Native Lab: KORE
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006 | 11:28 am and filed in Friends, Music Software.
Native Instruments has an intensive KORE demo on tour and last Saturday, they launched from Recombinant Media Labs in SF. Richard Devine along with NI Product Specialist, Josh Fielstra presented a fairly intensive 4 hour lecture about this new system. I figured I would drop in and say hello and see what KORE was all about.
KORE itself is simply an environment and uses virtually no CPU processing. The environment extends from the software realm to the real world through the KORE controller which is a USB audio and MIDI interface as well as custom hi resolution control surface that communicates with the software environment. The software itself hosts all of the NI products like Absynth, Reaktor Ensembles, Battery Drumsets, as well as almost any plug-in: AU, VST, RTAS, etc. Within the software, you can configure stacks of plug-ins to create instruments and effects chains and custom weird sound fx systems - as Richard so deftly demonstrated. Then save the KORE patch with Tags to describe the type of sound. You can then quickly browse or search out categories of sounds based on these tags.
I was impressed with the potential of KORE, and it only crashed twice during the four hours, so it’s pretty stable. If I were more of a plug-in user, I would probably be all over a KORE system. As it is, i’m more of a load, sequence and freeze type of user, but if you’re a KVR-addict, then you need KORE!
At the end, there was a special guest appearance from Dan The Automator. Richard interviewed him about production techniques and the audience had the opportunity to ask both of them questions about tweaking, instruments, and the music biz. People were also treated to a tour of the facility by Naut, the RML director of operations.
Later that evening there was a Remix Mag/NI party down at #111 Minna Gallery where several local bands performed including Dan The Automator and later on Richard Devine. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stick around that late.
August 15th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
KORE got a great review in the most recent issue of SOUND ON SOUND. It looks pretty amazing, especially as the hub of a software studio which (as you already said) focuses primarily on plug-ins.
It’s too bad Reason’s instruments can’t be used as plug-ins!
August 15th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
Yeah, it’s impressive. If you’re already a big NI user and have Komplete, then Kore is definitely a plus, or even if you’re just big into VSTi, or other softsynths, it’s like having a combinator for all of your software.
August 16th, 2006 at 11:21 am
I wonder what kind of studio could be built using NI gear as the focus, hosted in something like Logic, or maybe even Live?
It’d be interested to see how a completely soft studio would fare. I wonder what would make the cut? Hmm.. maybe effects should be hardware… (mumble mumble, ponder, smell of burning wood).
This is going to take some careful consideration.
On this same token, have you ever used NI’s stuff? I played around with Absynth once in a Sam Ash for a little while, but I hate doing that stuff in the middle of a store with reps hassling you, and a few Joe Schmoes reminding us with their amps turned all the way up that they do, indeed, know how to play Stairway to Heaven.
August 19th, 2006 at 9:07 am
I bought kore and returned it.. it’s very buggy, the harware unit build quality is terrible. I had bad ground loop problems with the unit too. It’ll probably be cool by it’s 3rd release.
I love NI products and I have komplete 3. Kore has a useful librarian feature that categorises your NI sounds, but honestly doesn’t offer any hug sound authoring capabilities as opposed to a good vst host and the controller of your choice. Not to say it’s all bad, just feels like a beta release to me.
August 20th, 2006 at 9:36 am
I think what I’m really curious is how the sound quality on NI products compares to Reason.
August 21st, 2006 at 4:51 am
Well you will be surprised once when you try NI and compare it to Reason within sound quality aspect. I dont want to bash Reason synths as they can be good sometimes but IMO they cant even compare. Once when you try Reaktor you will see what i am talking about. Anyway i hope that Props will update Reason filters on devices (oscilators on synts too) as this can bring dramatic sound quality expansion to Reason as it is.
August 21st, 2006 at 9:06 am
I have to agree.. NI products sound much better than reason.. Peff gets a great sound out of reason but he’s an uber power user (have you seen those template files) Reaktor just sound huge out of the box. Pity that kore doesn’t live up to the rest of NI quality.
August 21st, 2006 at 11:41 am
I took the time to download and install the Reaktor 5 demo this weekend, and I have to agree! The sound quality is pretty huge, although I wonder if part of that is due to the big names they have designing their presets.
That being said, the two software bundles serve different purposes. Reaktor has very powerful, very hungry synths for people who need pro sounding audio from the get-go. Reason, I feel, appeals more to the hobbiests that are so rampant, especially in electronic music. Out of the box, in a few hours, someone can be pumping out a whole song!
Even for pros, that’s a big deal, I think. Reason is an amazing tool for writing music, and building a track from scratch. Not having to deal with loading/freezing those hungry plug-ins, or even worse, plugging in and putzing around with hardware makes composition much more a painless (and enjoyable!) process.
After saying all that, I’m still planning on buying Komplete 3, and at least trying out Kore. The sounds are simply too big! Reason, however, will without a doubt remain the ‘first step’ in my workflow.
Cheers!
August 21st, 2006 at 1:39 pm
yeah reason is the ultimate sketchpad.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
I had the fortune, (or rather misfortune) of trying out the KORE system. As a standalone system for live use of VST plugins, loads to recommend there. As a system used inside a sequencer as a plugin to gather all your plugins together and work under Cubase a disaster. What made it a disaster? There has not been a stable release of the program since it came out. Basically, it doesn’t work under Cubase or any other VST host. It refuses to load on many occassions and on the occassions that it does load, it sucks CPU power like a horse. It is great to be able to combine all your NI plugins together and access them under a since interface, especially under a sequencer. If only it worked. The only way I could get it to work under any system was if I installed 1.0 of the plugin, saved the dll files elsewhere, installed the latest update, then reinstalled the KORE device with the latest drivers. Then it wouldn’t crash Cubase, but unfortunately, then we couldn’t get any of the knobs or switches on KORE to work inside Cubase. Usually closing down Cubase, loading up the standalone version of KORE, selecting a sound, then closing the standalone version of KORE and re-running Cubase would restore knob functionality, but then you were stuck with the prospect of the huge CPU load increase and the frequent possibilities of crashes. It has become a boat-anchor paperweight in my studio, a big waste of space and cash. Boo to Native Instruments for releasing something so bug, ridden. I have read on the forums that the conflict arrives when you have ACID and Cubase on the same system that KORE is installed on, but I have tried it on a fresh system and you still get the same results, so go figure…
Purchase at your own risk.
March 1st, 2007 at 12:51 am
Reaktor is an absolute must in any Music Producers studio, the vast array of sounds really puts any other synth or modular system to shame. Not mention that now you can control the whole array of Komplete products via the Kore interface mmmmm