Somewhere, people are wasting time, procrastinating, and having inane chats on Twitter. But don’t tell that to the hard-core synth geek, who has bent Twitter into becoming a useful tool for finding like-minded creators, solving problems, and sharing tips and techniques. In 140 characters, there’s not much you can do to describe the depth of, say, Reaktor. Think instead of these tools as a compact, real-time pointer to the information elsewhere.

One of my favorite reads - and, regardless of your tools of choice, a great use case for how to make Twitter productive - is Reaktor Lovers. On Twitter as reaktorlovers, you get tips, tricks, story links, and for my favorite feature, the Reaktor Ensemble of the Day.

http://twitter.com/reaktorlovers

Given the depth of the User Library, it doesn’t look like we’ll be running out of Ensemble of the Day posts any time soon. That includes gems like the fascinating grid interface for the pad synth Pataphysical, top, and the ridiculously knob-laden DotCom 44 Modular, bottom.

So, what happens when you’ve run out of 140 characters and the forum isn’t the right forum? If you’d like to try out forming your own social groups with other users and have free blogs on this site - with the same tools we’ve used for the Kore site - come beta-test noisepages with us.

noisepages.com

Let us know if there are features you’d like or some things aren’t working - we’re doing an open beta precisely to get that kind of feedback. The venue for that feedback is the Help & Development group, where we’ll also be chatting about making improvements.

But just as the CDM team will continue working to bring you information, we’d love to see what you and the community has to share, too. Your work is ceaselessly inspiring - and makes reading Twitter a meaningful distraction.

We’ve got more Kore and Reaktor updates in the hopper, so stay tuned here and on CDM.

I’m a big fan of the FL Studio DAW software, and also a big fan of NI plugins. In the past this has been a problem because of an incompatibility that caused CPU spikes in some NI plugins running in FL. Specifically, in Reaktor this manifested as a constant fluctuation of the CPU meter, even without an ensemble loaded. I’ve also noticed this behavior in Absynth. It’s been possible to compensate by setting the plugins to run with fixed-size buffers, but that has two undesirable consequences; one, it increases the latency for those plugins, putting them slightly out of sync with other elements in the mix and two, it takes away the ability to use multiple outputs to separate mixer tracks in FL.

Well, the new 8.5 beta of FL solves all that! I was initially excited to read that the new beta lets plugins running with fixed size buffers use multiple outputs - but then I discovered a new audio setting called “align tick lengths” that makes those large fixed buffers unnecessary. The mouse-over hint for the align tick lengths checkbox tells us “may increase CPU performance” and they aren’t kidding.

This is fantastic, because now I can load up Kore in FL and Reaktor in Kore and get one of my favorite DAWs, my favorite control surface and my favorite plugins working together smoothly with no hitches, glitches or handicaps.

Licensed FL producer edition users can download the beta through their account page.

Via our friends at Make Magazine, Captain Dan controls a custom-created Reaktor synth with an Xbox 360 game controller. The secret ingredient: GlovePIE, the powerful, free scripting tool for alternative controllers under Windows. GlovePIE can actually output both OpenSoundControl and MIDI, either of which Reaktor can use, but in this case, Dan chose MIDI and routed between applications via MIDI Yoke.

The results may not necessarily be a new musical high point, but they are good fun. If you’ve got a Mac instead, you have several exceptional options:

Osculator

STEIM’s junXion (which now has a Lite version, too)

There’s one other that I’m … forgetting, if anyone wants to chime in.

Tried this yourself? Let us know!

xbox Controller Makes Drum and Bass [Captain Dan's "What Would the Captain Do?"]

360 controller busts mad beats + synth [Make Magazine]

Confession: plug-in specs make me batty. Happily, there’s a nice blog post that explains how to adjust a Reaktor patch for easy envelope control in Ableton Live. Ableton Live 8 changes how parameters are controlled, and I think fixes this problem - I need to try it with Reaktor. (Anyone out there already ahead of me?) But in the meantime, here’s the fix:

How to make Reaktor Knobs Automatable in Ableton Live [Do My Eyes Look Scary?]

When it comes to Automation, the parameters are exposed by the standard VST mechanism, with each Reaktor parameter being the Base ID for the instrument, plus the ID of the control.

In the case of RE201, the base parameter was 500-something, so all controls were invisible to Ableton Live.

If you look in the Reaktor Instrument Properties, click on the control routing tab. (the two little boxes with an arrow between them).

At the bottom, there’s an ‘Automation’ section. Do two things:

Pull down the ‘IDS’ menu, and select ‘Instrument Up’ until the base ID is zero. Then pull down the ‘IDS’ menu again and select ‘Sort and Compress IDs’

This will make all of the controls in the RE201 visible in Live. Honest to God.

Previously:
Kore Host How-To: Combine Kore with Ableton Live

Handclap designer from jkant on Vimeo.

Clap on, clap off!

Guiliano Cantini sends this patch he’s put together with Kore Player and Pd. He uses transient detection in Pd to trigger randomized parameter changes in Kore Player. That rig is entirely free (as in beer), but the same ideas could apply to Kore, too - and if you’re not into the clap metaphor, you could find other audio-reactive or controller-reactive approaches. (You can also just slap the mic on your laptop.)

From the description:

Instantly tweak NI Kore Player’s sound controls with a clap. Pure Data detects your clap and uses it to randomize all 8 controls. Download pd patch @ jkant.altervista.org

If you want to try this yourself, you’ll need:

The power of Reaktor is essentially the power to build any instrument or effect you can imagine. But what does that mean for hardware control - how can hardware be as open-ended as software? One solution is multi-touch interfaces.

Antonio Blanca writes to share the work he’s done (in collaboration with JazzMutant’s Bryant Davis Place) on “Lemurizing” popular Reaktor ensembles. These make the Lemur touchscreen a dynamic, interactive hardware controller for these Reaktor ensembles. In the collection from Antonio and other creators, and all downloadable via JazzMutant:

• Vectory sequenced sample destroyer
• The legendary Skrewell instrument
• Native Instruments’ Massive drum computer ensemble (the one in Reaktor)
• Lurker hybrid delay effect from Reaktor
• GoBox groove box in Reaktor - complete with multiball morphing
• Aerobic beat machine
• Native Instruments Massive Synth (the standalone synth, not the one in Reaktor)
• A two-deck Traktor Pro configuration, plus DJ Kabuki’s own Traktor setup
• FM8 synth tweaking layout

From sequencing to modulation, there’s quite a lot you can control in these ensembles with your fingers. That demonstrates not only the potential for Lemur, but many other alternative interfaces, as well. With the exception of the standalone Massive, you can see some of the power of OpenSoundControl support in Reaktor, as well.

Antonio is extending this idea with Reaktor and exploring more sequencing ideas. He writes:

Now I am working on new “Lemur Projects” — a new version of Lemurized Metaphysical Functions and a pseudo-random sequencer built on the Lemur itself using the multiline script (amazing feature, by the way). Here’s some info from my outdated blog:

http://abreaklemurities.blogspot.com/

I am working to release a series of videos using the lemur and [given an overview of] some of my interfaces.

It’s really nice to see Reaktor coupled with the Lemur in this way; I hope to bring you more.

Reaktor users, what are you using to control your ensembles? Any touch-based solutions (Lemur or otherwise)?

This site is back - and back to stay. We have a new server, and some new tools we’ll be able to share soon to help the CDM community share tools and techniques more easily.

And sometimes, wonderful things just happen when the time is right. Case in point: a whole new set of beginning Reaktor tutorials, covering all the basic tasks you might like to accomplish. For newcomers to Reaktor, these will be ideal, as they get you rolling on a specific tasks — like, build me a sampler or do something cool and granular and delicious — without assuming a lot of prior knowledge. But if you do have prior knowledge, these will fill in some gaps even for intermediate users.

Reaktor Tutorial

Topics so far:

• Programming and patching: intro and a simple synth
• Effects: envelope generator, ring mod, tape decay
• Grain Delay
• Sampler
• Granulation modules (similar to our own series on the topic)

Creator Mats Claesson of Norway is interesting himself, with a background in classical guitar, a resume that includes work with John Cage and Iannis Xenakis, and ballet composition. If you can read Norwegian, there’s a lot more.

I have some additional Reaktor tutorials that, at long last, I’ll be publishing within the next two weeks - in a new format that will allow others to build upon the same work.

We won’t be disappearing for two months again, but with these tutorials and Reaktor in hand, you may.

When I look back at the Kontakt features we’ve done here at Noisepages, I notice that one feature of the software that keeps coming up is scripting. We’ve used scripts to:

• sequence and re-tune music box samples
• create a constrain-to-scale MIDI insert effect for Kore and other hosts
• Latch incoming notes, and dynamically pan voices in stereo

As well, we’ve looked at the creative potential of the scripts that ship with Kontakt. I’ve also pointed readers towards some fine scripting resources for Kontakt users. With one exception - stereo panning - these have all been stock factory scripts, prewritten scripts from third parties, or very slightly modified versions. Now that everyone’s toes are wet it’s time to dive in and splash around with some scripting from scratch. The water’s warm and we won’t venture too deep. I guarantee there are no sharks.

Richard Devine’s DEVSND (working with long-time collaborator Josh Kay) is now bringing some of the strange and wonderful sound in Richard’s and Josh’s studio out to the rest of the world. And for a sampler of these sounds in Battery 3, you can get some sonic goodies for free. (Having seen these two at work away from their studios with some Doepfer modular gear along on a week-long retreat earlier this year, I can only imagine what it’s like when he has all his toys.)

Three free kits include a “heavily modded” ARP 2600, a “bent and abused” TR-808 drum machine, and a “broken & prepared” santur (which is a Persian hammered dulcimer).

To download them, just click the “Library” link on the DEVSND page. Now, Battery isn’t capable of the same scripting Kontakt is, but I imagine there are some ways to do still more damage with these downloads. Stay tuned.

http://www.devinesound.net/

Native Instruments has released Compilation Volume 1, a completely free Kore Soundpack with 100 sounds and 800 variations. In fact, you don’t even need Kore to use it: the free Kore Player will work. (I believe that means if you don’t own Kore but do, for instance, own Massive, you could open up Massive-created presets and edit them in the full synth.)

There’s lots in there:

• Percussive sounds from Tension
• Synth sounds from Absynth, Massive, FM8, Reaktor
• The fantastic Reaktor Animated Circuits pack
• Synthetic Drums
• Kits and grooves
• Multi-effects from Deep Transformations

Notably absent is one of our favorites from all year, Spark by NI founder and Reaktor “mastermind” Stephan Schmitt (see our interview). But there’s enough in here to give you a good preview of what’s contained in these packs – and to pass along to your friends if you want to show them a little of what Kore is about.

If you do own Kore, it can be a good way to look at what you can do with Kore controller assignments and variations in sound design, so well worth the download even if you’re not a big preset fan.

Free soundpack page at NI