Good Bye Reaktor, good bye NI synths

[blatanville]

Certainly, "best for your purposes," is the main criteria...
I just find it hard to think of single synth (without getting into modulars!) that has so many oscillator options, a huge variety of filters, and has been updated regularly (and for free!).
Now, the new Serum 2 looks like a BEAST, we'll see out it shakes out!

[Hyperbole]

To me, most NI synths are overengineered and sound cold and brittle. That pretty much sums up Kontakt and especially Reaktor. Of course, Kontakt is an excellent sample playback engine for detailed acoustic instruments requiring extensive scripting. But as a creative sound design tool, it's tedious to use, and its synthesis engine sounds sterile to me. (In fairness, neither Falcon nor HALion is a marked improvement.)

The original Massive has a terrific UI, but is one of the most brittle-sounding synth plugins ever made. It's almost unlistenable to me. Massive X sounds night and day better, but the UI is not as good. So it is 10 steps forward soundwise and 2 steps back in terms of usability.

Super 8 was one of the few easy-to-use, good-sounding NI synths. It seemed like perhaps NI was finally getting it. And then, for some inexplicable reason, NI abandoned it. Maybe that's not what most people want from Native Instruments. But if NI is going to keep churning out overly-complicated, abrasive-sounding synths, then I'm done. I might upgrade to Kontakt 9 or 10 if the company ever makes the UI fully resizable. But other than that, I can't imagine ever buying anything from NI again.

[parma]

Fortunately, Reaktor still feels alive and well when stuff like this is released

https://antblanca.com/en-usd/pages/montag-e

[Coriolis Lab]

it's a bit harsh because Reaktor is still a really nice modular system in itself with a patching community...

But regarding FM8 I feel the same way, especially since it is really unique in terms of flexibility and functionalities, you sure can do the same thing in phase plant but when patches become complex both your cpu and the readability of the interface quickly become over-capacited... so why letting such a synth dying... I really wonder what their strategy is there...if there is any...

[Hyperbole]

And super 8 was made with ... ?

Oh, I understand that Super 8 was made with Reaktor. But for every Super 8 (or Massive X,) there are 100 other cold, sterile, brittle turds excreted from the bowels of Reaktor. It really is a turd factory. Or maybe a "turd laboratory" for "crap technicians."

[Vocalpoint Studios]

Similarly, I'll rely on Diva, Dune 3, Microwave 1, multi/poly native, Omnisphere, Zebra, and other great-sounding instruments (both hardware and software) to write music.

This is me - to a tee.

For those of us who actually want to write and create music - there is simply no time (or any motivation whatsoever) to bust out the slide rule when an idea hits.

I get an idea - I fire up what's handy (and I know sounds good with zero tweaking) and I record it. And move on to the next.

While I can appreciate the synth tweaker who wants to take a month to create a sound - that is a month i won't get back.

VP

[Shabdahbriah]

Similarly, I'll rely on Diva, Dune 3, Microwave 1, multi/poly native, Omnisphere, Zebra, and other great-sounding instruments (both hardware and software) to write music.

This is me - to a tee.

For those of us who actually want to write and create music - there is simply no time (or any motivation whatsoever) to bust out the slide rule when an idea hits.

I get an idea - I fire up what's handy (and I know sounds good with zero tweaking) and I record it. And move on to the next.

While I can appreciate the synth tweaker who wants to take a month to create a sound - that is a month i won't get back.

VP

Notwithstanding: without the "tweakers" who are obsessed with creating sounds, there would be no instruments (of any kind) for anyone to "create music" with. Just a thought.

[gentleclockdivider]

Similarly, I'll rely on Diva, Dune 3, Microwave 1, multi/poly native, Omnisphere, Zebra, and other great-sounding instruments (both hardware and software) to write music.

This is me - to a tee.

For those of us who actually want to write and create music - there is simply no time (or any motivation whatsoever) to bust out the slide rule when an idea hits.

I get an idea - I fire up what's handy (and I know sounds good with zero tweaking) and I record it. And move on to the next.

While I can appreciate the synth tweaker who wants to take a month to create a sound - that is a month i won't get back.

VP

Musical inspiraton and ideas for designing stuff are totally different .

[Vocalpoint Studios]

Musical inspiraton and ideas for designing stuff are totally different .

Not disagreeing with you whatsoever.

But in the spirit of this specific thread and what I believe is it's intent - the notion of NI suddenly "re-becoming" the darling of the synth world is simply not a reality that will happen.

The current owners do not care about NI's former glory days or how cool it was to rock Reaktor back in the day. Their MO now - is to move product. Lots of product and to make profit while moving it.

Profits for these guys come from products that do not require the complexity of coding an entire synth building environment or one that might take 3 years to design a UI.

They want product that musicians can use easily (without a programming degree) and most importantly - product that takes a minimum amount of time to get to market.

Yes - it is a much different company than it once was. But you can sum up the 2025 NI in four key product lines:

Komplete (NKS/S-Series etc)
Kontakt
Maschine
Traktor

In this order and without question. Anything else that is still hanging around from the glory days (Battery, Reaktor, FM8) is gravy - usually given away free within Komplete now. But their synth days are gone.

There are lots of other cool synths now to fully satisfy the tweakers out there. Just not from NI.

VP

[gentleclockdivider]

Musical inspiraton and ideas for designing stuff are totally different .

Not disagreeing with you whatsoever.

But in the spirit of this specific thread and what I believe is it's intent - the notion of NI suddenly "re-becoming" the darling of the synth world is simply not a reality that will happen.

The current owners do not care about NI's former glory days or how cool it was to rock Reaktor back in the day. Their MO now - is to move product. Lots of product and to make profit while moving it.

Profits for these guys come from products that do not require the complexity of coding an entire synth building environment or one that might take 3 years to design a UI.

They want product that musicians can use easily (without a programming degree) and most importantly - product that takes a minimum amount of time to get to market.

Yes - it is a much different company than it once was. But you can sum up the 2025 NI in four key product lines:

Komplete (NKS/S-Series etc)
Kontakt
Maschine
Traktor

In this order and without question. Anything else that is still hanging around from the glory days (Battery, Reaktor, FM8) is gravy - usually given away free within Komplete now. But their synth days are gone.

There are lots of other cool synths now to fully satisfy the tweakers out there. Just not from NI.

VP

Nobody is arguing that , the N.I. we all used to love is gone .
There are indeed lot's of instuments to choose but if you want to delve in deep and roll your own algo's , the options are limited .without going the c++ route

[Vocalpoint Studios]

There are indeed lot's of instuments to choose but if you want to delve in deep and roll your own algo's , the options are limited .without going the c++ route

Well - that's the world of synths now.

You can either accept it or not - but it is what it is.

VP

[gentleclockdivider]

I'm perfectly happy with what's on offer , just the decline of N.I .and (the unstable future ) of reaktor that leaves a sauer taste.

[Vocalpoint Studios]

I'm perfectly happy with what's on offer , just the decline of N.I .and (the unstable future ) of reaktor that leaves a sauer taste.

Fair enough. Reaktor is now in long term maintenance mode and there has not been a peep about it since the v6.50 patch back in April 2023.

It is clear that NI is simply content to prop this thing up to behave with current/future OS changes and ensure it remains "usable".

I read somewhere that one of the last truly knowledgeable DEV resources that was responsible for Reaktor back in the day might now be gone from NI (cannot definitively confirm that) - if that is the case - the company has no need to do much more.

While the current (private equity) NI knows that Reaktor still has a following - there is no way they will invest any more time, talent or resource into it. It simply does not fit with their longer-range plans.

VP

[Vocalpoint Studios]

But if Reaktor is so amazeballs, then why isn't NI using it to crank out one blockbuster synth plugin after another?

He's not wrong on this point.

VP

[felis]

I've got Komplete, but there's a lot that can be done with just all of their free stuff:

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/catalog/free/