Blamsoft and eXode present: eXpanse - Hyperwave Synthesizer

[Faastwalker]

This opinion is going against the grain so I hope I don't offend as everyone else seems to be going nuts for this one. I had a different perspective on this feature laden behemoth of a synth. This thing looks beyond capable & certainly has some impressive features & sound capabilities. But for me it feels a bit like the soft synth equivalent of an all singing & dancing Workstation type device. Each new device being bigger, better, more capable ('this one goes up to 11') than the last.

Where will it end? I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of Zero! Do I want another behemoth synth in the fray? I'd actually like to see more specific, focused synths that are good at doing specific things. Simple devices with a less is more approach in terms of features, parameters & a plethora of built in FX. In the context of the Reason Rack I think this kind of device works really well.

RedRocks Ivoks is still pretty much my favorite synth in Reason. On the face of it it's a minnow compared to something like Expanse. But in the context of the Rack it's a building block to whatever you can dream up. Or have people stopped thinking about the Rack in this way? Preferring instead the all-in-one approach? Saying that, next up for me is probably going to be Nostromo once I've saved up for it & possibly after I've got the measure of Zero There is only so much RE Megasynth I have hours in the day to learn. Otherwise these things are just expensive, feature laden preset machines. Where's the fun in that?

[Abstrax]

So how's the CPU use on this?

[lowpryo]

This opinion is going against the grain so I hope I don't offend as everyone else seems to be going nuts for this one. I had a different perspective on this feature laden behemoth of a synth. This thing looks beyond capable & certainly has some impressive features & sound capabilities. But for me it feels a bit like the soft synth equivalent of an all singing & dancing Workstation type device. Each new device being bigger, better, more capable ('this one goes up to 11') than the last.

Where will it end? I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of Zero! Do I want another behemoth synth in the fray? I'd actually like to see more specific, focused synths that are good at doing specific things. Simple devices with a less is more approach in terms of features, parameters & a plethora of built in FX. In the context of the Reason Rack I think this kind of device works really well.

RedRocks Ivoks is still pretty much my favorite synth in Reason. On the face of it it's a minnow compared to something like Expanse. But in the context of the Rack it's a building block to whatever you can dream up. Or have people stopped thinking about the Rack in this way? Preferring instead the all-in-one approach? Saying that, next up for me is probably going to be Nostromo once I've saved up for it & possibly after I've got the measure of Zero There is only so much RE Megasynth I have hours in the day to learn. Otherwise these things are just expensive, feature laden preset machines. Where's the fun in that?

maybe I'm missing something, but what RE synth has wavetables this robust + 3 waveshaping parameters per oscillator? that seems like a very specific and focused goal of eXpanse IMO. I guess Ochen K's 4mer has similar waveshaping features, but it has pretty abysmal CPU performance and aliasing when they are all in use, which this improves upon.

[NaviRetlav]

Hi. I just have to say that it was a real pleasure for the Navi Retlav Studio team, to work with Blamsoft on the sound design for the Expanse.
Guys, this synth is a real game changer in Reason world and it's worth way more than the current price. I'm 100% sure that it will be involved with at least few big hit releases in upcoming years. Thanks to the incredible factory sound bank we made all together, and one of the fastest workflows for the raw sound design, I'm sure that the invested money will return to you with profit in no time.

Cheers.

[Faastwalker]

maybe I'm missing something, but what RE synth has wavetables this robust + 3 waveshaping parameters per oscillator? that seems like a very specific and focused goal of eXpanse IMO. I guess Ochen K's 4mer has similar waveshaping features, but it has pretty abysmal CPU performance and aliasing when they are all in use, which this improves upon.

But this was my point. What does 3 waveshaping parameters per oscillator mean? If next week a synth comes out with 4 waveshaping parameters per oscillator does this mean it's better than Expanse? Personally I feel a bit overwhelmed with features I don't fully appreciate the significance of. Maybe I'm just being a bit of a newb. But I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed & I don't mind admitting it. What does it all mean?!

[dvdrtldg]

This opinion is going against the grain so I hope I don't offend as everyone else seems to be going nuts for this one. I had a different perspective on this feature laden behemoth of a synth. This thing looks beyond capable & certainly has some impressive features & sound capabilities. But for me it feels a bit like the soft synth equivalent of an all singing & dancing Workstation type device. Each new device being bigger, better, more capable ('this one goes up to 11') than the last.

Where will it end? I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of Zero! Do I want another behemoth synth in the fray? I'd actually like to see more specific, focused synths that are good at doing specific things. Simple devices with a less is more approach in terms of features, parameters & a plethora of built in FX. In the context of the Reason Rack I think this kind of device works really well.

RedRocks Ivoks is still pretty much my favorite synth in Reason. On the face of it it's a minnow compared to something like Expanse. But in the context of the Rack it's a building block to whatever you can dream up. Or have people stopped thinking about the Rack in this way? Preferring instead the all-in-one approach? Saying that, next up for me is probably going to be Nostromo once I've saved up for it & possibly after I've got the measure of Zero There is only so much RE Megasynth I have hours in the day to learn. Otherwise these things are just expensive, feature laden preset machines. Where's the fun in that?

In principle I agree with this - haven't even trialled eXpanse yet, so I'm not going to address it specifically, but I do really like the simpler building-block devices in Reason that invite hooking shit up to other shit and taking full advantage of the modular possibilities. The blurb for eXpanse makes a big deal of "keeping everything in the box", but using stuff out of the box is what I love about working in Reason, particularly when it comes to filters and FX. 64 LFO waveforms? I can use something like Shape, or Ammo, together with a variety of signal-warping utilities that give me a billion LFO waveforms, as well as the fun of creating/modifying them. And while an onboard suite of FX is nice, I feel I'm paying for compression/distortion/reverb/etc options where I'm already spoilt for choice (of course there are exceptions to this, e.g. Revival whose preamp does particularly excellent distortion/saturation)

That said, I love Zero and Nostromo which are big-ticket synths - and knowing me, I'll probably try eXpanse, fall in love with a sound and buy it - especially as it's got a shitload of CV inputs. But maybe not until I've spent a fair bit more time with these other monsters

[bxbrkrz]

maybe I'm missing something, but what RE synth has wavetables this robust + 3 waveshaping parameters per oscillator? that seems like a very specific and focused goal of eXpanse IMO. I guess Ochen K's 4mer has similar waveshaping features, but it has pretty abysmal CPU performance and aliasing when they are all in use, which this improves upon.

But this was my point. What does 3 waveshaping parameters per oscillator mean? If next week a synth comes out with 4 waveshaping parameters per oscillator does this mean it's better than Expanse? Personally I feel a bit overwhelmed with features I don't fully appreciate the significance of. Maybe I'm just being a bit of a newb. But I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed & I don't mind admitting it. What does it all mean?!

What if you never visit the RE sub? If you don't then nothing can hurt you and you'll never feel overwhelmed. Reason is very powerful with the built in synths + Combinator already.

I can't wait to buy eXpanse.

[swamptooth]

Great work guys!!! Very cool synth!

[challism]

Congrats on what should be a very successful release. You guys did an amazing job on this synth. I hope you sell a bunch of them.

[unisyn]

keeping everything in the box

I am wholeheartedly for this concept.
Loading bunch of devices, going through cables, combinator routing etc. really discourages me to work - Where all I want is to load up and get working.

So though I do agree that the modular capabilities of Reason is one of the selling point, this caters to another audience like myself, which prefers Reason for it's all-in-one approach, quick and robust. Definitely on my must buy list.

[JerrelTheKing]

I've exhausted myself on Predator and Antidote so maybe this becomes my next RE synth. It sounds amazing.

[challism]

I've exhausted myself on Predator and Antidote so maybe this becomes my next RE synth. It sounds amazing.

It sounds amazing because it is amazing. I think this is a must buy!

[wendylou]

Love it! I have a ton of RE, but this really has a vast array of pleasing patches, many with a sonic character I've not heard in Reason before.

Q: Is the intro price good through all of September?

I just blew my savings on a telescope and need to recharge my piggy bank

[boobytrap]

This monster purely give new life to Reason. this is fantastic ! crystal clear sounds. this beats all.

[Shokstar]

It's a killer Synth. This one is my favorite Synth right now. What you can do just only with one OSC is amazing. You can add so much movement to a sound, if you modulating the mods and pos for the OSCs. Also it is easy to use, you're not wasting so much time to get a good result out of it in comparison to some other Synths.

[tobypearce]

I'm interested as to why no dedicated chorus effect? I know that chorus can be achieved via delay, but then this means that you can't have both delay and chorus in the same patch.

You can of course use an external chorus or delay, but this breaks the 'in the box' workflow and also means you can't place both chorus and delay before the built in reverb.

I'd be interested to hear why you made this design choice.

[riemac]

For me Expanse is a dream come true. Every detail is thought of, which in my opinion is the result of the fantastic cooperation between Blamsoft and eXode. There are many things implemented which I ever wished for and some are the first time around in the Re format:

Unison per oscillator with different detuning algorithmen (linear, logarithmic etc.), this is a first time in RE format.

The option to select the random amount of the retriggering of the oscillators in unison mode is great (reminds me on Serum).

Expanse is supersaw heaven. After the first tests yesterday I must say that Expanse makes the best supersaw sounds in Reason, very clean sound.
Even Antidote can't compete with this sound quality.

4 full oscillators with additional noise per oscillator, this is great.

The option on the back with three CPU settings is very nice.

Very good FX's with the option to change the order, which I thought isn't possible in the RE SDK.

A lot of great graphical envelopes, where you can get very punshy sounds with.

Two filters with a lot of options.

Poly CV!

And very good patches from my favorit sound designers.

And so much more, I could go on forever...

[eXode]

I'm interested as to why no dedicated chorus effect? I know that chorus can be achieved via delay, but then this means that you can't have both delay and chorus in the same patch.

You can of course use an external chorus or delay, but this breaks the 'in the box' workflow and also means you can't place both chorus and delay before the built in reverb.

I'd be interested to hear why you made this design choice.

Simply put, because of space constraints, especially so in the list where you change the effects order (and enable the effects). We didn't have a chorus effect planned originally because you can get a chorus-like effect just by increasing the density to i.e. 3-4 voices with some detuning, I often find that you rarely use both density with 3+ voices and chorus together because they work against each other. The addition of the two set times to the delay was more of a last minute addition because, well we could do it - the option would have been no chorus at all.

Finally you can actually create a sort of chorusing delay as well by using ping-pong mode and setting one delay to i.e. 3/16 and the other to i.e. 12.5 ms.

[XysteR]

Love it! I have a ton of RE, but this really has a vast array of pleasing patches, many with a sonic character I've not heard in Reason before.

Q: Is the intro price good through all of September?

I just blew my savings on a telescope and need to recharge my piggy bank

Haha! I'm in the same boat - I just bought a Celestron C9.25 XLT for planetary astrophotography

I'm really liking this synth, even though I own Serum I'm still buying this too. I'm really mildly miffed that the current SDK doesn't allow you to make custom wavetables. But I do like the way Blamsoft have squeezed as much as they can out of the SDK to give us enough room to sculpt the included tables. 2 minutes in on Aiyn Zahevs' demo track had me sold on this!

No demoing for me - Instabuy....

[EdGrip]

"This synth offers too many features!"

"I agree! Kids these days have it too easy! When I was young we had to fuck about with all the pretend animated wires ourselves to get a half-decent sound!"

"That's right! WHEN OH WHEN will this developer just give us what we all want and release a synth that is just literally just an oscillator in a pretend rack-mounted box??"

"Yeah! I think people in this country have had enough of 'features'!"

"Exactly! Where will it all end??? Even MORE features? I don't even know what half the so-called features even do, so they are probably silly and should be omitted!"

[Arrant]

In principle I agree with this - haven't even trialled eXpanse yet, so I'm not going to address it specifically, but I do really like the simpler building-block devices in Reason that invite hooking shit up to other shit and taking full advantage of the modular possibilities. The blurb for eXpanse makes a big deal of "keeping everything in the box", but using stuff out of the box is what I love about working in Reason, particularly when it comes to filters and FX. 64 LFO waveforms? I can use something like Shape, or Ammo, together with a variety of signal-warping utilities that give me a billion LFO waveforms, as well as the fun of creating/modifying them. And while an onboard suite of FX is nice, I feel I'm paying for compression/distortion/reverb/etc options where I'm already spoilt for choice (of course there are exceptions to this, e.g. Revival whose preamp does particularly excellent distortion/saturation)

That said, I love Zero and Nostromo which are big-ticket synths - and knowing me, I'll probably try eXpanse, fall in love with a sound and buy it - especially as it's got a shitload of CV inputs. But maybe not until I've spent a fair bit more time with these other monsters

It's great to use all sorts of small devices when you're crafting sounds on your own, but for refills for example this is a nightmare since you can't expect customers to have all sorts of REs. So for this situation having everything in one box is preferable.

[Electric-Metal]

"This synth offers too many features!"

"I agree! Kids these days have it too easy! When I was young we had to fuck about with all the pretend animated wires ourselves to get a half-decent sound!"

"That's right! WHEN OH WHEN will this developer just give us what we all want and release a synth that is just literally just an oscillator in a pretend rack-mounted box??"

"Yeah! I think people in this country have had enough of 'features'!"

"Exactly! Where will it all end??? Even MORE features? I don't even know what half the so-called features even do, so they are probably silly and should be omitted!"

[Ostermilk]

Congratulations Blamsoft and eXode on this release.

Not only does it make some great sounds it's also clearly created a bit of a buzz too I see.

A great and valuable addition to the platform.

[XysteR]

Having bought eXpanse and played around with it for some time - It's clear to me that at this moment, the people who scored this down on props shop by .5, clearly have an earwax problem or are indeed as deaf as my father!...

[Skullture]