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Load it up and you can make beats that sound like Autechre without much effort, but taming its 8-bit style graphical interface to sequence those beats properly feels a little like solving an algebra equation. In essence, Blocks lets you create a modular synth inside your computer for a fraction of the price of a full Eurorack system. It lets you do what usually goes on under the hood of Reaktor on a macro level, with each module graphically represented clearly for ease of use.

From there, you might link an oscillator to a filter and volume control, with an envelope generator modulating the volume level. Cable connections are displayed in a structural view, leaving the graphical interface clear to let you see what each knob is doing instead. Bento Box for example offers a core set of tools, while the Modern set offers contemporary tools like a comb filter. As Blocks are based on a system that relies on voltage signals for control it features exactly the same limitations — primarily a lack of polyphony — but also plenty of advantages, including audio rate modulation of parameters.

While it might sound a little like the sandbox construction environment of Minecraft , if Reaktor was a video game it probably would be Dark Souls. With Blocks however, the difficulty level feels lowered just enough to make it a realistic proposition for everyone to learn. This all actually makes for a more flexible, and certainly more tidy, system than the hardware equivalent. Assembling your own creations is essentially the same as patching a modular synth, except you can start from scratch with whatever modules you want.

Fairly quickly I was starting to put together some modest synths, with a bit of experimentation and reference to the example instruments. The factory library contains a good selection of Blocks divided into several categories: the Bento Box collection contains your essential oscillators, VCA, filter, envelope and LFO generators, mixer, etc.

You then have Utility Blocks, and several more characterful modules in the Boutique, Modern and Monark folders, the last of which holds the essential components of the Monark Minimoog emulation in modular form.

Some effects Blocks have also been included, in the shape of the Reverb and Delay sections from Rounds, and the Driver filter and distortion processor. My first Blocks synth made from bits of Moog. This arrangement has allowed NI to contrive this new system without fundamentally changing Reaktor. First, connections between Instruments are monophonic. A traditional Reaktor synth has all its component parts living within an Instrument, with the component modules and macros and their interconnections able to operate as multiple parallel voices.

The Blocks layer exists outside this polyphonic universe. So you can store different sounds that all share the same cabling, but to store a sound that employs different patching requires saving as a new Ensemble.

While Blocks appears to bias this Reaktor update towards the casual user, instrument builders have not been entirely left out. Like the instrument library, the developer library of modules, macros and operations has undergone a thorough spring cleaning.

Many Core macros have been optimised for better sound quality and performance. The collection of components known as Classic Modular, which was an earlier attempt to create a standardised group of building blocks for analog synth creation, has been dissolved into the main library. There are also some new features and objects offering both efficiencies and fresh possibilities for developing in Reaktor. Table Reference is a new signal type that allows access and distribution of data from arrays to anywhere in a Structure.

Used in conjunction with updated sampler macros this paves the way for a new generation of samplers and sample manipulators in Reaktor. The new objects also provide for drag-and-drop import of samples.

A Blocks patch with several downloaded User Blocks. Bundles are a new connection type that pack multiple signals into a single wire — virtual multicore cables. Scoped Buses allow point-to-point connections to be made between places on any layer of a Structure. Finally, Core Cells are no longer categorised as Audio or Event processes.

Names and basic values can now be edited directly in the Structure, and panel objects no longer have to be constrained to a grid, freeing you to make your creations look exactly as you imagined them.

In particular, integration of a scripting language would help serious developers who sometimes feel the restrictions of a purely visual-based approach. Blocks opens up a whole new way for the more casual user to create their own incredible-sounding synth creations.

One of the most exciting parts of the Blocks concept is that it will keep growing with new modules, just like the Eurorack scene. Some will be disappointed that Blocks are essentially monophonic, like the modular synths they emulate. In its early days Reaktor was the only synth environment that could run on off-the-shelf computers instead of custom DSP hardware. FL Flowstone formerly SynthMaker is interesting as a visual programming environment for creating synths and effects because it can compile out as stand-alone VST plug-ins.

But, really, Reaktor is unique in its scope as a multi-platform plug-in and stand-alone platform with an open and ever-growing ecosystem of available instruments and modules. One of the great strengths of Reaktor is its user community, which has generated thousands of instruments, utilities and modules over the years. Blocks has given the community a new lease of life, and there are already dozens of user-created Block modules free to download. This is partly down to the clear framework, templates and components provided by NI from the outset, and also thanks to a handful of talented and prolific builders eg.

I soon discovered that there is no factory module that can take the pitch data generated by Blocks like Seq 8 and pipe it out to the world.