Reaktor Tips

Radio News Bulletin Update!

2009-09-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

A few changes around here.... I've moved to the reaktortips.com domain name - blogspot promises to keep forwarding reaktortips.blogspot.com to reaktortips.com but we shall see if traffic takes a dive. I've also decided to ditch the Google ads.

In actual Reaktor news, I have a new instrument in the works that will be a free bonus to ParamDrum owners, and will debut at the same time as the newly skinned 'drum. Soon, my pretties.

ParamDrum: new GUI [teaser]

2009-08-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

From accomplished interface designer Jonathan Style.

Kontakt factory selection

2009-08-05T17:07:00.001-07:00

Even if you're not a Kontakt owner, you can still make use of a nice buffet of samples and instruments drawn from the Kontakt library by using the free Kontakt player and downloading the Factory Selection:

BAND
13 instruments are taken from this collection, which contains all standard band instruments found in genres like rock, jazz, funk, pop, r'n'b and hip-hop, covering e-guitars, basses, acoustic drum-kits, a drawbar organ and various e-pianos and more.

WORLD
Six world instruments are culled from the World Collection, which contains many exotic instruments from all over the globe, including flutes and reed instruments, bagpipes, plucked instruments and percussions.

SYNTH
12 instruments are included from this category, putting a wide range of contemporary synth pads, basses, leads and drum kits at your disposal.

VINTAGE
13 instruments are courtesy of the Vintage Collection, which handles the legendary sounds of analog synthesizers and keyboards.

URBAN BEATS
Five instruments from the Urban Beats collection complete the free KONTAKT FACTORY SELECTION. Urban Beats contains ready-for-action drum loop production kits, consisting of drum loops, single loop tracks (snare, hi-hat loop etc. separated) and the individual slices.

Now here's the bummer: the instruments can only be used in the free Kontakt 3.5 player, because the samples are in a proprietary format and not WAV or AIFF. However, you can still get some Reaktor flavored sample bending by running it through Reaktor as an effect and using something like my grain delay.

MIDI shoes

2009-08-03T18:16:00.001-07:00

BeatSneaks - Musical Shoes from Tom Hobson on Vimeo.

Plus how-to. that is all.

[via]

A primitive beat-repeat

2009-07-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a little something I'm working on as part of a larger project. I tossed a little beat delay effect in here, an fx unit I've had lying around for a while. It's extremely simple and makes no effort to smooth out the rough edges and clicks, but I like it anyways.

Aqua by peterdines

You want to map some midi keys to it and play it live, is how it works. Uses almost no CPU, and has an extremely simple structure, ripe for exploitation.

Download the Live Beat Delay here on the ParamDrum drop. There's no password on the Beat Delay file.

ParamDrum TR Edition now available

2009-07-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

The main idea behind ParamDrum is to have a fun and fast way of not only prototyping beats, but of creating variations that can be saved and recalled either in live performance or recorded and arranged into the backbone of a track.

ParamDrum TR Edition from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

Changes in this edition:

it's red. Wow, is it red. Say, did you notice that it's red?
new core-based probability macro (I've been meaning to clean that thing up for a while)
new morphable sample sets. Morphable? Yes - they're grouped into sets of ten to twenty samples that gradually fade between two sounds, perfect for using with the sample select automation recorder.
new snapshots
saturator macro on panel B to add some boules
pan controls for middle and top samplers
it's red.

It's available on the drop. The password is the same as for the other files.

You can also download a PDF that explains the MIDI controller mappings and other details. (note: PDF is not password protected)

Don't have a password yet? It's a measly old $12.50, a bargain, a steal. New to ParamDrum and Reaktor instruments? Keep in mind that this instrument requires you to have the full version of NI Reaktor.

You must enter a valid email address so I can send you a password for the file. There will be a place for you to enter it at Paypal.

Update: Here is the previous version of the instrument, using some of the default samples that ship with Reaktor (from the Massive ensemble, actually)

Reaktor drum machine with parameter locks from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

Both versions are available on the drop.

Coming Soon: ParamDrum TR edition

2009-07-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Does TR stand for Transistor Rhythm, Testarossa, or something else? You tell me, and hopefully no one gets sued.

This one has a new sample set and a new look, plus more snaps. Working on some snaps for it now... hope to have it ready for July 4 launch, comrades.

Starting from Scratch in Paramdrum

2009-05-26T05:33:00.000-07:00

A user asked a question about ParamDrum:

How can I create a "blank" snapshot? Without any samples loaded, automations, etc.?

A good question. First, to unload the sample maps, right click on one of the drum sample waveforms and choose "open map editor". Then highlight all the samples (shift-click works) and choose "delete" from the dropdown menu in the sample map editor.

Then use this technique to repopulate the sample map with your own samples.

The other thing to do is in the snapshot dialogue, click the "default" button to reset all controls to default values. Since I hadn't optimized the ensemble for this - for example, it sets all the drum sequences to 0.5 instead of zero, which is useless - I've uploaded a new blank version of ParamDrum for people who want to start from scratch. Get it on the drop - same password as before. When you click on "default", it initializes with values that are more reasonable. Remember to add samples or you won't hear anything.

If you don't already have a password for the ParamDrum archives, you can get one by following the purchase instructions here.

The Warpers are coming

2009-05-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be there... I'm bringing a laptop with some of my Reaktor creations and if I can overcome my characteristic reticence maybe I'll hook up and make some noise.

If you're in town and you have some cool audiovisual gadgetry or creations, come on by.

A word about Maschine...

2009-05-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

Semi offtopic - I received NI Maschine a little more than a week ago and feel compelled to say something about it. It's awesome. I wanted it sooo badly I'd fall asleep thinking about it. While at home I'd wait near the door, jumping from one foot to the other like a little kid who needs to go to the - well anyway, I was jazzed, to say the least. And I have to tell you, that excitement was not misplaced.

Maschine is fun. Seriously, this rig brings the party. I like making music on it and I like the music I'm making. I don't think there's a higher compliment you can pay a product than that, hm? The hardware / software integration is well thought out. It comes with great sample content, great effects, and a drop dead sexy control surface that begs to be played. This is one of the rare instances where an advertising catch phrase turns out to be true - you really can "get lost in the flow".

UPDATE: I think, based on some comments on Reddit, that I'm misleading people into thinking that Maschine is a Reaktor oriented thing or strictly a MIDI control surface. Not at all. It's an integrated hardware / software workstation similar to an MPC. This video series from NI will give you the lowdown:

Resource usage is not super light so pay attention to the system requirements; if you run it on an older system, expect to make some compromises, like lowering the per-group polyphony. I'm looking forward to the 1.1 update to address drawbacks like the missing MIDI out from the software's step sequencer.

Here's how Maschine relates to Reaktor - you can run it as a MIDI controller, and edit the layout with this included software:

Using the generic template in the Maschine controller, you can open up just about any software that receives MIDI and start using it. The pads send note on and off, so boom, right out of the box you can create basslines and rhythms in third party software. You don't need to load the full Maschine software to do this - just hit shift-control on the hardware to switch into controller mode. Because of this design, Maschine used as a pure hardware controller is not resource hungry, and you won't notice any RAM or CPU cycles going missing if you use it with Ableton Live or FL Studio in this way.

At the moment I'm experimenting with ways to integrate it with Reaktor and the ParamDrum specifically - when you send MIDI to the Maschine hardware, the specified pads or buttons light up so you can do some interesting visual feedback.

Expect to see more about Reaktor and Maschine here in the future!

ParamDrum initial release

2009-05-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

Here's the initial public release of the ParamDrum, the Reaktor drum machine with Machine Drum style parameter locks.

Reaktor drum machine with parameter locks from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

Reaktor Paramdrum 04 by peterdines

The most important features:

Note velocity represents probability a step will trigger
Enter and delete notes with a MIDI keyboard
Record per-step automation with MIDI CCs
Independent sequence length for each of the three sequencers
Extremely low CPU usage - 1 to 3 percent CPU on my four year old laptop
fun beat sequences practically fall out of it

This is a drum sequencer for people who want a fast, easy way to create unique sounding electronic beat sequences. It doesn't have a compressor or reverb - surely you already have these things yourself, right? - what it has is a fun and fast workflow, and the ability to produce sequences that will surprise you as you create them. It's not a one-button "tada, here's your beat" randomizer, nor is it a traditional sequencer that expects you to painstakingly determine every detail. It's a nice balance between the two. I put a lot of effort into the usability and workflow and I hope you'll find it as much fun as I do to work with.

The file, which can be downloaded here, is a password protected RAR. Want the password? It's $12.50 USD. What you get for that is the ParamDrum, an instructional PDF, access to updates (remember to enter your email when you purchase!), and occasional bonus downloads like custom sample maps.

You must enter a valid email address so I can send you a password for the file. There will be a place for you to enter it at Paypal.

I'm going to be using the ParamDrum in a project involving Maschine, the new NI hardware / software package, and a modified version may eventually see a sponsored release at kore.noisepages.com. If that happens, anyone who purchases the current version of ParamDrum will receive another package of equal or greater value from my private reserve.

Modifying Spiral's Scales

2009-04-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was talking to someone on the NI Reaktor forums about this and decided to post it here for everyone's benefit.

The Spiral instrument, which sends algorithmically generated MIDI to other instruments or synths, has a limited number of scales and you might want to customize it to add your own scales. Here's how to do it.

You have to dig down through the macros into trig note -> pitch correction -> scales and make the "scales" table visible.

Then you can choose the notes you want to be included and excluded from a given scale.

Of course, then the scales won't match the labels... I'd advise modifying the chromatic scale as your custom one because it's the easiest to return to its default value (all notes included, none excluded).

It's interesting programming in Spiral, the way they did this - looks like the instrument retains the previous pitch if the current pitch is not in the scale.

Reaktor drum machine with parameter locks

2009-04-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Another peek at what's cooking at ReaktorTips Sound Laboratories.

This is a granular drum sampler I'm working on in Reaktor that has Elektron MachineDrum style parameter locks. I think it sounds pretty good so far. Note the ridiculously low CPU usage - 2% to 2.1%

Reaktor drum machine with parameter locks from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

At the moment, the knobs are used to write looping parameter automation per step, and this works great with Kore 2 hardware controllers, but entering percussion sequences must be done with the mouse. I've tried using a keyboard to enter data but it's hard and fiddly to get the exact velocity you want on a given step, and a pain to remove steps.

I'm going to wait till my Maschine arrives and use its drum pads to trigger sequence entry. The sequencer doesn't send MIDI yet, but the controller does and from everything I've heard it's a joy to use.

Sorry to keep teasing you guys with this stuff but no downloads - I'm trying to think of a way to monetize this, either with a small payment for the ensemble plus documentation, or maybe something sponsored. And yet at the same time, I want to share. Ah, conflict.

Dr. Who Theme on Tesla coils

2009-04-09T10:20:00.000-07:00

I mean, as a guy who primarily uses software, I sometimes get hardware jealousy, but this is... this is...

*speechless*

via

Granular Sampler Download - Very Simple Grainer 02

2009-03-31T21:59:00.000-07:00

Didn't I say I'd have the next installment in this series ready "next week" a year ago? Dang.

Very Simple Grainer 02 from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

Here's a new and improved version of the Very Simple Grainer, with some new features, fixes and a couple of new samples. I've moved controls around, added the very nice sounding Core saturator that comes with Reaktor 5, added LFOs to the grain size and speed parameters, and fine tuned a couple of other things. If you've been following the material I've posted here and at Noisepages, you should be able to puzzle it out. If you have questions or feature requests, post a comment.

The first iteration, with instructional PDF, is here.

Update: you'll want to add your own samples as I've only included two. Use this technique and set them all to a root key of zero.

Chowning Machine rhythm sequencer

2009-03-31T07:30:00.000-07:00

Reaktor user Joshua Kern has posted a fun drum / rhythm machine to the Reaktor forum to get some feedback from users and find out if it's library-worthy before uploading to the official library. Download the ensemble here and give the man some feedback.

I posted a version with a clock fix in that thread, so it doesn't skip the first note when running standalone. I think Joshua is being overly cautious - the user library has seen much humbler contributions than this snappy little number.

Reaktor and other NI plugs in FL Studio, a second look

2009-03-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

After some more testing, I conclude that the situation with NI plugs in FL is still not perfect, but it is improved. I'm gonna go ahead and start a project with Reaktor and Kore in FL, and see what happens... the CPU meter in Reaktor and Absynth still fluctuates a bit, but comparing performance with and without fixed size buffers, it doesn't make a noticeable difference in the Windows CPU meter.

Reflex has posted an updated VST wrapper here that fixes the MIDI in port problem - handy for directing multiple MIDI channels to multi-out plugins like Kore.

Technicians of the Museum of Techno

2009-03-24T21:08:00.000-07:00

Dave Pape of Reaktor Diary fame:

It's part of a series called the Sherry Sessions (view them in a playlist here) where Mssrs Braidy (me in a ginger wig) and Cornwell (my mate Joe in a hat) discuss the world through a lens of drunken techno obsession.

English folk can do no wrong when it comes to techno and comedy. (I do hope they're avoiding those metabolically bisturbile substances)

Good News for NI Plugs in FL Studio

2009-03-22T13:25:00.001-07:00

I'm a big fan of the FL Studio DAW software, and also a big fan of NI plugins. In the past this has been a problem because of an incompatibility that caused CPU spikes in some NI plugins running in FL. Specifically, in Reaktor this manifested as a constant fluctuation of the CPU meter, even without an ensemble loaded. I've also noticed this behavior in Absynth. It's been possible to compensate by setting the plugins to run with fixed-size buffers, but that has two undesirable consequences; one, it increases the latency for those plugins, putting them slightly out of sync with other elements in the mix and two, it takes away the ability to use multiple outputs to separate mixer tracks in FL.

Well, the new 8.5 beta of FL solves all that! I was initially excited to read that the new beta lets plugins running with fixed size buffers use multiple outputs - but then I discovered a new audio setting called "align tick lengths" that makes those large fixed buffers unnecessary. The mouse-over hint for the align tick lengths checkbox tells us "may increase CPU performance" and they aren't kidding.

Chatting with head FL developer Gol over at the FL forums, it emerged that what this option does is to activate a teensy eensy weensy global fixed size buffer, so that everything is processed in 4 or 8 sample chunks rather than leaving a "remainder". That's negligible in terms of latency, and the fact that it's global means that everything stays on the same page, synchronization-wise.

This is fantastic, because now I can load up Kore in FL and Reaktor in Kore and get one of my favorite DAWs, my favorite control surface and my favorite plugins working together smoothly with no hitches, glitches or handicaps.

Licensed FL producer edition users can download the beta through their account page. Did I mention that there's lots of new goodies in it as well? Gross Beat, for one, appears to be part of the free update. The full list of additions and fixes is extensive.

Some News on the Reaktor Platform

2009-03-18T10:52:00.001-07:00

This was published back in January but only got mentioned on the official forum recently by Sowari (Phil Durrant):

Native Instruments names Mate Galic as new CTO and President

Previous President Stephan Schmitt will now fully concentrate on his crucial role in Native Instruments’ product development, with a special focus on hardware engineering and the further evolution of the groundbreaking REAKTOR platform.

Good, so they haven't abandoned us yet. Keep the faith, boys, keep the faith

Ernest Meyer's Heavens On Earth

2009-03-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

People who go back a few years with Reaktor will recognize the name Ernest Meyer as the creator of some of the most ambitious sequenced monster synths in the user library. Now Ernest has his own site set up, and in exchange for free registration, you can download most of the instruments in his metasequencing series.

These instruments are no longer available in the NI user library, and I say you would be a fool not to go grab them from Ernest if you don't have them already. Overwhelmed? Start with Hume, one of my favorite Ernest instruments.

The free ensembles cover a lot of territory, and once you've decided you like where this is all going, it's time to check out the massive for-pay Husserl ensemble.

This self modulating beast delivers sixteen channels of morphing MIDI and comes with an extensive 70+ page manual. I wish I had more to say about it but at the moment I'm still at the point-and-gape stage. Once I figure out how to build my own snaps for it I'll put up some audio and video.

Vintage Graphical Skinning Tutorial

2009-03-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

The aptly named Jonathan Style creates some of the finest styles in Reaktor skins and GUI elements. In this post at his blog you'll find a tutorial on creating your own graphics. He has a lot more material at his site so check it out - simply gorgeous graphics.

My own approach to Reaktor GUI design is minimal at best - I like to use the built in tools and maybe work with colors a bit, because my stuff is always in a state of rebuilding and flux. But if you have a finished work, laying a nice skin across it can really change the way you view it and work with it.

Fast Sample Wrangling with Reaper, Edison and Reaktor

2009-03-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

How do you deal with samples and MP3s that you want to use as raw material in Reaktor? Reaktor has an audio browser, but it doesn't read compressed formats so they have to be converted beforehand. Then you'll probably want to break them down into chunks so you don't have to import a three minute song to get a ten second drum break or koto sample - so you have to fire up a separate audio editor and cut things up ahead of time.

FL Studio is one of my go-to programs for this, especially for dealing with large numbers of samples. It has a great sample browser sidebar which previews-on-select your compressed or uncompressed audio, and the integrated FL version of the Edison wave editor makes it a snap to grab a selected area of a sample and drag it into a sampler channel or the playlist. This works for just about any audio file, including compressed formats like Ogg and MP3.

This is handy for prototyping things and trying out ideas, but the built in sampler channels are limited and I'd rather be dragging things into Reaktor. So can you drag a sample or a piece of a sample from Edison into Reaktor running as a plugin in FL Studio? Of course not - that would be too easy.

The next step for me was to try the standalone Edison sound editor and see if it can drag selections into standalone Reaktor's sample map. Nope, that didn't work either.

Finally, I loaded up Reaktor in Reaper, selected a sample from Reaper's media explorer (it's very similar to a Windows file explorer window), and opened it in Edison. Magically, dragging a selected area from Edison into Reaktor worked now! Reaper is voodoo, kids. I don't question it too much, I just use it and be thankful.

Sample Drag and Drop with Edison, Reaper and Reaktor from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

The media explorer tab, like the browser in FL, works with compressed or uncompressed audio and can preview on select. And of course Edison can deal with compressed or uncompressed audio, so these two plus Reaktor make a super sampling triumvirate powerhouse. Jeez, I should be writing ad copy. Anyways, go grab 'em, because the demo versions of both programs are non expiring and will allow you to do what I've demonstrated here.

Reaper

Edison

Frame 0.3 beta - download

2009-03-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

I'm crossposting this from Lambent Studio because people are asking about it in the thread below, and Reaktor Tips gets more traffic; I guess I'll post Reaktor related stuff here in the future, where people expect it to be. :-)

Here it is:

Tada! The initial release of the Frame looper, made to emulate the realtime-manipulable start and loop points of Ableton's Simpler instrument. It's a powerful and convenient way to play with samples, which makes the dearth of samplers that can do it so shocking.

Frame Beta 0.3 from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

In this clip I'm alternately adjusting start and loop points by clicking and dragging on the waveform, and using the knobs. The knobs can be mapped to MIDI controllers or (better) the high-res knobs on the Kore 2 controller. Initially I had tried to do this with the sample loop module, but that caused clicks because of the lack of crossfade / ramping. Eventually I hit on the idea of using a grain cloud module with grain overlap set to one - so the single grain, in effect, is acting as a loop. And the great thing about the grain cloud module, unlike the grain resynth, is that the grain can be arbitrarily long.

When I interviewed Phil Durrant, one of the things that came up was the lack of a split library in Reaktor 5 - there were only "premium" bells and whistles ensembles, and no simple, easy to modify examples. Frame is an instrument that tries to do just one thing, and do it well, with a clean easy to modify structure.

Read the notes in the instrument properties and tooltips. If you have suggestions for improvement, let me know, unless your suggestion involves sticking a reverb macro in it. ;-)

previously

Reaktor drum machine

2009-03-10T13:44:00.001-07:00

Here's a peek at a Reaktor drum machine I'm working on and a couple of grooves it created.

Reaktor Booper w Custom Samples by peterdines