Reason 12.7 Operation Manual
DAW | Rack Plugin
#Note
The Note LED lights up each time Humana receives a MIDI Note On.
Range
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Set the desired Pitch Bend range for the “Pitch” wheel with the up/down buttons, or by click-holding on the display and dragging up/down.
Range: +/-12 semitones (+/-1 octave) in steps of +/-1 semitone.
Pitch
The Pitch bend wheel can be used for bending note pitches up and down. Humana also responds to Pitch Bend MIDI data from a connected MIDI master keyboard. You set the desired Pitch bend Range with the “Range” control to the right of the Mod wheel.
Mod
The Mod wheel can be used for controlling the three predefined parameters to the right of the Mod wheel:
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S. Start
Here you set how/if the Mod wheel should affect the Sample Start position of the currently selected instrument. The parameter is bi-polar, with zero modulation at the 12 o’clock position. A negative value moves the sample start back and a positive value moves it forward.
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Note that if the S.Start parameter in the Instruments section (see “S. Start (Sample Start)”) is at 0 ms, the sample start cannot be moved back any further. Similarly, if the S.Start parameter in the Instruments section is at 150 ms, the sample start cannot be moved forward any further.
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F. Freq
Here you set how/if the Mod wheel should affect the Filter Cutoff parameter. The parameter is bi-polar, with zero modulation at the 12 o’clock position.
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Note that if the Cutoff parameter in the Filter section (see “Cutoff”) is at 20 Hz, the frequency cannot be lowered any further. Similarly, if the Cutoff parameter in the Filter section is at 25 kHz, the frequency cannot be raised any further.
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Level
Here you set how/if the Mod wheel should affect the Master Volume parameter. The parameter is bi-polar, with zero modulation at the 12 o’clock position.
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The volume can never be modulated louder than the maximum +12 dB limit of the Master Volume control.
#The Instruments section
#Instrument selector
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Click the Instrument name selector to bring up a menu of the available instruments - and then select the desired instrument from the menu.
Alternatively, click and drag up/down in the display above the selector to scroll through the instruments.
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Depending on the instrument size (in MB), it could take a short moment before the entire instrument is loaded into RAM.
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Also note that the note ranges of the instruments extend outside their “natural” ranges, which could produce nice artificial effects.
The available instruments are:
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Mars ah
A male vocal ensemble singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with stage mics (stereo) in a large hall, wet. Conducted by Robert Geary. The samples are from Soundiron's Olympus Symphonic Choir.
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Mars oo
A male vocal ensemble singing sustained “Oo’s” (piano). Recorded with stage mics (stereo) in a large hall, wet. Conducted by Robert Geary. The samples are from Soundiron's Olympus Symphonic Choir.
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Mars ah Staccato
A male vocal ensemble singing staccato “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with stage mics (stereo) in a large hall, wet. Conducted by Robert Geary. The samples are from Soundiron's Olympus Symphonic Choir.
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Mars oo Staccato
A male vocal ensemble singing staccato “Oo’s” (piano). Recorded with stage mics (stereo) in a large hall, wet. Conducted by Robert Geary. The samples are from Soundiron's Olympus Symphonic Choir.
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Venus ah
A female vocal ensemble singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with stage mics (stereo) in a large hall, wet. Conducted by Robert Geary. The samples are from Soundiron's Olympus Symphonic Choir.
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Venus oo
A female vocal ensemble singing sustained “Oo’s” (piano). Recorded with stage mics (stereo) in a large hall, wet. Conducted by Robert Geary. The samples are from Soundiron's Olympus Symphonic Choir.
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Venus ah Staccato
A female vocal ensemble singing staccato “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with stage mics (stereo) in a large hall, wet. Conducted by Robert Geary. The samples are from Soundiron's Olympus Symphonic Choir.
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Venus oo Staccato
A female vocal ensemble singing staccato “Oo’s” (piano). Recorded with stage mics (stereo) in a large hall, wet. Conducted by Robert Geary. The samples are from Soundiron's Olympus Symphonic Choir.
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Mercury ah
A boys’ choir singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with stage mics (stereo) in a large hall, wet. Conducted by Robert Geary. The samples are from Soundiron's Mercury Symphonic Boys’ Choir.
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Female Soprano ah
Female soprano Nichole Dechaine singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with close mic (mono) in a studio, dry. The samples are from Soundiron's Voices Of Rapture.
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Female Alto ah
Female alto Kindra Scharich singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with close mic (mono) in a studio, dry. The samples are from Soundiron's Voices Of Rapture.
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Male Tenor ah
Male tenor Brian Thorsett singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with close mic (mono) in a studio, dry. The samples are from Soundiron's Voices Of Rapture.
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Male Bass ah
Male bass Joseph Trumbo singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with close mic (mono) in a studio, dry. The samples are from Soundiron's Voices Of Rapture.
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Female ah
Female alto soloist Francesca Genco singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with close mic (mono) in a studio, dry. The samples are from Soundiron's Voices Of Gaia.
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Female ah 2
Female alto soloist Linda Strawberry singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with close mic (mono) in a studio, dry. The samples are from Soundiron's Voices Of Gaia.
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Male ah
Male tenor soloist Brian Lane singing sustained “Ah’s” (forte). Recorded with close mic (mono) in a studio, dry. The samples are from Soundiron's Voices Of Gaia.
S. Start (Sample Start)
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Turn the S.Start knob to set where in the sample the playback should start.
Note that the effect could be different depending on the selected instrument.
Oct
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Set the octave transposition for the instrument.
Range: 5 (+/-2) octaves.
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Note that the note ranges of the instruments can be transposed far outside their “natural” ranges, which could produce nice artificial effects.
#Semi
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Set the pitch in semitone steps.
Range: +/-12 semitones (two octaves).
#Fine
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Set the pitch in steps of 1 cent.
Range: +/- 50 cents (down or up half a semitone).
#The Filter section
#Filter On/Off
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Click the On/Off LED button to switch on/off the Filter section.
#Filter Type selector
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Click and drag up/down on the Filter Type selector to select one of the available filter types - or step through the filter types by clicking the Up/Down arrow buttons.
The available filter types are:
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LP
This is a lowpass filter with 12db/octave slope.
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HP
This is a highpass filter with 12db/octave slope.
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BP
This is a bandpass filter with 6db/octave slopes.
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Comb
This is a comb filter for phaser/flanger type of effects.
#Cutoff
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Set the cutoff/center frequency with the Cutoff knob.
The cutoff parameter sets where in the frequency range you want the resonance and attenuation to appear.
Range: 20 Hz to 25 kHz.
#Reso
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Set the resonance amount with the Reso knob.
The resonance parameter amplifies the frequencies at, and around the cutoff/center frequency.
#Env
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With the Env knob you set how much you want the Filter Envelope (see below) to affect the Cutoff frequency.
Range: 0% to 100%.
#Filter Envelope
The standard ADSR type envelope controls the filter cutoff frequency modulation over time. The ADSR envelope characteristics are described in detail in “Amp Envelope”.
#Vel
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Turn the Vel knob to set how much the cutoff/center frequency should be modulated by Keyboard Velocity.
Range: 0% to 100%.
#Kbd
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Turn the KBD (Keyboard Track) knob to set how much the cutoff/center frequency should track incoming MIDI Notes.
Range: 0% (no tracking (constant frequency)) to 100% (1 semitone per key).
#The Amp section
#Vel
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Turn the Vel knob to set how much the amplitude should be modulated by Keyboard Velocity.
Range: 0% to 100%.
#Amp Envelope
The Amp Envelope is a standard ADSR envelope which controls the amplitude of the signal over time. The picture below shows the various stages of the ADSR envelope:
The ADSR envelope stages.
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A(ttack)
When you play a note on your keyboard, the envelope is triggered. This means it starts rising from zero to the value set with the Master Volume knob. How long this should take, depends on the Attack setting. If the Attack is set to “0”, the Volume value is reached instantly. If the Attack value is raised, it will take longer time before the Master Volume value is reached.
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D(ecay)
After the Master Volume value has been reached, the level starts to drop. How long this should take is governed by the Decay parameter.
If you want to emulate the volume envelope of a note played on a piano for example, the Attack should be set to “0”, the Decay parameter should be set to a medium value and the Sustain level should be set to “0”, so that the volume gradually decreases down to silence, even if you keep holding the key down. Should you want the decay to drop to some other value than zero, you raise the Sustain parameter.
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S(ustain)
The Sustain parameter determines the level the envelope should rest at, after the Decay stage. If you set Sustain to full level, the Decay setting is of no importance since the volume of the sound is never lowered.
If you want to emulate the volume envelope of an organ, you theoretically only really need to use the Sustain parameter set to full level, as a basic organ volume envelope instantly goes to the maximum level (Attack “0”) and stays there (Decay “0”), until the key is released and the sound instantly stops (Release “0”).
But often a combination of Decay and Sustain is used to generate envelopes that rise up to the Volume value, then gradually decreases to finally land to rest on a level somewhere in-between zero and the Master Volume value. Note that Sustain represents a level, whereas the other envelope parameters represent times.
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R(elease)
The Release parameter works just like the Decay parameter, except it determines the time it takes for the volume to drop back to zero after you release the key.
#The Delay section
This is a stereo delay which affects all voices globally.
#Delay On/Off
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Click the On/Off LED button to switch on/off the Delay section.
#Time
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Set the time between the delay repeats.
If Sync is active (see below), the Time parameter controls the time divisions.
#Feedback
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Set the number of delay repeats with the Feedback knob.
#Sync
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Click the Sync button to sync the delay time to the main sequencer Tempo.
When active, the Time knob (see above) controls the time divisions.
#Ping Pong
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Activate this to get the delay repeats alternating between the left and right channels.
Note that this also doubles the delay tempo.
#Damp
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Raise the Damp value to gradually cut off the high frequencies of the delay repeats.
#Amount
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Set the delay amount with the Amount knob.
Note that the Delay effect is routed as a “send effect”, with the Amount knob working as an “effect return” control. This means that if you play a short note with the Amount knob set to zero, you might still get a delay effect if you turn up the Amount afterwards (depending on the Feedback setting, see “Feedback”).
#The Reverb section
This is a stereo reverb which affects all voices globally.
#Reverb On/Off
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Click the On/Off LED button to switch on/off the Reverb section.
#Time
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Set the reverberation duration time.
In practice this sets the “size” of the reverberation “chamber/room/hall”.
#Pre-Delay
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Set the pre-delay time of the reverb.
Range: 0-200 ms.
#Hi Damp
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Raise the Hi Damp value to cut off the high frequencies of the reverb and thereby create a smoother, warmer effect.
#Lo Damp
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Raise the Lo Damp value to cut off the low frequencies of the reverb signal, to make the reverb effect less “muddy”.
#Amount
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Set the reverb amount with the Amount knob.
Note that the Reverb effect is routed as a “send effect”, with the Amount knob working as an “effect return” control. This means that if you play a short note with the Amount knob set to zero, you might still get a reverb effect if you turn up the Amount afterwards (depending on the Time setting, see “Time”).
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Remember that CV connections are NOT stored in the Humana patches! If you want to store CV connections between devices, put them in a Combinator device and save the Combi patch.
#Sequencer Control inputs
The Sequencer Control CV and Gate inputs allow you to play Humana from another CV/Gate device (typically a Matrix or an RPG-8). The signal to the CV input controls the note pitch, while the signal to the Gate input delivers note on/off along with velocity. There are also inputs for modulating the Pitch Bend and Mod Wheel parameters.
#Modulation Inputs
These control voltage (CV) inputs can be used for modulating the Filter Cutoff and Resonance parameters, as well as the Master Volume level.
#Audio Out
These are the main audio outputs. When you create a new Humana device, these outputs are auto-routed to the first available Mix Channel in the Reason main mixer. If there is no Mix Channel available, a new one will be automatically created.