TRK-01 Play for Free from NI

[BONES]

I feel really annoyed that I paid $99 (bought during launch offer) for something NI are basically now giving away for free after just six months. TRK-01 Play is two Reaktor ensembles that separate the kick and synth sides of TRK-01, removing the master effects and sequencers into the bargain. Basically, you get the two sound engines with all their supporting features in separate ensembles.

A lot of people will probably find these a lot more useful than the full price version, me included. Doing a really quick test this morning before work, it seems CPU use is much lower with individual instruments, too.

I really love TRK-01's synth engine so having it as a lightweight ensemble of its own means I will probably throw it into a lot more mixes than I have with the full version. Hence my annoyance, having paid good money on something less useful than a free version.

As well as these freebies, NI are offering everyone an e-voucher (Au$49 for me). I might use that on a Maschine expansion if I can find a half-decent one we don't already have.

You can check it all out HERE.

[Teksonik]

Thanks for the heads up. Do you think they are worth installing the Reaktor Player in order to use them ?

[Russell Grand]

I'll answer for Bones: yes they are worth it.

[XeonKnight]

Well not quite, these two don't have the sequencer nor extra mixing utils that are supposed to make it simple to get a good kick/bass mix. You don't get the delay, reverb, bass harmonic enhancer or the saturator/limiter.

I can understand the frustration if you bought it for the engines, but the commercial version does have quite a few tricks up its sleeve that you don't get in this freebie.

I have Komplete 11 and will be getting Komplete 12 Ultimate next summer sale and am still looking forward to the full version of TRK 01!

[BONES]

If you recall the thread from when TRK-01 was released, most people found all that extra stuff a hindrance, not something of value. I've used TRK-01 in at least half-a-dozen songs and I've never used both the kick and bass. It might pretend to offer something that integrates both well but it's nothing you can't do easily with tools that exist in every host application. i.e. It has built-in ducking which is hardly worth $149 on its own. The master effects have the world's coolest GUIs but, again, they don't offer anything users can't do easily with tools they already have.

To be fair, the sequencer is far more useful since the update but I still find it gets in the way more than it helps anything and it's still a PITA to program.

Thanks for the heads up. Do you think they are worth installing the Reaktor Player in order to use them ?

I'm not sure if they'd suit your style of music but I really like what they do - very "modern" sounding, if you know what I mean. I use TRK-01 for long evolving pads more than I use it for the rhythm type things it was clearly designed for. They are both monophonic, although the synth has unison capability through its Effects section.

The other thing I really dig about it is the workflow, which you may find interesting enough to justify installing Reaktor player. They look stupidly simple on the surface but there is a lot of stuff going on that you access as you go along. As you'd know, I normally hate that kind of hidden stuff but it's done really cleverly here. I was just looking for something on YouTube that might be useful to show this but there is nothing. I could probably do a video myself to show the workflow, it's something that might actually be worth doing, unlike the thousands of idiots who post videos showing their first 10 minutes with something, before they have the slightest idea how to use it.

[db3]

Nice freebie, cheers NI.

[Teksonik]

I have the Reaktor Player on this system so installed them here. I'm impressed by the sound of both.

Now I'm trying to remember why I've never purchased Reaktor. I've tried various demos over the years.

I have to give a shout out to Native Instruments for their Native Access software. I recently upgraded my studio computer and NA made it so easy to install, authorize, and update all my N.I. plugins.

Installing the two plugins mentioned here was a breeze.

Normally I'm not a fan of extra software but NA has actually been a benefit.

[XeonKnight]

If you recall the thread from when TRK-01 was released, most people found all that extra stuff a hindrance, not something of value. I've used TRK-01 in at least half-a-dozen songs and I've never used both the kick and bass. It might pretend to offer something that integrates both well but it's nothing you can't do easily with tools that exist in every host application. i.e. It has built-in ducking which is hardly worth $149 on its own. The master effects have the world's coolest GUIs but, again, they don't offer anything users can't do easily with tools they already have.

To be fair, the sequencer is far more useful since the update but I still find it gets in the way more than it helps anything and it's still a PITA to program.

Thanks for the heads up. Do you think they are worth installing the Reaktor Player in order to use them ?

I'm not sure if they'd suit your style of music but I really like what they do - very "modern" sounding, if you know what I mean. I use TRK-01 for long evolving pads more than I use it for the rhythm type things it was clearly designed for. They are both monophonic, although the synth has unison capability through its Effects section.

The other thing I really dig about it is the workflow, which you may find interesting enough to justify installing Reaktor player. They look stupidly simple on the surface but there is a lot of stuff going on that you access as you go along. As you'd know, I normally hate that kind of hidden stuff but it's done really cleverly here. I was just looking for something on YouTube that might be useful to show this but there is nothing. I could probably do a video myself to show the workflow, it's something that might actually be worth doing, unlike the thousands of idiots who post videos showing their first 10 minutes with something, before they have the slightest idea how to use it.

I certainly understand your position, I just didn't want people to truly think they are the same product. Sorry you're disappointed in your purchase, I'm excited to try out the synth engine for the pad sounds you mentioned, should be good fun.

[Russell Grand]

Nice freebie, cheers NI.

+1

[Russell Grand]

I have the Reaktor Player on this system so installed them here. I'm impressed by the sound of both.

Now I'm trying to remember why I've never purchased Reaktor. I've tried various demos over the years.

I have to give a shout out to Native Instruments for their Native Access software. I recently upgraded my studio computer and NA made it so easy to install, authorize, and update all my N.I. plugins.

Installing the two plugins mentioned here was a breeze.

Normally I'm not a fan of extra software but NA has actually been a benefit.

[BONES]

I certainly understand your position, I just didn't want people to truly think they are the same product.

I explained that you miss out on the sequencer and master effects in the first post.

Sorry you're disappointed in your purchase, I'm excited to try out the synth engine for the pad sounds you mentioned, should be good fun.

I am in no way disappointed with my purchase, TRK-01 is one of my favourite instruments. I am simply annoyed with NI for basically screwing me over. Mind you, I think they have probably done this because no-one else was buying TRK-01 and they figured they had nothing much to lose.

[Ah_Dziz]

So they’re still reaktor player? The wording in the email was very ambiguous and didn’t mention reaktor player at all. I was hoping that it was two actual standalones. I’ll grab them though. Still handy since I never use both past an initial sketch of a track. The synth should see plenty of use solo and I imagine it uses less cpu than having everything loaded up and disabling what isn’t in use.

[SoundPorn]

WHAT! This is amazing. I've been looking for a new kick designer vst but I actually have most fun just editing and combining kick waves in Audacity before taking it to my daw.
However stupid Native Access updated when I went to open it and wants me to log back in, only my usual passwords aren't working so I reset it and they still haven't sent my reset email I imagine they're servers are bussy right now. Curious to see how this TRK01 Play works because one of the biggest draws to me about the full version is the step sequencer and modulation abilities.

[SoundPorn]

So they’re still reaktor player? The wording in the email was very ambiguous and didn’t mention reaktor player at all. I was hoping that it was two actual standalones. I’ll grab them though. Still handy since I never use both past an initial sketch of a track. The synth should see plenty of use solo and I imagine it uses less cpu than having everything loaded up and disabling what isn’t in use.

Yes it can be used in Reaktor Player too so long as it's updated to 6.2. And I'm with you Reaktor is usually too cpu hungry to use during sessions so what I do is just resample what I play from it. And with this instrument I just want to create kicks so I'll probably run it in Reaktor standalone then record into Audacity, make another eq possibly then export the 32 bit wav to my drum kit folder.

[BONES]

I was playing around with the synth quickly this morning and I was seeing 6% CPU usage on my modest Core i5 set-up, which is around one-third what I get with the full TRK-01. That not too dissimilar to most of my VSTi so it's perfectly acceptable. The other thing I've noticed with TRK-01 is that you can add several instances without increasing CPU too much. e.g. 12% for one instance, 16% for three. It seems that once you have the Reaktor engine up and running, it doesn't take too much effort to run multiple streams.