Reaktor 5 tips, tricks, instrument building thread

misk · Post by **misk** » Wed May 30, 2007 4:58 am

hey everyone, how about we share a little bit of knowledge? I've been using reaktor for a few years now, but im just recently getting into instrument design. i've been toying with the macros in reaktor for years, but im finally starting to make my own oscillators and stuff. So, this thread is about reaktor ensembles, reaktor effects, instrument building and whatever.

It's such a huge program that i feel it definitely at least deserves a thread of it's own! I'll start with some links:

Building a Nord Lead in Reaktor:
http://www.audionetwork.be/tutorials/reaktor/

Reaktor Resources:
http://www.mortmain.com/reaktor.html

stripping apart the R3 weedwhacker ensemble:
http://www.matsc.net/Kurs/kurs/Reaktor% ... torial.htm

free Reaktor online "class":
http://www.recordlabelrecords.org/norcal.html

hope these help you all as much as they've helped me. The Nord Lead tut is really a great place to start if you have very little ens building experience, and it helps you get your head around the way instrument builders work within the environment. Hopefully this thread will blossom into something great!

3rdeye · Post by **3rdeye** » Wed May 30, 2007 6:46 am

good idea for a thread misk and cheers for the link. been looking to get into reaktor's synth building for a while, that nord lead tutorial looks like a great place to start.

misk · Post by **misk** » Wed May 30, 2007 4:13 pm

totally man! im doing the nord lead tutorial right now, and even tho i have a little bit of practice making some pretty basic synths, its a really really helpful tutorial.

I know that when i first started building, i wouldnt think of things like semitone pitch adjust on an oscillator, being as simple as an adder module connecting the pitch input and and a knob. stuff like this is so simple you are likely to overlook it in favor of something more complex.

plus, DSP is fun, and C++ is not!

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:46 am

Thanx mate! Never felt a urge to look into Reaktor... until now.

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:00 pm

Help a daft tnuc: what are the "48" & "-48" modules we see on that page?

misk · Post by **misk** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:03 pm

oh those are actually just constants that are added to the midi pitch in during keyboard tracking. essentially keeping the base note at a decent pitch when keyboard tracking is turned off on the second oscillator. for some reason it took me a while to get around this too.. it seems like the guy who wrote the tut doesnt speak english as his first language... dunno.

3rdeye · Post by **3rdeye** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:50 am

ah I was wondering about the +/- 48 too, cheers for that. started working through the nord tutorial the other night, great stuff. was a bit baked/tired (not to mention a total novice synth builder!) so things became a bit fuzzy round about the second oscillator

Im going to get back into it this week though!

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 12:31 pm

Yep, thx again Misk!
Pretty much as 3RDEYE says it gets a bit confusing sometimes.
For instance what happened between the moment the OSCs had 2 inputs each and the last picture on which there're at least 5 of them?

misk · Post by **misk** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:05 pm

you gotta do more than look at the pictures, you daft tnuc!

seriously tho, the reason the oscillators have more than one input later on in the tutorial is beacause he changes them out to put in sync'd waveformss to utilize FM on the second oscillator. thats all, he just changed them out.

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 5:53 pm

Hehe well I admit at some point I tried to merely copy the picture but you don't go far that way.
So I read and I still don't get it.

Here's the osc1 as it's being described at last stage:

And here on the left is what you're supposed to have and on the right is what I get:

rohan · Post by **rohan** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 8:39 pm

Reaktor is great for granular synthesis (amazing atmospheres to be created).. check out the grainsynth v.1 and travelizer instruments in the user library!

in terms of designing your own instruments its actually a pretty useful lesson in understanding how synths work to build a few of your own, in particular FM synths

misk · Post by **misk** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:44 pm

totally agree rohan. i think i've already posted this but its such a good site i'll post it again:

the reaktor diary - a synth maker records movies of himself building synths!
http://reaktordiary.blogspot.com/

theres a great beginning FM synth there to check out.

malign_ · Post by **malign_** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:20 pm

Daft tnuc wrote:what happened between the moment the OSCs had 2 inputs each and the last picture on which there're at least 5 of them?

yeah i had the same problem.. here is OSC1:

and OSC2:

Reaktor 5 tips, tricks, instrument building thread

Reaktor 5 tips, tricks, instrument building thread

Who is online