Mimic: New Creative Sampler

[thefixr]

Glad I looked back through the thread because I was just going to suggest checking video out.

While I was hoping for a sampler that I could use to organize large numbers of samples for something like a complete live finger drumming set, I have to say that this is a pretty cool device. I can probably go on living with NN-XT (and Combinator layered Kongs) for the foreseeable future.

As for Mimic, I can really see using this exactly how they mentioned it in Ryan's video - grabbing a sample or two from sound packs and mangling them all up and down the idea spectrum and then using them as basis for a song.

I used to submit tracks and videos to DJ Pain 1's Unfinished Friday and Mimic would have been the perfect starting point for my work on that:

DJ Pain 1 would post a sample on Friday and have people submit their tracks made from the sample. I would pull the sample into Reason - beat match it, chop it, reverse it and otherwise mangle it in the sequencer and then add effects to build entire songs that I would make into videos. Mimic will be a great addition to this workflow. The Data Broth video really shows all the creative possibilities here.

So while I am a little disappointed that we didn't get something that would supplant NN-XT or Ableton's drum rack, I'm pretty excited about what was delivered. If anything I see this as more a functional replacement of NN-19 (which works fine but needed replacing) and not NN-XT.

[pquenin]

Mimic looks cool.
I'm pretty sure that it will have pitch-detection, reverse sample and rex import in slice mode when R12 will be launched in September, because older devices have that and nobody would understand that this brand new baby can't do that as well...

[Heigen5]

Mimic looks cool.
I'm pretty sure that it will have pitch-detection, reverse sample and rex import in slice mode when R12 will be launched in September, because older devices have that and nobody would understand that this brand new baby can't do that as well...

Because of the earlier knowhows regarding the older devices, it shouldn't be rocket-science at all indeed. So lets hope so.

[avasopht]

Vocal stretch is uber cool!

Will be interesting to compare differences between vocal and instrument stretch

[dvdrtldg]

OK now I'm really excited to get my hands on this thing

So great to see a video where someone does a deep dive into creative sound mangling instead of stale hip hop or generic club bangers

[moalla]

Amazing can´t wait to transform voice and instruments samples, nice nice nice what Matthias showed in the video.
And someone at gearnes.de wrote, boring nothing new in conlusion with other included samplers of competitor daw´s.
So are their competitors, how are envious....

[dvdrtldg]

Just wouldn't be a Reason new product thread without the "This thing doesn't happen to address my particular needs, so I'm going to take it personally" crew

Just wouldn't be a Reason product if they didn't leave loads of features out.

Yeah but this is what puzzles me. Who gets to determine what features an instrument *has* to have? SDKs are limited, choices have to be made and you can't include everything

Which isn't to say that some features aren't highly desirable. I wouldn't want to use a delay or a reverb that didn't have a wet/dry function

But it seems to me that what's happening here is Reason says "Hey here's our new sampler!" and then people are like "Oh, a sampler eh? Well, let's see now" and they get out the Big Book of Official Sampler Features and run Mimic against the checklist before deciding whether they like it or not. The judgement is made according to how closely Mimic maps onto some sort of Platonic archetype of the Ideal Sampler, rather than according to how cool or fun or flexible or creative it is to work with

I mean criticism is fine, and discussion about features you'd like to see included is helpful. And sure, if you don't like it, no problem. But "This thing SUCKS because it's not like Serato" or whatever is just dick swinging. Yeah we get it guys, you're super advanced with this whole using samplers thing

And feeling personally insulted/conned by its very existence is beyond lame

[DaveyG]

Just wouldn't be a Reason product if they didn't leave loads of features out.

Yeah but this is what puzzles me. Who gets to determine what features an instrument *has* to have? SDKs are limited, choices have to be made and you can't include everything

Which isn't to say that some features aren't highly desirable. I wouldn't want to use a delay or a reverb that didn't have a wet/dry function

But it seems to me that what's happening here is Reason says "Hey here's our new sampler!" and then people are like "Oh, a sampler eh? Well, let's see now" and they get out the Big Book of Official Sampler Features and run Mimic against the checklist before deciding whether they like it or not. The judgement is made according to how closely Mimic maps onto some sort of Platonic archetype of the Ideal Sampler, rather than according to how cool or fun or flexible or creative it is to work with

I mean criticism is fine, and discussion about features you'd like to see included is helpful. And sure, if you don't like it, no problem. But "This thing SUCKS because it's not like Serato" or whatever is just dick swinging. Yeah we get it guys, you're super advanced with this whole using samplers thing

And feeling personally insulted/conned by its very existence is beyond lame

I get what you are saying but RS have just added a new sampler to the toolkit that is just OK rather than world beating. Maybe there were better things to spend their time on.

[StephenHutchinson]

Soooooo...

I would guess the sensitivity knob is dialled back a few %.

Hi Sterioevo, in both of my screenshots, above, the Sensitivity knob was set to the same position. Moving mine down and up again created nothing akin to what was in Ryan's video. To actually get it the same way, I had to manually add and delete markers by hand. Compared to the great sensitivity slice selection in Recycle, Mimic somehow misses obvious slice points? Maybe this is something will be fixed before September (if it is actually an issue and not me messing something up).

[guitfnky]

it’s starting to feel more and more like the “we make tools that are supposed to inspire you” is some kind of cop out. every time they fail to deliver a truly impressive feature set, that’s their fallback refrain.

I couldn’t care less about a sampler, but how do they release a new one and it sounds like people who really wanted a new sampler think it’s just about as deep as the ones we already have. different, but not really delivering more comprehensive features on the whole.

so far the hi res thing is the same way—sure looks nice, but you’ve missed an enormous opportunity to include a whole shitload of cool improvements in the process. “we don’t want to overcomplicate things” is starting to get tiresome, and honestly feels kind of lazy. one could also argue it’s a bit insulting to the intelligence of the user base, but we'll leave it at on that front.

so many creative ways to improve the DAW, workflow, functionality, and yes, even the shiny new devices, that would still keep things fun, engaging, and uncomplicated (hell, I’ve seen tons of incredible suggestions from people right here on RT), but nope. they don’t even try. I mean, if you can’t even take good ideas people are giving you for free, what are you even doing?

really hoping they’ve got something epic up their sleeve when they announce the full v12 feature set, but what they’ve been talking about and putting on offer recently has been awfully boring.

[Sterioevo]

Yeah there seems to be a few variables happening with how slices are handled.
If I drag and drop a sample into the sequencer and also into Mimic, I get slightly different results.

[Creativemind]

Mimic looks cool.
I'm pretty sure that it will have pitch-detection, reverse sample and rex import in slice mode when R12 will be launched in September, because older devices have that and nobody would understand that this brand new baby can't do that as well...

No I think this is the finished product, for now anyway. Maybe they might add those things in a 12 point update. That seems slim though as well. I hope so though. I hope we aren't still talking about this a year down the line

[Creativemind]

one could also argue it’s a bit insulting to the intelligence of the user base, but we'll leave it at on that front.

Kind of how I feel everytime they add a feature (automation and crossfade curves spring to mind) and think I may have mentioned this on this forum before, that it kind of implies Reason users are not capable of understanding complex features. I think it is kind of insulting too. It also smells of, not wanting to blow other daw's out the water, why not give Ableton, Studio One, FL Studio a run for their money? all this it's more about creativity rather than advancing the daw is very frustrating. I personally find it less creative. Less advanced features restricts you and if I'm mid flow on a track, I don't want to start finding workarounds and flipping to the back of the rack and wiring stuff up, it halts you in mid flow and ruins creativity. The CV element is only creative in a trippy, sound design, let's create a whacky unexpected sound kind of way, doesn't do anything to help you in finishing a track terms.

I also get the feeling they have no vision or thinking outside the box element to their drive of the product. Surely they've used these other daws (well we know they have because of the RRP and it being demonstrated in other daws) and when they see that Reason has 60+ less features of the other top half dozen daws, would've thought they'd want to try and compete but it just feels like they're happy with basic implementation of stuff.

Apologies btw, this has veered away from talking about Mimic and into a have a dig at Reason thread again. Lol!

[dvdrtldg]

The CV element is only creative in a trippy, sound design, let's create a whacky unexpected sound kind of way, doesn't do anything to help you in finishing a track terms.

Oh, man. You have no idea

[Popey]

Am I right in thinking the timestrech in mimic is not the same as in the reason daw.

Only ask as someone mentioned this on kvr and having the reason sequencer timestrech in a sampler was what I was interested in. I use live so sampling wise I feel I am covered and live timestrech is ok but having mimic in the rack with reasons timestrech was very appealing to me (I can always use reason daw for this still but workflow wise it is tedious)

That said Mimic seems to have a nice easy workflow and options so is a great addition for those that use the daw and being included in the core product rather than a paid re is good. For reason+/reason as an all in one option this adds value and perhaps they could look at the stock eq options now and add reason version of pro q3 etc.

[Creativemind]

The CV element is only creative in a trippy, sound design, let's create a whacky unexpected sound kind of way, doesn't do anything to help you in finishing a track terms.

Oh, man. You have no idea

[slic]

….and when they see that Reason has 60+ less features of the other top half dozen daws, would've thought they'd want to try and compete but it just feels like they're happy with basic implementation of stuff.

The only features that matter are the ones you personally use, many big DAWS like Cubase are now bloated with features most people will never use and this stifles creativity and fun in my opinion. RS covers all of the basics well, the stuff most people need most of the time…And some of those other DAWS (like Live, Bitwig) don’t even have pitch correction…

[Creativemind]

….and when they see that Reason has 60+ less features of the other top half dozen daws, would've thought they'd want to try and compete but it just feels like they're happy with basic implementation of stuff.

The only features that matter are the ones you personally use, many big DAWS like Cubase are now bloated with features most people will never use and this stifles creativity and fun in my opinion. RS covers all of the basics well, the stuff most people need most of the time…And some of those other DAWS (like Live, Bitwig) don’t even have pitch correction…

Yes and no. Just written loads on features I deem as pretty essential in a modern daw but deleted it. Most have no work arounds (I had 12+ - midi chase, track folders, undo history, sync browsers & windows, transient sensitivity & time displays in Slice Edit to name just 7). When 12 is released in September it will tell all imo. Where they're going with the daw itself. I do get frustrated with them implementing things though and then never completing them, themes, mixer and automation curves or should I say curve to name 3. I am quite happy using Reaper though with the RRP.

[Loque]

fsgdgfsgfdgfsd.jpg

Maybe some rendering problems with HiRes.

[PhillipOrdonez]

The CV element is only creative in a trippy, sound design, let's create a whacky unexpected sound kind of way, doesn't do anything to help you in finishing a track terms.

Oh, man. You have no idea

Ikr?

[PhillipOrdonez]

I would guess the sensitivity knob is dialled back a few %.

Hi Sterioevo, in both of my screenshots, above, the Sensitivity knob was set to the same position. Moving mine down and up again created nothing akin to what was in Ryan's video. To actually get it the same way, I had to manually add and delete markers by hand. Compared to the great sensitivity slice selection in Recycle, Mimic somehow misses obvious slice points? Maybe this is something will be fixed before September (if it is actually an issue and not me messing something up).

Yeah! They probably deleted some of the slices. You do what you do to get the best result. If it didn't happen automatically by the sensitivity dial or the program itself, you got to use your brain, ears and hands to shape things into place. ‍♂️ One can't expect programs to do everything for you.

[deeplink]

Hi Sterioevo, in both of my screenshots, above, the Sensitivity knob was set to the same position. Moving mine down and up again created nothing akin to what was in Ryan's video. To actually get it the same way, I had to manually add and delete markers by hand. Compared to the great sensitivity slice selection in Recycle, Mimic somehow misses obvious slice points? Maybe this is something will be fixed before September (if it is actually an issue and not me messing something up).

Yeah! They probably deleted some of the slices. You do what you do to get the best result. If it didn't happen automatically by the sensitivity dial or the program itself, you got to use your brain, ears and hands to shape things into place. ‍♂️ One can't expect programs to do everything for you.

If you click on the slices you lock them in place and then they don't dissapear after you adjust the sensitivity. I find this quite useful.

[Ottostrom]

fsgdgfsgfdgfsd.jpg

The knob alignment issue is caused by a bug which a lot of the high-res GUIs in Reason suffer from (and it will hopefully be fixed in the future).
Even if the picture is from RS themselves I bet they still took a screenshot of the device working inside Reason since that is the only place you can load the device with a sample/waveform (which wouldn't be a part of the original untouched GUI design source).
Of course, they could have spliced together two pictures to avoid showing off the misalignment but since most people wouldn't notice this small bug I guess it wasn't worth the effort.

[StephenHutchinson]

Hi Sterioevo, in both of my screenshots, above, the Sensitivity knob was set to the same position. Moving mine down and up again created nothing akin to what was in Ryan's video. To actually get it the same way, I had to manually add and delete markers by hand. Compared to the great sensitivity slice selection in Recycle, Mimic somehow misses obvious slice points? Maybe this is something will be fixed before September (if it is actually an issue and not me messing something up).

Yeah! They probably deleted some of the slices. You do what you do to get the best result. If it didn't happen automatically by the sensitivity dial or the program itself, you got to use your brain, ears and hands to shape things into place. ‍♂️ One can't expect programs to do everything for you.

That was my original guess, but I didn't want to suppose that without further feedback. And you're entirely correct. It's minimal work figuring out where the slice markers go and of course I fixed it for myself.

[StephenHutchinson]

Yeah! They probably deleted some of the slices. You do what you do to get the best result. If it didn't happen automatically by the sensitivity dial or the program itself, you got to use your brain, ears and hands to shape things into place. ‍♂️ One can't expect programs to do everything for you.

If you click on the slices you lock them in place and then they don't dissapear after you adjust the sensitivity. I find this quite useful.

Thanks so much for this. I had another go at it using this method... and it's golden. Usually I'm a RTFM kind of guy, but I can't find a Mimic manual online anywhere at this point. Anyone know if there is one yet out?