Tim Exile Prelaunch / prototype Shipping now

New Modular System

A working prototype of a system for building your own playable instruments.

A fully-working prototype of a modular system for building your own instruments and playing them live. Patch a few modules together, save some patterns, drop in a controller module to transform it into whatever you want it to be — a live performance instrument, a DAW-friendly tool, an ever-evolving sound installation. Available to get your hands on right now. The finished version ships later this year, and you get both.

£49 — back the build, get the prototype
Full version free at launch · £69
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Launch video — loading (14 min)
Launch video 14 min

01The idea

Build it. Play it. Stay in flow.

Modular is one of the most creatively alive ways to make sound. The dialogue you get into with a patch — hearing what it wants, responding, shaping it back — is part of what makes it so good.

But there's always been a gap between building a patch and performing with it. Once you've got dozens of interacting parameters, mapping them into something you can actually play in real time is a whole separate project. Flow breaks. You stop patching and start wiring up control schemes.

This system is designed to collapse that gap. Every instrument you build is playable the moment it exists. A controller module is the bridge: drop one in, and your instrument is instantly mapped to a keyboard, a hardware controller, or an automatic process that plays it for you. Swap controllers and the same sounds become a totally different instrument.

The goal is flow — one continuous creative state that runs from the first patch cable all the way to the live show.

02In the prelaunch box

Five ready-to-play patches, nine instrument modules, four FX modules, eleven controller modules. Everything you need to start patching, performing, and building your own.

Patches

5

The ready-to-play starting points. A blank slate plus four patches I've built.

Blank Slate
Blank Slate
Patch — template
An empty canvas with the framework pre-wired. Start patching from zero.
Fast Landscape Slow Water
Fast Landscape Slow Water
Patch — ambient / generative
The patch built alongside the EP of the same name. Ambient, drifting, generative.
Dub Techno Loop Pack
Dub Techno Loop Pack
Patch — playable instrument
A full dub techno instrument, playable from a keyboard. Patterns, pads, delays, the lot.
Glitch Percussion Loop Pack
Glitch Percussion Loop Pack
Patch — playable instrument
A playable glitch percussion kit — trigger patterns, morph between them, tweak with macros.
Poly Bells Loop Pack
Poly Bells Loop Pack
Patch — melodic instrument
Polyphonic bell textures. Shimmering, tuned, playable as a melodic instrument.

Instrument modules

9

The sound-making modules. Patch them in and they start playing immediately. Each has its own presets, randomiser dice, and controls.

Synths
Chowning
Chowning
FM synth
FM synthesis. Named after John Chowning, who invented it. Bells, basses, metallic textures, anything FM is good at.
Sawbird
Sawbird
Subtractive synth
A super simple synth — sawtooth wave, filter, envelope. Great starting point for melodies and leads.
Drums
Aaron
Aaron
Snare generator
Snare pattern and sound generator.
Duffy
Duffy
Kick generator
Kick pattern and sound generator. Four-to-the-floor to broken and unpredictable.
Handmaid
Handmaid
Clap generator
Clap pattern and sound generator.
Hattersly
Hattersly
Hi-hat generator
Hi-hat pattern and sound generator.
Skin
Skin
Percussion generator
Percussion pattern and sound generator. From hand drums to djembes — all with a synthetic flavour.
Sampler
Schaefer
Schaefer
Experimental sampler
An experimental sample-reorder tool. Named after Pierre Schaeffer, who pretty much invented musique concrète.
MIDI
Didimidi
DIDIMIDI
MIDI generator
A MIDI pattern and modulation generator. Use it to drive other Reaktor instruments, plugins in your DAW, or external hardware.

FX modules

4
Baikal
Baikal
Reverb
A reverb. Named after the deepest lake on earth.
Pyongyang
Pyongyang
Dub delay
A dub delay. Onomatopoeia — say it out loud.
Roisin
Roisin
Triggered resonator
A triggered resonator. Feed it audio and a trigger, and it rings.
Sinkhole
Sinkhole
Filter glitch
A triggered filter glitch effect. Drops chunks out of your sound.

Controller modules

11

This is where it really comes alive. Controller modules take the instrument you've built and transform how you interact with it. Drop in Loop Pack and your instrument is playable from a keyboard. Drop in Wander instead and it plays itself. Same sounds — completely different instrument.

Main
Loop Pack
Loop Pack
Controller — performance
Maps your patterns onto a keyboard so you can trigger and blend them with one hand. All knobs are DAW-automatable — play it live, or record and edit everything in your DAW.
Macros
Macros
Controller — macros
High-level macro controls that sweep across the whole instrument.
Mixer
Mixer
Controller — mixing
A full mixing console for your instrument — channel strips, sends, and master bus, all built in.
Transport Scale
Transport & Scale
Controller — transport
Tempo, start/stop, key and scale selection for the whole instrument.
Wander
Wander
Controller — generative
A never-ending generative controller — the instrument plays itself, forever.
Patterns
Patterns
Controller — pattern memory
Save, recall and flip between patterns as you build. The memory layer for everything you play.
Experimental / utilities
Builder Macros
Builder Macros
Utility — builder
Macro tools for module-builders with access to both absolute and relative macros, plus an option to send a 'void' ID (for use with Builder Tools).
Builder Tools
Builder Tools
Utility — builder
A macro for selecting, editing and updating parameter settings.
Chaos
Chaos
Utility — modulation
Introduces true random noise to instrument parameters.
Launch Control Xl
Launch Control XL
Utility — hardware
Native mapping for the Novation Launch Control XL Mk3.
Patterns Collections Sets
Patterns / Collections / Sets
Utility — pattern hierarchy
The three-tier pattern hierarchy. Save patterns, group them into collections, sequence collections into sets. Not fully implemented right now.

03Deep dive (75 min)

If you want to go module by module and see the whole system from the inside, this is the long one. Unscripted, live-stream style — every module patched, explained and demonstrated.

Deep dive video — loading (75 min)
Deep dive 75 min

04System requirements

Reaktor

You'll need a full licence of Reaktor 6 (the latest version, 6.5). If you own Native Instruments Komplete, you already have this. Reaktor Player is not sufficient — you need the full version to load and edit the system.

Minimum specs

macOS
macOS 13, 14 or 15 (latest update). Intel Core i5 or Apple Silicon.
Windows
Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit, latest Service Pack). Intel Core i5 or AMD equivalent.
RAM
4 GB minimum, 6 GB recommended.
Other
Internet connection and an OpenGL 2.1+ graphics card for installation and activation. Runs offline after install.

Recommended for this system

Different patches use different amounts of processing power. The simpler presets run comfortably on modest hardware, but the larger patches — especially ones using multiple FX modules in parallel — benefit from a recent CPU. If you're on an Apple Silicon Mac or a modern Ryzen / Intel machine from the last few years, you'll be fine. If you're on older hardware, stick to the lighter patches and smaller module counts.

05Whitepaper

If you want to understand where this system is going and why, I've written a whitepaper setting out the unmet need, the imagined user journeys, the design principles, and the long-term vision. It's part one of a longer document — the technical implementation details will follow in part two.

Download PDF

06Roadmap — what's in the prototype now & what's coming at launch

Everything below is either already working in the prototype, or being built for the full launch later this year. Buying now gets you both — the prototype as it stands today, and the finished version when it ships.

In prototype
Coming at launch

UI design

Mostly a launch-phase deliverable. The prototype is deliberately anti-designed — the raw Reaktor look — so the finished version can land as a reveal.

Name
Logotype
Typeface
Colourways
Surface look & feelCurrently raw Reaktor.
Spacing / padding
Module form factors
Standard faders
Standard knobs
Standard buttons
Other standard components

Instrument module system

Module UI/UX
Disconnected panel stateModule shows a clear state when not patched in.
Control input connection stateModule visually responds when a controller is connected.
Universal toolbar
Channel & module locationEvery module knows its own channel and position.
BypassPer-module bypass.
SoloPer-module solo.
LockLock a module against randomisation and macro sweeps.
Randomise AllOne-click randomise for the whole module.
Play stateVisible play state for each module.
Preset manager
Control settings when control input selectedIn progress.
Separation of Pattern, Modulation & Sound sectionsEvery module follows this layout.
RandomisersPer-section and whole-module.
Presets
Controls
Pattern visualisers
Input & output meters
Instrument module control connection

These are the parameters instrument modules will be able to send to and receive from another instrument module.

Pitch OffsetControllers can transpose any module.
Vary CurveControllers can morph variation across any module.
Trigger LevelControllers can set trigger intensity.
Trigger CountControllers send a trigger, denominated as a clock position.
Start / stop
Tempo
Restart
16th clock
Parameter & scene control
Ignore scene recalls from presets not stored by moduleStops stray preset data from breaking a scene.
Relevant parameters obey solo & lock
Parameters saved to scenes post-absolute-macroEnsures scene snapshots capture the true state, not the pre-macro state.
Instrument module builder tools
Standardised layouts and modulesBuild your own modules using the same template as the built-in ones.
Inbuilt module presets
Support for multiple preset banks (style-based)Swap between preset banks targeted at different genres or use cases.
Full support for editing ASCII module, page, subpage and parameter namesIn progress. Full support lands at launch.

System-wide framework

Solve incomplete initialisation of some modules in larger patchesEdge case in very large patches.
Finalise nomenclature for all componentsMostly locked, final pass at launch.
Undo / redo history for all randomisation and recall actionsA proper undo stack for every destructive action.
Control resolution frameworkResolves control conflicts between competing controller modules. Covers transport, absolute macros, mixer, master channel and pitch & scale.
Full ASCII handling for all parameters, subpages, pages and modulesPartial now, full at launch.
Builder tools for selecting objects and updating parametersThe module-builder quality-of-life layer.

Macro controls

Macro controls obey module solos & locks
Solo / lock by categorySolo or lock every module in a given category (drums, bass, etc) at once.
Solo / lock by channel
Solo / lock by module

Audio engine

Drums, Bass, Back, Front category for each channelThe four mix categories. Being finalised for launch.
Scapeshift / Finalist mixing engineThe full mixing engine from my other tools, built in.
Scapeshift / Finalist mastering engine
Send & return channels
Send pre/post fade

Pitch & scale engine

1 to 64 notes per pitch cycle (default 12 / Western octave)Work in any tuning system from traditional Western to extended microtonal.
Custom pitch cycles from 1 to 64 semitonesDefine your own scale period, not just 12 semitones.
Individual note on/off toggles
Individual tunings per note (±1 pitch increment)Fine-tune each scale degree independently.

SDK & documentation

The layer that lets other people build their own modules for the system.

Full list of parameter and function IDs and wire / send requirementsDraft exists, being cleaned up for launch.
Explanations of what each parameter and function does
Controller module toolkit — template
Controller module toolkit — event packers and senders for all global events
Controller module toolkit — event receivers and distributors
Instrument module toolkit — instrument template
Instrument module toolkit — FX template

07Stay in the loop

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