Razor

Apart from outstanding sound quality, the level of control in additive synthesis provides a host of new possibilities for shaping sound. Here are some examples of what’s possible in RAZOR:

• Creative filters – variable slopes and boosts
• Dissonance – from modulating single partials to compressing the whole sound
• Reverb per-partial – the reverb tail follows pitch
• Partial panning – pan parts of the frequency spectrum separately
• Complex formants - as filters and oscillators
• Echo steps – create evolving echoes
• Vocoder – an exceptional 34-band vocoder

More info: Errorsmith on RAZOR

A performance view provides eight macro controls, pre-mapped to filters, oscillators, modulation, and effects in each preset. Just map the macros in RAZOR to eight knobs on your controller. And when using RAZOR in MASCHINE, these macros map automatically to the eight knobs on the controller – instant, effortless hardware control.

"Dissonance is a great effect for creating tension within a track. Let the sound get more and more dissonant before the drop, then bring back the harmonics. RAZOR comes with some really great dissonance effects!

One which I like for its simplicity and its drastic-ness is the Centroid effect. It gradually de-tunes the partials so they meet at one frequency. Apart from looking cool in 3D, this is one of RAZOR’s signature sounds."

"Remarkably, RAZOR's reverb is created in the additive engine – a filtered noise is added to the dry signal, similar to the noise tail of 808 claps. Yet it doesn't sound like noise, it sounds like even better reverb: spatial, dense and without the ringing sometimes heard in other reverbs. Even with very short decay times!

As a musical side effect, the reverb tail follows the pitch of the synthesizer voice, so it's pitchable via envelopes, LFOs and dissonance effects. In monophonic mode, this feature is especially useful, as the dry signal and the overlapping reverb tails are always in tune, so even very long decay doesn't muddy up your melody."

"The FX concept in RAZOR is about integrating them into the additive structure to create unique features. Delay is a good example of this approach. In RAZOR, the echoes are created by echoing envelopes instead of audio. Thus, the echo affects only those parameters which are modulated by these envelopes, creating artificial but very musical echoes.

Echo Steps takes this idea even further, changing the effect of the envelope step by step. Use it to create increasingly dissonant echoes, for example, or to pan the echoes independently from left to right."

"The 'Formant' setting in the oscillators and filter 1 is great for organic and complex spectral shapes – in fact, it adds 32 different oscillators and filters to RAZOR! The original idea was to integrate single cycle waveforms. At first I wasn't too sure about this – it seemed to contradict RAZOR's purist approach. But then I experimented with formant shifting – and I was convinced.

Formant shifting is the movement of resonance peaks across the spectrum. It sometimes sounds like shifting the cutoff frequency of a filter – in a way, this oscillator is a hybrid between oscillator and filter. It's a great sound, and a lot of fun. It's a unique RAZOR feature."

Over 100 new leads, basses, and unique sounds – many designed by RAZOR mastermind Errorsmith. Key parameters of existing presets are now updated and carefully pre-assigned to eight macro controls for seamless integration with MASCHINE 2.0. Discover new sounds and boost your creative process – presets are now performance optimized in MASCHINE.

Expand your sonic horizons with twelve new inspiring modules. A new multimode filter offers distorted shapes for irregular filtering and adventurous sound design. Texturize your sounds – the distortion module adds extra grit. Eight different dissonance modules range from frequency modulation to metallic frequency stretching and pitch manipulation. Or add intensity and punch with dynamic effects while stereo reverbs take you to uncharted spaces.

These 12 modules were designed by Berlin artist Errorsmith – the man behind RAZOR. Read his personal take on some of the unique features of RAZOR.

Seamless physical control. Unparalleled MASCHINE workflow. RAZOR 1.5 now offers a macro control system that maps single or multiple parameters straight to the eight control knobs on MASCHINE. The compact Performance View in the MASCHINE 2.0 Plug-in Strip delivers a space-efficient interface for focused visual feedback.

Learn more about MASCHINE 2.0