The future of Reaktor

[noiseboyuk]

Spin off thread from the Absynth 6 one.

Absynth was dead and buried, formally given its funeral and omitted from Komplete. Then it came back, risen, shiny and new.

By contrast, Reaktor never left Komplete. Even though developers told us there would be no new features after 6.5 (https://community.native-instruments.co ... ment_48110), with an apparent change of direction from NI management those bets could now be off.

[machinesworking]

To some of the points made in the Absynth thread.

Some people that post here are actual employees, or subcontractors. Whether or not they can predict the future because of what they know now is up in the air.

-AI is being used around the world to clean up old code, whether or not people are happy with the frivolous use of a resource heavy program like AI is another debate, but without it even being theory, it's possible to have AI clean up old code. This should be a good thing for those of us that love older code like Reaktor etc. if NI embrace it in the future and decide to see if they can redesign Reaktor without breaking the bank.

-The other elephant, some investment companies like Francisco Partners who own NI now, might not like the idea of spending a ton of money on future proofing Reaktor, especially considering it's a digital playground that you could ostensibly use for everything, no need to keep buying things from NI etc.

-PLAY- these primarily Kontakt based ROMpler sample libraries with limited controls are obviously where NI think the money is. They must be on to something that nerd central places like KVR are not aware of. I think you could say that's the case with confidence. Zebra 3 is a beast, I didn't partake enough in Zebralette when it came out, and even compared to 2 it's a complex monster, I'm going back to Zebralette to understand the new Photoshop waveform creator, and I owned 1.0 of Zebra! This isn't the kind of plugin that appeals to the EDM MIDI pack crowd, or the classically trained pianist who likes some nice presets, it's a nerds wet dream though. There are something like 5 active threads on Zebra 3 here. Point being, it's possible that although it's a great toolset even for people like me who barely began to make Ensembles in it, it might be too complicated for the typical impulse buyer.


I think I circle back to AI though, it's very possible that some of the smarter more tech savvy developers use AI to their absolute advantage to do things like clean up old code in great products like Reaktor. I've got a high school buddy coder who swears by it, thinks that developers that are too rigid about it will be left in the dust etc. It's hard to imagine NI who always tried to position themselves as the "Future of Sound" would skip by using a tool that could save them from hours of troubleshooting spaghetti code. So IMO I do not think Reaktor is as dead in the water as the few ancillary or adjacent NI employees in the last thread do.

[Gam456]

Reaktor just need a redesign UI for modern OS and monitor

[EvilDragon]

That "just" would take half a decade. A complete redesign is not going to happen. What might happen is adding zoom in the same way it was added to Massive, which would make things blurry but at least it would scale.

There is anther thing everyone should be aware of, and that is Komplete UI. It's not tech that was only meant for Kontakt.

[BBFG#]

That "just" would take half a decade.

Five years?
So not as long as Zebra 3 took.
I'm far more interested in what comes from Reaktor than Reaktor itself.
I've long had the impression it's a play ground for ideas to develop proof of concepts. The large percentage of current libraries are only as good as kindergarten artwork made for their parents refrigerator. And the ones that truly shine should have been made into their own sans Reaktor long ago. Razor's major defect is not being its own without it. As well as others...

[EvilDragon]

Zebra 3 was not worked full time during the whole decade. It's not really a valid comparison.

Reaktor would require 5 years of full time dev to completely overhaul the UI. In this economic climate that's not happening.

[BBFG#]

Zebra 3 was not worked full time during the whole decade. It's not really a valid comparison.

Reaktor would require 5 years of full time dev to completely overhaul the UI. In this economic climate that's not happening.

Yeah, I'm fine with that. My point being that its idea far exceeds its reality. And that for what it really is, is fine for what it really does. Albeit at the price of a better implementations of the now available newer resources.

Put that team on the new Razor, etc.
Leave Reaktor to those testing their proofs.

[sunthief01]

Letting Reaktor fade into obscurity while max/msp, PlugData, VCV rack etc continue to grow and thrive is such a shame. I'm not even on a crazy high res monitor and the UI of Reaktor is already very hard to read.

The fact that we have Blocks, Primary and Core plus the huge amount of ensembles is amazing. Letting it sit and age is just such a shame.

I prefer the sound and format of Blocks to any other virtual modular (VCV, the grid etc), and I prefer Core to PlugData... If I could just see what I'm doing.

Honestly I think with UI and QOL improvements you could attract many more developers a la ToyBox and UA who develop blocks, and more folks selling ensembles.

As it is, Blocks is useable but going much deeper the UI is too small for me. And that leads me to other solutions when I'd prefer to be in Reaktor

[sunthief01]

Personally I think even if it's a long project it will be worth doing it - Reaktor is a flagship synth platform with a ton of power.

If its going to be abandoned, consider going Open Source so other folks can try

[zerocrossing]

I'm no Warren Buffett, but it's my opinion that NI left money on the table with Reaktor. My guess is, most don't even want to make their own patches/snapshots, but would love preset libraries. Imagine if NI started releasing a new module that came with a patch bank and snapshots from it. People would think of the patch as a synth, and either use the provided snapshots, or make their own. More adventurous might add or swap out modules, some would make their own patches with the new module. It's something for everyone, but they'd have to market it right, so that the preset bank fans would understand that they could download and install it and get to making music without dealing with any connections.

[EvilDragon]

If its going to be abandoned, consider going Open Source so other folks can try

This is never going to happen considering how much it relies on using internal NI libraries.

[Broken]

That "just" would take half a decade. A complete redesign is not going to happen. What might happen is adding zoom in the same way it was added to Massive, which would make things blurry but at least it would scale.

There is anther thing everyone should be aware of, and that is Komplete UI. It's not tech that was only meant for Kontakt.

Very interesting.

Ok, if the Reaktor rebuild isn't happening, how about a tool that converts ensembles into VST plugins? Gems like Form, Razor, Rounds, Molecular etc. should live on.

Surely this is easy and not asking too much

[Gam456]

That "just" would take half a decade. A complete redesign is not going to happen. What might happen is adding zoom in the same way it was added to Massive, which would make things blurry but at least it would scale.

I'm more than happy with what they did on Massive
But.. I hope they won't fail like Kontakt

[machinesworking]

That "just" would take half a decade. A complete redesign is not going to happen. What might happen is adding zoom in the same way it was added to Massive, which would make things blurry but at least it would scale.

There is anther thing everyone should be aware of, and that is Komplete UI. It's not tech that was only meant for Kontakt.

Again, if NI coders start using AI to clean up old code, then it's possibly shorter than 5 years.

You're insinuating that Reaktor could live on in a Komplete UI? I mean I get it in terms of NI using Reaktor to make PLAY style instruments with limited interaction etc. with Reaktor internals, but that just makes Reaktor an internal development environment to a degree which it was anyway wasn't it? Doesn't do much for the third party people making ensembles except give them a modern interface to code for.

[vurt]

im ok waiting 5 years