John Fisher (ricemutt) from bagger288 is the latest to be infected – erm, inspired – by Peter Dines’ sequencer parts for Reaktor. His hybrid ensemble is full of all sorts of different bits put together, some borrowed, some concocted from scratch. And, of course, that was the idea with the sequencers – to encourage people to steal stuff and make something new that we hadn’t thought of. What’s especially great about this to me is that the results can sound entirely different.

John wrote me:

I love your tutorials for reaktor, and the example ensembles.  great stuff!

I stole your sequencer and put it into a hybrid FM/additive/subtractive type synth I built in reaktor:

in addition to the synth, there’s also a distortion effect, rev6, and a custom granular effect I built, so it’s kind of an all-in-one drone synth…

please mention that the synth is much lower on CPU if you simply remove the reverb/fx modules.

I guess other info is easily seen from all the comments in there, I used a few other people’s modules.  The "FX" instrument has an A and a B panel, where you can edit the granular effects.  I made that instrument as well and am proud of how it turned out (did you check out the "rissets" preset in the fx?)

thanks for the sequencers to steal

you probably noticed that I modded the sequencer in the sequencer page to also have "gate" sequencers where there is only on/off instead of minimum to maximum fader

It’s really good stuff, and inspires me to combine some macros in new ways.

Have at it and see what you think:

ricemuttHybrid-sep08 [zipped Reaktor ensemble]

(I expect when it’s ready, it can migrate over to the NI User Library)

Wait – want more? John talks more about how he uses unique approaches to tuning (see our previous round-up) to get these distinctive sounds:

my "god chord" blogs where I explain how to use just intonation or equal temperament.

http://craprex.com/RexBlog/author/baggervance/

you probably noticed how I use ratios to define the pitches of the oscillators in my synth.  In fact, I do this with all of my synths and use just intonation a lot in my music.  This would help people understand the "wtf" about using ratios in music.

Via a story summing up what we’ve been doing with Reaktor over on CDMusic:

Joys of Reaktor: How to Build Sequenced Instruments, Free Goodies, and a New Lazyfish Creation Teaser

Digital software instruments give you opportunities to explore new sounds and timbres, so why not add tuning to the list? Kore@CDM contributor and sound designer Eoin Rossney helps us navigate the potentially intimidating world of microtuning. Microtonal sound simply refers, generally, to tunings beyond the now-standard 12-Tone Equal Temperament we find on modern pianos. First off, microtuning doesn’t have to sound dissonant or “out of tune” - like other choices with synthesis, it can simply give you some new sonic abilities. Native Instruments’ synths are well-suited to the task, as many having tuning capabilities built-in. If you’re using plug-ins to assist your microtonal voyage, Kore is a natural with its plug-in hosting capabilities. But the most important thing is just to dive in somewhere and see what happens - with no physical instrument to retune, it’s something anyone can do.

We’ve got a massive set of resources here to get started. It’s a bit stream-of-consciousness, but take a browse; there’s surely something in here to get you started. We’ll follow up with some specific microtuned instrument examples. Enjoy! -PK

Introducing Microtonal Sound

Before we begin, there are one or two things you should know:

Forcing incoming midi to a scale isn’t necessarily microtuning. Ableton Live’s Scale plugin, for example, maps incoming notes to a scale, but that scale will still have only 12 intervals per octave: Microtonal scales have notes between the western 12 note-per-octave pitches.

Microtonal doesn’t necessarily mean dissonant. In fact, in classical music, some ’subtle’ or meantone tunings can sound more “in tune” than conventional tunings. Ed.: That’s because composers in previous centuries didn’t use the 12-Tone Equal Tempered tuning we generally use on pianos today - on the contrary, many of them would likely think your Steinway grand sounds out of tune. -PK Depending on how you play the scale, some harmonies can sound beautifully pure, but hit a wrong note and things get nasty.

Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it. Going through some of the available tunings out there, results can vary from making sound almost inaudible to making your instrument sound quite “alive”, with pitches changing depending on what notes are held.

Quick Tip: Instant Microtuning on PC

To get started, here’s a quick hack for trying out microtonal sound. The easiest way by far to retune your Windows synths is to grab Tobybear’s MicroTuner.  This basic VST allows you to load Scala .scl tunings by drag and drop and then imposes them on your synth. (Scala is the standard format for tuning tables.) This is more of a hack than a proper retuning, but it works.

Here’s how it’s done:
Step 1: Download/install the Tobybear Midibag plugins
Step 2: Download/extract the Scala scale library
Step 3: Place Microtuner in front of your instrument
Step 4: Drag the .scl file onto the GUI
Step 4: Olé!