PULSAR is a monophonic DUAL sample player for Reaktor 6 loaded with two banks of 127 samples each. The samples are chosen for atmosphere.
How Pulsar works.
Any two samples in banks A and B are overlaid; this gives a possibility of over 16000 possible combinations of sounds.They are then routed via an LFO (LFO 1) and various FX. LFO 1 can modulate a set of the FX parameters to make the sounds move and develop, and to richen things further the samples can also modulate each other if required.
So far so good, but then it gets more interesting as a second LFO (LFO 2) can then modulate LFO 1 for even more movement. And why stop there? LFO 1 can also modulate LFO 2 for a new level of sound morphing that can create unpredictable results.
PULSAR lends itself to soundscapes and experimental atmospheres and the embedded banks reflect this.
A rompler that has some of the flexibility of a synth? Read on…
GREY is a sample player loaded with 101 synth samples from an iconic 90s synth all ready to deliver a range of essential retro sounds from big pads to LOFI oscillating washes, all via fat basses and hot leads. We fade to grey? The demo thinks not!
Apart from the voice sample and the percussion all sounds come from GREY.
GREY comes pre-packed with sixty presets so you’ll find quick audio pleasure. When you want to go and tweak you’ll enjoy the multifaceted controls, so multifaceted there is now a list coming…
CONTROLS
The sample selector has Sample Choice, Volume, Pitch, Random (select), Start-point and Warp(ed Vinyl).
As well as the obvious envelope controls there is a Vinyl FX option which delivers a genuinely random crackle effect created by a Geiger unit.
Next is the 8 Pole Filter with five variables capable of creating rich tonal range. Watch out for the Wobble dial too.
Then come Reverb and Echo (delay), followed by a Compressor. Each of these three FX have a lot of tweakage available.
Last is the LFO section which dials up Rate, Phase, Shape, Sync and Key (note-on trigger).
The best thing about the LFO, and the key to the overall sound of GREY is the routing options. You have:
LFO to Key Velocity, to 8 Pole Filter Balance, to Reverb Size and to Echo Time.
These options create a variety of sound, rendering GREY no mere rompler but more of a pseudo-synth!
CC LIST
GUI
Reaktor View A is a streamlined interface with just the essentials available.
View B is the complete control set.
Reaktor Notes
You can change the sample set using the onboard SAMPLE MAP.
Need advice? Go to the Reaktor 6 Diving Deeper manual and open Chapter 8, page 69 (The Sample Map Editor) for a detailed guide.
Ensure all your samples are set to midi note 60 and the keyboard range is from midi note 0-102 inclusive for the selector dials to operate correctly.
GREY is monophonic and requires the FULL VERSION of Reaktor 6 version 6.3.0 (R26)
If you get “Not a valid Reaktor File” error message please update your Reaktor 6 to Reaktor 6.3.0 (R26) using your Native Access and ensure you open the new version.
A warm analog-sounding eight-note polyphonic synth that uses just ONE oscillator and various FX to create smooth warm synths and basses. It also includes a SECRET WEAPON to create experimental sounds that will feed your inner experimentalist. Didn’t know you had one? Read on!
OSC 1 is in itself a 4-waveform oscillator featuring Sine, Triangle, Sawtooth and Pulse (with variable pulse-width). So far so standard. However…
THE SECRET WEAPON
OSC 1 also includes a deliberately incorrectly wired patch that creates a feedback loop distortion effect called “Wire”. This simulates the crackling and erratic jumps in volume caused by a dodgy jack-plug in a guitar amp. On a sine wave it produces gargle and on high value pulse waves it goes mad. This is perhaps the USP of this instrument. Use it responsibly!
GLOBAL FX & Controls
VCF with cutoff (also routed via midi CC1 to your keyboard controller strip/wheel) etc…
Envelope ( inc. velocity sensitivity).
Echo(delay) with various parameters inc.tempo sync button.
Glide and Chorus
WHITE NOISE generator
Master Tune
Reverb and overall Master Output Level.
MIDI CC 14-29 inclusive are routed to various useful controls.
There are 23 presets in 3 banks accessible from the drop-down menu at the top of the instrument or by double-clicking “Embedded” in the presets side-pane.
NOTE. If error message received on loading please update your copy of Reaktor to the latest version via your Native Access and ensure this is the one in use next time.
This will drop a zip-file into your download folder. Click it, then click on the ONE v1.1.ens file that opens out of it. Click on this then Reaktor will open and Bob’s your proverbial.
Nick Dwyer aka Flintpope has dug deep into his virtual crates over at sounds.com to create a Reaktor instrument that combines four sound banks in a set-up that allows real flexibility. With thousands of possible combinations of drum loops, ambient sounds, percussive weirdness and minute-long sound-fields coupled with easy mouse-drag on the fly live remixability you’ll be creating original grooves and musical textures in seconds.
LOFI MELODIC HIP HOP Sample Layer Player for Reaktor 6.2.2 (full version)
LOFI MELODIC HIP HOP is essentially a 4 x sample-loop playback instrument with realtime remixing capability to get interestingly varied results.
With a LOFI HIP HOP flavour.
This player is designed to create an infinite variety of LOFI drum loops (or even just atmospheres) with a melodic feel.
FOUR samplers each loaded with Flintpope sound designs can be triggered by your keyboard and scanned with a mouse drag while playing to remix the final result on the fly. Record as you go along with Reaktor’s built in facility or use a DAW.
SAMPLE Bank 1 is the 12 MINUTES sound bank taken from Flintpope’s pack of the same name on sounds.com
SAMPLE Bank 2 the LOOPER sound bank taken from Flintpope’s STRANGELOOPS pack on sounds.com
SAMPLE Bank 3 is the DRUMS section taken from Flintpope’s Reaktor instrument DRUMBOX
SAMPLE Bank 4 is the AMBIENT sound bank taken from Flintpope’s Reaktor instrument SONGLINES
There are 16 presets to give a flavour of these possibilities. Double click “Embedded” in the presets side-pane or use the drop-down menu in the device header.
The instrument also features Master Envelope and Velocity Sensitivity, Master Level and Pan.
The most useful dial is OVERLAP. The most useful control is the OUTPUT SCANNER.
Each sampler also has its own unique controls for Sample Choice, Pitch, Level and playback Start-point.
The value of this set-up is the ability to easily replace the samples with your own*
*(Need advice? Go to the Reaktor 6 Diving Deeper manual and open Chapter 8, page 69 (The Sample Map Editor) for a detailed guide.
Ensure all samples are set to midi note 60 and the keyboard range is for the correct midi note range inclusive for each sampler so the selector dials to operate correctly).
How to get that old warped vinyl effect? How to randomly trigger sample playback? Use a Geiger unit to randomly generate information that can be used in two separate ways as in the diagram above to get these two startlingly different results.
WARP: Hook it up (via a dial on Pitch and Dyn) to the Frequency Mod (F) on a LOOP SAMPLER. In properties set dial to Max 12 Min 0 and then tweak this to get a random slur on sample playback much like a warped record. Much wow.
RANDOM sample playback: Create a dial (knob) on the Dyn input of a Geiger unit. Hook it into a Maths (add) unit with another dial that says SELECT. Hook these both into the S(elect) input on the LOOP SAMPLER. Assuming you’ve pre-loaded a samplemap you can either manually scroll through the samples with the dial or more interestingly dial in an increasingly random playback selection with every midi-key press to create intriguing stutter effects, especially with drumloops.
Check out these tricks in action on the ATMOS+ ensemble HERE
This recent contribution to the User Library from Nick Dwyer is a granular sample morphing instrument with an elegant, deceptively simple interface, that has ‘big budget sound design’ written all over it. While the included soundbank is guaranteed to provide hours of inspiration, it’s also easy to load your own sounds via the sample map editor.
WAVCLOUD nearly made it to the soundtrack of Brad Pitt’s AD ASTRA!
“Lots of music composed for AD ASTRA by the four composers, Max Richter, Lorne Balfe, Nils Frahm and myself. There were many cues from all of us that didn’t make it to the final cut.” ROBERT MANN
A warm analog-sounding synth that uses four different types of oscillator to create rich sounds from warm basses and pads to metallic leads and LOFI soundscapes… all via eighties style synth keyboards.
This synth has just received an update to V1.5 to include a step sequencer, a pitch sequencer/arpeggiator, a vinyl crackle effect, a noise gen and ten more presets using these new add-ons, bringing the snapshot total to 70.
Hear the new demos below. The drums are from a new pack called MORE DIRT on sounds.com
OSC 1 is in itself a 4-waveform oscillator that also includes a feedback loop distortion effect called “Wire” that simulates the crackling and erratic jumps in volume caused by a dodgy jack-plug in a guitar amp.
OSC 2 is a sine wave formant. This has its own simple LFO (tempo synced) that creates various warped vinyl simulations. It also features a “Mash” effect that creates various audio mess-ups between sample and hold simulation and distortion.
OSC 3 is a combo of one 8-step and two 4-step oscillators that create saw-wave/string sounds.
OSC 4 is a powerful bass (mainly) oscillator that morphs between a triangle and a sine wave.
GLOBAL FX & Controls
An LFO with three different sync options and four waveforms, phase, quantise, rate and cut-off.
VCF with cutoff (also routed via midi CC1 to your keyboard controller strip/wheel) etc…
Envelope (inc. velocity sensitivity).
Echo (delay) with various parameters inc.tempo sync button.
Glide and Chorus
Vinyl Effect
Noise Generator
Step Sequencer and Pitch Arp activated by Clock On in Reaktor or Host DAW.
Master-tune
Reverb and Master Output Level.
MIDI CC 14-29 inclusive are routed to various useful controls.
There are 70 presets in 7 banks accessible from the drop-down menu at the top of the instrument or by double-clicking “Embedded” in the presets side-pane.
View A is a dark metallic skin, view B is lighter.
Introducing SILVER Sample Layer Player for Reaktor 6.2.1(R54)**
As an indie sound designer for Reaktor 6, apart from instrument functionality I also have to consider “what’s the angle?” – what makes this device different from the thousand others out there? And indeed from all the others I’ve released so far.
Well, anyone of the 52635 downloaders of Flintpope instruments would know I’m obsessed with soundscapes – long, ambient atmospheric creations that send the listener off on a Headphone Journey, into a bit of a Tonto’s Expanding Headband mood.
So, is this one any different? NO! It’s more soundscapes. More and more soundscapes, but (slightly) better produced than previously thanks to the 4 channel mixing desk with 3-way EQ and not two but FOUR samplers each loaded with 36 DIFFERENT Flintpope samples to each other, making 144 unique sounds that can be layered in up to 1296 possible combinations.
There are 30 presets to give a flavour of these possibilities. Double click “Embedded” in the presets side-pane or use the drop-down menu in the device header.
Add to all this Reverb and Echo FX, Envelope and Velocity Sensitivity.
Each sampler also has its own unique controls for sample Choice, Pitch, Start-point, Random Playback and Warped Vinyl effect. Each sampler also has Solo, Mute, Pan, Level, 2 Sends and 3-Way EQ. The mixer also provides Master Level, Pan and Mute and 2 Returns.
The value of this set-up to fellow Reaktor enthusiasts is the ability to easily replace the samples with their own* and/or rip out the samplers and for example replace with four synths, or whatever…
*Need advice? Go to the Reaktor 6 Diving Deeper manual and open Chapter 8, page 69 (The Sample Map Editor) for a detailed guide. Ensure all samples are set to midi note 60 and the keyboard range is from midi note 2-37 inclusive for the selector dials to operate correctly.
CC 14-29 inclusive are assigned variously to sample selects, levels, pans, and pitches.
SILVER is monophonic and requires the full version of Reaktor 6 version 6.3.1(R6)
**Note, if you get “Not a valid Reaktor File” error message please update your Reaktor 6 to Reaktor 6.3.1(R6)
SONGLINES AMBIENT PACK, a REAKTOR LOOPER with live input.
This is a Reaktor 6 instrument consisting of 3 layers of 24 hypnotic ambient musical loops that play against each other to create complex, textured, atmospheric moods. Just hit the space bar to set the loops off and improvise along with the included mono-synth for hours of ENO-esque fun! SONGLINES is a great tool for creating unusual pads too: use Reaktor’s inbuilt recorder function to create fat, textural samples of your arrangements.
72 LOOPS
You get 72 loops in WAV format at 120 bpm.
You can happily downtempo to 105 and up to 140 before artefacts, and there are various FX (see LOOP DIALS below) to further randomise your mix.
The total possible combinations of loops is 72 x 72 (5184 variations) and that’s not factoring-in mute or solo into the possible arrangements. You don’t need to worry that your mixes will sound like anyone else’s.
You also get a live-play 4-wave mono-synth which features the same controls as below (see LOOP DIALS) plus fine-tune, attack, release and envelope dials. This can be a gritty bass-line or an ethereal 80’s style lead. Waveforms are SINE, TRIANGLE, SAW and PULSE. Pitch-wheel function (triggered by your keyboard) is routed to +-12 semitones so a lot of noodling is possible.
SONGLINES suits live performance or can be used in your DAW.
If multiple instances are used in the latter please re-load a fresh copy separately (don’t just copy track) to avoid a Reaktor loop meltdown.
All sounds and tune-snippets are Flintpope originals and completely royalty-free: if it sounds like someone else’s riff it isn’t. Care has been taken to ensure at least 99 percent of the loops all play nicely with each other and are mainly rooted in the key of C (can be re-tuned… see PITCH dial below).
LOOP DIALS
Each loop, or LINE (you can see the waveform playback on each) has a set of twelve controls.
SELECTOR (LOOP*1 etc) chooses the loop number from 1-24. Playback is instant as you change it. If playback-sync glitches simply press RETRIG (see below).
PITCH Up or down an octave.
SHIMMER A switch effect (on or off). Randomly stutters between different loops in this song-line. This is the secret weapon of this ensemble (used also in FLINTPOPE’S ATMOS, DRUMLINES and DRUMBOX). Used against other loops it can create an interesting texture and delightfully broken feel.
JUMP Another quirky effect dial that acts Like a vinyl record when the needle jumps. Experiment with settings to get repetitive Steve Reich rhythms or modern stutter effects, especially when combined with SHIMMER.
MID is a simple mid-range cut or boost dial that helps clarify the mix in a busy set of loops.
CUT(off) and RESO(nance) control the VCF of each line (and mono-synth) individually to provide a wide range of tonal variation, especially when combined with the MID dial.
(Re)VERB and CHORUS do what it says on the tin.
VOLUME dial needs no further explanation, neither do S(OLO), M(UTE) or PAN L & R
The Master FX
COMP DIAL. Can be turned up full for maximum brute compression.
MASTER The master volume output dial.
PAN L & R
RETRIG. Hit this to restart all the loops in sync if you want.
You also get seven presets as a taster.
Requires Reaktor 6 full version. FREE REAKTOR PLAYER NOT SUPPORTED
Haven’t got Reaktor 6? Why not consider purchasing this for the set of 72 soundloops? They are in a separate folder for easy access.
Reaktor power-users who are familiar with the Sample-map also get a folder with the three sample-maps so they can be used in other Reaktor samplers that use this function.
Again, Reaktor power-users should have no problem inserting their own loops or other sounds into this ensemble. Just ensure each sample is ROOT 60.
A drag and drop granular sample player that can create surprising sounds with a few tweaks.
There is a set of bundled samples and presets to demonstrate some possibilities with this instrument. Double click “Embedded” in the presets side-pane to get to the snapshots.
Or dive in and drop your own.
Long interesting samples (a mix-down of a tune for example) result in far better variations than short dull ones (kicks and snares etc).
The ability to focus in on small details of a waveform (and morph them) is what makes HORNFISH tick, so a complex, busy sound can yield many more variations than a simple tone.
This is an update of a previous version so here’s what’s new:
Cleaner interface with readable sample waveform and rather hypnotic oscilloscope readout of note input and velocity.
Clearer dials with numerical positional readout.
A GUI that is easy on the eye.
Clear headers and groupings of controls.
Thirty-six new presets.
CONTROLS and CC
Pitch
Pitch Shift CC14
Pitch Slide
Pitch Jitter CC24
Root Note CC22
Position
Playhead (AND MOUSE DRAG) CC15
Position Jitter CC25
Grain Length
Length CC16
Reverse Play
Length Jitter CC26
Grain Density
Density CC17
Density Fine CC27
Density Jitter CC28
Reverb
Size CC20
Lo cut
Hi cut
Mix CC1 or Modwheel
Envelope
ADSR
Velocity Sensitivity CC29
Master level CC19
Pan Flip CC18
An important note on saving presets!
When working with HORNFISH in REAKTOR standalone, save any new Presets (File > Save Preset As …… ) as well as saving the Ensemble.
Otherwise HORNFISH will ask for “missing” samples when reloading the saved ensemble. This is an inherent feature of the way Reaktor handles samples and not a Flintpope quirk.
A further note: it is good practice to add user samples to the samples folder that comes with HORNFISH when creating new presets with new material.
