The free FM VSTi synth Carbon (Reaktor Session one) is stunning. I expected a damp squib but was amazed.

If you haven't got it I would make the effort. If you are on a budget it is perfect.

i bought the mag just for that synth. it is very nice.........but it uses too much cpu for me(1.5). i wanted to use it in a song that i already had made, but it wouldn't "fit" cpu-wise.

Time to bug all sequencers makers for a freeze function!

I see that as well as the tutorial in the mag, NI have put one up on their site

http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?carbontut1_us

http://www.futuremusic.co.uk/fmcarbon.htm

Yeah, this is one sweet motha, slightly buggy (on a mac the presets drop-down menu doesn't seem to work right), but still a very powerful instrument. As the presets show you can get some very dirty & wonderfully weird stuff out of it, albeit at the cost of precious CPU usage.

Did someone of you try to save a song with several instances of carbon? This doesn't work for me. Every instance of carbon loads the same sound..


Any other experiences?

yeah that happens to me every time, all I do is bounce what I want in one sitting and build tracks in my host using wav files of the sounds from Carbon, but that does limit it's flexibility!

CypherOne wrote:

yeah that happens to me every time, all I do is bounce what I want in one sitting and build tracks in my host using wav files of the sounds from Carbon, but that does limit it's flexibility!

..so it is a bug...what a crap...we will never get an update.....so carbon is limited to the usage of one instance. What a pitty. I would like to use several instances. Of course I can bounce...but that's so much additional work...

...I've played a bit with it yesterday and recognized that it has multiple outputs - does anybody know how to use these outputs, because they are not mentioned as far as I can see in NI's online tutorial.

I couldn't even get it working, but that may be down to the fact I had Halion, Pro-52 & Beast running at the same time!!! I then tried it on a 'blank canvas' and the cpu was horrendous! My only choice is to bounce down any riffs I make but that ain't a great way of workin' is it?

Quote:

..so it is a bug...what a crap...we will never get an update.....so carbon is limited to the usage of one instance. What a pitty. I would like to use several instances. Of course I can bounce...but that's so much additional work...

I don't know what host you're using, but if you're only using Carbon presets, what I do is name the track after the name of the preset, that way when I load it back up I know what I was using, but yeah if you're creating your own patches, it's a pain in the arse!

Yeah!! FM finally reached my local bookstore yesterday, so of course I stayed up into the wee hours last night getting to know Carbon. Damn, that's a yummy synth! I'm a little disappointed with the extra patches FM and Cyclick threw into the pot, but who am I to complain?

I noticed the read-me note stating that patches can't be remembered in my Sonar projects, and while that's a little bit of a hassle it's definitely not going to keep me from making extensive use of Carbon.

I got carbon last night as well.......not a bad synth at all

Hmm, strangely enough, I just bought some 'carbon white' cider - some manner of Boss substitute. I bet its shite!

I'm gonna buy Carbon tonight!!! Can't wait to try it out!

Why does everyone seem to have this aversion to bouncing to audio? That's exactly how I work, and what got me into PC audio to start with - if you like doing everything via midi, why not go hardware instead - to me the wonder of PCs is that I can render everything down to non-CPU-hogging luvverly .wavs.... 32 channels of clean audio with no midi note in sight...aaaah beautiful.
So I could have 15 instances of Carbon with no drain on my CPU...sounds like a good way to work to me.

I dunno...you young'uns don't know how lucky you are...mutter mutter mutter....

Carbon is a great example of how fantastic Reaktor 4 really sounds. If you thought previously that you didn't care for "that Reaktor sound", give it another shot--amazing stuff.

kritikon wrote:

if you like doing everything via midi, why not go hardware instead

when was the last time you got a free hardware synth on a magazine?

TBH - I thought Carbon was a great synth (i.e. sounds great) but rather bitterly disappointed that it's so buggy - i.e. doesn't remember patch/bank, crashes, etc. - I thought NI were better than that I'm still hoping for a fix but as there's been no feedback or mention of a fix/update on the CM/FM forums, it doesn't seem likely.

regards,
dunk

dunk wrote:

.... TBH - I thought Carbon was a great synth (i.e. sounds great) but rather bitterly disappointed that it's so buggy - i.e. doesn't remember patch/bank, crashes, etc. - I thought NI were better than that

On the bright side, remember that some people PAID for the privilege of NI bugs.

Doug

On my Mac system the Carbon functions well as stand alone, but the vst-i cuts out all audio....anyone?
Macmod

If you think carbon sounds cool, you should hear it's big brother, kaleidon.
oh, but you have to get reaktor.

i cant seem to use the extra patches on teh other CD. carbon says that "this version doesnt let me load patches" ????!?!?

I've noticed that Carbon loses its audio when used as a vst too, although the led does light up on it to say it's receiving a midi note in. BTW, i'm running it as a vst in Tracktion.
Anybody experienced this problem and fixed it?

Carbon seems to work fine in Sonar.

Loading the patches from FM's other CD is a little tricky. Click on the little camera icon to the left of the patch name. (I think that's the one) That will bring up a hidden page on the left side of Carbon that allows you to create and insert banks. Create banks 2 and 3, then point them to the banks created by FM and Cyclick.

Quote:

Carbon seems to work fine in Sonar

Do you mean as a DXi. If so wow! I will look for that issue - (we only have the previous one on the stands at the moment.) A NI DXi running in Sonar is something I have to see to believe and would be a first for me as every single NI demo - Kontakt, FM7, Absynth and Reacktor I have tried will not run in Sonar as a DXi. MAkes me want to not spend the big bucks for half a product that will only run as a VST and if I'm lucky with the installation as a standalone.

Gordon

Beardedone wrote:

Quote: Carbon seems to work fine in Sonar Do you mean as a DXi. If so wow! I will look for that issue - (we only have the previous one on the stands at the moment.) A NI DXi running in Sonar is something I have to see to believe and would be a first for me as every single NI demo - Kontakt, FM7, Absynth and Reacktor I have tried will not run in Sonar as a DXi. MAkes me want to not spend the big bucks for half a product that will only run as a VST and if I'm lucky with the installation as a standalone. Gordon

I've got FM7,Absynth,Reaktor,Pro-53,Spektral Delay and Battery.ALL of them run fine as DXis in Sonar on my machine
ew

Interesting,

I consistently would receive a error during installing of NI demos regardinginability to locate a dll with something like CW & movie in the name.

Oh...I can help you with that one.It's a problem with XP's SP1 and the NI installers-the old ones didn't register the DXi.I posted the way to register them in another post here a long time ago...
ew

And,the post was;
http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19193&highlight=
It was about registering Synth1,but it's the same routine...
ew

Hey EW! Thanks so much. That sounds like the plan Funny though Synth1 did not give me this problem only the NI plugs. The RGC DXis and others I own are also well behaved. What is it with NI DXi installer?

Cheers,
Gordon

It's because they use a modified version of cwdxpx1.dll,which is a Cakewalk proxy file for registering DXis.The NI stuff used a wrapper-the new Reaktor is the first NATIVE DXi plug for NI.
ew

Quote:

cwdxpx1.d

That is the name of the dll that is referenced in the DXi installation error message. If I understand you then NI have only fixed the problem with Reaktor and that's why Carbon works in Sonar.

I will give your procedure a try. If it works I'm gonna have to hide my credit card. After TRacks I'm in thrift mode for a month:D

Cheers,
Gordon

I tried to perform the Run CMD procedure- and don't understand where and what to type for say my FM7 demo DXi. Do I hit enter after entering CMD and then work in DOS? I am not sure.

Thanks,
Gordon

Greetings,

I have finally gotten the August issue of FM and was able to get the the Carbon synth. I am so pleased by it. I use it as a DXi in Sonar 2.2 with no problems of installation. I'm totally impressed by what this synth can offer and for free to boot!

Unless I'm mistaken, I cannot use multiple instances of it though. I tried loading another instance, and while something would load, no audio was coming from it. I suppose it can only fully load once. If I'm mistaken, can someone alert me?

Also, it would appear that it does not remember the patch or midi learn assignments when I try to save a project. When I re-open the project, it does load but with the default bank and I have to reset the midi learn assignments. I space on occasion, so if someone knows otherwise, I would appreciate being told.

All in all, I'm still very happy with it and can easily just export audio to tracks if I need more than one part in a project. As far as performance and reliabilty, it works wonderfully for me, cheers.

Exactly-it's actually a DOS emulator in XP.So,in your case,you'd type CMD,and hit enter.Next,you'd type;regsvr32 "C:|Program Files\Native Instruments\FM7 Demo\DXi\FM7DXi.dll".
The quotation marks MUST be there.
ew
ew

Thanks,

Now how do I figure out what to type for each of the offending NI DXi.dlls

Look in the DXi folder of each for the .dll's name.All you're doing is specifying the path.
ew

OK but how does that tell me what to type at the Dos prompt?

As macmod, many bugs on my mac as vsti on logic (somes notes doesn't sounds, cannot save patches on logic settings, many system's crashes, etc...thought it sounds quite fantastic, but...)

i made a song with carbon

using some of the presets.. two of the basses and a lead sound and a pad maybe.. cant remember.

http://jorn.lavoll.no/showreel/cockroach320.mp3

monotonous and electronic

Hmmm... is the release of a free, but buggy synth going to make us want to PAY for anything by that same company? Strange strategy!
Well it sounds the bit, terrible interface, but what...

Right, I'm off to bounce some Carbon...

Beardedone wrote:

OK but how does that tell me what to type at the Dos prompt?

After regsvr32,all you're doing is typing the location of the DXi .dll and putting it inside quotation marks.So,if you had Absynth,it'd be regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\Absynth\DXi\AbsynthDXi.dll"if Absynth was installed on your C:/ drive(the default NI location).
,and so on and so forth
ew

OK I understand now. I will implement action tomorrow.... must sleep.

Thanks

Quote:

Why does everyone seem to have this aversion to bouncing to audio? That's exactly how I work, and what got me into PC audio to start with - if you like doing everything via midi, why not go hardware instead - to me the wonder of PCs is that I can render everything down to non-CPU-hogging luvverly .wavs.... 32 channels of clean audio with no midi note in sight...aaaah beautiful.

well, what you do when you want to correct something? For me creating is an ongoing process, I can't just bounce a track and then use the .wav; I make changes as the mix progresses. [/quote]

mavlok wrote:

Quote: Why does everyone seem to have this aversion to bouncing to audio? That's exactly how I work, and what got me into PC audio to start with - if you like doing everything via midi, why not go hardware instead - to me the wonder of PCs is that I can render everything down to non-CPU-hogging luvverly .wavs.... 32 channels of clean audio with no midi note in sight...aaaah beautiful. well, what you do when you want to correct something? For me creating is an ongoing process, I can't just bounce a track and then use the .wav; I make changes as the mix progresses.

[/quote]
You archive the MIDI track so you can come back to it if need be...
ew

yeah, too bad that the CPU will struggle again then, and I'll have to bounce other tracks, and so on.

duh

lavoll wrote:

i made a song with carbon using some of the presets.. two of the basses and a lead sound and a pad maybe.. cant remember. http://jorn.lavoll.no/showreel/cockroach320.mp3 monotonous and electronic

I like the beat on this Jorn, even though I know I'm supposed to be listening to the synth!

skyfirered wrote:

lavoll wrote: i made a song with carbon using some of the presets.. two of the basses and a lead sound and a pad maybe.. cant remember. http://jorn.lavoll.no/showreel/cockroach320.mp3 monotonous and electronic I like the beat on this Jorn, even though I know I'm supposed to be listening to the synth!

I concur, this is some great percussion work! Great stuff, Jorn!

thanks

i had an idea that i didnt really follow up or develop at all... but when i started making it, i thought that i would see what happened if i made the drums the "melodic" part of the song.. and the rest would be the rythm backing... hence the monotony'esque'ness of it.
but i didnt go really far with the idea... and it ended up like this