Guest skibby Posted September 5, 2015 Share Posted September 5, 2015 How's Reaktor treating you? Is NI a good company to rent software from? How are support, updates, etc? Every so often they practically give it away but whats it like to be locked in with them as a customer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entorwellian Posted September 5, 2015 Share Posted September 5, 2015 I got Reaktor when it went down to $99 and I haven't been really impressed with it. Their support is pretty top notch but there are some pretty big flaws with the messaging system that was causing me problems when I tried to make order of operation stuff work independent of the global settings. As a company though I have had no problems with them but I have never tried renting or anything of the sort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychotronic Posted September 5, 2015 Share Posted September 5, 2015 Never had big issues with reaktor. Updates come now and then, the community and user lib is quite big. But: http://i.imgur.com/gFw3fJA.png If that is true, we might see a major update soon, that is something that did not happen in years for whatever reason. Wait till we know if that is a fake or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest skibby Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 Never had big issues with reaktor. Updates come now and then, the community and user lib is quite big. But: http://i.imgur.com/gFw3fJA.png If that is true, we might see a major update soon, that is something that did not happen in years for whatever reason. Wait till we know if that is a fake or not. ok, so Reaktor 6 is coming out soon, what does that imply to existing users? are users currently frustrated with bugs and stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychotronic Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 ok, so Reaktor 6 is coming out soon, what does that imply to existing users? are users currently frustrated with bugs and stuff? Reaktor 5 was released a very long time ago. We, the users, have no clue what it means to get another major upgrade. Will that change everything? Will old patches still work? We have no fucking clue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweepstakes Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 I also grabbed Reaktor for $99, I think in 2008 or 2009. My buddy was really into it and I thought the idea of sharing patches and more generally having a modular synth VST I could use in Renoise sounded pretty badass. He made a ton of custom patches based on frankensteining other patches he found on the internet, and they all sounded pretty dope, so my interest was piqued. I've probably made 3 or 4 attempts to get into it that all ended in frustration, first about the messaging system & order of operations business, then the lack of IDs for automation, finally because I found it pretty much impossible to do the things I wanted to do with samples, namely recording and interpolated playback. I ultimately decided I don't have the brain parts brain necessary for Reaktor. When I kept things simple and thought of it more like a slightly fancier version of the Nord G1 (I've been a Micro Modular user for a long time) I did get some nice results but this was generally basic VA, FM, maybe some Karpluss-Strong delay line thing. I've never been into how it manages samples. My Max/MSP experience has been much different, though. Messages and signals are distinct and not only are there clear rules about order of operations, there are a variety of tools out of the box just for managing just that. Things work the way I expect and there's always a clear reason why it didn't work. Even if I disagree with a design choice it opens up other avenues that actually lead interesting places. Plus there's quite good scripting capabilities that are handy when things scale up and patching alone is just too awkward.There are a couple things I found way easier in Reaktor than Max (e.g. POLYPHONY, my god) and I think it does sound slicker out of the box. But the longer I use Max the less interested I am in using Reaktor. I'm sure Reaktor is great for a lot of people (Squarepusher) but it's just not for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entorwellian Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 ^^^ It's not you. Reaktor has some really weird design flaws with it that you have to do some counter-intuitive tricks to get past. I found max/pd better in the long run too. It's a shame because Reaktor is a lot easier for signal processing stuff at times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entorwellian Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 interested to know what some of these design flaws are, it might make me feel less mad for getting so frustrated with it haha. for me i find the weakness in max's polyphony object to be threefold. firstly, it needs to be saved as a separate patch. i know this is because it's how max is coded and whatnot and it's probably really tricky to make normal subpatchers polyphonic but i like having everything in the one patch file. this is made more annoying by having to substitute all your inlets and outlets with different "in" and "out" object boxes that are numbered. and then you forget if it starts from 0 or 1. and then you think you'll just do a sneaky "paste replace" on the inlets of a patch you already made only to discover you have to rename what all the inlets do again. the last annoyance off the top of my head is the difficulty of ensuring a message gets sent to all voices. maybe other people don't find this a problem but it's often a thing i run into. The only way you can view any data is with the Event Watcher, a frustrating 3rd party utility. I have no idea why NI have no way of the user viewing the signal data and I have no idea how the hell you are supposed to properly debug stuff. With PD or Max all you have to do is slap a number box or print object to see the output and know if something is going on or not. There are some problems with doing order of operations too with the global parameters not triggering the first order 100% reliably and skipping to the second order of operation. Other users leave the first order inlet blank and start off with the second inlet it bugs my OCD like no tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
logakght Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 All the ensembles I download create rubbish sound. Absolutely unusable. Or maybe I am the idiot. Or maybe it is insanely hard to use it (not even to program, to use it!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hanratty Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 It was the best $99 I ever spent. I just use other people's ensembles, sometimes hacking together some effects or sequencers. I think it's the best. Get it, and then check out Twisted Tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweepstakes Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 You know what else Max has that Reaktor doesn't? Documentation. It's such a cliche but RTFM should always carry some weight as good advice. With Reaktor that just doesn't hold. Max has excellent documentation and the stuff that seems oddly missing is few and far between, especially compared to Reaktor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweepstakes Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Yep, the interactive patches. Also the fact that the documentation is available publicly as HTML means it's really easy to search through just via a regular web search engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entorwellian Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 what else do we like about it? Making user interfaces is extremely fun and satisfying in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kausto Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweepstakes Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Oh snap. I wonder if they addressed any of those concerns. My buddy will be stoked to hear this as he was just telling me he's going to switch from performing w/ Ableton to Numerology hosting his custom Reaktor patches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 ok, so Reaktor 6 is coming out soon, what does that imply to existing users? are users currently frustrated with bugs and stuff? Reaktor 5 was released a very long time ago. We, the users, have no clue what it means to get another major upgrade. Will that change everything? Will old patches still work? We have no fucking clue! yeah im a little worried tbh, the 'updates' featured in 6 at least on paper don't seem that impressive or useful to me. As someone who has never had an issue automating multiple instances of Reaktor VST in a host sequencer i don't really understand why this is such a big deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcinsu Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Hopefully this new Blocks feature can make this actually a usable modular synth, ie allow quick and easy patching. Would love if this could actually take steps to be anywhere near as intuitive as the Nord G2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phlexunger Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 I got reactor with my Komplete Audio 6 package. I just needed a small portable IO box to work on pro tools projects from my apt. and since I moved my record studio from a space where I had a live room, vocal booth and control room down to 3 different space in 3 different locations. I needed a way to track instruments in the rehearsal space/workshop basement I rent then mix either in my apt or in the mix room I set up in my parents old laundry room. When I opened reactor and Kontact I was unsure if I had demo versions or not? I am still kind of unsure. But recently I have been using instruments in Kontact and liking them a lot and I am considering buying some instruments that have come out. I like that I can open either Reactor or Kontact in a Pro Tools session but I also like using it stand alone. Reactor seems very involved and I have not even scratched the surface of what it can do and Kontact seems more straight fwd. Can anyone recommend links to getting free or cheap VSTs or add ons ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o00o Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 If you are a registered user the user library is what you are looking for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychotronic Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Well, they did it! http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths/reaktor-6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 don't really see anything that drastically new. Most of the new features seem cosmetic http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths/reaktor-6/whats-new/the building blocks thing seems like a nice gimmick, but i've never used Reaktor as a realtime repatching thing anyways. Once i build what i need i rarely ever patch as im making music with it. Weird they waited so long to update to 6 with so little actually fundamentally new in the program. Oh well, NI hasn't been the most impressive company ever since they smelled the cash of Guitar Rig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychotronic Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 don't really see anything that drastically new. Most of the new features seem cosmetic http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths/reaktor-6/whats-new/ the building blocks thing seems like a nice gimmick, but i've never used Reaktor as a realtime repatching thing anyways. Once i build what i need i rarely ever patch as im making music with it. Weird they waited so long to update to 6 with so little actually fundamentally new in the program. Oh well, NI hasn't been the most impressive company ever since they smelled the cash of Guitar Rig I'll take a look under the hood this weekend. Maybe there is new stuff they dont mention. Blocks is cool cause they can release more drm locked stuff like the extremly analog sounding filters in Monark and you can use them in your patches, that was not possible before. Do they mention a possiblity to automate that realtime patching feature? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychotronic Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 mmmm... they advanced the whole core layer and the all kinds of wiring. Nice. They also updated the base libs for core and primary. This is, why they call it a major update, they just did bugfixes the last years in that area. This is not an Update for people who just use Reaktor with pre build patches, this is an update for the people who build patches.Gaaaawd damn you NI, i switched to linux. Now you force me back to that mofo commercial OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 damn i forgot that NI started putting out drm locked patches, that was also a really depressing turn for NI. the latest version of 'beat slicer' in the patch library that came with Reaktor 5 is locked and it makes no fucking sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entorwellian Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Some cool features in Reaktor 6 but I think I'll wait for another sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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