Tag Archives: reaktor

Great Free Reaktor Ensembles for New Users

Update: the mysterious and inimitable Len9 has updated the excellent Mortmain Reaktor Resource page with fresh links to ensembles, tutorials, general information and utilities. His page has been around since I first took an interest in Reaktor years ago and with this update it’s still the best one page overview of everything Reaktoriffic on the net.

click the logo to go to Len9’s resource page

Now that the great Reaktor $99 sale of 2013 is over we have a nest of new Reaktor hatchlings that require feeding! This is a couple of pointers to great ensembles in the user library.

Synth in a case: you know you want it

Your first stop should be the all time top 100, where you’ll find goodies like ZooTook’s Synth In A Case, the venerable but still worthy 3X by James Walker Hall, and the Morphing Minimal Drum Machine by Martin Brinkmann. When you’re on the page of a particularly good ensemble, make sure to click on the author’s name for a list of everything they’ve done in the library, and don’t just sort by user rating – Martin Brinkmann in particular has a lot of really interesting ideas implemented in older ensembles that aren’t highly rated. Do get MadPad.

You will want to collect the ensembles of Rick Scott and Dieter Zobel. It’s awesome how much the character of the builder can come through in Reaktor ensembles and they offer many examples of this. Especially check out some of the older Zobel contraptions, like Pole-Onaise which I remixed into Dubby Red Planet. Another gorgeous Zobel joint is Locutus II and don’t forget Haemotherapy (both versions). Locutus and Haemotherapy are in my top 5 Reaktor ensembles of all time for their weirdness and individuality.

A whole whack of great uploads can be yours free, courtesy of Sonictwist! (who went on to found Twisted Tools). Get’em all!

Intermediate to advanced builders will appreciate the ability to build their own modulars with click-to-connect front panels courtesy of Hervig Krass. Noobs can enjoy his finished instruments and example modulars.

Around the net, don’t miss the great instruments and effects of Boscomac.

Finally, when you’re looking for a simple and direct granular sampler that cuts through the usual bells and whistles, check out my own Frame 3.

This is a quickie thumbnail sketch of a few ensembles that stand out in my mind but there are many, many more… I know I’ve neglected many great builders, and if you have favorites of your own I haven’t mentioned, please leave a link in the comments!

Happy exploring, downloading, building and music making.

Update: bftucker from the KVR forums provided a link to this PDF from Simon Hunt that describes a wide range of user ensembles classified by type – granular, effect, beat sequencer, etc. A little old but that’s cool because it probably has a lot of stuff that’s slipped off the radar by 2013.

Update 2: Can’t believe I forgot Antonio Blanca’s superb Dron-e.

Update 3: Oh and also Blanca’s Nod-e. (Hat tip: David DeLizza)

Update 4: Thanks to Ronnie from Rekkerd, three more suggestions: Rubiter Ate, Concept X and Fourious plus Fourious 2000. To which I will add, check out the other synths by Paul Woodroffe and Stephan Becker too. Soon you’ll have a formidable armada of great sounding and unique synths.

Native Instruments REAKTOR’s Rhythmaker – Synthetic Beats Unbound

Adding MIDI out to Reaktor Krypt (and other sequencers)

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Someone on the Reaktor forums asked about adding MIDI out to Krypt, so I thought I’d post up a quick guide and a macro for adding quick and dirty MIDI send capabilities to it or most other Reaktor sequencers that otherwise send their signals through an event rate wire in the structure.

Here’s the finished product:

The numbered note pitch controls correspond to each drum sequencer to determine which MIDI notes the sequencer will send on. In this example I’ve set them to the note pitches for the first six drum synths in Drumspillage but a click and drag will set them to something else. You could also send the output to a melodic instrument and create 6-pitch phrases… might be nice for gamelan type sounds.

Here are the MIDI out macros connected inside Krypt’s SEQ instrument:

…and here I’ve drilled down into one of the MIDI out macros:

…and finally into the NoteOff macro inside that:

The point of the NoteOff macro is to send a MIDI note off before sending a new note. Some polyphonic instruments don’t react kindly to having too many notes activated at the same time, and will eat lots of CPU and make your computer sad and crackly. Don’t worry too much about the structure inside here for now. I’ll explain in a future post.

Finally, you will want to make sure that the SEQ instrument (or whatever instrument you’ve added MIDI out to) is actually directed at something. You can do that in the SEQ instrument properties on the connect tab:

If you’re using Reaktor in a host, use the “plugin” output. Note: Mac people, do this with the VSTi version of Reaktor. The AU version, as is the case with all AUs due to the plugin specification, has no MIDI out.

You can download the MIDI out macro here. Note that the Krypt sequencer sends velocities between 0 and 1, which is perfect for this macro. If you have some oddball sequencer that sends a different range of velocities you’ll need to scale it with a multiplier module.