I currently own a Receptor v1 which I use purely for home studio use. I also own Omnisphere, which I consider to be one of the best plug ins out there - however, this will not run on v1. It runs great on my home PC but I would like to be able to integrate it with other plugins that I own.
I am considering upgrading to v2 to allow me to run Omnisphere with the other plugins, but the cost is fairly substantial (over £1,000 including VAT, or equivalent to around $1,500). I would like any users that have performed this upgrade to let me know if they think it was worth it.
I have read posts suggesting that Omnisphere runs fairly slowly on Receptor 2 - is this true ? Are updates due in the future that will enable it to run more smoothly ? I don't really want to spend the above sum of money if Omnisphere runs worse than on my current home PC - how does it generally perform on Receptor ?
Apart from being able to run Omnisphere and various other plugins that won't run on v1, has there been a significant benefit following upgrading, in terms of running existing plugins ? Do they load faster ? Have users seen any other noticeable improvements following the upgrade ?
Thanks in advance for your comments and I look forward to hearing from you.
Peter
Upgrading Receptor 1 to Receptor 2 - is it worth it ?
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 86 posts since 19 Jan, 2006
Throbert
Thanks for your reply but I think I'll stick to the upgrade route.
However, is there no one out there that has upgraded from v1 to v2 that could provide some feedback on improved performance ? Are there any Omnisphere users that could provide comments on how well it runs on v2 ?
Your comments and feedback would be much appreciated - thanking you again in advance
Peter
Thanks for your reply but I think I'll stick to the upgrade route.
However, is there no one out there that has upgraded from v1 to v2 that could provide some feedback on improved performance ? Are there any Omnisphere users that could provide comments on how well it runs on v2 ?
Your comments and feedback would be much appreciated - thanking you again in advance
Peter
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- KVRian
- 691 posts since 13 May, 2004 from Silicon Valley
Hi Peter,
I have 3 receptor's, 2 that were upgraded to V2, and 1 that remains a V1. Here is my (mostly objective, and some subjective) analysis.
The Practical info:
I tend to notice about a 30-40% improvement. I have posted some of my 'pseudo benchmarks here.
For some things, working with recent Kontakt versions - I find that I can finally run large sample libraries in Receptor 2 usably.
For other things, like Omnisphere, they are only supported on Receptor 2.
Generally, plugs that used to run pretty well to good (eg. compute intensive plugs like VA emulations (minimonsta, Predator, ...), Ivory, ...) run great on Receptor 2. The other plugs that are not supported on R1 OS (only supported on Receptor 2) like Omnisphere, recent NI Komplete's, ... I am generally happy with these. Omnisphere performance on R2 is generally good, but patch/sample loading can be a bit slow (depends on sampleset/multi). During a gig, you might need to plan for this if you have rapid transisitons between songs.
The reality (subjective, from my POV):
Receptor 2 still has a widening gap in raw compute power, supported plugins, multi-core support, recent memory architectures (like DDR3 & multi-ported RAM), Disk support, etc. -- compared to a recently configured best-of-class PC. Muse's bottleneck on getting recent plugins supported on their platform can be an issue. Their lack of communication about future support, upgrades, and plugin support/scheduling is just plain frustrating.
If you intend to use a Receptor 2 on the road, and can accept the Receptor 2 HW limitations (and supported plugin limitations) for your live setup - this upgrade is workable because Receptor does provide a stable platform once you have all plugs and presets setup for your gig. You also have some 'roadworthiness' to the Receptor that may be lacking by taking a PC/Laptop on the road. I've used a Receptor at a gig in 117 degrees (F) and it performed admirably (other standard keyboards had thermal-protection shutdowns happening).
If you intend to use Receptor 2 in the studio, as a slave to a DAW - I find that Receptor is relatively lacking in both features and performance - and you are better off investing in a slave PC (rather than upgrading Receptor for this purpose). Vienna Ensemble Pro certainly makes interconnect and scenery-saving more workable for Audio Slave PC connections to a DAW over ethernet (conversly, on a Receptor, Uniwire is not nearly as efficient or elegant).
I hope this helps answer your questions, and make a reasonable decision.
Regards,
Kevin L
I have 3 receptor's, 2 that were upgraded to V2, and 1 that remains a V1. Here is my (mostly objective, and some subjective) analysis.
The Practical info:
I tend to notice about a 30-40% improvement. I have posted some of my 'pseudo benchmarks here.
For some things, working with recent Kontakt versions - I find that I can finally run large sample libraries in Receptor 2 usably.
For other things, like Omnisphere, they are only supported on Receptor 2.
Generally, plugs that used to run pretty well to good (eg. compute intensive plugs like VA emulations (minimonsta, Predator, ...), Ivory, ...) run great on Receptor 2. The other plugs that are not supported on R1 OS (only supported on Receptor 2) like Omnisphere, recent NI Komplete's, ... I am generally happy with these. Omnisphere performance on R2 is generally good, but patch/sample loading can be a bit slow (depends on sampleset/multi). During a gig, you might need to plan for this if you have rapid transisitons between songs.
The reality (subjective, from my POV):
Receptor 2 still has a widening gap in raw compute power, supported plugins, multi-core support, recent memory architectures (like DDR3 & multi-ported RAM), Disk support, etc. -- compared to a recently configured best-of-class PC. Muse's bottleneck on getting recent plugins supported on their platform can be an issue. Their lack of communication about future support, upgrades, and plugin support/scheduling is just plain frustrating.
If you intend to use a Receptor 2 on the road, and can accept the Receptor 2 HW limitations (and supported plugin limitations) for your live setup - this upgrade is workable because Receptor does provide a stable platform once you have all plugs and presets setup for your gig. You also have some 'roadworthiness' to the Receptor that may be lacking by taking a PC/Laptop on the road. I've used a Receptor at a gig in 117 degrees (F) and it performed admirably (other standard keyboards had thermal-protection shutdowns happening).
If you intend to use Receptor 2 in the studio, as a slave to a DAW - I find that Receptor is relatively lacking in both features and performance - and you are better off investing in a slave PC (rather than upgrading Receptor for this purpose). Vienna Ensemble Pro certainly makes interconnect and scenery-saving more workable for Audio Slave PC connections to a DAW over ethernet (conversly, on a Receptor, Uniwire is not nearly as efficient or elegant).
I hope this helps answer your questions, and make a reasonable decision.
Regards,
Kevin L
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- KVRist
- 223 posts since 2 Dec, 2006 from Minnesota
I upgraded my Receptor 1 to a Receptor 2 Pro. I mainly run piano/keyboard sounds (Ivory, Scarbee, VB3 etc). These seem to run with greater efficiency on R2 - but I did not have any problems with the R1 either. Other than that - I'd say Kevin's commentsabove are "spot on".
TWB
TWB
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- KVRian
- 691 posts since 13 May, 2004 from Silicon Valley
Hi again Peter,
A couple more things occurred to me since I posted yesterday:
I have reached performance limitations with Receptor 2 - so it is possible to push it to it's limits. I have reached these on 2 occasions:
a.) using Ocean Way Drums on a Receptor 2 using uniwire. (you have to tweak Kontakt hard on OWDs configuration to make it playable, and even then, you can't remove artifacts from CPU spikes without lowering buffer latencies to unplayable levels).
b.) Omnisphere multis - I've reached performance problems with large stacks and multis.
Regards,
Kevin L
A couple more things occurred to me since I posted yesterday:
I have reached performance limitations with Receptor 2 - so it is possible to push it to it's limits. I have reached these on 2 occasions:
a.) using Ocean Way Drums on a Receptor 2 using uniwire. (you have to tweak Kontakt hard on OWDs configuration to make it playable, and even then, you can't remove artifacts from CPU spikes without lowering buffer latencies to unplayable levels).
b.) Omnisphere multis - I've reached performance problems with large stacks and multis.
Regards,
Kevin L
Last edited by looneytunes on Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRist
- 103 posts since 10 Jan, 2007
Hi folks,
I upgraded my receptor B to receptor 2 Pro. I also mostly use piano/rhodes/organ sounds. I noticed that the Receptor boots faster and also loads samples quicker. Furthermore, now I can use most plugins on 32 sample latency which is very good. This gives even a more direct response than the 64 or 128 sample latency I used on the Receptor 1.
Best regards,
Fedde
I upgraded my receptor B to receptor 2 Pro. I also mostly use piano/rhodes/organ sounds. I noticed that the Receptor boots faster and also loads samples quicker. Furthermore, now I can use most plugins on 32 sample latency which is very good. This gives even a more direct response than the 64 or 128 sample latency I used on the Receptor 1.
Best regards,
Fedde