NI. REAKTOR, worth learning ?

[Muziksculp]

Many Thanks for all the additional helpful reply/feedback posts regarding Reaktor, and if it is worth learning to use it.

I guess the bottom line is that Reaktor is a unique tool, but requires a steep, and time consuming learning curve, which seems to be a matter of time, and how valuable that time is to dig in and try to use it, or spend a good amount of time programming many of the currently great sounding synths on the market, instead of taking the plunge into Reakor, which is a deep, deep plunge.

Not an easy decision.. Still scratching my head

Cheers,
Muziksculp

[nix808]

It's been mentioned,
but an advantage I have found with modular environments
is that you can tailor your build to your own wishes.
Make it like you want it eh
Mentioning the learning curve is salient,
coz it takes time to patch things up.
The numeric readouts are your friend in these interfaces.

[deastman]

Reaktor is great if you want access to the vast quantity of synths in the user library. You could use a different instrument every day and never run out.

Reaktor is also great if you're a tinkerer, logically minded, and enjoy learning technically complex skills. I find Reaktor patching to be a completely different experience from, say, patching on the Nord Modular or my eurorack modular. It isn't quite programming in the traditional sense, but it shares a lot of common foundations with programming languages.

Going in with the assumption that you can replace Diva or any other leading plugin on the market with something you bang together in Reaktor, you will be sadly disappointed. Not only is that not realistic, but it pays a disservice to the developers who worked for many months or even years to create their products.

A better approach would be to tackle Reaktor with an inquisitive mind, coming up with oddball ideas to explore: "I wonder what a step sequenced reverb would sound like?" or "What if I took the output of a synthesizer and used that to control the notes of the sequencer playing it?" or "What if I applied the concept of a vocoder to time instead of frequency?" or "What if I have multiple LFOs running into logic gates and fighting it out?"

That sort of approach will be more likely to yield useful results rather than, say, building your own generic two oscillator subtractive synth.

[BDeep]

Going in with the assumption that you can replace Diva or any other leading plugin on the market with something you bang together in Reaktor, you will be sadly disappointed. Not only is that not realistic, but it pays a disservice to the developers who worked for many months or even years to create their products.

I agree that it wouldn't make sense to replicate a synth completely (ie. soundwise and/or featurewise). But I do wonder if it's possible in Reaktor to assemble different sounding filters and oscilators (without faithfully emulating an exsisting one). As mentioned, this should be possible with the Modal Synthesis option, but does this really make a big difference?

[Bronto Scorpio]

Going in with the assumption that you can replace Diva or any other leading plugin on the market with something you bang together in Reaktor, you will be sadly disappointed. Not only is that not realistic, but it pays a disservice to the developers who worked for many months or even years to create their products.

I agree that it wouldn't make sense to replicate a synth completely (ie. soundwise and/or featurewise). But I do wonder if it's possible in Reaktor to assemble different sounding filters and oscilators (without faithfully emulating an exsisting one). As mentioned, this should be possible with the Modal Synthesis option, but does this really make a big difference?

You don't need the Modal Synthesis for that, but you can desgin your own filters, oscs etc in Core.
There is a lot of stuff in the user library, even a really amazing sounding zero-delay-feedback filter

The Modal Synthesis is for physical modelling stuff.

Cheers
Dennis

[BDeep]

Ah, I got the terminology all mixed up, sorry for the confusion.
But that's great to hear! Thanks!

[raikard233]

It's available a book or manual or tutorial about using the Core cells?
Would be cool to learn to make my own modules, but i don't know so much about dsp and converting math formulas to the Core cells environment..

[vurt]

Lego is for kids.

but yes, reaktor is worth learning
as ghettosynth says, you need an extra oscillator or filter in your synth, just add it...
the openness of the ststem makes it a no brainer. just use your imagination, piece stuff together and have fun. and it doesnt take up as much space as TONTO for example would

[GaryG]

Interestingly, it does become the acid test for a new synth purchase. I simply ask, is synth X really better than something that I already have or can patch up quickly in Reaktor.

i've found that with effects especially; nearly bought a multitap delay twice recently before realising there was a user ensemble that was pretty close that I could modify to get the exact feature I was interested in.

Reaktor cures GAS then.

[Bronto Scorpio]

Lego is for kids.

[experimental.crow]

Interestingly, it does become the acid test for a new synth purchase. I simply ask, is synth X really better than something that I already have or can patch up quickly in Reaktor.

i've found that with effects especially; nearly bought a multitap delay twice recently before realising there was a user ensemble that was pretty close that I could modify to get the exact feature I was interested in.

Reaktor cures GAS then.

about time someone brought up effects ...
reaktor provides boundless opportunities to create effects , not just synths and samplers ...

[rentboyrenton]

Interestingly, it does become the acid test for a new synth purchase. I simply ask, is synth X really better than something that I already have or can patch up quickly in Reaktor.

i've found that with effects especially; nearly bought a multitap delay twice recently before realising there was a user ensemble that was pretty close that I could modify to get the exact feature I was interested in.

Reaktor cures GAS then.

about time someone brought up effects ...
reaktor provides boundless opportunities to create effects , not just synths and samplers ...

i'd even say it is probably way more interesting for effects than synths

Banaan distortion is amazing

[Jace-BeOS]

I'm not able to learn Reaktor deeply enough to create my own stuff but I still found it worth having purchased for the included and user library content. It's fantastic stuff. If you can figure out the architecture enough to connect high level modules together, you're even better of than just using included setups. If you can learn the deeper design concepts, you almost need no other audio tool.

[ezelkow1]

Interestingly, it does become the acid test for a new synth purchase. I simply ask, is synth X really better than something that I already have or can patch up quickly in Reaktor.

i've found that with effects especially; nearly bought a multitap delay twice recently before realising there was a user ensemble that was pretty close that I could modify to get the exact feature I was interested in.

Reaktor cures GAS then.

Just wondering which delay ensemble that was, I was very tempted to grab ricochet recently but held off and even though I have a few other delays still seeing what else is out there

[ew]

Reaktor is always going to use way more CPU because it doesn't support SSE and there's no way to optimise in assembly. The benefits of constructing your own synths are huge, though. It's as nourishing for the brain as Lego is for kids.

Partly incorrect. Reaktor's required SSE since around the 5.1.1 update. However, it doesn't make effective use of parallel processing- true.

Back to the OP- can it sound as good as most commercial synths? Yes. Is it worth having? Without a doubt. I've used it on almost everything I've done in the last eleven years, and I don't see that pattern changing much. YMMV...

ew