InSessionAudio Riff Generation – Outside In Edition (First Impressions by ZincT)
I spent about an hour yesterday using Riff Generation – Outside In Edition, reviewing all of the “video manual” and also skimmed the 73 page PDF manual. It’s a nice touch that you can access all of these from a shortcut in the Kontakt UI. I should make clear that these are my initial impressions and I don’t claim to be an expert user of RG yet although I hope that will be the case when I have used it more. If you want a summary skip to last paragraph.
Suffice it to say that this is definitely a level above the average auto riff creation tool. It is clear that a lot of thought, time and effort has gone into its creation and it is also very stable.
The Generate button affects all generatable parameters unless they are locked and there are also separate generate buttons for rhythm, level, pitch, time, sound as well as more granular generation buttons for glide, stutter, delay burst, verb burst, velocity, volume and pan. Sounds default to being locked for presets to avoid sound design accidents but these can be also be unlocked.
The matrix display shows the pitch, which sound is selected for each step (colour coded) and whether glide, stutter, delay burst, verb burst is enabled per step.
It comes with a lot of great sounding samples which can occupy up to 5 sound locations (A to E). The original version of Riff Generation contained mainly synth sounds but this “Outside In” edition contains mostly external samples of acoustic instruments which have clearly been created to work well together. The samples include Vibraphone, Xylophone, Balafon, Tongue Drum, Nylon Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Electic Guitar, Pedal Steel, 12 String Guitar, Electric Bass, Hammered Dulcimer, ‘Cello, Chimes, Crystal, Bells, Glock, Music Box, Kalimba, Piano, E Piano and the list goes on as well as a few choice synth sounds.
I understand that it is possible, with some effort, to use your own samples within Riff Generation but I haven’t tried this myself (see https://youtu.be/fg8NjeWFCiw )
There are over 225 presets which are sorted by tempo (bpm 70 to 139). These presets contain patterns with specific sounds/effects and other parameters which the author has created and can be loaded and used as is or as a starting point for your own patterns by hitting the “generate” button.
The Effects section contains Filter, Mod, Lo-fi/Distortion, Compression, EQ, Delay and Reverb.
There are also quite a few Generation Templates which can act as a good starting point for your own patterns. Unlike the presets these do not contain any patterns so once loaded you must then press the Generate button to create a pattern. I have now reviewed all of these and saved my own versions to act as starting points for future songs.
After loading a preset or template you can then select the Key and Scale that you want to work with which are applied to the loaded pattern. For example, you could start with a pattern generated in C Ionian if then then switch to C Aeolian (even while playing) and any major 3rds that occur will be changed to minor 3rds.
You can only see 32 steps in a pattern on the screen at a time but a pattern can be up to 256 steps stored in up to 8 pages and you can easily switch between them using the 1-8 buttons in the UI. In addition, patterns can be stored in up to 8 scenes which can be switched using the UI or keyswitches. This could be used, for example, to create separate intro, verse, bridge and chorus sections.
Pattern playing is triggered by MIDI input from your controller and can be latched. There is also switchable MIDI input quantize.
There is a MIDI drag and drop button which allows generated patterns to be easily copied into your DAW and this worked fine with Cakewalk by Bandlab. Alternatively, you can re-route the MIDI created by Riff Generation using the Kontakt engine option to send script generated MIDI notes to the outside world so that it plays your own virtual instrument.
In summary, this is a useful tool to generate patterns and spark your imagination to act as a starting point for song creation or even to add something extra to an existing song. The main limitation I can see is that each step can only trigger one sound so the patterns tend to sound like complex arpeggios. This is where sound design/choice becomes key to creating a useful pattern and the presets/templates provide a lot of excellent examples. However, multiple patterns could be stacked in your DAW to make chords. As for bass lines some of the presets/templates are aimed more towards bass patterns. It is entirely feasible that an entire song could be crafted using RG. In fact that sounds like a challenge to add to my to-do list!
I'm a bit late to the party but I have to say what an excellent cover Larry! I didn't realise you were a multi instrumentalist. Looking forward to hearing some more covers from you. Oh, and if you suck then there's no hope for me ?
