Performance setups - Live vs. Reaktor?

Dougster · Joined: Sep 20, 2005 Posts: 272 Location: Tucson, AZ, USA

OK, so I've got ancient copies of both Live and Reaktor and I've been thinking of setting up a better software rig for performance, which means I will spend the money to upgrade one or the other. Lately I've been seeing videos of Tim Exile and others using Reaktor, plus I just saw Not Breathing Saturday night and one of the guys was very impressive with Reaktor.

My question to you guys is, under what circumstances would you choose one or the other for live performance? Seems as if Live is better for playing back various clips, where Reaktor seems more for instant sound creation...

BobTheDog · Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2010 2:23 am Post subject:

Well you can run multiple instances of Reaktor inside Live, best of both worlds!

What versions of each do you have?

Dougster · Joined: Sep 20, 2005 Posts: 272 Location: Tucson, AZ, USA

I suppose "ancient" is a bit of a stretch. (I'm the ancient part of the equation! Laughing

) I have version 5 of Live. I don't remember which Reaktor I have, but I think I've had it for the better part of a decade now. I'll see if I can find the install stuff again...

EATyourGuitar · Joined: Oct 28, 2010 Posts: 44 Location: Providence, RI

I have used reaktor version 1 but getting back into it is super dumb cause they changed EVERYTHING. you have to use converters all over the place to make a basic patch cause audio and control are separate so audio rate modulation requires extra crap. a patch with all audio rate cables is a CPU HOG. i understand it and the reasons for it. they made it better on the cpu but made it harder to program. there are actually two sets of rules in reaktor so its like knowing two programing languages. not very user friendly IMO. I am a tattooed ableton user. I also use max for live which is similar to reaktor in some ways. max for live is a special version of max/msp/jitter that offers better integration with ableton then reaktor will ever have. midi mapping to reaktor inside ableton using the VST was not working a year ago when I tried it. its a known issue that only applies to the VST version of reaktor 4 with all versions of ableton. it was native instruments fault for not conforming to VST standards. that was a while ago. once you start using ableton 8 suite, you may find you dont need reaktor at all. there is a lot of sound design stuff built in. the only thing ableton lacks is that quick step sequencer work flow that fruity loops has. some use a program called numerology as a plugin. others use the step sequencer that comes with max for live and just mod it into your perfect step sequencer. the sequencer in ableton is good but its not a step sequencer. monome has a whole crapload of addons for ableton but you gotta have a monome or fake monome. now that the lemur is discontinued they are cheap on ebay and you get the free apps.