Native Instruments Reaktor Blocks Wired Instruction Manual
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Document authored by: Native Instruments GmbH
Software version: 1.0 (12/2015)
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1 Welcome to BLOCKS WIRED .......................................................................................
1.1 About the BLOCKS WIRED Documentation .................................................................................. 6
1.1.1 Document Conventions .............................................................................................. 7
1.1.2 Info Hints ................................................................................................................... 8
2 Installation and Activation .........................................................................................
2.1 Installing BLOCKS WIRED ........................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Activating BLOCKS WIRED .......................................................................................................... 10
3 How to Use BLOCKS WIRED ........................................................................................
3.1 How to Open BLOCKS WIRED ....................................................................................................... 12
3.2 Exploring Factory-set Snapshots ................................................................................................ 16
3.3 Saving a Snapshot ..................................................................................................................... 18
3.2.1 Loading a Snapshot from the Toolbar ........................................................................ 17
3.2.2 Loading a Snapshot from the Side Pane .................................................................... 18
4 Lumikko Ensemble ....................................................................................................
5 XY Ensemble .............................................................................................................
6 Submotion Ensemble .................................................................................................
7 Block Reference ........................................................................................................
6
10
12
19
22
27
30
7.1 Bento Box 4 Mods ....................................................................................................................... 30
7.2 Bento Box Envelope .................................................................................................................... 31
7.3 Bento Box LFO .............................................................................................................................32
7.4 Bento Box Mix ............................................................................................................................. 33
7.5 Bento Box OSC ............................................................................................................................ 34
7.6 Bento Box VCA ............................................................................................................................ 35
7.7 Bento Box Xfade ......................................................................................................................... 36
7.8 CLK DIV .......................................................................................................................................37
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 4
7.9 COMB ......................................................................................................................................... 38
7.10 LEVEL S ...................................................................................................................................... 39
7.11 Monark Filter .............................................................................................................................. 40
7.12 Paul ............................................................................................................................................ 41
7.13 ROUNDS Delay ............................................................................................................................ 42
7.14 ROUNDS LFO ............................................................................................................................... 43
7.15 ROUNDS REVERB ........................................................................................................................ 44
7.16 SCOPE ........................................................................................................................................ 45
7.17 UTIL ClOCK ................................................................................................................................. 46
7.18 UTIL NOTE IN ...............................................................................................................................47
7.19 West Coast DWG ......................................................................................................................... 48
7.20 West Coast LPG .......................................................................................................................... 49
7.21 West Coast XYS .......................................................................................................................... 50
8 Credits ......................................................................................................................
Table of Contents
51
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 5
Welcome to BLOCKS WIRED
About the BLOCKS WIRED Documentation
1 Welcome to BLOCKS WIRED
BLOCKS WIRED takes you on a tour to new modular grounds: tweak and play three pre-patched REAKTOR Blocks Ensembles showcasing the power of the REAKTOR Blocks framework. Experience unique ways of creating sounds only available in modular synthesis, and explore new
and unheard sequences, percussion, and textures.
1.1 About the BLOCKS WIRED Documentation
This manual gives an overview over the basic workflows in BLOCKS WIRED.
While most of the instructions in this manual do not require prior knowledge about REAKTOR,
it is recommended to read the REAKTOR 6 Getting Started document to get a better understanding of the underlying concepts and features.
To access the REAKTOR 6 Getting Started document, open the Help menu in the REAK-
►
TOR menu bar:
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 6
Welcome to BLOCKS WIRED
About the BLOCKS WIRED Documentation
1.1.1 Document Conventions
This section introduces you to the signage and text highlighting used in this manual.
• Text appearing in (drop-down) menus (such as Open…, Save as… etc.) and paths to locations on your hard disk or other storage devices is printed in italics.
• Text appearing elsewhere (labels of buttons, controls, text next to checkboxes etc.) is
printed in blue. Whenever you see this formatting applied, you will find the same text appearing somewhere on the screen.
• Important names and concepts are printed in bold.
• References to keys on your computer’s keyboard you’ll find put in square brackets (e.g.,
“Press [Shift] + [Enter]”).
Single instructions are introduced by this play button type arrow.
►
Results of actions are introduced by this smaller arrow.
→
Furthermore, this manual uses particular formatting to point out special facts and to warn you
of potential issues. The icons introducing these notes let you see what kind of information is to
be expected:
The speech bubble icon indicates a useful tip that may often help you to solve a task
more efficiently.
The exclamation mark icon highlights important information that is essential for the given context.
The red cross icon warns you of serious issues and potential risks that require your full
attention.
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 7
Welcome to BLOCKS WIRED
About the BLOCKS WIRED Documentation
1.1.2 Info Hints
Blocks features comprehensive information about the Blocks, their parameters and inputs and
outputs in the application. You can view this information in the form of tooltips (called Info
Hints in REAKTOR).
To show the Info Hints in REAKTOR, enable the Show Info Hints option in the Toolbar.
►
Info Hints are available for each entire Block, the individual parameters, as well as the inputs
and outputs.
To view the Info Hint for a Block, place the mouse over its header:
►
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 8
About the BLOCKS WIRED Documentation
To view the Info Hint for a parameter, place the mouse over its Panel control:
►
To view the Info Hint for an input or output, place the mouse over the port in the Struc-
►
ture.
Welcome to BLOCKS WIRED
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 9
Installation and Activation
Installing BLOCKS WIRED
2 Installation and Activation
2.1 Installing BLOCKS WIRED
The following section explains how to install and activate BLOCKS WIRED. Although this process is straightforward, please take a minute to read these instructions, as doing so might prevent some common problems.
To install BLOCKS WIRED, double-click the installer application and follow the instruc-
►
tions on the screen. The installer application automatically places the new ensemble file
into a REAKTOR PLAYER directory. Alternatively, during the installation process, choose
the directory where you would like to have BLOCKS WIRED installed.
A full version of REAKTOR 6.0.1 or the free REAKTOR PLAYER 6.0.1 (or subsequent versions)
is required to use BLOCKS WIRED. You can download the free REAKTOR PLAYER from the
Native Instruments website.
2.2 Activating BLOCKS WIRED
When installation is finished, start the Service Center application, which was installed with
BLOCKS WIRED. It will connect your computer to the Internet and activate your BLOCKS
WIRED installation. In order to activate your copy of BLOCKS WIRED, you have to perform the
following steps within the Service Center:
Log in: Enter your Native Instruments user account name and password on the initial page.
This is the same account information you used in the Native Instruments Online Shop, where
you bought your REAKTOR Instrument, and for other Native Instruments product activations.
Select products: The Service Center detects all products that have not yet been activated and
lists them. You can activate multiple products at once—for example, several REAKTOR Instruments.
Activate: After proceeding to the next page, the Service Center connects to the Native Instruments server and activates your products.
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 10
Installation and Activation
Activating BLOCKS WIRED
Download updates: When the server has confirmed the activation, the Service Center automatically displays the Update Manager with a list of all available updates for your installed products. Please make sure that you always use the latest version of your Native Instruments products to ensure they function correctly.
Downloading updates is optional. After activation is complete, you can always quit the
Service Center.
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 11
How to Use BLOCKS WIRED
How to Open BLOCKS WIRED
3 How to Use BLOCKS WIRED
The following sections will give you a brief overview over some basic operations: you will learn
how to open BLOCKS WIRED, how to explore the factory-set Snapshots and how to load and
play BLOCKS WIRED Snapshots from the Header and the Side Pane.
For the latest information on REAKTOR PLAYER files and using Snapshots please refer
to the REAKTOR Getting Started Guide, available from the REAKTOR Help menu.
3.1 How to Open BLOCKS WIRED
This is how to open BLOCKS WIRED in REAKTOR or REAKTOR PLAYER:
1. Start REAKTOR or REAKTOR PLAYER.
2. Click the Browser icon to open the Browser
3. Click the Player tab to show the REAKTOR PLAYER files (or you can open the Browser
with the [F1] key from your keyboard).
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 12
How to Use BLOCKS WIRED
How to Open BLOCKS WIRED
4. Click the Blocks Wired folder. The content of the folder will be displayed in the lower section of the Browser.
5. Double-click either the XY.ens, the Lumikko.ens, or the Submotion.ens file, or drag it into
the main screen.
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 13
⇨ The Ensemble will be loaded in REAKTOR/REAKTOR PLAYER:
How to Use BLOCKS WIRED
How to Open BLOCKS WIRED
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 14
How to Use BLOCKS WIRED
How to Open BLOCKS WIRED
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 15
How to Use BLOCKS WIRED
Exploring Factory-set Snapshots
3.2 Exploring Factory-set Snapshots
All three BLOCKS WIRED Ensembles come with a wide selection of preset sounds, ready to be
used in your music. Exploring and tweaking the presets is useful for learning the Ensembles
before creating your own sounds from scratch.
A Snapshot is REAKTOR’s notion for a sound, preset, or patch. BLOCKS WIRED can
hold banks of Snapshots, and loading any of these Snapshots will set each control of the
Instrument to a specific value, and re-create a particular sound.
Play some notes on your MIDI keyboard to verify if REAKTOR PLAYER is set up correctly
►
and to get a first impression of how BLOCKS WIRED sounds.
Please refer to the REAKTOR Getting Started for details on configuring your Audio and
MIDI settings, available from the Help Menu.
The Snapshots of BLOCKS WIRED are accessible from the drop-down menu in REAKTOR PLAYER’s header (called the Toolbar) or from the Side Pane.
BLOCKS WIRED - MANUAL - 16
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