Category Archives: Ensemble

Reaktor User Library Beta

Here’s something that people have been asking for about as long as I’ve been using Reaktor – so about ten years, then! – an update to the user library.

Some cursory testing on my part confirms that it’s able to sort user uploads by category, rating, etc. better than ever – a new algorithm scores the uploads based solely on user voting, rather than figuring in the number of downloads. More about that here.

I’m pretty excited about this – it’s time to go mining, because those hidden gems will be easier to find than ever. 

The Daybreak Guide to REAKTOR’s Lurker

Brent Kallmer is back with one of his great explorations of an under-appreciated Reaktor factory library classic. I was pondering recently how Reaktor 5 was so far ahead of its time that people are only catching up to it now. This is nuts since Reaktor 5 was released in 2005! Brent is doing a fantastic job documenting and exposing wonderful factory ensembles that were, truth be told, sort of unceremoniously dumped on the world with little fanfare or explanation.


Says Brent:

Lurker is one of REAKTOR’s most beguiling effects—and also one of its most inscrutable. It uses a complex and powerful modulation sequencing system to control various parameters on two independent delay units. The versatility of these two delays allows you to transform audio (from either Lurker’s sampler or from an external source) into everything from rhythmically precise textures to trippy comb-filtered psychedelia.

Enjoy the video, and when you want to try Lurker yourself, it’s right there in the Factory tab of your Reaktor browser sidebar.

Video Tutorial: Antonio Blanca’s NOD-E

In this video, Brent Kallmer of BluewaterVST takes us through the wonderful NOD-E ensemble by Antonio Blanca, an algorithmic music machine that generates MIDI note data based on the positions of nodes moving on the instrument panel.

Says Brent:

You might think of NOD-E as the sequencer that you get when the nodes in Spiral reach escape velocity and break out of orbit. In NOD-E, 8 nodes travel around an XY-field and trigger notes when they cross certain boundaries (defined by you). Movement along the X-axis triggers notes; movement along the Y-axis determines the triggered note’s velocity (in other words, a note that is triggered at a high Y-value will play more loudly than one that is triggered at a low value. The nodes are propelled throughout the XY field by two polyphonic LFOs (one for each axis).

The cool thing about NOD-E is it can sound like anything – you can route the MIDI data to other plugins, even to hardware synths – or record and edit the sequence in a sequencer. Big ups to Brent for this great video introduction to the ensemble.

Semi Source releases Ass Fister for Reaktor – Over The Top Insane Distortion

Behold and beware: Trevor Gavilan has released the Reaktor Ass Fister on an unsuspecting world.

Inspired by the infamous Metasonix tube powered hardware units and with sound design by Jesse Voccia, the AF-150 is a Reaktor effects unit based around the humble slew limiter module. Amazing what you can do with simple structures in Reaktor with some imagination! Get it here, where you can also download the Semi Fuzz.

I’ve only tried it on drum loops so far and to say it utterly destroys any sound routed through it is an understatement. It can sound like a contact mic fixed to a circular saw cutting through cement blocks laced with steel rebar. That’s my first impression, anyhow. 😉