You build in two views: the structure and the panel. So does Kinematic. Wire oscillators, filters, envelopes and sequencers on a canvas, draw the panel you play, and fold a voice into a macro you can open. Then send the same wires to 3D, video and lights. Free to use.
One bass line through a ladder filter, as wires and as a panel. The Cutoff and Space knobs sweep themselves while it plays.
Structure, panel, macro, modulation, sampler and sequencer all have a home. Every picture here comes from the app. The bass patch in the hero, the Component and the knobs below were made for this page.
Wire nodes while the sound runs. Pick one and the viewport above draws it: a filter shows its curve, a voice its waveform and spectrum. Sound, control and trigger wires each have their own color, and sound nodes show their waveform right on the canvas.
Knobs, faders, XY pads, keys, step grids and scopes are nodes in the patch, the way panel elements live in a structure. Press E on a panel to lay them out on a grid, in a line or freely, give it pages, and pop it into its own window.
Fold a voice into a Component, and it can carry its panel on its face. Ctrl and the down arrow steps inside, Ctrl and up comes back out. Save it to the library and drop it into any patch.
Drag any value onto any number and it drives it: a knob, an envelope, the level of the mic. A dashed line shows who drives what. Or right-click a number and give it a formula.
Play files, record takes, loop and overdub, stretch and shift pitch, and spray grains from anything coming in.
Step grids, Euclidean rhythms, an arpeggiator, a chord generator and a piano roll with drawn control lanes, all sending ordinary MIDI.
The modules you reach for most, and the node that does the job here. Press Space on the canvas and type the name to add one.
Play tutorials →a .kin fileComponentUIDial · UISlider · UIXYPadAudioWavetable · Audio2DWavetableAudioOscBankAudioLadderFilter · AudioSVFAudioADSR · AudioLFOMidiToFreqMidiVoiceAllocAudioMath · AudioUnitDelayInputAudioFile · AudioClipPlayerUIWaveform · UILevelMeterAudioPlaybackInterfacePatch voices by hand, sequence them and lay the knobs out on a panel. The patch keeps playing while you work: add a node or turn a knob and you hear it.
Any sound, envelope or beat can drive any number in the scene. A kick raises the ground, a voice twists a shape, the hits of a song flash a rig of lights. It is one patch, so there is nothing to route between apps.
A webcam reads your fingertips. Your controller maps in one press. Your plugins sit beside your own voices, and Ableton Live can set the tempo.
Kinematic is a full creative app. Sculpt the creature your patch sings for, pour a liquid, light the stage. Then press F1, and the panel or the picture takes the whole screen.
Your sounds, your plugins and your other apps all come along. Here is what to expect in the first hour.
Reaktor .ens ensembles do not open (these are proprietary), so you rebuild the patch here. Your samples, your MIDI files and your plugins open as they are.
Nobody has to move a whole studio in a day. Leave Reaktor in your DAW and let Kinematic play alongside it.
Want its sound in the patch? Bring it in through an audio input like any other source.
The keys you will use in the first hour. Ctrl on Windows and Linux is Cmd on a Mac, except play and stop, which use the Control key there too.
Take the app tour →Plenty of builders will keep Reaktor, and that is fine. Here is where it still leads, and what Kinematic does not do yet.
Use both. Keep Reaktor in the DAW for the voices you love, and let Kinematic turn the same session into pictures, light and new instruments.
Kinematic costs nothing, even for commercial use, with no account and no license key. Install it on every machine you own. The Reaktor side comes from its maker's own page.
They all come with the app. Open one, take it apart, and keep the voices you like.
Audio deviceSynth control panelKeys, an envelope, oscillator dials, a scope and a spectrum on one panel.In the Demos browser
Audio deviceSound design studioDraw a wavetable, sculpt a spectrum, curve an LFO, then mix it.In the Demos browser
Audio deviceMIDI clip synthA self-playing loop into a subtractive synth, with five control lanes.In the Demos browser
Step sequencer drum machineKick, snare, hats and toms built from oscillators and noise, on a step grid.In the Demos browser
Audio deviceWobble bassAn LFO on the filter of a saw: the wobble bass, in five nodes.In the Demos browser
Audio deviceDJ performance controllerAn XY pad, trigger pads, a step row, dials and a crossfader, all nodes.In the Demos browser
WebcamHand tracking synthPlay a synth with your hands in front of the webcam.In the Demos browser
Audio reactive particlesA song steering a particle system: loudness, hits, tempo and key.In the Demos browserNo, they do not open here (these are proprietary). You rebuild the patch instead. Your samples, MIDI files and plugins open as they are, and the modules you know have nodes with plain names.
Yes. Kinematic runs beside the DAW and follows it over MIDI clock or OSC, or Ableton Live directly. A virtual MIDI port on macOS and Linux lets its sequencers play into Reaktor.
Through your plugins, yes. There is no polyphonic synth node yet, so for chords you spread notes with the voice allocator and build a voice for each, or load a polyphonic plugin.
Yes. A panel opens in its own window on any monitor, full screen if you like, with bigger touch targets for a touchscreen. In Perform Mode it takes the whole screen.
Yes, even for commercial use, with no account and no license key.
Free. No account, no license key, no seat count. macOS, Windows, Linux and Raspberry Pi. Bring the voice you are building next, and give it a picture.
