In late 2011, Propellerhead Software announced that they would permit third-party
plugins to be developed for the Reason environment. They dubbed these plugins
Rack Extensions, or "REs".
The first set of new REs hit the online
Propellerhead Shop in mid-2012, from the likes of Korg, Peff, Softube, u-he, iZotope and Propellerhead themselves. With the exception of a few, most were initially ports of popular VST plugins to the RE format. These helped get the ball rolling, however before long developers had created new and unique devices that really add a lot of value to the Reason platform. To date there are over fifty REs available, and the number is growing every week.
And as of approximately a week ago, there's now also one developed by my company
Pitchblende and Giles Reaves of
Selig Audio. It's called
The Curve and you can see it for yourself
here.
It is a brand new device that implements a novel technique for solving many dynamics problems. Giles neatly describes the function of
The Curve here:
The Curve utilizes a unique approach to dynamics control, by applying upwards compression across a user specified range of the dynamic spectrum. This allows The Curve to target your compression like no other device, meaning The Curve can compress everything within a user specified range while leaving the loudest and softest signals almost completely alone.
There's an introductory video that gives a good overview of what
The Curve can do:
The device was designed primarily for assisting with the task of leveling vocal performances, a task that can be quite time-consuming using traditional compressors:
We put a lot of work into
The Curve. Our focus is always on quality and bug-free operation, and I think we met that goal. Now that it has been released I'm happy to say that the reception has been very favourable. Several Propellerhead User Forum posts sprung up, with some neat demonstrations of how
The Curve can be used on various source material, including this great video by
DJStarski on drums:
If you are interested in dynamics processing, vocal leveling, or even fattening up your percussion tracks, I recommend taking a look at
The Curve for yourself. Remember that you can take advantage of a 30-day free trial through the
Propellerhead Shop.
You can follow my company Pitchblende's announcements on Twitter via
@PitchblendeLtd or check out our
Facebook page. Look out for new Rack Extensions in the near future...
