It’s a portal into a wonderland of retro-inspired gear, all in Reason. Sweden’s own Erik Karl Stephan Söderberg built EKSS as a one-man passion project, building Rack Extensions that ooze personality—that boutique hardware feeling, but all in the box. Come with me down the rabbit hole, including Erik’s fantastic new FreakShift effect and drum step-sequencer.
Back story: all of this started with seeing a post on a Facebook page and… I’ve been lost making Reason patches with this stuff for the past weeks since that happened. Let me explain.
Experimental Rack Studio
Erik originally birthed Ekssperimental Sounds Studios (EKSS again) as his producer moniker, going all the way back to Reason 1.0 (and ReBirth before that). Since 2017, that became a set of Rack Extensions, too, with what has grown into an insanely deep catalog of virtual gear for the Propellerheads crowd. If you’re a Reason head, you’ll be instantly transported to what you first loved about Reason.
I saw someone comparing using AI to using software and presets. That’s more like the opposite. You know who the ghost in the machine is here. Using Erik’s stuff is like working with a particular pedal maker or synth builder. And you can tell Erik is a producer.
It’s good enough that I kept getting distracted rather than finishing the review. Let’s go through the new stuff and some immediate favorites.
These are on sale now, through the end of June.
FreakShift
This one is a dream: combine a ring modulator, a Bode-style frequency shifter, and an envelope follower and LFO, plus drive before or after the effect. Dive in, and you find even more depth: use an optional external carrier, add an insert effect between the two engines, and modulate everything with a routable LFO.
That’s apparent once you flip this round the back:
Let’s listen in on it with a simple example. Here it is with two other favorites from EKSS — the RDS-16 sequencer and the superb DRUMSYN, obviously inspired by the vintage classic Pearl Syncussion SY-1. (SY-1 plus Reason is just perfect.) Now, from here you could add more routing and CV control and all the rest.
RDS-16 sequencer
The RDS-16 Rack Drum Sequencer is simple, but effective — intuitive enough that you might even wonder why Reason Studios didn’t build this as a native device. Features:
- 16 channels, 8 patterns, up to 64 steps per pattern
- Per-channel length (so polrhythms are possible), plus per-channel probability
- Soft, medium, and hard dynamics
- Resolution from 1/2 to 1/128 with triplets
- Global shuffle and master probability
Just stick it above a device, and it’ll play it, though you can also combine it with other Players, and you get separate trigger and CV outs on the back, as well. Steps can be triggers or gates, for maximum flexibility.
What may not be obvious is that this is adaptable to different devices; there are even preset patches for General MIDI, Rack Extension drum machines, the native Reason stuff, and for melodic use with note scales.
This is already invaluable to me; it has become my go-to. But you can expect some upcoming features to take advantage of Reason 14’s SDK improvements. So if you were already imagining more control, fills, step conditions, and so on, expect your RDS-16 investment to pay off!
More favorites; putting it together
Erik’s catalog is a candy store. I just kept knocking out techno tunes with it. Here’s an example/teaser, working with the RDS-16 as sequence source and… actually, let me just let you gearspot the rest. There are some serious weapons in there from EKSS.
Let’s talk about some favorites.
The full CV Tool Kit is pricey, and makes me wish that Reason itself took CV more seriously. But there is simply no more comprehensive set of CV tools — pencil drop on any one of the 12, and that one individually bests a lot of what is available from Reason Studios or third parties.
I got a ton of use out of just the CV LFO Tool — if I had to pick just one, it’d be this one:
Check the back of all of these modules, together:
DRUMSYN drum synthesizer is a must, as I said, with trimmable tweaking and syncable CV and LFO.
There are terrific synths in there, like the ES10 — a pint-sized SH-101-ish synth that gets you straight into that Roland-y territory.
Amalgam is about the most synthesis fun as you can fit into a compact space, full stop — FM, subtractive, granulator, ring mod, like all the CS stuff and more in a hybrid form. See also the DX-inspired ES400 FM synth, above — love its UI. And you’ll find that easy-access sound design approach that is throughout the whole set here.
Ouroboros is a wonderful, grimy multi-effect: delay, distortion, filter, reverb, LFO, noise generator, all with flexible routing and patching, is a dark, potentially dubby delight. (Anoma is also worth a look.)
And there are so many other terrific effects. The multi-effects modules packed in here, plus the patchability in Reason, give you more than you’d typically get from competing plug-ins — provided the Reason environment is where you want to be, of course.
See the superb Filter Chain X8187 or the multifaceted TransFluxer LoFi Soundscaping Multi FX (which is practically a whole album in a Rack Extension). (TURN2ON FLANGERDBL is from a different developer but also worth mentioning– MXR in Reason!)
It’s too many choices, really. But there’s the strategy: power up some trials. Pick one or two (or a small handful) of the Rack Extension that really feel like they’re your secret sauce. The variations on a theme here ensure you’ll find one that fits your personality exactly.
The Joy of Rack
It’s funny to reenter Rack Extensions like this — especially at the moment Reason becomes part of LANDR, and years into the journey of the company changing hands and adding subscriptions and all the rest of it.
Now, there’s no question that the Rack Extensions scene is far quieter than it once was. Developers have to compete with Reason’s VST support and Reason Studios’ own subscriptions and add-ons. But at the same time, there are gems in Rack Extensions you can’t find anywhere else. (Plus there are tools you can find elsewhere but that just work really well in Reason, even if you own a couple of their Eurorack modules — looking at you, Noise Engineering.) I’m cautiously hopeful about an upcoming SDK. The new GUI features are already visible in the RV-9 Reverb Station in Reason 14.
These also fit the Reason Rack perfectly, and the unique space it inhabits between modular and software studio. These devices are far more integrated than a plug-in, including copious CV I/O on the back of each device. At the same time, they feel more like full-featured hardware than you’d get from modules in Eurorack-style environments from VCV, Softube, Reaktor, and the like. They just have that plug-and-play, instant-on inspiration that you get from Reason.
I’ll be curious to see exatly what SDK5 brings to the table and if developers find some luck with it.
In the meantime, enjoy:
And I’ll stop, because now I want to finish all those techno tracks this started.