
If you’re a Kore user who owns Reaktor, you’ve probably heard of the Kore 2 Reaktor Toolpack. If not, now’s a good time to check out it out – this collection of Reaktor ensembles provides a set of tools useful in the Kore environment. It’s the creation of Reaktor programmer and musician Jonathan Adams Leonard, aka Sleen. (He’s also a composer, a vocalist and keyboardist, and the touring keyboard/MIDI technician for Interpol.) Some of the tools are more specialized, like an ensemble that adds the ability to send MIDI data with the Kore hardware controls, or one that emulates the Guitar Rig 1 Control hardware. But even if you don’t need those, you’re likely to find something that will improve the way you work with Kore.
Jonathan’s impetus for building the toolpack was his sense that Kore 2 was missing some modular MIDI capabilities he felt were essential:
Kore 2 was an ambitious release for any software team, so instead of complaining, I did what any enlightened engineer would do and built something. In some ways, there was no choice. NI created a semi modular matrix into which audio and midi objects can live simultaneously.
… The toolpack represents my preference to communicate where possible with solutions rather than suggestions or complaints.
It’s one heck of a “feature request,” then — a powerful set of MIDI and audio utilities, available for free. Because they’re Reaktor ensembles, you can also modify them for your own purposes — meaning, even if some of this functionality is added to Kore down the road, the Toolpack could remain a powerful custom utility belt.
Note that you do need to have a copy of Reaktor 5 to use the Reaktor Toolpack. (Anyone who owns a recent version of Komplete already has it; the standalone works, as well.) Over the coming weeks, we’ll be looking at ways in which the combination of Reaktor and Kore can be useful. But if you don’t need or want Reaktor, we’ll list a few free/cheap alternatives and complementary tools.
Here’s what’s in the pack:
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