Customer Reviews

Reaktor 5

5 star:		(2)
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This is a complicated, professional-grade program for designing virtual synthesizers. In theory, it allows the user to construct any imaginable synth. A generous sampling of pre-built instruments is included, along with reasonably good tutorials. The pre-built instruments seem to lean towards a Euro-techno sound, and are not well documented. The software works well on Windows XP and integrates well with Cakewalk Sonar. One layer of complexity has been added by the decision of Native Instruments to start a switch from what they call "primary" modules to something called "core" modules. In effect, this means there are two different ways of building instruments. For serious musicians willing to devote a large amount of time to learning the program, this is a powerful and rewarding tool. You might also want to check out the Tassman acoustic modeling program, from AAS.

P.S. -- Technical support from Native Instruments is essentially nonexistent. There is a useful users' forum, although it tends sometimes towards DSP engineer types who like to answer questions in calculus.

This is a premier music synthesis environment, deep, sophisticated and challenging - if you are serious about making digital music of any kind, and relish the idea of having complete control over every imaginable feature of whatever sound you yourself may imagine, the only choices for you are Max/MSP and Reaktor 5.

Out of the box, you're getting great, complex sounds, but if you have no inclination to do your own programming then this package is overpriced. However, if you wish to do your own programming - and I do mean programming, because Reaktor is an environment that allows you to build individual and conglomerate sounds from the most basic materials like digital oscillators, envelopes and filters, and also allows the construction of digital production devices, such as sequencers and drum machines. Reaktor doesn't add instruments to your computer, it turns your entire computer into an instrument of your own design.

The enclosed documentation is thorough but not always clear in meaning and structure - you'll need to both read it and discover how things work for yourself by doing. Reaktor requires and rewards patience and discipline, the patience to work through complexity and frustration, and the discipline to discern what it is you want to do. With Reaktor, you can do whatever you imagine. At this current price, just under $400, it is a fantastic value.