Reason 13.1 Operation Manual
DAW | Rack Plugin
The picture below shows the basic signal flow in Monotone:
Monotone signal flowchart.
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The “heart” of Monotone is the Oscillator section, which generates the basic audio signal.
There are two oscillators in Monotone, that can produce a number of traditional “analog” waveforms - plus a Noise generator, which produces white noise. The two oscillators can be detuned, to create a fatter sound. Oscillator 2 can also frequency modulate Oscillator 1, for metallic/bell type sounds.
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The signal from the Oscillator section is routed to the Filter.
The Filter in Monotone is a classic 24 dB/octave lowpass ladder filter, with overdrive control.
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The signal from the Filter is routed to the Amplifier.
The Amplifier is controlled by a standard ADSR (Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release) envelope.
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The signal from the Amplifier is then routed to the Chorus module.
This module generates a chorus effects, to make the sound fat and wide.
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The signal from the Chorus is then routed to the Delay module.
Here you can add audio delay effects.
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The remaining section in Monotone (Envelopes and LFO) can be used for modulating some Oscillator and
Filter parameters.
#Loading and saving patches
Loading and saving patches is done in the same way as with any other internal Reason device, see “Loading patches” and “Saving patches” for details.
#Global output controls
#Master Volume
This is the main stereo output volume control.
#Global performance and “play” controls
#Portamento
Portamento makes the note pitch glide from the previous note to the new one, at the time set with the Portamento knob.
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When On, the pitch will always glide between consecutive notes.
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In Auto mode, the pitch will glide between consecutive notes only when you play legato.
If you release the previous key before hitting the new key, there will be no portamento effect.
#Retrig
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Click the Retrig button if you want to play Monotone and always retrigger the envelopes as soon as you play a new note.
When Off, the envelopes will retrigger only if you have released the previous note before playing the new note.
#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: +/-24 semitones (+/-2 octaves) in steps of +/-1 semitone.
#Pitch
The Pitch bend wheel can be used for bending note pitches up and down. Monotone also responds to Pitch Bend MIDI data from a connected MIDI master keyboard. You set the desired Pitch bend Range with the “Range” control above the Pitch bend wheel.
#Mod
The Mod wheel can be used for controlling the Filter Frequency and LFO intensity in Monotone.
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Raise the FILT knob above the Mod wheel to set the Filter Frequency modulation amount.
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Raise the LFO knob above the Mod wheel to set the LFO intensity modulation amount.
Note that for the LFO modulation to work you need to already have some LFO modulation set in the Oscillator (see “LFO”) and/or Filter (see “LFO”) sections.
#The Oscillator section
Here is where you choose oscillator waveforms and set the pitches for the two oscillators. You can also add noise and frequency modulate Oscillator 1 from Oscillator 2.
#Waveform selector
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Turn the Wave knob to select one of four wave shapes.
The wave shapes are:
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Ramp
Also known as sawtooth. Generates a rich tone with both even and odd harmonics (overtones).
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Square (Pulse in Oscillator 2)
The square wave has a symmetric square shape and contains only odd harmonics. The Pulse wave is basically a square wave with non-symmetrical shape, i.e. a duty cycle that is not 50%. The Pulse wave generally sounds a little thinner than a perfect square wave.
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Triangle
The Triangle wave also only contains odd harmonics, but at lower intensities than the square wave overtones. Every other harmonic is also phase-shifted by 180°. This makes it sound a little “rounder” and with less bite than the square wave.
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Sine
The Sine wave doesn’t contain any overtones - only the fundamental. This makes it sound dull and makes it perfect as a sub bass an octave or two below another waveform in the other oscillator.
#Oct
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Set the pitch in octave steps.
Range: 5 octaves.
#Osc Mix
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Set the mix of the Oscillator 1 and 2 signals.
#Noise
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Turn up the Noise knob to introduce white noise to the oscillator signal mix.
#Detune
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Change the pitch in steps of 1 cent (in opposite directions for the two oscillators).
Range: +/- 50 cents (down or up half a semitone).
#LFO
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Turn the LFO knob to introduce pitch modulation to both oscillators from the current setting of the LFO section (see “The LFO section”).
#FM Env
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Turn the knob to have the oscillator 2 signal frequency modulate the oscillator 1 signal according to the current Envelope settings (see “The Envelope section”).
Range: 0% (no tracking (constant pitch)) to 100% (1 semitone per note).
#Osc 2 Semi
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Set the pitch of Oscillator 2 in semitone steps.
Range: +/-12 semitones (two octaves).
#The Filter section
The Filter in Monotone is a classic 24 dB/octave lowpass ladder filter. If you raise the Resonance high enough, the filter will start to self-oscillate.
The picture below shows the lowpass filter’s basic characteristics at four different resonance levels:
#Drive
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Turn the Drive knob to amplify and introduce an overdrive type of distortion to the signal fed into the filter.
#Freq
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Set the cutoff frequency for the filter.
The cutoff frequency is where the filter starts to cut out/dampen the higher frequencies of the signal.
#Resonance
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Set the resonance amount.
This controls the resonance peak level at the currently set cutoff frequency (see “Freq” above).
The picture below shows a ramp oscillator signal lowpass-filtered at three different Resonance levels:
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Be careful when using high Resonance values as this could generate quite loud audio levels!
#Env
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Turn the Env knob to set the frequency modulation amount from the current settings of the Envelope (see “The Envelope section”).
#Key
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Turn the Kbd knob to set the keyboard tracking amount.
At 0% the filter cutoff frequency is static and doesn’t track the keyboard at all.
At 100% the filter cutoff frequency tracks the keyboard 1 semitone per note.
#LFO
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Turn the LFO knob to set the frequency modulation amount from the current settings of the LFO (see “The LFO section”).
#The Amplifier section
The Amplifier section contains a standard ADSR envelope, which controls the amplitude of the audio signal.
The picture below shows the various stages of the ADSR envelope:
The ADSR envelope stages.
#A(ttack)
When you play a note on your keyboard, the envelope is triggered. This means it starts rising from zero to max level. How long this should take, depends on the Attack setting. If the Attack is set to “0”, maximum level is reached instantly. If the Attack value is raised, it will take longer time before the maximum level is reached.
#D(ecay)
After maximum level 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.
#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 max level, then gradually decreases to finally land to rest on a level somewhere in-between zero and maximum level. Note that Sustain
represents a level, whereas the other envelope parameters represent times.
#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.
#Vel
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Turn up the Vel knob if you want the maximum level to be controlled from Keyboard Velocity.
The harder you play, the louder the maximum volume.
#Chorus
This is a stereo Chorus effect, which can be used for generating a fatter and wider sound.
#Amount
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Set the Dry/Wet amount of the chorus effect.
Set to 0% for a completely dry (unprocessed) signal.
#Rate
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Set the rate/speed of the chorus modulation.
#Spread
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Set the stereo width of the chorus effect.
Set to 0% for a if you want the signal to be in mono.
#Delay
This is a stereo delay, which generates delayed copies of the original signal.
#Amount
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Use this parameter to adjust the send level to the Delay effect.
Set to 0% for a completely dry (unprocessed) signal.
#Time
The delay time is synced to the main sequencer tempo.
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Set the sync division to the main sequencer tempo with the Time knob.
Range: 1/16, 1/8T, 1/8, 2/8T, 3/16, 1/4, 5/16, 4/8T, 7/16 and 2/4.
#Feedback
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Set the number of delay repeats.
#Ping Pong
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Activate Ping Pong to have the delay repeats alternate between left and right in the stereo panorama.
#The LFO section
An LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) is used for generating cyclic modulation. A typical example is to have an LFO modulate the pitch of a signal to produce vibrato, but there are also other applications for LFOs. The LFO section features an LFO which can be set to control Oscillator pitch (see “LFO”) and/or Filter frequency (see “LFO”).
#Rate
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Set the LFO rate/speed.
Range: 0.06-94.0 Hz
#Shape
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Turn the Shape knob to select one of three LFO wave shapes.
The wave shapes are: Sine, Triangle and Square.
#The Envelope section
The Envelope section features a standard ADSR envelope, which can be used for controlling Oscillator Frequency Modulation (see “FM Env”) and/or Filter Frequency (see “Env”).
The various envelope stages work exactly like those of the Amplifier, see “The Amplifier section”.
The ADSR envelope stages.
#A(ttack)
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Set the time it should take to reach from zero to maximum level.
#D(ecay)
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Set the time it should take to go from maximum level to the Sustain level (see below).
#S(ustain)
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Set the level the envelope should rest at, after the Decay stage (see above).
#R(elease)
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Set the time it should take to go from the Sustain level back to zero, after you have released the note.
#Vel
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Turn up the Vel knob if you want the maximum level to be controlled from Keyboard Velocity.
The harder you play, the higher the maximum level.
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Remember that CV connections are NOT stored in the Monotone 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 Monotone 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 and can be used for modulating the corresponding parameters from external modulations sources.
#Audio Output
These are the main audio outputs. When you create a new Monotone device, these outputs are auto-routed to the first available Mix Channel in the main mixer. If there is no Mix Channel available, a new one will be automatically created.