This is what fills my heart with warm fuzzies. When those that are part of the Reason and Record community come together to Analyze and tackle some of the more difficult aspects of the software and fill in the gaps that may be left by incomplete specifications. Ed did it previously with his Thor Sine Wave Shaper tutorial, using it to cross-fade between 4 different devices. And now Allen Day (“rogerraa”), Wendy of Wendy Dunham Music fame and Giles Reaves (Selig) from the Selig B3-Leslie refill fame have teamed up to provide the penultimate BV512 Spectrum Analyzer. Selig provided the charts, and Wendy provided the Combinator with a backdrop that cleverly shows the frequency bands.
Download the charts along with the Combinators here: spectrum-analyzer-project-files. This zip file contains the two charts outlined below, and Wendy’s 2 Combinators: 1. A 16-band Spectrum Analyzer and 2. A 32-band Spectrum Analyzer. They both use the BV512 Vocoder/Equilizer in Reason. You can, however, use this in Reason or Reason+Record.
So how do you use this? Well, let’s let Wendy explain:
Note: This excerpt is taken from her site. More specifically, from the following page: http://www.wendydunham.com/the-studio/reason-and-record/reason-patches/spectrum-analyzer.html. She has graciously allowed me to present it here on my blog (thanks Wendy, you are indeed the Queen of Queens
)
BV512 Spectrum Analyzer with Frequency Band labeled Backdrop
These are convenient Spectrum Analyzer Combinators to see your song’s frequency spectra. Each one has an accurate Scale with Band and Hz labels. I prefer the Spectrum Analyzer 32 band version, but in case you don’t want that much resolution, I also created a Spectrum Analyzer 16 band version.
- Band Select: 4, 8, 16, 32, FFT (512)
- Decay: Lower = faster display; higher = overall averaging.
- Display Scale: Roll this back to see the peaks.
- Display Hold: Take a snapshot in time.
Place before final output. It’s a great aid for balancing your mix!
Vocoder Band Frequencies
These reference charts for all band frequencies are printed on each combinator. The frequencies were measured accurately by Giles Reaves (“selig”) and Allen Day (“rogerraa”) on the Propellerhead User Forum.
Here’s another tip:
For those interested, Selig did a great job putting together the frequency charts for the 16- and 512 (FFT) -band modes of the Vocoder. Here are the screenshots:
BV512 Vocoder - 16-Band mode Frequency Chart
BV512 Vocoder - 512 (FFT) Band mode Frequency Chart
There you have it. Thanks so much to Wendy, Giles, and Allen for these great resources. Your important work does not go unnoticed.
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Not to worry, I got it.
Thanx.
I can’t download the file. The link is not leading me to the download. I tried doin this thru Firefox but failed. Hope someone can help.
Thanx.
@djgodes,
I’m using Firefox 9.0.1 and I just tested this. I’m able to download that file. Perhaps try using that browser?
CANT DOWNLOAD
thanks thats great
@Don,
It’s on the same page you left your comments. In the post it’s in the second paragraph (the blockquote). You’ll see a link there.
Rob
Where can I download the BV512 Spectrum Analyzer?
Thanks
GREAAAAT THANKS
@LiquidChem, have you tried to build it? Sounds like an interesting idea. From what I gather, you’d be able to see the frequencies by looking at the 14:2 Mixer. Hmmm. Definitely an interesting idea.
Hello.. I noticed these comments and wanted to see if I might be able to help..
Im pretty sure Im thinking of a way to analyze the lower frequencies–
this could either be genius idea or not work at all.. Its kind of a hack / cheating way to do it- I havent really thought it all the way through, just an idea, but yeah-
ok- to build it- take a signal – split it into however many bands you want to end up with (one for every specific frequency you want to monitor) and route each one into its own 14:2 mixer channel..
create yourself a signal generator – use a thor, turn everything off except one analog OSC, set to sine wave, lowest octave. Turn the main envelope attack and release all the way down and decay and sustain all the way up. Now using a 5 octave (or more) midi keyboard you should be able to play a sinewave through the range of frequencies from low (inaudible) to high by pressing each note lowest to highest-
this will be for construction reference..
now take each band / channel and route to its own thor Audio inputs 1 and 2 and use the thor as a filter. (filter 3) — you can check a tutorial for how to route audio through thors filters..
Use a low pass filter with no resonance (for filter 3). make sure filter envelopes are turned off.
now it seems that, by playing a high frequency note, and adjusting the low pass filter to chop off a piece of the high end of the frequencies, then heres the cheating part- use an Oscilloscope of some kind- and see what frequency youre cutting off at. now label that channel for that freq. and move onto the next- cut off a small amount more, to whatever freq youre using next, then mark it again. repeat this process.
so now you will have a single stereo input, leading to the 14:2 mixer, and each channel chops off a certain range of frequencies.
soo- to use it then- Split your main signal of whatever bass sounds or what you want to analyze into 2 paths- and route one path into the mixer, but nothing coming out. (your other one goes to your normal mixer and the signal is untouched.
so now if you play a high note on the keyboard, you should be able to see visually which levels are engaging based on which frequencies are bleeding through to each channel.
there should be some way to set this up so that you can use it like a Frequency Finder / Spectrum Analyzer for the lower end.. That was my idea..
so its more like a low to high frequency level monitor that sees whatever freqs you tell it to, and whatever range, only sitting on its side, if you know what i mean.. (flip the 14:2 mixer sideways)
and wherever the channels light up to and stop at, thats the frequency thats coming through.
I welcome any emails if anyone wants to ask anything but there ya go..
I just thought of something- use another filter to chop off low end also, and isolate the frequency, do that for each band, then each one should light up for each frequency
cool
@Anthony,
I’m afraid you can’t visualize these frequencies in Reason. You’ll have to go to a dedicated Spectrum Analyzer outside Reason. This is why many people have expressed the desire to have the Props develop a dedicated Spectrum Analyzer in Reason. So far, this is the best design idea I’ve come across. We can’t be greedy now can we?
Thanks for this, a big up and great help! I do need some clearing up on something… this seems limited to frequencies down to only 76Hz, correct? Is there any way to accurately see whats going on below this? Say down to 30hz-40Hz range for sub bass work? Thank you.