Reaktor Tutorials – Simon Hutchinson

22 August 202222 August 2022

“Hard Sync” Oscillators in Reaktor 6 Primary

Creating retro sounds with hard-synced oscillators in Reaktor 6 Primary.

“Hard sync” is synthesis technique that uses two oscillators: when one oscillator (the “leader”) finishes a cycle, it resets the period of the other oscillator (the “follower”), creating a period at the frequency of the leader, but a timbre from the incomplete cycles of the follower.

This is a really easy way to create original, complex sounds, using just two oscillators.

I say “1980s”, here but check out this sound in the Cars 1979 hit, “Let’s Go” (played on a Prophet-5 Synthesizer).

0:00 Defining “Hard Sync”
0:38 Building a Single Oscillator
1:35 Adding the “Follower”
3:03 Changing the Pitch Relationship
4:40 That Hard Sync Sound
4:57 How it Works
6:30 Follower Lower than Leader
7:25 Adding an Amplitude Envelope
8:10 Adding a Filter (for a bit)
9:28 Closing, Next Steps

Reaktor 6 Beginner Tutorials here:

11 July 2022

Patch from Scratch: Reaktor Feedback Loop

Building a dynamic feedback loop in Reaktor 6 Primary.

Here’s a simple patch based off the work of composer/engineer Jaap Vink from the Institute For Sonology, Utrecht. This ensemble is a feedback loop with a delay, a ring modulator, and a saturator (with a simple sine as a “trigger” to get things started).

Each pass through the loop, the signal is delayed, then ring-modulated, significantly changing the spectrum. This can devolve into noise rather quickly, but a soft touch can lead to some interesting evolving soundscapes.

There’s no talking on this one, just building the patch, and listening to it go.

More Audio Cybernetics and Feedback:

30 May 2022

This Fundamental Frequency Is an Illusion

All sound can be broken down into individual frequency components, and the lowest frequency component of a sound is called the “fundamental” (all the frequencies above that fundamental frequency are the “partials”). By cleverly setting the relationships of the amplitude and frequencies of the harmonic spectrum, though, you can trick your ear into hearing the pitch of a sound as an octave below the lowest frequency component.

Here, I’ve built a quick demo in Reaktor 6. Listen and see what you think.

Adding “Analog Warmth” to Your Digital Synth (Reaktor 6 Primary)

Some ideas on how to add some beautiful (analog?) imperfections to your Reaktor synths in Reaktor Primary.

The definition of “analog warmth” is pretty nebulous, but it brings to mind things like tube distortion and tape saturation–imperfections to the “fidelity” of the sound. Digital sound has imperfections too, of course, but these are aesthetically different (though perhaps no less interesting). In this video, though, I talk about some ideas in how to imitate the imperfections of analog in our digital Reaktor 6 synths.

Reaktor 6 Beginner Tutorials here
More Intermediate Reaktor Tutorials here.

10 January 2022

Basic FM Synthesis in Reaktor 6 Primary

Building a basic but expandable FM synthesizer in Reaktor 6, making an FM operators that we can duplicate as much as we want.

In FM synthesis, we modulate the frequency of one oscillator (the carrier) with another oscillator in the audible range. We can make an FM synth in Reaktor that’s modular and quickly expandable if we make a macro with the oscillator, an envelope, and a few special controls at the FM input.

0:00 Intro / What is FM Synthesis?
1:30 Sine Oscillator with Amplitude Envelope
3:14 The “F” Input of Sine FM Oscillators
4:20 Modulating the Frequency
5:24 Modulating the Frequency in the Audible Range
6:13 Adding Musical Controls
11:50 Combining Our FM Operators
13:01 Sideband Modulation with Envelope Control
16:12 Chaining FM Operators Together
19:48 Recap / Next Steps

Reaktor 6 Primary Resonant EQ (Faking the Serge Resonant EQ in Reaktor)

Building a resonant EQ in Reaktor Primary, taking inspiration from the Serge Resonant EQ’s unevenly-spaced frequencies and nonlinear controls.

In my regular journeys across the internet, I came across the Random*Source Serge Resonant EQ, a reissue of the resonant EQ from the Serge Synthesizer, and became a bit taken with its implementation and ideas. $400 is a bit too much for an impulse buy, so let’s see what we can do in Reaktor.

Even if we don’t end up with something that sounds perfect, we can use this as an opportunity to think more about subtractive synthesis, and talk about “parametric support” in our control schemes.

0:00 Purchase Your Way to Music Proficiency!
0:43 Random*Source Serge Resonant EQ
1:14 What’s interesting about this?
2:59 Disclaimer
3:22 Reaktor Primary Peak EQ
5:00 “Boost” vs. “Resonance”
5:53 Making Selectable Sound Sources
8:18 Throwing in an Oscilloscope
8:49 Starting the Resonant EQ Macro
9:28 Creating a Single Band
11:24 Level Controls to Avoid Clipping
13:13 One Knob for Resonance and Boost
14:28 “Funny Math”
21:13 Recapping the Flow / Fine Tuning
22:49 Duplicate! (for each frequency)
23:23 Setting the Frequencies
25:09 Adding a ByPass Switch
25:53 Sound Test
27:14 Saturator
28:04 Waveform Variance Across Instrument Range
29:38 Feedback
35:30 Next Steps

25 October 2021

Making a “Subharmonicon” in Reaktor

Building a subharmonic synthesizer in Native Instruments’ Reaktor 6 Primary inspired by instruments like the Mixtur-Trautonium and Moog Subharmonicon.

Subharmonics are frequencies that are whole-number divisions of a given frequency (in contrast to harmonics, which are whole number multiples of a frequency). While harmonics naturally occur as part of the timbre of a sound, subharmonics, when introduced, sound like distinct pitches, allowing you to create chords of harmonically-related notes.

This tutorial walks you through making a set of subharmonic oscillators and envelope filter like the ones on the Moog Subharmonicon.

More on harmonics and additive synthesis here.