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Pain Box

Dual Oscillator Sound Generator

 (41 Votes)
1.2 (Updated 14 years ago)
2.4MB
August 02, 2008
Reaktor 5 or lower
Experimental

DESCRIPTION

This is a Reaktor realization of a notorious boutique analog synth device. This is my limited attempt to digitize the spirit and excitement of the original. I would generously say that I have captured about 30% of the vibe of the real thing. I am having a lot of fun with it anyway, so I am sharing it with the community in hopes that someone else may enjoy it as well.

I am a big believer in the phenomenon of limitations increasing creativity. I have boxes of 4-track cassettes to prove it. One of the reasons I love the original device this ensemble is based on is it's utter simplicity and the hours of enjoyment I have spent twisting it's unlabeled dials and switches. I hope the fact that I have left everything unlabeled will be accepted as creative lubricant rather than an annoyance.

In the Reaktor domain the Pain Box has many obvious new abilities such as midi automation and preset morphing. Preset morphing with this instrument in particular has been extremely amusing I hope you try it. I just like watching all the knobs turn at once. There are many interesting sounds hiding between points A and B.

If you are curious what a dial or switch does, they are properly labeled in the properties window, so just right click on it and choose, view properties.

The B view contains all the under the hood settings for the various amps and filters. The first 45 presets use settings for these parameters that I felt most closely resembled the original device.

The external Audio input is set to be a contributing color to the Oscillators. It has been purposefully muted and darkened and limited in level to be kept just under the surface of what is happening elsewhere. I think if you enjoy the vibe of the Pain Box itself, adding outside sounds will really increase the joyous mayhem. I have included Martin Brinkman's Sampleloop instrument to demonstrate the external input function. Of course using the Pain Box on as an insert on a Vocal track or a bus of guitars would be it's own brand of fun. It is also great to use in situations where you don't hear it directly such as the side chain input of a gate or compressor and as a modulation source on another synth's oscillator(s).

Thanks to Jonathan Style for his key advice to a novice builder like myself.

COMMENTS  (9)

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Ari
11 years ago
Jesse, you still around? You were active for less than 3 months but uploaded some KiLLER stuff. I hope you've worked on some new stuff since then.
Trevor Gavilan
12 years ago
www.kingcapitolpunishment.com
Trevor Gavilan
12 years ago
http://www.noisefx.com/product_details/king_capitol_punishment_glamour_box_fx0501
chaOrder
14 years ago
Great device, thanks!
Phil Durrant
14 years ago
sorry, i should have tried googling as one word before i wrote the above message redface some nice by the look of it
Phil Durrant
14 years ago
"King Capital Punishment," ok, but (sorry), i am not getting a website when i search in google. i am getting some photos of musicians who use there products in their setup, but no company website. so some more help find a website (if there is one) would be nice :-)
Jesse Voccia
14 years ago
Phil, Thanks for your kind words. The company that makes the device is called King Capital Punishment. They have a few other products that are really interesting as well. Please check them out!
Dieter Zobel
14 years ago
s p a s s macht es, danke dafuer
Phil Durrant
14 years ago
i wish there were more uploads like this :-) this is pure Gert Jan-Prins (who i work with). are there any Internet links about this "notorious boutique analog synth device" thanks for doing this!
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