What I like about this rack is that unlike a hardware modular synth, it stays in tune, doesn't need to be calibrated, and doesn't have to warm up for 15 minutes before use. Also, alot of these hardware synths barely sound musical. This is fantastic.
thank you, appreciate that. I work mainly with Eurorack hardware, but it's all synthesis and applicable to lots of things so I try to give things an educational edge whatever I'm doing.
Brilliantly paced and edited tutorial. Going into this I was worried it would be long and windy, but literally every minute I'm learning something completely new about this synth and modular synthesis I had no idea about. Thank you so much for a stellar tutorial. Subbed.
Great stuff Andrew, thanks. It's minimal in terms of software I cover here but I hope you can apply ideas from the other videos to gear or software that you do have.
I wasn't sure about Complex-1 judging by the demos on the prop shop. They didn't sound like anything I couldn't do with Thor or my hardware analog synths. But your video gave me palpitations and made my palms sweaty, and I bought it immediately 😅 Thanks dude ❤️
Thank you very much. I have wanted to explore modular snyth for a year and recently got Reason. After discovering Complex-1 I found this video and it helped so much.
i am pretty new to synthesizers and overwhelmed by the possibilities, terminology, and effect of these tools, but following along and copying what you did each time was actually helpful to a degree. i can't wait to come back in a few years when i really understand and can visualize what each tool does and see how much ore value i get from this - and thanks for the patches!
Love this video, for such a potentially complex subject, you broke it down really well so a n00b like me could get to grips with the basics. Well done sir.
Thanks, Ben. Great work - very welcome for those of us who don’t have as much hardware as we would like and those who use the software for ease and repeatability. This is good stuff.
Thanks for the great tutorial! Nice and in-depth look at what Complex-1 can do. Looking forward to trying it out for myself, and referring beck to this for tips. Cheers!
Great I've been using complex 1 since it's release but I've learned some new things from your video. I'll be coming back to this video often to really digest everything thanks great work!
Thanks for this video man. Not had a lot of hardware fully modular synth experience, so I was completely lost on what some the functions in this are. I have a much better understanding now.
very heavy video full of knowledge ! I enjoyed it a lot ! please make more videos aboyt anything related to Reason or its Rack Extensions , Im sure alotta Reason user are waiting and looking for people like you to make these :)
Really useful vid' for me, coming back to Reason straight from Reason 6. I was horrified to find out how much I'd been left behind. I also wanted to get back into Analogue synthesis, which I left in the eighties. This vid' was a great reminder / catch-up tool for me. Thanks very much for the clip and the way you presented the Complex, quickly but thoroughly. I can use this as a stepping-off point and leave out a lot of work I would otherwise have had to do myself. :)
Nice video! Lots of new ideas. :-) Also keep in mind that there's a 50 pages long manual for complex-1 that's worth reading and also contains tips&tricks on using the different sections.
Forgive me if this is already somewhere in the video (haven't watched the whole thing yet, but I don't see it in the chapter list either), but you can add another eight modulation sources by putting Complex-1 into a combinator and mapping its eight CV inputs to whatever you want, then connecting any external device to those inputs. Want eight envelopes? Add four SubTractors and use their mod and filter envelopes. Connect a Pulsar for two more LFOs. Anything is possible.
ABS is "Absolute value" and not abstract. More info here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_value. Otherwise a really good tutorial for starting out with modular synthesis and you actually managed to do a deep dive in 45 minutes. Well done!
@@DivKid I already have way too many rack extensions and I recently was gifted the Arturia V collection so I'm in no hurry to get it, but it's on the wishlist :D
Surprisingly convincing sound, the Buchla stuff seems to be really difficult to emulate. I use Arturia's Easel V and it sounds great as a synth in general but really different from the original to my ears
Greetings from London! Thanks for the comprehensive video brother! Appreciate you taking the time to share you knowledge. Would be great if you could show how to automate functions in a DAW (Logic) for the C-1 as well. Have you done any other vids for the Rack plug in version for Logic? I'm particularly interested Dr. Octo Loop Player, Grain Sample Manipulator and the Advanced Sampler. Thanks again.
Just had my first play around today, I’m used to other modular synth stuff. But something I found weird was I plugged something into the audio in on the back and it changed the sound without being routed anywhere in the front, any ideas? Also I wish there were more cv in and outs on this so you could more easily daisy chain together to make giant modular synths with many parts etc
Thanks for the great tutorial and explanation of Complex-1's modules and features. I am not seeing a link to extra patches anywhere. Will you be adding this to the description? Thanks!
Hi Philip, yeah I realised that, they're on my other computer and just moving somewhere where you can grab a link which I'll do soon. The next video will be all about those patches though with everything shared properly then.
This is an awesome video, thank you so much!! I've used Reason for years so sorry for this basic questions but I cnat figure out how to get my SEQ from Complex-1 into the Reason SEQ as MIDI notes. There is no copy pattern to track type of feature, i've tried hitting Record on Reason and letting Complex-1 playback my SEQ (it doesnt record the notes). Does it just have to RUN the whole time and automate when to turn ON Complex-1 and Off? I know im missing something simple. I'll reach out to Reason if I need to. Thanks again!
Can you patch between 2 complex-1 instruments? Let's say if I wanted to patch the ADSR of one complex-1 to the filter or pitch of another complex 1. Can that be done?
Nice basic tutorial on the Complex. Too bad most Reason instruments are impossible to use when zoom in more than 100%. All gets blurry and pixelated. It's why I stopped using Reason years ago, most of us have 2k or 4k screens, so using software with high resolution graphics is a must!
@@DivKid Not really, Cubase it's my Daw since Atari days. I use the Reason rack as VST from time to time, but the fact it's low resolution UI, that's what turns me off. It's 2024, most people stopped using 720p screens more than one decade ago
it might have been addressed in more recent versions (I can't say, I don't have the later versions). Vector based graphics you can zoom and re size are a lovely thing.
Nice explained, Man. Do I need a MIDI-device for this? Would I then be able to use an Arpeggiator connected somehow to change frequency (&) modulation at the same time?
HI Norten, thanks. As this is a device in the software Reason you have all the tools in the software to make music as you like. There's arpeggiator devices and the piano roll style note MIDI internally to sequence and make patterns.
How are you,,,,I love all of your videos but what you did not show is after you create all this sounds then how would you trigger from a keyboard,,,,,what I mean is hit any key on the keyboard and the sound play,,,,,cause when you create the sounds patching cables the sound keeps going ,,,,I want to be able to hit any key to control it with a midi keyboard
god this looks comlex, hence the name - complex 1 haha, great tutorial, the manual doesn't explain almost anything, but can you actually make any sounds you can use in your music, only sounds i've made sounds like they're made for an old school video game like mario
well ... not really. VCAs control volume in one direction. Ring modulators are balanced modulators that would invert the signals too. Take a sine wave as a the modulator. In a VCA it would half wave rectify the signal, as the positive part of the modulation would open the VCA and return to zero. It wouldn't then invert the level with the negative portion of modulation signal. So it's not quite Ring Mod. And a half wave rectified sine has a load more harmonics than a pure one.
I try not to be a yank all the time, in that I try to recognize different uk accents... Liverpool? Most americans think NI actors are scottish and wouldn't understand a Welshman, but I'm pretty certain that is Liverpool. Also, thanks for the vid. I'm using complex as my entrance to modular.
Surely these sounds are easier to obtain from sound patches. Does the complexity of this syth really create anything Original ? What is the ultimate goal here ?
sound patches? What sound patches? Ultimate goal? ... well for one you could use this to really learn synthesis, un plug everything have nothing pre wired in terms of signal path and really learn synthesis. Which will ultimate lead to more interesting possibilities sonically and musically for you. If you understand all the tools and practice you can then exploit them, you can also get to the sounds and ideas in your head faster because you've studied and practice with sound and synthesis. If it's just flicking through sounds then that's cool too there's a lot of potential in the building blocks of complex-1.
