Native Instruments "Reaktor Electronic Instruments Volume 1" is a set of 7 brand new instruments (ensembles) and effects for Native Instruments Reaktor. For the suggested list price of just $69. it's more like adding 7 brand new synths and effects to your arsenal of music tools rather than simply adding presets or new sounds to an existing module.

3 brand new synthesizers, 3 effects plugins and an all new drum machine make this an irresistible add-on for owners of Reaktor. Sure, there are thousands of free ensembles and effects available for download from the Native Instruments Reaktor User Community, but these are first rate completely new and very deep instruments that really stretch Reaktor's sound making capabilities.

The Reaktor Electronic Instruments Volume 1 package comprises a CD ROM and a booklet with detailed descriptions of every instrument. In addition, the REAKTOR properties windows provide in-depth explanations of all important functions and interface elements for convenient handling.The cd-rom also includes a folder of pdf's with extended technical info on each ensemble or effect.

So what exactly do you get for $69 bucks??? Lets' start with our favorites and a description of each. First in quotes the Native Instruments description and then our take on the instruments.

Titan - Lead Synthesizer - "the new flagship of REAKTOR synthesizers. Featuring a design similar to the most advanced hardware units, Titan’s four oscillators, three envelopes and LFO's, two filters, graphical modulators, and full matrix modulation produce an astonishing range and depth of sound." That's how Native Instruments describes Titan. I couldn't agree more. This instrument is loaded with personality!

Titan is without doubt the most satisfying ensemble that I have ever played with in Reaktor! The range of sound this instrument is capable of is simply astonishing. It comes loaded with awesome presets covering a diverse range of unique and new sounds. 127 in total. Inspirational is an understatement! Spin through the presets and you are presented with a myriad of all new sounds, many never heard of on other synths. What kind of sounds??? This could take a while... Beautiful angelic pads... dense atmospheric pads and soundscapes... sequenced Absynth-like patterns... unique house/techno chord/stabs (beautiful pristine delay by the way!)... Scary out there FX sounds - from another dimension... deep booming distorted bass - room shakers... clean bass... unique twisted leads never heard before... one shot drum and bass type effect sounds... wicked subbass sounds... gorgeous string pads... spacey synthetic pianos... plucky synthetic guitar sounds... distorto lead sounds ("80 lead zottler" is a booming evolving monster of a lead patch - listen to our song TITAN to get a feel for it along with several other Titan presets in that song)... much much more.

Click to see full size Titan screenshot

Titan is a complex instrument and on a few of the presets is a CPU hog. I experienced a few isolated freezes/crashes with this monster of a synth in Cubase VST 5.1, but standalone never encountered problems (test machine Pentium 4 1.7 Ghz, 256 RAM, Win 98SE).

Titan alone makes it worth popping for the extra $69. for this expansion pack, but wait - there's much more!

Rhythmaker - Sequenced Drum Machine - "A graphical sequencer controls specialized percussion synths to build shifting, morphing rhythms. Rhythmaker is a complex, eight-channel rhythm sequencer chained to four unique types of drum synthesizers. Each drum synthesis module has extensive controls for modifying and tweaking the sounds, allowing you to create totally new drum sounds, from the subtle to the hardcore. Rhythmaker is also a GM compatible drum synthesizer: you can play each of the drums over MIDI, from C1 to G1."

Rhythmaker is a lazyFish designed ensemble and is also one of the best ever for Reaktor. It is unique sounding and the possibilities seem infinite. It is a blast to play with. Creating fresh loops is a breeze with this instrument. In fact Rhythmaker loops I created formed the inspiration for the Titan song (complete details below). It's very simple and intuitive to set up new sounds for the percussion synth modules. The event table-based sequencer is a trip to work with. Draw in new patterns and isolate segments to create all new beats. Each of the 5 modules have a healthy selection of preset sounds. Simply changing the module sounds can bring forth completely new sounding beats.

Rhythmaker is very satisfying and inspiring. If you're into electronic sounding beats this is a must have instrument.

Grobian - Bass Synthesizer - "Angry growling, aggressive howling, and pummeling lows pour from this ill-tempered synth. Grobian is everything you don’t want a dog to be: dirty, aggressive, and very loud. But what’s undesirable on a leash can really make your music growl. Grobian is a compact, powerful bass synthesizer designed to create driving bass lines for drum and bass, industrial, and hard techno."

Grobian is especially well suited for Drum N Bass, Industrial and techno songs. It is familiar sounding but has a surprising number of variations to get that perfect unique bass line sound. It's loaded with 75 presets that cover a wide array of sounds. Very useful instrument. Also utilized in the song "Titan" (complete details below). Try assigning a few parameters to hardware knobs and you can twist and mutilate your bass lines. Very cool!

Atmotion - Atmosphere and Pad Synthesizer - "A sequenced synth engine produces evolving textures, rhythmically modulated pads, and writhing landscapes. Atmotion was specially designed to create pads, atmospheres and special effects. What sets it apart from other pad-oriented synthesizers is step sequencer-based control over the parameters. Atmotion can create dense, rich, atmospheres and rhythmic pads by sequencing filter cutoff, oscillator level, and FM depth. Since Atmotion is controlled by the system clock, remember to start the global clock when checking out its capabilities."

You basically run the sequencer and play the keyboard via midi and the pads evolve. Assign a few parameters to knobs and you can really have some fun. To my ears Atmotion can be a bit shrill, glassy and strong sounding at times. Decreasing the cutoff and resonance on a few of the presets helps. Of course this is subjective and depends on personal preference. I also hit "processor overload" a few times on selected presets (both in Cubase and standalone) and had to close and restart Reaktor. Considering the complexity of this ensemble I can see why. I plan to spend more time with it as it does produce some nice sounds. I consider Atmotion a bonus since the expansion pack is already so fulfilling with the 3 instruments above. If you are searching for other-worldly sounds Atmotion will provide a healthy dose of those.

Effects

EnFX - Envelope Follow Multi effects - "An input-modulated filter, distortion and delay work together to twist, warp, and skew. EnFX contains three distinctly unique takes on the old envelope follower. Not simply confined to the familiar wah-wah filter effect, EnFX also includes an input-modulated delay and distortion. The ability to modulate the effect parameters by the amplitude of any input allows for some radical re/deconstruction of sounds."

EnFX is a handy little addition that provides capabilities to mutilate source audio. The filter, distortion and delay each have a healthy number of presets that allow effecting to taste. You can get some pretty radical distortion delay effects. Not something I'll use every day, but could be of use to mutilate some loops and such.

Anima - Moving Filter Bank - "An array of graphically controlled band-pass filters nimbly sweeps, dances, and resonates. Anima is a resizable array of filters that can either act together in one wave or separately in many waves. All filters are controlled by a single graphic XY pad to musically produce rich phase shifts, synced filter sweeps, and tuned resonances."

Anima is just right for adding a little movement to your sound. It reminds me of Spektral Delay a bit and can be very effective on drums.

Longflow - Dub Delay - "A finely tuned feedback delay creates eternal echoes and rhythmic grooves.Longflow is rich sounding stereo delay with very long decay times and the ability to modulate both delay time and filter frequency. It uses dual resonant high- and low-pass filters (called LoCut and HiCut respectively) to shape the frequencies of the signal to be delayed. With some tweaking, it’s possible to get anything from resonant choruses to deep, dubby, modulating delays to warped time-continuum madness. The top row of knobs controls the left side of the signal while the bottom controls the right. Signal flow advances from left to right."

Longflow is a lot of fun and can turn simple sounding beats into all new rhythms. Particularly good for twisting and mutilating loops.

All in all Reaktor Electronic Instruments Volume 1 is a tremendous value at only $69. suggested retail. It's like getting all new synthesizers for the price of an expansion pack. The Titan alone is worth the price of admission. Add the Rhytmaker and Grobian and the 3 effects and this package is a no brainer. If you have Reaktor you'll be glad you added these instruments. Also of note, you can use these ensembles to create all new instruments and variations picking these apart and utilizing the macros. Such a deal for only $69. bucks!

Native Instruments Reaktor Electronic Instruments Volume 1 requires Native Instruments REAKTOR (Mac or PC) 3.0.5 or newer

Special - Native Instruments Reaktor Electronic Instruments Volume 1 also available bundled with Reaktor 3 at a special price.

Listen to our song "Titan" which used 100% VST Instruments and 100% Native Instruments software, mainly featuring instruments from Reaktor Electronic Instruments Volume 1. Listen to "Titan" - streaming file - free It was not intended as a demo/showcase song for N.I. but turned out that way. Amazing what you can do using just VST Instruments!

The story behind the song: "Titan" started life with a few selected drum loops created using Rhythmaker. I then layered a few atmospheric textural loops created with Absynth in Cubase VST. Opening Titan (the instrument) I soon found some beautiful pad sounds and fx sounds (102 fx londau, 42 string jm and 59 slowrise). Then I stumbled upon the Titan preset "80 lead zottler" and the song really took shape. This preset is an outragous feedbacky distorto sounding guitar like hybrid sound. Awesome! It really gets nasty and rumbly. The song also utilizes Grobian for some bass and Native Instruments "free gift" BeatSlicer ensemble for Reaktor (available at the Native Instruments web site) which I used to add some cut-up rhythm guitar mutilations and also to chop up one of the Rhythmaker loops and twist it a bit. To finish off the track I opened up Battery to add a few cymbal hits and crashes. The song was mastered in Cubase using Waves L1 Ultramximizer. Other than the effects in the instruments themselves, there were no added effect plugins at all.

Beat Mode Native Instruments Links

Native Instruments Reaktor Electronic Instruments
Volume 1 Info Page w/ MP3 demos

Reaktor 3 & 4 Info Page

Music featuring Reaktor