“Music production feels pointless now,” says Tim — but years after walking away from DAWs, he’s embraced instrument building. New Modular System is a patchable environment, constructed in Reaktor, that’s truly Exile-ish in philosophy. It’s not about a bunch of wire connections. You drop in colored modules and get straight to tweaking, generating, and playing — with wild, massively diverse results.
New Modular System isn’t technically finished yet, but it’s already very usable once you get used to its approach. It almost feels like “what if KORG Gadget went super leftfield or did dub techno” or, okay, “what if it was designed by Tim in Reaktor?” So you get dubby dancey bits, wonky evolving ambient bits, you drop them in, and you immediately get sound.
It’s not a preset machine, either — indeed, it does drop you directly into the Reaktor Edit view. (It took me a second to realize, okay, just patch input, trigger if there is one, make sure each output has a matching input — go.) But once you’re there, there are always results, and those results turn out to be insanely customizable. Change the modules. Load a sample. Tweak the knobs. Things are somehow never boring, but also always changing and yours.
There are easy examples to try, too, if you just want to tour. Experimental and ambient examples are a great starting point. The dub techno loop pack is almost worth the price of admission on its own. (I have the same feeling I had about Native Instruments’ TRK 01 when it dropped — this almost feels too easy. But then, had everyone figured that out, I suspect my promo inbox would be way better than it is, so I am not gatekeeping these things. Go forth and make great tracks!)
Included modules:
- FM and subtractive synth voices
- Kick, snare, hi-hat, percussion, and clap pattern and sound generators (both!)
- Experimental sampler
- MIDI pattern and modulation generator
- Reverb, dub delay, triggered resonator, triggered filter glitch effects
- Loop and macro controller modules
- Mixing console
- Generative “wander” source
- Transport & scale
- Grid-based pattern recall
- Builder macros, tools, and a nice “chaos” randomization
You can go as low-level or high-level as you want with this, really. It automatically maps to Novation’s awesome Launch Control XL, or you can use your own MIDI controller. (This is a Tim Exile joint, after all, so expect a load of MIDI control and playability!) And it’s hard to just run those modules — each is really a unique generative tool on its own.
Check the full walkthrough:
And here’s what I was messing about with last night:
You do need a full license for Reaktor to use this. It doesn’t work with Reaktor Player. (Komplete includes Reaktor.)
Check it out:
£49 buys you early access, plus the full version at launch. (It’ll be £69 when the official launch lands.)
More stuff from Tim’s shop:
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