Reaktor Tips

The Threefer Deal

2011-12-20T08:23:00.000-05:00

Sale time! You can now get all three of Loupe, Mirage and ParamDrum for Reaktor for a fifteen dollar discount. So instead of $45 for the full package, you get all three for $30.00!

(Remember, you need a full working copy of Reaktor to use these instruments)

Sampler Pack by peterdines

ParamDrum for Reaktor, Konkreet Edition by peterdines

Using Konkreet Performer and TouchOSC in a host?

2011-12-16T16:57:00.000-05:00

Spending some time with Lemur since its launch, one of the neatest features is the ability to script 14 bit MIDI, to give higher resolution control over various parameters. This is essential in instruments like Loupe and Mirage, where regular 7 bit MIDI just doesn't give the fineness I want to set loop points. It's too steppy and jumpy.

I'm working right now on creating Lemur templates for my ensembles, but I'd also like to do version for Konkreet Performer and TouchOSC. This would involve running a Pure Data patch and rerouting PD's output, which is an extra step, but it would enable fine grained control within a host. As you may have noticed, Reaktor's OSC capabilities are missing in the plugin versions (for the love of God, why?!)

Anyhow, vote in the poll above if this extended capability for Konkreet, TouchOSC and my instruments interests you.

Update: I've hit a few performance issues with Pure Data so I'm going to do the OSC translator as a custom Reaktor patch. Here's what you do: run Reaktor standalone alongside your host with the translator patch, and redirect its MIDI output to your host. This is easy on Mac because programs can share a core audio interface, but a bit sticky on Windows where ASIO access is exclusive. One solution could be to redirect Reaktor's output to a different sound interface, or set it to use the DirectX driver. I'm open to suggestions from Windows users.

So, how about it - Reaktor as a translator?

Update 2: things are coming together...

First Lemur Template

2011-12-10T21:09:00.001-05:00

All reety then, after buying Lemur for iPad the other day and sifting the PDF manual for the chunky bits, I spent a few hours today crafting my first Lemur template. It's a hybrid OSC / MIDI creation that borrows the stock drum pads, adds a sustain latch, and also five bouncing balls with individually adjustable speeds, friction and scaling.

The scaling turned out to be especially important, as setting the balls loose on their full range of travel then mapping them to Reaktor controls is a bit sloppy. So using the X and Y scale controls, you can specify a range of travel for whatever control you map them to. That way, you can specify that your filter cutoff stays within a useful range, or open it up to the full range of travel for crazy wildness.

The MultiBalls output both OSC and MIDI. The OSC signals look like /Multiball/X1 etc, and the MIDI CCs are in the range 17 to 26. There are X and Y lock toggles to make MIDI learn easier.

There are probably better ways to address the creation of variables and math formulas than what I've done here, but give me a break, this is my first try! If you're a longtime Lemur demigod, I welcome your criticisms.

The HolyBallz template can be downloaded here. I'll be adding templates more specific to my own ensembles soon.

Halloween weekend sale!

2011-10-28T12:58:00.000-04:00

From now until the witching hour on Halloween, get Paramdrum plus Loupe and Mirage for Reaktorin your sampling trick or treat bag for $30 instead of the usual $45.

Update: "threefer" discount now extended on a semipermanent basis!

(Remember, you need a full working copy of Reaktor to use these instruments)

Sampler Pack by peterdines

ParamDrum for Reaktor, Konkreet Edition by peterdines

Mixin' it up with Konkreet Performer

2011-08-15T21:59:00.003-04:00

I was talking to another Reaktor builder about mixing Konkreet Performer signals, so one KP parameter could control 25% of the range of a Reaktor instrument parameter, another could control 10%, and so on. It was an intriguing idea so I worked out the math and knocked this quick test ensemble together.

All it does is mix the X-value signals from the first three nodes in Konkreet Performer, then normalize the range so it's always 0 to 1. That way you don't have to fish around making sure everything adds up to 100%. Here's what the structure looks like:

The output goes to a numeric display so you can see the values.

You could easily adapt this to control whatever parameter you desire, or send the result to MIDI, or even adapt it to mix incoming MIDI CCs instead of Konkreet OSC parameters.

Here's the ensemble. Happy building!

Loupe 1.5.4 fix for Reaktor 5.6

2011-08-07T21:41:00.004-04:00

It came to my attention - frustratingly, as I was attempting to write some music - that the Reaktor 5.6 update had done something that messed up the slice points in Loupe. After changing a snap, slices would play on too long, drop out or play the wrong part of the wave when they were first triggered. Subsequent key presses on the same note worked fine.

I spent hours trying to fix it the proper way, by looking for initialization problems. Finally I decided to brute force the issue with an iteration macro:

All this does is silently bang out 128 notes in a split second when the instrument loads or changes snaps. As you see in the instrument properties manager, MIDI output is directed back at itself, making Loupe properly initialize every slice. This is perhaps inelegant, the equivalent of kicking 128 televisions, but it works well, doesn't cause other problems, and I'll take a working kludge over broken ideological purity any day.

If you have an instance of Loupe already loaded with your snapshots and samples, and you don't want to bother with the update, you can simply install this macro in the main instrument structure, and make sure to go to the connect tab in the instrument properties and redicrect its MIDI output to itself. Incidentally, tracing the events in this macro makes for a pretty good exploration of intermediate to advanced Reaktor event wrangling and I welcome any questions - post 'em below.

Download the update here. Don't have a Loupe license? Learn more and purchase here.

Shout out to Felix Petrescu (Makunouchi Bento) and Phil Durrant (Trio Sowari) for beta testing!

ParamDrum for Konkreet Performer

2011-07-14T01:50:00.006-04:00

Hey kids! It's time for yet another update of ParamDrum, the Reaktor drum machine that lets you play God of Beats.

ParamDrum for Reaktor, Konkreet Edition by peterdines

ParamDrum for Reaktor, Konkreet Edition - optimized randomization by peterdines

This time the big deal is Konkreet Performer mappings. Performer is an iPad app that gives you tactile control over anything that can receive OSC, such as Reaktor. Free utiities also let you translate it to MIDI for software and hardware that can't receive OSC. How good is Konkreet Performer? It's the reason I went out and bought an iPad in the first place.

Here's a cheat sheet with the lowdown on who does what where and when in the KP interface:

For those of you who don't have KP (go get it you fools), the new version still includes a new sample set, a whole lot of new snaps, and new features including optimized randomization.

A funny thing about the beats this thing throws down in conjunction with Konkreet - it's so easy to make crazy fun beats that you'll be making and saving one after another at a furious clip. That's why this edition of ParamDrum has so many more snaps compared to earlier versions. And among the most warped of them, you will find that they only make sense early in the morning when your ears and mind are fresh. When your ears, body and mind are exhausted, late at night, you will lose the ability to follow the sickest beats. So never delete snaps late at night. True story.

ParamDrum KP is free for owners of previous versions. Did I mention that you also need a working installation of Reaktor to use it? I should mention that. You can download ParamDrum KP edition here. Don't have ParamDrum yet but want in on the game? Buy a license here:

Loupe 1.5 for Reaktor - now with bidirectional OSC mappings for TouchOSC

2011-05-11T08:58:00.006-04:00

Here's the release version of Loupe 1.5, with some added features, bugfixes, and a new layout for TouchOSC.

Changes include:

Added copy / paste slice (fixed since beta)
Added duplex OSC mappings for TouchOSC
Added two page OSC iPad template
Fixed release envelopes cutting off prematurely

You may download it here. Update is free for owners of Loupe 1.0 - same license info will unlock Loupe 1.5. Don't have a license? It's $15 USD and can be purchased here:

Loupe

Here's a better look at the TouchOSC layout.

Above is the slice page. Each of the sliders gets updated from Reaktor when you trigger a new slice. This lets you see the loop area, filter settings, envelope settings, etc. of each slice and adjust them. Copy and paste buttons let you copy slice parameters to a different key - handy if you want the same thing on a different key except for panning, or reverse playback.

There's no way to get the sample waveform to display in TouchOSC, but the large green XY pad works the same way as the Reaktor Loupe GUI - X position sets loop position, Y sets loop length. I actually prefer working with my ears this way instead of looking at the display - it's a more hardware-y approach.

Above is the global page. This selects the sample, global position offset, position LFO and other global variables. You can use this as a performance view once the individual slices and keys are adjusted to your liking.

In order to get this fully working with Reaktor, it's necessary to set up bi-direcitonal OSC addresses. Reaktor has to talk to TouchOSC. Here's how to set that up in Reaktor:

The identifier "ipad" is necessary - that's what all the OSC send terminals in the instrument are mapped to. Take note of the ports and addresses. Reaktor's receive address should be TouchOSC's send address and vice versa. Here's what it looks like on the TouchOSC side:

That will get the OSC connection going both ways. But wait, there's more! You also need to set up a WiFi MIDI session between your iPad and computer. Here's what that looks like on my Mac:

Selecting your iPad and hitting "Connect" should be enough to enable the session, as long as you have CoreMIDI enabled in TouchOSC. Windows users can use rtpMIDI.

Whew! This may seem like a slog at first glance, but it becomes clearer when you sit down and set up the connections, and the result is worth it. It's magical in a dark room late at night, just you and your headphones and the controls and samples. Let me know what you think, how it's working for you and any suggestions for a better layout.

If this is your first look at Loupe, you might also be interested in the other two instruments in my sampler pack, Mirage and Frame 2.

Update: here is a download of the TouchOSC template on its own, if you don't have Loupe and just want to check out the mappings and naming conventions I used. I didn't know at first that leaving a TouchOSC control's OSC address pattern as "auto" named it according to /pagename/controlname. Quite handy for homing in on the address you want when you're trying to select from a long dropdown menu in Reaktor.

May 15th minor update: Loupe version 1.5.1 uploaded - fixes OSC address patterns for copy and paste buttons.

General MIDI layout for TouchOSC

2011-04-27T16:53:00.002-04:00

I was experimenting with TouchOSC's new MIDI capabilities and created this layout:

There are four octaves of keys - it was a bit of a pain to go to one after another and enter the pitches so I figured I'd share the fruits of my labor. The other controls are just X, Y and XY slider controls that send MIDI CC messages. They're arranged in a "well, let's use up this space and see what happens" pattern. I figure I'll fine tune it after playing it for a while.

Download it here.

UPDATE: I lowered the range by an octave so C3 is on the upper row left, which I think is more sensible. Get it here.

Setting up iPad OSC touch apps with Reaktor

2011-04-26T18:25:00.004-04:00

Because someone asked on a forum, I decided to write a quick note on how to set up the ports and addresses for Reaktor, Konkreet Performer and TouchOSC.

First, get Reaktor set up. This is straightforward:

This is generally as simple as activating Reaktor to receive OSC. Don't worry about the outgoing OSC setup for now - the goal is to get Reaktor listening. Take note of the IP address and "local port".

Now, in Konkreet Performer's setup screen:

The outgoing address and port in Performer match the local IP address and local port in Reaktor's OSC settings.

Similarly, in TouchOSC:

Now touch some controls in Konkreet Performer or TouchOSC and you should see messages in the OSC monitor in Reaktor's OSC settings dialog. If not, then you may have firewall or routing problems.

I'm assuming here that you're connecting both your computer and iDevice through a standard type of router and the IP addresses you see in these dialogs reflects that. You could also create an ad hoc network in Windows or OS X which often provides lower latency than using a router.

After you have established a connection and are seeing incoming data in Reaktor, it's time to map some controls. Go into the properties for a knob (for example) and choose an OSC parameter from the OSC Source dropdown menu on the connection tab:

More help is available here:

Konkreet Performer

TouchOSC

Introducing Loupe 1.5 Beta

2011-04-13T00:23:00.001-04:00

I've added some enhancements and fixed some bugs.

Most notably, there is now a key/slice copy and paste function. If you want to start with a key/slice, copy it to a new key and modify it, here's what you do: press the key (middle C for example) that contains the settings you want to copy, click the copy button, then press the destination key (C sharp for example) and click the paste button. Then you can make the new copy as subtly or vastly different as you please.
I've nailed down a crash problem that some of you may have been encountering when playing different slices very quickly from a MIDI keyboard (or the computer keyboard for that matter).
All the parameter IDs have been sorted and compressed to aid VST automation in a host.

The 1.5 beta can be downloaded here. The archive password you received previously will work with this new version. 1.5 should work perfectly but I'm calling it a beta until more people than me have tested it!

For more information and to purchase, click here.

Please vote in the poll on iPad control surfaces

2011-04-07T09:12:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to gauge demand for OSC touch surface enabled Reaktor ensembles. Please vote in the poll to the left and make yourself heard! Have I left out any options? Anything else you'd like to say on the subject? Do leave a comment.

Arcturan UltraTheremin uploaded to Noisepages

2011-04-05T12:29:00.001-04:00

Get it here.

Arcturan UltraTheremin for Reaktor and Konkreet Performer

2011-04-04T01:27:00.011-04:00

The Arcturan UltraTheremin, perfect for a little serenading on Squornshellous Zeta after a few too many pan galactic gargle blasters. Designed for Konkreet Performer and iPad control via OSC.

It's a three voice instrument played with three nodes on a Konkreet Performer touchscreen. The angle represents pitch, proximity to the central node adds vibrato.

Will upload the file if there's interest... how many people are using KP with Reaktor?

Arcturan UltraTheremin improv by peterdines

And you probably thought the polyphonic theremin was a joke!

Modding Spacedrone for keyboard control

2011-03-14T13:01:00.001-04:00

Any sound generator in Reaktor can be modified to give MIDI note control over the output level. Here's how to do it in Spacedrone:

Easy peasy. An ADSR envelope multiplies the signal going to the output. You can also use a selective note gate module instead of a vanilla gate module so only one specific note will trigger output. Adjust the attack, decay, sustain and release to taste.

Download the modded ensemble here. (oops, link was broken, should work now)

If you're looking for an interesting way to manipulate recorded samples of Spacedrone or other audio material, try my sampler pack.

UPDATE: added pitch control too. It doesn't work the way a normal synth would because the pitches of individual voices have a random factor but you can control the range.

ParamDrum 3 is Here!

2011-03-07T21:22:00.013-05:00

ParamDrum 3 has arrived.

ParamDrum is a fun and fast way to create unique sounding beats in Reaktor. It's based on three granular samplers with built in parameter automation and variable length and speed step sequencers. The value of a step gives the probability that the step will trigger as the sequence plays, creating endless variations.

00 Paramdrum 3 with Massive samples by peterdines

The third edition adds several carefully selected refinements.

All recordable parameters are now mouse-automatable by clicking and dragging on the indicator, perfect for when you're stuck with a laptop but no MIDI controller.
The GUI now matches Frame, Loupe and Mirage with a clearer layout that is easier on the eyes.
Smooth and swing are now static parameters, making room for envelope decay and sample start as recordable parameters. Try modulating sample start with a melodic sample to build the foundation of a track right in ParamDrum.
A "Max Vel" switch for each sampler allows full velocity for each step, so step value affects only probability.
A virtual analogue "sub" kick unit has been added for layering a little extra earthquake with your sampled kicks.

Aside from these improvements the rest of the instrument will be familiar to previous users and retains the ultra fast and fun workflow of earlier editions. The PDF manual still applies, and new users are also advised to watch this video to get an overview of the instrument:

ParamDrum TR Edition from Peter Dines on Vimeo.

(Yes, I know, the video features an older version - new screencast coming soon!)

ParamDrum 3 is a free upgrade for anyone who's already purchased a license and can be downloaded here.

If you don't already have ParamDrum, what are you waiting for? It's 15 bucks and you can get a license here:

ParamDrum

Requirements: A computer capable of running Reaktor 5.5. ParamDrum is extremely CPU efficient and unless your computer was hewn from flint by neanderthals you should be more than fine. It takes 2.7% CPU on my 2009 3gHz iMac.

Mac users take note: I now recommend SimplyRar for unarchiving password prrotected RAR archives on OS X. Newer versions of The Unarchiver sometimes give error messages when dealing with password protected RAR files.

Coming Monday

2011-03-04T09:26:00.002-05:00

Version 3

I realize I have a bad habit of announcing new ParamDrum versions then releasing them months later if at all... ParamDrum has a lot of macros and, frankly, it's a bit of a pill to update, owing partly to Reaktor's lack of "ghost macros" (think classes versus objects). Macros have to be either modified individually, or copied and pasted then all MIDI mappings redone. So when I think of a great new modification that has to be done for 18 macros, I tend to cringe and wilt.

Anyhoo this version adds the sample start and decay parameters I wanted, an easier on the eyes theme that matches the sampler pack, plus a shocking new twist. I'm working with it now to create a track (this is known in the trade as eating your own dog food) and if there are no showstopper annoyances I'll release the update Monday, March 7th.

Thanks for your patience and kind understanding,

Pete

Introducing the Reaktor Sampler Pack

2011-02-21T09:21:00.024-05:00

I'm pleased to release three new granular sampling instruments for Reaktor: Frame 2, Loupe and Mirage.

Each one has its own character and purpose. Frame 2 is a simple looping sampler designed for live control of loop points and other parameters. Here's the cheat sheet:

Frame is free and you can download it here. This is an update to the original Frame - it adds a nicer GUI, clearer graphical start and end points on the waveform, and some small under the hood enhancements. Here's a bit of improv to hear how it sounds:

Peter Dines Sampler Pack - Frame 2 by peterdines

The next instrument is Loupe - a polyphonic looping slicer for quickly mapping arbitrary (that is, non-beatsliced) sections of a sample to different MIDI keys.

How it works: hit a MIDI key and hold, then click and drag to set loop location and length in one gesture, then click and drag in the XY controllers to set pitch, pan, gain, envelope, reverse / forward and filter parameters. Each slice / note has its own settings. It's great for remixing. By default it has four voices but set more in the instrument properties if you want 'em.

It's primarily intended for mangling melodic samples but percussion works too. Here's what it sounds like:

Peter Dines Sampler Pack - FFS (Loupe demo) by peterdines

Peter Dines Sampler Pack - Loupe drums by peterdines

Peter Dines Sampler Pack - Haze (Loupe demo) by peterdines

Peter Dines Sampler Pack - Velour Tracksuit (Loupe demo) by peterdines

Like Frame 2, Loupe is self documenting through extensive tool-tips. None of the controls are too small or too fiddly. You can learn how to use it in minutes but I think you'll find a million uses for it. This reflects my instrument building philosophy that an instrument should give you musical leverage without making you feel like you're endlessly flipping switches on a room-sized computer from the 1960s.

I use a Maschine MIDI controller and like to map each row of four pads to musically related slices so I can play a particular idea or phrase on different rows. A different pad (or MIDI key) can have the same slice but with a different length, or a different pitch, or reversed and panned differently, or all of the above.

Loupe can be downloaded here. A password to unlock the archive is $15 USD and can be purchased here:

Loupe

The third weapon in the sampling pack arsenal is Mirage.

Mirage is a granular sampler inspired by three things - the music of Tim Hecker, my laziness, and my disorganization. ;-) It's sort of like a trapper keeper for ambient sampling. It lets you select an area of a sample to work with, then allows you to set your granular parameters, per-voice filter settings and pan, voice retrigger frequency, and other things - and crucially, it remembers the pitches you play and saves them with a snapshot when using the "Hold" button.

This creates a host-independent sketchbook for sound design and composition. When you stumble upon a magic combination of samples, settings and notes, everything saves together in the instrument for later recall, refinement and mixing.

When you DO find something magical, you'll find you can just sit there and listen to a snap for an indecent amount of time as the separate voices crawl across the waveform hypnotically.

Here's what it sounds like:

Peter Dines Sampler Pack - Mirage demo by peterdines

Mirage is aimed at a different musical goal than Loupe - you might say that if Loupe is a paintbrush for cubism then Mirage is one for impressionism. Both instruments differ, then, from the typical granular sampling feel and sound which in my mind is more like pointillism.

Mirage can be downloaded here - A password to unlock the archive is $15 USD and can be purchased here:

Mirage

If you want to know more leave a question in the comments or hit me up on twitter.

Special thanks to Felix Petrescu for beta testing Loupe and helping to make it a better instrument!

NOTE: these ensembles are built for the latest version of Reaktor - version 5.5.1 - it's a free update if you have 5.15.

Several newbies have asked me about adding samples. See here and the resource page.

Improved Reaktor voice panning and a little digital archaeology

2011-02-04T16:18:00.001-05:00

I was reading through the Reaktor application manual which is greatly improved in recent times, and came across this structure to pan voices in the stereo field:

Not bad, but you'll notice the first voice isn't panned to zero (hard left). Here's how to make the spread go from zero to one:

And here is a download of a simple synth which uses the pan macro with four voices.

I happened to notice the Reaktor tutorial synth I've used in my example is thirteen years old! That goes back to the days when it was called Generator.

More on routing Reaktor in Live: multi out audio UPDATE: VST works too, not just AU

2011-01-15T00:33:00.003-05:00

Reaktor has flexible audio out ports - you're not limited to stereo, and you can take advantage of that in Live.

Fire up Live and load the Reaktor AU (UPDATE: VST version will work too). Load the Aerobic ensemble, and in the lower right corner, turn on the "out" switch. This will enable multi-out for Aerobic, so each drum unit can be routed to one of four stereo pairs.

Then go to an audio track, select audio from your Reaktor track, and select either the pre or post FX for the first stereo pair, or one of the three others.

This means you can apply effects to each stereo pair by routing them to different tracks.

But what if you don't want to use Reaktor's outputs in pairs? Let's say you've built a crazy custom ensemble with a mono sampler, a sine, a square and a saw wave, and you want to route them individually to the first four outputs. What you can do then, is use Live's mono track insert effect to choose either the right or left channel exclusively.

So there ya go - easy flexible routing. I'm not sure why it won't work with the VST version of the plugin, and I'm too bushed to fire up Windows and find out if it works properly there. Are there any Windows users who've tried this?

UPDATE: turns out routing with the VST plugin version does work properly after all. I think I had the monitor setting wrong in the receive track. Sorry for the disinformation! Remember to turn off the track activator for the track holding Reaktor, and if you want the first stereo pair, choose pre or post FX in your target track, not post mixer (that would be the muted signal).

Routing Reaktor MIDI in Ableton Live with a dummy track

2010-12-23T23:33:00.003-05:00

I've always been annoyed with the way Live disappears the MIDI out menu of a track the instant you drop in an audio effect or instrument. It makes it difficult to route Reaktor's awesome Spiral instrument, for example, to another instrument track. Or to send LFO controllers from Reaktor to an instrument. You can do it by selecting the Reaktor track as the MIDI in on the destination, but then you lose the ability to also control the instrument from a keyboard or control surface.

Farting around this evening I noticed that you can kludge around this limitation by creating a dummy MIDI track as a MIDI bus:

Notice that the MIDI Bus track has its inputs set to the Reaktor5 track, but also to the Reaktor5 instrument in that track. The MIDI Bus track has its output set to the next track, which has an instrument rack. That doesn't tie up the MIDI from dropdown in the instrument rack's track, so the track still accepts note and control information from a control surface or keyboard, or what have you.

The other important point is to set monitor to "In" for your two target tracks.

Maybe this is a well known workaround now but a year or two ago when I googled for solutions I found only complaints and no fixes. I hope this helps somebody else because it sure opens up possibilities for me!

One year after switching to Mac

2010-12-20T19:54:00.003-05:00

I bought an iMac about a year ago. In the year I've had it, I have had 1 (one) minor problem with it, caused by an M-audio MIDI driver - and let's face it, M-audio drivers sometimes tend to be *mumble*. The other issue, and I won't even call it a problem, more of a developer annoyance, is the state of Java. Now that Apple is handing over the code to Oracle to be part of the OpenJDK project, it's no longer an issue.

The most amazing thing to me about the Mac is how little time I spend maintaining and repairing the OS. It just works. There's no laundry list of things to disable. Even the file indexing chugs away humbly in the background without interfering with anything. People complain that Macs are more expensive, but to paraphrase Jamie Zawinski, Windows is only cheap if your time is worth nothing.

Here's a short list of worthwhile, mostly audio-related Mac apps and utilities I've used in my first year:

Reaper: the awesome affordable little DAW is a true cross-platformer. Runs great in OS X. I use it not just as a DAW but also for its media explorer and to batch convert and slice up long samples. Development is active to say the least, with frequent updates and bugfixes, and version 4 is on the way. I bought version 3 when I was mainly on Windows and Reaper is one of the security blankets that made me feel OK about moving to Mac.
Snapper 2: a better way to preview and work with audio in finder windows. You can even select areas of the waveform and just drag them as clips into other apps and folders.
Audacity: this one's a no-brainer. You can't beat the price.
Wave Editor: not free but has a much less annoying interface than Audacity. Full review here.
Vox: a simple lightweight audio player. Great for listening to music on a removable drive without adding to your iTunes library. The beta version can host AU plugins, which is a great way to preview how folders of samples or field recordings will sound when you run 'em through a Reaktor effect. This is the app that made me stop missing Winamp.
VLC: if it is media, VLC will play it. If VLC does not play it, it may well be a sausage or a hamster.
MIDI Monitor: does what it says on the box. Indispensable for troubleshooting control surfaces.
Pure Data: probably the most cross platform audio programming toolkit aside from raw C++. Runs almost anywhere, does everything, doesn't cost a cent.
George Yohng's superb W1 limiter is available in AU and VST flavors. I almost always put one of these on the master channel in Reaper for an easy and low-resource peak catcher.
SimplyRAR: a nice GUI archiver version that not only unrars but creates rar archives as well, with password support. There's also a command line version from Winrar but this is nicer.
Grand Perspective: an open source app that graphically shows what's eating up your disk space. This is essential if like me you have endless hefty folders. Want to move a dozen gigs of files onto a backup drive, or outright delete them? You gotta find them first. This is how.
Still need some Windows software? Virtualbox is free for personal and academic use. Some say Parallels is better but I'm satisfied with vbox for now.
Speaking of Windows, if you're a switcher like me you'll probably want to install NTFS-3G for read/write access to your NTFS disks and partitions.

What are some of the important but little known apps and utilities you use on the Mac? What's made switching easier for you? Let me know, I might be missing out on something great!

Update: I forgot to mention the extremely handy Soundflower from Cycling 74. This free utility allows you to route audio from one app to another through a virtual audio device, much the same as you'd reroute MIDI. And speaking of routing MIDI, Nate mentioned MIDI Patchbay in the comments, which does just that as well as filtering, channel remapping and transposition.

The Tunnel Sample Pack

2010-11-07T21:22:00.000-05:00

I recorded a bunch of samples in a stone tunnel on Mt. Royal here in Montreal a while back - stomps, tin cans, bottles, plastic containers, sticks and stones and etc. clanking and knocking around. Here are some of them cut up into individual hits for your percussioneering pleasure.

And here's a beat I made with them, loaded into a new version of ParamDrum.

Hamsterdam by peterdines

The new version will be available this week as soon as I make a few more demo presets. Notable additions are: a sub bass control to add some extra oomph to your bass samples, and decay and sample-start controls.

UPDATE: daaaamn, I have to stop working in headphones. The bass ain't what I thought. I have to redo this with a better kick that kicks.

Reaktor Spiral opened in raw mode in Audacity

2010-11-07T12:28:00.000-05:00

Reaktor Spiral opened in raw mode in Audacity by peterdines

Most binary file types just give you white noise if you try the old "open them in an audio editor" trick to make samples for Ryoji Ikeda or Alva Noto type tracks. However I've discovered that Reaktor ensembles lend themselves particulary well to this misuse and often sound extremely varied and unpredictable. Probably has something to do with the variety of embedded information - primary level structures, core level structures, samples, bitmaps and who knows what else.

UPDATE: some more details on opening binaries in Audacity - FIRST, TURN DOWN THE VOLUME. Raw binary files like this can be as grating and ear damaging as anything Merzbow ever came up with. Careful with your ears and equipment.

in the main Audacity menu, go to file -> import -> raw data, browse to your file, and open it. You will get a dialog asking for the bit depth, "endianness", and number of channels. Experiment with different options but 16 bit stereo is a good start.

Nova Scotia Wind Chimes

2010-10-27T01:56:00.000-04:00

Nova Scotia Wind Chimes by peterdines

Field recordings made in Nova Scotia with a Zoom H4. Good raw material for a granular sampler.