Watch

SIXTEEN is a series of sixteen short films, one for each part of RXB Workstation. Every sound and every screen in them is RXB Workstation's own, and the music is written and mastered inside it.

Film 01: four sounds beside pad 12 with its four layer corners, over the series marker with square 01 lit.

Sixteen pads, zero setup#

Film 01 of 16 · 1:43

Hit a pad and hear it. No track to arm, no routing to set up: sixteen pads, four kits, one screen.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 Cold open
0:08 Nothing to arm
0:15 Four banks, four kits
0:24 Velocity: how hard you hit it
0:30 Play from the computer keyboard
0:35 TUNE, CUTOFF, RESO, DRIVE
0:57 One pad, four sounds
1:17 Back to the groove

Film 02: the MIXER with the DRUMS fader at minus infinity over the channel strips, beside the series marker with square 03 lit.

Why your drums fader isn't working#

Film 02 of 16 · 1:49

Put every pad on one bus and the drums fader moves the whole mix. RXB Workstation sums sixteen pads into five buses.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 Drums fader: the drums go, the 808 stays
0:08 One bus for everything
0:16 MASTER and delivery metering
0:31 Five buses: DRUMS, MUSIC, VOX, FX, BACKING
0:44 Channel strips and the BUS selector
0:57 Sidechain: the kick ducks the 808
1:16 MST / DIR: around the master EQ, never around the limiter
1:35 The mix

Film 03: the step editor with PROBABILITY armed and the hat steps at 80 percent, beside the title Break the grid and the series marker with square 04 lit.

Draw it, then break it#

Film 03 of 16 · 2:10

A perfect grid is why your beats sound programmed. Paint a loop, then break it: volume and pan on every step, swing, probability and ratchets.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 A stiff grid, and painting the loop step by step
0:31 Volume and pan on every step
1:11 Swing, and probability per step
1:24 Ratchets and the STEP PERF surface
1:42 The turn: 80% on the snare, then eight bars

Film 04: the DAW lanes with the chords clip slid four bars late and the lead clip trimmed, beside the title Eight lanes and the series marker with square 05 lit.

Eight backing tracks, one clock#

Film 04 of 16 · 1:40

Load a stem, trim it, slide it to the measure you want. The DAW tab gives you eight backing-track lanes that share one clock.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 An empty DAW, and the song's sections already drawn
0:08 Load a stem into each lane, linked on one clock
0:36 Ruler: bars and measures
0:43 CLIP: trim a stem
0:51 MOVE: put it at the measure you want
1:15 Solo and mute
1:23 Volume and pan, per lane
1:30 One clock

Five colours#

Film 05 of 16 · 2:14

Sends, not inserts. One reverb, sixteen pads, individual amounts. The FX rack has five colours, and every pad has its own send to each.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 A dry loop, then the same loop through all five
0:15 Load the modules from the plugin browser
0:25 Granular Bloom: one send, one colour
0:39 Nebula Verb
0:53 Vector Echo
1:07 Bedroom Air
1:21 Psychedelic Vox
1:35 All five sends at once
1:49 XY WRITE: record where you play the pad

Film 06: the sample tab with the captured phrase's waveform, beside the title Catch it late and the series marker with square 07 lit.

Catch the thing you already played#

Film 06 of 16 · 1:36

The best take is usually the one before you pressed record. The input keeps a rolling 60-second buffer, and CAPTURE LAST pulls the phrase you just played straight onto a pad.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 Play a phrase, press CAPTURE LAST: it is on a pad
0:10 START MON: monitor the input, the RETRO buffer fills
0:28 Target pad, layer and seconds
0:31 CAPTURE LAST
0:36 Play it back, then into a groove
0:56 RESAMPLE MIX: bounce four bars of the mix to one pad
1:17 CHOP TO PADS: eight slices
1:22 The slices, played in order

One pad, four sounds#

Film 07 of 16 · 2:06

Every pad has four layers, one in each corner, and where you strike the pad picks the sound. Load four sounds, give one its own reverb, fit a loop to the song's tempo, and let the sequencer play the groove from that one pad.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 One pad, four sounds
0:11 Load a sound into each layer
0:35 Every layer has its own settings
0:53 Fit an 88 BPM loop to 100 with MATCH BPM
1:03 COPY PAD, and a choke group
1:24 The groove, played from the one pad

Film 08: the sixteen pads relabelled as the notes A3 to B5 with one key framed in mint, beside the title Every pad a key and the series marker with square 09 lit.

Make a track with your pads as keys#

Film 08 of 16 · 2:44

Switch on KEYGRP and the sixteen pads become one keyboard. Pick a sound and a key, play over a loop, keep the melody with CAPTURE LAST, and add an arp on a second sound.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 The finished track
0:20 KEYGRP on: a sound and a key
0:30 Play in key
0:48 A beat and a melody
1:04 CAPTURE LAST: keep what you played
1:27 Add a layer: the arp
1:50 The track

Film 09: the break's waveform with a chop marker on every beat, beside the title Chop and flip and the series marker with square 10 lit.

Chop a break, flip a beat#

Film 09 of 16 · 2:55

Load a break, put a marker on every beat, and COMMIT CHOPS: eight chops land on eight pads and the break itself is never cut. Play them in a new order, click it into the GRID, and reverse one chop.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 The finished beat
0:19 Load a break
0:35 Chop it on the beat
0:51 In order, then a new order
1:18 Click it into the GRID
1:39 Reverse one chop, then the beat

Film 10: the song list during the export, the pickup row set to LAST and the chorus row playing, beside the title Build and play and the series marker with square 11 lit.

Build a song, then play it#

Film 10 of 16 · 2:09

Try the parts live with the clip launcher, write the song in SONG SECTIONS, turn a snare roll into a one-bar pickup with ½ BAR set to LAST, and let EXPORT ARRANGEMENT play the whole song once, in real time.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 The finished song
0:19 The parts, live
0:39 Write the song
0:52 The pickup
1:10 Export: the song, played once

Film 11: eight mixer faders near the top of a build, four drums at the floor and four chords at the top, beside the title One slider and the series marker with square 12 lit.

One slider, eight faders#

Film 11 of 16 · 2:25

A macro is one slider that moves many controls. Teach it eight mixer faders, give the drums a negative amount, then play it from the header and watch the mixer follow: a build, a drop, and the drums alone.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 One slider, eight faders
0:19 Teach it: LEARN, then touch the faders
1:00 Negative amounts
1:19 Play it from the header

Film 13: the whole workspace in LAYOUT mode with every panel outlined in red, beside the title Your Room and the series marker with square 13 lit.

Make it your room#

Film 13 of 16 · 1:35

Set up the room you make music in, while the music plays. LAYOUT mode lets every panel move: start from a preset, drag a border, save it as My Layout and lock it. MASTER EQ tunes the whole mix in one place, then switch rooms mid-groove: the pads big on the left to play, your own layout to mix.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

0:00 Make it your room
0:09 Arrange: presets, a border, My Layout
0:22 Tune: MASTER EQ
0:42 Switch rooms mid-groove

Nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play. Pressing play loads YouTube's player, which is run by Google and covered by Google's privacy policy. More films are added here as they are published.