ES400 Song Challenge

Great fun, great prizes! Good luck!
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Manoosh
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Joined: 26 Jan 2017

27 Oct 2020

are the ES 400 combinator patches allowed to use?? All Reason 11 Effects are allowed to add, right?
Last edited by Manoosh on 01 Nov 2020, edited 1 time in total.

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ekss
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28 Oct 2020

Manoosh wrote:
27 Oct 2020
are the ES 400 combinator patches allowed to use?? All Reason 11 Effects are allowed to add, right?
It's all in the rules:
Instruments allowed:

ES400 must be the only synth used in your song.
You are allowed one, non-synth source (such as vocals or drums). Since ES400 comes with drum patches, we encourage you to use them.
Do not use copyrighted samples or material that hasn’t been cleared.

Effects allowed:
Any built-in Reason effect.
Any Rack Extension effect by Ekssperimental Sounds.
The ES400 has built-in effects and we encourage you to use them.

PhillipOrdonez
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28 Oct 2020

Can it not be done with the RRP on a different host?

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ekss
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28 Oct 2020

PhillipOrdonez wrote:
28 Oct 2020
Can it not be done with the RRP on a different host?
Sure, as long as you stick to the rules. IE you may not incorporate other synths, effects or likewise from the other daw.

PhillipOrdonez
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28 Oct 2020

ekss wrote:
28 Oct 2020
PhillipOrdonez wrote:
28 Oct 2020
Can it not be done with the RRP on a different host?
Sure, as long as you stick to the rules. IE you may not incorporate other synths, effects or likewise from the other daw.
Brilliant! Thanks

sdst
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28 Oct 2020

how about the non-instruments Free REs? can they be used?

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ekss
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28 Oct 2020

sdst wrote:
28 Oct 2020
how about the non-instruments Free REs? can they be used?
Non-instrument and non-effects, yes. Like CV duty stuff is ok.

The important thing with this challenge is to put ES400 in to use, to show it's abilities and to spark creativity by limit the options.
Do as much as you can with ES400 and only use other devices if you really need. Those other devices should be reason native or non-audio utilities. Maximum one (1) non-synth audio generating device. Examples; 1 Redrum or 1 Vocal track or 1 guitar.

PhillipOrdonez
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28 Oct 2020

Awww nice to see you fixing your issues 🤗

Now. Back to the subject:

What about utilities?

What about using redrum to trigger a gate, is that fair game?

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ekss
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28 Oct 2020

PhillipOrdonez wrote:
28 Oct 2020
Awww nice to see you fixing your issues 🤗

Now. Back to the subject:

What about utilities?

What about using redrum to trigger a gate, is that fair game?
Sure!

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TritoneAddiction
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30 Oct 2020

I really hope a lot of people write a ES400 track and join the challenge. I kind of miss the "old days" when there was so much engagement here at RT whenever there were synth challenges.
Imo these competitions are the perfect way of combining both the gear/RE/geeky talk with the creative/music making side. You get to explore a synths sonic capabilites both from your own writing and also when you hear what other people have come up with using the same instrument. Every track is like a little synth demo track.

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Re8et
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31 Oct 2020

I'm in! Good times everyone!

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Re8et
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31 Oct 2020

nICE BUY!

All sounds from ES400 except one single Kong. I've been lazer this time :D \
Only one compressor on parallel Kong channel, everything else comes out completely dry, not a single effect have been used.
I think there's 15 or so ES400 in this track.

As you can spot from the snip, I've been using MIDI-CV player massively, I cannot play anymore otherwise. I hope it's allowed or else Ill'have to save the song differently,
aka parsing some more midi down.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Last edited by Re8et on 31 Oct 2020, edited 2 times in total.

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Re8et
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31 Oct 2020

TritoneAddiction wrote:
30 Oct 2020
I really hope a lot of people write a ES400 track and join the challenge. I kind of miss the "old days" when there was so much engagement here at RT whenever there were synth challenges.
Imo these competitions are the perfect way of combining both the gear/RE/geeky talk with the creative/music making side. You get to explore a synths sonic capabilites both from your own writing and also when you hear what other people have come up with using the same instrument. Every track is like a little synth demo track.
I miss the old none-restrictions on multiple tracks! It was so many more tracks coming out to listen to and enjoy!

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Re8et
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31 Oct 2020

Boombastix wrote:
26 Oct 2020
Bes wrote:
26 Oct 2020
no word on players in the rules. probably stock players only?
I don't see any restriction on midi or midi-tools, and if you print to track you can remove the Players.
Yeah, that's what I'd do IF I will have to send the song file, parse the midi down.

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Re8et
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31 Oct 2020

I made a new one, only this time I used the ES400 drum sounds as well. All Synths are identical to the entry posted.
This one is just an exta, out of the contest, just because otherwise you think I'm lazy :)

This Synth has some of the best hats anywhere around the Reason RE ecosystem! Well done Ekssperimental sounds!!!!



I went a little wild with this one :)
es400 gone wild.JPG
es400 gone wild.JPG (346.34 KiB) Viewed 20224 times

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moneykube
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31 Oct 2020

:thumbs_up: :thumbs_up: Re8et very abstract :!:I like :puf_wink:
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
Proud Member Of The Awesome League Of Perpetuals

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TritoneAddiction
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Joined: 29 Aug 2015
Location: Sweden

01 Nov 2020

Alright so this is my entry. :)

Every sound comes from ES400. No samples. I decided to go that route. Overall there's very little processing to the sounds. It's mostly just EQ and compression. Reverbs, delays, chorus mostly come from the synth itself.
17 instances of ES400 were used.


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ekss
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01 Nov 2020

Nice to see contributions already coming in! Great work, keep 'em coming!

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MannequinRaces
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01 Nov 2020

TritoneAddiction wrote:
01 Nov 2020
Alright so this is my entry. :)

Every sound comes from ES400. No samples. I decided to go that route. Overall there's very little processing to the sounds. It's mostly just EQ and compression. Reverbs, delays, chorus mostly come from the synth itself.
17 instances of ES400 were used.

That’s awesome! Way to throw down the gauntlet!

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Loque
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01 Nov 2020

Ok. I had a really great and cool idea for the song contest, which could have worked to give me all da prizes! I tried and failed completely. The song sucked and sounded like sh!t, so i finally throw everything away.

Than i started from scratch and built a kick, a snare and a bass - heading for the flow and finding MY sound and MY song. And yep, there it was: The flow, the sound, the song. I like the result, just missed some tools i normally would use for mixing.

Every sound comes from ES400, even all drums, no extra sounds, mostly factory patches, maybe just a little bit tweaked. Just used a little bit internal Reason FX for polishing and some extra flavor or send fx if needed (ES400 does not have a Audio In ;)). Also needed some Envelopes where i used Europa and some additional LFO stuff, because the build in just still suck compared to some RE.

I didnt cranked up all the limiter stuff and it sounds pretty clean imo, but maybe you need to turn up the volume a bit more than usual.

So, here is the result. Hope you like it as i do:

Reason12, Win10

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MrFigg
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Posts: 9124
Joined: 20 Apr 2018

01 Nov 2020

Right...here it is.

sEksstioSekunder (60seconds)



Seven instances of ES400 each loaded with a patch from each of the seven accompanying Patch categories.
Each ES400 is routed through 4 of the currently available Ekssperimental Sounds Effects Rack Extensions.
Initially I wanted to have 12 combis each playing a different note from C3-C4 with Robotic Bean's More Cowbell for percussion. Unfortunately after I re-read the rules I saw I wasn't allowed to use MC within which the essence of the original song was contained so I had to rethink. The world will never know.
In contrast to other concept songs which are 60 minutes long this one is 60 seconds short. The instructions from another thread were, and I quote, “make it quick and dirty.” :)
Last edited by MrFigg on 01 Nov 2020, edited 1 time in total.
🗲 2ॐ ᛉ

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joeyluck
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01 Nov 2020

ekss wrote:
01 Nov 2020
Nice to see contributions already coming in! Great work, keep 'em coming!
Yes it's awesome seeing songs already! :thumbs_up:

For anybody that is wanting to share additional songs, please do so in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7519945

Or feel free to create a post in the Reason Music forum.

It will help us to keep track of your actual entries :)

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TritoneAddiction
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Location: Sweden

01 Nov 2020

MannequinRaces wrote:
01 Nov 2020
TritoneAddiction wrote:
01 Nov 2020
Alright so this is my entry. :)

Every sound comes from ES400. No samples. I decided to go that route. Overall there's very little processing to the sounds. It's mostly just EQ and compression. Reverbs, delays, chorus mostly come from the synth itself.
17 instances of ES400 were used.

That’s awesome! Way to throw down the gauntlet!
Thanks. :)
Some songs get written pretty quickly and effortlessly. But this wasn't one of them. I had to put quite a bit of time and effort into this one. Took a while before I felt like I knew where to go with it. And getting the arrangement together was a lot of trial and error too. Not saying these "difficult" tracks necessarily end up being worse tracks, sometimes they end up being among the favorites, but they do require quite a bit of self discipline. So after a week of intense grind-mode it's a relief to release it and let go of all the decision making.

Nice to see some entries already. I always find it interesting how people can use the same instrument/synth yet come up with completely different ideas. Just goes to show how much you can do with a synth.

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MrFigg
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Posts: 9124
Joined: 20 Apr 2018

01 Nov 2020

I just got my first comment on SoundCloud for my song. Man, I must be really good. 😂
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🗲 2ॐ ᛉ

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joeyluck
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01 Nov 2020

MrFigg wrote:
01 Nov 2020
I just got my first comment on SoundCloud for my song. Man, I must be really good. 😂
Lol "Ready for *ekssperiments?"

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