# A bit of a surprise: NI have released a new virtual analog synth "Super 8"



## Mark Schmieder (May 2, 2019)

https://www.native-instruments.com/...ent b=Komplete t=Release_PD&utm_content=owned

I don't think anyone saw that coming. Mostly people have been complaining about NI not really doing much synth-wise for a long time (other than the upcoming Massive X).


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## Alex Fraser (May 2, 2019)

Looks great, right up my street. Demo available too..


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## Mark Schmieder (May 3, 2019)

Not too fond of the audio demos, but this is almost always the case with Native Instruments, then I'm pleasantly surprised once I actually own the product and can tweak it to my preferences.

I guess by now, everybody realizes this is a Reaktor Ensemble instrument. Yet NI is pushing it as their first poly-synth since the canceled Pro-53.


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## Lode_Runner (May 4, 2019)

Mark Schmieder said:


> Mostly people have been complaining about NI not really doing much synth-wise for a long time (other than the upcoming Massive X).


...and from the comments on Reuben's youtube walkthrough people are now complaining that this doesn't really do anything that they can't already do with x,y and z synths and demanding to see Massive X. I guess NI are damned if they do and damned if they don't. 

People these days with their internet anonymity, entitlement and rudeness.


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## gsilbers (May 4, 2019)

It’s a reaktor synth. They’ve been updating their reaktor 6 “blocks” and the components of this synth might end up as a block in the future. And also sell us the idea of reaktor for all synth needs and get more programmers to sell new reaktor synths like we get with Kontakt. Which is hard as everyone has been making reaktor instrument ensembles for free for a long time. And I am one of those who thought it was very difficult to make a synth w reaktor that did not sound like reaktor. Any old synth in reaktor always sounded terrible if it was the normal substractive architecture. But since reaktor 6 imo, it was changed and this one sounds great. Price is not as high as normal new Ni synths so I think there is more to it like showcasing reaktor, future blocks and adding more to komplete 12 that as usual Iran very hard to justify for many of us to upgrade.


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## DerGeist (May 4, 2019)

Sounds great and you can’t argue with the price. I’m still on the fence about NIs new interfaces. The look great in all white and are clean an well layed out. I just find it tricky to get oriented sometimes. Buttons and knobs are small as is the text.

The OSC mixer interface on this one is clever.


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## gsilbers (May 4, 2019)

DerGeist said:


> Buttons and knobs are small as is the text.
> 
> r.



i think its just a German thing.... 
(emagic/steinberg/rme/NI/etc)


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## Michel Simons (May 4, 2019)

gsilbers said:


> i think its just a German thing....
> (emagic/steinberg/rme/NI/etc)



Are you implying that Germans have small knobs?


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## Thorsten Meyer (May 4, 2019)

michelsimons said:


> Are you implying that Germans have small knobs?


Priceless!


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## Mark Schmieder (May 4, 2019)

The interesting thing is that people over the years have claimed that ALL of Native Instruments' products are either Kontakt or Reaktor at their core, but isn't this easily proven false? That is, Battery is a tweaking of Kontakt, and Absynth and FM8 (and formerly Pro-52 and B4) are Reaktor-based? But as one digs into the contents of the installed code, it would seem that there would be dead giveaways if this was the case, which do not seem to be present.


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## Alex Fraser (May 4, 2019)

I downloaded the Super 8 demo and wasn’t all that blown away. But then I realised that the synth was only about £60 and the equivalent hardware back in the day would have cost waaay more. Than I chastised myself for having my perspective completely ruined by modern day entitlement.


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## EvilDragon (May 5, 2019)

Mark Schmieder said:


> That is, Battery is a tweaking of Kontakt,



Battery IS a reskin of Kontakt with a different workflow, yes. However all the other standalone synths are their own things. Some of them _might have been prototyped in Reaktor_, but in the end they are just built as a regular plugin, with hard C++ 



Mark Schmieder said:


> Yet NI is pushing it as their first poly-synth since the canceled Pro-53.



That's because it's true.


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## Mark Schmieder (May 5, 2019)

ED, thanks for confirming what my own investigations concluded regarding FM8 (for example) being a separate synth from Reaktor, and Battery being a reskinning of Kontakt. What confuses me about the poly-synth claim is that I would think there have been others in that category in the Reaktor Player category by now, before "Super 8" came out, but I so rarely use Reaktor that I'm not really familiar with its catalogue. Nothing against Reaktor; I just have so many great tools that I never exhaust the possibilities and get around to sorting through all the Reaktor stuff.


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## HeliaVox (May 5, 2019)

I love NI, but I'd also love to get my old Pro53 back. And while I'm going off topic, I'd also love to have my Vokator and Spektral Delay back, too.


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## EvilDragon (May 5, 2019)

Mark Schmieder said:


> What confuses me about the poly-synth claim is that I would think there have been others in that category in the Reaktor Player category by now, before "Super 8" came out



None of the previous Reaktor Player synths were virtual analog polysynths. Rounds has a virtual analog element, but it's mixed with a digital FM element and a pretty interesting/weird/fun/confusing method of playing back those elements in round-robins... So it's quite a bit different from being a vintage-inspired polysynth, really.



HeliaVox said:


> I love NI, but I'd also love to get my old Pro53 back.



Still works over here.


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## Mark Schmieder (May 5, 2019)

OK, good to know that this really is a unique offering from NI. Many of us are a bit skeptical due to how much of what they put out appears on the surface to be EDM-oriented (especially in their audio demos) -- such as much of their new preset series that sort-of picks up where Kore left off. That's why I said earlier that almost every NI product that I buy (directly, or indirectly via Komplete), usually surprises me and ends up becoming part of my template and workflow.


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## HeliaVox (May 5, 2019)

EvilDragon said:


> None of the previous Reaktor Player synths were virtual analog polysynths. Rounds has a virtual analog element, but it's mixed with a digital FM element and a pretty interesting/weird/fun/confusing method of playing back those elements in round-robins... So it's quite a bit different from being a vintage-inspired polysynth, really.
> 
> 
> 
> Still works over here.


Then color me jealous. Can't get it to work on my modern mac.


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## EvilDragon (May 5, 2019)

That's because you're on a Mac, sorry to say. They aren't exactly known for backwards compatibility. Runs like a charm on Windows and within Reaper's bit-bridge


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