In the Reaktor News August 2025, we have a vintage-style VA mono synth, new distortion effects, updates, and more.
Following the well-received Reaktor News July 2025, I am continuing this series with the Reaktor News August 2025.
Even though August was quiet, there are some beautiful new Reaktor ensembles from the community that you shouldn’t miss. Interestingly, the market for commercial Reaktor ensembles has almost reached a standstill, with almost no new releases.
Reaktor News August 2025
Reaktor Ensembles can be offered for free or for purchase. It’s important to note that all of the listed ensembles from the Reaktor News August 2025 edition require a full Reaktor 6 license.
For Reaktor 6 Player, developers have to purchase licenses from NI, which makes things significantly more difficult. This licensing also applies to Kontakt Player instruments. You can read more about it in this article.
Cryptic Tone Raw Chorus 2
In August, Cryptic Tone released a significant update for its Raw Chorus ensemble. Raw Chorus 2 is the successor to its unique, fat-sounding chorus effects. Version 2 features several new enhancements, making it more versatile than its predecessor.
First, it comes with new LFO waveform shaping capabilities.
A highlight is definitely the proper synchronization with your DAW, including full tracking of playback position and corresponding changes in LFO start phase depending on the play start position—a very welcome new feature.
Alongside this, it now has a send mod, which is rare for choruses, says the developer, Cryptic Tone. Along with the new features, he also updated the GUI of Raw Chorus 2, making it more modern.
An excellent update for a great-sounding chorus ensemble.
Goremall E.T.-B Drum Processor
I have already reported on the excellent free ensembles from developer Goremall in a dedicated article in the past. Now the developer is back with a fresh ensemble that is just as visually striking as the previous releases.
E.T.-B Drum Processor by Goremall is a new sample-based drum sound ensemble. According to Goremall, this new ensemble was formerly known as “Blood Drums” and has been revamped to a more Sci-Fi style.
The ensemble consists of 16 alien-looking drum pads, each loaded with a sample. 50 different kits are available as snapshots. The sounds can be customized with classic parameters, such as reverse, pitch, start and release, humanize, and built-in filters.
There’s even a drag-and-drop sample function. E.T.-B is a drum processor, not a drum machine, so the focus is on drum shaping. For this, there are built-in effects that can be routed to the drums.
You can find a drive, filters, a bandpass phaser, a comb filter, a pitch delay, a compressor, and more. Additionally, there are send FX, including delay, shifter, and reverb.
A beautiful drum instrument with many distinctly timbred drum sounds and numerous adjustment options. It’s not an innovation, but it’s definitely a useful ensemble for music production.
Bolle Beezlebaum
Reaktor User Library ensembles have always had a rather cryptic, highly technical factory UIs that are not particularly eye-catching. This changed with the developer Bolle, who designed new UIs for almost forgotten ensembles from the Reaktor User Library.
Bolle not only redesigns the user interfaces, but he also creates his own ensembles. His latest release is Beezlebaum, a lovely-sounding 60s/early 70s-inspired subtractive mono synth and the successor to the previous version.
Beezlebaum has a straightforward feature set, reminiscent of many classic analog synths. It includes two oscillators with continuous wave shape control, a noise generator, a 24dB/oct lowpass filter, a multi-wave syncable LFO, and two ADSR envelopes (for filter and amp).
For extra bite and character, a distortion/drive pedal is wired before the filter. You can switch between warm saturation and more aggressive overdrive by clicking the label.
A lovely, dead-simple VA synth with character and a very user-friendly, vintage-inspired UI. Perfect for quickly building sounds or taking your first steps.
Bolle Distortions
Let’s stay with Bolle. In addition to the new synth, he has also released a series of distortion pedals that also stand out with their beautiful UIs. But before we get to them, first some noise.
The Pink Noise Generator is a new true −3 dB/octave slope pink noise generator built after a Paul Kellet IIR-based DSP design. According to Bolle, it’s not perfect, but with a wink, he says, “It has a pink panther on, so you know it’s really good.”
Much more exciting are the three new effects pedals that Bolle has released in the Reaktor News August 2025 edition.
Bullwhip is a new two-stage overdrive circuit that gives you anything between soft clipping, RAT style, and super high gain distortion. It’s fully controllable with five knobs, offering classic parameters such as drive, boost, tone, and more.
Fuzz Haze is a stereo high-gain germanium transistor fuzz that uses a feedback loop to achieve the sweet, fizzy fuzz behavior. It features three simple controls, including one that simulates battery voltage starvation.
The third and final pedal is Fuzz Fantasy, an emulation of a Fuzz Factory that features a Germanium transistor fuzz and feedback. Additionally, this pedal features various classic controls, including gate, compression, drive, and more.
Three neat distortion effects for the Reaktor user library. In terms of sound and emulation, they’re not on the level of commercial distortion plugins, but hey, they are free of charge and sound very solid already.
SampleBasement Agent Orange 1.5
In the Reaktor News July 2025, I already reported in detail about the excellent SampleBasement Agent Orange Synthesizer, and in August, there is also something new to report about it.
Since the last article, the developer has released version 1.5, improving the Synthesizer ensemble in various areas.
As a reminder: Agent Orange is a powerful VA Synth with feature-packed oscillators, sub-oscillator, texture generator (noise), multimode filtering, rich modulation, and built-in effects.
In addition to many fixes and some extra features, there is a significantly improved user interface. The different synth sections are now more accessible and easier to use.
I’m very pleased that you’ve put so much effort into perfecting the synth. For me, it’s undoubtedly one of the Reaktor synth highlights of the last two years. Finally, I come back to Goremall.
Reaktor News August 2025: Last Minute Addition
Just as I was about to close the news for the month, Goremall came around the corner with a new Reaktor instrument ensemble. That was just in time. It’s not finished yet, but it’s still in beta.
Liminal is a space drone generator ensemble featuring the classic Anime-like Goremall design. Full details of the engine are not yet known. At first look, it consists of four sample-based layers that can be mixed and tweaked.
The built-in samples are at home in dark realms and range from creepy voices and frightening textures to everything related to darkness.
Additionally, it features eight LFOs (L1 – L8) that enable you to utilize parts of waveforms and modulate various parameters. This wild journey through horrifying sounds can be enhanced with multiple effects, including reverb, phaser, drive, and more.
A fabulous instrument from Goremall. If you like scary sound textures or if you need to score a ghost train soundtrack, this ensemble is a must-have. Don’t be surprised, the instrument is a drone generator and runs automatically.
Another exciting month in the Reaktor User Library. I’m curious to hear what you have to say about the releases.
All the ensembles mentioned in the Reaktor News August 2025 article are now available for free download from the Reaktor User Library. They require the full version of Reaktor 6 and are not compatible with the Player version.
More information here: Native Instruments Reaktor User Library
This is a great feature—kep it up.