Pulverizer

[Rick75]

I've been meaning to ask other Reason users about this one for a while...

When I first got into Reason back on about V2.5 I remember being really impressed with Scream 4 and it's meaty tape saturation and generally awesome settings.

When Pulverizer came along I was excited and thought another sound-smashing unit can only be cool. But I never found it to be of any real use.

What are it's strengths or where it excels? Interested to learn because to date I just don't know where I would use it. Are there any times when Scream won't do and Pulverizer will?

[Loque]

Well, i am not fully warmed up and got the overwhelming feeling that others have about Pulverizer....I find it a usefull device, but not that uber device as some guys are talking about.

What i like till now about is the quite good dirt it can bring in, the comb filter, the resonating other filters, and here and there some dirty compression. But i am not getting as horny as some others when talking about the Pulverizer. Maybe i miss somethng special here... Tbh, i needed quite a long time to understand how great The Echo or Scream4 really is...

Curious what others are saying...

[Jackjackdaw]

I guess if you twiddle the knobs and it doesn't float your boat maybe it's just not your thing. Personally I upgraded from Lite purely for this and The Echo.

Pulverizer can squish things real tight, drive them really hot. The trem can do a bit of Pigtronix Tremvelope magic and the envelope follower can do some rad cv modulation on other stuff.

I love it, it makes my beats dirty.

I love Scream 4 too..since I first saw Reason back on 2.5 on a blue plastic G3 powermac in my mates studio I thought it was the best part of the whole DAW.

[guitfnky]

Pulveriser is my first go-to if I need a dirtier, lo-fi sound. that’s what it excels at, from my perspective. it doesn’t sound like tape, but I don’t think it’s really supposed to. between the tone rolloff, filter (usually just left on the default low pass), and dirt controls, it usually does just what I need without touching anything else.

but there’s a lot of cool other things it can do. excellent auto-wah, or envelope-wah...auto, or envelope panning, and you can even use the envelope velocity to control the rate of any auto-filtering or panning you do, for some really out there results, if that’s your thing.

if clean and pristine is your thing, Pulveriser might not be that useful for you. I know lots of people swear by the compressor, but that’s the one thing that I almost never touch.

[Jackjackdaw]

I imagine the compressor on its own could do a mean clean Telecaster tone or something like that. I am all about the warm and fuzzy to the downright filthy though. I know nothing of the clean and pristine.

[guitfnky]

you mentioned the tremolo too, which I should NOT have overlooked.

[chaosroyale]

Gotta be honest - as a distortion and sound-mangling junkie, I was really disappointed with the Pulverizer, and feel like it was a wasted opportunity. It really doesn't live up to its name or aggressive UI design.

The gain doesn't go anywhere near high enough, it lacks bass, the comp is not very flexible, and there is only one type of drive. The comb filter * trem combination can be useful with a wet-dry mix for reese basses and so on, but honestly those features could have been in a simple multiFX unit. I really wanted to like it too, the name and the look all seemed to be right up my street, but no, it almost never gets used.

On the other hand, "Mr. Overdrive", and "Distortion chain" despite the uncool names, compact size, and horrible UIs, get used all the time.

[guitfnky]

yeah, it’s not a super high gain distortion, but I kind of assumed that’s more Scream’s thing anyway. never had any trouble with it weakening the low end though, so not sure what’s going on there.

Distort Chain is a pretty excellent alternative though, especially if you want more gain. they both have their strong points, IMO.

[Loque]

On the other hand, "Mr. Overdrive", and "Distortion chain" despite the uncool names, compact size, and horrible UIs, get used all the time.

LOL Yea

[EnochLight]

When Pulverizer came along I was excited and thought another sound-smashing unit can only be cool. But I never found it to be of any real use. What are it's strengths or where it excels?

Gotta be honest - as a distortion and sound-mangling junkie, I was really disappointed with the Pulverizer, and feel like it was a wasted opportunity. It really doesn't live up to its name or aggressive UI design.

Andreas Karperyd made Pulveriser's graphics, and Peter Jubel did the DSP (of course). Mats Karlöf did the product design and specifications

It was modeled after a Shure Level-Loc for the compressor part, a RAT distortion pedal for the dirt part and the filter was modeled on a similar LP12+notch that could be found on the Nord Lead.

So, it has a very specific sound indicative to those devices. If that's not your thing, though - that's cool. I still find it useful for warming things up and brightening stuff without killing DSP.

inspiration.jpg (20.39 KiB) Viewed 3003 times

[Marco Raaphorst]

I wrote a series for it many years ago: https://melodiefabriek.com/tag/pulveriser-special/

It's still a great unit. It can do level loc, differently than Soundtoys Devil Loc (which is a little better imo).

[Magnus]

It has the native Wet/Dry built into it which Scream4 lacks. Even though I often use the Pulverizer for a lot of Squashing or Dirt on the panel, I never usually mix the effect in any more than 25%; keeping things more subtle in their improvement in the mix.

[scratchnsnifff]

i use it for quick filters. also the spread function on the LFO allows you to have a split sounding LFO. so the left speaker goes at something like 1/8th notes. while the right speaker goes at 1/16th notes.

i do this in serum all the time, but without the stereo separation. i think its a great time saver to see if your sound needs that much crazy movement. pulverizer is a great tool for movement and quick filters. also its the only stock device that has an envelope follower (good for wah bass sounds or other more unique movements)

[guitfnky]

also, PSA: it’s spelled Pulveriser

obviously they misspelled it purposely, but it hurts my brain to see everyone spelling it wrong(but also right).

[Noplan]

What I like about Pulveriser is that you can quickly bring a boring sound to life with some saturation and tremor modulation. without sounding too intrusive. You have really good control as opposed to other tools.

[xbitz]

can be found quite good intro/not too long and deep courses

Reason 6 202: Buffre
Reason 6 203: The Echo
Reason 6 204: Pulverizer
Reason 6 205: Alligator
Reason 6 206: KONG: King of Drums
Reason 6 207: Dr. OctoRex: Sonic Surgery
Reason 6 208: The Combinator
Reason 6 209: Thor: Master Of All Synths

https://www.macprovideo.com/library/application/reason

[Jackjackdaw]

also, PSA: it’s spelled Pulveriser

obviously they misspelled it purposely, but it hurts my brain to see everyone spelling it wrong(but also right).

'Pulveriser' is the correct spelling in British English.

[chaosroyale]

Yeah, I figured the comp was a "Loc" type, but the lack of tweakability compared to the (excellent) soundtoys unit makes it much less useful.

It's a shame, a switch for a couple of distortion types and a little more tweakable comp and it could be a really great unit. It's old now so there's no point holding out for a V1.1, I guess.

EDIT* also the Scream4 needs a wet/dry so badly. and to fix the tape mode phase issue, of course. "Scream 5", c'mon you know you want it!

[Loque]

EDIT* also the Scream4 needs a wet/dry so badly. and to fix the tape mode phase issue, of course. "Scream 5", c'mon you know you want it!

THIS.

[guitfnky]

also, PSA: it’s spelled Pulveriser

obviously they misspelled it purposely, but it hurts my brain to see everyone spelling it wrong(but also right).

'Pulveriser' is the correct spelling in British English.

ah, that’s good to know. mostly because “Pulverizer” looks incredibly dumb to my eyes.

[dvdrtldg]

the spread function on the LFO allows you to have a split sounding LFO. so the left speaker goes at something like 1/8th notes. while the right speaker goes at 1/16th notes.

Wait, what?

[Boombastix]

It was modeled after a Shure Level-Loc for the compressor part, a RAT distortion pedal for the dirt part and the filter was modeled on a similar LP12+notch that could be found on the Nord Lead.

I didn't know it was a Shure-Loc model, cool. But SoundToys Devil-Loc is my go to for that (has 'magic' distortion), however Pulveriser shines when you use the envelop to modulate the LFO rate, so with increasing intensity of the audio you get a faster (or slower) LFO rate (use it for filter or tremolo), throw in a Synchronous to modulate the wet/dry mix in a tempo sync and good stuff happens.