Rekombinator II

I have just released Rekombinator II at Kontakt Hub. I started this project last November, so it took me quite a while to finish. It's the sequel to granular machine from 2015. Sequel rather than an update, the theme is similar, but it's whole new and quite different instrument. It's a take on granular playback implementation in Kontakt. There are built in granular based playback modes in Kontakt (time machine), but here it done with scripting. High frequency step sequencers are being activated for each note and grains are generated by playing fragments of the sample using internally triggered notes. It does result in high voice count and relatively high CPU utilization, but it opens some fun possibilities.

This instrument gives you full control over playback speed and playback position in realtime, play forward, backward, in nonlinear fashion or just freeze the sound. Works nicely for very slowly evolving drones and soundscapes when using extreme playback speeds, like 0.5% of the original. Rekombinator II has two waveform slots, so you can blend two samples. Each slot has independent control of basic engine parameters, like speed or playback position and separate audio path. Then there's hybrid modulator, introduced in Sawmill, where you can use step sequencer controller to render an LFO waveform. You can use it, for example, to create a nonlinear playback curve, make the playback head position travel around the waveform in fancy ways. Like in first Rekombinator, it is possible and not complicated to use any samples.

The instrument requires full version of Kontakt 5.8.1 (Kontakt 5 with latest update) or Kontakt 6. When pushed, it can produce noticeable CPU load, it's fine on my 10 years old 6 core, so I think any half decent modern processor should handle it easily.

Rekombinator II is now retired and replaced by Rekombinator III.