Category Archives: Free Reaktor Ensembles

Download These Three Great Reaktor Ensembles from the User Library

Sometimes excellent Reaktor builders pop out of nowhere, and post one or more terrific ensembles to the user library and all we can do is gasp, download and appreciate! Here are three new ensembles by user Ward de Jager.

4 taps, 2 lines, 1 earth is a modulated multitap delay effect that does everything from pitch shifting and dubby delays to flange and chorus. It’s nice looking and nice sounding, and will be providing competition in my plugin folder to Fabfilter Timeless 2. Some of the pitch shift presets remind me of Blackbird, another user library goodie you should check out if you haven’t already. 

Cheby Shaper is a waveshaping effect that implements the Chebyshev polynomials. Translation for the non mathematically inclined: it f*cks up your sound nicely. A harmonic editor lets you drag the mouse to fine tune the sound.

Finally, and this may be my favorite, a Modal Bank ensemble. The Modal Bank is a module that lets you do physical modeling in Reaktor – exciting a bank of harmonic overtones with an “exciter” signal. It’s easy to get percussive, chiming, bowed and blown effects with this technique. There’s a tutorial ensemble that ships with Reaktor 5 demonstrating the module, but this one is much nicer. There’s only one snapshot here but new snaps are a breeze to create. Set the parameters of the partials, then set the attack, decay and noise cut off to choose how the “exciter” will sound. Finally, adjust the damping, which will determine how long the overall sound rings on.

Salamanderanagram over at nireaktor.com has a really good tutorial on the Modal Bank you should check out to learn more.

Download all three of these ensembles here.

Christmas Two-fer from Boscomac: Two Free Reaktor Ensembles

The Christmas elves at Boscomac have been busy wiring together modules and macros, wrapping up everything in nice skins, and we have two nice new instruments just in time for stocking stuffing.

First up, an update to Tranzistorg, the transistor organ emulator. Boscomac says:

TRANZISTORG MKII is a transistor-based combo organ typical of the 60s. It delivers a clear and thin sound that quickly becomes warm and round as soon as it passes through the distortion of an amp!

Here you have 4 drawbars to generate the sound, distortion with two modes to bring energy, 5 cabinet models and 1 direct output with Leslie option to all floors, a slap or spring reverb used in mono or stereo , vibrato and a volume for key click. And I think we are full!

Next up, from the Folklore category, a brand new instrument: Barrousel.

BARROUSEL is based on a barrel organ and a Carrousel. You can adjust the color Tone of the instrument, change the wind noise in the pipes, choose the instrument condition and act on its accuracy and its responsiveness. And finally, you can place the instrument in a kind of magical reverb…

Remember to thank Santa with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk – or more realistically, click on Boscomac’s paypal link to show some appreciation for his consistently fabulous Reaktor creations.

Pixelator, Voxelator and Robo-Voxelator – Game Sounds for Reaktor

Scott Riesterer of Sublime Sound has posted three retro game-sound Reaktor ensembles on his site.

Says Scott:

A while back I stumbled onto Adventure Kid’s single cycle waveform libraries. I really wanted to use his NES waveforms to make a synth that could produce chip tune style sounds reminiscent of those games from my childhood. At first I tried using Kontakt, and it was fine for just simply performing one type of sound at a time, but I wanted to dynamically blend them. I decided I’d have to use Reaktor to make it work. I used the structure of the included “Sound School Analog” synth and replaced the oscillators with samplers that play back the NES waveforms. I also designed the user interface to look a little like an NES controller. If you listen to “Pixelated” below you can hear my Pixelator synth in action.

The download link is on Scott’s site, and you can also get the instruments in the Reaktor user library.