Reaktor

Reaktor and I have a true love/hate relationship. I love the sound. I hate the CPU load. I love the possibilities. I hate the quirks when using multiple instruments. I love making my own synths, and finding nice synths on the web. I hate the copy protection.

The sound of Reaktor is very nice. Maybe the best sounding VA based VSTi on the market. A say that fully realizing that it can do much, much more than virtual analog synthesis. Compared to Vaz Modular and Nord Modular Reaktor is a very difficult program to master. If you spend the time the rewards are very satisfying. While you can do most everything with Reaktor, I choose not to. Pro52, FM7, ABSynth and others are more useful and efficient than Reaktor ensembles designed to mimic their abilities. But the fun of Reaktor is building exactly what you want, and creating things that you cannot find on the market. I suggest that anyone build their basic synth collection first, then use Reaktor as the product that fills the gaps and gives you the special sounds.

The release of 4.1 addressed many problems and now my biggest gripe is the copy protection. Reaktor is a program that needs to be studied. I would love to install it on my laptop and take it on vacation, and install it on my work computer to study during my lunch break. Sadly you only get two installs with the current challenge response copy protection. I have it on my main DAW where I record the parts, and plan to put it on my second PC which is used to ease the CPU load on my primary PC. This is the big advantage of Vaz Modular over Reaktor.

User Interface - Good.
Sound - Very good.
Features - Everything you can think of.
Documentation - A nice book but there is a lot to cover.
Presets - There is a huge online library made by NI and the user base.
Customer Support - Good considering how many customers NI must have.
Value For The Money - The most expensive VSTi I have, but with the latest update addressing problems of multiple instances the value of Reaktor just increased.
Stability - Good for the complexity of this program.

Copy Protection - Challenge response with a two install limit before contacting customer support.
Frequency Of Use - Occasional but that may increase with the latest update.
CPU Load - Reaktor instruments take more CPU load than comparable NI VSTi’s with the same structure.
Remote Patch Change - Does not respond to patch change information from my workstation keyboard..
Fun Factor - Very high, when not frustrated with the product.

Even with the copy protection I would buy it again, but not until I have a collection of basic synthesizers.Read Review