Reason Studios - Basic Utility REs

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Crumbfort
Posts: 185
Joined: 20 May 2018

10 Jun 2022

Hey all-

My apologies if this belongs in the Feature Request forum, I just figured it might fit here.

Anyways! I often find myself wishing that there were native rack extensions that would fulfill very basic, utilitarian functions, such as:

VCAs
AD/ASR/ADSR Envelopes
CV Mixers
Matrix Mixers
Low Pass Gates
Slew Limiters
Sequential Switches
...etc...

Hear me out. I'm not wishing for Reason to become just like VCV rack or anything like that, I just find it cumbersome and more than somewhat annoying to have to use a hodgepodge of devices to achieve fairly basic results. Sometimes it even requires using a full instrument device to utilize one tiny aspect of it. This leads to a pretty cluttered rack filled with a mishmash of different UIs/design philosophies.

I thought if perhaps RS applied their ace UI/design chops to creating some very simple/functional utility devices (all with the same design philosophy) that this could really elevate the whole "Rack" experience.

This might not be a very popular idea (and I'm sure it will never happen, anyways ;) ) but what the heck, I figured I'd post here!

What do you folks think? :thumbup:
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BRIGGS
Posts: 2135
Joined: 25 Sep 2015
Location: Orange County California

10 Jun 2022

Crumbfort wrote:
10 Jun 2022
Hey all-

My apologies if this belongs in the Feature Request forum, I just figured it might fit here.

Anyways! I often find myself wishing that there were native rack extensions that would fulfill very basic, utilitarian functions, such as:

VCAs
AD/ASR/ADSR Envelopes
CV Mixers
Matrix Mixers
Low Pass Gates
Slew Limiters
Sequential Switches
...etc...

Hear me out. I'm not wishing for Reason to become just like VCV rack or anything like that, I just find it cumbersome and more than somewhat annoying to have to use a hodgepodge of devices to achieve fairly basic results. Sometimes it even requires using a full instrument device to utilize one tiny aspect of it. This leads to a pretty cluttered rack filled with a mishmash of different UIs/design philosophies.

I thought if perhaps RS applied their ace UI/design chops to creating some very simple/functional utility devices (all with the same design philosophy) that this could really elevate the whole "Rack" experience.

This might not be a very popular idea (and I'm sure it will never happen, anyways ;) ) but what the heck, I figured I'd post here!

What do you folks think? :thumbup:
:thumbs_up: sounds good
r11s

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Iapetus 9
Posts: 199
Joined: 18 Jan 2015

10 Jun 2022

I'm with you on this. I'd love to see Reason get more modular. Why, just today I was thinking about making a burst generator combi, and it made me wonder why there aren't other modular type devices in RE form. I'd insta buy things like Turing Machine modules, and yeah, I know the PSQ has one because that's the only way I can see making a somewhat reasonable CV burst generator right now. More please!
38L > 51D every time.

DJMaytag
Posts: 723
Joined: 17 Jun 2015
Location: Madison, WI
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10 Jun 2022

I would definitely love it, despite having a crap ton of modular hardware sitting right next to me.

VCA: Selig Gain, Lectric Panda AMP, and kHs Gain are some good ones.

TonicMint's CV Tools bundle is fucking amazing. Lots of CV tools available in there.

I was just asking about standalone ADSR's the other day.

Someone has a "xLPG" RE out there. I need to try that again.

There are some logic modules out there, so you could use those in conjunction with another to create your own sequential switch.

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Timmy Crowne
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Location: California, United States

10 Jun 2022

Absolutely. I don’t like using an entire Thor as a rectifier, or a Europa just for its envelopes. I’ve wanted a more modular DIY-instrument scheme in Reason for a while. Something like The Grid in Bitwig that would allow users to essentially build Rack Extensions visually from simple building blocks.

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NMHindman
Posts: 103
Joined: 14 Oct 2021

11 Jun 2022

Agreed. RS prides itself (rightly so) on its devices always having an extra creative knob to turn. But this means basic utilities are missing. Need something like the M-Class devices for mix/track functions (ADSR, filter, wave-shaper, etc.).

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deeplink
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11 Jun 2022

You're not alone, there has been other similar requests like this before - I know I have.

It bums me out that the RE shop is more extensive with utilities. RS promoted their CV capability and modular environment but offers little (and has not updated anything in a long time) in this regard.

Personally I would like to things like Complex-1's function unit (or similar) as a seperate device. As well as all the things mentioned above.

I do a lot with Thor (and have saved patches for things like mixers, converters ans inverters) but it always feels like a workaround.
Get more Combinators at the deeplink website

michael.jaye
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Location: Sydney, Australia
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11 Jun 2022

As much as I love Jeiggery Pokery's Shelob Audio Bypass Splitter, it sucks that Reason Studios left it to 3rd party developers to create what should have been an update to their own Spider Audio merger/splitter.
They still don't have a standalone high pass filter - something they could have at least added to the existing ECF-42.

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SebAudio
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11 Jun 2022

I think it’s so niche that RS will never release such device(s). Our best bet is Lectric Panda (not that I know anything, just considering its portofolio)

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DaveyG
Posts: 2499
Joined: 03 May 2020

11 Jun 2022

One problem might be that every RE, however simple, is full width and at least 1U high. A solution would be for RS to implement a "modular cabinet" that we can drag into the rack and extend the SDK so RE developers can design modules to go in it. That's probably a lot of work and we know they are not very quick at doing anything. Then there is the GUI issue that modular has connections on the front but REs almost always have them on the back.

DJMaytag
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11 Jun 2022

DaveyG wrote:
11 Jun 2022
One problem might be that every RE, however simple, is full width and at least 1U high.
I don’t really find this to be that annoying, TBH. I find it FAR more annoying to put a 1/2 rack device in and have a 1/2 rack space that’s empty next to it.

DJMaytag
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11 Jun 2022

michael.jaye wrote:
11 Jun 2022
They still don't have a standalone high pass filter - something they could have at least added to the existing ECF-42.
PMS-20 has separate HPF and LPF’s.

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crimsonwarlock
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Location: Close to the Edge

11 Jun 2022

DJMaytag wrote:
10 Jun 2022
I was just asking about standalone ADSR's the other day.
You asked about more complex envelopes iirc. If you want/need a standalone ADSR, there is a free one available: https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... rack-adsr/

Check out his other FREE modular REs as well :thumbup:
-------
Analog tape ⇒ ESQ1 sequencer board ⇒ Atari/Steinberg Pro24 ⇒ Atari/Cubase ⇒ Cakewalk Sonar ⇒ Orion Pro/Platinum ⇒ Reaper ⇒ Reason DAW.

michael.jaye
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11 Jun 2022

DJMaytag wrote:
11 Jun 2022
michael.jaye wrote:
11 Jun 2022
They still don't have a standalone high pass filter - something they could have at least added to the existing ECF-42.
PMS-20 has separate HPF and LPF’s.
But again, it took another developer to create such a device. Props/Reason Studios should have had this covered already.

With the ECF-42 didn't include all the filter types (HPF/Notch) that are on the older devices is madness.

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moofi
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11 Jun 2022

Bascially the whole modular world is based on simple building blocks. In particular for sound design this way of working is quite essential, not only to create a certain more or less static sound but to evolve/shape it over time for complex listening experiences.

That being said, and also being fond of possible extensions regarding Reason´s modular capabilities, there is already quite some modularity happening.
Combinator is your friend here aswell.

Besides Modrack´s ADSR, Selig´s Gain and JP´s stuff (also quite a few others ), there is Ochen K´s A-Series 1+2. These two "modules" are quite modular to work with. Though a little cramped and (with their specific charme) quite aliasing in regards to the oscillators you could use their utilities and amp for something like the Macrooscillator RE. It´s even got linear/exponential settings for the amp and slow/medium/fast settings for the ADSR. Sure this is still not visually feeling like a modular because of the differing rackformat yet there are already quite a few things possible:

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-ext ... lar-synth/

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-ext ... lar-synth/


Ochen´s CV-tuner is pretty useful in a modular context aswell, not only for tuning things but transposing, CV-variation. stepped quantising, etc.:

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-extension/cv-tuner/


In quite a similar way useful though different and sequentially programmable are Probability CV-trigger + Probability Drum Trigger:

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-ext ... v-trigger/

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-ext ... m-trigger/


Simple yet quite useful in a modular sense is Aftermath Audio´s free CV-Generator RE:

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-ext ... generator/


or Chronologist´s devices like Divisor (10 seperate clockdividers):

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-extension/divisor/


Their trigger delay Later:

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-extension/later/


Already mentioned Chronologist´s logic gate Truth:

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-extension/truth/


and quite interesting both Randrome randomised-gate devices:

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-ext ... d-cv-gate/

https://reasonstudios.com/shop/rack-extension/randrome/


Their mathematical devices at least seem to be useful aswell :-D Haven´t gotten into those yet.

SebAudio wrote:
11 Jun 2022
I think it’s so niche that RS will never release such device(s). Our best bet is Lectric Panda (not that I know anything, just considering its portofolio)

DJMaytag
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11 Jun 2022

True, but I think I’d rather have the MS-20 modeled HPF than whatever RS would come up with.

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crimsonwarlock
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12 Jun 2022

michael.jaye wrote:
11 Jun 2022
But again, it took another developer to create such a device. Props/Reason Studios should have had this covered already.
I don't get it. It is like saying that all VCVrack modules should have been developed by the VCVrack developer himself, instead of other developers. Why is it a bad thing that stuff is being developed by external devs?

Besides that, RS has made it clear on several occasions (and over the years I believe) that Reason is a virtual modular studio, NOT a virtual modular synth. Their focus is clear and obvious, at least to me, and it is that specific focus as to why I use Reason as my DAW. There are several software modular synths available, but there is only one software modular studio.
-------
Analog tape ⇒ ESQ1 sequencer board ⇒ Atari/Steinberg Pro24 ⇒ Atari/Cubase ⇒ Cakewalk Sonar ⇒ Orion Pro/Platinum ⇒ Reaper ⇒ Reason DAW.

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NMHindman
Posts: 103
Joined: 14 Oct 2021

18 Jun 2022

...enter the free kHs bundle

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