Tag Archives: Sampling

ParamDrum Update: now with Jonathan Style skin, new sample maps!

The impossible has happened: a ParamDrum update.

It’s got a brilliant skin courtesy of Jonathan Style, a new sound set based on samples from a very popular hardware synth (can you name it?), and at the moment only four new snaps. I could delay release and make more presets, but I want to get this out as soon as possible considering what a wait it’s been since the last update. It sounds like this:

This is a free update for people who’ve already purchased – the same password will unlock this skinned version. Be aware that I’ve migrated to the fantastic and problem free Reaktor 5.5 beta, and the new skinned version will no longer open in earlier versions. Get the beta here.

UPDATE: Due to popular demand I have posted a version of the new skinned ParamDrum that will open in the non-beta version of Reaktor.

The 5.5 beta is rock solid stable and if anything uses less CPU than previous versions. I have had no hiccups or crashes using it. Nevertheless, back up your custom ens before saving them in the new version, just in case you want to revert to 5.15. Like this version of ParamDrum, the Reaktor 5.5 update will be free for current license holders.

Haven’t purchased yet? $15.00 gets you the password to all versions.

Here’s the link:

ParamDrum

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.

ParamDrum TR Edition now available

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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

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.

Fast Sample Wrangling with Reaper, Edison and Reaktor

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How do you deal with samples and MP3s that you want to use as raw material in Reaktor? Reaktor has an audio browser, but it doesn’t read compressed formats so they have to be converted beforehand. Then you’ll probably want to break them down into chunks so you don’t have to import a three minute song to get a ten second drum break or koto sample – so you have to fire up a separate audio editor and cut things up ahead of time.

FL Studio is one of my go-to programs for this, especially for dealing with large numbers of samples. It has a great sample browser sidebar which previews-on-select your compressed or uncompressed audio, and the integrated FL version of the Edison wave editor makes it a snap to grab a selected area of a sample and drag it into a sampler channel or the playlist. This works for just about any audio file, including compressed formats like Ogg and MP3.

This is handy for prototyping things and trying out ideas, but the built in sampler channels are limited and I’d rather be dragging things into Reaktor. So can you drag a sample or a piece of a sample from Edison into Reaktor running as a plugin in FL Studio? Of course not – that would be too easy.

The next step for me was to try the standalone Edison sound editor and see if it can drag selections into standalone Reaktor’s sample map. Nope, that didn’t work either.

Finally, I loaded up Reaktor in Reaper, selected a sample from Reaper‘s media explorer (it’s very similar to a Windows file explorer window), and opened it in Edison. Magically, dragging a selected area from Edison into Reaktor worked now! Reaper is voodoo, kids. I don’t question it too much, I just use it and be thankful.

Sample Drag and Drop with Edison, Reaper and Reaktor from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

The media explorer tab, like the browser in FL, works with compressed or uncompressed audio and can preview on select. And of course Edison can deal with compressed or uncompressed audio, so these two plus Reaktor make a super sampling triumvirate powerhouse. Jeez, I should be writing ad copy. Anyways, go grab ’em, because the demo versions of both programs are non expiring and will allow you to do what I’ve demonstrated here.

Reaper

Edison

Frame: A Reaktor Freeform Looper

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Frame: A Reaktor Freeform Looper from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

This is a stripped down version of a looper built to work the way the Simpler instrument from Ableton Live loops. That is, you can set an arbitrary loop length and scrub across it in realtime without glitches or clicking.

In this video I’m using the Frame beta in Kore, which allows me to control the loop start and end points much more accurately than your standard 7 bit MIDI controllers. There’s also some saturation and echo on the Frame channel; however, it’s capable of sounding as clean as whatever sample you throw into it.

I have far more complex versions of this but I cut this one down to essentials for two reasons – one, so it would be obvious what I’m talking about when I say freeform looping, and two, so that it will have a clear structure to hot-rod when I release it.