I’m trying implement in instance of Native Instruments Reaktor… with multiple patches, so from what I’ve read this is exactly what rack states are for. So… I must be doing something wrong, because although I have multiple saved states… they all have the “last” patch.
Back to the start. I created a new song, inserted a new rack named Reaktor and then inserted the Reaktor plugin into the rack. Then I backed out to the beginning, and set up all of my routes so I have midi in and sound out.
Then I went back in to Reaktor and picked a patch. Exited out to the rack and saved that state as a new state. Did the same thing two more times with different patches.
Saved the rack. Click on any of the states… and I get the same sound.
There’s this video which explains states in general.
But I think what you might be missing is plugin state behaviours. Select your plugin (Reaktor) and in the State Behaviours panel (View → Side Panel → State Behaviours) you see some options that control what aspects of the plugin the states will control:
There are two settings here of interest to your case:
Selected Program - causes the states to switch the selected plugin program (preset).
Entire Bank - each state will save a copy of the entire plugin state.
So if you’re just tweaking settings in the plugin and switching states, those changes won’t be captured - because only the selected preset is tracked by states. If you turn on Entire Bank, every setting the in the plugin will be tracked between states.
That said, I don’t really recommend it. Doing an entire bank load on most plugins doesn’t work terribly well on many plugins while performing live.
Here’s the recommended best practices for switching sounds:
Use MIDI routing changes. This leaves the synths running, prevents cut off tails etc… and generally results in very smooth sound transitions. Cantabile is smart enough to track held notes and will still release them on the original synth.
Use presets to store different sounds and the “Selected Program” state behaviour to switch sounds on the plugin. Particularly for non-sampled synths, this can work well as they switch quickly
I’ve found that many/most Native Instruments plugins have their own patch system and so only work with “Entire bank” unfortunately. So don’t be too surprised if you need to do that for Reaktor (my experience is from NI Kontakt, FM8, Massive and Absynth).
I’m pretty sure you are correct there. As amazingly powerful as NIs stuff is, I could never understand why you couldn’t just save a “patch”. Typically in Reaktor you have to save what they refer to as an “ensemble.”
