Building and Using a Reaktor Grain Delay in Kore 2 from Create Digital Media on Vimeo.

Let’s cut straight to the reason we use this stuff: we want crazy-sounding delays we can play with. Reaktor guru Peter Dines shows just how you’d build such a thing in Reaktor from the ground up for CDM’s Kore site. He also takes it one step further by creating not only the Reaktor ensemble, but also a Kore performance preset to match. The advantage of going this route: Kore provides a way of organizing parameters for control, performance, and automation.

This is another all-free download, so have at it. Now I feel like I’m in a patching race with Peter, because I’ve got some ideas of my own for how you might modify this basic idea; let’s see if I can actually make that happen.

Making sense of Kore

The other side of the minisite is we’re further exploring what Kore is for and how to make it work. We asked readers of the minisite to tell us their thoughts on how Kore is going and how they use it, which has yielded an interesting comment thread:

How Do You Kore?

Our main focus, of course, is simply teaching people how to use the tool effectively – from there, you can decide whether it’s for you and how you want to use it. To that end, I’ve got the first half of a tutorial up that explains what for me was the biggest draw and the most initially confusing, which is the control pages Kore uses to assign automation and physical control. I walk through why you’d want this, how it works, and how you manage different levels of the control pages:

Demystifying Kore Control Pages for Automation and Performance, Pt. I: Different Page Types

We also have some important basics, like Kontakt automation, how to get a normal mixer view, and external MIDI control.

Coming soon: I’m planning some short features on each of NI’s instruments. We’ll have to call it the “get it out of the shrinkwrap” series, especially for people who got the overwhelming set of instruments that comes with Komplete.

The PSP 608 reduces other multi-tap delays to tears. 24-bit, 192 kHz, of course, but check the specs: feedback, stereo image and position, delay time, multimode filter, modulation, drive/tape saturation, and reverb for each individual tap. There’s a full-featured LFO and envelope follower for modulation, and with MIDI control of each parameter, yes, you could base an entire performance around this one plugin.

Overkill? You bet. Ain’t it beautiful?

The prolific PSP developers will be at AES next month, so expect more from here in NYC.

PSP 608 Multi-Delay [PSP]
Compatibility: Mac, Windows, VST, AU, DirectX, RTAS, HTDM
Pricing: US$149; discounts and bundles available
Demo? Yes

In follow-up to my story Tuesday about the new Dubstation from Audio Damage (and other assorted Dub links), ever-vigilant reader Adrian Anders is here with a couple of free VST alternatives. I still think the Dubstation may be worth US$40, but there’s no reason not to check these out, too, if you’ve got a PC. I’ve used the Retro Delay on my PC laptop; it’s fantastic. Take it away, Adrian:

ConcreteFX’s Tape Delay
[Download ZIP]
This SOB packs some major punch and has such original features as bit-crushing, distortion, 2 flutter LFOs, 2 multi-mode filters, and ducking, all inside the delay loop itself. Has to be heard to be believed how devastating the feedback on this delay can get. Not for the faint of heart (or ears).
Peep the other CoFX freebees [at a KVR audio post]. Ed: HUGE list there; check it out!

E-Phonic’s Retro Delay
What’s great about this delay is that the delay can be modulated (by the pitchbend no less!) in real time without the glitches in the audio normally associated with digital delay time-modulation. Furthermore, the delay also features the oh so neat reverb module that can create dub-style reverb->delay effects that I have yet to make with any other plug-in.

PC (Win) only (time to whip out that P4 you have hidden in your closet!) Ed: So THAT’S where my tricked-out P4 tower went! -PK

Thanks, Adrian. Got a favorite effect? Let me know. By the way, after my abysmally-incomplete Dub music roundup Tuesday (so I was in a hurry, okay?), you can expect a fuller story soon. Send your nominations for favorite artists + links if you haven’t already. Cheers! eers! ers! rs! s!

[Updated] Mac Plugin: Never fear, penniless Mac users. King Dubby for AU gives you a free Mac-compatible dub plugin; apparently some compatibility issues for some users so let us know how it goes. Thanks, Symbiotic!

King Dubby

For fans of dub, there’s just nothing like a delay loop, with feedback cranked up and echoes going going going going going going going . . . okay, you get the idea. Our friends at Audio Damage have just created a US$39.95 plugin that gives you all you need for trippy dub effects:

Audio Damage Dubstation Plugin (Windows VST; Mac AU/VST)

The best part is the cell-shaded interface; it looks fantastic. And Dubstation covers all the basics: syncable dub echoes (on/off switch), reverse, low-cut filter, and analog-style repitching of echoes. I’ve really enjoyed Audio Damage’s work in the past: clean interfaces, some character to the sound (I’m still a fan of their “dark” reverb), and MIDI learn in the VST plugs.

Does this replace Logic Pro’s fantastic tape delay? No way. But, it’s also $960 cheaper and can run in Ableton Live, so sign me up!

More on dub:

Wikipedia on Dub

History of the guys who didn’t use VST: Check out BBC’s excellent history of Dub, including its rightful ruler King Tubby. (See also BBC’s King Tubby tribute.) Audio samples included. You’ll also find a zillion links at Dub.com, and, yes, there is a Dub blog.

Thievery Corporation are among my favorite electronic artists right now; they’re a superb example of how you can take the influence of genres like Dub and make it your own. Their weapon of choice, not incidentally, for its deep library of sound design effects: Apple’s Logic Pro.

Of course, you’d better throw some extra tricks in there, because the best dub effects come straight from a tape recorder: the effect was acheived by taking advantage of the gap between the play head and the record head on a tape deck; the dubber literally fed the output signal back into the input of the tape to create endless loops. The only way to manipulate the length of that delay was to change the speed of the recorder, thus repitching the sound. With digital tools at our disposal, it seems only right to think up new twists with the technology we’ve got now.

Updated: As readers have pointed out, I flubbed this post as far as pointing to more music. Sorry, gang — the Thievery Corporation reference is just an example of someone taking the techniques of dub and applying it to genre-mixed sounds. Oh, and you can easily tell that they’re using Logic Pro.

I should have added links to Basic Channel, and the rich selection at Hard Wax of Berlin. Just make sure you have a turntable; those records do get mighty scratched up when you try to cram them into a CD player, let me tell you.

Moog Music has officially announced the return of their beloved analog delay, in the form of the new MF-104Z delay unit. This is definitely a “luxury” model, though: US$729 buys you one second of delay. It’s a classic, but it comes at a price.

Nothing on the Moog site yet, but if you’re at NAMM you can check it out in person; see the press release at Harmony Central.