What do u guyz think of the native instrument line????

summersc2002 · Post by **summersc2002** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:53 am

Whats up,

Just thinking about expanding my music arsenal w/ some more cool gear. I tried a coupled of native demos (pro 53 and the b4) and they seemed cool as fuck. Wanted some other opinions. Im into , techno, trance, breakbeats. Have been playing w/ live and reason for about 2months now and wanted some more toys. Let me know your opinions.

chris

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 7:04 am

spend your money on one really versatile piece of hardware.

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 7:06 am

sorry that was a troll-like response.

i personally still favor the sound of hardware over software. i also think that not being in front of the computer does wonders for your creativity.
but as for software stuff goes, ni stuff isn't bad at all.

kontakt seems cool, they make absynth don't they? .. that's quite popular, especially in the film/tv market, but i think you may as well get operator instead of some of the NI offerings.

iskandar · Post by **iskandar** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 7:17 am

might want to check out some romplers depending what your going for, but a lot of people have been raving about Ultra Focus and Xtreme effects .

NI products are ok, im using battery for drums in live which is a breeze , absynth is really in depth and creates some amazing abstract sounds,reaktor has some really nice instruments but i tend to use Tassman more so..

download the demo mp3 of ultrafocus here

http://www.timespace.com/ultrafocus.asp

you will have to search for the extremeFX demo

4am · Post by **4am** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 7:53 am

i agree: reaktor, tassman and absynth have amazing possibilities.
my preferred between the 3 is reaktor, wich has a huge library and interesting "machines" (in the electronic machines vol1+2)
it still depends on the taste and the style of music you are working on...

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 8:02 am

i've long been a trumpeter of the powers of Reaktor, but i'll admit that lately i don't find myself using it as much as i used to.
but one NI Product that i do use on a regular basis is Pro-53. reminds me of my old Juno and Ensoniqs. simple to use, quick quality results, wash it with fx, and viola

Its good when you don't want to scratch your brain coming up with a new Reaktor Ensemble.

but before you buy an NI product, there are some freebies out there that i find to be just as powerful and make just as good quality sounds. Superwave P8, and reFX's "Claw" are both free and powerful.
reFX also has a $69 VST called Vanguard that is one of the best deals for a softsynth, next to the impOscar

Benshik · Post by **Benshik** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 8:10 am

Also, before you expend your sonic horizon at the speed of light, give Live some time...
Behind it's apparent simplicity, that's a very powerful tool. In the first months I made the mistake to think I knew everythin about it and kinda stopped experimenting new ways to work with Live.
Now, the more I restrict myself to do things in Live, the more I am amazed, and the less I need other sounds...

Ben

ekko · Post by **ekko** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:13 am

I have found Reason to be the most natural "Yang" to Live's "Yin." Particlarly for the NN-XT sampler.

That said, I do have a few NI products, including Absynth, B4 and Reaktor Sessions. Of the three, I'd suggest Reaktor Sessions, as it's relatively cheap and in addition to the dozens of synths that come with it, it allows you access to the thousands of user-created synths in the User Library on the NI site. That's your best bang-for-buck, IMO, particularly for the styles you mention.

I used to love Absynth, but haven't been using it as much lately and didn't even bother upgrading to 3.0.

jamief · Post by **jamief** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:19 am

NI plugins are really good. I use nearly all of them bar guitar rig and they all pretty unique

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:50 pm

I think NI plugs sound pretty good, I've been using Absynth 3 for a few days now pretty heavily and it's amazing what this synth can do. I think not much in the freebie world of VST plugs can match this one or Reaktor, but certainly there's some that come close when you're talking about Pro-53, FM-7, or B4.

My only real complaint about NI is their customer support, it's horrible, downright terrible. Took them 1.5 months to respond to a problem I was havnig, and by then I had figured it out myself (and their email wasn't even close to providing the solution anyway).

My vote is to try and demo and make sure it works fine on your system before you buy, because if you end up needing NI tech support, you could be in for a long frustrating ride.

feyshay · Post by **feyshay** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 3:16 pm

NI looks expensive. I've heard great things about Reaktor 4.
I've also heard great things about Reason and expect that the 3.0 upgrade will expand capabilities. Rewires great into Live.
You might want to wait a couple weeks until you get the scoop on 3.0.
People seem mixed about Operator (within Live). You can do a lot with this synth. The interface is intuitive and deceptively simple.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 3:37 pm

Tarekith wrote:My only real complaint about NI is their customer support, it's horrible, downright terrible. Took them 1.5 months to respond to a problem I was havnig, and by then I had figured it out myself (and their email wasn't even close to providing the solution anyway).

NI phone support in the USA is good, provided you have a cell phone. 99% of the time you call, it goes to an answering machine and you're asked to leave a phone number. They usually call back in a day or two.

I'm a big fan of Reactor, can't say enough about it. Absynth and FM7 as well. Kontact 2 is optimized for dual machines and Altivec, not too sure if that will make a difference in Live though?

montrealbreaks · Post by **montrealbreaks** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 5:28 pm

Honestly, I couldn't live without Battery 2. Of all the NI products, it's the top in my books... But then again with a handle of "montrealbreaks" it's kind of self evident that I am into beats...

Anyways, I really dig battery 2 (NOT the first one) since there's a lot of effects, eq and routing options for each drum (or whatever sample you want to trigger)

Best of all is indvidual ADSR envelopes for pitch and amp, which can make some REALLY badass electro stuff with nothing more than a sine wave and some white noise. Combine that with bit reduction and sample rate reduction on each individual drum, and you can make some real dirt drums.

For a well mixed, pristinely clean drum kit, Battery 2 can't be beat with individual filters / EQs, compressors on each drum. This is fantastic, I don't know how I lived without it before.

Honestly, I bought NI Komplete, and I haven't used Absynth 2 to nearly 2% of it's potential... It's just WAAAY too involved for a casual hobbyist like me. I understand analog (and analog modeling) synthesis pretty well, but Absynth really intimidates me. Same with Reaktor, I made like two enselbles, and they're both just analog modeling synths. B4 is good, you get what you pay for, it's a pretty damn fine instrument, and right now the Pro-53 is my analog modeling synth of choice, cause it's so darn simple.

The FM-7 is a pain to program. I understand NI's desire to keep the DX-7 interface for nostalgia purposes, BUT IT SUCKED THEN AND IT STILL SUCKS NOW. I have never met a more difficult interface in my life. I only use presets on the FM-7, and maybe tweak one parameter or two, otherwise it's just too much trouble when I can make the Pro-53 do almost anything anyways.

Ultimatley, I am pleased with NI's product line, but I would recommend you get the demos of all of them, and only choose the ones you REALLY want. I bought the Komplete package for a ridiculously low price (an invitation only pre-pre launch offer), otherwise I would have only gotten Battery (and later Battery 2) and maybe one other.

My issue with NI is primarily their customer service. Getting a response from them is like pulling hen's teeth.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 5:49 pm

I had actually called the US number a few times and left my name, never got a call back.

drush · Post by **drush** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:30 pm

montrealbreaks wrote:I understand NI's desire to keep the DX-7 interface for nostalgia purposes, BUT IT SUCKED THEN AND IT STILL SUCKS NOW.

i can pretty much say that about everything yamaha has ever produced. except the su700. i am just *not* a yamaha interface man, and i definitely don't speak their manual language.

never had a problem with NI support. i also got Komplete 2 for a really good price, and i still find new amazing things in that package every day. been using reaktor since 2.0

What do u guyz think of the native instrument line????

What do u guyz think of the native instrument line????

instruments

BATTERY 2!!!

Re: BATTERY 2!!!