Native Instruments - Razor

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  • Marketing for music production software is a tricky business. In the span of a two-paragraph press release or a 30 second YouTube video, gear developers have to differentiate their products from the rest of the crowded field of companies trying to do the same. Explaining the DSP tricks running under the hood or by showing off some exotic automation capabilities might scare off the invaluable "new producer" demographic. Instead many demos now show potential customers how, by using little more than this new product, they can sound exactly like their favorite artist. One recent example is the promo video for Native Instruments' new Reaktor-based synth called Razor. Visually, the slickly produced clip showed off the new plug-in's innovative UI, but it was the accompanying Razor-produced soundtrack that underscored the suggestion that you'll soon be on your way to becoming the next big dubstep star. Not a bad strategy, for sure—with the meteoric rise in popularity the genre has enjoyed recently I'm sure there are quite a few people who will buy in based on that video alone. What about the producers who don't work with dubstep, though? Does Razor have anything to offer for customers looking for an all-around synth that's not pigeonholed into a single genre? As mentioned above, Razor runs inside of Native Instrument's audio & MIDI patching environment called Reaktor—which underwent a significant work-over last fall in its update to version 5.5. Included among the many updates in this new version were two advanced synthesis modules called modal bank and sine bank. The modal bank, which essentially uses a series of resonating filters to generate sound, was put to work immediately by Prism, a unique synth that does well with simulating physical instruments. Sine bank on the other hand, did not have its signature synth until March of this year, when in a collaboration with sound designer Errorsmith, Native Instruments released Razor into the wild. To understand how Razor works, you have to understand a little bit about the sine bank and what it does. With traditional synthesizers, the part that actually makes sound is an oscillator, and typically you only get a few different options for waveforms. If you've ever chosen between sine, square, or saw that's what we're referring to. Reaktor's sine bank is a group of 320 sine oscillators that can all be controlled and mixed together to form one big oscillator. This is called additive synthesis and it can result in a much larger range of sounds than a synth using the typical (subtractive) synthesis technique. Razor utilizes the sine bank in an interesting way even after you determine what kind of sound you want to start with. With normal synthesizers, the raw oscillator sound is shaped by envelopes to control time, and filters to control how much high or low frequency you end up with. Razor does the same thing in a way, but instead of passing audio to a filter and envelope, it controls the individual oscillators in its sine bank to change the character of the sound. Even the different effects you can apply in the chain are all achieved behind the scenes by Razor changing the volume and pitch of sine waves. It sounds pretty complicated, but in comparison to most programs that use additive synthesis, I found Razor's level of control refreshingly straightforward. Rather than having to control each sine partial (the term used to describe each of the 320 oscillators in the bank), Razor gives you a choice of 14 different oscillator types, 11 filter types and a handful of effects that do the dirty work for you. One of the filter choices turns Razor into an extremely accurate and flexible vocoder, which is a huge bonus (as Native Instruments was reportedly considering selling this feature as an extra). The unique additive synthesis implementation isn't Razor's only unique feature, though. The first thing that you'll notice when you open the plug-in is the 3D graphical display that shows a breakdown of the sound in its different stages. Besides being just plain easy on the eyes, this display is actually a very helpful tool that gives you an idea of exactly what effect the changes you're making have on the sound. It also provides a good window into understanding how exactly the different sine partials are being used by the additive engine to make up the sound. How the wizards at Native Instruments made this happen in Reaktor is a mystery. So, how does it sound? It's not a creamy warm analog synth, which is fine as there are plenty of options out there that do that well. But for what Razor is made for, it sounds pretty amazing. You can get a fairly wide range of sounds out of it; from evolving pads to biting leads to huge bass—including, yes, all the building blocks necessary to build the signature dubstep wobble bass. There is definitely an adjustment period when doing sound sculpting with Razor, however. Because of the way that the internal engine works, you may notice some odd behavior. For example, the reverb can sometimes behave a bit strangely to changes in filters. Also, extra care is required to manage the processor utilization—due to the nature of additive synthesis, Razor is very heavy on CPU. Finally, since Razor runs in Reaktor, if you don't own a license for Reaktor you are relegated to using it in the free Reaktor Player version—which does not allow you to save snapshots (what Reaktor calls presets). Therefore, you would need to rely on your DAW to save your patches with the session. The answer to the question posed at the beginning of this review—"does Razor offer anything to non-dubstep producers?"—is simply "yes." Errorsmith addressed this on his blog. "The fact that we chose a dubstep track in the video doesn't mean its limited to this genre. We had to pick one style. I hope that people will pick up Razor, explore its vast possibilities and make us happy with expressive, inspired music with character. I think these are the important qualities of music. Genre is not." Vast possibilities is the key phrase there. For those looking for something unique, and especially those who already have a Reaktor license, Razor is a no-brainer. Ratings / Cost: 4.5/5 Versatility: 4/5 Sound: 4/5 Ease of use: 4/5
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