Propellerhead Record 1.5 & Reason 5 – James Bernard Interview Part Two
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
Checking in with part two of our DV247 Blog interview with Propellerhead guru James Bernard, today we look solely at Reason 5 and Record 1.5‘s new Neptune pitch-correction tool. James explains that at its most basic, it can of course accommodate a producer’s desire for that T-Pain ‘sitting-in-a-boat’ vocal effect but Neptune is capable of so much more. Illustrating its capabilities and how the Propellerhead team have expanded yet another favoured contemporary production technique, he assures us we’re not going be disappointed.
What takes Neptune away from that same ol’ auto-tuned sound is the ‘correction speed knob’ which, when set to a slower speed, gives a more natural-sounding pitch rectification. As James enlightens us further, he mentions how this adjustment is automatable, allowing the flipping back and forth between robotic and natural corrections. The ‘voice synth’ function of Neptune gives the user a harmony control as a MIDI keyboard is played too, further adding to full performance and creative expression.
Latency can be an issue in most examples of live pitch correction tools: not so the case with Neptune. Its ‘live mode’ gives zero latency – thats ZERO, nish, nada, nothing at all! How useful is that? And moving away from the world of mid-range vocals, Neptune’s ‘low frequency mode’ lets bass players (for example) plug in their instrument, and the software will do it’s job in a musically sympathetic manner, maybe assisting those players who ain’t always on the money.
Neptune shows binary skills in the preservation of ‘format’s when doing extreme pitch changes, Propellerhead James explains further – the texture and tonality of a person’s voice is not lost at all. Flipping the instrument round to its rear reveals a capability to send CV (control voltage) information out of itself, opening another world of routing possibilities with perhaps a human voice ‘playing’ a synthesizer, like Thor. James rounds up this Neptune tour by talking about its arpeggiator highlight, and, you’re just gonna have to watch the video to see how that could rock your world.
Finally, as the Record 1.5 and Reason 5 video closes, we check out a short extract from James’ Neptune demo to his assembled Propellerhead Masterclass audience at DV, South London. Despite my camera battery giving me a minor ‘fail’ at the close of this session, there’s just enough of Neptune being used in full flow to get you salivating for sure. Enjoy!
Tags: James Bernard, neptune, propellerhead, Reason 5, Record 1.5