Flesh, new Reaktor instrument from Tim Exile.

[Kalamata Kid]

Now how do I download it?

You add it to basket, checkout, pay nothing, and then get download link

I aint got Reaktor 6 uploaded at this time so I can't check it out at this particular time. But the loop content included in the zip file is included in a separate sub-folder, in WAV format.

So as those loops are not incorporated into the ENS file itself, I don't see why users shouldn't be able to load their own WAV samples into the ensemble, alongside the WAV files provided by Exile.

So I am to "get download link" in the mail?
No luck so far.

[Numanoid]

So I am to "get download link" in the mail?
No luck so far.

I got the download link presented when I finished check-out, and also sent to my E-mail. So I got it twice.

I guess it is time to check that spam folder...

[Kalamata Kid]

So I am to "get download link" in the mail?
No luck so far.

I got the download link presented when I finished check-out, and also sent to my E-mail. So I got it twice.

I guess it is time to check that spam folder...

Numanoid,

Thanks for the help. Apparently I never finished following the instructions.
Got interrupted by a phone call or something else. Went back and did it right this time.
Downloaded the file. But still no email. Not in spam.

Does this require a serial number? Will not be installing it for a while.
They are aware of my email address and physical address and full name.
I did not set up an account with them with a password. Is this ok?

Edit: They sent email to my other email address. How did they know it?

[ghettosynth]

I'll wait for Komplete 11, even if it isn't bundled, I'll get a voucher.

Good idea. By then i'll hopefully have it pretty much worked out so feel free to ask how it works, if / when the time comes

One other thing I really wish NI had is specific sections in the User Library for mods of commercial ensembles like Razor and all the Tim Exile stuff. Would be nice to be able to share this stuff about.

And that time has come. Now that I can get inside, there is definitely some value here, but, it feels much better getting it with K11U than it would have to pay $99 for it. I've been off in different music directions anyway and wouldn't have had much use for this. Now though, I'm heading back to some repetitive evolving stuff so this is, conveniently, interesting again..

[festeringheap]

... but, it feels much better getting it with K11U than it would have to pay $99 for it....

Looks grossly overpriced at $99. Looks more like a 3.99 iOS app to me.

[ghettosynth]

... but, it feels much better getting it with K11U than it would have to pay $99 for it....

Looks grossly overpriced at $99. Looks more like a 3.99 iOS app to me.

Well, you know, there are 57 products in Komplete 11U that are not in Komplete 9 standard (not counting Reaktor, which I already had, so really, 58). So, if we just do a simple division, then I paid $5.24 for it. The reality is, however, almost all of the products in K11U are worth more than $5 to me. In fact, I can't think of a single one that I wouldn't have purchased if it were put on sale at that price.

As I said in this thread about a year and a half ago, I don't think it's worth $99 either, however, I wouldn't pay for it at all on IOS. The value of this is that it's a Reaktor product and so you can dig into the internals and modify it in interesting ways.

Like marvotron was saying earlier in this thread, this isn't really as interesting of a product if you're not at least somewhat comfortable with hacking Reaktor.

[ghettosynth]

Digging in this is quite an interesting instrument. I still don't like Tim's choice of synth sounds, but, it's clear that much of the instrument design is about the colors that he likes. The limited controls aren't a bad compromise, per se, but that they limit you to his synth presets, especially in the polysynth, makes them seem worse than they should be.

There's a lot of effort to embed instrument state into the machine that, if it were more flexible, wouldn't really be necessary. For example, the values for the "per preset" controls are replaced by a table lookup when the controls are missing from the preset U/I. They are fixed to the instrument presets so it's just a way to avoid having to put them on the extra page and show that extra page. I mean, I get it, it makes the instrument accessible, but it also makes it narrow.

The extra pages have terrible U/Is. They could be condensed quite a bit. One thing that's really helpful to grok what's going on is to go into one of the instruments, say the poly, and enable the envelope visibility. Of course you have to make the instrument visible as well. Once you do this, you can see the affect of all the built in modulation on the envelopes in real time.

The filter is fine, but, it's the oversampled state variable from R5 so it doesn't have a lot of character. That filter sounds ok in Stephen Schmidt's synths, but seems lacking here.

At any rate, I'm digging into this, if anyone wants to talk about it until marvotron finds his way back here, jump in.

[sharke]

Having just updated KU10 to KU11 I finally got a chance to play with The Flesh and here's my $0.02.

I was initially excited to try it, because it sounded like a souped up, modern version of Resochord, and I love that ensemble. Over the years I have gotten very proficient with Resochord to the point where I can get it to make a very wide variety of sounds, and I love the idea of turning percussion tracks into harmony. I generally use it by setting it to MIDI input and playing the chords on my controller. I've gotten everything from metallic sounding plucks to something resembling guitar feedback from it. Great stuff.

Flesh, in contrast, just seems like a toy or a gimmick. I totally agree with others that it should have been a cheap iPad app, something to play with when you're on the go. I just can't imagine doing anything musically useful with it.

The problem these Tim Exile creations, and a lot of Reaktor "sound generators" in general, is that they all have that homogeneous plastic sound, and they all sound cool at first as you're going through the presets, up until the point where you try to incorporate them into a track and then you realize that they don't really fit with anything you do. I have the same feeling about stuff like Newscool. You're liable to get the occasional "happy accident" through hours of experimentation, kind of a "monkeys at typewriters" kind of scenario, but in terms of actually sitting down and getting some music done they're next to useless.

I listen to quite a wide range of electronic music and I've never once heard a track and thought "oh, he's used Flesh on that" or "that's gotta be The Mouth." And I think that's primarily because people use these instruments as a fun distraction from actually making real music.

Actually I've become very disillusioned with Native Instruments of late. Apart from Rounds, which is an excellent creative tool, they haven't really released anything that's musically useful for a long time. They seem to be intent on releasing synths that are more like convoluted science experiments than instruments, and you seem to require a degree in physics to get through the manuals. Prism, Spark, Kontour, Form - they're all overly complex and "showy," and that wouldn't matter so much if NI got it together to release usable presets with these things, but they don't. Going through the presets that ship with Form I got so bored after a while. Everything was like "ho hum, more space age Native Instruments dissonance." Many of the sounds I hear from Form, sound like Kontour or anything else NI does. I don't know whether this is because they have the same guy making the presets for everything, but to me it's all just musically unusable and intended to sound as outrageous and "weird" as possible in order to showcase what the synth can do. I appreciate that some presets should be demos, but come on, you need some musically useful sounds as well. NI also seems obsessed with making presets in which oscillators are not tuned to the pitch you're playing, so for example if you're using a MIDI clip to audition presets with a view of finding a good sound to start with, you quickly get frustrated that NI has other ideas about which notes are going to be playing.

Then again, I'm speaking as a musician who likes to write, not as a mad scientist.