Reason: Creating Sounds On The Subtractor

For soundcreation the Subtractor is just my favourite tool. It's just so flexible and intuitive. You really can get the sound you want real fast. And with it's very clear and user friendly setup it is just a perfect tool for creating very complex and analog sounding sounds. although it's digital it truly sounds very analog, but without all the problems vintage analog gear can bring. Like tuning problems and notes falling of at unexpected times and such. In this article i will shine a light on the functions and how to use them to achieve the sounds you want.

Although the subtractor is a softsynth the sound it produces comes very close to the analog hardware subtractive synths. With it's 2 osc's each holding 32 wavforms there are really unlimited options when it comes to creating original and powerfull sounds. And with advanced CV routing options on the back this truly is one hell of a synth.

The specs don't lie:

Polyphony: 99
Filters: 2 linkable, 1 multimode, 1 low-pass
Oscillators: 2 each holding 32 wavforms
Lfo's: 2
ADSR: 3 pitch, amp, filter
FM
Oscillator Phase Offset Modulation: With this function you can create variations to the wavforms
Complete velocity control
Complete CV gating options

Starting out
When you just load the Subtractor into the Reason rack it plays the standard saw wav (init patch) producing a short tone. When creating a sound you should first choose the wavform wich you want to use. Choose a wavform wich comes the closest to the sound you have in mind to create. This will give the best results and is the easiest way to achieve a certain sound. The wavform collection exsist out of enough wavform variations to create almost any sound you can imagine. From ultra-deep basssounds to the sharpest lead's and all in between. When you have the right wavform picked out you should choose the octave in wich it should play sound. This is ofcourse independant of the octaves you play on your keyboard. The octave on the Subtractor is just to set the pitch for the patch. When you want to create a bass sound it's best to choose 2. This will give you a low bass kinda sound right away after wich it's just a case of fine tuning it till you have the sound you want. If you think the sound produced by 1 osc is a bit to thin you can just put on the second one set to the same octave to double the output. Or you could set it to another octave to create a mixed pitch just like when you hit 2 keys of your keyboard.

The wavform you have chosen can totally be changed by using the phase button in the osc section. By using this function you create an extra wavform within one oscilator. You can modulate this phase offset by subtracting or multiplying the wavform with a phase offsetted copy of itself. You can control the amount of phase offset by turning the phase knob in the osc. section you are using.
With the mode button you can choose wich phase offset modulation mode you want to use:

x - This multiplies the wavform.
- - This subtracts the wavform.
o - This means no phase offset modulation will occur.

You can really create very interesting variations to the wavforms using this function. Remember that when you use the subtraction mode, with the phase knob set to 0 that this will result in 2 identical wavforms wich will cancel eachother out. Turning the knob back to a value above 0 will get the sound back
Tuning the oscillators is done with the Octave, Semi-tone and Cent buttons. Use these to tune the sound of the Subtractor to other sounds in your composition or to detune the first osc. with the second for creating some interesting movement in the sound. Detuning is best done with the cent function. Tune one osc up a few cents and the other down a few cents. This will let both osc's run into eachother giving a very interesting effect to the sound.
When you understand the principles of the oscillators you are half way to creating sounds yourself very easy. The rest of the functions of the Subtractor are to modulate the outcome of the oscillator section.


The Lfo's
With using lfo (low frequency oscillator) you can create movement in the sound. The lfo can be setup to control various parameters that you can choose with the Dest. (Destination) button in the lfo section. You can for instance choose the filter frequency to be controlled by the lfo. This will result in the filter going up and down with the speed of the lfo wich you can set with the rate knob. The force of the movement is set by the amount knob also in the lfo section. In Reason 2 the lfo has a sync button that will sync the movement of the lfo with the tempo of the song. This is extremely useful to create movement in soundeffects and to create arpeggio like sounds with. The second lfo let's you fade in the effect for a smooth course of the effect the lfo gives. Useful when you are creating effect patches and for pads. It also gives you keyboard tracking wich means the lfo's rate will increase when you play higher notes on your keyboard. This is useful to give the lfo a more realistic sound. The settings of the Lfo will depend not only on the type of sound you use but also on wich speed your song is running. Reason 2 comes with a syncable Lfo wich means the cycle of the lfo will follow the speed of your song exactly. Reason 1 does not have that function so you need to set the speed (rate) of the Lfo by hand to sync it to your song tempo.


The Filter
The filter is very important when creating sounds using the Subtractor. Maybe it's just the most important part of it. It will enable you to make your sound darker or make it squeek like a Tb-303. The main filter (switched on at startup) is a multimode filter. This means that you can let certain frequency's pass the filter. When you select an LP filter you let the low frequency's pass the filter. The amount is set by the freq fader. When you move it down you will cut more of the high frequency's, resulting in a dark sound. When you select a HP filter this will work the other way around. A BP (BandPass) filter will let the midrange frequency's thru. A Notch filter works in the opposite way of a Bandpass filter and cut's a narrow part of the midrange frequency's. This sounds a little bit like a phaser. You can really do lot's of cool stuff with it. The resonance of the filter makes the frequency set by the freq. fader stronger, more prominent. Use the freq. fader and the res. fader together to make filter sweeps or to shape your sound. The resonance fader will work the same for the LP and HP filter modes. For the BP and Notch filter it works differently. For those it will widen the band on wich these are working. With this knowledge you can make your sounds much cooler and more realistic.
The second filter can be used in conjunction with the first as they are linkable. By linking the filters you can really make some interesting effects. Because with only one filter it's not possible to make your sound darker after using the Notch or Bandpass filter. Using the second filter you can. This will result in even more interesting types of sounds.
You will also find an ADSR envelope for the filter wich with you can control the shape of the filter. Use a slow attack to let the filter set in slowly. This will result in a very interseting type of sound and is frequently used in all sorts of music. Especially Drum 'n Bass. With setting the Attack to a very high position you can make pads evolve very slowly into the sound you have set in the filter. The decay will set the lenght of the fade into the sustain level, wich the sound will keep untill you let go of the key and then the release will set in. The release will determine when the sound will stop. A release of 0 will make the sound stop at the moment you take your finger of the key. A long release will result in a descending tail after you have released the key. These controls can be used to set a course for the effect the filter will have over your sound. The settings totally depend on the sound you are making and vary from sound to sound.
The same thing goes for the other ADSR envelopes. They will all determine the course of the function they are assigned to. The AMP envelope will set the course for the volume of the sound and the MOD envelope can set the course for a number of destinations, wich you can choose using the dest. button on the right of it.


Using CV on the Subtractor
On the back of the Subtractor you have various options when it comes to route using CV. First one of them is the sequencer control. This is used to send note and pitch information to the subtractor. The gate input receives note on/off information and is used to trigger notes on the Subtractor using a Matrix or Redrum. The CV receives pitch information for the notes that must be played. When you press your right mouse button on the Subtractor and choose to create a Matrix these connections will be automatically be made. Using the the Redrum is a nice way of triggering percussion patches of the Subtractor. This way you can use the Redrums step sequencer to control the subtractor(s). Each Redrum channel can control a Subtractor.
The Modulation input can be used to control various functions of the Subtractor by another device's CV output. This can be any CV output on another device. Best thing is to just experiment with it. Coss the way they are controlled are subject to the settings of the functions controlling it. You can modulate the filter cutoff (frequency) with the Lfo of another device for instance. This will cause the filter to run in sync with the Lfo controlling it. This can be used for controlling 2 devices at the same time with only one button/knob. This goes for all functions and functions controlling them.
The gate inputs are used to control the envelopes using functions on another device. Like using an Lfo. When you use these inputs the envelopes on the Subtractor itself won't work coss they are under control of a function on another device. This can also give you some extra ordinary types of control. Also here it's case to just experiment with it till you find a sound that you like. The routings you have made won't be saved in the Subtractor patch, even if they are on the Subtractor itself. I would personally like to see that changed so the routings on the Subtractor itself do get saved. It enables you to make even more interesting patches.


Creating your sounds
Creating sounds really is a very creative process and there are no wrong or right's here. Every sound you will make is a unique sound and cannot be judged by the settings but by the way it sounds. This really is the main principle of creating sounds. Always listen to the sounds instead of looking at the buttons. Ofcourse you need the buttons to sculpt your sound but try to listen to what each function does and you will get to know what it does. Enabling you to use it for what it is while making a sound.
There are usually a few categories in wich sounds can get into. Like bass, effects, lead, pad etc. These categories are usefull for when you are making music to quickly pick out a sound you like but they are a bit restricting coss when does a sound fall into a certain category?
You can have effects that sound like a pad and vice versa. So don't hang yourself to this concept coss it will restrict you in creating sounds as is.
The Subtractor can produce sounds wich are super usable and ofcourse of a very high quality. It really sounds like an analog synth. But then without the flaws of 'm
To create lo-fi sounds you can select the Low-BW function wich will put the Subtractor in low bandwidth mode. This will make the Subtractor sound in a lower quality and maybe this is an even better way to get closer to the old analog synths.
A Subtractor Patch takes very little space so you can make thousands (if you can find the time that is) of them without running out of disk space. You can even store more than a thousand patches on a floppydisk! A great way to have enormous amounts of high quality sounds without having to buy enormous harddrives or burn countless cd's