Friday, October 2, 2009

The Patch-A-Day FAQ (Redux)

Well, I'm back. Thank you for your patience while I took a little time off from the blog and patch design. It felt a little weird having a "vacation," but it's good to be back, and I'm really looking forward to trying out some new things in Reason.

How many of you, after finding this blog, went back through all the old posts? Did you ever take the time to read my very first post: The Patch-A-Day FAQ? It's been a long while since I looked at it myself, so during my break, I went back and read through the FAQ, trying to determine if I've deviated very far from my original intent. I was surprised to learn that while I've posted quite a few more Combinators than I thought I would, the blog has stayed pretty close to my early vision for it. I suppose that's either a good or bad thing depending on how you feel about my original goals, but I've been pleased with the output so far.

I'm reprinting the FAQ below for those of you who haven't seen it yet.

What Is "Patch-A-Day?"


At its most basic level "Patch-A-Day" is a challenge, to myself, to create a new Reason patch every day. I've been trying to wrap my brain around synthesis for a long time and creating a new patch, every day, seemed like a good tool to finally hammer home the concepts I've been learning and force myself to actually work through crafting some sounds. After a couple of weeks of creating new sounds and effects for Reason, I decided to share them, rather than just keep them to myself. Hopefully, some of these patches will be useful to you.

What Will I Find On "Patch-A-Day?"


I expect that the majority of the patches you find here will be instrument patches, so expect a lot of Subtractor, Malstrom and Thor patches, with the occasional NN-XT patch from time to time. A lot of people talk about the death of the Subtractor, claiming there really isn't any need for it now that we have Malstrom and Thor, but even given these new, shiny, terrific synthesizers and what they're capable of, Subtractor remains my "go to" synth when I'm drawing up a new track. I think, with a little care, it can sound every bit as good as its CPU hungry commrades, so you're going to find a lot of Subtractor patches posted here. The old girl still has some life in her.

What you won't find are a lot of complex combinator patches, with layered synths backed up by forty or more effect units. While these types of patches usually sound extraordinary, my focus is going to be fairly "raw." It will be up to you to complicate things with your own effects and routing. I'll just be providing the basic building blocks for a sound.

Most of the combis I build for personal use are effect units that I'll slap on top of an intrument to get an interesting sound. I'll probably post some of them, as I come up with them, but the focus will be on raw instruments.

Why Not Just Release A Refill?


I still might, but for now, I'm going to be more productive getting out a new patch every day, than I am "saving up" patches for some nebulous date in the future that may or may not arrive. In three months, six months, or a year from now, I might package them all together, but for now, the blog format is the best way for me to get these out.

Can I Participate?


Yes! The patches provided here are all "bragware." If you use one of them in a project, I hope you'll let me know. I'd love to hear about it, and if possible, listen to what you've done. Provide a link and I'll post it on the blog for others to hear. If you tweak one of the patches or build one into a combinator, send me your updated patch and I'll post it here, giving you credit. There's no reason why I couldn't post reader patches, as well, so if you have something you want to share, send it over.

Please do not use my patches in your own refills or repost on other sites. Give credit where it's due. I certainly plan to, if any of my fellow Reason users participate.


Let's see where this next year takes us.

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