KVR Audio

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Thu Feb 11, 2016 8:22 pm

V0RT3X wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:The best?

Reaktor 6 blocks IMO
Is there a ready made blocks ensemble that can be re-wired like with ACE?

Nothing like this unfortunately exists in reaktor afaik. A.c.e is incredible but i answered the op based on his request for the best modular synth. Seeing how you can add or remove as many modules as you want you, it lets you go as deep as you want.

I wasn't comparing or criticizing... I was hoping

The good side, if you had answered yes, it would have been hard to resist the upgrade to 6!

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 1:26 am

pdxindy wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:The best?

Reaktor 6 blocks IMO
Is there a ready made blocks ensemble that can be re-wired like with ACE?

Nothing like this unfortunately exists in reaktor afaik. A.c.e is incredible but i answered the op based on his request for the best modular synth. Seeing how you can add or remove as many modules as you want you, it lets you go as deep as you want.
I wasn't comparing or criticizing... I was hoping

The good side, if you had answered yes, it would have been hard to resist the upgrade to 6!

Sorry i must have made my post seem defensive, i just typed it out funny. Lol i tend to that from time to time.

Anyhow the only thing that can get in the way of the creativity (For some) is that you have to access two windows while patching cables. It's typically two windowed environments so it can be a bit different to work in versus something like Ace or bazille. For each
Of the factory blocks you normally have two assignable modulation sources (a&b) which you can access and assign to targets in the knob mode. It does the modulation very similar to NI Molekular, but the A&B slots come across as a limitation and i wonder why NI only chose to use 2 with the factory blocks.

However you are free to assign multiple modulation sources or signals to either A&B via the cables. So the layout on the knob side will look the same on all patches even when you wire all the modulations differently.

I think most people will have no problem with this and just save and load their patches using the snapshot editor.

Another thing i read is that Reaktor 6 does not make use of multiple cores, so when you get complex stuff happening it can eat your CPU for breakfast and quickly. I've loaded up a few of the factory ensembles on my 2.4ghz quad and it was not uncommon to see reaktor using 50-60% CPU.

I'm not sure if NI will ever add multi-core support like ACE and Bazille have though. This alone is something to consider.

Blocks is still a very powerful way to take advantage of Reaktors modular nature and make it way more ascessible to non-programmers.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 2:45 am

pdxindy wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:The best?

Reaktor 6 blocks IMO
Is there a ready made blocks ensemble that can be re-wired like with ACE?

Nothing like this unfortunately exists in reaktor afaik. A.c.e is incredible but i answered the op based on his request for the best modular synth. Seeing how you can add or remove as many modules as you want you, it lets you go as deep as you want.
I wasn't comparing or criticizing... I was hoping

The good side, if you had answered yes, it would have been hard to resist the upgrade to 6!

If there was ever a time that I felt that my recommendation to someone else is really spot on it's here. "I" think that "YOU" should upgrade to 6 without even batting an eye.

It's not exactly like programming ACE, but, really, it's become quite good and I generally prefer it to cables over the face of the instrument.

1) The cables themselves are improved in 6, they curve so you can see them when the output is to the right of the input that is wired.

2) The blocks themselves really simplify the modular patching. If you're just using blocks, there is much less involved than is typical with reaktor. Reaktor is a great environment for building synths, but blocks really is a modular.

3) The new expandable icons makes looking at the patching much more natural. Each block is an image of the block that it represents.

4) The modulation indicators make working with the patch much more natural once you set it up

I love ACE and Bazille, but the blocks workflow is really quite different than the Reaktor workflow, In many ways, I prefer it separating the patch design and patch use a bit. I think that you will find that it's much more immediate than Reaktor typically is.

You should upgrade, seriously.

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 6:14 am

Lotuzia wrote:Xils-Lab Xils 3 & 4

those are their full value if you're into vintage sounds because their intended to be faithful recreation of the EMS modular thingies of early seventies

on that respect they are stunning instruments !

otherwise...

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 6:33 am

ghettosynth wrote:
If there was ever a time that I felt that my recommendation to someone else is really spot on it's here. "I" think that "YOU" should upgrade to 6 without even batting an eye.

It's not exactly like programming ACE, but, really, it's become quite good and I generally prefer it to cables over the face of the instrument.

1) The cables themselves are improved in 6, they curve so you can see them when the output is to the right of the input that is wired.

2) The blocks themselves really simplify the modular patching. If you're just using blocks, there is much less involved than is typical with reaktor. Reaktor is a great environment for building synths, but blocks really is a modular.

3) The new expandable icons makes looking at the patching much more natural. Each block is an image of the block that it represents.

4) The modulation indicators make working with the patch much more natural once you set it up

I love ACE and Bazille, but the blocks workflow is really quite different than the Reaktor workflow, In many ways, I prefer it separating the patch design and patch use a bit. I think that you will find that it's much more immediate than Reaktor typically is.

You should upgrade, seriously.

Okay... took your recommendation... and upgraded to 6...

Reaktor 6 blocks audio demos that people have posted here and there are the first time (besides appreciating Monark) that I've really liked the sound of an NI synth. I've had NI instruments for years and while they have been diverse, capable, the sound itself has never made my ears perk up... until Reaktor 6...

I have not downloaded any additional blocks, just trying the included stuff. I have a quad i7 2.8 ghz and this sure uses the cpu. This is going to be a monophonic instrument for me. 1 note is generally in the 40-70% range so any polyphony would crush my cpu. I'll just consider it a monophonic modular and then that wont be disappointing.

I've never tried patching in Reaktor before. I knew it would be more complicated than I would find fun. The blocks seems fairly straight forward

I do have a question... how do you know what a modulator is modulating? Say an LFO? There is the A and B options, but what are they connected to?

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 7:17 am

pdxindy wrote:
Okay... took your recommendation... and upgraded to 6...

Reaktor 6 blocks audio demos that people have posted here and there are the first time (besides appreciating Monark) that I've really liked the sound of an NI synth. I've had NI instruments for years and while they have been diverse, capable, the sound itself has never made my ears perk up... until Reaktor 6...

Yes, much of what people post relies too much on the built in filters, and that tends to dominate.

I have not downloaded any additional blocks, just trying the included stuff. I have a quad i7 2.8 ghz and this sure uses the cpu. This is going to be a monophonic instrument for me. 1 note is generally in the 40-70% range so any polyphony would crush my cpu. I'll just consider it a monophonic modular and then that wont be disappointing.

Yes, by definition, blocks are monophonic anyway. There's some effort at making polyphonic versions of them but it's not really worth the effort for the most part.

I've never tried patching in Reaktor before. I knew it would be more complicated than I would find fun. The blocks seems fairly straight forward

I do have a question... how do you know what a modulator is modulating? Say an LFO? There is the A and B options, but what are they connected to?

You don't, much like a real modular, you have to look at the cables. Some comments on this.

1) Split the screen so that you can see the synth up top and the patching window on bottom. This well help a lot.

2) You kind of want to settle on a standard that works for you and try to use that as much as possible. I route EG to A and LFO to B for most standard things, obviously, that changes when things become complex. If I'm going to build an ensemble to reuse over and over again, which is common in Reaktor, I might add some text to the front of the instruments in those ensembles. It won't change the global instruments, so you can do it willy nilly.

3) The factory patches are setup for show and tell, they're overly complicated and not well laid out, IMNSHO. Start with the pitch/gate, or the sequencer, the mix out, and start adding modules as if you have a real modular. It will really start to come together and you'll find that CPU can be managed a bit this way.

4) If you haven't upgraded to the latest rev, do so, and make sure that you check out the "West Coast" modules, they're killer.

5) There's a lot of great stuff in the UL, but, you must download EuroReakt so that you can get a nice selection of more traditional modules to work with. Do it now, get it organized so you can add modules easily, and you will enjoy building much more.

Once you get settled with it you'll find patching very fast going.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 10:23 am

ghettosynth wrote:5) There's a lot of great stuff in the UL, but, you must download EuroReakt so that you can get a nice selection of more traditional modules to work with. Do it now, get it organized so you can add modules easily, and you will enjoy building much more.

Thanks for your feedback... I got the modulation thing figured out.

I downloaded EuroReakt... but I haven't found any info explaining how/where to install the blocks. A google search turned up nothing either.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 10:41 am

pdxindy wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:5) There's a lot of great stuff in the UL, but, you must download EuroReakt so that you can get a nice selection of more traditional modules to work with. Do it now, get it organized so you can add modules easily, and you will enjoy building much more.
Thanks for your feedback... I got the modulation thing figured out.

I downloaded EuroReakt... but I haven't found any info explaining how/where to install the blocks. A google search turned up nothing either.

This is something that's a a bit annoying about Reaktor. You should put them in your Documents directory under Native Instruments/Reaktor/Library. Whatever directory structure you put there will appear under your library when you right click on the schematic.

I pretty much ignore the factory blocks locations and structure. My structure mimics R5 except I create a directory called Modules for Blocks. That's not necessary, and you could call it Blocks, or whatever you wanted, but I like things organized a particular way.

So, I copy all of the factory blocks and all of the U.L. blocks together organized into subdirectories that make sense to me. I leave the factory blocks where they are, so if they're updated, I have some copying to do.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:32 pm

ghettosynth wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
Thanks for your feedback... I got the modulation thing figured out.

I downloaded EuroReakt... but I haven't found any info explaining how/where to install the blocks. A google search turned up nothing either.
This is something that's a a bit annoying about Reaktor. You should put them in your Documents directory under Native Instruments/Reaktor/Library. Whatever directory structure you put there will appear under your library when you right click on the schematic.

I pretty much ignore the factory blocks locations and structure. My structure mimics R5 except I create a directory called Modules for Blocks. That's not necessary, and you could call it Blocks, or whatever you wanted, but I like things organized a particular way.

So, I copy all of the factory blocks and all of the U.L. blocks together organized into subdirectories that make sense to me. I leave the factory blocks where they are, so if they're updated, I have some copying to do.

Okay... putting them all in one place seems like the better option... thing is, I didn't find the factory blocks. Where do those reside?

EDIT: I searched all over... found various Reaktor 6 factory stuff, but not the blocks... I have no idea where those are. I'm dropping it for now. Too convoluted and user unfriendly. I'll make an attempt another time. Thanks for your help.

kimik · Post by **kimik** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 9:41 pm

U-He Bazille using the 'gearporn' skin is great

Madrona Labs Aalto is great for Buchla style stuff

Freebies of both, there was a monophonic CM version of aalto for free, no other restrictions iirc, so great value. Beatzille is a more restricted freebie, but the sequencer is there, and it's crazy.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 9:58 pm

pdxindy wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
Thanks for your feedback... I got the modulation thing figured out.

I downloaded EuroReakt... but I haven't found any info explaining how/where to install the blocks. A google search turned up nothing either.
This is something that's a a bit annoying about Reaktor. You should put them in your Documents directory under Native Instruments/Reaktor/Library. Whatever directory structure you put there will appear under your library when you right click on the schematic.

I pretty much ignore the factory blocks locations and structure. My structure mimics R5 except I create a directory called Modules for Blocks. That's not necessary, and you could call it Blocks, or whatever you wanted, but I like things organized a particular way.

So, I copy all of the factory blocks and all of the U.L. blocks together organized into subdirectories that make sense to me. I leave the factory blocks where they are, so if they're updated, I have some copying to do.
Okay... putting them all in one place seems like the better option... thing is, I didn't find the factory blocks. Where do those reside?

EDIT: I searched all over... found various Reaktor 6 factory stuff, but not the blocks... I have no idea where those are. I'm dropping it for now. Too convoluted and user unfriendly. I'll make an attempt another time. Thanks for your help.

They are located in your factory library which is either where the program installed or in one of the data directories. Are you on a Mac or a PC?

EnGee · Post by **EnGee** » Sat Feb 13, 2016 1:13 am

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:10 am

ghettosynth wrote:

They are located in your factory library which is either where the program installed or in one of the data directories. Are you on a Mac or a PC?

Mac...

I found Applications/Native Instruments/Reaktor 6/Library and inside there are Core and Primary... but I don't see the Blocks...

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:47 am

@Pdxindy

Click on the "edit" button shown here.

Step2.png

Then you need to click on the tab that says LIbrary

Step3.png

It should show you the list of blocks listed in my screenshot. Each of the factory blocks are saved in the folders above.

To use user library blocks you need to click on the Figure icon so it shows User content. Shown below.

step4.png

To install user content, make sure you install everything to the following place.

Home/Native Instruments/Reaktor 6/Library/Blocks

The reaktor blocks you download in the user library will show up with .ISM extensions which is what you install in the above directory.

Hope this helps

IF you want the factory blocks library on your HD, go here.

Computer/Users/Shared/Reaktor Blocks/Library

wesleyt · Post by **wesleyt** » Sat Feb 13, 2016 5:51 am

pdxindy wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:

They are located in your factory library which is either where the program installed or in one of the data directories. Are you on a Mac or a PC?
Mac...

I found Applications/Native Instruments/Reaktor 6/Library and inside there are Core and Primary... but I don't see the Blocks...

I'm also on a Mac. There's a separate Reaktor Blocks ISO in the group of ISOs I downloaded.

Best modular synth AU?