Need to know about Reaktor 5

I have decided to make my first purchase of audio sowftware Reaktor 5 because of how versatile it is and the fact that the prices have come down a lot recently.

One very important question I have, that I can't find the answer to is: can you record electric guitar directly onto this software and if so, would need some sort of piece of equipment to do so?

Also, could anyone suggest an affordable midi keyboard controller to use with this? I have a PC by the way.

Cheers.

Reaktor isn't an audio recording program per se. That would be something more like Sonar, Cubase, Live, etc.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Do you not have the capacity to record music onto reaktor? Is it just for making effects or what?

Reaktor is basically a virtual synthesizer/sampler. You would record guitar in to it to use as a basis for creating synth sounds.

Sonar, Cubase etc are DAWs, digital audio workstations. A recording studio in a box, more or less. They are used to record songs digitally, and integrate MIDI and plug in effects with digitally recorded music to create complete music tracks.

Ok, I see. But surely then, Reaktor 5 could do everything that Sonar etc. could do but more. Simply by making the 'synth' sound like a normal guitar or something like that?

Man, you might want to read up on the difference between a 'soft synth' and recording software.

If you want quality multi-tracking you'll want to pick up some sort of recording software. (I personally love Sonar) With Reaktor you can create loops and song ideas and then dump them into Sonar to add tracks, edit, mix, etc...

FL Studio is actually a pretty decent soft synth/studio, but it still isn't as good as a combo. However, if I was going for just one program to "do it all", I'd get FL. (even though some folks are a little turned off by the interface, I swear it's butter once you grasp the controls.)

Reaktor is a modular environment where you can use samples and do sequences, but people don't generally use it standalone (unless they've built themselves a setup that can work like that).

To expand a bit on the "modular environment" - regular synthesizers have a structure that can be simplified to:

Sound source (oscillator) >> Filter >> Volume

With Reaktor, that order no longer applies; how you connect this (and of course, other parts!) is entirely up to you; and you can leave parts out.

Anyway, often, it is used as a plugin in a "host". Imagine the host as the conductor (that part is called "sequencer"), engineer, tape recorder and mixing desk in the computer studio; it does all of those tasks. Reaktor turns into an instrument and effect that is "hosted" (plugged in the mixing desk and recorder and ready to listen to the conductor's instructions), and the host takes care of the rest.

Not like I think you think it works .

What you want to do is best left to the host; in order to record anything in Reaktor you'd have to either get some kind of sampler or a looper (there are constructions that do that, but they're not - well, "conventional").

Provided that your computer is powerful enough, you should get something better than the bog-standard soundcard it came with; e.g. an audio interface. That's still a soundcard, but the name is used to separate the gaming/surround cards (Audigy, etc.) from the music production cards.

What's the difference? Well, you have 'm in different shapes and sizes (just the card or a break-out box) and they offer more or more professional connections suited for instruments instead of just headphone connections.

It depends on what you want to hook up and how much you're willing to spend on it.

Consider this thing here:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWireSolo-main.html (probably cheaper in the stores)

For a sequencer, consider this:

http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion2/ - or upgrade the Live Lite that comes with the FireWire.

As an owner of Reaktor 5 I must say, "If you are at all unsure about what Reaktor IS, then hold off on it". It's awesome/expansive/wonderful/frustrating /fiddly/complicated at a bargain price for sure.

Can't be any worse than the Kurzweil architecture --just wish the Reaktor was a "stand alone" with multi-outputs--we don't use PC/Mac software---VS Roland DAWS.

I second FL Studio. Ive been using it since v1.0 way back when it ran on a 486....its really grown up. No matter how far I get away from it, it always draws me back.

Me as well Tony. I can get just about any sound imaginable, and when they added Sytrus and and the fruity dx-10 I pooped. In my pants. True inspiration.

But serouisly, you can do anything from making extreme electro to sampling live drums and building band demos...I love how you can import wav files and f' them completely backwards...

Great tool.

Meddle - Reaktor is not what you're looking for. Like the others have said, you just need some kind of basic DAW/ sequencer.

I use Cubase and they have entry level versions, but cakewalk makes a lot of easy to use stuff for guitars too.

I fyou just want to mess around with it and don't want to spend any money right away, you could try out Anvil studio. It's got pretty decent midi and you can record a stereo audio track (only one track in the try-out version).

I have Reaktor and never use it for recording, but I think the most you could do with that aspect of it is to 'capture' audio from your guitar, then 'render' it into a .wav file to be used in a synth you build to manipulate the audio.

Like I said, I never use it that way, and I could be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure you'd be better off for now with something else.

one word...HUGE !!!!

Thanks a lot for all the adivce, that really helped. I think I'll probably start with FL Studio and maybe get Reaktor 5 if I get more adventurous.

If I do get Reaktor 5, would I be able to use FL Studio as the 'studio' and Reaktor as the 'synth,' and use that as a combo, in a similar way to operator error's Sonar and Reaktor setup?

yes, you would use reaktor as a plugin (either VSTi or DXi) inside of FL. FL will save all the settings reaktor has when you save your work.

Which version of FL studio would you reccomend? Does the difference between producer edition and the XXL version merit the huge difference in price?

Meddle,

Just go with an entry-level sequencer like Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio. It will need your recording needs. And there are plenty of VST effects and soft synths for tweaking. Reaktor 5 would not be a good place to start for a beginner.

It goes 1 louder than Reaktor4.