Expert Sleepers and Reaktor--The Perfect Combo for Bench Fun

Readers: get the Reaktor ensembles I use on my bench from github--here.

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My last post about my bench setup is a few years old--here.   

I am always trying to improve things.....

I needed voltage and function generation on my bench that was fast to set up and easy to control--for example, a sine wave at frequency X that is 5V peak to peak, two +/- 5V control voltage sources I can adjust with potentiometers, and a single +10V gate signal 20ms long that fires every 10 seconds.

I have a Siglent SDG1025 but it can be a bit time consuming to set up, even using PyVisa for automation. 

I also have a Siglent 3303X for generating DC voltages, but it takes a bit of time to set it to sweep through voltages, needed for testing things like synthesizer module CV inputs.

What else can be put to work?

Enter Expert Sleepers I/O:

Expert Sleepers ES-8--an extremely fast/powerful bench tool when combined with high level audio programming tools like Native Instruments Reaktor, Cycling 74 Max, and your Bench PC

AT THE BENCH:

The Expert Sleepers ES-8 is a DC coupled AD/DA that that conforms to the Eurorack specification, add-a-buncha-DC-coupled-I/O-to-your-PC idea, and uses USB or light pipe to send audio and CV data to and from your PC.  

To generate CV and audio signals I used free standing Reaktor 5--I found Reaktor 5 to be simpler to program than the current version, Reaktor 6.

Ensembles I use on my bench are available from GitHub here. You will have to buy Reaktor though. In a future post I hope to experiment with open source means to do the software part for free.

So far I have created simple LFO's and DC voltage generation. For what I do on the bench this has already proven useful. 

For example, I used the ES-8/Reaktor setup to test the VCF posted here. I needed an easy way to create an LFO mod source and sweep the cutoff frequency of the filter with CV simultaneously. At the same time, try to add yet another CV to the filter's frequency input.

Not impossible to do with my Siglent gear but using Reaktor and ES-8, it took me about 2 minutes to get the entire bench set up and ready to put the VCF under test.  

I wired up the device under test to the ES-8, in Reaktor I used an ensemble containing an LFO and two bipolar CV's:

Sure I could create 2x bipolar voltage sources and an LFO with my old bench setup, but it was much, much faster to use this Reaktor "ensemble" and the ES-8's DC coupled outputs you see here.

What else can this do?

I have a uMidi Midi to CV converter in my rack; it uses MIDI CC2 to create 0-5V CV signals. Yes, once set up correctly, the Reaktor/ES/Abelton trifecta works great for this use case as well.

The github repo contains ensembles for unipolar DC creation as well as bipolar...i will add more ensembles to the repo as I create them.

Update 9-25-24 I have found that sometimes I have to reboot my Windows 10 PC for the audio/CV coming out of Reaktor 5 standalone to "run".  There should not be a red circle icon in the top right of the Reaktor UI.  that means its output is not running--If so, reboot.

EXPERT WHO?

I was introduced to Expert Sleepers AD/DA's (ES-3--ADAT light pipe to DC coupled outputs, and ES-6---DC coupled inputs to ADAT light pipe) by a fellow synthesizer enthusiast a few years ago.  

He saw that I had a DAW/RME FireFace 802 equipped studio and told me run, don't walk, and buy an Expert Sleepers ES-3/ES-6 pair. 

"It will change how you do everything" he said.

The idea of the ES modules is pretty simple: they produce whatever audio or CV you send over ADAT light pipe, giving me many more channels of DC coupled I/O to and from my computer.  They have excellent fidelity, low DC offset, and low noise, are reasonably affordable, and have small Eurorack footprints. 

Bought them....

As I dug further into this I discovered what you could do with the ES-3/ES-6 was--vast.

Here's an example: I could run an audio signal out of Ableton, out of the the ES-3, through a guitar pedal, back into a ES-6, and back into Ableton. Another ES3 output could be used to control a VCA that allowed control of an external reverb. A third ES-3 output could go to the input of a free standing sampler, set to a loop, the sampler output came back via an ES-6 input.

Or--I could use free standing Reaktor (not as a plug in--the Reaktor 5 program itself) and Ableton Live 11 at the same time and talk to the same ES-3 port--both of the program's outputs got SUMMED to a single ES-3 3.5mm jack.  

That's right, the two different output signals, sent to the same ES-3 port, didn't step on each other, didn't stop the other program from working--nothing crashed--instead by magic the two output signals got added together.  

So a 1 V P/P sine wave coming from a DAW and a 1V DC signal coming from free standing Reaktor, both sent to the same ES-3 port on RME channel ADAT1, create a 1V P/P sine wave with a 1V DC offset at the 3.5mm jack.

I never thought this would work--it must be a feature of the ASIO standard that both programs use?  I don't know, but this seems extremely solid--I'll take it.  

ABLETON, REAKTOR, MIDI AND ES SERIES I/O

At the risk of losing the very few users still with me--here are my notes for making Reaktor and Ableton, working in parallel, work reliably in a project studio and note surrounding setting up MIDI.  

This assumes you have ES3/ES6, a ADAT optical interface like the RME 802, a "point and shoot" graphical programming tool like Reaktor, and something like Ableton Live 11. 

I realize this may be not much use if you don't have gear and software similar to mine--but this blog is my trail of bread crumbs, and maybe a few of you find may find bits useful?  But seriously, a DAW, Expert Sleepers IO and a tool like Reaktor can give you almost unlimited control of whatever sort of audio or CV signals you can dream up. 

FREE STANDING REAKTOR 5 AND ABLETON LIVE 11 AT THE SAME TIME

I use a Windows 10 i9 13700 PC and about 128ms for latency, sometimes 64ms. Ableton is hardware hungry I have found, especially when using a lot of tracks and plug-ins.

You have to set up the free standing Reaktor 5 program and route its audio ports to the ES6 (input) and ES3 (output) ports like this.

The RME gear (802, others) considers "Adat 1" to be ES-3 port 1 or ES-6 port port 1. 

So here, Adat 3 and 4 are ports 3 and 4 in the land of Expert Sleepers ES3 ES6....

In Reaktor, go to Audio and Midi preferences > MIDI and set the MIDI stuff found on "on" or "off". You do this by left clicking (left! not right!) the "on" or "off".

Additionally, if you want MIDI in or out you may have to go to the ensemble itself--this appears to be stored ensemble by ensemble--highlight a slider--not the "Chan. message" tile, rather, the slider panel element, click on the CONNECT tab, and check "MIDI Out" and/or "MIDI in":

A midi only ensemble...no audio I/O, only Midi Channel Messages

You knew that right? I didn't. My CC ensembles would not send data to output until I did this final step.

You may also have to edit elements of your Reaktor instrument or ensemble to be "always active". 

What if we want to use Reaktor as a MIDI only VST, not free standing?  

It seemed at first like Reaktor Midi only ensembles--an ensemble with only MIDI I/O, no audio or CV, with Reaktor running as a plug-in, wouldn't work with Ableton--but they do.

There are no specific MIDI out ports for Reaktor, as there are for audio. Instead, note on, Channel message, etc.

 Here is how to get it working in Ableton:

Get rid of all audio ins and outs in your ensemble (so, delete "L IN, R, IN, L OUT, R OUT, etc)

Choose individual MIDI tools like "Continuous controller" 

Then wire it up to build your ensemble.

You can only drop Reaktor 5 ensembles into a MIDI track--but once you do the track becomes an audio track. 

You can't route to a MIDI Output from an audio track in Ableton....

The trick is to create a 2nd MIDI track and set it up like this:

 

MIDI FROM Reaktor 5 is the track with your MIDI ensemble--in this case "3-Reaktor5"

Note you have to choose "Reaktor5" in the pull down right below that "MIDI FROM".

Set both tracks to "IN"

Now if you move the slider in the track with the ensemble, changing a CC for instance, it comes out of the track next to it, and routes to the MIDI output you choose (in my case a intellijel uMIDI)

OUTTRO

I figure there is no end to what this setup can do--with a bit of time programming Reaktor--well, almost anything.

Of course, the ES-8 can't source or sink a ton of current I would imagine, I could not find maximum current specs for its inputs and outputs, so I'd say: don't use its outputs to power other modules or feed high voltages into the ES-8's inputs.

ES's site says it can produce about +/-10V, but doesn't say max current source and sink--manual is here.

I'd also be careful about shorting ES3/8 outputs to ground, but I'd say that about many other Euro modules.....at the end of the day, for audio and CV creation into high impedence inputs, which is most of what I do, the ES series fills the bill. 

If you are looking for a single piece of gear that will greatly enhance your bench, your studio, and maybe your whole audio world, I highly recommend Expert Sleeper I/O--the ES-3, 6 and 8 are probably the most used Euro modules I own.

OK,  back to soldering and breathing fumes.