What I've come to realize after owning one for six months or so is this (beware--this rant is my opinion only):
- It's a fine form factor for live use. Much, much better than trying to take a laptop or rack-mount computer on the road. In my opinion its faults here are twofold. First mechanical: flimsy rack ears and really flimsy audio connectors on the back (how about XLR?). Second, you need a PhD or a keyboard tech to get the thing set up right with controllers working, front panel knobs mapped to the right parameters, etc. For my live needs (piano and electric piano), it's overkill. Ivory sounds great in the headphones, but it's tough to get it to sound as good as Roland or Yamaha pianos (which don't crash) live. In the end, I might really need a Receptor if I were touring with Cirque de Soleil.
- It's much less interesting in the studio. Form factor is not as important in the studio, and the box isn't all that quiet, despite Muse's PR. For it to be invaluable in the studio, it has to be better than a PC. That means it has to run the latest version of the software you care about, and it has to do it with less latency and more horsepower. It should take more RAM, it should be easier to add another big sample disk, etc. It should have more than eight digital outs, etc.
My prediction is that the software incompatibilities and installer issues will keep this thing from taking off. As much as I wanted to love it, it hasn't made my life any easier. There, I've said it, and I now I'll never be able to sell mine with a straight face!
Jason Staczek
www.chromasound.net
Kontakt 2.1
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- KVRian
- 571 posts since 14 Oct, 2004 from UK
Where I disagree with you is you seem to bypass the usefulness of Uniwire in a studio environment.
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- KVRist
- 105 posts since 13 May, 2005
Uniwire for me is still a 'no-go' as I'm using PT's HD and you still can't use a smaller buffer then 1024 - way to high.
I think the uniwire concept is great - however I don't see it reaching the results of what would be useful as a keyboard player - definately in general production it would be great though.
However, with my new receptor, I managed to get about six premium plugins playing at 32 samples click and pop free (at the same time) - to me this is fantastic results and more important. I may have been able to go more then six but I haven't had much experimenting time.
The let down for me is the fact that I bought it originally to off load a sampler (kontakt or whatever) off the studio G5 and at the moment this can't happen. And, the other thing, is that there is no comment about it.
Don't get me wrong, I love my receptor and won't part with it because of the low latency with B4II, FM7, etc. However, for running Kontakt, which is what this about, its a no go. I remember the demo unit I tried had Kompact samples and these played back a lot better, so I think I need to buy that in the meantime.
Again if you are reading because you are interested in buying a receptor, the machine is great, and the support is really good too. Just don't expect great things from kontakt.
I think the uniwire concept is great - however I don't see it reaching the results of what would be useful as a keyboard player - definately in general production it would be great though.
However, with my new receptor, I managed to get about six premium plugins playing at 32 samples click and pop free (at the same time) - to me this is fantastic results and more important. I may have been able to go more then six but I haven't had much experimenting time.
The let down for me is the fact that I bought it originally to off load a sampler (kontakt or whatever) off the studio G5 and at the moment this can't happen. And, the other thing, is that there is no comment about it.
Don't get me wrong, I love my receptor and won't part with it because of the low latency with B4II, FM7, etc. However, for running Kontakt, which is what this about, its a no go. I remember the demo unit I tried had Kompact samples and these played back a lot better, so I think I need to buy that in the meantime.
Again if you are reading because you are interested in buying a receptor, the machine is great, and the support is really good too. Just don't expect great things from kontakt.
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- KVRian
- 571 posts since 14 Oct, 2004 from UK
Frankly, if you want the best results, be it with Kontakt or Gigasampler, then a dedicated machine is what you need. Mixing plugs and a soft sampler, with your PC or Receptor, is not the best way to go.
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- MUSEician
- 152 posts since 19 Oct, 2005
Hello all,
We are currently testing Kontakt 2.1.. We intend to release it asap.
We are as well working on Komplete and a newer installation method which enables customers to run new and updates fairly easily.
I agree updates from Muse are fairly slow at the moment. We are addressing this issue as well..
Thanks for your patience
farhan for Muse
We are currently testing Kontakt 2.1.. We intend to release it asap.
We are as well working on Komplete and a newer installation method which enables customers to run new and updates fairly easily.
I agree updates from Muse are fairly slow at the moment. We are addressing this issue as well..
Thanks for your patience
farhan for Muse
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- KVRist
- 105 posts since 13 May, 2005
to Kermit Jagger
I disagree.
BFD and Ivory perform great on Receptor, which are a whole lot more demanding then kontakt. Kontakt itself has had issues but seems to be getting better with the newest release. Kontakt was terrible on Protools up until the latest 2.11 release but the issue is, is that we can't try this on receptor until its ported.
The guys at Muse are in a hard situation - it would be a lot of work keeping up with the updates of the currently supported plugs, add on top of that the work involved in porting new plugs! And, for all we know NI could be working on a better engine for Kontakt in 2.x and then I'd be wanting that too.
I disagree.
BFD and Ivory perform great on Receptor, which are a whole lot more demanding then kontakt. Kontakt itself has had issues but seems to be getting better with the newest release. Kontakt was terrible on Protools up until the latest 2.11 release but the issue is, is that we can't try this on receptor until its ported.
The guys at Muse are in a hard situation - it would be a lot of work keeping up with the updates of the currently supported plugs, add on top of that the work involved in porting new plugs! And, for all we know NI could be working on a better engine for Kontakt in 2.x and then I'd be wanting that too.
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- KVRian
- 1116 posts since 22 Apr, 2005 from Nashville, TN USA
Thanks very much for the information, farhan!farhan wrote: We are currently testing Kontakt 2.1.. We intend to release it asap.
We are as well working on Komplete and a newer installation method which enables customers to run new and updates fairly easily.
I agree updates from Muse are fairly slow at the moment. We are addressing this issue as well..
Thanks for your patience
farhan for Muse
(another happy Receptor owner
)
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 155 posts since 3 Sep, 2005 from London
Great News Thanks Farhan!!farhan wrote:Hello all,
We are currently testing Kontakt 2.1.. We intend to release it asap.
We are as well working on Komplete and a newer installation method which enables customers to run new and updates fairly easily.
I agree updates from Muse are fairly slow at the moment. We are addressing this issue as well..
Thanks for your patience
farhan for Muse
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- KVRist
- 44 posts since 17 Aug, 2005
I have to weigh in on the Uniwire and say that it's also a no-go for me because of the latency. It's fine if you're playing back MIDI tracks and editing by hand, but there's no way you can record a part from the keyboard at 1024 samples latency. i haven't yet found a situation where I'm just using the Receptor for playback only and NOT recording additional parts. I started a thread a while back about this and am still trying to figure out how Uniwire is actually useful in a real studio workflow.
Also have to disagree on the "if you want Kontakt, get a dedicated box". Receptor is that dedicated box. They sell it as a replacement for the studio PC.
I stand by my assessment that I love the idea, but it's just not ready for prime time. My Mac runs Kontakt 2.1.1 today--Receptor has an entry in a forum promising it in the future. I want to spend my time working, not reading KVR trying to figure out when my tools are going to become useful (although it's sickly fascinating for some reason, and here I am....).
Jason Staczek
www.chromasound.net
PS - On the Uniwire front, the Aviom guys are able to move tons of digital audio over CAT-5 with VERY low latencies. It's not ethernet but their own protocol. There's nothing particularly attractive to me about ethernet for this anyway. If it could be done with lower latency I'd be happy to hook up a bank of Receptors by Firewire 800.
Also have to disagree on the "if you want Kontakt, get a dedicated box". Receptor is that dedicated box. They sell it as a replacement for the studio PC.
I stand by my assessment that I love the idea, but it's just not ready for prime time. My Mac runs Kontakt 2.1.1 today--Receptor has an entry in a forum promising it in the future. I want to spend my time working, not reading KVR trying to figure out when my tools are going to become useful (although it's sickly fascinating for some reason, and here I am....).
Jason Staczek
www.chromasound.net
PS - On the Uniwire front, the Aviom guys are able to move tons of digital audio over CAT-5 with VERY low latencies. It's not ethernet but their own protocol. There's nothing particularly attractive to me about ethernet for this anyway. If it could be done with lower latency I'd be happy to hook up a bank of Receptors by Firewire 800.
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- KVRian
- 571 posts since 14 Oct, 2004 from UK
I think there is a misunderstanding on what I have said. My point is that whether you run Kontakt on Receptor or a PC, best results will be obtained if Receptor or your PC are only used for Kontakt as opposed to using K2 and VSTi at the same time on the same machine.
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- KVRist
- 44 posts since 17 Aug, 2005
I'm not sure I follow. The VST architecture will allow you to run exactly as many VSTi's as your system can handle. If it can handle A and B, A isn't going to run any better if B isn't around. If there's not enough horsepower for A and B in the first place, that's a different story. I think I must be missing something...
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- KVRian
- 571 posts since 14 Oct, 2004 from UK
For starters, if you only run Kontakt, then you can give it 2Gb of RAM as opposed to less if other VSTi are running, which means less DtD.
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Bryan@MuseResearch Bryan@MuseResearch https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=9067
- MUSEician
- 618 posts since 18 Sep, 2003 from Silicon Valley
Hi gang
Sorry this has taken so long, but you'll be pleased to know that Kontakt 2.1 will be released for Receptor tomorrow. Sorry it took so long. And if you are going to the NAMM show, it should be available to check out in the FXpansion booth as well as the Audio Impressions booth.
Thanks for your patience, and thank you Farhan!
Bryan
Sorry this has taken so long, but you'll be pleased to know that Kontakt 2.1 will be released for Receptor tomorrow. Sorry it took so long. And if you are going to the NAMM show, it should be available to check out in the FXpansion booth as well as the Audio Impressions booth.
Thanks for your patience, and thank you Farhan!
Bryan