NI Reactor - I may never have time to learn it

[James Steele]

I have Reactor on my system and best as I can tell it's very deep and I don't know if given the kind of music I usually do, whether I would ever be able to invest the time to learn how to use it. I'm seriously thinking of just deleting it and associated files to free up some disk space. Not dissing it at all. Just looks like a tool that's too deep for me to find the spare time to wrap my head around.

[stubbsonic]

I completely understand that sentiment. I've gathered quite a few deep apps as if I had the same brain I had ... well... decades ago. (I still feel just like a big old kid).

But I'd suggest that even if you only use pre-made ensembles, you will find there is a great deal of versatility in there.

I recently used Silverwood (a woodwind modeler) with a TEControl Breath Control in a project and it was quite fun to play with.

But yea, apps on the iPad, Reaktor, etc.-- I have several lifetimes worth of toys. I'll be stone deaf before I get to all of them.

[Kubi]

What he said. There are really *two* Reaktors, so to speak:

• The insanely powerful modular language to roll your own.

• The framework within which you can run tens of thousands of custom-built instruments, effects etc.

Most of us use the latter. For all the reasons you list. But I'd keep it, some of the Reaktor ensembles do things you don't find anywhere else. And disk space is like recorded music - dirt cheap and ubiquitous.

[Babz]

You need Reaktor to run Razor, Monark, Skanner, etc.... Plus there are some great FREE ensembles out there....

http://www.nireaktor.com/reaktor-tutori ... d-the-web/

I know, I have had Reaktor for years and largely ignored it, but I recently decided to see what it's about. Fantastic stuff!

Plus, compared to sampled instruments it doesn't take up that much to space.

Babz

[James Steele]

Kubi-- my problem is reactor has installed about 6GB of stuff on my boot SSD which is only 120GB, so I'm trying to get it off of there. Also I'm considering deleting the standalone app versions of many of my VIs because I have generally only used the plug-in versions.

[mhschmieder]

Excellent idea; I hadn't thought of that. We're in the same boat with 6GB remaining on a 120GB SSD system drive. Deleting standalone versions of plug-ins hadn't occurred to me; I think many of the plug-ins use the standalone in some manner (or maybe it's just that the standalone drives the preferences which are then inherited by the plug-in).

One of the last disc organization tasks on my "TODO" list is to move the Reaktor content, but it's the one NI instrument I never figured out to that level, and bizarrely, some of the NI installers put its material under the Kontakt library folder, which further complicates things, not to mention there seems to be a lot of duplication (perhaps from version to version, if they keep changing where they install things).

If I find time to go further on this I'll let you know. I may be forced to prioritize it as I'm really running out of things to move off the SSD at this point.

[David Polich]

All I know is two things -

1. I don't have time to learn how to create Reaktor instruments on my own.

2. There are too many really cool existing Reaktor ensembles that I find essential for music production.

It's a must-have for me. Maybe not for everyone.

[James Steele]

All I know is two things -

1. I don't have time to learn how to create Reaktor instruments on my own.

2. There are too many really cool existing Reaktor ensembles that I find essential for music production.

It's a must-have for me. Maybe not for everyone.

I guess I must confess that I've never really figured out how to use Reaktor, so I am ignorant about it. I'll have to pull out the manual and read up on it. It just seems like it's one of, if not THE deepest VI Native Instruments makes.

[cuttime]

There are some really helpful videos here:

http://www.bluewatervst.com/

I learned a lot from them after reading ALL of the manuals from cover to cover. Anything I could think of that I wanted to do with Reaktor was already done by somebody else- and probably much better than I could do. These days I am content to tweak or modify existing ensembles or instruments and not go toe to toe with the masters.

[James Steele]

There are some really helpful videos here:

http://www.bluewatervst.com/

I learmed a lot from them after reading ALL of the manuals from cover to cover. Anything I could think of that I wanted to do with Reaktor was already done by somebody else- and probably much better than I could do. These days I am content to tweak or modify existing ensembles or instruments and not go toe to toe with the masters.

Thanks for that!

[Prime Mover]

After upgrading to Komplete 9, I think I may be ready to dive back in. I think I understand the Factory/User thing a little more, which was confusing me before. But I'm not going to bite off more than I can chew. I think the problem I had before was that I tried to dive in too deep, too quickly. Instead of playing around with existing ensembles, I tried to tweak them and program my own way too soon.

Each ensemble is a synth. Synths take time, I'm willing to admit that. Anyone who says they can walk into a room and program a completely unknown synthesizer is a liar. Every synth uses different terminology, uses different routing, uses various different flavors of synthesis techniques. A Reaktor ensemble is no different, possibly harder, because the creators were able to do anything they wanted to without concern for equipment costs or reproduction overhead.

Don't make the same mistake a lot of us do. Start with the basics. Don't even TWEAK existing ensembles... play with them first. Go through presets, then play with their settings, THEN maybe one day, go back behind it make a few adjustments.

Seriously... who here creates most of their Kontakt patches from skratch? Very few. Maybe once in a while, often for very simple tasks. If you're spending a lot of time creating big Kontakt or Reaktor patches, then you're probably not using them to create much music. The way I see it, both Kontakt and Reaktor are most importantly engines for other pros to use to create commercial sound generators. Also budding hobbyists who aspire to one day make commercial sound generators for a living. Musicians/Composers/Arrangers/Producers should never feel guilty for NOT wanting to spend years of creativity squashing synth engines.

(says the guy who programs apps with Max/MSP in his spare time).

[Tobor]

I just upgraded to Komplete 9 Ultimate from K7 and there's certainly been a lot added in these couple years. I'm starting to poke around a bit and there's a lot to like in the collection.

I found a couple patches in Reaktor Prism extremely useful, so looking forward to seeing what else might be inspirational in the new material that's Reaktor based.

This seems to primarily be a thread about disk space, and how rapidly all these new sounds and suites can eat it up. It's annoying to spend half your time trying to figure out how to manage space on a full drive, auditioning sounds and libraries trying to decide what to cut loose. I'm having this problem on my laptop at the moment, no room to add anything new.

Sorry to hear of your struggles in this area, James and ml, but you've served to provide a cautionary tale, so as much as I want to upgrade my main drive to an ssd, I'll continue to wait until they get bigger/cheaper. I just bought a Thunderbolt-FW 3T drive to load K9 and transfer 9Volt et.al. to a new home, nice to have breathing space at least for awhile.