best midi controller for reaktor

hi!! can you tell me what is the best midi controller for reaktor 4?

thANKS

 

Reaktor can be setup to work with any device that sends midi note and "cc" (continuous controller) info, so pretty much anything out there marketed as a general purpose "midi controller" is going to work fine. It really depends on what your needs are: are you looking for a keyboard with knobs/sliders, or a dedicated knob/slider box?

Without knowing your needs, my only advice is to avoid anything made by Fatar/Studiologic, they are the absolute worst mainstream musical instrument company out there in terms of reliability and customer service.

-wh

 

oh, and I'm sure someone is going to chime in with how much they love their new Behringer BCF/BCR controller box. The Behringer midi boxes are the only reasonably priced options for dedicated slider/knob boxes. . . .as long as the warranty service is good, it's probably a solid choice.

For keyboard controllers, I like the quality and feel of the Edirol controllers. If I was in the marked for a keyboard controller with unweighted keys, I'd investigate the Edirol's first.

-wh

 

i use an akai mpd16, it had 16 "mpc" style drum machine pads. that and an m-audio radium 49 keyboard, which has 8 knobs/8 sliders. m-audio came out with something similar to the mpd, only with 4 sliders and 4 knobs or so (its called the trigger finger). i kinda wish i got that one instead, except i heard that the pads arnt as good on the m-audio one (cept that was from a guitar center rep, who also said they wont be carrying the trigger-finger!)

 

A lot depends on what you think will be the most intuitve way for you to make music with Reaktor. Are you a percussionist, guitarist, keyboardist, wind player? A lot also depends on your budget. If you don't have any budget constraints, check out these:

http://www.cycling74.com/products/lemur.html
http://www.buchla.com
http://www.starrlabs.com/
http://www.mawzer.com/
http://infusionsystems.com/catalog/all_categories.php
http://www.zendrum.com/
http://www.openlabs.com/products/product_info-one.htm
http://www.rolandus.com/products/details.asp?catid=5&subcatid=26&prodid=HPD-15

If you, Like most of us, are on a limited budget check out this:
http://www.thinkmig.com/STCVids.htm

If you are a wind player, look into the EWI-1000/EWV2000. You should be able to find one these ued pretty cheaply.

The EWI-1000/EWV2000, HPD-15, and STC-1000 I can comment more on since I do own those. If you want to know about them, let me know.
Marc

 

microKontrol is great (korg)
http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_prod_no=microkontrol&category_id=1

It's the all in one for Reaktor:
-you have pads like the Akai mpc series or the mpd16 (but MPC pads are a bit better (velocity feeling is better...i had a mpc2000 and the mpd)
-you have a 3 octave keybord (again here the velocity is perfectly playable but not the best i saw...)
-eight knobs perfect for midi learn
-eight faders (the same as before)
-a joystick very useful for XY midi learn

 

Hello,

Is there anyone out there who uses the Mackie Control Universal succesfully with any of the Native plug-ins?

Does the midi-assignment work good/easy?

Thanks,

Semble

 

I have the Korg MicroKontrol using Mackie Control Emulation. I loaded R5 in Ableton Live 5 as a VST instrument and the MCE on my lcd screen didnt show many parameter names. It only showed on Aerobic synth>>>etc....on the displays and the latency was awful. I didnt find it very useful, but I'am still waiting on my purchased R5 comes tomorrow cant wait its like Christmas. I will hunt down my UPS guy. Anyone else had any luck using the MCE with the MAckie orginal. I would think that KORE would have some sort of auto mapping control.

later
Dustin

 

I think the Novation Remotes are the best of the mainstream general purpose midi controllers. They're a little more expensive than some of the competing brands but the build quality and template management stuff is better (IMO).

 

I purchased an Edirol PCRM-30. Only $160 I believe. Works in OS X, Windows, and Linux, and has a good number of faders and buttons. Seemed similar to some of the small m-audio controllers (Oxygen?), though had twice the number of buttons/faders, and slightly bigger keyboard range. Key action is very good, as is the size. (I travel quite a bit.)

 

Glad to hear the Edirol worked out for you. . The feel and build quality is sooo much better than most anything else out there in it's class/pricerange. I haven't gotten a chance to check out the newer Novation controllers, they look amazing on paper, but they better be flat-out magnificent for the price. They're almost twice as expensive as their Edirol counterparts.

-wh

 

I've had fun with my Korg Wavestation (yup, in ancient times): Early software version rendered Vector Synthesis useless and after 3 years the keys (and a couple of buttons) were fok top. Funny thing is, other guys who had the same keyboard (in M1 and 01W) had those issues, too- no matter if their gear got carried to dusty practise rooms or stayed safe and clean at home. I've written 2 mails to german Korg "Service", no sensible reply on how to fix that software bug, just "buy the update", no reply to the 3rd letter which was sent to Korg Tokyo, they might have been appropriately embarrassed.
If you want reliability and service (speaking for german "support" here), avoid Korg.
Now I have a Motif ES 6 and Alesis Micron, great machines, work as controllers too.

greetings,
yak