How Often Have You Used the Combinator in the past 12 months ? [Legacy C1 + New C2]

[Proboscis]

With the arrival of the new Combinator, and an unexpected bucket-load of new functionality, what segment of the Reason forum community are actually Combi users, prior to the R12 drop ?

By 'users', the reference is to 'Creating you Own' .cmb

Combinator2 looks cool as all heck (I base this only on the exposure from other members and youtube videos, not as a R12 owner),

Apart from the rightly-deserved early 'gimmick' factor of September 21, is there much of a trend amongst users for the 'roll your own' approach ?

[Proboscis]

I cast the first vote for 'Almost Always'.

My default start-point is:

a Combi container,
a 14:2 mixer,
a sound source (stock or RE)
a couple of FX on the desk, usually reverb and delay.

Next, I'll either add another instrument to the mini-mixer console, or split the audio output into Ch2, Ch3 etc of the 14:2 desk

At some point I'll decide on the track/channel color, and install a backdrop of that identical color (from a collection I made, and save locally, with every color in the Reason palette)

Then.......I'll just fool around, adding instruments or FX to the Combinator, toggling synced delay times, working on the musical theme that inspired me to sit in front of the studio screens in the first place.

Invariably I will 'program' some of the rotaries, and inevitably I will send those to sequencer automation lanes. Switches too - I often automate the buttons.

For me, as an 'Almost Always' Combi person, it's ***GREAT*** to hear/read that the custom control nametags are now exporting over to their corresponding sequencer lanes. 32 instance of Rotary 1, Rotary2 and 32 instances of Button 1, Button 2, multiplied by several stems in a track, and that would become a navigation nightmare very fast.

[gullum]

in 11 I used to have Combinators(inserts) that contained my Guitar amp or bass amp + a few FX the knobs and buttons only did minimal stuff no cv. So in the context of being a combinator it hardly qualified as one. So I voted rarely, What used the combinator most for is grouping devices to unclutter the Rack never as a programming device

[DaveyG]

I used to use Combis almost all the time but since R11 arrived I do most of my stuff in another DAW using Reason as a plugin and in that configuration Combis cannot include VSTs, which rules out all but one of my "standard" combis. So in the last 12 months I don't think I have created any new Combis. I'm pleased that Combi 2 has arrived because it makes Reason better but if I eventually upgrade to 12 I doubt I'll make used of it other than to try out some of the more interesting and inventive creations from RT users.

[TritoneAddiction]

Very rarely. At least with the old combinator. (I'm still on R11)

A combinator is pretty much only when I have to save a new patch where the chain of extra effects are a very integral part of the sound. And if I am responsible for the chain of effects, I know how my brain works and why I put them there, so it's easy to adjust things. And usually the patch is already tuned to my own taste anyway.

I almost never load other peoples combinator patches. There's just too much junk to look at and deal with if you want to modify something in a patch. I prefer a "cleaner" instrument only patch where I get to add the effects if they are needed.
I typically find patches where several instruments are layered very bloated. Harder to mix, harder to actually use in a track. There's often just too much going on at once and it's taking up too much space in the music. And there are usually effects in there that I want to switch out or turn off anyway.

So no, I rather build from something smaller/managable, than reduce something big to something workable.

I have no idea if the new R12 combinator will change my view on the combinator, since people are basically able to create new instruments with it, with completely new GUIs.
We'll see.

[Loque]

looks like its the opposite of the gaussian normal distribution. That means the users of the Combinator and none-users are not normal

[Proboscis]

I almost never load other peoples combinator patches. There's just too much junk to look at and deal with if you want to modify something in a patch. I prefer a "cleaner" instrument only patch where I get to add the effects if they are needed.
I typically find patches where several instruments are layered very bloated.

I find myself deconstructing old 'premium' Refills such as Reason Bass and the Abbey Road samples and rewiring everything from the NNXT up. I find the whole Combi front panel control programs to be redundant to my own interests.

Stupidly, I never save my patches. They are all contained within projects.

[Chizmata]

like... every day?

[Proboscis]

looks like its the opposite of the gaussian normal distribution. That means the users of the Combinator and none-users are not normal

What does this even mean ?

In the context of 'at this moment', the combined results are 63% above the center measure of 0 votes. The below is 38% under. Three segments on each side.

There's also a forum-centric mathematical failure at this moment, that the entire combination is 101%. How is this possible ? ELECTION FRAUD !

.

combi stata.JPG (35.82 KiB) Viewed 968 times

[Proboscis]

like... every day?

Every four hours, within every day.

[AttenuationHz]

Haven't purposely used it since 6 there was no need, it introduced the Mix Channel's built in combinator which was used, that release was a decade ago. I'd still be using too regardless of the new combinator if it wasn't removed. If I needed more controls which rarely is the case, I would then use the new combinator, if it wasn't removed.

[gullum]

Haven't purposely used it since 6 there was no need, it introduced the Mix Channel's built in combinator which was used, that release was a decade ago. I'd still be using too regardless of the new combinator if it wasn't removed. If I needed more controls which rarely is the case, I would then use the new combinator, if it wasn't removed.

yup bad move by them for use that used the mixer

[aeox]

I used it in every project before, and even more so now.

[zoidkirb]

I did vote always, but then I realised sometimes I use other daws + rrp. And in rrp there's not always a lot of point for be to bother combinating just one instrument.

[AttenuationHz]

Haven't purposely used it since 6 there was no need, it introduced the Mix Channel's built in combinator which was used, that release was a decade ago. I'd still be using too regardless of the new combinator if it wasn't removed. If I needed more controls which rarely is the case, I would then use the new combinator, if it wasn't removed.

yup bad move by them for use that used the mixer

Bad move full stop, it is removing features, instead of trying to integrate it into reason. I don't use blocks but if they decided to remove it in the next update I wouldn't support its removal either, other users use blocks, I can turn off blocks. Forced to use the combinator now, which takes up way more screen space than the mix channel ever did. Besides this, control knobs don't even work with some linked controls, for instance Kongs NN-Nano Sample Pitch. To make matters worse there is still a limit on targets for each device, so adding more buttons and knobs to a combinator doesn't make much of a difference where that limit still stands or where you can't reassign what target parameters are.

I like the direction it could take though, sandboxing controls. All that would be needed in that respect to make your own synths and or devices is being able to assign a control a built in oscillator chained to a filter chained to an envelope etc. But I don't think they will go in that direction. It would effectively make RE developers obsolete, giving that much sandboxed control to the end user.

[plaamook]

I use em all the time but only to save whole device and signal chains as patches.
I rarely use the knobs except to be able to assign things them and see directly the movements of cv input on the actual parameter (move the combi knob rather than the actual parameter directly)

I’d build more devices if you could combine combis and that was all I wanted implemented in C2 but we didn’t get that.
Now with vsts I’d spend less time building but there’s still a call for it.

Personally I’d like to see a simple device/signal chain container that you could put C2 into. That would really accelerate things for me. But it would need to still be a basic combi itself or I’d lose my first point of being able to see cv input.

Ultimately I just wish c2 came out in parallel rather than an over write.
But never mind.

[Carpainter]

I use Combinator setups in every song to save myself time. Over the years, I've created enough Combinator setups to handle most of my needs. The problem was always the lack of knobs. Managing synth stacks was nightmarish before Combinator 2, but the results were worth the effort. Now it's a cinch.

[utdgrant]

I voted "Almost always", because sometimes I'll fire up Reason just to play about with a single device (internal or VST), so building a Combi around it makes no sense, when you can just pull it into the rack, use Insert FX, or sends from the main mixer.

I come from an old school hardware studio background, with multiple synths (analogue, digital, modular, etc), effects units, etc. I love the way you can build 'super patches' containing all your synth settings, audio routing, effects settings, etc.

My first 'power-user' application of C1 was to create a 'Frippertronics'-style tape delay. It took a lot of wiring up in the first place and a lot of tweaking and fine-tuning of parameters to get it sounding 'just-so'. However, once the design was done-and-dusted, I could just save the whole shebang as a CombiFX and drop it into future projects whenever I needed something similar.

Recently, I have become really interested in using Reason to play multiple devices live when jamming on new musical ideas. The most obvious way to achieve this has been to create key maps within a Combi, so that different areas of my five-octave Nektar T6 are assigned to controlling different devices. For example, I can use the bottom octave to set the root note of a step sequencer, then play two different synth sounds over a two-octave range apiece.

C2 hasn't really offered me any killer features so far but the ability to create your own front panel layouts does seem intriguing. If I create a patch for sharing in future, I'll definitely use this feature.

[Jackjackdaw]

The programmer in the Combinator is one of the best bits about Reason. I have a load of Combi patches with VST in that I would love to be able to use in RRP.

[sonicbyte]

I 'm still in Reason 10 but I use the combinator only to use Kontakt... why ?

- Because is the only way I can automate libraries inside of it.
- I have to create one combinator per kontakt instance / preset (and since we have no multi midi channel support, only can have one library inside of each instance of Kontakt)
- Then I can automate inner library UI with combinator's controls
- I use orchestral and cinematic libraries and such a lot

Rarely use it with multiple synths and such things...

[stratatonic]

If this poll is asking: how often have you created a Combinator patch in the past 12 months, then my choice is rarely.
But a Combinator patch does seem to always make it into a project though - there are some good ones in the FSB.

I do know how to make Combinator patches - I did put the Kong FX in separate Combi shells way back and a couple of synths and spent some time making a decent tracking guitar tone using the stock FX and Line 6 amp in Reason many moons ago (only to have it made redundant by the removal of Line 6! , but honestly, toying around with making Combinators just takes away time from getting music created. At least in the type of music I tend to focus on. Maybe ambient type music folk would like this approach?

If I happen to come up with a good FX chain along the way, I'll combine it, but I'm not actively making Combi patches. I also check out other users contributions - I'm sure the future will bring some interesting Combi devices, but until the front panel gets more interactive stuff like X/Y pads, morphing strips, metering displays, it ultimately is still a rectangle in which audio goes through. And even though it may look good and have more knobs, it could still output kaka.