Table of Contents
Advertisement
Advertisement
Table of Contents
Related Manuals for Native Instruments Razor
Summary of Contents for Native Instruments Razor
- Page 1 Manual...
- Page 2 The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not repre sent a commitment on the part of Native Instruments GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media.
- Page 3 Contact Germany Native Instruments GmbH Schlesische Str. 28 D-10997 Berlin Germany info@native-instruments.de www.native-instruments.de Native Instruments North America, Inc. 5631 Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90028 sales@native-instruments.com www.native-instruments.com © Native Instruments GmbH, 2011. All rights reserved.
-
Page 4: Table Of Contents
Loading a Snapshot from the Main Bar ..............16 Saving a Snapshot ........................16 Overview of RAZOR Ensemble ..................17 Overview of RAZOR User Interface ....................17 Overview of Signal Flow ......................20 Common Controls ........................22 Global Controls ........................... 23 Voicing ............................ - Page 5 5.10.10 Vocoder ........................42 5.10.11 Formant ........................42 5.10.12 Formant Decay ......................43 5.11 Filter 2 ............................44 5.11.1 Filter Smoother ......................44 5.11.2 Lowpass ........................44 5.11.3 Highpass ........................45 5.11.4 Bandpass ........................45 RAZOR - Manual - 5...
- Page 6 Reverb Synced ......................59 5.13.6 Unisono Noise ......................60 5.13.7 Simple Pan ........................ 61 5.14 Dynamics Effects ........................62 5.14.1 Compressor ....................... 62 5.14.2 Dirty Limiter ....................... 63 5.14.3 Clipped Compressor ....................64 5.14.4 Saturator ........................64 RAZOR - Manual - 6...
- Page 7 How to get RAZORS Vocoder to work ................71 Using REAKTORS internal sample player ..................71 Using the audio input of a soundcard in REAKTOR standalone ..........71 Using RAZORS Vocoder in a DAW ....................72 Credits ........................74 RAZOR - Manual - 7...
-
Page 8: Welcome To Razor
It is capable of a wide range of sounds. From 'bread and butter' sounds that are refreshed by new sonic twists to truly new and unheard sounds only possible with RAZOR. All with an outstanding, high sound quality. Despite its vast possibilities RAZOR is easy to use. Its lean and clean Interface in conjunction with the huge and beautiful graphical display makes it easy and fun to edit sounds or build new ones from scratch quickly. -
Page 9: What Is Razor
Even stereo effect parameters can be modu lated. RAZOR takes a new approach concerning effects. Instead of inserting a bunch of audio ef fects behind the synthesizer most effects are instead done inside the synthesizer itself to give them a new sonic twist. - Page 10 3D mode. You might find yourself creating nice 3D animations with RAZOR for hours and totally forget about music making! (Don't miss the hidden tricks for the 3D mode described in the section 'Graphical Display' below) Additionally, RAZOR REAKTOR features a 34 band vocoder which is a gem by its own.
-
Page 11: Installation And Activation
When installation is finished, start the Service Center application, which was installed with RAZOR. It will connect your computer to the Internet and activate your RAZOR installa tion. In order to activate your copy of RAZOR, you have to perform the following steps within the Service Center: 1. - Page 12 Please make sure that you always use the latest version of your Na tive Instruments products to ensure they function correctly. Downloading updates is optional. After activation is complete, you can always quit the Service Center. RAZOR - Manual - 12...
-
Page 13: How To Use Razor
The following sections will give you a brief overview over some basic operations: you will learn how to open RAZOR, how to explore the factory-set Snapshots and how to load and play RAZOR snapshots from the Main bar and the Sidepane. -
Page 14: Exploring Snapshots
5. RAZOR will be loaded in REAKTOR / REAKTOR PLAYER: Exploring Snapshots If you loaded RAZOR play some notes on your MIDI keyboard to get an idea of how the synthesizer sounds. Then, let’s change the sound completely by loading a different Snap... -
Page 15: Loading A Snapshot From The Sidepane
How to Use RAZOR Exploring Snapshots Fig. 4.1 RAZOR interface with Snapshot list in the Sidepane. ▪ [1] Sidepane Button ▪ [2] Snapshot drop-down menu ▪ [3] Snapshot Banks ▪ [4] Snapshots 4.2.1 Loading a Snapshot from the Sidepane If not already visible after startup, you need to open the Sidepane. The Sidepane holds a full overview of REAKTOR's Snapshot Banks and Snapshots from the currently selected Snapshot Bank. -
Page 16: Loading A Snapshot From The Main Bar
REAKTOR PLAYER, so you can tweak a sound perfectly for your song. All parameter settings made in RAZOR will be saved as part of your DAW project. Please read the REAKTOR documentation for more informa... -
Page 17: Overview Of Razor Ensemble
This part of the manual gives an overview of RAZORS interface and signal flow and ex plains all its controls. RAZOR is an extremely graphic synthesizer as you can see the spec trum of oscillator shapes, filter curves and even the frequency depending panning of the signal. - Page 18 Overview of RAZOR Ensemble Overview of RAZOR User Interface Fig. 5.1 Razors User Interface. ▪ [1] GLOBAL CONTROLS: Contains the Mono/Poly switch, the value display, the quality se lector and the master volume knob. ▪ [2] GRAPHIC DISPLAY: Multifunctional graphical display showing the frequency spec...
- Page 19 Overview of RAZOR Ensemble Overview of RAZOR User Interface ▪ [8] FILTER 1: Filters the oscillator mix. Offers several filter types that are capable of damping high frequencies. ▪ [9] FILTER 2: Filters the signal from FILTER 1. Offers several filter types that combine well with FILTER 1.
-
Page 20: Overview Of Signal Flow
Overview of Signal Flow Fig. 5.2 Signal Flow The synthesizer part of RAZOR consists of the Additive Engine, which is one big oscillator: A 'sine bank', a new module in Reaktor 5.5, that is set up to generate up to 320 sinus oscillators called Partials and mix them together for one synthesizer voice. - Page 21 Setting the two oscillators to beat to each other is possible, but this is just a simulation. RAZOR simulates the ampli tude modulation of each partial that occurs when two oscillators beat to each other. For more on that subject please read the explanation of 'RATIO' in the oscillator section below.
-
Page 22: Common Controls
(like 'amount' set to zero), should be turned off in order to safe CPU. ▪ [3] Modulation Indicator: The ring around modulatable parameters shows the modula tion offset to the parameter. RAZOR - Manual - 22... -
Page 23: Global Controls
POLY activates the polyphonic voice mode. The number of voices can be set in the instrument properties (properties are not accessible in REAKTOR PLAYER). RAZOR has 6 voices as default. SINGLE TRIGGER: Available in MONO mode. If on 'single trigger' mode is active: Note on ▪... -
Page 24: Voicing
1. If you play a chord in the higher key range and play a G1 or below the chord voices are turned off. This might be a drastic behavior but it keeps the CPU in check: RAZOR will not take more CPU than the set numbers of bass voices by themselves are taking. - Page 25 With the next note on the phases are reset, which results in a different sound although no parameter has changed. If this inconsistency is unwanted the phases need to be random ized. RAZOR - Manual - 25...
-
Page 26: Graphical Display
1 the display will jump to AUTO needs to be turned off In case of unwanted jumps caused by parameter automation from the VST host or from a MIDI controller. RAZOR - Manual - 26... -
Page 27: Spectral Clip
Spectral Clip helps in this case: Set SLOPE to zero and set the CLIP LVL to a point where the boost in this band gets enough limiting. RAZOR - Manual - 27... -
Page 28: Safe Bass
Oscillators are the signal source of the synthesizer. They usually create a full and bright sound so the filters get a signal they can work on. Their pitch and phase depends on the setting in the VOICING section. RAZOR - Manual - 28... -
Page 29: Common Controls For All Oscillator Types
The oscillator sections contain controls that are available for all oscillator types. Fig. 5.9 Common controls for all oscillator types. ▪ AMP: Amplitude of the oscillator. This is the place for amplitude modulation in RAZOR beside the amplitude envelope. Both oscillators can have their own amplitude modula... -
Page 30: Pulse To Saw
Amount of beating between the two saws. ▪ 5.9.4 Pulse Width Pulse oscillator with a settable pulse width. The resulting wave shape is not like a classic pulse oscillator although the sound is almost the same. RAZOR - Manual - 30... -
Page 31: Hoover
A special pulse width waveform that needs CHORUS as 'stereo' effect to sound similar to the classic 'Hoover' sound. Fig. 5.13 Hoover Oscillator. PW: Pulse width of the oscillator. 5.9.6 Sync Classic Classic oscillator sync sound. Fig. 5.14 Sync Classic Oscillator. RAZOR - Manual - 31... -
Page 32: Sync Dissonance
Like all 'Pitchbend' oscillator types 'Number Pitchbend' creates pseudo pitchbended sounds. It’s not a real pitchbend. The pitch of the oscillator is not altered at all. The pseu do pitchbend is achieved by special filtering: Partials that are near to partials of a pitch RAZOR - Manual - 32... -
Page 33: Mixed Pitchbend
Fig. 5.18 Mixed Pitchbend Oscillator. ▪ P: Pseudo pitch (semitones) of the oscillator. AMOUNT: Amount of filtering. ▪ RAZOR - Manual - 33... -
Page 34: Sick Pitchbend
For the 'frozen noise' the randomization occurs only when a new ran dom number set is selected with the SEED parameter. 'pitched noise' is generated by ran domization of the partial amplitudes at a constant rate. RAZOR - Manual - 34... -
Page 35: Synced Noise
1 is on it sets the partial phase even if its 'Amp' is zero. That affects the sound of oscilla tor 2 then. That can be used in a creative way as oscillator 1 imprints its partial phase on RAZOR - Manual - 35... -
Page 36: Filter 1
This oscillator type is very versatile. It’s an oscillator-filter hybrid as formant shifting sounds like filtering a sawtooth oscillator. As the signal of both oscillators are mixed to gether this filter quality can be used to create parallel filtering in RAZOR. Fig. 5.23 Formant Oscillator. -
Page 37: Filter Smoother
▪ BOOST: Boost at the cutoff frequency. Negative values create notches. ▪ WIDTH: Bandwidth of the boost. ▪ SLOPE: Filters slope (dB/Oct) in the cut band. If set to maximum, this filter acts as a peak EQ. RAZOR - Manual - 37... -
Page 38: Lowpass Ramps
▪ BOOST: Boost (dB) at the cutoff frequency. ▪ BANDWIDTH: Bandwidth (semitones) of the boost. ▪ SLOPE: Filters slope (dB/Oct) in the cut band. If set to maximum, this filter acts as a shelving EQ. RAZOR - Manual - 38... -
Page 39: Lowpass Phaser
▪ RES: Amount of resonance at the cutoff frequency. More resonance results in a more distorted filter curve. ▪ STRETCH: Stretches the filter curve from a thin resonance to wide. It's similar to filter bandwidth. RAZOR - Manual - 39... -
Page 40: Bandpass
'Decay' and the fader positions. This effect is similar to an EQ that is put inside a feed back delay loop where the audio signal gets EQ'ed again and again. this filter type can be used to create plugged string kind of sounds. Fig. 5.31 EQ Decay Filter. RAZOR - Manual - 40... -
Page 41: Vowel
▪ SINGER: Morphs between different singer types. ▪ SLOPE: Slope of the used bandpasses. The mid position is the most natural. Higher val ues result in a brighter sound. Smaller values results in a thinner resonant sound. RAZOR - Manual - 41... -
Page 42: 5.10.10 Vocoder
To learn the functionality of the CENTER parameter modulate the STRETCH parameter with an LFO and turn the CENTER knob and see how the filter curve on the spectral display (set to filter 1) is changing. RAZOR - Manual - 42... -
Page 43: 5.10.12 Formant Decay
Master decay / rising time. The actual decay / rising time depends on the filter ▪ curve and the 'Thresh' setting. ▪ THRESH: Amplitude threshold. Parts of the filter curve that lie above this threshold are rising in amplitude. Parts below are falling. RAZOR - Manual - 43... -
Page 44: Filter 2
▪ DEC: Decay time of the smoother. Defines the amount of smoothness if the partial am plitude is falling. ▪ DAMP: High frequency damping. It reduces the decay time of the smoother for higher frequency partials. 5.11.2 Lowpass Lowpass filter with extended features to the classic lowpass design. RAZOR - Manual - 44... -
Page 45: Highpass
▪ SLOPE: Filters slope (dB/Oct) in the cut band. If set to maximum, this filter acts as a peak EQ. 5.11.4 Bandpass Bandpass filter consisting of a resonant lowpass and resonant highpass filter in series. RAZOR - Manual - 45... -
Page 46: Bandreject
▪ BANDWIDTH: Bandwidth (semitones) of the filter combination. It affects the frequency distance between the lowpass and highpass filter. ▪ SLOPE: Filter slope (dB/Oct) of both filters in the cut band. BOOST BW: Bandwidth of the resonance boosts. ▪ RAZOR - Manual - 46... -
Page 47: Comb Peak
Special filter for chorus and notchy phaser effects. Modulating the PHASE parameter with a saw shaped LFO results in ever rising or falling comb notches if the mod amount is set to 50 or -50 RAZOR - Manual - 47... -
Page 48: Phaser
▪ PHASE: Phase offset to the recurring phaser cycles. ▪ RAMP: Amount Ramp. Sets the increase of filtering amount from low partials to higher ones. At minimum the filtering amount is the same for all partials. RAZOR - Manual - 48... -
Page 49: Waterbed
'+' results in a positive reflection keeping the 'sign' of the wave. In other words a wave maxima stays a wave maxima after reflection. '-' results in a negative reflection, toggling the 'sign' of the wave. A wave maxima becomes a wave minima after reflec tion. RAZOR - Manual - 49... -
Page 50: 5.11.10 Pseudo Pitchbend
▪ GAP: Size of the recurring gaps. ▪ INVERSION: Inverts the spectral curve. All partials that are passed by the filter with inver sion set to 0 are cut with inversion set to 1 and vice versa. RAZOR - Manual - 50... -
Page 51: 5.11.12 Unisono Noise
With the next note on the phases are reset which results in a different sound although no parameter has changed. If this inconsistency is un wanted the phases need to be randomized. 5.12.1 Beating Detunes every xth partial. RAZOR - Manual - 51... -
Page 52: Beating Tuned
Beating Tuned Takes every xth partial, shift its frequency down to the previous partial and detunes it. Fig. 5.49 Beating Tuned Dissonance Effect. ▪ AMOUNT: Amount of detuning. ▪ PARTIAL: Selects the partials to be detuned. RAZOR - Manual - 52... -
Page 53: Stiff String
Stretches the frequency distance between partials. If a sawtooth is detuned by this effect an amount of +12 results in a pulse like wave. -12 re sults in a sawtooth wave detuned by one octave but missing the first partial. RAZOR - Manual - 53... -
Page 54: Frequency Shifter
Fig. 5.51 Stretcher Dissonance Effect. AMOUNT: Amount of stretching (semitones). 5.12.5 Frequency Shifter Shifts the frequency of all partials by the same amount. Fig. 5.52 Frequency Shifter Dissonance Effect. AMOUNT: Amount of frequency shift (semitones). RAZOR - Manual - 54... -
Page 55: Centroid
They do not process an audio signal. They are polyphon ic. That means every voice of RAZOR has its own copy of the set stereo effect. This allows the stereo effect parameters to be modulated by polyphonic modulators like envelopes. So the stereo effects can be used for creative sound design. -
Page 56: Auto Pan
▪ RATE: Rate of the barberpole LFO. Can be zero for static panning set by CYCLES. ▪ CYCLES: Numbers of cycles of the barberpole LFO along the frequency axis. 5.13.2 Stereo Spread Similar to 'Auto Pan' but the stereo channel is flipped for every second partial. RAZOR - Manual - 56... -
Page 57: Chorus
▪ RATE: Rate of the barberpole LFO. Can be zero for static panning set by CYCLES. ▪ CYCLES: Numbers of cycles of the barberpole LFO along the frequency axis. 5.13.3 Chorus Special stereo comb filter that simulates a chorus effect. RAZOR - Manual - 57... -
Page 58: Reverb
They reverb tail consists of filtered noise. So it never repeats itself giv ing it an unheard lively quality. RAZOR - Manual - 58... -
Page 59: Reverb Synced
So the reverb is not just an external effect to add some 'room' but it is an integral part of the synthesizer. Also the reverb tails is completely devoid RAZOR - Manual - 59... -
Page 60: Unisono Noise
Special filter that simulates the beatings of several instruments playing the same note si multaneously by applying fast modulation to the partial amplitudes. Can be used to give the sound a noisy character. There is a mono version of this effect in filter 1. RAZOR - Manual - 60... -
Page 61: Simple Pan
▪ SPEED: Speed of beating. A slow speed sounds like unisono played instruments which have almost the same pitch. With increasing speed it sounds like the unisono played instruments get more and more detuned to each other. 5.13.7 Simple Pan Simple stereo panning with unique 'amount ramp' feature. RAZOR - Manual - 61... -
Page 62: Dynamics Effects
Contains effects altering the dynamics like compressor and saturator. It’s the only 'real' ef fect section of RAZOR as these effect process the audio output of the synthesizer. 'Disso nance' and 'Stereo' effects are part of the additive synthesizer engine. The meter at the bottom of the section shows the gain reduction caused by the dynamics effects. -
Page 63: Dirty Limiter
▪ DRIVE: Increases the level (dB) of the incoming signal forcing it to exceed the fixed threshold of the compressor. ▪ RELEASE: Sets the recovery time of the compressor if the signal's amplitude falls under the threshold. 5.14.2 Dirty Limiter Distorting Limiter. Fig. 5.60 Dirty Limiter Dynamic Effect. RAZOR - Manual - 63... -
Page 64: Clipped Compressor
▪ DRIVE: Increases the level (dB) of the incoming signal forcing it to exceed the fixed threshold of the compressor. ▪ CLIP: Increases the level of the signal coming from the compressor to drive the soft clip per. 5.14.4 Saturator Versatile distortion effect. RAZOR - Manual - 64... -
Page 65: Clipper
DRIVE HI: Sets the drive (dB) for hi frequencies. More drive results in more distortion in ▪ this frequency band. 5.14.5 Clipper Clipper with 'foldover' feature for 'nasty' distortion. Fig. 5.63 Clipper Dynamic Effect. RAZOR - Manual - 65... -
Page 66: Modulators
Also there is no flanging that normal ly happens when delayed signals are mixed together. These are the reasons why echoed enve lopes sound great in bass sounds too. They keep their dry bassy character. RAZOR - Manual - 66... -
Page 67: Echo Steps
ECHO STEPS modulator. Echo steps can be used to pan each echo of an envelope to a different stereo position or make the sound get more dissonant with each echo. 5.15.3 LFOs Low frequency oscillator. RAZOR - Manual - 67... - Page 68 LFO 2 synchronizes to LFO 1 with a settable phase offset. Beat Mode with LFO2 synced to LFO1 is the preferred mode to make powerful 'wobbling' sounds which come to live when the 'Speed' control gets automated. RAZOR - Manual - 68...
-
Page 69: Sidechain
That is a control that is modulating several targets at once to realize morphing like effects for instance. It can be used to integrate a midi controller that is not part of the modulation source list of RAZOR. In that case the 'Amount' knob must be midi-learned to that controller. -
Page 70: Tracking Modulators
2 or in the oscillators to the cutoff of filter 1 but can be used to modulate other parameters too. If mod amount is set to max the cutoff fre quencies always have the same distance. RAZOR - Manual - 70... -
Page 71: How To Get Razors Vocoder To Work
In the filter 1 section a Vocoder can be selected as filter type. In the following paragraph we explain how to feed an audio signal into the Vocoder and how to include RAZOR in a DAW in order to use its Vocoder. -
Page 72: Using Razors Vocoder In A Daw
When using the Vocoder in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) an audio signal needs to be sent to RAZOR as well as MIDI notes to play the 'vocoded' synth. To set this up is different in each DAW software and is not always straight forward. So please read the sections be... - Page 73 Native Instruments REAKTOR website forum. NI MASCHINE Just put RAZOR as an effect on a pad in a group, then route either the sound or group output to your RAZOR pad. Make sure RAZOR is on the first slot as an FX.
-
Page 74: Credits
Tasmodia, Summa, Andre Goc, Ema Jolly, Jeremiah Savage, Peter Prestel, Uwe G. Hönig, Andrew Hyde, Colin Fraser, Klaus Baetz, Simon Stockhausen, Richard Devine, Todd Kru pa, Krikor Couchian, Antonio Blanca, Errorsmith Documentation: Errorsmith and Patryk Korman RAZOR - Manual - 74...