Have you really given up on Reaktor, NI?

Mutis

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/212319#Comment_212319

If NI ditched Cmajor it could mean they are trying to go forward with inHouse solutions but since NI behaves like a pendulum and lost in the desert without a compass… I will not expect that as a good news. My gut says Cmajor/soundStacks was bought become the tool to migrate and create new standalone versions of the NI (among others) catalog but as I said the internal bureaucracy and ego-run made NI going back and forth so many times in the last decade… so who knows? I think even themselves didn't know truly…

Maybe the actual tools they use for development had being update to keep them with some momentum (and that side of the pendulum got the lead in this phase going back and forth again…) but its clear they aren't what they were as a brand so maybe that info you point is even worse for Reaktor than you think. In the best scenario it means "unnecessary hiatus and resource cut" and when NI decide to bring it back it will be too late (like they did with M+, Maschine3 soft, Traktor Dj vs Pro3+plus then 4 without stems…)

Let's hope I'm wrong and NI delivers whatever but don't hold your breath…

The sad part of this is if things go the way I envision them, none of us will see an answer. NI could go bankrupt, irrelevant, sold… because new hardware even bringing some excitement to market shows how unbalanced is the software side. Since NI sold itself as "thigh integration to become instruments" that could be their own mistake. Just look how they managed the Akai MPC announcement vs Maschine 3 to understand what I'm trying to point.

Why is so hard to even release for their own user base than third party product like MPC? Probably because legacy code.

How do you resolve that? With something like CMajor-like solution and lots of focused resources, good management, etc.

That will hurt actual line development? Yes, it's the cost but done properly puts your product in the future.

What's the worse you can do? Not going full on any of the sides so you have old code hard to migrate/deploy (to new architectures like ARM, M-Series but also standalone hardware) and ditch entire divisions such Traktor Dj app team (universal app with retina UI, improved library management… the most requested features but lacking in the most used like DVS, MIDI tsi, etc etc…)

..

That's why I think Reaktor was ported to AS but after that stand by mode (frezzer). The internals could be repurposed into Cmajor (or whatever alternative NI consider) probably but some things will be lost in the process (like the user library from the old forum compatibility…) but as I said… maybe the actual tools had been updated and NI can grow from that. It will be another kind of hiatus…

Let's hope, let's see.

Demon Tech

I think Reaktor's design principals are perfect and I love the UI as well. It can do everything I could ever want to do with it and has done more than I ever imagined it could. All I need is compatibility updates.

Mutis

All I need is compatibility updates.

That's the whole point… retrocompatibility and futurecompatibility requires porting some times and deprecation other. Keep everything, even if possible, could be unworthy from business perspective due whatever strategy is suited by Chief Board. So that's why I (insist) believe porting Reaktor guts to Apple Silicon and then keep it in maintenance mode could be pointing to Cmajor adaptation (to future proving it).

As ColB pointed Cmajor no longer being part of NI business brands technologies that makes me think Chief Board pendulum gone opposite direction (aka Internal develop again…) so only time will tell but sadly, time goes by and Reaktor stays in maintenance mode.

It still requires Rosetta? Maybe the break proint will be when Apple decides to stop that layer conversion…?

Anyways it seems affecting more or less every NI development line with more incidence in more dependent ones of course (IMO)

Demon Tech

Just VST compatibility I guess. I can run Reaktor standalone in compatibility mode on Windows. At the same time, if Reaktor development were to be halted, DAWs still maintain compatibility with VST 1 & 2 plugins anyway. I've developed in Reaktor Core for at least 12 years and have never once encountered a single bug in standalone or being hosted as a VST.

Matthew_NI

It still requires Rosetta? Maybe the break proint will be when Apple decides to stop that layer conversion…?

Reaktor is supported on Apple Silicon via both Rosetta, and/or Natively. See here.

I'd also highlight this comment earlier in the thread from @Tim_NI

Reaktor remains a supported product and we continue to maintain it as a baseline.

Beyond this, we are in a research phase where we are exploring a number of possible futures for the NI synths portfolio (which includes Reaktor). We don't have anything concrete to share right now, but we are looking forward to sharing more as and when the time is right.

chk071

I wonder what possible futures there could be, apart from "We continue developing synths", and "We quite developing synths".

I'm not one to raise the white flag early and easily, but, I think I read "We have big plans for Massive X in 2025" from a rep here as well, and, we're already 1/4 in 2025, and, apart from a minor update, I've really seen nothing which would justify such a bold statement.

I really hope that NI will continue developing soft synths, because, they have quite a few big names in their portfolio (Reaktor, Massive, Massive X, Razor etc.), which would be a shame to see go. I understand the necessity of economic considerations, but, big parts of NI's eco system actually depend on the usage of such plugins, see Komplete Kontrol and Reaktor itself. I hope that it will still be worthwhile in the future for NI to develop soft synths.

Vagus

Ni Invested over £3m in Sound Stacks, before CMajor was spun off - and CMajor is used within NI (They're on record as saying so). Whether they're so invested in it as building tools now, I'm not sure, but that's a lot of money to write off.

Part of me hopes a modern Reaktor could do very well, but it's not for the feint hearted. It takes time to get to grips with, and while incredibly capable, software developers are moving toward LUA based platforms (Kontakt, UVI Workstation etc).

Now, if Reaktor was plug-and-play with AI assistance (create this for me), then it might find the next generation of synth pioneers, but right now, that's a very small market to invest in.

Just my opinion.