NI Komplete 2

[radiospace]

Native Instruments is offering Komplete 2 for around $500 as an upgrade if you already own one of their latest products. I'm eligible for the upgrade (own Absynth 2), and even though on paper this looks like the steal of the century, I'm finding I'm really hesitant to spend the money on it.

 

I downloaded the Reaktor 4 demo and it isn't nearly as impressive to me as Reaktor 3 was when I demoed it a year or two ago. Since getting an Ion the analog-like sounds in Reaktor sound pretty lame in comparison, and the thought of learning to program the endless variations of synths seems more of a suitable task for retirement than towards actually producing music.

 

The parts of Komplete that actually appeal to me the most are, oddly, the Intakt sample-loop player, which might come in handy for building drum patterns, and the Pro-53 synth. The rest of it seems either needlessly complicating to the recording process (Vokator, Spektral Delay) or not really my cup of tea (B4).

 

On the one hand I think, "you're crazy, you gotta go for it", and on the other I think if I wanted to add really useful tools to my studio for $500, I'd be better off applying that dough towards a Nord G2. Even a cheap Korg Electribe on some level excites me more in theory than loading up on Native Instrument softsynths that I'll almost certainly never learn to master. Maybe I've kind of peaked on software and am becoming more of a hardware kind of person. I wonder if anybody else feels this wishy-washy towards softsynths after having considerably more enthusiasm in the past? (I think that Arturia stuff kicks a** though, would love to own a couple of those...)

[Sleepin' Deeper]

 

Originally posted by radiospace I wonder if anybody else feels this wishy-washy towards softsynths after having considerably more enthusiasm in the past? (I think that Arturia stuff kicks a** though, would love to own a couple of those...)

 

 

I feel the same way. I just cannot get excited about software. I have some, I use them and they make music making so much easier, but I ain't getting a hard one over one. On the other hand, I can just stare at pictures in Future Music or Sound on Sound mag and drool for hours.....

[mr.rob]

I constantly struggled with reaktor 3. Reaktor 4 is much better. The interface is better. Using it as a vsti is better. There are some tasty new modules; it SOUNDS better.

And I almost NEVER use R4 for VA synthesis yet I constantly am using it.

[tdm71]

I've been thinking about this package for a couple of days now and it seems impressive!!

 

I have a question though:

 

Can you run audio through Reaktor and through the many devices and filters available?

 

Is it only .wav/aiff support or is there any mention of AKAI import like Reason has?

 

THANKS

[girevik]

I'm in a similar boat. I have an FM7 license. FM7 is installed on my Mac iBook.

 

If I invest in NI Komplete 2, I'd have to run it on my PowerMac G4 - the iBook can't even handle most FM7 presets by itself! For live performance, though, I'd probably want to install it on a Windows laptop - as I recall I got FM7 on a CD that can install on Mac or Windows, so this may be true of the NI Komplete package as well.

 

My lack of great enthusiasm for this package can be attributed to my Emu XL-7 and the spotty microtuning implementation . FM7 has the best microtuning implementation but can't load the most popular tuning file formats directly, Absynth can't load tuning files, Reaktor can only do microtuning with custom user ensembles and still can't load tuning files, and the samplers probably have zero microtuning capability. The more I work with the XL-7 and the ROMs that I've maxed it out with, the less I feel I need to add more synths. If anything, I would be more likely to add outboard effects than synths.

 

-g

[J3RK]

You could get a couple of Arturia synths for that much. Or an analog mono-synth to compliment the ION, or any number of other combinations that IMO would be much more useful. If it's a decision between Reaktor and an eventual Nord G2, then I think the right decision is obvious. Save for the Nord. I like Reaktor a lot, but there are better things to spend money on.

[mr.rob]

 

Originally posted by tdm71 I've been thinking about this package for a couple of days now and it seems impressive!! I have a question though: Can you run audio through Reaktor and through the many devices and filters available? Is it only .wav/aiff support or is there any mention of AKAI import like Reason has? THANKS

 

 

1. You can definately run audio through reaktor.

I occasionally will use this reverb ensemble from reaktor. You can also come up with filters, delays, granular processing, gate efx, distortion(inc. amp simulation, there is an ensemble for that in the user lib), spectral, formant, reverb etc. It can be used as a vsti or vst audio fx, works well as a vsti and for audio fx I might add, but is a cpu hog.

There are also studio ensembles where you can load up multiple loops then on the fly alter stop/start points, picth, time etc. while applying whatever modifiers the ensemble has. There are ensembles for algorithmic generative music.

There are drum machines that make electribes seem weak as heck in comparison. Many FM synths, modular synths, wavetable synths, resonator synths, physical modelling synths, hybrids, additive etc. Also, if you wanted an electribe but with additive or FM oscillators or you wanted to try using sample's for FM synthesis that can be done. There are many 4 and 6 op fm ensemvbles. I even have an 8 op FM ensemble I d/l'd which has a formant filter and can do fseq type things...pretty neat!!! To have all this in one package is unbeleivable. I could easily live with this as my sole synth. It's useful for efx as well.

 

2. It can load akai via a conversion scheme incluced in the package.

 

3. You can practically do anything with it. What one calls a module in the Nord Modular is actually a macro in reaktor; Reaktor modules are lower level. This makes reaktor far more difficult to use for creating things from scratch. There are more options this way, though. The thing is, unless you know your shiznit you'll either just be dinking with other peoples macros and recalibrating their ensembles into new permutations. You might not even get that far ;-), in which case I'd suggest saving a few bucks and grabbing:

Reaktor Sessions... which would go well with a NM g2.

[girevik]

Questions to Reaktor people:

 

Any of you use the Scenario tool? How does it compare to Ableton Live?

 

Also, how easy is it to record audio clips made with a Reaktor ensemble/macro/whatever, or one of the sampler apps for this Live-style playback? Or do you guys record your clips into a 3rd-party audio recorder (Logic/Cubase/whatever) then reimport the clips into a Scenario live set?

 

-g