Keeping an eye on the competition

The next version of Max / MSP has just been announced for the first quarter of 2008. I won't reiterate everything in the linked article, but it sounds like they've chosen to rethink, rewrite and re-engineer the product rather than merely add a few new features to the codebase and increment the version number. Exciting stuff - especially the promise of a Linux version sometime in the future. I wouldn't hold my breath for that but the new platform-independent framework does make it sound like a possibility rather than a pipe dream.

Am I jumping ship from Reaktor? Noooooo, not at all. Both products have their own strengths, and where they overlap - hey, competition is a good thing. It keeps businesses on their toes. Still, I am eager to see what NI will come up with in R6.

Question time

A reader asks:

I was wondering if you knew of a way within Reaktor to display pitch, and other frequencies, in Hz instead of the arbitrary units that most macros use. I can't for the life of me figure out why Native Instruments didn't include the option to view these parameters in Hz.

Good question! Actually, they did, but it's not an option in a checkbox somewhere - you use a P to F math module. Here's how you'd use it:



The Numeric display module shows the frequency in Hz.

There's a complementary module that does the opposite conversion, from Hz to the (generally speaking) 0 to 127 pitch range used by Reaktor's primary level oscillators.

The Future of Reaktor

It's been a while since R5 was released and more than a few people are wondering what's in store for our favorite virtual box-o-knobs. Some members of the Reaktor community are wondering if the product's on NI's back burner, or if it's been shelved indefinitely. This is mere speculation on my part, but I think there are a few factors at play that are conspiring to make Reaktor a low return-on-investment product.

Number one, it's too damn hard to learn. In order to do interesting things with it - I mean, as opposed to knocking together yet another synth - you have to speak idiomatic Reaktorese. Aside from the many quirks and exceptions you have to know about the event modules, Reaktor is like that old kid's game, Mouse Trap. The shoe kicks the bowling ball, the bowling ball rolls down a trough until it hits a pipe dislodging another bowling ball that falls into a bathtub, and so on.



I wish someone had even told me THAT much right at the start! Just that events are like dominos or ping pong balls, not like constantly flowing electrical current (I'm sure someone will now point out where this is implied in the manual, if you hold the book sideways and squint your brain a bit). That's probably the main reason I'm writing these tutorials. Anyhow, I think Reaktor has a reputation for being difficult to master and less than perfectly documented.

Number two, judging by the instruments and snapshots in R5, it was aimed at a narrow segment of the market - a particular genre that was withering even before R5 was released. I know that the lead time on a product can be long and no one's psychic, even in marketing departments, but wouldn't it have been wiser to market it as a general purpose musical tool?



Number three, and this ties in with my first point, the ensembles that ship with R5 are impenetrably complex. There isn't a gummy bear's chance in hell that a beginner will be able to learn anything from poking around in the structure. But the whole idea of Reaktor is for the user to modify and build his own tools - instruments that suit his own idiomatic sound, taste and workflow.

Now, I could be completely wrong about this. NI is being tight lipped so for all I know they have R6 ready to release at Christmas and it addresses all of my nitpicking and speculation. But if it doesn't here are some ideas...

What I'd rather see in R6 is a focus on simpler instruments that are still intensely interesting and are built around a few simple but radical ideas about music making - the kind of instruments built by Reaktor masters like Martin Brinkmann and Dieter Zobel, and perhaps spit and polished with a professionally designed interface. Instruments that can teach you the Tao of Reaktor.



I'd like to see better documentation. Heck, I'll even write some of it. :-)

I'd like to see the focus shift away from genre music and towards something more timeless. The 20th century and the smidgen of the 21st we've gotten through have seen electronic music as a constant undercurrent that sometimes erupts into the mainstream in fads and popular genres. I'd like to see NI address the undercurrent with R6. That means a more electroacoustic, experimental, even academic focus. Is there any money in that? Well, Cycling 74 seems to be solvent. I thought this was a promising development.

I'd like to see a scripting language in Reaktor. They've shown they can do it by putting one in Kontakt. There are things you can do in two lines in a textual programming language that take miles of wires and structure in Reaktor's visual programming style. I should note that the Kontakt scripting language is pretty well documented and has an introductory tutorial for beginners.

Finally, and this ties in with my wish to see Reaktor re-envisioned as something more Max-like, I'd like to see a Reaktor SDK that lets users program their own modules in an efficient language like C or C++. That doesn't have to mean abandoning the things that Reaktor gets right, like its uncompromising sound quality, extensive library and slick appearance. A best of both worlds synthesis would be hard to beat. This would also help cement their position with academia and the electroacoustic crowd. (I wouldn't expect NI to provide documentation for complete newbie non programmers in this area!)

That's my two cents on the matter. I'd like to hear your thoughts. Have you heard any rumors? I'm not in the loop at NI any more than you are so please take all this with a grain of salt.

LFO Gator

This is a tutorial on using a few simple LFOs and a clock oscillator to gate an audio stream, creating semi-random and interesting percussive effects. Have fun with it - it won't compose classical music for you but I hope it will liven up your music and teach you a few things about Reaktor. Remember, you have to noodle before you can fugue.



Comments and donations are welcome. :-)