Jim Aikin, synth madman, sound guru, and my book’s tech editor (meaning he’s the only one keeping me accurate and sane), takes the Combinator under the microscope in a tutorial for O’Reilly. If you thought the Combinator was just a way of combining modules into combis (single instrumental patches), you’re missing a lot — this beast is an incredibly powerful all-around routing and performance tool. Interestingly, Jim spends most of the article focusing on routing modulation into the Combinator from its modules, which just goes to show just how deep this rabbit hole is — even that’s just the beginning. But he includes some helpful RNS files and is meticulous as always. If you’re a Reason power user, don’t miss this.


In fact, if you’re a Reason power user, drop me a line. I’m working on still more configurations for how to use the Combinator as a performance tool, and I’m up for all the ideas I can get. More soon . . .


While I continue getting deeper into Reason, here’s where to go for more info, tips and tricks:


Tutorial videos / what’s new videos [Propellerheads.se]


Reason 3.0 Video Master Class [Sonic State]


ReWire Help Articles [Propellerheads.se] (yeah, even I still occasionally have trouble with that! -PK)


What’s new in Reason 3 / What’s new in 3.03 Update [CDM]


My own Reason 3 Review for Macworld