Do you use Reaktor? If not why?

[Rangtangtang]

Id like to try it, but like all Native Instruments stuff its way too expensive for me and I don't realy have the time for complex synth building. I do have the Reacktor Session out of a mag which I do like, but find I can't use it?

[bluedad]

Thanks. There's a pretty nice workflow with Reaktor + Live 7. Just set up a short loop of a sound you like in Reaktor, either played via notes in a clip or just playing a loop from a sequenced Reaktor ensemble. Then just use Live's freeze & flatten feature to turn it into audio. You can generate a lot of interesting phrases this way.

That's my favorite way of using Reaktor, too.
One of the first vst's I bought, justifying it's expense that if I found x number of ensembles useful I wouldn't have to buy anything else...of course, that logic failed me..but I've never mourned the decision.
davey goes fishin' is 98% Reaktor

[Download SOphist]

i am too lazy for reaktor. one day, maybe.

[Shy]

I don't use it because I prefer Tassman's sound and features, and I'm not interested in any of its effect features except the granular stuff (but I wouldn't buy it just for that).

[musikmachine]

i am too lazy for reaktor. one day, maybe.

I am too lazy for...

[Howard]

I am too lazy for...

I am too...

[wrench45us]

I use Reaktor occasionally for its drum machines, even rarer occasions for the drone machines, but on a regular basis for its grain machines.

I don't attempt to make my own ensembles.
There are a handful of really great grain machines and I haven't found anything else that comes close to doing what they do. I tend to use about 3 where I've learned the user interface. With Reaktor grain machines it seems to be all about different graphic presentations to show what's under control. It takes a while to catch on sometimes.
Usually I'll provide some small audio piece from what I'm working on as the sample base and then start to tweak and then fit that into the background. And that's pretty much the secret ingredient to all sorts of dark ambient lounge.

[musikmachine]

I am too lazy for...

I am too...

...

Seriously though,i grabbed reaktor 4 in the marketplace as it was cheap and demoed 5 for a while before upgrading it,but i've hardly used it since!

It is a bit cpu hungry for my laptop and i only have a small lcd monitor ,some of those GUIs are big and complex.I did create a template for Reaktor in Live with an ensemble for drums, bass,lead etc which takes care of any setup issues and is a good way to check out all the ensembles,i just disable autosave and once i find an ensemble i like activate autosave...

As it's big and powerful i think you need a big and powerful machine to run it,maybe even dedcate a machine to it.I just got Guru and i can see the potential for loop mangling and experimental stuff so i'm going to use Reaktor to generate loops,hits,fx and sounds to load up in Guru,at the very least.

[tetsuneko]

I'd get REAKTOR5 if it wasn't so darn expensive.. who knows, if I manage to find a reasonably prized second hand copy..

For the price they are selling it now, I'd definitely choose Max/MSP over REAKTOR.. Has better documentation (Excellent tutorials!) and extendability (like coding your own externals in C etc)

[core]

I was fortunate enough to get a copy here at the KVR market for I believe $180 or $190 USD. A great deal for me since I'm in Europe. It's probably my fav plug-in and there's still so much to explore.

Only downside is that many ensembles are quite CPU intensive and my 4 year old PC doesn't cope well with the amount of ensembles I want to use in my tracks.

[Hlis93]

Found it for $387 and some change (US dollars). I believe that is less then I paid for it...I have a really bad memory so I don't remember how much it was when it was released. Tassman is a few dollars less and max/msp is $495 without jitter. I really understand that if you are only interested in one aspect it might be an expensive purchase. I wanted to make my own instruments so I didn't care how much it cost, that is what I wanted to do. Now I have a constant headache and my eyes burn for looking at the screen so long.

None the less, I have recommended it to people because of the UL, there is so much there, for someone that is starting up I have a hard time seeing it a bad thing, as it would save them a good deal of money and much of the things that Reaktor may not satisfy for them there are so many high quality freeware and low cost plugins that are just perfect to get that extra bit. There is always a bit hesitation however, the less the perfect way that Reaktor works as a plugin will set up a the wrong veiw of how plugin work as Reaktor is still gear for stand alone. The are potential problem with other apects as it is very non-standard and not very conducive to a normal working environment. And there is that temptation to look inside the instruments prematurely and get totally dismayed by it. But that just my 2cents. I said I wasn't going to contribute... but hey I'm only 90% fanboy.

Thanks for the continued comments.

[emdot_ambient]

...I've found everything from a spot-on Roland JX-3P emu...

Using Kyma to do a JX-3P emu?
Don't get me wrong, I own a real 3P and love it, but the idea of using Kyma to recreate it sounds a bit "pearls before swine" to me.

It reminds me of watching Dire Straits use a $250,000 Synclavier to do that cheesy organ melody in Walk of Life.

[Hlis93]

I was fortunate enough to get a copy here at the KVR market for I believe $180 or $190 USD. A great deal for me since I'm in Europe. It's probably my fav plug-in and there's still so much to explore.

Only downside is that many ensembles are quite CPU intensive and my 4 year old PC doesn't cope well with the amount of ensembles I want to use in my tracks.

When I was working with Reaktor in a host DAW, CPU was always an issue. If I wanted to do more then just Synth and bass sort of stuff I just gave up. I put a good deal of time in to get CPU down in stand alone, I have run four Skrewell instruments, a mixer, and spacemaster2 but that is all my XP with an amd64 could handle. I would have had problems doing that in a host for sure.

[emdot_ambient]

Found it for $387 and some change (US dollars). I believe that is less then I paid for it...

That's more than 1/3 the price of Komplete. I'm convinced the only way to buy Reaktor or any of the NI stuff is with Komplete. The last upgrade I did cost less that that price and I ended up getting Guitar Rig II, FM8, upgrades for Reaktor and Kontakt, PLUS Akoustik Piano and Electrik Piano.

It's well, well worth saving up for.

[Hlis93]

Found it for $387 and some change (US dollars). I believe that is less then I paid for it...

That's more than 1/3 the price of Komplete. I'm convinced the only way to buy Reaktor or any of the NI stuff is with Komplete. The last upgrade I did cost less that that price and I ended up getting Guitar Rig II, FM8, upgrades for Reaktor and Kontakt, PLUS Akoustik Piano and Electrik Piano.

It's well, well worth saving up for.

I wish Komplete was offered when I purchased Reaktor, or if it was I wish I had realized what it was. Yes, it seems the most reasonalble way to go, but I think I am far to lazy to install everything.