Newscool

“Newscool is a REAKTOR classic– now it’s completely rebuilt, with an innovative sequencer (at the top) and the characteristic sound engine (at the bottom). The engine consists of a tone generator on the left and a multi-effect unit on the right. The signal is produced by eight parallel oscillator units whose parameters are modulated extensively. The effect unit parameters – providing pitch shifting, delay and filter – are similarly modulated. The sequencer is based on the Life model developed by John Conway in the 1970s. A twodimensional pattern is processed in steps: An element of the pattern becomes alive (dark in this implementation) in the following step if three of its eight neighbors are alive in this step; it remains alive in the subsequent one if two or three neighbors are alive in the current one – else it dies (and becomes a light square again). Several patterns emerge over time by this set of rules: Gliders move over the grid, crosses oscillate in several phases, some objects remain stable and don’t change from step to step while others remain unstable forever. These patterns trigger the sound engine, generating “lively” sequences.”