if you had to pick one virtual instrument plug in...HHELP!

[rbmonosylabik]

Get Reaktor and dig into the programming. It's fun though it can sometimes become tedious when you're arranging your plug's GUI. Still, it allows huge flexibility to do whatever you want with your sound. It is a CPU hog, but if you have a machine with good specs and know how to handle your resources you should be fine.

[itook4lefts]

question about the MAx/dsp.

this is strictly to program with right?(do i have to have some sort fo knowledge of programming to use it?)

i see a 50/50 here,
Reaktor getting props but NI getting the bad support rating.

do they ship buggy product randomly, or will a whole version come out and be buggy(i think i could deal with that , so i dont buy it, than find out 1 in a 1000 reaktors is buggy) it seems like horrible support.

has anyone whos used reaktor, been aable to pull off the same sort of things in sampler? (reaktor also looks like a CPU hog.)

i love motu, and i've got a digital performer license from way back when (though i never use it any more), but i really wouldn't bother with MX4 (it doesn't load samples, right?).

do the Max/msp demo - nothing to lose there, also remember you can get Max runtime here, and then use anyone's patches... i'm sure there must be loads floating around.

it doesn't take programming knowledge per se, but it's not like learning a synth or something. i'm really just getting started with pure data (i can't afford max), and it's hard. you need to be fairly good at maths, or be fairly logically minded. i remember reading a magazine article about it somewhere where this bloke was saying it's unfair to max/msp for people to pigeon-hole it as being only for clever people, when actually it's not that hard to learn. personally, i think that's bollocks - it is hard to learn, it's just not as hard as learning C++ or whatever (and it's always really clever people who claim that it's not that hard ). i'm struggling. but some people take to it really quick. and besides, it's time well spent.

[Contra]

question about the MAx/dsp.

this is strictly to program with right?(do i have to have some sort fo knowledge of programming to use it?)

i see a 50/50 here,
Reaktor getting props but NI getting the bad support rating.

do they ship buggy product randomly, or will a whole version come out and be buggy(i think i could deal with that , so i dont buy it, than find out 1 in a 1000 reaktors is buggy) it seems like horrible support.

has anyone whos used reaktor, been aable to pull off the same sort of things in sampler? (reaktor also looks like a CPU hog.)

i love motu, and i've got a digital performer license from way back when (though i never use it any more), but i really wouldn't bother with MX4 (it doesn't load samples, right?).

do the Max/msp demo - nothing to lose there, also remember you can get Max runtime here, and then use anyone's patches... i'm sure there must be loads floating around.

it doesn't take programming knowledge per se, but it's not like learning a synth or something. i'm really just getting started with pure data (i can't afford max), and it's hard. you need to be fairly good at maths, or be fairly logically minded. i remember reading a magazine article about it somewhere where this bloke was saying it's unfair to max/msp for people to pigeon-hole it as being only for clever people, when actually it's not that hard to learn. personally, i think that's bollocks - it is hard to learn, it's just not as hard as learning C++ or whatever (and it's always really clever people who claim that it's not that hard ). i'm struggling. but some people take to it really quick. and besides, it's time well spent.

thaats what i wanted to know was if it was like learnin C++ or something of the sort.


damn too bad that sucks about reaktor being a hog, i downloaded the demo on my current system(only has 512 mb).

so lets see how it goes.

[glitchrock-buddha]

If it had to be one of those 4, it would definitely be reaktor. So many sample mangling ensembles, you won't have enought time in your life to try them all. Great loop fcker-uppers.

It can be a bit of a cpu hog, but some ensembles are quite reasonable. And if you like using loops, it's good to bounce out and use ableton's clips and racks on 'em after. I love sampler, but getting sampler instead of reaktor would be, well... that's crazy talk. Keep in mind I'm talking about if you could only get one plug-in, and I'm assuming you already have simpler (which you must 'cause you have Live). If you already had a bunch of other synths and loopers etc, sampler would be a good choice too. It's all about the combinations.

And reaktor 5 is pretty stable.

grb

[BassTooth]

uh..... reaktor, yea.

but really you should get just a (software) drum machine/module/sampler instead. i personally love Steinberg's Groove Agent 2 for some reason, alot of people think its garbage, i think i'm just used to using it for so long that it became cool. also they're coming out with a new version soon, whatever. another good drum machine; Sonic Charge's microTonic(pretty hooked on that too). recently i got Battery 3, very excellent sampler, need to work with it more tho to really know what i'm talking about. of course there is always impulse/sampler. anybody else got any drum machines they love?

[Contra]

uh..... reaktor, yea.

but really you should get just a (software) drum machine/module/sampler instead. i personally love Steinberg's Groove Agent 2 for some reason, alot of people think its garbage, i think i'm just used to using it for so long that it became cool. also they're coming out with a new version soon, whatever. another good drum machine; Sonic Charge's microTonic(pretty hooked on that too). recently i got Battery 3, very excellent sampler, need to work with it more tho to really know what i'm talking about. of course there is always impulse/sampler. anybody else got any drum machines they love?

i cant say anything about battery as i havent tried it(might DL the demo), as of now though very happy with impulse.


i did download massive and reaktor 5 demos.
massive is crazy as hell.
reaktor i had it running into live but couldnt get shit workin, was loadin instrument presets but couldnt hear nothing, will have to watch videos on the website..i was watchin exile usin reaktor, he did this crazy setup with his voice and it was just stutter steppin depending on external input,very tight scheme

[Machinate]

Thing is, what Tim Exile did with Reaktor is so difficult, you basically have to be an NI employee to know that stuff - the reaktor ensemble isn't publically available at all...
In order to fill a buffer and step through it at your will there are some serious workarounds in Reaktor, imo.

I'd say it takes 1/10th of the time to build the same thing in MaxMSP. Just like Reaktor there is no "text-programming" - but you can, if you advance to that, write your own externals, use scripting, and do advanced expressions and so on. But for most projects the built-in modules will do just fine, and it patches together really fast.


Instead it's all just patching virtual modules together with cables, and the tutorials and examples are so good, you could pretty much copy-paste your project from that. That's more or less what I'm doing with Jitter right now It uses a lot less cpu than Reaktor, but I would say that it's more geared towards the experimentalists, or the ones who want a very specific output. If you are considering working with real-time audio I would definitely recommend going directly for maxMSP, instead of doing what I did : Waste time designing your ultimate thingamajig in Reaktor, only to find out that it either uses way too much cpu, or just isnt possible.

[glitchrock-buddha]

uh..... reaktor, yea.

but really you should get just a (software) drum machine/module/sampler instead. i personally love Steinberg's Groove Agent 2 for some reason, alot of people think its garbage, i think i'm just used to using it for so long that it became cool. also they're coming out with a new version soon, whatever. another good drum machine; Sonic Charge's microTonic(pretty hooked on that too). recently i got Battery 3, very excellent sampler, need to work with it more tho to really know what i'm talking about. of course there is always impulse/sampler. anybody else got any drum machines they love?

i cant say anything about battery as i havent tried it(might DL the demo), as of now though very happy with impulse.


i did download massive and reaktor 5 demos.
massive is crazy as hell.
reaktor i had it running into live but couldnt get shit workin, was loadin instrument presets but couldnt hear nothing, will have to watch videos on the website..i was watchin exile usin reaktor, he did this crazy setup with his voice and it was just stutter steppin depending on external input,very tight scheme

Hey Contra, massive is crazy yes, but I would never consider it over reaktor. The reason is that there are many synths in reaktor, some of which can come sort of close to massive, and massive doesn't sample. Reaktor also has beatboxes, sample players/destroyers, synths that can use samples etc. More versatile.

I'm not sure if your looking purely for an instrument to design synth patches usigna combination of samples and oscillators or also want something to mangle drum loops, but reaktor is good if you want it all. Absynth can load samples for granular synthesis as well and is quite the beast itself.

grb

[dj superflat]

reaktor. thousands of great ensembles of all types (synth, drummachines, samples, fx, etc.). you can get various exilish sample player/manglers from the user library. and basic programming (throwing together in series (e.g.) synths and fx you like is fairly easy).

[kennerb]

question about the MAx/dsp.

this is strictly to program with right?(do i have to have some sort fo knowledge of programming to use it?)

i see a 50/50 here,
Reaktor getting props but NI getting the bad support rating.

do they ship buggy product randomly, or will a whole version come out and be buggy(i think i could deal with that , so i dont buy it, than find out 1 in a 1000 reaktors is buggy) it seems like horrible support.

has anyone whos used reaktor, been aable to pull off the same sort of things in sampler? (reaktor also looks like a CPU hog.)

You can build and do about anything in Reaktor. Some things can be a little CPU heavy but the skies the limit. I am saving up to buy it myself. There are so many ensembles and instruments on their site it is just rediculous.

[DJ VAKIS]

reaktor

[Hypomixolydian]

Out of your choices, Reaktor without a shadow of a doubt. I haven't found it to be buggy at all and the times I have needed to contact Native Instruments support (not for Reaktor by the way), they have always helped me.

[D DAS]

+1 on reaktor i guess.

i have never needed support for any NI products because never once has one failed me. I use Kontakt, Reaktor, and Absynth.

Reaktor has unlimited possibilites, but so does Absynth in a sense. If you are into sound design Absynth is sweet.

But as for bang for your buck Reaktor would be the one, unlimited synths and sound modules, and effects available in the NI library. t th

[tylenol]

Out of those choices, reaktor I suppose. But have you thought about zebra2?

[Machinesworking]

Out of those choices, reaktor I suppose. But have you thought about zebra2?

Dead on, Reactor out of those choices, but Zebra 2 is a must have IMO.No discount needed for Zebra 2, just take a picture of an old synth, and send it to him and you get a nice "dinosaur" discount.

The reactor library is what makes Reactor. I have had little problems with NI, but it's good to watch yourself with any large company. There are plenty of stories about NI burning people, (buggy updates etc.) and personally I've been burned by Apple twice. The larger the company the more chance they lose any soul they had. NI do seem to be listening to people at the moment though, which is a good thing for sure.