wobbled signal. Not only that, but you can spread the wobble across the stereo field if you like with the Spread button. This makes it pretty handy to create Dubstep Bass wobbles without too much trouble. Here’s nifty way you can create a unique Wobble effect for your Bass, or any other audio you care to throw at the Pulveriser.

Here’s a video to outline one of a thousand ways to creatively wobble your bass:

Triggering the Follower via External CV.

You can also “Trigger” the Follower to act via the CV on the back of the device. This means you can use a Matrix Curve CV or Thor Step Sequencer Curve CV to “Gate” the Follower. If you do this, the Follower connection is broken, meaning that the Audio input does not trigger the Follower anymore. Now, your CV connection is doing the work. For example, you could have the Tremor set up to control the Volume (Tremor to Volume knob), and have the Follower control the Filter Frequency (Follower to Frequency knob). In this scenario, the Pulveriser’s incoming volume has no effect on the Follower. Now, the Curve CV is sending both Gate (when the Follower is triggered) and Velocity (the strength of the signal sent to the Follower) into the Pulveriser’s Follower.

Note: The strength or velocity of the signal can be roughly gauged by the red lamp between the Threshold and Attack rotaries. While I love the lamp idea, I would have preferred a dynamic numerical gauge to accompany the lamp (or at least a tooltip readout of the CV velocity value). And for that matter, a numerical readout on the Matrix Curves and Gates. But I digress. . .

Here’s a video to show how to trigger the Follower from an external CV source. In this video, I’m using Thor’s global envelope to trigger the Pulveriser’s Follower:

Some other Assorted things that can be done

You can use the Follower to control any external CV destination. From the back, hook the CV output of the follower to any CV input in Reason. Or send it to a CV input on a Combinator to control any other parameter of any other device inside the same Combinator. This opens up the door to several possibilities because you can shape the Follower’s Threshold, Attack and Release settings to modify its effect on the CV destination.

If you like the Filters in the Pulveriser, you can use the Filter only, without the Squash, Dirt, Follower or Tremor. In this way, the Pulveriser is an advanced Filter device that can warm up your sounds, or carve out your sounds. The nice thing about using the Pulveriser in this way is that it’s one of the easiest filters to insert into your audio flow, and requires no routing knowledge whatsoever. Just insert and start filtering.


What other things are you doing with the Pulveriser that might be of interest to the community? As always, please share your ideas. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season. I probably won’t write any more tutorials until the new year. But you can be sure I’ll be thinking up some new ideas for 2012. Until then, good luck in all your musical endeavors.

Bernard Childcare Trust

It’s wonderful to be a part of something that truly makes a difference in our little music community, and I was lucky enough to contribute to a ReFill that helps out a true legend in the Reason world, James Bernard. The Bernard Childcare Trust is a ReFill where the proceeds go directly to helping out the 4 Bernard children. The family suffered a tragic loss in July 2011, when Nicole Bernard, wife to James and mother to the children, passed away. Please help out by purchasing this ReFill.

It’s wonderful to be a part of something that truly makes a difference in our little music community, and I was lucky enough to contribute to a ReFill that helps out a true legend in the Reason world, James Bernard.

A ReFill with a purpose!Those of you who know the story already realize that he recently had a tragedy in his life and the lives of his four children. His wife passed away in 2011. So a group of us got together and produced a ReFill for Reason labeled the Bernard Childcare Trust. Ben from 3rdFloorSound headed the project and a group of very respected and talented sound designers jumped in to contribute their sound and FX patches.

All proceeds from the sale of this ReFill will go towards a fund for the Bernard children, and I can’t think of any better cause than this. So if you want to contribute and add a few new and interesting patches to your library, I would encourage you to take a look at the page, and purchase the ReFill. It’s not going to break your bank, but it will most definitely make a difference.


Now for the DVD extras:

First, here’s the demo song I put together for the ReFill: Bernard-Childcare-Trust-Demo. You’ll need to have the ReFill on your computer in order to use the file, but if you do, you have access to the Full Reason song file (.reason). Feel free to remix it or play around with it. And let me know if you create something interesting from it. Everything except the drums were from the Bernard Childcare Trust ReFill. Cheers!

You can listen, comment, and download the demo song (.wav file format) from SoundCloud here:

JBCCT by Phi Sequence

Also, here are two videos showcasing a demo I put together for the sounds you’ll find under my section of the ReFill (Phi Sequence folder).

And here’s a brief rundown of what you will find in my section of the Refill:

Combinators:

The following 3 Pads were in part created while I was watching the service for Nicole Bernard streamed over the internet. As you can imagine, it was a very moving experience. So the sounds are deep and very rich. I hope that came across in these patches.

  • A Homage to Hope & Expectation
  • A Homage to Peace
  • A Homage to Rest

The following were two ideas I was developing for the FSB6 ReFill. One is a very common Reese Bass idea I had after watching a few videos on creating Reese Basses on the internet. The second was a typical glitch-induced mayhem patch (those who know me, know I love chaotic and mangled sounds – I think this one falls into that category).

  • Reese Bass (Run)
  • Robot 303

Thors:

The following patches are two other Pad ideas I had, along the same lines as the 3 Combinator pads.

  • Oblong Starstreak
  • There IS Celebration Here

The following patches are some Synth ideas. Some Leads which were developed specifically for this ReFill. Dark Blue Smear is a cross between an organ and an Oboe sound. Blue Yearnings is a wobbly lead. Buzzer Lead is exactly that. Sounds like it buzzes at a very fast rate. Synthetic Shine is a higher pitched ethereal synth sound. And Trance Symphony is more of a Trance lead line.

  • Dark Blue Smear
  • Blue Yearnings
  • Buzzer Lead
  • Synthetic Shine
  • Trance Symphony

The following two were underdeveloped ideas for the FSB 6 project. From Cowbell to Champagne Glass is a drum / bell sound that hopefully can recreate something close to both sounds, and a few things in between. Use the Rotaries, buttons, and Mod Wheel to change the shape of the sound, and add it into your projects as a synth triggered by a Redrum or Kong (to add inside your drum kits, if you like). Make Em Dance James is a bouncy Synth patch that I put together which uses the Step Sequencer in Thor. I figured that there were enough rich deep sombre sounds in this ReFill, that I had to put something in that gives an upbeat emotion. There’s only so much Beethoven one can listen to after all (not that I’m comparing my abilities to that of Beethoven whatsoever). I just felt that there should be a few patches in here which are more uplifting. Hopefully this one fits that category.

  • From Cowbell to Champagne Glass
  • Make Em Dance James

This last Thor patch is just a fun little texture where I got Thor to mouth the words “Yadda Yadda Yadda” — made me smile, so I included it here.

  • Yadda Yadda Yadda

Malstroms:

The Frog Bass is a throaty Bass-like sound, which could also be used as a Texture. Muck Rain is one of my favorite Textures, simply because it sounds like you’re in the middle of a swamp. And Tin Can Whistle is a very simple sound that can be used as a one-shot triggered for some added percussive sound. It’s kind of like a Digeridoo meets a downward ramping bomb being dropped. Hard to explain properly, but give it a whirl and see what you think.

  • Frog Bass
  • Muck Rain Texture
  • Tin Can Whistle

These two are just too hard for me to categorize. They’re more Textures than Synths. Space Murk is a fun one to play with. It reminded me of a space symphony sound.

  • Rough Tension
  • Space Murk

Subtractors:

These two Chip Tune patches were derivatives of the Chip Tune Emulators I put together for the FSB 6 ReFill

  • ChippyTune Fun 1
  • ChippyTune Fun 2

The FM Enveloper patch is a Subtractor Arp that is probably one of my favorites in the ReFill. You can hear it used in the Demo song I put together for this ReFill.

  • FM Envelopers

The First Flight patch is a cross between a Synth and a Bass. It uses some noise to create what I thought sounded like an engine in flight. And finally, Revy Bass is a really nice sounding Bass that was put together with a lot of love and care. You can hear this bass in theDemo song I put together for this ReFill

  • Revy Bass
  • First Flight

For more details, and to purchase the ReFill, go here: http://www.3rdfloorsound.com/bernard-childcare-trust.html

Thanks go out to all those who purchase this ReFill, and to all my friends and fellow sound construction architects. This is what makes it such a blessing to be part of the Reason & Music communities. I can’t think of another place I’d rather hang my hat.

All my best,

Rob.