Reason Studios Friktion: Modeled strings for bowing and plucking in Reason
Reason Studios has a new physical modelling synthesizer called Friktion which will bring some wonderfully authentic string sounds to Reason by bow, pluck, vibrato and resonating bodies.
Friktion
It’s a physically modelled string instrument running within the Reason environment that can bring in some very authentic sounds. Rather than gigabytes of samples physical modelled creates a computer model of how strings work. There are models of the material, the tension, dampening, friction, stress and the body that reflects the sound. All of these things can be manipulated to brilliantly represent the movement and sound of a real string or they can be pushed into places no string could go in reality.
Friktion includes a bunch of articulations like bowing, pluck, vibrato, tremolo, legato and so on and all of them can be switched and accessed via your MIDI keyboard. That lets you perform and change articulations on the fly, or write them into your sequences.
It’s the bowing that is probably the hardest thing to get right in physical modelling. So much of it depends on the slight movements of the fingers, the vibrato and pressure of the bow that it generates far more data than a simple pluck or strike. Friktion takes this to heart and gives you control over finger position, angle, noise and even collisions with other strings.
There’s lots of control over the articulation; you can design how responsive the instrument is. You can then specify how many people are playing together and immerse the sound in reverb and space. It comes with 140 sounds from classics to weird and wonderful and you’ll find all sorts of possibilities with a range of resonator bodies and approaches to string excitement.
Friktion is impressive and only available as a Rack Extension for Reason Studio for £99.
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