Propellerhead guru James Bernard has finished up his 52 week series on Reason + Record. The last four videos offer an in-depth look at Reason’s Thor Polysonic Synthesizer.

In the first video, Bernard looks at Thor’s oscillator types:

This week we’ll be focusing on the first major oscillator types in Thor. Each oscillator has a specific synth technology behind it and each one has a particular sound that will be suitable for different uses. If you’ve found yourself relying on presets for Thor or if you tend to go straight to the analog oscillator because it’s familiar to you, you’ll definitely want to get to know these other oscillators. They’ll expand your sonic palette and ramp up your sound design chops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IQ9LIPsFMk

Next up, Thor’s Multi-Osc, Noise Osc and Filters:

Today we’ll be picking up where we left off with Thor’s oscillator types, namely the multi-oscillator and the noise oscillator. There’s a lot to these simple looking modules! From there we’ll move over and take a look at the filter sections in Thor and I’ll introduce you to the semi-modular routing buttons which help move signals through Thor.

In the third video, Bernard digs into Thor Filters, Shaper, Envelope, LFO & Mod Matrix:

this week we’ll be diving deeper into the filter types in Thor – looking at the State Variable Filter, the Comb Filter, and the Formant Filter. You’ll also learn about the self-oscillator included with some of these filters. From there we’ll move through Thor’s semi-modular signal path to see how you can tap into the sound-bending power of the shaper, the mod envelope, and the Modulation Matrix.

The final episode of the series goes in-depth into Thor’s Modulation Bus and Step Sequencer:

In this final week’s Tip I’m going to show you around Thor’s final sections: The Modulation Bus and Step Sequencer. With these sections under your belt you’ll have completed my multi-week “Synth School” series and hopefully be able to approach custom synth sound design with a whole new bag of tricks.

This series does a great job of covering a lot of information, but doing it in a fairly accessible way.