Anyone that has spent any time downloading ensembles in the Native Instruments User Library will no doubt be familair with the name Martin Brinkmann, as he has contributed many useful and interesting ensembles.

Martin also has ensembles included with Reaktor 3 that he created such as GrainStates and Sonix.

We had an opportunity to ask Martin a few questions, and here are his responses.

well, composer, programmer and sound-designer fits quite well, though i'm also interessted in other forms of art, but there is alwasy a musical aspect, so its more or less all about music.

Q: Please tell us about your background working with computers and music?

as a kid i had piano and guitar lessons, and my fist electronic instrument was a casio sk-1 followed by other casio synths (i still have a cz-1). by the age of 16 i got an amiga computer, and though i was mainly interessted in computer-graphics, i also made a lot of mods and sonix-songs. (i hope that no one ever digs them out somewhere...:-)). during the 1990s i studied computer-science , and i made quite a lot of songs with my little midi-studio (and later on also with rebirth), and used more or less all the money i earned as a screendesigner and multimedia-programmer to expand the studio. since about 1/2 year i do not only just make music on my own, but i also play in a (kind of) band (keyboards and "reaktor stuff" of course), and it is great fun. our first little gig was on the 12th october, and i think not only all of us, but also the audience enjoyed it. we will definately play again soon...

Q: How did you first run into Native Instruments Reaktor?

i read a review in the keyboards magazin, and tried out the demo version. since i was always interessted in a modular synth, and the nord modular was quite expensive, it was an easy choice.

Q: What prompted you to design your own ensembles and share them with others.

i quickly discovered how much fun it is to create all kinds of virtual instruments, to combine programming knowledge with "creating something usefull", like musical instruments. its a lot more fun than making boring "interactive cdrom-stuff"... and why shouldnt i share them? i think its a good idea to have a huge library of free 'open source' instruments where everybody can find out how things can be done. i also (re-)use macros or components from other ensembles quite often in my own ones, and therefore i think this kind of exchange and mutual inspiration is very usefull.

Q: Have you heard music where others have used your ensembles? How does it make you feel?

good of course! :-) and very often i'm surprised by the sounds that other people create with my instruments. its nice to hear that my instruments can also be used in a completely different way than i use them. and its of course nice to hear some good music that would not exist without these instruments. only one recent example is ronny pries 'rctic' mp3 album on 'thinner' (www.thinnerisem.com) where he used some of my ensembles. and there are many more examples...

Q: What kind of computer are you using and what are some of the other tools you utilize?

a 700 mhz athlon pc and a (very small) 500mhz sony notebook + doepfer pocket fader and pocket control and a small midi keyboard. but i have also some hardware-synths: a korg prophecy, waldorf pulse, access virus and a few others.

Q: Which of your creations are your personal favorite Reaktor ensembles or effects?

hmm, i like many of them :) but definately amogst my favourites are: the clix (and related) series, the multiband-delay, isq and icbm, and grainstates...

Q: Stylistically how would you describe your own compositions?

there are basicly two directions: a kind of 'easy-listening breakbeat', and the more 'experimental ambient' stuff (at besonic this is filed under "illbient", because they dont have a "experimental elctronic" area, though i'm not very happy with the "illbient" label. i think (hope) that most of my music is not only dark and strange, but has also some positive vibes in it. with the band we are playing a kind of groovy house/"jazzy"-mixture, with various other influences...

Q: How does Reaktor fit in with your music composition? How would you describe your approach to composing music?

there are some differences depending on what kind of music i make. most of my "experimental ambient" music is made completely with reaktor. i record several live-sessions and layers, and then arrange them with an audio sequencer (currently im using acid 3.0, but i'm thinking about moving to this new "live-sequencer" (ableton live)) for my more traditional "easy listening breakbeat"-songs i use reaktor as a midi sound module, and my old amiga 2000 running music-x as a sequencer.

Q: What artists have inspired your style?

i think quite a lot. to name only some who i like especially: the orb, orbital,klf. and more recently: pole, vladislav delay, and a lot of this "clicks&cuts" stuff. ...and i've always been a jean michel jarre fan (i think its possible to hear this even in some of my more experimental songs :))

Q: What features or improvements would you like to see in future versions of Reaktor?

there are also a lot of things that i would like to see in future versions of reaktor. i collect all ideas (and bugs/etc. too) and mail this "wishlist" to ni from time to time. amongst these are: fft (and ifft) modules, some improvements concernig tables, polyphonic editing (in the bar/line-graph view) for table data for example.

Q: Are there any songs or examples where we can hear your use of Reaktor?

yes, on my homepage. www.martin-brinkmann.de

Q: Do you have an artist page where people can hear your tunes?

www.besonic.com/iR , or follow the link from my homepage: www.martin-brinkmann.de some songs i would recomend are: crx-a1, rk-ap, air1 and cmss

Q: What is your "day job"?

multimedia programming, "webdesigner"/programmer.

Q: What are you currently working on?

i'm always working on new ensembles, so you should check the user library regularly :) and recently i have made quite a lot ensembles for playing live. these are all unreleased, because they are all very specific for a single song, and thus not that interessting for other people. but what i will probably release in the next time is a collection of instruments which i have used for my live-ensembles. (drummachines, sequencers & mono-synths, mixers, loop-players etc.)

Q: Where would you like to see the direction of music making go in the future?

well, i dont know really what to answer here... the only thing i can think of is the rather obvious trend 'hardware - software'. but i dont know. maybe there will be a 2nd "retro wave", and "ancient" gear will become popular again...