#REAKTOR INSTRUMENTS PC#

“In the mid-’90s, it became obvious that the CPU of a normal computer, like a PC or a Mac, was becoming fast enough to create audio in real time,” he remembers. Nonetheless, things were about to change. While Stephan admired certain digital synthesizers of the day (the Yamaha DX7 was a particular favorite), he was frustrated with the industry as a whole: both the lack of interesting ideas from established manufacturers and the prohibitively high development costs that prevented new companies from developing alternatives. You could already use it for recording or sequencing but why not use it as an instrument?” “It’s nice to deal with acoustic instruments, and I had a big respect for that world, but it’s really fascinating to create the sound from the very first cycle – when the oscillator is creating a waveform.” The pair originally set their sights on creating mixing consoles of their own, but with a background as a keyboard player, Stephan’s real interest was in creating sounds, rather than capturing them. I needed a partner to join in and this was Volker.”

#REAKTOR INSTRUMENTS SOFTWARE#

I thought, ‘I want to do software in the future myself,’ but I didn’t have the experience or education. “I was managing the development and I had to discuss a lot with these software people. “, we had a team of software engineers developing the user interface and the software behind it,” Schmitt explains. The story of REAKTOR – and of Native Instruments – begins in 1993 with Stephan Schmitt, who had just been laid off from his job at a digital mixing console manufacturer, along with his friend, self-taught programmer Volker Hinz. To mark the 25th anniversary of Native Instruments and, in a sense, REAKTOR, we spoke to some of those who have had a hand in its creation, evolution, and exploitation over the years. It’s also the beating heart of a thriving community who together have built thousands of unique instruments, effects, and tools, many of them shared for free. It’s also the platform on which synths like RAZOR and MONARK are built and used, and the place where instruments from MASSIVE to TRAKTOR are prototyped.

REAKTOR is the direct descendent of our very first product. To us at Native Instruments, it’s all of the above and more.

Depending on who you ask, it’s a modular synthesizer, a programming environment, an entire studio, or just a convenient wrapper for a few favored synths and effects. Pinning down exactly what REAKTOR is, however, is not so straightforward. If you’re not a Reaktor owner, this instrument runs in Reaktor Player, which lacks its own preset storage but runs inside supported Mac and Windows plug-in hosts.From Radiohead and the Flaming Lips to Merzbow and Haxan Cloak, boundary-pushing creators of all genres have been building tools, tracks, and even careers on REAKTOR for more than two decades. So this is hardly a “rompler” or simple preset player you can actually get a lot of different sounds out of it. There’s also access to enough sound parameters that you can create some unique variations of the sounds, including built-in cabinet simulation, filter, flanger, echo and reverb effects, and modal bank and exciter parameters.

#REAKTOR INSTRUMENTS PLUS#

(In fact, having a simpler version may be the best way to get a taste of what Prism’s deep sound engine can do.) You also get 70 sound, including what NI describes as “seasonal” bells and chimes – perfect for any last-minute holiday music projects – plus bass, more bells, keys, mallets, leads, pads, plucked sounds, and abstract, ambient “soundscapes.” You’ll get access to Prism’s lovely “modal bank” synthesis method, which creates some unusual, shimmering timbres.

#REAKTOR INSTRUMENTS FOR MAC#

Here’s an early Christmas present for Mac and Windows synth lovers: Native Instruments is giving away a simplified version of its Prism instrument for Reaktor as a free (as in beer), self-contained synth.

Reaktor instruments