Best modular synth AU?

[ghettosynth]

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...

For me they are under /Users/Shared/Reaktor Blocks/

I think that file management in the transition from 5 to 6 is a bit broken. That's why I move everything to my own user library under a custom structure. I also have my R5 library in the same place. They took a lot out of the library in the transition and the old stuff is still useful.

Once you get this organized, you will find building to be very efficient.

[pdxindy]

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...

For me they are under /Users/Shared/Reaktor Blocks/

I think that file management in the transition from 5 to 6 is a bit broken. That's why I move everything to my own user library under a custom structure. I also have my R5 library in the same place. They took a lot out of the library in the transition and the old stuff is still useful.

Once you get this organized, you will find building to be very efficient.

Thanks... never occurred to me to look there... got em! thanks

[pdxindy]

@Pdxindy

...bunch of useful instructions...

Hey, thanks... I got it all sorted now... much appreciated!

[V0RT3X]

@Pdxindy

...bunch of useful instructions...

Hey, thanks... I got it all sorted now... much appreciated!

Hope you have fun! Reaktor Blocks is awesome if you enjoy Ace and Bazille.

Definitely make sure you check this amazing user library out when you are done exploring the factory. It is a must have.

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/re ... show/9093/

[pdxindy]

@Pdxindy

...bunch of useful instructions...

Hey, thanks... I got it all sorted now... much appreciated!

Hope you have fun! Reaktor Blocks is awesome if you enjoy Ace and Bazille.

Definitely make sure you check this amazing user library out when you are done exploring the factory. It is a must have.

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/re ... show/9093/

I'm sure I will enjoy it... But I recognize what a huge learning curve it is. Bazille is much more immediate, easy to use and obviously not so completely open ended and it took me over a year to actually feel capable and fluid with it.

I see Reaktor 6 Blocks as a 2 year commitment just to be reasonably competent (to my own standard) and the CPU use is a bit frightful. At least double Bazille. So I'm gonna set it aside (mostly) for now even though I like what I hear!

It's day will come, but ATM I'm creatively enjoying Bazille too much to get into something that will require so much effort.

[ghettosynth]

@Pdxindy

...bunch of useful instructions...

Hey, thanks... I got it all sorted now... much appreciated!

Hope you have fun! Reaktor Blocks is awesome if you enjoy Ace and Bazille.

Definitely make sure you check this amazing user library out when you are done exploring the factory. It is a must have.

http://www.native-instruments.com/en/re ... show/9093/

I'm sure I will enjoy it... But I recognize what a huge learning curve it is. Bazille is much more immediate, easy to use and obviously not so completely open ended and it took me over a year to actually feel capable and fluid with it.

I see Reaktor 6 Blocks as a 2 year commitment just to be reasonably competent (to my own standard) and the CPU use is a bit frightful. At least double Bazille. So I'm gonna set it aside (mostly) for now even though I like what I hear!

It's day will come, but ATM I'm creatively enjoying Bazille too much to get into something that will require so much effort.

I think that it seems more overwhelming than it actually is. It's the kind of thing that if we lived close I could have you up an running easily in an afternoon with the dozen or so things that matter to work with blocks and then it would be very similar to just using an analog modular.

[V0RT3X]

Just built this today.

Synth.jpg

You can download it here.
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/reaktor ... /downloads

[ghettosynth]

Just built this today.

Synth.jpg

You can download it here.
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/reaktor ... /downloads

Dumb question, but, can anyone just upload banks like that to KVR, or, does your account have to be a "dev" account?

On edit, never mind, I see the big button now. Cool.

[musiclover55547]

Modular evokes thoughts of endless tweaking & refining. I'd prefer focusing this energy on Mixing, Reverb, Compression, Dynamics, Stereo Imaging and the like.

From a synth perspective, I suppose it depends on how into the bread & butter you are. Modular seems like it would be very interesting on HW to me. However, the bottom line is I'd rather focus on, at the very most, Semi-Modular like Synthmaster.

I prefer WT, Spectral, traditional VA, and some of the aspects of Granular & Additive. Some

Alchemy is almost like a combination of Semimodular with Dune 2. It has all the "modules," and it's capable of 4 independent Differential Unison voices. I realize these are not typically described as Modular Synthesis, it's more of an analogy.

Dune 2 is very good, and as of late I've really gotten to like Spire's sound. Both have some WT functionaility, though I see them more as VA. Serum is obviously what excels here, and I'll add that the synth too can be used with a broader brush than I see online with the traditional Basses / Wobbles. The synth is capable of so much more.

Dune 2 adds limited FM. Hive is good for quick & easy. Sunrizer is fun now & again as it feels the most like true VA to me, and that might just be a purely subjective statement. However, it's not a go-to synth for me like Alchemy or Dune 2.

I very much prefer working with non-modular VA, Differential Unison, WT, and Spectral.

What I will say is that I tend to adjust presets and the like, turning off most (if not all) the FX (Reverb, Delay, etc.) I focus on such FX (in addition to compression, phase, etc.) in the channel strip and with the Sends, as well as the AUX Buses, Stacks, VCAs, etc.

Bouncing to Audio also adds another dimension for such processing.

I suppose I'd rather focus on the singal processing than the modular nature of some synths & other plugins / HW.

[musiclover55547]

Modular evokes thoughts of endless tweaking & refining. I'd prefer focusing this energy on Mixing, Reverb, Compression, Dynamics, Stereo Imaging and the like.

From a synth perspective, I suppose it depends on how into the bread & butter you are. Modular seems like it would be very interesting on HW to me. However, the bottom line is I'd rather focus on, at the very most, Semi-Modular like Synthmaster.

I prefer WT, Spectral, traditional VA, and some of the aspects of Granular & Additive. Some

Alchemy is almost like a combination of Semimodular with Dune 2. It has all the "modules," and it's capable of 4 independent Differential Unison voices. I realize these are not typically described as Modular Synthesis, it's more of an analogy.

Dune 2 is very good, and as of late I've really gotten to like Spire's sound. Both have some WT functionaility, though I see them more as VA. Serum is obviously what excels here, and I'll add that the synth too can be used with a broader brush than I see online with the traditional Basses / Wobbles. The synth is capable of so much more.

Dune 2 adds limited FM. Hive is good for quick & easy. Sunrizer is fun now & again as it feels the most like true VA to me, and that might just be a purely subjective statement. However, it's not a go-to synth for me like Alchemy or Dune 2.

I very much prefer working with non-modular VA, Differential Unison, WT, and Spectral.

What I will say is that I tend to adjust presets and the like, turning off most (if not all) the FX (Reverb, Delay, etc.) I focus on such FX (in addition to compression, phase, etc.) in the channel strip and with the Sends, as well as the AUX Buses, Stacks, VCAs, etc.

Bouncing to Audio also adds another dimension for such processing.

I suppose I'd rather focus on the signal processing than the modular nature of some synths & other plugins / HW.

[V0RT3X]

If modular isn't for you then thats fine.

Some people learn synthesis to the point where they know exactly what they want when using modular. Some people also tweak and fiddle without ever understanding the underlying concepts.

The beauty of a modular is that there is no fixed architecture. You need another LFO? Then add one.

Again it requires knowledge of modular synthesis to not just get stuck fiddling for hours. However sometimes that's actually fun and helps you learn more too.

Each to their own.

[musiclover55547]

If modular isn't for you then thats fine.

Some people learn synthesis to the point where they know exactly what they want when using modular. Some people also tweak and fiddle without ever understanding the underlying concepts.

The beauty of a modular is that there is no fixed architecture. You need another LFO? Then add one.

Again it requires knowledge of modular synthesis to not just get stuck fiddling for hours. However sometimes that's actually fun and helps you learn more too.

Each to their own.

That was a great explanation for how you use it, and given Reaktor's success clearly many people would agree.

As with anything else, you have to pick and choose where to focus your time (e.g. mixing, synthesis, Audio Editing, etc.) These days it is easier than ever to be more of a jack of all trades, but how deeply you get to know the particular subject matter is at the crux.

[V0RT3X]

If modular isn't for you then thats fine.

Some people learn synthesis to the point where they know exactly what they want when using modular. Some people also tweak and fiddle without ever understanding the underlying concepts.

The beauty of a modular is that there is no fixed architecture. You need another LFO? Then add one.

Again it requires knowledge of modular synthesis to not just get stuck fiddling for hours. However sometimes that's actually fun and helps you learn more too.

Each to their own.

That was a great explanation for how you use it, and given Reaktor's success clearly many people would agree.

As with anything else, you have to pick and choose where to focus your time (e.g. mixing, synthesis, Audio Editing, etc.) These days it is easier than ever to be more of a jack of all trades, but how deeply you get to know the particular subject matter is at the crux.

This is true and i probably spent more time learning synthesis and sampling than working on my mixing or composition abilities. You really can get by just picking one capable easy to use synthesizer and just rely on your mixing skills.

If i had to pick one easy to use synthesizer that wasn't modular it would be Serum. You can do FM, additive waveform generation(with the wavetable editor) and wavetable synthesis which can do quite a bit. It is straight forward and easy to use. The fact you can modulate many parameters makes it semi-modular which is nice.

I know it can be quite a "bright" sounding synthesizer but that can be fixed with mild saturation and EQ.

For VA stuff i would have polysynth inside Bitwig studio.

If i could pick another easy to use synth to complement serum, it would be Zebra2.

[ghettosynth]

I think that hardware modular and software modular take on very different personas in your workflow because of their physical nature, or absence thereof. Most of the eurorack crowd seems to be about finding that magical collection of bits that makes some set of sounds and sequences that will allow them to stand out in some way, that is, unless they're really just into collecting and building huge walls of modular gear. A few use those walls with some degree of effectiveness, a lot don't.

To get different sounds it's all about physical patching, and this is rewarding and the real analog nature never shines more than in a real analog modular. I have a small system that is mostly diy/frac-rac that I use with my System-100 stuff. But, for me, the structure of the modular layout and the patch limits how it can be used. It ends up either being something that you use to record parts, something that you sample, or the entire performance all by itself. I'm glad that I stopped myself from going whole hog with analog modular gear. I think that it can be a time/money pit with limited reward.

Software modular synthesis, especially with Reaktor Blocks is a whole different kettle of fish. You are no longer limited by physicality. I don't mean that you can use however many modules that you want, of course that's part of it. What I mean is that you can now build custom synthesizers that have just the modules that you want and saving them doesn't take physical space. It becomes practical to build custom modular synth ensembles that just do one thing well, but, are are still programmable.

For example, you can build a really great kick synthesizer, programing a lot of cool patches, and drop that on a drum rack in live. I have multiple synthesizers that are built this way. By themselves, they're not necessarily all that complex, maybe there's some pre-built plugin out there that is similar, but, with Blocks, it has ZDF filters and it sound fantastic. Moreover, and this is important to me, I don't have to learn the annoyances of many different plugins, my Reaktor patches all work the same way.

I've done a lot of this with Reaktor, pre-blocks and it was still worth the effort to me. With blocks, it makes building up little custom synths to play with an idea rather quick. You don't need an entire drum synth in one plugin, just build separate synths for each sound. This works better in most hosts anyway.

Most standard plugins have to have enough generic features to satisfy a wide range of sounds, with Reaktor, you can build an FM synth that has a fixed algorithm optimized for doing ePiano tines, or you can build up an LA synthesis style synth that has a granular sampler and a zdf filter.

Reaktor is the only plugin that I "need", and it's not because it allows me to endlessly tweak things, it's because it allows me to focus on just what's needed without having to think about how I have to work around compromises in a synth. A great example of this is the limitations of the envelopes in Bazille. Because they only have a single decay breakpoint, it's quite challenging to get the same subtle dynamics that you can get from a DX7 ePiano.

[pdxindy]

A great example of this is the limitations of the envelopes in Bazille. Because they only have a single decay breakpoint, it's quite challenging to get the same subtle dynamics that you can get from a DX7 ePiano.

You can use the mappers as envelopes... you can add or multiply 2 Bazille envelopes to create other slopes. You can modulate an envelopes rate and amp by lfo or other env or any arbitrary modulation chain to also create more complex envelope shapes. The Bazille envelopes are pretty flexible with the various ways they can be used.

Limitations invite creative use of the tools. I've found results with the Bazille envelopes that I could not get with a regular multi-stage envelope. Here is one quick example I just made... a simple Osc sound with amplitude modulated by one looping env (also osc phase and cutoff with the same envelope). The env is modulated by an lfo and an osc. Each looping iteration is different. That is a complex morphing modulation shape made with one Bazille envelope.

http://draigathar.org/sounds/B95.mp3

I don't disagree with the things you are saying. I believe it works well for you... but for myself, I generally find myself more creative with semi-modular arrangements than open ended modular ones.