The days (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least) have grown shorter, so it’s time to put in some extra hours working on music production. Native Instruments have released a big selection of synthesis sounds, sampled instruments, and multiple effects in a free, Kore Player-based instrument, in case you haven’t already heard the news via NI’s site. While they’re presets, there are enough macro controls and variations that, combined with your own effects, you can certainly make these your own. And if nothing else, you can drown out the sound of overplayed holiday picks – just make yourself a soundscape, put it on your iPod or phone, plug in those earbuds, and have a Very Spaced-Out Holiday instead.

Holiday Selection 2009

Incidentally, Kore Player works just fine for me on Linux using WINE, as do NI’s own audio interfaces, so you can even spread the goodness to the penguin-themed operating system.

It’s a strange and wonderful sampling instrument and live rig, capable of mangling and remixing live, synced to tempo. It’s proof that live computer performance doesn’t have to be in only one tool, or use one technique. It’s a ready-to-play, affordable instrument you can pick up and use. It’s a Reaktor patch gurus can pick apart and learn from, along with other resources from one of Reaktor’s masters. It’s a new blog and an opportunity to talk about live performance. It’s an EP release.

It’s actually all of these things – a tool, but more than a tool. The Finger, a US$79 / EUR 69 instrument, is a product, first and foremost, created by master live electronic performer and hacker Tim Exile. Tim is such a dedicated Reaktor user that he once managed to give himself a repetitive stress injury from connecting patch cords. (Not recommended.) You can run this thing out of the box using the free Kore Player, or get in deeper with a full version of Kore, or get into the patch itself with a copy of Reaktor 5 (also included in Komplete 5 and 6). It’s quite a product, too. I could try to explain it, but I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as Tim does in the video.

I’m not sure I agree with the marketing material’s claim that this is “a new type of live performance and remix effect.” In fact, Reaktor, Max/MSP, and other tools have led to all sorts of similar, original performance tools. Unlike going into a gig with just an Ableton Live set (something I’m doing in, literally, fifteen minutes), having a custom tool means focusing on performance techniques. And “new” hardly matters – Tim is a ninja at working with Reaktor’s deep sound DSP layer, Core (not to be confused with Kore). Whether it’s new or not, this is the ultimate patch from one of Reaktor’s masters. Along with Reaktor creator Stephan Schmitt’s Spark, it’s proof that sound packs from NI – or anyone else for that matter – don’t have to be limited to stock presets.

More than that, though, The Finger is connected to a music release by Tim, and is already triggering discussion of live performance and sound design – issues that go beyond any one tool. Tim has started a new blog to talk about his own take on live performance, starting with more info on his EP and some tracks you can hear:

http://thenowwave.blogspot.com/

Other folks I know have picked up The Finger and started to play with it, including the underlying Reaktor patch. Most notably, see Richard Devine transform The Finger from a Sound-Like-Tim-Exile machine into a Richard-Devine-Sonic-Insanity-Generator. (See, just because you use someone else’s tool doesn’t have to mean you need to sound like them.) With Max for Live coming, hackers getting smarter and slicker with open source tools like Processing, ChucK, SoundCollider, and Pd, and techno-literacy again on the rise – more connected than ever by these Interwebs – I think we could be in store for a really wonderful age of creativity, in which people make part of the craft of music making the craft of tool making, as well. Designing a tool, after all, is designing a system, in the same way that composition (in any medium) is about designing a system. Finally, instead of keeping that to ourselves, we can actually share the whole process.

In the meantime, let’s watch those videos, on Reaktor, The Finger, and more.

Richard Devine takes on The Finger:

Native Instruments The Finger vs Richard Devine from Richard Devine on Vimeo.

Tim Exile performing in Reaktor:

Tim shows his Reaktor-based setup – not just The Finger, but beyond:

Related tools:

Updated based on feedback in comments See also…

Sugar Bytes Artillery2, which focuses more on effects – and offers a whopping amount of effects variety, from step-sequenced buffer scratchers to vocoding. As with The Finger, the idea is to map effects to keys.

Rekkerd notes that Sugar Bytes has just discounted Artillery2 to 50% through October. Devoted loop manglers will buy both. I’m going to wait for a Richard Devine video in which he routes Artillery2, Lucifer, and The Finger together in one chain, then randomizes all the settings – your move, Richard.

The Lucifer plug-in is now discontinued, but Devine Machine offer a range of related looper/performance tools – from the practical tools to the manglers.

The basic ideas here I think are worth copying: making use of the keyboard to control things live rather than having modulation all running automatically, routing different effects together for mangled results, and loop recording and effects that are synced it time are all useful concepts to combine. I’d love to see people push those concepts in various directions, and the exact combination of ingredients you want is likely to be personal, so it’s well-suited to DIY concoctions, too.

ParamDrum TR Edition from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

Imagine a machine that lets you walk a thin line between control and chaos. You’ll be tweaking it, for sure – you’ll want to invest a sufficient amount of time shaping its sounds and adjusting its instruments to alter its flightpath. But once set in motion, it will give you variety and delicious insanity.

That’s the idea behind Peter Dines’ ParamDrum, a Reaktor drum machine with granular goodies inside providing sample manipulation and a set of clear sequenced controls for adjusting parameters. The “Param” bit refers to the parameters you’ll control – pitch + sample select + speed + size (of the sample) + smooth (granular) + swing. These parameters are unleashed against a sequence that you’ll likely never fully control – but that will never feel like it’s simply on autopilot, either. You can then load your samples into three players, which can be conceived as bass + clap/tom/snare + hat or something else entirely.

It may sound out of control, but “control” in the MIDI sense is essential. You can control step probability with MIDI velocity, tap in sequences with MIDI notes, and record playable automation with MIDI CCs from your hardware encoders. Pete has worked out a lovely template for Native Instruments’ Maschine controller, for instance.

ParamDrum, then, becomes a factory for variations. It allows you to iterate through plenty of results you don’t like to the one that’s perfect, for production or performance.

ParamDrum is a cheap US$12.50, though you do need a copy of Reaktor 5 (also included in Komplete) to use it. The upside is, it’s editable, and you get Pete’s immaculately well-organized patch macros, so it’s something you can modify easily or use as a model for your own patches.

Full details on Pete’s noisepages page, Modulations, which is also a new repository for his thoughts on sound design, Reaktor patching, SuperCollider learning, and other music technological geekery.

ParamDrum
modulations@noisepages

Planet ParamDrum

The other cool thing about ParamDrum in our throwaway technological world is that it’s already started to attract a little community of users.

Loopy C, master of strange sounds, has turned ParamDrum into his personal “hyperdrummer” for a track called Jah Frazzin Zooks, which he describes in a kind of experimental abstract poetry:

‘Frippish’, vari-tempo spectralisms meet Ornette Coleman-influenced electronica, hyperperformance machines jamming in the cafe at the end of the Universe (which for some reason look like fractal vaginas? (above)). Duo form.

The full track can be heard at his blog:
Jah Frazzin Zooks

Brettwiththedobro has a screencast (above) showing his own rig, with custom samples and the combination of Kore and Reaktor for control. (If you’re interested in the Kore and Reaktor combination, Pete’s previeous video tutorial is a great place to start.

This is a screen capture of Peter Dines Reaktor ensemble ParamDrum. I replaced the samples with my own kitchen/dobro sample map and hooked it into Kore to control various parameters. Fun, weird loops are a cinch.

Pete is also working with me on OpenSoundControl implementation in ParamDrum, which could enable cross-country ParamDrum collaboration, and via a project I’m building, visualization of parameters in Processing. Stay tuned.

Miss the Clapper ads? Want to randomize your music sounds by clapping your hands? (You! Kore! I demand you randomize my player! Make it so!)

Guiliano Cantini, an enterprising Pd (Pure Data) patcher, has done that with a simple patch routed to Kore Player. The combination is free and works on just about any OS. Silly, perhaps, but then it also demonstrates some of the fun you can have with performance rigs.

Naturally, this patch could be easily ported to Max/MSP and any MIDI-receiving software, not just Kore, but I do like this combination. I’ve written up some more details on how you can get this rig going your own using the downloadable, free patch, for our Kore site. (To my knowledge, Reaktor doesn’t have exactly the same sort of transient detection possibilities, so I think Pd is the right choice here.)

Hand Claps Randomizing Kore Settings, with Pd [kore+CDM]

Thanks, Guiliano! Keep this stuff coming.

Previously in free Pd patching adventures:
How to Turn Theremin into MIDI, Free with Pd

If you could have an ideal drum machine and sample-slicing workstation, taking the physical control of hardware but the flexibility of software, what would it look like? We talk a lot about hardware control of software, but hardware usually comes second – software gets designed first, and then either you have to figure out how to map hardware to it, or someone else comes along and designs gear. That means there’s usually a disconnect in the design and workflow of the two, and most of the time, you have to reach for the mouse to make up the difference.

Maschine (pronounced as the German, mah-SCHEE-neh) was developed at Native Instruments with the goal to design the hardware and software simultaneously, not separately. That’s not an easy goal, and I don’t expect Maschine to be perfect or please everyone. But I got to visit the prototype at NI while I was in Berlin in October and see it in action, and I can say at the very least, the folks who created feel the way many of us do – they love software, they love hardware drum machines like the Elektron, and this is an attempt to be a real hybrid.

So, while contrary to rumors, NI does not have a box that does any audio generation in the hardware, this is a real attempt to fuse the controller and software in terms of design and workflow. The idea is to use the screen for visual feedback (you do have this big, pretty monitor on your desk or notebook), but to be able to work without a mouse.

Maschine can also work as a plug-in as well as a standalone app, depending on how you like to work (or how you want to play live). That means if you’re already in love with something like Ableton Live, you ought to theoretically be able to put the two together. Unfortunately, you can’t yet use it as a sequencer to drive other software, which would be an ideal next step; sequencing is as big a part of what Maschine does as sampling and sample manipulation. (No official statement on MIDI output has been made yet.)

Maschine’s hardware also works as a controller. So, for those keeping score, you could put Maschine next to the just-announced Akai APC40 and use them both to control Live – or Maschine could compete with the APC for your Live-controlling dollar – even before you touch the Maschine drum machine software.

Here’s NI’s intro video, which gives you a sense of how this stuff ties together (and we are officially the first to post it).

We’ll naturally be looking more closely at Maschine soon (I’m going to buy a new espresso maker and not sleep for the next few months). Here’s a quick overview:

• 16 pressure-sensitive pads, which light up for visual feedback
• Step sequencing
• Polyphonic recording (so it is a real sequencer, too)
• All software features are available quickly “on the surface,” so not only do you not need the mouse, but unlike a lot of hardware and even controllers, you don’t have a bunch of submenus and buttons to press to do stuff. That includes tasks like automation editing and even sound editing
• Automatic sample mapping, beat slicing, note repeat
• Real-time audio recording and resampling – so you can not only record, but resample what you’re working on, MPC style
• Effects sends “from conventional to experimental” (basically, you can enjoy the kind of sound mangling goodness we’ve had on Kore and Reaktor lately)
• Kore-style sound browsing, with a multi-gig library to get you started

Availability: April 1

Pricing: US$669 list (EUR 599)

The hardware has a top-notch feel and metal casing; at least from what I could judge from the prototype, this should look and feel absolutely fantastic. My only real disappointment was that there’s no synth engine, but that’s just because I love drum synths. Then again, I love the simplicity of Maschine, so perhaps the best fix would be to add the ability to either host plug-ins, as Kore does, or to provide MIDI output capability to other software, so that you could drive synths and other creations. (Heck, you could even sequence visuals in that case.)

What’s unique to me about Maschine is that it isn’t simply an emulation of an MPC; it still takes a software approach to sequencing, it still supports plug-ins and the things you like about software, and it still has NI-style effects. By virtue of being software, in fact, you can really change how you use it relative to hardware. You can drop it in Live or even in a tracker like Renoise. You can use it not as a drum machine but a pattern-based effects unit and insert it after your voice or an instrument. Then you can switch to a VJ set, ignore the Maschine software, and use it as an intelligent plug-in for running live visuals for your friend’s band. None of this is nearly as practical with a conventional hardware drum machine – and this is a whole lot cheaper.

Also, unlike some attempts to unify hardware and software in the past, the visual relationship isn’t slavish. You see something that looks like it makes sense on a screen when you’re editing; it looks like software, but you can easily control it with hardware and not the mouse. (Nothing against the mouse – it’s fantastic for many jobs; sample slicing and music editing just happens not to be one of them.) When you’re ready to perform, the displays on the device mean you don’t have to look at the screen at all.

It’s also worth noting that this is very different from today’s Akai APC announcement. The Akai is clearly better suited to mixing and clip triggering, but the Maschine has velocity-sensitive pads the Akai lacks, and is better suited to hardware control of beat slicing and editing operations. (That said, someone may decide to use Max for Live to turn Maschine into a hybrid machine that also controls and edits Live itself, so everything is suddenly wide open.) And the APC is all about a host (Live), whereas Maschine is all about adding a drum machine / workstation to a host (which could be Live, or Renoise, or Pro Tools, or something else altogether).

In fact, to me, the real competition is Ableton Live’s Drum Racks, groove extract, and slice to rack features. It’s mouse-based, but it also integrates with a host and can host plug-ins itself. I’m personally excited about using both, so it’ll be interested to see which I wind up preferring for which tasks. And you can meanwhile bend your brain around the idea of Maschine instances running inside Ableton Live Drum Racks and other odd combinations.

If there’s any criticism of Maschine, my guess it that it’s likely to be criticized for over-simplicity: as opposed to the first release of Kore, the approach here is really minimalism; NI did less in the hopes that you’d get more out of hardware integration, and the rest you can make up by working with your favorite existing tools and plug-ins. That’s not to say it’s dumbed-down, from what I can see, though I just have to use it.

Whether NI has nailed this one is another question, of course, and one I’ll want to test vigorously. But I love the idea. Mainly, I just want to get my hands on one so we can try this out. You’ll definitely want to stay tuned.

http://www.native-instruments.com/maschine.info

Corrections: In the first draft of this story, I suggested that Maschine could output MIDI to other software instruments or host plug-ins; at least as of version 1.0, the software can’t. You can use it as a controller, though, and output MIDI to other hardware (so you could sequence hardware synths or even other drum machines). The thing I’d like to see there is MIDI output to other software; we certainly have enough hosts (NI’s Kore being one of those hosts). I also overstated the connection to Kore (which is why I was confused about plug-ins). Like Kore, Maschine is integrated hardware and software, it shares the Kore browser, and it shares some of the other design features of the current generation of NI software. But Maschine is its own creature – and honestly, that’s a good thing. Stay tuned for more details.

Here’s the story: because Native Instruments uses the free Kore Player for its soundpacks, you can make use of the included sounds without owning Kore, on Mac or Windows. Soundpack Compilation Volume 1 is packed with nearly 100 MB of 100 Kore Sounds and 800 variations thereof, curated from the various soundpacks they’ve released this year. That includes synths designed in Reaktor, FM8, Absynth, and Massive, percussion, effects, and more. Aside from the variations, you get quite a bit of timbral control over the sounds with pre-assigned parameters, even without owning the software with which these were developed. (In other words, no need to use the presets as-is in recognizable form!) If you own any of the products, you can edit the sounds.

KORE Soundpacks: Free Compilation Vol. 1 [Native Instruments]

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, Volume 1 suggests more may be coming.

Since it works with everything, I figured it was worth putting here instead of our kore.noisepages.com minisite. Let us know what you think of the pack, and if anyone else has freely-available sounds for the holidays.

And in other news, I suggest being as arcane as you possibly can on social networking services like Twitter and Facebook. For instance, “Peter is … jumping with joy because he’s found exactly the right granular size parameter for his new SuperCollider effect.”

People will think you’re about to cause the end of the universe, along with that Large Hadron Collider. Actually, excuse me while I Tweet that.

Hands-on control is a wonderful thing, as NI founder and Reaktor “mastermind” Stephan Schmitt noted in our story yesterday on his creation Spark. And LFOs are often not terribly interesting. But even using your feet for modulation, you may eventually run out of limbs. So if you want to record automation but keep the human element, a motion recorder is not a bad way to go. Spark is just out, but our NI minisite writer Peter was so into it that he created a motion recorder for himself just to use it:

BlackBox Recorder: Free Reaktor tool to Enhance Spark and Kore

Now, as it happens, you don’t necessarily have to use this with either Spark or Kore, so it’s worth mentioning here. You will need Reaktor to use the patch, though maybe this will give folks ideas for creating something similar with Max or Pd.

It’s a simple tool, but motion recording can lead to all sorts of other ideas. Got a favorite tool for recording human automation quickly? Let us know.

If you think there aren’t still exciting things happening in synthesizer design in the age of software, you haven’t met people like Stephan Schmitt. Schmitt, founder of Native Instruments and the “mastermind” of Reaktor, could be seen as a mad sonic scientist behind NI. When I met him for dinner in Berlin in October, he had brought along a stack of signal flow diagrams and Reaktor screen grabs in plastic sheet protectors. I knew something brilliant was coming.

Native Instruments calls Schmitt’s latest creation “Spark,” but I like to think of it as the Schmitt Box – like a mysterious, powerful invention from a designer who loves to experiment. Stephan has been evolving the instrument in Reaktor through some 160 iterations. He uses foot pedals to modulate the sound live, and rails against the evils of dull, repeating LFOs. Spark ships as a Kore soundpack, so for US$59 you can fire it up right away and start playing, even without knowing how it works. Even better, though, is if you have a copy of Reaktor 5, because you can use the full-blown UI seen here to design your own sounds or even dig into the plumbing of the patch beneath. (It’s still worth looking at the Kore sound presets, because they’re consistent with Stephan’s approach of designing the sound for live performance.)

Reaktor Spark [info, download]

I think it’s telling that, while Stephan’s emphasis is on playability, he brought those signal diagrams. It’s tough sometimes to put the nuances of synths into words. NI’s own description, that Spark “combines powerful subtractive synthesis with a sophisticated array of internal feedback loops and various other special sound shaping features” doesn’t quite cover it.

So, I instead asked if we could use Stephan’s own words to describe the new instrument. The following is an excerpt from the guide he wrote for sound designers working on presets for Spark. (Scroll to the end for full diagrams of the signal routing inside, fellow geeks!)

If you’re new to this stuff, this will give you some insight into why Spark sounds the way it does. And if you’re a synth designer yourself, I think you’ll really appreciate Stephan’s personality and approach. And it encourages me that, even with a lot of repetition of basic elements (subtractive synthesis, a feedback loop), there are still many possibilities for personal, idiosyncratic instruments to explore.

Here are Stephan’s thoughts:

In the beginning, the design was inspired by "Weedwacker", a Reaktor instrument created in
the year 2000 by Siegmar Kreie. The main concept behind the Weedwacker was the feedback
of the filtered signal to the pulse-width modulation input of a pulse oscillator. The result was a
surprisingly-complex behavior of the simple one-oscillator/one-filter structure. The rich and
organic sound was appreciated by many users. Another influence was the Evolver from Dave
Smith, a hybrid concept with some interesting feedback paths.

The structure of Spark reflects my personal preferences in regards of synthesizers. Instead of creating a full-blown mega/multi-purpose synth, I try to keep it as small as possible and with a
special character.

A main goal is to allow dramatic real-time influence on the sound source. The synth itself offers
only a few simple automatic movements (2 envelopes and 1 monophonic LFO). Like a natural
instrument, it needs to be played expressively and therefore stays a challenge for the player
and the sequencer programmer.

I deliberately do not make use of the following techniques:

• samples
• complex waveforms or wave-tables
• complex shaping curves
• noise or random (except a randomization for pitch at note-on)
• multiple and extensively routable LFOs (the LFO is intended to replace human control or an automation curve)
• multi-breakpoint envelopes or step-sequencers
• multi-oscillator structures (like an FM matrix or additive osc bank)
• pitch envelopes

The idea behind this is that the signals are generated and modified by a small number of very basic mathematical functions. Applied in a certain structure, they can create complex signals that might have their very own nature, behavior, and sound character. That is what fascinates me in synthesizers.

The two oscillators deliver two very basic waveforms which are contrasting and complementary: Pulse and Sine. The Pulse has a bright sound and a wide spectrum of overtones which can be filtered. The Sine has a very soft sound and a narrow spectrum that can be widened up by FM, amplitude modulation or wave-shaping. By using feedback loops which contain linear filters and non-linear functions, complex and quasi-chaotic waveforms become possible. This is why the sound spectrum includes more organic and aggressive timbres than a classical analogue synth.

In some settings, the structure behaves similar to a physical modeling synth. The Oscillator section becomes the exciter, while the feedback loop around the filter, shaper, and delay behaves like a resonator.

My favorite range of sounds is percussive – similar to pianos, mallets and plucked string instruments. Since I was always fascinated by electric guitars, you can get a lot of distorted and feedback sounds out of it.

By its sound and playability Spark might be suitable for:

• Rock and Blues
• Jazz, World Music
• Noise, Free, Experimental
• Industrial, Dark Wave, Gothic, Psychedelic
• IDM, Elektro and EBM
• Sound Tracks
• Sound-Design (where the output is sampled)

In my music projects, the instrument has replaced the DX7-II (+ external Effects). Spark gives me similar aggressive, non-harmonic spectra, the fast percussive response, and the very wide dynamic and spectral range controlled by velocity. But it also delivers dramatic and fat filter sounds that are hard to get from the old FM synths (not to mention the crazy feedback stuff).

The pedals allow much deeper sound modulation and the effect chain adds a lot of processing. Spark’s character is not always impressive, fat, brilliant and shiny. It can often sound cheap, ugly, and mean. I made no big efforts to minimize aliasing or to optimize the filter behaving in order to achieve the typically-favored analog "sound quality".

Sometimes the behavior is unpredictable and hard to tame. The feedback structure can cause surprising self oscillations and levels, where the limiter has to jump in. But that’s part of the
concept. It can feel a bit like beast in a cage…

How to play it

The velocity sensitivity of the two envelopes plays a great role in the real-time variation of the
sound. It can be used to create a very wide dynamic range of loudness and timbre.

The full expression potential becomes available by moving the three Macro Controllers. The set
of controls is designed to be a great environment for improvising musicians.

The Macro Controllers would be typically assigned to a Volume pedal, an Expression pedal and
the Mod Wheel. But they can also be easily controlled by sequencer automation curves.
Spark needs to be played in an expressive way. In the sequencer environment it takes the role
of the wave generator, that needs intense work with the "movements".

Recently I have added an LFO as an internal source of periodic movements. It can replace
automation or pedal movements (maybe only temporarily) and helps you to get the hands-free
for sound modifications.

Full Block Diagram

(click through for larger version)

Feedback Diagram

(click through for larger version)

To me, the ideal kind of music tech writing is when you get to spend quality time with tools for musical reasons – not simply to talk about the technology, but to make stuff. Over the past weeks, we’ve been gradually assembling ideas, sound designs, knowledge, and tutorials into a string of blog-style posts on the CDM Kore site. I’ve organized those into an evolving guide to working with Kore as a musician, from getting a handle on the basics (including some stuff that initially befuddled us when we tried to use it!), to some “experimental” techniques for pushing the envelope.

Using Kore

We’ve been spending a lot of time with Reaktor, too, so expect a follow-up with that. The idea isn’t really to advocate any tool over another one — on the contrary, for me it’s about figuring out, okay, now you’ve got something, what do you do with it?

It’s been great to get all this input from Peter Dines, Eoin, and the readers, as well (particularly Jonathan Adams Leonard) — the guide above is sort of a “collective knowledge” about the tool. Having written a book and various magazine articles, it’s a totally different experience: more learning than teaching.

On the same lines, I’ve also put together a guide to working with the Kore controller without touching the mouse. That’s part of the whole appeal to me of the Kore system, but it may not be immediately obvious how to do it. If you’ve got Kore in front of you, this will walk you in front of how to do it. I’m still learning to assimilate this with my live sets, but when I get it going it makes me really happy — I’m able to focus directly on sound.

Reference: How to Navigate Kore 2 with Hardware – No Mouse!

This is good timing, as I’m just now back from Berlin where I got to do a short set which happened to combine Ableton Live and Kore. So, separate from this other stuff, I do want to say a big thank you to everyone in Berlin who came out. It was great to meet you, and I hope to come back soon — you have a really fantastic town; I loved being there. It was really creatively inspiring.

Several bloggers were nice enough to write up / photograph the evening:
MIDI Mechanics
Hundertmarknow

– both blogs in German, but they look great; just added them to my RSS so I can keep practicing my German reading skills.

Big thanks, as well, to everyone at the DEAF Festival and in Dublin, in another wonderful and energizing town. I’ll be putting together my notes from the DEAF presentation soon to share.

“What if you had to take just one software instrument with you to a desert island?” It’s not an entirely silly question, with so many choices in software potentially distracting you from real music making. I say, cheat: take a tool that lets you build your own tools, specific to the job. Reaktor immediately springs to mind.

On the Kore @ CDM site, one of my goals has been getting deeper into making musical tools in Reaktor. We’re lucky to have Peter Dines onboard, who had already been dabbling with documenting the basics of Reaktor construction before we got some support from NI to do more. It was important to my own music making to be able to quickly assemble some of the tools I was imagining, so it’s been a real treat to get this rolling.

A sign that it really works – there’s already a free drum machine up on the User Library based on Doc Dines’ useful foundation sequencer, designed to be reused in your own patches. I’m assembling some of the steps here partly for my own musical/educational purposes!

Here’s a guide to what we’ve got so far, in the rough order I’d suggest to start learning:

1. Explore the User Library. Many people never get beyond the bundled factory library in Reaktor, but it’s well worth browsing the community-supported User Library. None other than Fennesz walked us through some of his favorites. One of the nice things about the User Library is that it includes basic ensembles as well as flashier ones – and there’s even a collection of user-contributed macros which could serve as building blocks for your own work. [Link]

2. Try out Peter Dines’ Frankenloop Step Sequencer. If you need some inspiration to get working on your own stuff, Peter’s awesome, Creative Commons-licensed Frankenloop for CDM is an ideal place to start. Your first ensembles probably won’t look this sophisticated, but the beat-synced mayhem here all comes from a series of techniques Peter is documenting on the site, so your own, personalized creations may not be as far off as you think. [Link]

Introduction to Frankenloop from Create Digital Media on Vimeo.

3. Get to know clocks. Timing is everything – the part that often trips up new Reaktor users (and is the key to unlocking its cooler sequencing and effects capabilities) is clocks and event management. Peter Dines starts out by showing you how to advance a series of lights and notes so you can fully understand the basics of clocks. [Link]

4. Try grains and gates. Clocks aren’t just for sequencers – they can be used to modulate effects, too, as in another of Professor Dines’ examples. And by working with grains, you’ll be able to manipulate live or sampled audio more freely. [Link]

5. Build your own grain delay / live grain sampler. With the basics of clocks and grains in hand, you’re on your way to creating your own grain effect, as in the video here from Peter Dines. Try building the basic version, then add on some additional features. [Part 1 | Part 2 (improvements!)]

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

6. Reuse and recycle. As you look at the guts of many of these creations, you may find some of the low-level plumbing confusing or repetitive, but never fear. The whole idea of modular patching environments (and, incidentally, any kind of programming) is to reuse components. I talked a little bit about that in journaling my own Reaktor patching experiments, which prompted Peter Dines to document the basic sequencer component you’d want to use in building other things. Like the basic “starter”/foundation ingredient in cooking, a roux, this sequencer is built for you so you don’t have to – plug it into whatever you want to control, and you’re good to go. [Pt. I (Introduction) | Pt. II (How it works)]

7. Debug your ensembles. Chris List’s Event Watcher is the one tool I had been desperately seeking that’s changed my Kore-using life. It makes visible all the stuff that’s going on behind the scenes with events and signals, which is essential to figuring out why your ensemble isn’t working the way you expect. [Link]

8. Get visual inspiration, and share what your work looks like. Part of the fun of building your own instruments and effects is, of course, building your own UIs. (And I’m inspired by the stuff people are building not only in Reaktor, but Pd, Max/MSP, and the like, as well – butterflies and all.) So, we asked Reaktor users to show us their UIs, and got a full range, from the primitive to the ridiculously polished, and in between, the simple but eminently practical. If you’ve got some ensembles you’d like to show off – even including your primitive first attempts – I hope you’ll participate. We’ll have the full round-up soon. (Pictured above: horuschild’s work) [Link | NI Forum Thread]

9. Hook up your creations to Kore. If you’ve got Kore, Kore’s ability to grab parameters and parameter names from Reaktor can turn your Reaktor creations into instant, controllable inserts. I’ve really been enjoying this as I prefer to work with a physical controller rather than a mouse and interface, no matter how cool some of those Reaktor UIs look. There are some tricks to making this work effectively, which I’ve documented after I learned myself the hard way. (If you’re a Kore user curious what else Reaktor could do for Kore, don’t miss Jonathan Adams Leonard’s Reaktor Toolpack for Kore, which is basically a set of ensembles that fill in for what Kore doesn’t do but should!) [Link]

10. See how deep the rabbit hole goes. These other steps should keep you plenty busy, but if you’re ready to delve into full-blown DSP science with Reaktor’s Core engine, there are some new resources up that could teach you how. We had all but given up on actually using them – but then Stefan Schmitt came through with some examples that can actually work. [ DSP documentation | Examples for mere mortals ]

We’re just getting started, of course. I can’t wait to continue this series. Reaktor users, if you’ve got any particular requests, do let us know. And if you aren’t already following the Kore site, watch kore.noisepages.com or subscribe to RSS.