Free synth for Reaktor
MIKRO PRISM is a new free instrument, based on the successful synthesizer REAKTOR PRISM. Using the same sound engine as its bigger brother and REAKTOR 5.5’s new dynamic ”Modal Bank” technology, this fully-playable instrument shines with a stunning range of brilliant sounds.
With 70 presets, the built-in cabinet simulation, filter, flanger, echo and reverb effects and some seasonal bell and chime sounds included, this gift is guaranteed to get you in the mood for the holidays!
Download Mac Version
Download PC Version
MIKRO PRISM requires the free REAKTOR 5 PLAYER orREAKTOR 5.5!
Insider’s Guide to Reaktor video tutorials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMtKiDNoy7s
The Insider’s Guide to REAKTOR is a downloadable video tutorial that can help you achieve pro-level skill with REAKTOR faster and more easily than any other tutorial on the market…
Produced by sound-design wizard Dan Worral (who has produced feature vids for FabFilter, Camel Audio, and others), this video spills the inside story on how REAKTOR “thinks,” getting you near guru status almost overnight and allowing you to bypass the endless hours of frustration that most producers sink into the program when they try to go it alone.
Here’s a small sample of what’s in store for you:
A sneaky tactic for using probability to generate totally original “out-there” sounds with Lazerbass.
Fly up the learning curve on REAKTOR’s Rhythmaker step-sequencing uber-tool (including a shortcut for getting to the precise rhythmic variations you’re after).
Put your loop skills on steroids with Sample Transformer, REAKTOR’s new sample manipulation tool.
Quickly “get” how REAKTOR “thinks” (nailing this will turbocharge your REAKTOR learning curve and put you light years ahead of most producers).
Clear away the confusion about what will (and won’t) save with your project files (and NEVER lose your work again).
Head over to Bluewaters learn more.
Using Xbox 360 as an OSC controller
This demo, by Anton Crnkovic, demonstrates using an XBox 360 controller as an OSC music controller.
I have wanted to do something creative with a game controller ever since I first discovered the [human interface] object in Max. And as soon as the new Nodes object was released I thought a great implementation would be to use it with some sort of joystick.
I’m using MaxMSP to receive all the control data from an XBox 360 controller and converting it to OSC messages to be used with any program that accepts OSC, in this case Reaktor. I’ve made each message range scalable as well, for fine tuning control possibilities.
I added 9 nodes for each joystick which gave me 11 control parameters (including XY) for each joystick! It was a little unpredictable to know what kinds of results that would achieve but that was the fun part
I pretty much randomly assigned all the controls to this ring modulating synth and buffer effect Buffeater. Fun times.Max for Live version in progress as well which will use Abletons device parameter control API. Will post when I have time to finish it.
Online Jam session has begun
Message from timexile
Tim Exile, laptop virtuoso, vocalist, and Reaktor software creator, has apparently taken a liking to the recording features SoundCloud is touting. He’s got a novel idea: you record samples into SoundCloud, he takes your samples and incorporates them into his set.
Since Soundcloud launched their awesome recording iPhone app last week it’s now really easy for you to record and upload sounds wherever you are. To mark this fine achievement in modern sociauditory engineering I’ve elected to have an online jam. Please join me at www.timexile.com/interactive and feed me sounds to jam with by recording something using the free Soundcloud app on your iPhone on the night and sending it to exile@timexile.com.
If you don’t have an iPhone you can use the browser version to send sounds. www.soundcloud.com
Head to www.timexile.com/discuss to dicuss
Here’s a sample:
Reaktor User Library Harvest week 48
This week includes a little bit of everything; an EQ, a ping pong delay, two subtractive synths, a granular sample transformer and an enhanced drum machine.
Reaktor week 48 by Stereoklang Produktion
Massive Q by Miro Pajic 
A 4 band parametric stereo equalizer (based on Slick EQ reviewed last week) with individual control for the left and right channels and a gentle high pass filter. This EQ boosts and cuts 10dB on each band. Each stereo channel must be set individually. The output gain knob has also a saturator which adds a third order harmonic. No snapshots included.
Ping Pong by Karl Friederich Meis 
Ping Pong is a pretty much straight forward two channel delay FX. The delay time for each of the channels are set with one knob named “ratio”. There’s no instruction so I’m not sure exactly how it works but it makes the delay time differ for each channel. Also the knobs Width and Stereo is not crystal clear, but the title gives you a hint 😉 The feedback has a low pass and high pass filter. Seven snapshots gives you a quick start.
Weird Boehmy neon by Bernd Keil 
This is a modification of Karl F. Meis Boehmy drum machine listed last week. Bernd has made a number of small changes including making the beat buttons in neon for increased readability and looks! He’s also added about 100 snapshots.
MikroSynth by Michael Marsh 
MicroSynth has two oscillators with an additional sync oscillator. All three oscillators can be mixed into a 4 pole filter with a dedicated LFO and an ADSR envelope. A simple arpeggiator is built in and a stereo panner with selectable waveforms. No instructions or explanations are available but it’s pretty much straight forward to use. 13 snapshots are included.
Asymmetry by John Bleech 
Asymmetry is two oscillator synthesizer with a 4 pole lowpass filter. Well, that sounds pretty much standard but if most synths only have puls wave modulation and leave the saw and triangle static, Asymmetry can modulate those waveform to. Both oscillators has a dedicated LFO for waveform modulation. Also a nice reverb is added. Tool tip explanations are available. Nine snapshots are included.
Grain cloud delay user engine by Baz .fr 
This is a stereo grain cloud sample player but it’s not using the grain cloud delay provided by NI, it build from the ground up by Baz. Each stereo channel has it’s own set of parameters and can/much load it’s own sample into an audio table. Baz explains that there’s something wrong with the pitch shift value but I had no problem making the cloud to rain… There’s no tool tips so unless your familiar with grain clouds it’s a bit of hit and miss, but there only a hand full of parameters so you’ll work it out pretty soon. Five snapshots provided.
Previous week of Reaktor user library harvest
Reaktor User Library Harvest week 47
This past week there’s fair batch of effects added to the user library but also a vintage drum machine and a nifty little synth. The level goes and bit up and down on the sound bytes but your ears should be safe unless you crank up the volume on the low parts too much!
Sound bytes week 47 by Stereoklang Produktion
Böhmy by Karl Friederich Meis 
Böhmy is a carefully made emulation of a drum machine unit from a Dr Böhm organ. I’m not really sure which though as the rear Doctor made a huge numbers of instruments including stand alone drum machines and some mono organ/drum machine hybrids.
In this ensemble you get all the sounds carefully sampled and all the rhythm patterns from the original! But then you can program you own patterns as well as play the individual sounds via midi or clicking some pads. If you are looking for Langsamer Walzer, Happy Beat pr BeatMarsch look no further! It even smells vintage…
Bernd Keil have been generous to upload a bank of 65 snapshots.
Little Sister by John Bleech 
Little Sister is the kid sister to Sidewinder by John Bleech. It’s a pretty simple two oscillator synth with a LP filter attached to each oscillator and a LFO per filter to control the frequency of the cut off. Then each oscillator uses multi-ramp to create a controlled amount of overtones. There aren’t not many multi-ramp synths in the user library. 45 snapshots are included.
Audio 2 Midi-Notes with Velocity by Tobiasz Kozlowski 
This is an effect that can send midi gates triggered by an audio signal. You then set manually which note you want to send. The velocity of the gate can be depending of the audio signal amplitude. No instructions included but some parameters do have hover tool tip.
Slick Compressor by Miro Pajic 
Here’s a straight forward compressor with saturation and a stereo widener added. You get threshold, ratio, knee, attack, release, gain and auto gain parameters to play with. Nice gui. 10 snapshots included.
Slick EQ by Miro Pajic
Slick EQ is a straight forward 4 band eq with gain, frequency and band control per band. Nice knobs! No snapshots.
Nasty Q by Miro Pajic 
Nasty Q is a equalizer that is not transparent. It will change the sound a bit, as soon as it’s inserted in the signal chain. It can do strong boosts but will not go crazy when peaking, even at quiet extreme settings.
The built in tube saturation is very audible (especially when boosting the bands) but doesn’t too harsh.
No snapshots. Again, as for the other FXs by Miro a pretty set of knobs.
Summary of previous week.
Reaktor User Library Harvest week 46
Here’s a brief summary of what’s been uploaded to the Reaktor user library this past week.
Reaktor harvest week 46 – sound bytes by Stereoklang Produktion
Dynamic Pocket Knive by Mete Atam 
Dynamic Pocket Knive is a sequenced Gate with Envelope and LFO Modulation. It’s described to have the following gater features; morphable trigger patterns, shuffle, tempo synced envelope shaping and LFO with variable Curves and a drawable LFO. Now this sounds pretty interesting but it turns out to be a bit difficult to get going as there is no overall instructions how is works, Just some very brief parameter descriptions. All though about 10 snapshots are included I didn’t really make much interesting with it trying for 10 minutes. So be prepared to investigate some learning time to make the most with this.
Massive Modular by Mete Atam 
This is a sample based drum machine with the sequencer and the sampler split in separate instruments. This way you can mix and match between the sequencer played and what drum kit is used. Also a FX section is available. All this is mainly based on NI’s drum machine Massive split in two. There’s no samples included in the ensemble so you need to add your own. Although I made some efforts for 10 minutes I didn’t make much useful with this ensemble. Maybe I’m overlooking something obvious! It’s probably pretty cool if you get it to work… There also a midi GUI for Battery included. As I don’t have Battery I couldn’t test it.
UniPat Sequencer by Kim Bostroem 
UniPat is a pattern based step sequencer with pitch, gate and 3 CC or NRPN lanes. Patterns can be shifted back and forth, raised and scaled up and down, copy and paste of patterns, additional controls include Tune, Gate duration, and Gate threshold so all in all quite a competent step sequencer!
optimus prime by Donald Phillips 
This is an audio FX with 8 separate effects including hp filter, pitch shifter, gate, stutter, ring modulator, reverse, gain and bit crusher; all controlled by note triggers and 2 LFOs. It all reminds me of the classic VST FX Glitch!
RE pitch by Shane Higgins 
This is just an update including adding another cross over at the end of the signal chain to remove overlap between pitch shifts. There is also a gate on each band as well as a pan per band. And a few more snapshots.
Re Pitch is multi band re-pitcher effect. Multi band means that you can treat different frequency bands with unique repitch settings. There are 4 bands so it adds up to quite a few controllers but most parameters have tool tips every this is quite straight forward to use the effect. The sounding result depends obvisously on the input but I generaly got a kind of low-fi grainy sound character.
mEC by Bernd Keil 
mEC is Easy Creator by Eric Le Guenan but with 11 more snapshots and a bit more fired stereo output.
Also what seem to be a intro guide to Reaktor in Japanese is uploaded by Tomoaki Otaka.
Golden Ensembles for Reaktor has been updated
Musicrow updates golden Ensembles to v2.35. All the ensembles are now fully compatible with Reaktor 5.5. The new update for Golden Ensembles also includes a new reaktor ensemble: DigiFreak.
DigiFreak is a unique synthesizer that takes the Lo-Fi sound to new extremes! This powerful synthesizer combines digital wave-shaping, special sound degradation processes, granular synthesis techniques, and advanced Lo-Fi effects to produce crumble, corrupted and disintegrated beautiful sounds – with an emphasized digital character.
DigiFreak Main Features:
– A library with more than 100 disintegrated beautiful sounds.
– Fresh digital flavor.
– Extreme digital wave-shaping.
– Special sound degradation tools.
– Integrated granular synthesis techniques.
– Advanced Lo-Fi effects.
– Six envelopes and many modulation paths.
– Special feedback-loop effect.
Golden Ensembles 2 now contains 40 ensembles, synthesizers and effects for NI Reaktor 5.
The upgrade is free for Golden Ensembles 2 owners. Musicrow offers Golden Ensembles 2 at a special price of 89 EUR until December 15, 2010 (regular price 119 EUR).
Product URL: www.mcrow.net/Reaktor%20Ensembles.htm .
Reaktor User Library Harvest week 45
Here’s a brief summary of what’s been uploaded to the Reaktor user library this past week.
Reaktor Harvest sounds bytes w45 by Stereoklang Produktion
WeAreGlass by Gabriel Mulzer 
Remember filling up dads wine glasses with water? Now you can do that in Reaktor. Play with wine glasses I mean. WeAreGlass is a physical model instrument of rubbing a glass rim. It has 10 parameters controlling the physical model and 3 The GUI has a slight glass touch. There’s only one snapshot to get you started. Based on my brief playing session the sound possibilities is quite narrow to playing wine glasses but the it does it really well if somewhat difficult to find the right playing technic on a keyboard. I would love to try a touch pad.
Wave Bouncer by Kristian Thom 
Here’s an ensemble showing the User Library at it ‘s best. Wave Bouncer is a remake of Kristian Thom’s Wave Scanner from 2002 combined with Chris List Newtonian Bouncer and the result is a synth with sonic capabilities not unlike Korg Wavestation. Although there’s a plenitude of parameters which might be a bit intimidating at first most are really just repeating the same for each of the eight steps in the wave sequence. A tape delay with reverb is also added. 20 snapshots give you a wonderful platform for explorations in the Boards of Canada territories!
Tape Buster by Stefan Knauthe 
Tape Buster is a tape emulating effect made initially by Kristian Thom (see above) here adapted by Stefan into a dedicated effect. Credit also goes to S. Millward for other stages of the Tape Buster. The effect is divided into 3 stages, wow & flutter, aging machine and tube distortion each with some pretty self explanatory parameters. One snapshot provided.
Easy Creator by Eric Le Guenan 
Easy Creator is a straight forward subtractive synth with 2 oscillators, lowpass filter and one envelope generator, chorus, delay and reverb. The GUI is pretty slick and some 40 snapshots are included.
Indecent Percusions by Paco Calostro 
Indecent Percusion is a sample based drum machine with a 4/8/16/32 step sequencer. Some 80 percussion samples are included. Each sample instruments is controlled by 4 parameters. Each stereo channel has a dedicated eq. 12 snapshots included.
Life.V1.3 Ekuacion Mode v1.0 by Paco Calostro 
Life.V1.3 Ekuacion Mode is a sample based drum machine controlled by a sequencer take from the Newscool ensemble from the factory library. Also a eq section is added.
Link to summary of previous week.
Reaktor User Library Harvest week 44
Here’s a brief summary of what’s been uploaded to the Reaktor user library this past week.
NuReed by Gabriel Mulzer 
The NuReed is a physical model of the vintage Hohner Pianet T. Although it uses a hammer instead of lifting action as the real thing uses and also offers different pickup options. There’s 18 faders and switches to control the sound. All but the volume is related to the physical model, like mass, impact, pickup off set etc. So unless you are familiar with physical models it’s little trial and error to get started but all parameters has a good tool tip description. The GUI has a nice vintage feeling to it. I’m not really familiar with the Hohner Pianet but to me this is a real welcome addition to the Reaktor as there are not that many electric pianos and no Pianets. If it sounds exactly like a real Pianet I don’t know but it sounds like a vintage electric piano to my ears. Only 3 snap shots are provided so there a lot of room for tweak exploration to find out the sonic possibilities.
Repitch by Shane Higgins 
This is a multi band re-pitcher effect. Multi band means that you can treat different frequency bands with unique repitch settings. There are 4 bands so it adds up to quite a few controllers but most parameters have tool tips every this is quite straight forward to use the effect. The sounding result depends obvisously on the input but I generaly got a kind of low-fi grainy sound character. Adding the revers option and the input is seriously mutilated. There’s only 5 snapshots so you need to be prepared to tweak on your own to make the most out of it.
Phaser MF 1.0 by Jim Hurley 
Phaser MF (Metaphysical Function)is a self propellering drone machine for making soundscapes.
The Metaphysical Function originaly part of the Electronic Intruments Vol 2 and then added to the R5.5 library This edition has been modified first by Simon Stockhousen and then by Jim Hurley. There’s now a number of version uploaded to the library. The majority of the modification are tidying things up and polishing but also making the audio path fully stereo. This version replaces the distortion effect with a phaser.
There’s no snapshots provided but to explore the ambient/eiirie/noisy/pulsating soundscapes just press the randomize button at the low right. To get some more instant results increase the random amount as it’s set to a quite low level. Also Jim has uploaded 16 snapshots previously. Don’t forget to add your own sample map, or buy one from Simon Stockhousen, as no samples are included in this ensemble. http://www.patchpool.de/Sounds/reaktorshop.html
Stereo Compressor by Lex Nowak 
Just like it’s called, a stereo compressor with a saturation option. All the standard parameters available like attack, threshold, ratio, release, knee and saturation for some character sounds. All sounds processing is made in Core.
klagetron003 by Wataru Owaki 
This is some kind of audio effect but I’m not really sure what is does. The description in the user library is only two words: Simple Noizer. The download is includes three ensembles that appears to be the same but the sounding result is quite different. The versions 001 and 002 gives some kind of wave shaping noise effect but the 003 version seem to be just straight bypass, more or less… The controls are just labeled with one letter not giving away much. No snapshots included. I haven’t spent much time with this so this is a secret to uncover!
Also Tomoaki Otaka has uploaded a number of user manuals for ensembles in Japanese. I don’t know Japanese but it looks like thorough work.
DATAMASKIN
