SZCZ has released Beat Knitter, a freely downloadable drum machine and random drum pattern generator for Native Instruments Kontakt.
We’ve already seen quite a few interesting Kontakt creations coming from SZCZ’s KSP kitchen in the past, including an awesome custom interface for our free Game Boy Drum Kit sample pack. It’s always interesting to see what can be done with Kontakt’s scripting language and SZCZ’s creations are easily among the most original you can find online. Most of his KSP work relies on randomization and creating random patterns for triggering samples, which is always fun and can lead to unexpectedly cool sounding results.
Beat Knitter is another instrument of this type, featuring a 4-track drum sequencer built around a 1-click random drum pattern generator. The instrument comes pre-loaded with a set of drum samples which can be used as-is or replaced with your own sounds if you don’t mind digging a bit deeper into Kontakt’s instrument editor.
What I like the most about Beat Knitter, though, is how easy it easy to create drum patterns with it. Everything is done using a single button which randomizes the steps and creates a new 4-track drum beat. Of course, the results won’t necessarily sound great each and every time, but the idea here is to create original patterns with ease and find inspiration for original drum loops which can be used in your music. Watch the demo video below to see the instrument in action.
Once generated, a pattern can be tweaked using a set of additional controls, including shuffling, transformation, and the ability to play the pattern upside-down (sounds crazy, but it’s pretty cool in practice). Finally, the pattern can be exported as a MIDI sequence using simple drag-and-drop controls. Neat!
As always, the instrument is available for direct free download from SZCZ’s website. You won’t be asked to sign up or leave your email address on the site. Please note that the full version of NI Kontakt 5 is required in order to play the instrument without a 15-minute time limit.
Beat Knitter is available for free download via SZCZ (1.09 MB download size, RAR archive, contains 1 instrument patch in NKI format for NI Kontakt 5).
Last Updated on May 17, 2017 by Tomislav Zlatic.
