RAZOR Review
You’ve likely at least heard of Native Instrument’s Razor if you don’t already have it. Razor is an additive synthesizer built in Reaktor, it features 2 oscillator engines, 2 filters, a dissonant effect, and a stereo effect. One thing to keep in mind about additive synthesis is that these filters and effects aren’t DSP or processes applied after the signal generation, but are instead an actual part of the signal generation. Additive synths use an array of sine waves to produce their signals, but reducing the volume/ quantity/ phase or even frequency of these sine waves, you get a wide array of sounds that are possible. This also means all the filters and effects have a particularly unique sound compared to more traditional synthesizers. Each section has a variety of options to choose from as well, there are 14 oscillator types, over 20 filter types, 14 dissonant effects, and about a dozen additional effects. I really like when additive synths are done this way, controlling hundreds, if not thousands of partials is really quite tedious, I enjoy having a set of systems or algorithms that allow you to control groups of partials in a specific away all at once. Combining different algorithms is very fun and you are able to accomplish more in a shorter period of time.
The UI is simple, it’s Reaktor, there’s no monitor scaling, no drag and drop, Razor looks pretty, but it just doesn’t quite keep up with more modern plugins. Modulation is minimal, you get three envelopes and two filters, each control can receive a couple sources, but it is Reaktor, so you can always add your own modulation if you so choose. Many people also go in under the hood and increase partial count from 512 up to 1024, 2048, maybe even 5096. there’s really no limit beyond CPU resources and human hearing. If you’d like to do this yourself there are walkthroughs on youtube available. As for sound, Razor has quite a range, it is really good at basses and pads, anything from lasery modern basses to crystal shimmering pads. Razor can be a bit tricky to play with, it’s hard to predict at first which combinations of algorithms will produce the sounds you are after. It is very much worth taking the time to explore, experiment and discover as there are a load of hidden gems.
OSCILLATORS
Most of the oscilators are pretty simple, just variations of the same thing, your classic squares and saws. Most of them also have very few controls, for the most part the oscillators in Razor seem to be more about providing a basic tonal wash from which we can remove frequencies from in the filter/ effects section. The are mostly bright and harmonically rich, but all fairly simple. A few modes are noteworthy and worth exploring, Primes and all of the pitch bend modes can be a nice additional layer on top of a more simple oscillator as they offer a lot of upper harmonic content. Formant has a wide range of tones to choose from, they are mostly “human” sounding because of the nature of formants, but there’s enough to work with for some fun basses. My favorite is probably the synced noise, it is a full spectrum oscillator sound, but the partials are not phase locked, so you get a fuzzier texture than a saw wave. there’s lots of seeds to pick from in this mode, but they are mostly the same. Synced noise is just a great place to filter down from and make a fun patch.
FILTERS
This is where the fun starts with Razor, if the oscillators are for crating a wall of sound, the filters are for sculpting life into that wall. The 20+ filter types are split up between the two filters, with the top filter focussed on more traditional roles and the bottom getting a bit weirder and experimental. you’ll notice right away, even on the plain lowpass, things don’t quite sound the same, it’s a very digital sound, with lots of aliasing in upper regions, but a nice bubbly scream in lower regions. Lowpass Phaser and Lowpass Dirty are incredibly fun to play around with as they spread out the resonance peak into a wider range of frequencies. EQ decay is more of a physical modeling effect, which gives different regions of partials a decay time for a natural plucked-like sound. Vowel and formant are great for vocal sounds, which when used in the right balance can create killer basses.
The bottom filter types get even more interesting, first of all, the band reject sounds incredible, there’s comb+- as well, but these can’t quite be used the same way as delay based combs unfortunately. The phaser and gaps filter apply a multi-notches shape to the spectrum, again great for basses. Waterbed is by far the strangest and most creative filter, though it is a bit tricky to use, visually it is fun to see the spectrum ripple like water. Lastly Pseudo Pitchbend and Unisono Noise are more like effects than filters and in the right circumstances can be used for great effect. All these various options really play off of the input signal, really playing around with different filter and oscillator combinations can lead to some wild and crazy results. It’s a little more methodical compared to traditional subtractive synthesis, but for me it feels like there is a lot more to explore and be creative with in the long run. Don’t be afraid to try things out. A lot of these filters have quite a wide range, you wont understand them by simply sweeping their full range in one go, you’ll want to take your time and make sure to increment around the sweet spots with small envelope values to get the most out of things.
DISSONANCE
After the filters is a single dissonance effect, there are 14 to pick from, and they can range from subtle to extreme. In a lot of cases you’ll want to get this single aspect of Razor where you want it before playing with anything else as it can often have the most impact on the over all sound. Each effect option has either one or two controls, I do wish there was more than just one of these per instance of razor as it could be fun to combine a few in different orders. What the Dissonance effects do is more groups of partials either up or down by different amounts, completely changing the sonic makeup of your sound. A couple of them are fairly subtle, and designed to add mild motion and texture, but most of them are quite intense. The graphics on each label do a decent enough job of displaying what they do, and simply looking at the spectrum while tweaking these controls will do a better job explaining than I can via text.
Beyond the filters and dissonance is some more simple effects, there’s one slot for stereo type effects and one slot for shaping and dynamics.Again, these are not DSP, they are actually produced via the additive engine, so you get really clean clipping and reverb. There’s also a spectral clipper and a “safe bass” which adds in sub and lower harmonics incase you end up with a thinner sound via the rest of Razor. There are a few extra little goodies tucked into Razor, like envelope echo, interesting scope modes, sidechain, and even a vocoder. Every time I play with Razor I’m surprised at just how bright and clear the basses it produces are, this isn’t to say they lack depth or bass, just that they sound incredibly clean and colorful on the top end. You might find Razor best for resampling, as many sounds it does well exist in a moment or for a particular note rather than across the keyboard. Resampling Razor can allow you to arrange and sequence out various sounds this synth is capable of for a more dynamic result in the long run.