Producer/composer and Reaktor super-guru Peter Dines is back with a new concoction for Native Instruments’ graphical development environment for sound. Entitled the Reaktor Sample Pack, it’s a collection of three granular sampling instruments. Updated with new download links (no more divshare!)
Frame is a looping sampler with smooth/crossfading, envelope controls, and built-in saturation, plus graphical loop point selection. Free | download
Loupe is a “polyphonic looping slicer,” which is to say you can slice up a sample and assign it to different MIDI keys. Press a note, then graphically set loop playback parameters from reverse to envelope to filter. US$15 via link below, or get Loupe + Mirage for US$22.50 | download
Mirage is a granular sampler that focuses on ambient textures, by creating snapshots of various parameters. There’s some deep sonic functionality in there, including an LFO with a “whirl” effect (and accompanying whirly graphic widget), per-voice filtering, global envelope and EQ, and tons of grain-level controls. US$15 via link below, or get Loupe + Mirage for US$22.50 | download
They also all look lovely with Reaktor’s recently-overhauled UI. Pete isn’t just a good programmer, though; he’s a talented producer, so I’ll let the sound samples speak for themselves:
Peter Dines Sampler Pack – Frame 2 by peterdines
Peter Dines Sampler Pack – Loupe drums by peterdines
Peter Dines Sampler Pack – Mirage demo by peterdines
And here’s a look at Mirage’s UI; click through for a bigger version:
If you have Reaktor, I can’t imagine any argument for not picking these up. Through the end of February, you can pick up all three for US$22.50, and Frame alone would keep you busy for free.
Full details on Pete’s terrific Modulations blog at Noisepages:
Introducing the Reaktor Sampler Pack
If you’re interested in using this in Ableton Live, read on for Reaktor+Live tips. If you’re a fan of Maschine, Pete has also been putting Reaktor and Maschine together while testing the upcoming Maschine 1.6, and he’s got some fantastic tips:
Ableton users…
More on routing Reaktor in Live: multi out audio UPDATE: VST works too, not just AU [PS – little tip, VST is usually a safer bet than AU on the Mac because so many AU plug-ins actually use compatibility layers]
Maschine + Reaktor (and Loupe!) Maschine 1.6 beta just dropped!
And if you love running patterns at different lengths, routing patterns into one another, good stuff:
Sound to Sound MIDI routing in Maschine 1.6
Thanks for the great ideas, Pete. Well worth checking the rest of his site:
http://modulations.createdigitalmusic.com/