Do you use Reaktor? If not why?

[zerocrossing]

I can't be more in agreement of your points, but...

I knew I'd never have the time to make my own Reaktor instruments. If a tool like this was available 20 years ago when I lived a slacker life I probably would be all over that aspect of it

I bought it because I viewed it as a very cheap way of getting a lot of instruments and effects all at one time. I was starting on the path of computer synthesis and I was not yet ready to ditch my beloved hardware. I read in some forum that someone was using the P5 Data Glove to control Reaktor instruments and stuff like that is what love.

Anyway, I instantly fell in love with Oldskool (drum synth/sequencer) Drone (granular synth) and a bunch of other instruments it came with. Then I found some on the site that are awesome too. Blackbird comes to mind. Anyway, I liked them so much that I got Electronic Instruments 2, a set of Reaktor instruments and effects. It was discontinued so I got it really cheap.

So if you think of Reaktor just as a bunch of instruments and effects and can deal with the crappy "snapshot" deal and have a few extra CPU cycles to spare, it's one hell of a bargain.

Mark

I've had it since buying Komplete 2 back in late 2004...have it updated to v5 now. But I rarely use it.

Issue 1:
I've always wanted to sink into building my own stuff with it but the learning curve is steep and my time is very limited. If I had a month or more to do nothing but learn that, I'd gladly get into it more.

Issue 2:
I've never liked the way it interfaces with Cubase. Used as a VST or VSTi, I find its GUI and preset/snapshot setup very confusing. When it's used as a plug-in, I really only want it to act like a plug-in. I don't want its internal snapshot thing, prefering to use Cubase's presets.

Issue 3:
I find its default file structure annoying. I was just looking at v5 the other night. The library is separated into Classic, New Additions, blah, blah. Consequently there are several place where it puts Synth ensembles. Now if I start downloading user library material, I have more places to put stuff. Sure, I could rearrange the file structure, but there's more time not spent being productive.

Issue 4:
CPU cost is high, while I find a lot of the ensembles' snapshots require serious tweaking to get decent sound...like for some reason the snapshots tend to be very hot volume wise and I'm always having to trim them back to prevent clipping and distortion in the sound. I don't have that problem with other plug-ins, but Reaktor, Guitar Rig and Spektral Delay seem particularly prone to overly high input levels. Why is that?

Conclusion:
It's big and powerful, but it's also big, power hungry and confusing. Once you start downloading brazillion (sic) user ensembles, you very quickly find that you have no clue what ensembles you have and what's good for what. You almost have to use nothing but Reaktor for months on end in order to become familiar with all that it can do and to know the ensembles you've got at your disposal.

Sometimes more is too much.

But I'm still convinced one day I'll come to know and love it...maybe.

[zerocrossing]

Then perhaps this is for YOU! Hell I even may get it even though I already own Reaktor:

http://www.native-instruments.com/index ... eaktor&L=1

Count me in the crowd of people that are interested in it but do not have the funds required to purchase.

[Shane Sanders]

I respect it and the community that makes it a cool platform. It's a very complete product and if forced to only have one product for the rest of my life, it'd have to be the de facto choice given how powerful it.

I use it sometimes, and would use it a lot more if I was in a synth-music mode. Lately it's more about organic-y things for me and physical instruments. It gets a workout on my scorched-earth ambient outings.

[thelizard]

I really think that Reaktor is the greatest single thing an electronic musician can buy. I've had it now for 4, almost 5 years, and it still blows me away.

What I really appreciate about it (even though many brilliant ensembles are completely dismissed as "toys"), is that many of the ensembles are brilliant niche tools. Say you want to put together a very intricate drum part, but want an intuitive sequencer, there are ensembles like Massive 1.1 which are absolutely fantastic for that. Sinebeats is as good, if not better, than any other drum synth I've tried. Yes, some of the included synthesizers are beyond confusing (Gaugear, anyone?), but even blind tweaking and the built-in randomization functions can lead to some brilliant sounds (Gaugear, anyone?).

On top of that, it works well as a supplement with your other VST's. As I said, Massive is a great drum sequencer. If you love its sequencing, but vastly prefer Battery of Shortcircuit's sample processing, it's very easy to quickly route the MIDI out from Massive, or for more advanced fun, to rip out the sequencing guts from Massive, and customize it only for use with Battery.

That being said, my single, huge complaint about it is the way that presets are managed when saving an ensemble with your track. Either you have to save whatever snap you are working on into an ensemble, or the current ensemble has to be saved with your current track, which ends up taking up ridiculous amounts of space sometimes. There is a bank loading system, but even that sometimes mystifies me. It's one of things where it's partially my fault for not wanting to learn the system well, but I really feel like it could be done much better and in a more user-friendly way.

Aside from that, I love it. I don't really see why people compare it to Max/MSP, aside from their modular building nature. If you use both (I've been using the Max 5 demo, and it expires soon), you'll see that the two are very different.

Also, provided that you understand how any of your synthesizers work, building an ensemble in Reaktor isn't nearly as hard as a lot of people on this thread have made it sound. I built a synth called 2^7 in a single night that has ended up being one of my favorite instruments on my computer. I guess that hard parts are the tinier details (i.e. my ensemble eats up incredible amounts of CPU), however, a lot of people on the forum and in the UL comment boxes love to help new builders out.

[osiris]

I love Reaktor, but HATE the browser thingy, & wading through tons of crap & weird synths to find the goods ones.

[fred-hal]

good post above

I agree with everything you wrote there.

[vurt]

Then perhaps this is for YOU! Hell I even may get it even though I already own Reaktor:

http://www.native-instruments.com/index ... eaktor&L=1

Count me in the crowd of people that are interested in it but do not have the funds required to purchase.

i dont know how much control you get with the kore package but if you basically get the synths as instruments
Ensembles include Gaugear, Limelite, Metaphysical Function, Newscool, Photone, SpaceDrone, SubHarmonic, Titan and Travelizer.

that list alone is worth the asking price.
my main worry for you would be that you end up wanting more, because the above are indeed that good!

[H.Noury]

I have tried the demo of Reactor about 2 years ago. At that time, it was very expensive (700 euros) and I did not like the filters (not warm, just boring!!). The skin was awfull too.

I was yet using Synth Edit and I steel do so : 50 euros, nice filters, a good community for additional modules and forums on Web, personnal skin possibilities...

I saw that the price of reactor was better. One day? (That is not sure at all...)

[ew]

Then perhaps this is for YOU! Hell I even may get it even though I already own Reaktor:

http://www.native-instruments.com/index ... eaktor&L=1

Count me in the crowd of people that are interested in it but do not have the funds required to purchase.

i dont know how much control you get with the kore package but if you basically get the synths as instruments
Ensembles include Gaugear, Limelite, Metaphysical Function, Newscool, Photone, SpaceDrone, SubHarmonic, Titan and Travelizer.

that list alone is worth the asking price.
my main worry for you would be that you end up wanting more, because the above are indeed that good!

If you own Reaktor as well, you have access to everything in those ensembles. It's a no brainer if you don't own either of the EI sets...

ew

[vurt]

Then perhaps this is for YOU! Hell I even may get it even though I already own Reaktor:

http://www.native-instruments.com/index ... eaktor&L=1

Count me in the crowd of people that are interested in it but do not have the funds required to purchase.

i dont know how much control you get with the kore package but if you basically get the synths as instruments
Ensembles include Gaugear, Limelite, Metaphysical Function, Newscool, Photone, SpaceDrone, SubHarmonic, Titan and Travelizer.

that list alone is worth the asking price.
my main worry for you would be that you end up wanting more, because the above are indeed that good!

If you own Reaktor as well, you have access to everything in those ensembles. It's a no brainer if you don't own either of the EI sets...

ew

i was thinking from the pov of not owning reaktor, what are the limitations if someone just purchases the above as an entry level to reaktor?

[ew]

i was thinking from the pov of not owning reaktor, what are the limitations if someone just purchases the above as an entry level to reaktor?

Then, the only control you have's from the pages NI's made for the ensemble- you can't access the GUI at all.

ew

[td71]

I love Reaktor, but HATE the browser thingy, & wading through tons of crap & weird synths to find the goods ones.

Here's a point I don't think was made. (I'm sure I'll be corrected if it was)

I have owned Reaktor for quite awhile and have found that when looking for a specific emulation, I find it in an ensemble that some developer made. i.e. you can go buy Moog plug-ins for hundreds or find one of many Moog ensembles out there.

I agree there is some searching you must do, and I do agree that some developers are far better that others. Some ens might even crash your system, but through a little perseverance you can save yourself money having purchased Reaktor and spent a little time on N.I.'s library of ens.

[musikmachine]

I love Reaktor, but HATE the browser thingy, & wading through tons of crap & weird synths to find the goods ones.

Here's a point I don't think was made. (I'm sure I'll be corrected if it was)

I have owned Reaktor for quite awhile and have found that when looking for a specific emulation, I find it in an ensemble that some developer made. i.e. you can go buy Moog plug-ins for hundreds or find one of many Moog ensembles out there.

I agree there is some searching you must do, and I do agree that some developers are far better that others. Some ens might even crash your system, but through a little perseverance you can save yourself money having purchased Reaktor and spent a little time on N.I.'s library of ens.

Exactly!

Initially i ended up with loads of ensembles on my hd,another reason i'm just going to run it on my desktop;i've got lots of hd space so large ensembles won't be an issue.I may just get a drive just for Reaktor,ensembles,recordings the lot.Keep it all organized and in one place

Like you say there are better devs and i found that where there was 1 good ensemble,there were usually a few more

My advice to anyone who is thinking of buying Reaktor is,make sure you have plenty of space on your hd.

[strav100]

It would be nice if NI could sell a DVD with all the User Library on it with a proper browsing function

Also the User rating system is crap - Why not just a 1-10 rating , then a separate number of download column ? - You could filter for e.g more than 500 downloads , rating 9. This would cut out a synth getting 9/10 only twice and coming high in the overall ratings. Also filter for recent synths by date.

This weighting system of downloads v rating to overall rating is crap

[thelizard]

Hey ew (or anybody who has it really, but I know ew is all over these threads)... how good is Krypt? I had been thinking of buying the Koresound pack, as I've been wanting Metaphysical Function ever since it was released as a modifiable ensemble (I still open the NI Christmas surprise from time to time... too cool), but didn't want to swing the cash for all the Electronic Instruments. Now that I have the money, I'm suddenly stuck, as Krypt looks so appealing. Would it be smarter to buy the Koresounds and use something comparable from the UL?