Editorial
The one thing which made me plain out fall in love with Reason and its unique workflow was that strong sense of modularity; I can set up my rack in any way, shape or form that I want to. And the best part is that this attention to detail is pretty much reapplied to almost every Reason instrument.
Meaning? If I want a use a mere sawtooth as a sidechain input to control a compressor in a rather peculiar way then I can. If I want to use a noise generator and "do" stuff... I can. However, the only downside to this approach when using native Reason instruments is that you have to "cheat the system". For example, that sawtooth?
Here I've set up Thor to directly sent the output from oscillator 1 out using its 3rd audio output, which I then directly connected to the third master output. The result is that I can now utilize this sound in my material, in my example I've sent this into Live where I now get to experience this:
But surely there should be an easier way to achieve all this? Well, there is, thanks to Jiggery Pokery Sound:
Jiggery Pokery Sound modular oscillators & synth
Showcasing the Ammo 1200BR Modulation Synthesizer (left rack, inside the Combinator), the Ammo 400R Modulation Oscillators (right rack, the device on top) and finally the Ammo 100LA Modular Oscillator (right rack, bottom device).
This stuff, you guys, is a sound designers dream come true! The experimental potential of these devices is plain out amazing!
SO how does it work? You drag in a device, flip the rack and connect it, it won't automatically wire itself into your rack. Then go back to the main interface and configure things.
Focusing on the synthesizer first you have four oscillators (A to D) which each support 136 (!) different waveforms. From a standard sine, saw and square -wave right towards more experimental stuff like a "pulled apart" sinewave for example (it's a regular sinewave but it has extra space between the up & down cycles). All oscillators have their own dedicated audio output channel:
... as well as a filter & effects section where you can apply different variations to your sound(s) to either mangle them up a bit or provide more gentle effects. The sky is pretty much the limit here. This can be an amazing engine to help you design your own soundscapes & pads for example. A good way to start with that is by adding another one of my favorite JPS devices: the Animus shimmerverb ensemble. But that's a little beyond the scope of my review
The synth device has plenty of presets which will demonstrate a lot of its options. Want to get a bit of a brass sound out of the critter? No problem; just hook up osc. outputs A and B to the left and right audio channels and you're good to go!
And if you want to take things even further.. there's also a routing matrix which you can use. Not as extensive as the one on Thor but it comes pretty close nonetheless!
But what if you just want sound without the effects hassle?
Well, then you should look into either the modulation oscillators device (Ammo 400R) or the single oscillator (Ammo 100LA). These provide you with either just the oscillator sound to use (Ammo 100LA) or giving you the effect to apply an ADSR envelope and some externally triggered change in settings using a small re-ARM effects matrix (on the Ammo 400R).
Which is something important to keep in mind: you don't really need all three devices. In practicality the 1200BR synth can do everything which the other devices can also do. But having said that it can definitely be useful to have access to more devices, based on your project and needs.
In conclusion....
If you're looking for a way to quickly add some basic or more complex sounds into your material then these devices provide a somewhat inexpensive solution which can easily deliver for simple and complex sound designs.
- The Ammo 1200BR normally sells for E 49,-. A somewhat steep price I think but if you look at its functionality in which it provides 4 oscillators, an effects section and a routing matrix I think you can conclude that it's well worth it.
- Take away the battery effects section and you'll end up with the Ammo 400R which normally sells for E 25,-. It may still seem steep, and once again I'd agree with that, but the 4 oscillators & routing matrix still provide huge design potentials. And that's even ignoring all the stuff you can do with CV signals....
- And finally, last but not least, if you take out 1 single oscillator from one of the above two devices you'd end up with the Ammo 100LA. It is what it is: one single oscillator with 128 different presets which normally sells for E 15,-.
But on that note I'd also like to share that the last 2 devices currently sell for E 9,- each whereas the synth has been priced at E 19,-, during RS's Black Friday discount period. Quite a steal if you ask me Oh... one last thing... I'm biased as heck but that Animus Shimmerverb Ensemble I mentioned? Normally also sells for E 49,- and that also sells for E 19,- right now. A very specific effect but one of my "to go to" devices whenever I'm messing with the oscillator setups, so I figured I'd mention that too
Thanks for reading, I hope this was useful for some of you!