Reaktor 5.5

Installing now, anybody else get their hands on this yet?

I hadn't even heard about it until the now... I'm just reading the FAQs on the NI Forums. Really excited as it's probably my most used piece of software and hopefully we'll see a fresh flow of new ideas to the User Library. That said, I'll probably wait until after it leaves beta.

Be keen to hear what you make of the new features.

thanks for the info

played around with it for a bit, got distracted and haven't really checked out many of the new modules or whatever. just played with the interface a bit. gui has been greatly improved, i love the idea of working in the structure while seeing the panel right above without having floating windows. also, am i on crack? did reaktor always have a built in audio recorder? if not it does now, i knew about the audio recording modules and stuff but this has a simple little record button at the bottom to just capture whatever you are working on. very handy, a lot of situations i couldn't be bothered to record will now be captured forever! all in all a welcome update for sure, i think this is enough to make me really really incorporate reaktor into my workflow, rather than just have it as a fun little toy on the side that never seems to get properly used.

dling now!

so i take it this is a for pay update to owners of Reaktor 5? I hope not, it feels strange to pay for a Reaktor update that NI didn't feel deserved the #6

They didn't specify... The beta is free, but expires in august. I wouldn't ce surprised if it was a paid upgrade.

  On 7/15/2010 at 3:45 PM, Kcinsu said:

They didn't specify... The beta is free, but expires in august. I wouldn't ce surprised if it was a paid upgrade.

Actually in the announcement they state:

"Version 5.5 will be a free update, and it is based on many improvements that we have made to Reaktor recently. It also has significant new synthesis capabilities that can literally take a lifetime to explore - both conceptually as a builder, and sonically as a sound designer and musician."

Here's the Link

So i think it will actually be a free update (which is a nice surprise).

Oh shit, missed that. Was too busy dling it! :)

Nice one!

sweet !

@ ryanmcallister

Yeah Reaktor has always had a built in recorder box, just not built into the interface like it is in this update. Ctrl+F3 to bring it up, very handy =D

Looking forwards to trying these new modules, but Im gonna wait till its more stable tbh, I'd hate to have a buggy version of reaktor installed, I use it so much would be a headache if it was shakey.

I'm probably on my own with this. But I dont like the look of the interface at all, looks too dark for my eyes, and Im not so interested about this split screen view either. I cant honestly imagine times when you'd need panel and structure open at the same time in such small windows, unless you're building some very small patches.Will be interesting to see how it behaves on 2 monitors with this split screen.

I LIKED the way reaktor looked... The only thing I wouldve liked to see implemented wouldve been a zoom option in the structure view. When somethings getting so big as to require scrolling about, would be cool to be able to zoom out, and click-to-center on the bit you want full screen. Also would like a better way of dragging wires when you need to scroll, rather than having to move modules/macros about to make long connections.

TBH, as much as I love Reaktor, there's a few issues that could really do with improving, far more than giving it a nice face. I've had resolution problems with clocks and ramps, click and drag sample loading is dodgy, and the little things which bug me about the structure view as well.

Core was an awesome update, love it to pieces, not gonna get excited about 2 new modules and a face lift. Glad they've improved auto save behaviour when used as a VST, that was something thats genuinely worthwhile

This update is great for me. I dont make my own instruments, just mess with the ensembles, but the electronic instruments 1 and 2 are excellent, as is the lazerbass ensemble. i find it as stable as before the update (crashed sometimes when switching ensembles, same now as it was then).

Komplete 7 was announced. To be released September 1st.

Komplete 7

Some new stuff, mostly Reaktor 5.5 instruments ("The Prism") and now it includes great shit like Tim Exile's "The Finger" effect.

Prism sounds yummy.

the finger is a slice of absolute genius, by the way. any self-respecting IDM producer should dig into it... not purely for its slice-and-dice face value, but for what you can start to do compositionally with a little effort...

I'm confused... Isn't it just making it take less effort to do stuff?

The finger is this year's dblue glitch (i.e. gonna be overused and sound tedious real quick)

  On 7/30/2010 at 4:38 PM, mcbpete said:

The finger is this year's dblue glitch (i.e. gonna be overused and sound tedious real quick)

this attitude is stupid. i agree most people will use it for evil, but a tool is a tool, you can't blame dblue glitch for making bad music, and you probably don't even realize when it's used in good music. if you don't like it, fine, but you can't dub something irrelevant just because it's quick and convenient.

agreed... the finger is one of the most creative tools i've seen in a while. artillery is vaguely similar, but the finger just has more depth and flexibility. especially when you start combining hands-on control of some of the additional parameters through midi learning.

it also doesn't really have "a sound" like dblue does... it's not a one-trick-pony type effect, more a large array of tools that can be played organically.

just my opinion though.

  On 7/31/2010 at 2:26 AM, ryanmcallister said:

  On 7/30/2010 at 4:38 PM, mcbpete said:

The finger is this year's dblue glitch (i.e. gonna be overused and sound tedious real quick)

this attitude is stupid. i agree most people will use it for evil, but a tool is a tool, you can't blame dblue glitch for making bad music, and you probably don't even realize when it's used in good music. if you don't like it, fine, but you can't dub something irrelevant just because it's quick and convenient.

Your point was exactly my point ! I was saying that it's gonna be used by the majority of people as a quick-fix-oh-my-god-i-can-do-IDMz! tool and it'll be real obvious when people are using it. dblue glitch is a lovely bit of VST-ery, but all most people have used it for is clicking the 'random' button and applied it to some breakbeat (most probably an amen break at that !)

  On 7/31/2010 at 7:37 PM, mcbpete said:

  On 7/31/2010 at 2:26 AM, ryanmcallister said:

  On 7/30/2010 at 4:38 PM, mcbpete said:

The finger is this year's dblue glitch (i.e. gonna be overused and sound tedious real quick)

this attitude is stupid. i agree most people will use it for evil, but a tool is a tool, you can't blame dblue glitch for making bad music, and you probably don't even realize when it's used in good music. if you don't like it, fine, but you can't dub something irrelevant just because it's quick and convenient.

Your point was exactly my point ! I was saying that it's gonna be used by the majority of people as a quick-fix-oh-my-god-i-can-do-IDMz! tool and it'll be real obvious when people are using it. dblue glitch is a lovely bit of VST-ery, but all most people have used it for is clicking the 'random' button and applied it to some breakbeat (most probably an amen break at that !)

there's a lot of bad 303 lines too. or shitty acoustic guitar players. just because a timbre is overused doesn't mean it can't be used in a brilliant way at any point in the game. i agree with you, i just felt there was a tad bit of negativity to your post, and i don't get that. obviously there will be shitty music, just don't listen to it if you don't like it?

Is the ensemble for The Finger available anywhere? The effects themselves don't really interest me, but I'd love to take a look at that dynamic routing system...

Anyone else having problems getting their midi devices to work in 5.5? They are recognized but I am unable to get them turned 'on'. Otherwise 5.5 looks ace, I love the new feel.

  On 7/31/2010 at 8:34 PM, children r r future said:

Is the ensemble for The Finger available anywhere? The effects themselves don't really interest me, but I'd love to take a look at that dynamic routing system...

Dynamic routing is kinda a misnomer tbh..

It allows you to use 6 different effects at once, selected and "routed" in the order you press the keys or whatever. But the routing isnt what is being altered. What happens is that there are 6 separate multi effect macros (incredibly well designed ones) which are in a constant routing. You're simply selecting which effect each one imparts onto the Audio in turn.

The smarts isnt in the routing, but in the core programming in each multi-effect macro, being able to squeeze so much functionality into a very light macro is pretty fkn impressive imo.

I would agree to a point tho, it can and will get abused in the same way that the dblue plugin does. But my the same token, such abuse will be as instantly recognisable as it is from Dblue (sounds like Tim Exile going on a drunk rampage). And when used sparingly, and with thought, well then you may as well have just programmed those same effects through any other VST.

But yeah, like you said, from a programming point of view, its really very impressive piece of work, a lot of interesting ideas in it, which can certainly be adopted into your own ens building. Its the same as with Vectory, not so much a usable musical instrument, more of an educational one.