Bitwig 3.0's Grid VS NI Reaktor

[@Leo9ine]

Dude, woah. Absolutely was not expecting that wisdom when I clicked. Genuinely solved so many of my creative mental blocks with that lecture. Thank you!

[@PolarityMusic]

the notepad comparison is nice. good video :)

[@reckon104]

Just wanted to say, your presets for the Grid are absolutely amazing. Thanks for all the work and for sharing them!

[@CrusaderGeneral]

wow, the philosophical value is immense.. instant sub!

[@gesslr]

Well thought out and presented. Agree completely.

[@FrankPiesik]

I think this really nails it! I've used to use Pure Data a lot to make instruments and for that I really liked it. But I also often tried to just code music with it which never felt any good. I think with Bitwig, flexibility and ease of use are going hand in hand, complementing each other. Unlike other modular environments like VCV-Rack (were you have tons of modules which can do more or less the same but with a different interface and different other functions) the modular approach of Bitwig is much more focused to simple, easy to grasp building blocks which do only one thing - Just how modular really is meant to be!

[@NathanChisholm041]

I love the grid! Ive used Reaktor and as you said it can limit creativity wheres in Bitwig i feel like exploring the possibility off sound building! Cheers..

[@ramseymodiri2752]

Damn, that was profound

[@duartstudio9079]

Someone finally speak what i'm thinking for years!!! well done!

[@damiengeiger8479]

The most important : one is made in Berlin, Germany, whereas the other is made in Berlin, Germany.

[@brooklynkayak]

Great comparison and great video as usual.

[@synthoelectro]

Hopefully one day NI will fix their problem, something I too needed, because I'm musically minded.

[@franciscojaenvelazquez9582]

I love both. I think the comparation would be between Blocks & Grid. Euroreakt in Reaktor is amazing

[@synthoelectro]

The best between both worlds, musician, and audio engineer, is Jeskola Buzz. Nothing else has been made like it. It's possible to make anything you want.

[@zero-order-hold5704]

nice comparison raises some good points about reaktor - despite being a hugely inspiring platform the truth is Ive never had enough ime or inclination to really master it. I think the Grid looks intuiative enough to get stuck in quickly

[@Ryahan]

You’re brilliant and helpful. Thank you.

[@DavidCoffinshirtguy]

Ah, the Dawn of the Virtual Modular Synth-the Sunrise is looking lovely, the air is sweet, and there's still few enough exhilarating exemplars to collect them all-Happy Times!

[@miltos_schima]

I have Reaktor for some years now and in your video you opened some ensembles I haven't seen before 😂. The grid is so much more user-friendly imo. I use it for two days now and I am already making my first jam video with it. Reaktor blocks are good with front patching though. I like the Kodiak blocks and the low pass gate.

[@reedcrisis]

Critical vs. creative thinking, very well presented thoughts worth for me thinking about. Observing myself, I was wondering at times, why sometimes I have no creativity at all and sometimes muuuuch.

[@Nomo_Popo]

Yep I haven't used Grid yet but I'm really compelled. I love Reaktor and I've been programming with Max/MXP for about 5 years now and still The Grid looks like most user friendly and *quick* way to get a lower level modular kind of system going. I'm not even into the Euro-rack style modular workflow physically (or virtually) but I would like to come up with the kind of generative patches you could play overnight while you sleep and while I could do that with Max it would feel more like work while The Grid would feel more like an adventure. Maybe that's because I haven't used it yet but as I've seen from Bitwigs video about getting to know the interface, it's cutting time when it comes to logistics like wiring. I use Live, Max and Cubase so I'm not interested in Bitwig other than the Grid, but man it's only a matter of time until I spring for it. Nice review, thanks.

[@cheekoandtheman]

Bitwig is a modulation masterpiece!

[@R4pStu]

You should also checkout Phase Plant. In my opinion this thing gets you the best out of both worlds. Very intuitive workflow and good visual feedback for beginners. At the same time very deep modulation options to program your patches. It's also very cheap. 10$ a month and after each 12 months you get a 100$ voucher to spend towards owning all the kilohearts plugins you want without the subscription.

[@KnzoVortex]

PP and the grid are definitely similar in some ways, but for me, I see them quite differently. Phase plant is a semi-modular wavetable synth: best of it’s kind, but still a serum like wavetable synth at heart. The grid is full on modular mayhem, any wire can connect anywhere, you can audio rate modulate almost anything, and the approach is modular at heart, and pretty unique in this way. The modules allow you to do many kinds of common synthesis: subtractive, FM/PM, basic physical modeling and additive, and with the sampler module in cycles mode, you can even do perfectly clean wavetable synthesis. But the beuty of modular is the exploration to be had, throwing two oscillators through a logic or math process (love doing this XD) spreading the amount of wave-folding on each stacked unison voice, whatever crazy idea you come up with. Ive been demoing Bitwig and the grid has been one of the most creative and inspiring synths I’ve used in a while, I could spend hours exploring every possibility I feel like. Me and the grid clicked in an instant, I don’t know if it will for you, but if your into sound design, you might just click as well.

[@nebroskitheraut6705]

@@KnzoVortex completely agree!

[@CrusaderGeneral]

I own both and I think both are better than crack with less side-effects

[@mynameislinea]

I think you're totally bang on with your conclusion but I'm not sure I'd agree that there's necessarily a tradeoff between usability and power. I totally agree that The Grid allows you to keep 'music brain' as opposed to 'programmer brain' engaged but by and large that's not really because The Grid removes options from you, but more because the designers have thought very deeply about smoothing the path to the most common uses of each thing. So setting up an envelope to modulate the amplitude of a signal in response to the keyboard gate is literally one click (drag the envelope into the signal change), as opposed to Reaktor where it's....maybe 10 separate actions? But you can still use an envelope in pretty much any other way that I can think of if you want to! The greater power of Reaktor is due mostly to the breadth of modules available vs Bitwig, but I can't really think of any Reaktor modules (including a Core like lower level DSP container) which would be impossible in principle to add to The Grid or mean sacrificing its huge workflow advantages

[@CrusaderGeneral]

although a like for like would be Reaktor Blocks vs Bitwig The Grid

[@konskift]

Some interesting thoughts.

[@boimesa8190]

Great vid ❤️

[@kaeptn]

great video!

[@oliverbacon1660]

Thanks!

[@christoroppolo8742]

For me the grid is the obvious choice. Peace Christo 👽🎶🐕🛸☮️

[@zxcvbs]

I'm Trying Bitwig Grid, it is really cumbersome to add fx to audio chains, or sequence external instruments. You have to make note fx, test note, replacer, and sidechain magic to get a sound. I really would like a more direct way inside grid.

[@KozmykJ]

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig Classical vs Romantic ...

[@stephenroldan5107]

Use and love both. But Reaktor is a better sound design tool.

[@sonnizen1426]

Very nice, I came across this through by researching Kyma, which is new to me. I'm a Live user but M4L doesn't cut it for me. I think it's even more on the programming side of things than Reaktor. I don't know if you have experience with it and if it's something you can confirm or not. Are there things to do with a Wacom tablet and the Grid, you think? If you know of more applications or environments to consider, feel free to tell me :) I like your way of thinking and I'm glad I found your channel. Cheers

[@gasparpini]

Thanks!!! 👏👏👏🙏

[@amadeuspaulussen]

Great comparison! The „make the sound you have in your head easily“ aspect is also what makes The Grid so interesting for me. Plus, Bitwig really did a great job on making the UI very intuitive, I think.

[@TribalSMD]

Amadeus Paulussen I politely disagree, it's a comparison between two completely different products, these are not trying to acomplish the same goal.

[@amadeuspaulussen]

@@TribalSMD They are certainly completely different, I agree. On the other hand both should allow you to construct your own synths, your own sounds. And from that perspective, I guess, they are comparable nonetheless.

[@TribalSMD]

Amadeus Paulussen So are products like the VCV Rack, which has a lot more than that in common and would therefore be a better comparison. In the video the guy is discussing how easy the Grid modules are to use compared to the Reaktor objects as if both products are designed to be used in the same way. That is misleading, making the comparison in the first place will tell beginners and people who don't know much about one product that they're somwhat similar and are meant to be used in the same way. Being able to create a synth sound is such a common thing many different products can do. If that's enough to make a comparison worth it, then why not compare the Grid to C++? To me it seems a lot more like making an unfair comparison on purpose to make the Grid seem superior. He comes to the conclusion at the end that the Grid is easier and more fun to use. That's the same as making a comparison between KZbin and JavaScript and coming to the conclusion that it's easier to make a KZbin account and upload a video to it to share it with the world instead of programming your own website and video host to do the same. Of course it's easier, what did you expect? You're comparing two products with different levels of abstraction that are designed to do different things. Yes, you can use both to upload and share videos online / create a synth sound, doesn't make it a fair comparison.

[@NathanChisholm041]

@@TribalSMD Nah as a owner off both! The grid is awesome. you got to try it to understand why ppl love it..

[@TribalSMD]

@@NathanChisholm041 the Grid is indeed awesome, I'm not disagreeing with that. The comparison to Reaktor is pointless and misleading to newcomers, who are here trying to learn about these things.

[@gkillmaster]

Nice evaluation and super helpful. Thank you! And I appreciate your comments about technical thinking OR creative thinking. Explains a lot and I can confirm with my own experience.

[@voltcitron7198]

I beg to differ a bit, each Reaktor Block have a design that you can link to certain fonctionnality, for exemple I know that the in the Bento Box folder I'll find basic blocks like VCA, LFO, Filter and all have that same design that speak to me and that I can link in my brain. Whereas it look like that in TheGrid everything is the same sad grey and it would require more planification to make sense of what's on screen. I guess it's okay if you do the effort but in the end they look alike a lot on the functionnality and ergonomy perspective. Except I may have more fun tweaking and toying with Reaktor Blocks. I'll add that I left Bitwig for that reason, it's a bit hard to make sense of how everything works without reaching for the manual each time. I'm now using Reason, because the RackExtensions are great and favor experimenting a lot, everything in reason is a fun toy (except the sequencer... pretty aged, but functionnal). I'm still a noob in music making so I'm still not sure about what should I use when, but thanks the Reason Racks it's fun doing the experiments, also you have a lot of bang for your bucks with it, when Bitwig 2.5 came with almost no synth (and even the one that were in made no sense at all for a normal human being, just look at Phase4).

[@Franzware]

The video is well done but, as other users here,i don t see the point.In my opinion,i think you should compare Bitwig to Ableton or others.About sound design,i can tell you,Falcon is litereally gonna smash The Grid.But again,one is a Daw, the other is a softsynth workstation.

[@AudioDigital]

I don’t agree that Falcon smashes the Grid. I have had Falcon since it came out, and still prefer to do sound design in the Grid. I might do a video comparing them in the future.

[@trevor4835]

Because they are both modular environments so yeah it makes sense

[@Franzware]

@@AudioDigital Yes a video comparison would be appreciated

[@stephenroldan5107]

Correct

[@theaimusicalchemist]

What about Patcher?

[@AudioDigital]

Image Line Patcher is primarily for patching together existing FL and VST plug-ins, and not for synthesis. A closer parallel to the Grid and Reaktor in FL was Flowstone, but it’s no longer a part of the FL Studio install.

[@TerenceKearns]

You obviously haven't tried MSoundFactory yet.

[@gesslr]

Patchpool seems to be getting some interesting sounds out of MSF...

[@LawrenceAaronLuther]

What do you think of voltage modular?

[@AudioDigital]

Haven't really given it a try yet. Looks interesting though. But it does not look as fast and as deep as the Grid though from what I saw on the Cherry Audio site.

[@mglohmeyer]

I think Voltage Modular is more like the Grid than it is like Reaktor. But of course, Voltage is a VST (like Reaktor), so you can move your creation in Voltage to different DAWs. Also, Voltage has a development environment and SDK for programming new modules in Java. I assume Bitwig has an SDK, but I haven't seen them push it as a user tool whereas the Voltage guys do push the SDK as a user tool (for those who can write Java of course, but it also has graphical aids for making a module). So it means you can program your own new modules, but more importantly, many other people are creating new modules. Audio Digital, another great video. Thanks! I have Voltage Modular. Bitwig is next on my list to acquire.

[@M1N1M4L3L3KTR0]

This was the first time you've opened reaktor right? You seriously should know a thing or two about the appz before making videos about them.

[@AudioDigital]

No, I've had Reaktor for about 15 years. I state that in the video. Did you watch the whole video before commenting? 🙂

[@diethylamid]

"User-friendly". Ah - fully invested in something - kids these days. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pInRnoadlsp6d6s

[@TribalSMD]

Why is the Grid being compared to Reaktor in the first place? Comparing two products with different goals and levels of abstractions is pointless. Reaktor was never meant to be used in the same way the Grid is. Reaktor (and also Max) are designed to create products similar and/or on the same level of abstraction as the Grid. You're comparing KZbin to JavaScript, when it would make a lot more sense to compare KZbin to Vimeo or JavaScript to Lua. There are plenty of products available similar to the Grid, but yet a lot of Bitwig users only compare it to these programming languages such as Reaktor or Max and come to the conclusion that the Grid is better, because it's easier to use. The conclusion is so obvious that making the comparison in the first place is only causing confusion for beginners who are genuinely trying to learn something. Instead of coming to the conclusion that "the Grid is better", it should be "the Grid is something completely different". Any further comparison between ease of use of Grid modules and Reaktor objects is pointless and misleading in my opinion.

[@trevor4835]

TribalSMD this is a topic people like myself just starting to approach modular environments have questions about so this video is helpful.

[@TribalSMD]

Dougie Jordan So now you know that Reaktor is a completely different thing than the Grid. The Grid has modules that you can connect, Reaktor is designed to create such modules or similar things. That's the only useful information you got, it would've been much better if the video mentioned other products that are actually similar to the Grid. If you wouldn't have any idea about the internet, you've just been told that KZbin is easier and faster to use compared to programming your own video host website. Yes, you've learned something, but you still have no idea about Vimeo, Dailymotion and all the other video hosting sites and how they compare to KZbin.

[@trevor4835]

TribalSMD yeah cool

[@atomaalatonal]

have you even watched and listen to what he said? plus you talk too much. and mostly irrelevant stuff...

[@TribalSMD]

Doctor Too-Much Yes I have. I talk about irrelevant things? This whole video is mostly a comparison between apples and oranges. If people are wondering what the difference is between Grid and Reaktor, make it obvious why they are both completely different and you can't compare them. Teach them, don't just ignore other products than what was asked. Go to the next step and answer the question beginner don't know to ask yet and compare Grid to relevant products that are actually trying to acomplish the same tasks. Sorry if I talk too much for you, not my problem though.

[@hayden776]

Jesus Christ is Lord. Everyone dies but Christ died and rose again so that those that turn to Him can receive the free gift of everlasting life. Only through him can he forgive our sins so that we can be made acceptable to God the Father. Jesus said I am the Way the Truth and the Life no one comes to the Father but through me

[@notsure1135]

Yeah, is he modular?