A Ripple In Time (Reason 13)

This is a combinator effect made for and with Reason 13 and its stock devices. It was inspired by guitar pedals or synth pedals such as the Hologram Microcosm, Fieldtone Weaver and Chase Bliss Habit.

a ripple in time can capture or delay audio (up to 2 bars), mangle it, rearrange it and re-pitch it for all eternity. It can craft new loops from any audio that you run through it, and - if you want - turn those loops into weird, dirty or spacious ambient textures.

With that said, it's not a typical effect that you may apply throughout your project. Rather, it's more a sound design playground - where you feed it sound and in turn, record the loops and textures that it generates.

It features two modes:

1. In the default state, a ripple in time acts as a looper. You simply play a short bit of audio through the device - say some synth keys, pads or a drum loop - and then quickly turn the big knob in the middle. This will automatically capture the audio and do some bizarre things to it, in a repeating loop.
2. In Live mode (activated by pressing the Live button), a ripple in time acts as delay. The buffer is inactive, and bits of audio are captured and caught in the mangler. You can set the delay time by adjusting the buffer size and introduce feedback by adjusting the regen knob. There are various ways that your sound can be mangled, re-pitched and rearranged. Find the sound you like by turning the big knob.

About the big knob in the middle:

• At the big knob's most minimum position, the buffer is reset and is armed. It's listening to all incoming audio. As soon as you move the knob away from the minimum position, it captures and repeats the audio.
• Every time you turn the big knob, the buffer will be randomized, in a randomized way and then repeated forever. Like in real life, everything is lost to time. Even if you move the knob forward, and then back to its previous position, the result will be different.
• With the above in mind, by all means have an empty audio track armed or sampler ready to save what you hear.
• There is also a built-in probability knob to adjust the big knob automatically. This adjustment can occur some of the time, or at 100% will occur all the time - and you will get continuous random results.

Consider everything to the Left as before the buffer:

• To set the length of the loop, change the buffer size prior to capturing the audio. The length can range from 2 bars to extremely short timing. If you change the buffer size after capturing audio, it will re-pitch the audio - leading to some fun and exciting new results.
• You can also introduce effects such as vinyl distortion, bit distortion, filtering and more with the simulacra knob. There are 5 simulations to choose from.
• The rhythm button will chop the incoming audio into even smaller chunks. Providing a more sporadic and rhythmic signal into the buffer.
• If you change the simulacra or rhythm mode while exploring the big knob, you will need to change the big knob position to hear the change in results. Hence, why such effects are known as "before the buffer".
• The internal capture button will take everything coming out of the buffer and feed it back into the device for later re-capturing.

Consider everything to the Right as after the buffer:

• Once you have captured a loop that you like, or found an interesting delay setting in Live mode, you can further process the output with additional effects.
• Wobble will introduce some tape/pitch wobbling, therefore adding some movement to an otherwise stagnant loop. While Noise will do the same, but with an added noise layer on top. At 12 o'clock there is no wobble or noise applied.
• LP/HP is your typical low and high pass DJ style filter. At 12 o'clock there is no filtering applied.
• Shift acts as a pitched resonator - going from high to low as you move the knob clockwise. At its most minimum position, there is no effect applied.
• Lastly, there is a delay/space knob - which provides a delay and reverb depending on which way you turn it. An additional decay knob controls things such a reverb decay, delay time and delay feedback. At 12 o'clock there is no effect applied.

Level Control:

• At the bottom right, there are independent controls for the level of the buffer (original and pre simulation), the wet signal (after the mangling + effects), dry signal (clean input) and the overall output volume.
• By adjusting these levels you can essentially use this device as an insert or send effect - or just as just a standard looper.

Important things to know:

• a ripple in time does not like loop indicators. This is an obscure device, made in an obscure fashion. As a result, it does have some quirks: namely, if this device is used in-between loop indicators (and the DAW transport looping is turned on), the buffer may not hold.
• levels may vary. Given the near infinite number of results this device can provide, and the vast array of sonic material that can be sent through it, you should be careful in controlling your levels. A limiter or compressor after this device just might be a good idea.
• dsp overload. String theory proposes that time is like spaghetti. Well, if you want to see that spaghetti for yourself, just open this combinator and flip the rack around. This device was made on the back of at least 20x Ripley devices. As a result, you may have trouble with your DSP if use a few instances, or if you are working in an already DSP loaded project. If you do experience issues, increase the buffer size under the Reason or your DAW's preferences.

There are no additional upgrades to this, so if you think you will or have found this combinator useful - or have enjoyed anything else I have provided over the years then please consider supporting

Thank you for reading, and happy sound discovering 😀

Requirements: Reason 13.2 or higher

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