Reaktor: A Long Term Relationship

I reference Reaktor a whole bunch on my channel, so I figured with it being 50% off ($99.99 USD) until November 30th, I would do a general overview of what it's capable of and how I've used it over the years.
This covers the basics of blocks and core mode.

[@FronasMusic]

Man, watched this start to end and then bought Reaktor. It's like with working out. Best day to start with it would've been 17 years ago, but second best day is today.

[@playtf2]

The blast from the past: 4:12 got released on Our Simulacra album as "Clockfox" Who could've known?

[@kamalmanzukie]

i am eternally grateful to reaktor. it has enabled me to understand so many things that would have otherwise not been accessible because of my attention span. I mean, a fourier transform is a fairly complex equation on paper, but when an algorithm is something that you can open up and say 'oh! that's whats going on', well, it doesn't get much knowable than that i'd say two years of going hard has seen the depth and scope of my understanding raise exponentially

[@Veqtor]

Me too, I actually seriously got into programming math and DSP because of Reaktor, then got a BsC in compsci and now I work as a machine learning engineer.

[@alb2935]

Veqtor cool seeing you here, love your music!

[@Unifono2012]

"the only thing restricting you from doing that is time". So true. Really enjoying your channel. Blocks are great

[@onpatrolforthejuice]

Im so glad you started this channel. Your music is like the music I grew up with =)

[@cmd_f5]

I think packages like this are what make synthesis and music truly special. Basically limitless, from what I can understand.

[@jrileyhill]

I bought REAKTOR.... I think during this sale. I used a bunch of instruments over the last couple year, so many unique sounds have made their way into my productions. Recently had time to start learning how to build my own synths, and also the new update with "racks" came out recently.... So awesome, it's truly a gift that keeps on giving.

[@blinkybill5266]

Watching your vids from Nairobi, and I enjoy them!

[@P.Gillett]

nice work there man! your 20 years of reaktor has paid off . :)

[@RestFunction]

wow, loved it, especially scrabble and the part at 27:35 very reminiscent of Boards Of Canada

[@squackles]

Awesome! Been wanting to get Reaktor ever since your video about additive synthesis, but was waiting for a sale(which I didn't think would come). Wouldn't have heard about it if it wasn't for you, so thanks! Would love to see more videos on generative music, either in Reaktor Blocks or on Eurorack.

[@nakanda]

I am a reaktor addicted guy. Nowadays I intend to get another (really powerful) computer because of blocks, and I gave up about the physical modular stuff. The audio quality is just gorgeous!

[@garaughty]

Some seriously awesome tones !

[@ChrisWoodBandit]

whoa I didn't know that THAT was what reaktor was! To be honest I used to work on a farm and I hated it and those names are too close to Tractor. But I'll tell you what got me, in your video wwhen you showed what it could do around 4 minutes in there was a Synthi looking thing in the upper middle and in the next patch a rene looking thing in the bottom middle, and it looked like 8 times more fun than the software modular synths i have been messing with (cherry audio, the one in Arturia's big package). I'm going to get this and thank you for making this video.

[@VKJ85]

More Reaktor stuff, thank you. :)

[@junaidf]

Some of those generative tracks at the start are actually really good. You should make full tracks out of those.

[@AykutKlc]

scrabble is super deep. sounds beautiful.

[@Fedor_Tkachev_Music]

This is indeed a great time for this video, I actually had an idea to suggest to you making something like this in the light of their current sale, but then forgot about it. I guess it still got transfered somehow, via cosmic vibrations or something like that)

[@Semyaj3]

Very Informative ~ Thx 4 Sharing Bro

[@unslept_em]

techdiff apparently was somewhat responsible for blocks, which surprised me since I had no idea he worked on reaktor before that

[@Byronic19134]

I got the free Reaktor 6 player and was immediatly blown away by how good it sounds and never understood why I never saw people use it on the thousands of beat breakdowns videos I've watched and tutorials. It actually somehow made my bluetooth monitor speakers sound better which started me looking into how and NI's DSP code. The free player comes with some very usable presets Im just confused as to it's limitations I don't think i can use any of the free user ensambles on the interwbs.

[@Byronic19134]

Lol bruh I love you're the first musician I ever heard say in a video you understand why people pirate and have done it before. It's such a taboo subject and all these channels act like they never did it when they got into music or everybody has all this money to spend especially on a hobby as most people pirating are only into production and music as a hobby not a profession.

[@noname-ng6sj]

Then you don't watch enough people. Everyone I've watched since early, early youtube days say the exact same thing.

[@deepspaceocean]

So cool clockfox ended up on the album! :-)

[@buggedmusik]

Great video, I've just started getting into blocks, I am just wondering how do you record some of the patches into my daw, I am using logic x, some of the patches have midi out but some presets just play out.

[@DavidCoffinshirtguy]

Cool stuff, love to see plugs for Reaktor (also been using it for 17 years:) So, am I just not searching correctly or is none of what you've made and are showing here actually in the UL?

[@jeremypleurmeau4189]

Determined Lamb is awesome !

[@lpil]

Very informative, thank you. Have you ever tried Supercollider? What are your thoughts on it?

[@somaticjet2717]

im a huge fan of the flexe album nice insight into that near the end. lovely acid sound on the first incarnation of dirt machine you showed us. im guessing you also used an actual 303 on that album tho right? by the fact that theres a pic of it on the album cover :P

[@codesymphony]

oh my god these sound incredible. so to get this straight these sequences are contained entirely within Reaktor itself, including the reverb/cello sounding patches? 5:20 for example

[@strangerhertz5687]

Do you sometimes think patches when you’re in the ring fighting or vice verse? I like the dynamic between them two... I’m a heavy Reaktor addict as well.

[@mconstant007]

I want clock 🦊 and 🌈. Are these shared? Wow they all sound amazing. Please say they are shared?

[@ajofnazareth3061]

clock fox was amazing

[@Fishoilification]

Damn that choral box is fire. Can you upload your blocks?

[@robertsyrett1992]

Ok, I broke down and bought reaktor. Hopefully I enjoy it as much as I have Audulus. I'm looking forward to checking out the user library and maybe making some contributions.

[@BennJordan]

Reaktor will lead you down a much, much deeper rabbit hole than Audulus (I say this as an Audulus user/owner).

[@robertsyrett1992]

Audulus is such a comfort zone for me. I can make an oscillator that phase inverts every 3rd harmonic or replicate the CZ phase distortion. I just fear the learning curve. Still, I wanna mess around with samples and Pd and Max are still super opaque to me. If I could make a request it would be a tutorial on using the expressions to shape waves. Like running a loud signal plus a DC offset into 2*asin(sin(x*(pi/2)))/pi to make a wavefolder.

[@kamalmanzukie]

+1 rabbit hole. can confirm. going back through old projects and clearly charting the progression, and laughing at what a dumbass i was and how little i understood. that's the raw power of a musical instrument that is also a calculator

[@jrileyhill]

REAKTOR has soooooo many good macros and pre built things to patch, and you can also load stuff into a DAW really easily. I love Audulus but I was pretty sad to see they are no longer supporting windows. Glad I'm getting into Reaktor.

[@hollybrabra]

I’m curious what your take on current line of hardware is. Do you use it and does it make the experience of using reactor that much better than another controller would? I’m thinking of picking up one of the new s61s though I’m not entirely convinced they’re worth the price. Because beyond reactor, I’m not sure if I’m even that interested in their software. I don’t think I’d even want massive taking up room on my computer. Much of what’s included in the komplete bundles seems pretty dated to me. But I’ll definitely pick up reactor while it’s on sale.

[@BennJordan]

I'm not a big fan of their hardware. It's not bad, but it's not alluring to me either, especially at the price premium. But that's just me, some people seem to like it.

[@kunalpareek8321]

Oh man. this looks like so much fun. But here I am late in delivering today's code and watching vids like this and wondering how on earth will I get time to even get in 20 mins practice on my Piano and guitar.

[@ajn2747]

dude this video is awesome! was dead sunflower based on dead can dance?

[@iowamusicarchive4633]

I usually watch all your content from my phone and almost never want to log in so I can't like and subscribe or comment. Funny thought about good generative content and how to get effective feedback from a fanbase.

[@Anci3ntRobot]

Great !

[@ricgl84]

Hey Benn, you should share those instruments that you build back in the day. 🙂

[@OVXX666]

i like the coral music generator one

[@issiewizzie]

I have komplete 13 and I’ve decided to just that spending time going through reactor

[@NicolasKaniak]

Whats the name of the Argentinian Luthier?

[@mariomijatovic7847]

clockfox sound super amazing !!! we need the download file :D cmooon

[@somaticjet2717]

Woohooo!

[@the_real_redx]

Hey, Benn---are any of your Reaktor ensembles on the user community site? I searched your name and found nothing? Where are you hiding these gems, man?

[@codesymphony]

so can we download these?

[@toitoitoy]

he-he MMA guys are rumpling each other in the background

[@OVXX666]

loll

[@shortcutDJ]

it's turning me moist

[@balloonxm]

Clockfox!!

[@Zimfab01]

why did the sunflower die ?

[@unslept_em]

oh fyi, vcvrack got an update today, thought you might like to know

[@codesymphony]

Reaktor Steam edition when

[@sapitron]

Reaktor was extremely frustrating to me because it was the opposite of what I was looking for: a synth full of radio ready mainstream pop sounds. So I deleted it. Im watching this video to change my mind

[@noname-ng6sj]

What made you even think of getting Reaktor for that?

[@sapitron]

@@noname-ng6sj because I knew nothing about musical production and I trusted a software salesman. Still want to understand it, though. But it's so complex with no tangible reward. The sound is very unlikely anything you would listen in pop.

[@phucduongnguyen67]

Dive deeper and learning how to appreciate sounds in general than you will not regret this plug in. I am considering waiting for sales to buy this thing and use it for the rest of my life.

[@sapitron]

@@phucduongnguyen67 yeah but can you use it to make pop music and earn money by doing that?

[@phucduongnguyen67]

Of course that depends on you and the way you want to execute your song's instruments. For me after hearing your question I would use Reaktor for creating FX sound ( just my expectation ). But I did create 1 very cool-ghibli Lead sound few days ago just by using the Carbon 2 inside reaktor. Crank the hell up my reverb plug in to give a lush sound xD. I am using the free Reaktor player btw

[@ipatchphd]

If you have dirtmachine shared I will buy Reaktor >:)

[@CaptJackAubreyOfTheRoyalNavy]

So what's the dumb stuff NI has done that you mentioned?

[@BennJordan]

Software activation issues over the years, Kontakt not having folder memory despite having been out for 15 years, memory leaks, Kore was completely asinine IMO. Like any software company, they have to miss the target before they hit it.

[@RetropUk]

Everyone who has used NI stuff for long enough will have a story about how NI screwed them over. For me it was their Traktor scratch certified mixer program where they withdrew some mixers from the program after the first release meaning you were stuck with hardware which wouldn't work if you tried to upgrade Traktor to a version the would run on a more modern versions of OS X. I got done with both Stanton Traktor scratch 2fs and Mackie D2 pro. I use Serato now. :) Kore gave lots of people a very expensive paperweights too.

[@InfiniteRhombus]

reaktor fucking slays, the best time to have started using it was yesterday, everyone needs to check it out.

[@mariomijatovic7847]

4:12 i want to remix it ! :D

[@gossamyr]

I think piracy is necessary in the beginning for 1.education and 2.what if this isn't for me(no returns, bye tons of money vs hardware you can reverb/ebay). That's how I learned stuff too, but the shit I really like, I bought. Since I found hardware more reliable I focused on that and stopped software altogether, but I remember playing with absynth and being truly amazed at the ooey gooey yummy. It's 2018 and NI is having the sale again, hmmm, maybe it's time, before they ruin it with ilock and I go back to hardware again ;)

[@midinerd]

word. likewise with absynth - it was too complex for me at the time, but I was totally blown away at how amazing it sounded back in ~2001. and yes some DAWs or node-programming software is wayyyy too expensive for teenage kids but they can still try to understand it and see which one works (digital performer vs. cubase vs. fruity loops vs. ableton, for example) and start learning so that when they can actually afford it, the market is there for the companies. Then again there's also shitheads who just pirate software and make a career out of it sometimes... that's also still around. If one has actually worked in the entertainment industry you kind of stop doing that though.

[@JuusoAlasuutari]

Ok that block thing is just another Jeskola Buzz clone.

[@NicholasBryantBonzaiSequoias]

17 years.. hmm, so you missed the joys of 2.3, 3 and 4? Reaktor has changed a fair bit over the years.. slightly better MIDI IO, slightly better visual aspects, controls that are nearly different in size between large, medium and small. IMHO blocks is not worth using (VCV is better for tweaking modules). Reaktors strength is in the making of things below the surface (even as far down as Core). I can't imagine Endlesss would have happened with only Blocks as a starting point. I wish NI would put more resources into Reaktor, instead of ceaseless kontakt libraries (Zzzz).

[@alyeska4226]

This thing seems like it's just another block in a pyramid scheme. Isn't it? What I want, is Molekular. I like the auto ease of Komplete controllers, so I have an m32. Do I really need Reaktor to use Molekular reliably? And will these be too computer intensive?

[@directHITz]

Love the creativity but why do all reaktor sounds sound so tinny and cheap

[@shatteredsquare]

10:49

[@WARDISWARD]

Blocks is NOT completely new . It's just an easier FRAMEWORK written in core