Turn Reason into an Arranger Keyboard

[XSynth]

I love the concept of arranger keyboards but i hate the sounds and its static performance.

What if arranger keyboaards had full fledged synthesizers with tons of modulation features. Well i highly doubt that is going to happen within the next 50 years.

Lots of people use Ableton LIVE and various sequencers but in the end it all comes down to pushing a button to play a pre-programmed sequence. The ending result is typical the same chord progression being played for 8 mins while you turn knobs and fade in-out stuff.

Well i want more, i want to be able to alter chord progression on the fly.
The only way to do this is pick up an arranger keyboard with its questionable concept of sounds that should be used.

However there is a half-baked solution in Reason by using Korde RE or Mercury RE and the FREE MoPol (Polyphonic CV Merger).

I have made 2 simple Combinator setups which will show you how its done.

1. Using Korde as the brain.
2. Using Mercury as the brain.

http://www.xsynth.com/download/SimpleArranger.zip

Here is a snippet of the current Combinator setup i'm working on, its 1 Combinator recorded LIVE playing chords and using ModWheel/PitchBend:

http://www.xsynth.com/download/korde_arranger.mp3

Cons and Pros:

Mercury will stop HOLD on notes which are played twice. This is annoying, often you hear a note is missing.
Korde will keep playing HOLD even if you press STOP on transport bar. Best fix for this is to assign a Combinator knob to HOLD On/Off.
Both need MoPol (Polyphonic CV Merger) which is FREE.
Korde clearly have way more useful features for this kind of setup.

[MarkTarlton]

Long time since I have seen you here, good to know you're still working on music

Thanks for sharing, this is cool!

[XSynth]

This is beyond cool The reason why i have been away from this community is because i had found a way to do a semi arranger setup using hardware and had no use for a computer. Been toying with that concept for 3-4 years until i recently picked up Reason again and tried to see if i could come up with something similar to my hardware setup in Reason.

Turns out i can come much closer to what i had in mind using Korde. So now the question is rather can Reason come up with the sounds i like from my hardware or not. In any case i have a LOT of fun doing this

[MarkTarlton]

Yeah! I have been modifying it by altering some sounds, adding buttons and modules to change patterns and mute/solo the mixer channels. Those Subtractor patches are simple but sound great.

[XSynth]

I have found a way to make the Bass pattern respond more varied to incoming chords.

Normally the bass pattern would just continue with same note pattern as you move up the keyboard.
My solution to this (problem) was to have one bass play C1-B1 and another bass playing C2-B2, however this second bass is shifted in octave to match the first bass. The result is the bass is more played like a real bass player would do it.

Here is an example of this using Korde as the brain for the new varied bass pattern:

http://www.xsynth.com/download/korde_arranger_b.zip

1 Note = Bass plays basic pattern
2 Notes = Bass plays basic pattern
3 Notes = Bass plays 1st and 3rd notes
4 notes+ = Bass plays 1st 3rd and 4th notes

This trick can only be done using a device which can split incoming notes so i used the NN-XT sample player.
Maybe there is a way around this using a regular synth but i have not found a solution for that yet.

I've stopped using Mercury for this kind of arranger setup since Korde is the clear winner with is way more features.

[antic604]

Wouldn't Kompulsion be an even better fit for that?

https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... ompulsion/

[XSynth]

Wouldn't Kompulsion be an even better fit for that?

https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... ompulsion/

Dunno, i just got it a few days ago but have not tried using it for this arranger setup. The reason why i'm focused on Korde right now is that it got external modulation connections whereas Kompulsion mostly got intern modulation and is a PLAYER. But i will give Kompulsion a try soon'ish

[XSynth]

Ok, just had a quick try using Kompulsion, the main problem here is that its only the Sequencer part that works inside a Combinator. The arpeggio part is not responding to incoming notes if Kompulsion is inside a Combinator.

So on first hand i'll stick to Korde which is not a PLAYER but an Instrument which can be used fully inside a Combinator.

[FiatLux]

Ok, just had a quick try using Kompulsion, the main problem here is that its only the Sequencer part that works inside a Combinator. The arpeggio part is not responding to incoming notes if Kompulsion is inside a Combinator.

So on first hand i'll stick to Korde which is not a PLAYER but an Instrument which can be used fully inside a Combinator.

Not sure what you mean...Players can be used inside a Combinator.

[Despondo]

Welcome back Michael! We've missed you here in Reason land.

[XSynth]

Welcome back Michael! We've missed you here in Reason land.

It's good to be back Had i not been buried in my hardware i would have been back sooner but i guess better late than never
Long breaks have the positive effect that you look different at the tools you got, like resetting your workflow and discover new approaches

[XSynth]

Ok, just had a quick try using Kompulsion, the main problem here is that its only the Sequencer part that works inside a Combinator. The arpeggio part is not responding to incoming notes if Kompulsion is inside a Combinator.

So on first hand i'll stick to Korde which is not a PLAYER but an Instrument which can be used fully inside a Combinator.

Not sure what you mean...Players can be used inside a Combinator.

Let me give you an example:

Create a Combinator, dumb a NN-XT in it with its default B. Grandpiano.
Fine, now you play the piano.
OK, you decide you want an arp to play the piano so you dumb a RPG-8 on it.
Fine, now you play the piano again and notice not only do you get the ARP'ed notes but you also hear the notes you play.
You ONLY want to hear the ARP'ed notes so you turn off "Recieve Notes" for the NN-XT in the Combinator.

THIS is the problem, i ONLY want to hear the arp'ed notes and Kompulsion as a PLAYER do not allow for that.
The moment i turn off recieve notes for the NN-XT then the Kompulsion stops recieving notes because they are tied together.

[Stygian Abyss]

THIS is the problem, i ONLY want to hear the arp'ed notes and Kompulsion as a PLAYER do not allow for that.
The moment i turn off recieve notes for the NN-XT then the Kompulsion stops recieving notes because they are tied together.

XSynth, I don't understand what your problem is. As soon as you put Player(s) above an instrument the MIDI data goes first through the player stack instead of being directly sent to the instrument, which is different from the way RPG-8 works in your example. There should be no problem using them as you want it inside a Combinator.

[XSynth]

THIS is the problem, i ONLY want to hear the arp'ed notes and Kompulsion as a PLAYER do not allow for that.
The moment i turn off recieve notes for the NN-XT then the Kompulsion stops recieving notes because they are tied together.

XSynth, I don't understand what your problem is. As soon as you put Player(s) above an instrument the MIDI data goes first through the player stack instead of being directly sent to the instrument, which is different from the way RPG-8 works in your example. There should be no problem using them as you want it inside a Combinator.

Ups...... i WAS wrong. For some reason it didn't occur to me to reset the damn preset on Kompulsion and that made a huge difference lol. Ok so finally i can get to try Kompulsion vs Korde. Thx to both of you who told me i was an idiot

[XSynth]

Ok now i know whats happening, Kompulsion DO let some notes past its MIDI filtering and that was what i heard.

Why this happens to me and not to you guys is that i play LIVE, playing LIVE means anything i play is not quantized. If i record my LIVE performance and then play it back quantized THEN the notes stop coming thru.

The whole point of doing arranger setup is to play your full setup LIVE.

Some further investigation showed that HOLD on Korde got 2 Modes: Restart and Continue

IF i set Korde HOLD mode to Restart then notes will slip thru un-quantized play. Setting it to Continue the note slip stops.

So my conclusion for is Kompulsion a better choice, nopes.... because its HOLD mode lets un-quantized notes slip thru.

[EpiGenetik]

What is an “arranger keyboard” exactly?

[XSynth]

What is an “arranger keyboard” exactly?

In short its a one man band in a keyboard and is often seen being played at weddings, birthdays and other sorts of public performance. Try watch a video of Yamaha Genos. 90% of what comes out of an arranger keyboard is not the kind of music i like to make, however i like the idea of a one man band.

I mostly make ambient and Berlin School synth music. These 2 genres are absent from arranger keyboards because they require LOTS of modulation and real synths stuff rather than the samples of generic sounds which all arranger keyboards use.

[miscend]

Just seen that you have a few old VSTs up on your site. Any chance you will be working with the RE SDK in future?

[artotaku]

Ok now i know whats happening, Kompulsion DO let some notes past its MIDI filtering and that was what i heard.

Why this happens to me and not to you guys is that i play LIVE, playing LIVE means anything i play is not quantized. If i record my LIVE performance and then play it back quantized THEN the notes stop coming thru.

The whole point of doing arranger setup is to play your full setup LIVE.

Some further investigation showed that HOLD on Korde got 2 Modes: Restart and Continue

IF i set Korde HOLD mode to Restart then notes will slip thru un-quantized play. Setting it to Continue the note slip stops.

So my conclusion for is Kompulsion a better choice, nopes.... because its HOLD mode lets un-quantized notes slip thru.

Just a side note: If you don´t want to be limited to one combinator you can also use the simple and fantastic and free https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... layer-tap/ to route your MIDI notes to other combinators or even to player chains. It requires some CV cabling but when setup it´s worth the effort.

Even more, there is another free player https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... ive-notes/ that mimics the disabling of Receive notes in the combinator programmer but puts the functionality into a player device so you don´t need to rely on the combinator. To enable/disable player chains.

Or grab the (right now free) https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... -modifier/ which mimics the input note range of the combinator programmer and puts it into a player device.

With these free players you can built up quite complex player chains and controlling of MIDI notes while playing live.

[XSynth]

Just a side note: If you don´t want to be limited to one combinator you can also use the simple and fantastic and free https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... layer-tap/ to route your MIDI notes to other combinators or even to player chains. It requires some CV cabling but when setup it´s worth the effort.

Even more, there is another free player https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... ive-notes/ that mimics the disabling of Receive notes in the combinator programmer but puts the functionality into a player device so you don´t need to rely on the combinator. To enable/disable player chains.

Or grab the (right now free) https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... -modifier/ which mimics the input note range of the combinator programmer and puts it into a player device.

With these free players you can built up quite complex player chains and controlling of MIDI notes while playing live.

I already had the 2 Panda RE's but had to download all the Le Note RE's. Going to be interesting what these things can do combined.