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Reviews of Reasonbanks'
products
reviews by magazines
Reviewed by Alex Holmes
Lemon received 10/10 points in the issue 81 of Music Tech Magazine (UK)
Reviewed by Keith Gemmell
The Waldorf Microwave, Korg MS-20, Roland Jupiter 4 and
Juno-60 were all popular synthesizers back in their day.
And along with the Moog Prodigy, Korg Poly800 Mk11and the
Korg MonoPoly, they are now collectable instruments the
world over. The chances of finding even just a few of these
analogue dinosaurs in good condition are slim. But all is
not lost because the PinkNoise team have sampled the best
sounds from all seven along with two more recent analogue
favourites, the Alesis Andromeda A6 and the Studio Electronics
SE-1X, and made them available as Reason Refills.
We were very impressed with the original Analogue Monsters
collection when we first reviewed it in 2005 but since then
Pink Noise have completely rewritten and enlarged the patch
banks as well as adding new NN-XT and Combinator banks.
They’ve also added samples from another 1980s classic,
the Oberheim Matrix, which brings the complete ‘monster’
tally to ten. Noted for its warm sounds this legendary instrument
was the last true analogue synthesizer made by Oberheim.
5GBs of content amounts to a significant number of synthesizer
patches – apart from the 72 Rex files – but
in this case the quantity doesn’t compromise the quality.
 Our
only reservation is that, inevitably, with ten analogue
synthesizers in a single collection, many of the patches,
although not duplicated, do sound similar. This isn’t
a criticism, though, more an observation and for such a
reasonable price, true analogue buffs are sure to be delighted
with their purchase.
Verdict – An impressive, value-for-money Reason Refill
containing samples and patches from 10 legendary analogue
synthesisers.
 Amazona.de
is the biggest magazine for music and computers worldwide
in German language. Björn Morgenstern has reviewed
our two refills, Cybervox
and PROTON3.
The final conclusion is "Sehr Gut" :-)
German readers, you can read the full review here! You can also listen
to some demo sounds, created by Björn.
Björn sent a brief summary in English:
"Similarly to Analogue Monsters these two refills
are high quality refills. All sample contents are carefully
looped and matched. There are no fillers and the combinator
patches are really useful.
Pro.Ton3 is grown up to a big "Oscillator-Library".
The new Analog-Chorus Oscillators are very fine and sound
excellent warm and alive. The idea, i.e. sampling sounds
dry and with the original Roland/Boss vintage chorus effect,
and bringing it together in the combinator, is a great concept.
There are many possibilities for creating your own sounds
too.
Cybervox is somewhat more special, but just as well as
Pro.Ton3. Focused on vocalsounds and vocodering based on
Yamaha FS1R and Reason vocoder there are many possibilities
for playing a lot of sounds or playing around with the special
programmed vocoder-combis. Personally I am really excited
about the synthetic vocal-pads and the magic-key (B1 key
from keyboard) for freeze the vocoder signal.
So, overall we gave without hesitation a "Very good"
for both Refills and you can't make anything wrong for that
purchase price."
Amazona.de
is the biggest magazine for music and computers worldwide
in German language. Björn Morgenstern has written a very
detailed and deep review about our much-loved Analogue
Monsters.
This review is really a meticulous work, and the final conclusion
is "Sehr Gut"!;-)
German readers, you can read the full review here!
Björn also e-mailed me a short version in
English, so now I publish it here with his kind permission:
"I think it's a really huge library with a good quality.
The sound is great analog, nevertheless suitable for any
music-style. That's a good point, because libraries often
focused on special music-styles, where are only parts usable
for the customer. There are no needless breakfillers for
me and I think there are many creative potential in this
library for future programming. Mostly patches are even
for low RAM and CPU, so you can use it on any Computer and
loading is mostly fast.
The idea to offer the sampledata out of the refill is fine,
because Reason users often have lot of refills and don't
use all stuff in it. So you can pick up the sounds you want
and make your own personal refills or you can save your
songs within all the sampledata, or you can use the sounds
in a different sampler.
Price of the Library is very fair and there is no really
disadvantage. Only one thing perhaps to do, you had already
write it to me, making some more patches / combinators with
this huge raw-data. Perhaps with some more Effect-combinator
devices in Vintage-Analog-Style (like the nice string-machine
Ensemble effect in the refill of Robert Sigmuntowski or
some Vintage Sound phasers, delays and so on). However,
I wrote in the review that you will bring up some more combinator-patches
in future, somewhere this year."
 '...Owners
of the Reasonbanks Orange, Proton, and Analog Monsters libraries
already know the quality that goes into these libraries, and
Virology makes the perfect digital companion to these analog
sample sets.
Minutes after sorting through patches, the sounds started
to inspire me, I really like this library, and see myself
using it in a variety of applications....' 
read the full review
About Peff: Kurt Kurasaki aka 'Peff' is a journalist,
he is the author of Power
Tools for Reason3 (a must have book to every REASON
user!!!).
Peff's ever growing on-line home now has tutorials, mod archives,
useful tools for download and much more - even a nice journal
by the man himself. Don't miss this site if you want to learn
more about ReBirth or Reason.
Peff.com
 '...The
sampling is impeccable and the programming top-notch throughout,
with velocity splitting, alternate and release triggering
(for randomly varied sounds), mod wheel and aftertouch all
put to good use. Detailed, tempo-synched LFOs make the arp
and pad multisamples come to life and sound burblingly PPG-authentic.
Basses are tight and right on the money while pads and atmospheres
are pure, silky Waldorf heaven. I had pleasure finding room
for Orange2 in everything from dry German-style techno and
minimalist electro to fuller ambient and pop material. In
short, this is an exquisite collection of signature sounds...'
read the full review
 'Orange2
is the flagship sound collection of Reasonbanks (PinkNoise).
It contains multi-sampled synth sounds patched up for the
NN-XT and NN-19 samplers. This ReFill combines traditional
multi-sampling with the concept of their Proton ReFill's.
You will find complex multi-samples as well as basic waveforms
like saw, square, sine, etc. This makes for a very varied
and great sounding set of patches. The sound quality is what
we are used of Reasonbanks, very good! ...
...Orange2 is a comprehensive collection of sounds. It utilizes
the NN-XT to it's fullest capability's. The sample material
sounds great and the included musical patches are varied and
very usable. The price is very reasonable if you look at what's
on offer here. And the option to use the sound material in
other applications is a thing which a lot of ReFill users
want. A great ReFill which will definately add much to your
Reason experience!'
read the full review
"Waveforms:
The sound quality of the waveforms is perfect. You'll find
waveforms coming from various sources under which a Moog Prodigy,
Roland Juno 106, Yamaha DX7 and other synths. With this wide
selection of different waveforms it's a breeze to start kicking
out great sounds using the NN-XT's sound programming options.
In the ReFill you'll find a folder which holds the basic waveforms
patched up for the NN-XT. This makes layering them very easy.
Patches:
The musical patches included in the ReFill are great.
There is much variety and clever programming to get the best
out of each sound. The sound of these patches is however dry
because of the nature of this ReFill (containing basic waveforms).
Adding some delay and/or reverb will really make them come
alive. In Proton 1 the sounds were alreadt very good, the
new Moog oscillators really add another dimension to the patches
you can make with Proton.
Conclusion:
Proton 2 is a great product. It uses a concept which is fresh
and very flexible. The included musical patches are varied
and sound great. And as Proton 2 can be seen as a synthesizer
add-on for Reason then 32 Euro's isn't a big amount of money.
"
read the full review
"Content:
A new refill has been released by ReasonBanks (PinkNoise).
This refill isn't your everyday sample bank. It's a unique
way to get to new sounds using the NN-XT. The thing with this
refill is that it doesn't use complete sampled sounds but
just waveforms. You will find saw, square, pulse, sine and
other waveforms, all sampled from analog synthesizers. Andras
of ReasonBanks has been making multi-layered patches for the
NN-XT with this collection of 24 bit waveforms. The outcome
is a great set of very analog sounding patches ready to be
used (and mis-used) in your music. Some realy interesting
sounds are included and this is truly a worthy addition to
the Reasonbanks collection after the QuickSilver refill, which
was also very impressive.
...
Conclusion:
As you can see, i'm pretty positive about this refill. Not
only because it's analog, but because the patches in it are
original. The refill has been made with absolute care and
precision to make sure you have the right kind of sound for
the job. The combination of analog waveform and NN-XT filters
and processing is a great one. The result is a great collection
of very usable patches which are timeless. It also doesn't
matter what type of music you make, these patches will always
fit in. A great refill which you can't afford not to have.
And you don't have to stick with the delivered patches. You
basically have a new analog synth at your disposal! It is
available online so you are just a few minutes away from this
cool set of sounds. Essential stuff!! "
by Dave N
Read
the full review
"Quicksilver
isn't your ordinary collection of multisampled GM sounds.
The refill contains some very cool NN-XT wizzardry. The creator
has been sampling sounds which exsist out of layers. Each
layer has been sampled to form the original patch from the
synth in the NN-XT. Using the controls of the NN-XT. This
results in a very good sounding collection of sounds.
Quicksilver is a fresh and complete collection of sounds
which can be used in multiple music genre's. This collection
is like a fresh breeze after all the sampled synths that have
been so popular lately. On this disc you will find some very
interesting sound design craftsmanship. All patches have been
made with absolute care and precision..."
by Dave N
Read
the full review
"Considering the kinds of cutting-edge dance music styles
that are usually associated with Reason, the idea of a General
MIDI Refill might appear to be a bit of a strange one. However,
Propellerhead have already demonstrated that Reason is much
more than a one-trick pony with the Orkester Refill. If Reason
is your main music-making environment and your studio is not
overly stocked with top-notch soundcards or hardware synths,
then some facility for playing back basic MIDI files (commercial
ones or those acquired via the Internet), might also be quite
useful.
The CD is split into three parts. The central feature is
the main set of General MIDI sounds for the NNXT sampler.
The rest of the Refill contains some 200 multisampled, multi-layered
NNXT instruments that are variations on the core GM sounds.
These are also supplied in less memory-intensive NN19 forms
(370 patches). A collection of 26 Redrum kits rounds off the
Refill. Finally, some 2900 samples, upon which the Refill
is based, are supplied in WAV format. All the original samples
were recorded at 24-bit resolution and the synths used include
the Korg 01W, Waldorf Microwave, Yamaha DX7, Roland TR808
and Linn 9000, amongst others.
The NNXT GM sound set offers 128 patches named and numbered
according to the GM convention. These stick fairly faithfully
to the sorts of GM sounds found on many sound modules —
so you can expect that the NNXT Soundtrack patch to be very
much like that in other GM sets. This is important for those
who might use this Refill as a means of playing commercial
MIDI files written with GM in mind. In the main, this works
well enough in practice, and AMG include a few template Song
files to help this process. However, it is still something
of a pain that, having opened a GM Standard MIDI File, you
then have to manually assign the appropriate patches to each
channel.
The quality of the GM sounds themselves is pretty good. Most
feature multisamples and some also multi-layers. The quality
is certainly better than you would find on most soundcards
and, for example, I preferred many of them to the equivalent
XG sounds on my own Yamaha SW1000XG — perhaps just a
little less polite?
In particular, the pianos, brass, synth bass and pads all
worked well. For the latter, adding in the sound-shaping capabilities
of the NNXT offered some very functional sounds.
One or two things were less satisfactory. For example, a
couple of the guitars were a little lumpy (but then really
good GM guitar patches are rarer than rocking horse manure)
and the solo violin is a little heavy on the vibrato for my
taste (although the fiddle is useable enough). Melo Drum is
straight out of Eastenders!
The additional NNXT patches (and their NN19 equivalents)
are all in GM territory, but add to the variety on offer.
For example, the Arp/Sequencer section contains a small number
of really nice patches that sync to tempo. The usual GM-type
sound effects are also present, but are far more convincing
here than on your average soundcard. The Redrum kits cover
the usual TR808, TR909, funk, acid and 'straight' collections,
plus one or two that are more adventurous (the Daisy Kit is
quite interesting), and the quality is good.
In conclusion, Sonic-O-Tool 2 is perhaps not going to set
the Refill world alight, but those needing access to a very
useable GM-style sound set via Reason need look no further.
What the sounds might lack in originality, the CD makes up
for in value for money — £30 is a steal. Now where
did I put that 'Baby One More Time' MIDI file?
by John Walden [SOS]
Read
the original SOS review
AMG
O.Range Microwave XTension REASON REFILL
Like a religious cult, certain synthesizers can amass
a devoted band of followers. One of the more swami-like synths,
the German-made Waldorf Microwave, has been pushing analog-subtractive
synthesis to a bold new level.
In an effort to preserve this neoclassic — and possibly
profit — AMG has handpicked the best Waldorf Microwave
characteristics, patches and banks to spawn yet another brilliant
ReFill for Propellerhead's Reason. The O.Range Microwave XTension
($59) single CD contains 216 Reason NN-19 sampler presets,
12 ReDrum drum kits and 65 REX2 synth loops, which range from
the infamous to the eclectic. For maximum wow factor, check
out the 31MB Tibet bank or the mountain of analog Everlast
(both in the Atmosphere folder). Other standouts, such as
the granular Oxygen or the classic CS-80 pads, are beautifully
edited.
These offspring capture the analog flavor that can define
a recording, as well as a crisp bite that can carve out a
mix. Keep in mind that although a few loops are present, this
is an instrument CD with playable sounds, tweakable presets
and pure-blooded analog hype. After all, ReFills are not merely
old sample CDs reincarnated, but a whole new viable platform
that is big on content and minimal on disc space and price.
by Dave Hill Jr.
Read
the original review
"Orange is AMG's latest Refill for Reason v1.01 and later,
and is named after Waldorf's Microwave synth of the same colour.
Consisting of 216 NN19 presets, 12 Redrum kits and 65 REX2
loops, it's fair to say there's a fair amount of sample data
(approximately 822MB) crammed onto this single CD-ROM.
The NN19 presets are grouped into helpfully named categories:
Arp&Sequencer, Atmospheric, Bass, Bells, Brass, Choirs,
Experimental, Keyboards, Leads, Organs, Pads, Percussion;
and most of these give you exactly what you'd expect. The
final category, Synthesizer, is somewhat confusingly named,
since you wonder what all the other categories are supposed
to be, but turns out to be some rather 'old school' synth
sounds, like the rather indulgent 'Lemon Waveshaper', which
is pure Waldorf and should cut through just about anything!
Most of the sounds are pretty dry, and while this is exactly
what you'd want, it's probably worth auditioning them with
some delay, since this is when they start to come alive.
Overall, I felt I could do something with most of the sounds,
the quality is great, and there were only a handful in the
whole collection that made me reach for Reason's Select Next
Patch button, including the aptly named 'Deserted' in the
Atmospheric section — not hard to understand why everyone's
left if they had to listen to that sound! It's also a fairly
safe collection, providing most of the sounds people would
want, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
The REX2 loops are, again, a very 'yes, I've heard that before'
collection of sounds, logically grouped into arpeggio, bass,
drum, and combined loop categories; however, the fact everything's
quite vanilla means the loops are likely to lend themselves
to a range of different situations. I noticed one set of loops
named 'JarreC2', 'JarreC3' and 'JarreC4' were all in the key
of F, which was slightly confusing, and so the lack of any
documentation, printed or PDF, becomes marginally frustrating.
Rounding off the collection are some cool Redrum kits, and
I'm sure people will get stuck straight into these, as they
cover a broad range of neatly programmed percussive synth
sounds.
If you want some instant Waldorf synth fodder for Reason,
Orange is unlikely to disappoint, and at only £30, it's
great value for money.
by Mark Wherry [SOS]
Read
the original SOS review
Like:
I really like the quality of the sounds very much. They are
recorded very clearly. And ofcourse the usability. Wich is
very high. For a low price a very complete sound collection.
Great!!
Dislike: Naahhh No complains from me!
Content: Analog Night makes me think of a hot and
sunny summer night with nothing else on your mind but music.
And that's precisely what this cd does. The sounds it contains
are in a very wide variety. Ranging from absolute beautiful
sounds with great dynamics to sounds wich seem to come straight
out of the creative mind of Eric :)
When i heard the first big refill from him (Quadrasynth)
i knew it for sure. This guy can make very good samples. Wich
are also very inspiring. I just hooked up my keyboard and
went thru the refill. But some sounds really kept me playing
with them for minutes. The bass section really sounds great.
I always love to make bass patches. And these are really good
food for my brain :) When you've heard the Quadrasynth refill
you will know what i'm talking about. Very high quality patches
with a very clean and powerful sound. "
by Dave N
Read
the full review
 "Like:
Super clear and perfectly looped collection of NN-19 patches.
A must have for every Reason user out there.
Dislike: Nahhhh!!
Content:
-In fact, i noticed that Reason was missing some big pads
sounds. I had some on my QS8 but i wanted to have them directly
in Reason so i started the sampling of these sounds.-
Eric/Reason Fan.
And what a great job he has done. Man are these samples clear.
Each and every one of them is clearly sampled and the patches
made out of these samples are programmed just perfect. Copy
the refill to your Reason folder and you will have the best
sounds from the Alesis Quadrasynth.
There are really a lot of samples in the refill. 546 Mb of
compressed samples. That's more then 1 Gb before a refill
was made out of 'm. Looping points are done very good. You
won't hear any :) ..."
by Dave N
Read
the full review
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