Yearly Archives: 2009

Kontakt factory selection

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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.

A primitive beat-repeat

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.

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. There’s no password on the Beat Delay file.

ParamDrum TR Edition now available

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 here. 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 $15.00, 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.

Paramdrum Add to Cart

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.

Earlier version available here.

ParamDrum initial release

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.

 

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 $15.00 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.

ParamDrum Add to Cart

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

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.