Re: Gigspam: Imogen Heap, Tim Exile & Cello For Airports

[Todd Matthews <gtmatthews@gmail.com>]

Hey Mech,

I just bought the Finger to use with Reaktor and it seems there isn't a looper like in Tim's videos, but instead there's a looping 'effect' where it just loops a sound while you hold a midi note down and then it stops looping once you let the key up. In the videos he does full blown looping where he starts looping with a midi message then presses a button again to seamlessly start looping. Do you know of any ensembles that are already made out there that loop like this?
I browsed around the Finger ensemble's structure to see if I could see how the looper effect worked but I couldn't make one lick of sense about any of the wiring:) I guess that means I need to do some homework.

Todd Matthews


I'm super excited to check out the concert! Have a great show Zoe

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 6:55 PM, Mech <mech@m3ch.net> wrote:

At 11:16 AM -0800 12/2/09, Zoe Keating wrote:

On Dec 1, 2009, at 2:35 PM, cpr@musetrap.com wrote:

Tim does all his looping/processing/etc using Reaktor.. :)

yup, I was checking out his setup in SF. He makes it all seem so simple, I was very impressed. I know nothing about Reaktor, but now I'm all curious about it.

Gleep!  Talk about lousy timing, Zoe.  NI *just* ran a four-day special this past holiday weekend.  The price of Reaktor was cut to a mere $99 (currently ~$200 savings, if I'm not mistaken).

Although you can get a good taste of Tim's Reaktor setup by purchasing his "The Finger" package, for the free-of-charge Kore Player:

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/powered-by-kore/the-finger/

The Finger is only about $79, IIRC.  The package also includes his Reaktor ensemble should you ever want to upgrade to the full deal.

Including the Reaktor version makes it far more useful, in my opinion.  The Kore version of The Finger is really cool, make no mistake about that.  However, it's also a bit random, since you don't really know ahead of time which effects are on which MIDI notes (without a LOT of experimentation).  You can often get some nice combinations merely by pressing 3 or 4 keys by total chance. However, just as often it'll sound like you're merely f*ing around with the presets on a new effects unit.  This is especially obvious if you're playing more structured pieces.

The Reaktor ensemble lets you actually define which effect is on which key (as well as its parameters) so that you know which is where and you're totally in control of what happens to the sound.

And, in general, Reaktor can be as easy or as tough as you want it to be.  If you don't feel like learning how to wire things together at the lowest level, don't sweat it.  I know lots of people who merely use the thousands of already-constructed ensembles from the Reaktor User Library, and spend most of their time playing rather than editing code.

If you really like the kind of thing that Tim Exile's doing, you might consider starting with a copy of The Finger (aka "Tim In A Box"), then moving up to full-blown Reaktor if you like the results. Your initial purchase wouldn't be a waste if you decided to upgrade later.

FWIW, Tim's product is really cool, regardless.  ;)

       --m.
--
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