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 | | | | Aug31Written by:Bruce Richardson
Tuesday, August 31, 1999 6:00 PM 
Let me give you a little hint about Reaktor. You'll go cuckoo for Coco Puffs if you're an under-the-hood type. I'm going to have to write a bit more about Reaktor than some of the other models, just to explain the paradigm.
If you've been following software synthesis for any amount of time, you've seen Generator. The developers at Native Instruments have been woodshedding their synthesis modeling chops for a while. Reaktor is the combination of Generator and their sample-based product Transformator. I evaluated the Windows version, of course, but both Windows and Macintosh versions arrive on the same CD. For those that "studio hop," a very good deal.
Powerful Paradigm
Reaktor is a one-eyed wonder widget if ever one existed. It is a tweaker's wet dream. You get an overwhelming set of predefined "ensembles," which is Reaktor-speak for the performance UI level. But get this, and follow close: it's complicated. Ensembles are made of instruments which are made of macros which are made of modules. Only, it's even more complicated than that, since any of the above can be nested into any of the above. And so on.
Does that paint the picture for you? Here's what you see:
 Ensemble Panel
First there's the Ensemble - the front panel layer. This has knobs, sliders, buttons, and other familiar UI components that are each configurable to accept virtually any MIDI controller you can throw their way. Double-clicking any control brings up a detailed automation and routing panel. For example, if you double-click on the SH-101 Instrument in the upper-left, you get access to the full SH-101 instrument.
 SH-101 Instrument Panel
The top level Ensemble Panel is just a way to simplify the complexity of all these Instrument panel. Any Instrument controller can be made available to (or hidden from) the Ensemble Panel.
For realtime performance, it's pretty amazing. I have my little KX5 hooked up in every way imaginable--every knob on it does something in Reaktor. It's as easy as double clicking a control, entering the desired controller, and saving the ensemble - you've cusomized it to your controller in easy steps without ever entering the actual sound design domain.
Let me add that you could spend two weeks' time simply going through all the factory provided Ensembles that you get on the CD and accompanying Library Disc. You will find yourself saying "wow" pretty often during this period, because that's when you make another discovery - Reaktor is just plain wacky with possibility. Each ensemble is a TOTALLY different instrument, and has its own complete bank of presets.
Which leads me to the next layer. While you're checking out all those Ensembles, you'll undoubtedly get curious at some point, and start snooping underneath the panel layer. Here's a hint: right click the panel and select Structure from the inspector menu.
 Ensemble Structure - Underneath the Panel's UI
Here's where Generator fans will see familiar ground. This is a "pinned module' style of interface, where the Instruments and controllers that make up that Ensemble you've been playing with are actually wired. Note the capitalization - I'm trying to keep you with me here. And I'm talking "wired" in a very real sense: some of the more elaborate Ensembles' Structure windows look like spider webs.
Likewise, you can inspect and configure each Instrument used in the Ensemble. Here's the wiring of the SH-101:
 SH-101 Instrument Structure
Once you start exploring this layer, you're bound to eventually right-click again and notice that this "structure," too, has a Structure. If you were knocked out by the first look under the hood, you'll probably need to take a moment to tidy yourself up. Don't get comfortable. Right-click again. Surprise. Tidy. Repeat.
A Conversation with David Sesnek and Mate Galic
Native Instruments
I have dug pretty deep into Reaktor, and I'm floored at the possibilities. Was it you or someone else that said I could dig and dig and never get to China?
DS: I only repeated what other REAKTOR users have either posted on our mailing list, or commented directly to me. REAKTOR is a program with significant depth, you can dig deep into it for a very long time and still never reach China. REAKTOR users are intrigued by its flexibility, and astounded by its sound quality.
Many users of REAKTOR software are sound designers, pure & simple. Constantly searching for new sounds, this program offers them a cost effective tool to develop seemingly endless capabilities to create unique sounds.
What user is really turned on by Reaktor?
MG: Reaktor is for anyone that enjoys beautiful and diverse sounds. As David pointed out, there is really no typical picture of a Reaktor user, just as there is no typical Reaktor sound. The user decides what Reaktor is at any given time. Reaktor becomes whatever synthesizer is needed for a given task. Because of its modular synthesis architecture, Reaktor is able to offer an incomparable flexibility of production methods. These range from very simple tasks like building a structure for a monophonic bass-synth to futuristic and complex super-synthesizers.
For fans of vintage synthesizers, Reaktor already offers a impressive library with authentic emulations of legendary models: the Roland SH-101, Juno-60, S.E.M.-Module, MS-20, just to mention a few. One significant aspect of Reaktor is its potential for creating really new and unheard sounds, combining the very diverse synthesis models that the software features.
Ambitous beginners, who don´t have a lot of money but are attracted by the possiblity of getting a mass of synthesizers, samplers and effect proccessors for such a low price, are definitely potential Reaktor users. And professionals get a tool which combines user-friendliness with the unreached sonic dimensions of Reaktor.
Reaktor appears on the surface to be a single polyphonic instrument, but it's actually capable of multitimbral operation, through its ensemble level. Can you explain that a bit to our readers?
MG: In terms of music equipment, an ensemble can be a collection of instruments like synthesizers, as well as a few samplers plus a sequencer and effects proccessors. Each of the instruments can have its own dedicated MIDI channel and key zone. This allows layers, splits and multitimbral set-ups for use with a typical MIDI sequencer.
DS: The MIDI capability is very flexible. The user can select any instrument and assign it to any MIDI channel. To achieve multitimbral operation, multiple instruments are set-up within an ensemble, and then assigned to separate MIDI channels. The number of simultaneous instruments possible and the number of voices per instrument are affected by the instrument's complexity and the CPU power available. Reaktor software is CPU demanding, and its overall performance is dependent on the floating point processing power of the hardware host. This means that the performance of Reaktor is never static, but continually improves as the available processing power of hardware inevitably improves with time.
One of the first things you said to me about Reaktor was that it was completely different than any other product. I agree after using it. Reaktor has a very special place in the overall field of software synthesizers. Can you elaborate on that?
DS: Reaktor is a virtual construction set allowing sound designers to create their own synth and sampler designs, allowing users to go beyond the limitations of adjusting knobs & switches on a control panel to create new sounds. Reaktor allows the synthesist an opportunity to remove the control panel completely and modify the actual modules & structures which lie at the heart of the sound. This flexibility provides the user with an option to create not just a new sound "patch", but a completely new instrument from which new sound "patches" can be created.
MG: Reaktor also offers realtime sample manipulation with Granular Synthesis. There is nothing available in software or hardware that approaches this unique synthesis method. Despite Reaktor's complexity and flexibility, it is easy to use, even for musicians that lack in-depth synthesis experience. You can load an ensemble and immediately see how it was built. In this way, even the beginning synthesist can grasp the techniques of instrument design, and begin to build new instruments of his own.
DS: A sound designer's job, which is to create new sounds unlike any others, will never change. Reaktor allows any sound designer the power and flexibility to create unique new instruments to produce unique new sounds. If a sound designer chooses never to reveal the structure of the unique new instrument created, then the formula to duplicate that unique new sound remains a secret. A trademark sound that cannot be duplicated by the competition is what every designer tries to achieve. The formula for that sound could remain a secret forever, or at least until someone else digging deep into Reaktor reaches China.
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Here's the bottom line. What Native Instruments has provided is a way to very literally model analog and sample playback systems on a near circuitry level. You can hook anything to anything and control anything with anything, wrap that all up in an instrument, rinse and repeat.
Therein lies the evil dark lining of Reaktor. You will become a living model of the Peter Principle, as you confidently begin designing instruments and digging deeper, feeling like some new God of Musical Creation, then suddenly WHAMMO. You reach your "level of incompetence" and Reaktor responds by either not making a peep or sending you to the store for a new set of monitors. If you were wearing headphones, you'll need to stop on the way home for a new set of ears as well. Don't even think about designing instruments on the deep subterranian levels with your monitors cranked, or you will eventually pay the price. It will allow you to work yourself into some deep virtual doodoo. Fortunately, it won't catch fire like real circuitry when abused, but boy, it will squawk.
It's not really such an evil dark lining, I guess. You don't lose anything by trying, and soon, you will surprise yourself. Start peeking and tweaking enough, and soon you get the hang of things. You'll find yourself designing your own instruments. The paradigm lets you use analog and sample playing components interchangably in your designs: you can have a waveform feeding an FM filter array accompanied by a dual oscillator analog, accompanied by....
OK, enough talk, because I can't even begin to lay it all out for you here. Suffice to say that I've spent over a month with Reaktor, and I'm barely through analyzing the provided ensembles. I've designed about twelve instruments, mostly very simple departures from preset designs using my own waveforms and samples as "drivers" for their designs.
As you may have figured out, Reaktor also allows you to design elaborate effects based on these same models. On soundcards with excellent drivers (a small list, unfortunately), you can even use Reaktor as a realtime, low-latency effects module. Hoo-boy.
Reaktor's sound is first class, as is the flexibility of expression you can dial into an ensemble. Absolutely limitless in scope, Reaktor is nobody's cheesy little synth toy. This thing is fully ready to explore sounds that you've never even imagined making. But just as important, it allows you to map them to performance controllers in a way that will sometimes just make you crack up laughing at the sheer potential of it all.
Included in the factory ensembles are some examples which use Reaktor to produce knock-offs of classic synth designs. I happen to have a Juno 106 in my studio that I've kept since I first ruined my credit with it many years ago. Reaktor includes an ensemble that models a Juno-60, which is the same basic synth as the 106 with an arpeggiator added. Just for grins, I thought I'd dial up a few sounds and compare.
Dead on. The very first note I played was another one of those crack-up moments. Reaktor became a Juno.
Not for EverybodyComplexity: A neophyte is either going to pass out or crap his drawers when he gets curious and jumps into the overwhelming enormity of options. Personally, I'm OK with that, because I think you cannot apply stupid-think to application designs at this stage of our industry's development. It's still the domain of the scientists among musicians and developers when you start talking about applications like this. The rest of the world will just need to catch up. Reaktor is no less complicated than your average CAD program. Matter of fact, that's probably the best parallel to draw. Reaktor is a CAD program for designing synthesizers that just happens to make jolly good racket when it's all said and done.
Performance: Reaktor is just under the level of GigaSampler and Reality when it comes to performance amenities. Although it has good latency, and relatively good polyphony on my system, you can definitely hork out playback by loading instruments while it's playing. But that's OK. Reaktor is pushing different boundaries, and you can definitely play the thing in realtime.
Capture: A huge detraction in some cases, and one that hopefully will be remedied soon, is the lack of a disk-based capture utility. You can capture in RAM, but when the buffer's used up, you're SOL. And true to Reaktor's form, you must insert a "recorder" into your ensemble and wire it up to access even this capture implementation. In practice, any serious recording you do with Reaktor will need to be happening outside the application. That's OK, but it would be nice to get a full-featured capture utility that makes this a program-level, rather than ensemble-level function. Some things are better when they're hardwired, and this is one of them.
Price: Reaktor is not cheap, as compared to mid-level DAW and softsynth prices. Retail is just shy of $500 US. But this is a "worth every penny" item.
What Price Power?
Reaktor is, without a single doubt, the mother of all soft synthesizers when it comes to sheer instrument design muscle.
Think about this for a moment: you can build a "ReBirth" inside of Reaktor in an afternoon's time once you're up to speed on the paradigm. Several examples of just such designs exist and are included for you to modify. You can invent things that have never been heard just as easily. I am making sounds with Reaktor, and more importantly, precisely controlling them on the keyboard, that would take me a fair amount of time to build on a multitrack, and I can play them in realtime like an instrument.
I'm talking not just a new kind of synthesis. These are truly new ways of performing with a synthesizer as well. This is the kind of development effort you WANT to support with your pocketbook. Just be prepared for where it takes you, because you may not come back. Not that you'll miss anything.
For more information go to http://www.native-instruments.com
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