When will Reaktor7 come?
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Just like how I follow Puredata, the emergence of Plugdata and updates to Puredata in recent years have shown me the power of an open source project. Perhaps because it is open source, people's expectations for it are no more precious than what they buy themselves. Of course, Puredata itself is very good. Nevertheless, we still hope Reaktor can be better because we want to spend more time on it and crave that it can meet our requirements.
Many times, people tend to think that Reaktor is already powerful enough, but with the development of the times, I believe that zooming functions should be included. I also do not particularly emphasize the importance of adding other DSP functions, because indeed Core Cell is already very powerful.
I know many people want to attribute problems to themselves. As long as they are strong enough, they can use software to do more things. However, the convenience brought by software itself can indeed inspire users to have more confidence in learning more things.
I know Reaktor is a software that requires patient learning, but we also have to admit that it has its inconveniences. Only when developers keep improving can it be made better.
So what I want to say is that we cannot guarantee or avoid it stopping updating one day, but as long as it is there, should we do something to talk about it and make the developers or the entire NI team who are still maintaining it pay attention to it again? As for Puredata, it has been constantly updating and improving. Why not Reaktor is also possible!1 -
Does Reaktor 6.5 play 20 year old ensembles? Is it VST3 now? Does it still make it possible for us to custom design our own plugins? If you answered yes to all three questions then how can version 7 improve on that. I can't picture anything new that would make any difference. So you want version 7 but what do you think could improve it. Seems to me it's already maxed out. The compiler seems to work perfect. It always acts like it should. Every bug I've encountered has been fixed. If anything needs a new version, it's ourselves. Seems like the more I learn the better the program gets. Thinking version 7 is going to improve your ability to write code is not gonna happen.
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"Does Windows Notepad open 20 year old C files? Is it compatible with Windows 11? Does it still allow you to write audio plugins in C? Thinking a modern IDE is going to improve your ability to code is not gonna happen!"
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Okay, I'm convinced. At least I'm convinced that the doomsayers should abandon Reaktor. If you have fear and doubt, there is obviously little to nothing I can do to take that away.
The rest of us, including the majority of NI customers who probably don't know it's in maintenance mode and wouldn't care if they did, will keep using it because we realise that even if it might one day stop working, it can still make music today.
And who knows, if people keep using Reaktor despite the small possibility that in 5 or 10 or 15 years it may no longer work, NI might invest further resources to improve it. They certainly won't if everyone stops using it.
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Smart DAW players should already know that everything - regardless of how cool it is - will be retired at some point. That said - just because Reaktor is not going to be developed anymore does not mean I won't use it in a project.
But if you do want to use R6 today and then be able open a project with it in 10 years from now - you need to plan ahead. Every project I do - regardless of what is in it - is heavily documented and then stemmed out to audio - removing any reliance on actually needing R6 in the year 2034.
For me - the project primary objective is to be able to open it - in ANY DAW regardless of what I might be using 10 years from now.
Not that Reaktor 6 will somehow still be supported (which it will most likely not be).
VP
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All I can postulate is that there were a number of mentions in a few threads in the last year that Reaktor is now in permanent maintenance mode.
And you have added to that mention count, here in this thread, but it is just speculation!
There has never been a statement from an official NI source that Reaktor is in "permanent maintenance mode". That is just made up by doomsayers and trolls and propagated by the weak minded. Please don't be one of them, you are better than that!
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Believe what you want to believe.
If you cannot accept the lack of any mention of Reaktor since March 2023 by NI - especially when their Chief Product Officer has had two "roadmap" opportunities (March 2024 and June 2024 updates) to at least say something about it - you are simply in denial.
If Battery and Reaktor and Massive X and all the other "old timey" apps were a thing - there is no logical reason not to perhaps share a tidbit or two of cool things ahead. But he did not say that. He did not mention any of these old apps. This is what happens when there is nothing to say. (aka Maintenance Mode for lack of a better label)
What is clear from these "roadmap" updates by Simon is that NI's future is built on Kontakt, Maschine and clearly in the last few weeks - Traktor.
And yes - my speculation is my speculation. But I already have 18 months of time on my side (since the last known update to Reaktor in March 2023).
If you want to keep waiting - no one will stop you.
VP
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There is a significant difference between "maintenance mode" and "permanent maintenance mode".
18 months is nothing in Reaktor time scale. There have been periods of years in the past with no updates. It's a very old app. Historically, NI have been very cagey about roadmap related info, particularly on the Reaktor side (probably because the tech is more challenging, and its best not to make promises that cant be kept). So that doesn't really mean much.
It's clear that Reaktor is currently in maintenance mode. It's also clear that that for Reaktor, maintenance mode is still a big commitment from NI (the Apple silicon compatibility update must have been expensive), and that there are no plans to retire the app. The future beyond that is not something we can know, particularly in the context of NI.
One thing we do know is that negative speculation can be damaging, particularly these days when so many folk seem willing to accept any made-up ****** they read online. So if you like Reaktor and want it to have a future, then stop spreading nonsense. And if you don't like Reaktor, then why are you here?
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"The future beyond that is not something we can know, particularly in the context of NI."
Or - you can just read this (finally found it) - where George from the actual Reaktor NI Team tells everyone - what the Reaktor future actually is and what will happen (post release of R 6.50):
Original Thread is here
To sum up - unless George and his team have walked back any of this since it was first posted in Jan 2023 - OR the new owners of NI have suddenly had a massive change of heart - it's fair to say this post ended all speculation that Reaktor is coming back. (outside of a rare future compatibility-type update as warranted)
There is also a bit more on this - including comments from resident Kontakt superhero EveilDragon on Reaktor Dev winding down here:
NI winding down development of Reaktor, discontinuing Super 8 standalone - The Sound Board
This post is where I saw the tag "maintenance mode" from ED:
And who says I don't like Reaktor? I use it all the time.
VP
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I think you guys are missing the point. Simply put, Reaktor doesn't need an update. We can create any sound effect we need. If anything, from a realistic standpoint, there's very little it can't do. It's basically finished and the real upgrades come from the things we do with it. Tell us what it can't do first before harping off about upgrades. I'm perfectly satisfied with it for what it is. It's just a program that allows high level programming. Basically a compiler imo.
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100% agreed.
VP
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IMHO, if NI has ported Reaktor to AS, which was not for sure simple task and required a lot of resources and investmens……. it will stay supported for many years on.
Anyway, if Reaktor will be compatible with Win 12 that come sooner or later, it will be usable on Win for at least next 15 years….. On Mac it may be another story.
Also, NI has discarded Super8 plugin and has returned to Super8 Reaktor ensemble again. It says IMHO a lot about future of Reaktor in NI strategy.
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Of course I heavily stem it, thats about the only future proof thing you can do. Though, stems have their limits.
When you get called up to make that "sequel" to a game or a movie, or the next season in the TV show, you'd want to be able to access the original instrumentation as much as possible. It's very hard to reuse a sound that has been stemmed in any future projects. You can try resampling and constructing a new patch around it, if you're lucky you might get close. In general though you want try and avoid setting yourself up for these types of scenarios as they will just make for potential nightmares further down the track.
There are already enough risks with this, but to "knowingly" continue to use an instrument on a new project, that may not be around in 5 or 10 years time is just setting yourself up for that nightmare scenario.
It's not just simply dropping a track and moving on in this situation. It requires a bit of planning, some forethought as well as lots and lots of stemming, patch saving and backing up.
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Well it does provide evidence to my observations.
It's not about new features, it's about the mindset. No new features means they're not investing in the future. Not investing in the future is the sign that product is nearing its end of life. They're all related.
Once a product has entered this kind of maintenance phase, its only got around 5 years left before being dropped. Unless the developers have a change of heart. If what you do relies heavily on future proofing yourself as much as possible, this is not a desirable thing, its the thing try to avoid.
If you read my above post you'd understand why I'm so invested in the future or products.
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"When you get called up to make that "sequel" to a game or a movie, or the next season in the TV show, you'd want to be able to access the original instrumentation as much as possible. It's very hard to reuse a sound that has been stemmed in any future projects"
You are making it sound like NI should be keeping everything they have ever created "live" until the end of time just because Hollywood suddenly comes calling.
If revisiting a project (with full edit capability) in 2032 is your thing - it will be on you to maintain that thing. As in - freeze your DAW, freeze your NI install and ensure it is still up on running in 2032 just as it is today. That should be 100% achievable if you are careful.
"If you read my above post you'd understand why I'm so invested in the future or products"
I read it as stated above. But you do need to come to grips with the fact that every product has a future and every one also will have a past. Reaktor is gently transitioning into the latter right now.
Do what you must to preserve your environment to run R v6.50 (like stay on Windows) and all should be just fine. But remember to never update anything once the clock really runs out on Reaktor.
VP
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