In my last post I discussed U-He’s Zebra – a virtual
instrument plug-in. This week I would
like to discuss a great instrument that comes with Reason.
Thor is an incredible instrument with immense capabilities
and a vast array of possible sounds which are created using up to three
oscillators and a various selection of filters, shapers, modulation, chorus and
delay. At a glance, Thor can look
intimidating, and even a veteran Thor user can find it daunting when trying to
tweak parameters to get the right sound.
But as long as you understand the components available to you, Thor can
become a great ally when trying to create simple or complex sounds. My suggestion: experiment, turn knobs and
push buttons; don’t be afraid to screw up… you might accidentally find a great
sound!
Now, lets look under the hood at the oscillators:
Oscillators
Thor has three oscillator slots available for use, but this
synthesizer offers a diverse selection of oscillator types to choose from.
The analogue oscillator is an emulation of basic hardware
wave synthesis. You have sawtooth,
square (with pulse width setting), triangle and sine waves. With an initialized Thor patch and no filter,
these oscillators sound simple and bland, but because there are three
oscillators, you have the capability to layer sounds via either different
waveforms, the same waveform at different octaves or the same waveforms on the
same octave but detuned (think super-saw).
The oscillator controls (to the left of the oscillator slot) also allow
you to perform amplitude modulation and sync functions. Check out this tutorial from Propellorheads
to explain this concept more in depth.
The multi oscillator acts just like it’s name suggests… This
component offers multiple voices (up to 8) of each waveform, and allows you to
detune them based on a selection of algorithms with an adjustment knob.
The Phase Modulation oscillator allows you to alter the
phase of two waveforms coinciding concurrently.
Because of its function, the PM oscillator starts each waveform at the
exact same place each time a note is pressed.
This differs from the analogue oscillator which has each waveform in a
“free-running” mode.
The Frequency modulation oscillator operates based on the
principal of FM synthesis. This concept
involves modulating the frequency of a sine wave (carrier) with another sine
wave (modulator). By changing the amount
knob (amount of modulator’s impact on the carrier) and by increase the pitch
(via semitones) of both waves, you can get very metallic sounds, with rich
harmonic content that can be used for anything from your typical dubstep basses
to emulations of the Fender Rhodes pianos or even percussive bell sounds.
The wavetable oscillator consists of many selections of
prerecorded simple and complex waves allowing you to select different positions
within the wave table or to modulate through several positions.
The noise oscillator produces noise of different “colors”,
broadband noise, different densities, and noise modified by a sample-and-hold function or rates. Although noise is not always seen
as a useful for musical applications, it can add depth to thin signals or even
add “snap” to synthesized percussion. You can also set up keyboard tracking and a
series of filters to “play” the noise bands.
Check out this tutorial on making an ambient pad soundscape with just
noise and filters.
