Ed.: I’ve been wanting to take advantage of Reaktor’s Core DSP engine for some time — allowing you to get your hands dirty with hard-core DSP work — but I have to admit, I wasn’t even sure to start. So this gives me some serious geeky satisfaction. Normally, the point is that I’m supposed to be teaching this stuff, but I may have to blog my progress through the Core DSP stuff. Anyone with me? -PK

Reaktor users are always hungry for news and instructional material regarding their favorite weapon, and NI head honcho Stephan Schmitt has come through with two DSP tutorials by Vadim Zavalishin, creator of the Core DSP engine that was introduced in Reaktor 5.

This is not for the faint of heart. According to Stephan:

The articles are in a very condensed scientific style. They definitely require some academic education and DSP knowledge. They are accompanied by two tutorials helping you to implement and to try out the discussed methods in Reaktor Core. Those who dive into this material will be rewarded by some deep insights into the design of filters.

If you’re up to it, the DSP articles are available on the NI site: http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=dsparticles&L=1

At the very least, I’d recommend a refresher read of the excellent Core tutorial that shipped with Reaktor 5 before tackling Vadim’s articles: http://www.native-instruments.com/fileadmin/redaktion_upload/pdf/NI_REAKTOR5_Core_Manual_EN.pdf

Remember, drink plenty of fluids and do not operate heavy equipment while studying DSP.

Feedback, as viewed on an oscilloscope. Photo (CC) Audin, via Flickr.

Ed.: Feedback loops usually fall into the “things to avoid” category, but cleverly used, they can be a powerful creative technique. Part of what Kore is about is being able to create unusual routings easily, so where better to start than a loop? Eoin walks us through sound design with feedback here, using an external input (like a mic) or plug-in as a source, or even self-oscillating (crank up the gain, and the setup itself will produce its own sound). -PK

If you’ve read the Kore 2 manual, you might have seen mention of the possibility of feedback loops, but there are no instructions for how to safely set this up. Today we’re going to do this step by step, and hopefully by the end you’ll have an idea of how easy this is and the kind of wild sounds you can get.

If you don’t have access to Kore, you can still hear the end results; the audio examples below demonstrate some of the sounds that can be obtained with just a few simple routings.

You can use the Kore demo to complete tutorials; sessions shut down every 30 minutes, and saving is disabled, but there are no other limitations. The examples included work with Kore 2’s internal engines and effects.