Is NI's Battery 4 Worth It? On sale for $99

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MannequinRaces
Posts: 1543
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11 Apr 2018

Hey all, is NI's Battery 4 worth it. NI is having a sale where if you buy two $49 expansion packs you get Battery 4 for free so essentially Battery 4 + two expansion packs of your choosing for $99. I'm tempted but what your thoughts on this. Those of you that have and use this does it work well in Reason? I'm assuming it does because Reaktor does. Thank you.

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mreese80
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11 Apr 2018

It's worth it but i like battery 3 better. I like the layout of battery 3 better. So i don't even use battery 4 but it's worth having for sure man.
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MannequinRaces
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11 Apr 2018

mreese80 wrote:
11 Apr 2018
It's worth it but i like battery 3 better. I like the layout of battery 3 better. So i don't even use battery 4 but it's worth having for sure man.
Cool! Thank you for your reply! Since I would be brand new to Battery starting to use 4 and having no experience with 3 I guess the layout won't bother me. What did they change that you're not liking?

swamptooth
Posts: 166
Joined: 05 Feb 2015

11 Apr 2018

MannequinRaces wrote:
11 Apr 2018
mreese80 wrote:
11 Apr 2018
It's worth it but i like battery 3 better. I like the layout of battery 3 better. So i don't even use battery 4 but it's worth having for sure man.
Cool! Thank you for your reply! Since I would be brand new to Battery starting to use 4 and having no experience with 3 I guess the layout won't bother me. What did they change that you're not liking?
For me it was the built-in effects routing and sample editing facilities... They became less intuitive.

I've grown to love battery 4 though.
The thing I dislike about it is not the program itself but how lazy people who build kits for it are.

The software itself is a bargain with the content.

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QVprod
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11 Apr 2018

It's great. I still use Kong for drums in Reason, but Battery is actually better. Sample layering, editing and fx. Then the articulations are pretty handy from time to time. It's my go to drum sampler when I'm outside of Reason as well as for whenever I need Trap-stlye hihat or snare rolls.

sdst
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11 Apr 2018

maybe, to use it outside of Reason.

I would not use a vst drums pad in Reason, having kong available

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mreese80
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11 Apr 2018

MannequinRaces wrote:
11 Apr 2018
mreese80 wrote:
11 Apr 2018
It's worth it but i like battery 3 better. I like the layout of battery 3 better. So i don't even use battery 4 but it's worth having for sure man.
Cool! Thank you for your reply! Since I would be brand new to Battery starting to use 4 and having no experience with 3 I guess the layout won't bother me. What did they change that you're not liking?
They changed the browser on 4. B3's version was way better. I also like the way you could audition samples on 3. Battery is powerful. It's a shame really hasn't focused more on. Drums hit so hard in battery.
Reason 10.4 :refill: :re: :ignition: | :recycle: 2.2.4 | Ableton Live Suite 10.1| MPC Software 1.9.6 | Photoshop CC 2019 | Novation Impulse 49 | Nektar Impact LX 49

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MannequinRaces
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11 Apr 2018

Thanks for taking the time to reply everybody! I think they have a trial version so I’ll check it out before the sale ends.

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United South
Posts: 151
Joined: 27 Dec 2017

11 Apr 2018

Trash imo and can’t compare to Kong. It’s worth the $99 for the samples though.

mataya

14 Apr 2018

United South wrote:
11 Apr 2018
Trash imo and can’t compare to Kong. It’s worth the $99 for the samples though.
I'm sure it can be compared to Kong. Would you please at least try? The fact you called it trash is saying you're clueless.

M

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Oquasec
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14 Apr 2018

Depends. Kong is the reason I don't use battery.
It depends on what you want tbh.
Last edited by Oquasec on 15 Apr 2018, edited 1 time in total.
Producer/Programmer.
Reason, FLS and Cubase NFR user.

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mreese80
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14 Apr 2018

mataya wrote:
14 Apr 2018
United South wrote:
11 Apr 2018
Trash imo and can’t compare to Kong. It’s worth the $99 for the samples though.
I'm sure it can be compared to Kong. Would you please at least try? The fact you called it trash is saying you're clueless.

M
It's way better than Kong. Don't ever believe that it ain't. It's a shame NI didn't do more this.
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United South
Posts: 151
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14 Apr 2018

mreese80 wrote:
14 Apr 2018
mataya wrote:
14 Apr 2018


I'm sure it can be compared to Kong. Would you please at least try? The fact you called it trash is saying you're clueless.

M
It's way better than Kong. Don't ever believe that it ain't. It's a shame NI didn't do more this.
Bullish!! The only thing that Battery 4 is better at is the sample tag system period,everything else in the UI is trash and convoluted imo.

No drum synth

No physical modeling


Nothing feels natural, for example clicking on a pad should produce a sound to preview one shots but it doesn't,you have to go in the menu and select it. Why is there a setting I have to use to be able to click a pad with my mouse to hear a sound?? When using a 4x4 matrix you would think it would map out to the pads in most midi controllers but it doesn't, nor does it map to Maschine Studio with Battery selected in the control editor. Now you have to manually change each midi note!!!! Where as Kong you plug and go.

No obvious ways to have notes cut each other unlike the ease in Kong.

Kong way better and faster with the choices of playing loops or one shots better way of layering the same one shot and distributing them across all pads fast.

The roll articulation is trash in that it sounds more like an marching band roll than a trap roll.
This just off the top of my head.


I am drum maschine Guru few people can out programm me period,who doesn't mind the difficulty in learning new drum modules when it makes sense,hell I loved the beautiful UltraBeat in Logic when I owned a mac. But I hate software that wasn't imo thought out enough that makes me do unnecessary stuff for simple ish. It's the same for my Maschine Studio and why I use Kong.

Another thing when I bought Komplete two years ago I was looking up videos on youtube and had this saved which talks about sample editing being destructive in battery 4, I knew then It wasn't going to be my main drum module.


WTH are you guys talking about???

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mreese80
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14 Apr 2018

United South wrote:
14 Apr 2018
mreese80 wrote:
14 Apr 2018


It's way better than Kong. Don't ever believe that it ain't. It's a shame NI didn't do more this.
Bullish!! The only thing that Battery 4 is better at is the sample tag system period,everything else in the UI is trash and convoluted imo.

No drum synth

No physical modeling


Nothing feels natural, for example clicking on a pad should produce a sound to preview one shots but it doesn't,you have to go in the menu and select it. Why is there a setting I have to use to be able to click a pad with my mouse to hear a sound?? When using a 4x4 matrix you would think it would map out to the pads in most midi controllers but it doesn't, nor does it map to Maschine Studio with Battery selected in the control editor. Now you have to manually change each midi note!!!! Where as Kong you plug and go.

No obvious ways to have notes cut each other unlike the ease in Kong.

Kong way better and faster with the choices of playing loops or one shots better way of layering the same one shot and distributing them across all pads fast.

The roll articulation is trash in that it sounds more like an marching band roll than a trap roll.
This just off the top of my head.


I am drum maschine Guru few people can out programm me period,who doesn't mind the difficulty in learning new drum modules when it makes sense,hell I loved the beautiful UltraBeat in Logic when I owned a mac. But I hate software that wasn't imo thought out enough that makes me do unnecessary stuff for simple ish. It's the same for my Maschine Studio and why I use Kong.

Another thing when I bought Komplete two years ago I was looking up videos on youtube and had this saved which talks about sample editing being destructive in battery 4, I knew then It wasn't going to be my main drum module.


WTH are you guys talking about???
I don't know what you're doing with but i can do wutever i want with it. Same shit i can do with Kong i can do in battery. And i also Battery 3 was better than 4. They took away some good features that they had in 3 when they made 4. But if you don't like it you don't like it lol. I started out with drum machines. So i dont know about your programming game but i know i'm nice with it. The Boss Dr-660 is when my drumming really got wicked. And we know how long ago that was. You should educate yourself more it guru loll.
Last edited by QVprod on 14 Apr 2018, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Separated response from quote.
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QVprod
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14 Apr 2018

United South wrote:
14 Apr 2018
mreese80 wrote:
14 Apr 2018


It's way better than Kong. Don't ever believe that it ain't. It's a shame NI didn't do more this.
Bullish!! The only thing that Battery 4 is better at is the sample tag system period,everything else in the UI is trash and convoluted imo.

No drum synth

No physical modeling


Nothing feels natural, for example clicking on a pad should produce a sound to preview one shots but it doesn't,you have to go in the menu and select it. Why is there a setting I have to use to be able to click a pad with my mouse to hear a sound?? When using a 4x4 matrix you would think it would map out to the pads in most midi controllers but it doesn't, nor does it map to Maschine Studio with Battery selected in the control editor. Now you have to manually change each midi note!!!! Where as Kong you plug and go.

No obvious ways to have notes cut each other unlike the ease in Kong.

Kong way better and faster with the choices of playing loops or one shots better way of layering the same one shot and distributing them across all pads fast.

The roll articulation is trash in that it sounds more like an marching band roll than a trap roll.
This just off the top of my head.


I am drum maschine Guru few people can out programm me period,who doesn't mind the difficulty in learning new drum modules when it makes sense,hell I loved the beautiful UltraBeat in Logic when I owned a mac. But I hate software that wasn't imo thought out enough that makes me do unnecessary stuff for simple ish. It's the same for my Maschine Studio and why I use Kong.

Another thing when I bought Komplete two years ago I was looking up videos on youtube and had this saved which talks about sample editing being destructive in battery 4, I knew then It wasn't going to be my main drum module.


WTH are you guys talking about???
As stated earlier, I actually do still prefer Kong, but Battery 4 can quite literally do everything Kong can do (in some cases even better) except for the physical drum and synth modules, but I don't use those anyway. Clicking a cell (pad) does produce sound. Not sure why that didn't work for you. Sample choking isn't hard to do, and you can non-destructively edit a sample's start and end markers. Moving the markers aren't the edits that video was referring to, but rather cropping and cutting...etc... The roll articulation has adjustable speed. I've done trap style rolls with it, and it's my go to when I want to do that kind of stuff such as on this track

As far as mapping, it by default maps the same way Kong does, chromatically starting from C1. It's just that the cell order goes from top to bottom. That said, Battery cells can be assigned to any midi note (which you can set by playing your controller), whereas with Kong you're locked into it's midi mapping. Layering samples on the same pad/cell is more flexible in Battery as you still have individual access to tweak each sample. Battery also has more and arguably better fx built in than Kong does. The only Reason I choose Kong over Battery honestly is familiarity. I get things done faster because I've used Kong for so much longer.

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United South
Posts: 151
Joined: 27 Dec 2017

15 Apr 2018

QVprod wrote:
14 Apr 2018
United South wrote:
14 Apr 2018


Bullish!! The only thing that Battery 4 is better at is the sample tag system period,everything else in the UI is trash and convoluted imo.

No drum synth

No physical modeling


Nothing feels natural, for example clicking on a pad should produce a sound to preview one shots but it doesn't,you have to go in the menu and select it. Why is there a setting I have to use to be able to click a pad with my mouse to hear a sound?? When using a 4x4 matrix you would think it would map out to the pads in most midi controllers but it doesn't, nor does it map to Maschine Studio with Battery selected in the control editor. Now you have to manually change each midi note!!!! Where as Kong you plug and go.

No obvious ways to have notes cut each other unlike the ease in Kong.

Kong way better and faster with the choices of playing loops or one shots better way of layering the same one shot and distributing them across all pads fast.

The roll articulation is trash in that it sounds more like an marching band roll than a trap roll.
This just off the top of my head.


I am drum maschine Guru few people can out programm me period,who doesn't mind the difficulty in learning new drum modules when it makes sense,hell I loved the beautiful UltraBeat in Logic when I owned a mac. But I hate software that wasn't imo thought out enough that makes me do unnecessary stuff for simple ish. It's the same for my Maschine Studio and why I use Kong.

Another thing when I bought Komplete two years ago I was looking up videos on youtube and had this saved which talks about sample editing being destructive in battery 4, I knew then It wasn't going to be my main drum module.


WTH are you guys talking about???
As stated earlier, I actually do still prefer Kong, but Battery 4 can quite literally do everything Kong can do (in some cases even better) except for the physical drum and synth modules, but I don't use those anyway. Clicking a cell (pad) does produce sound. Not sure why that didn't work for you. Sample choking isn't hard to do, and you can non-destructively edit a sample's start and end markers. Moving the markers aren't the edits that video was referring to, but rather cropping and cutting...etc... The roll articulation has adjustable speed. I've done trap style rolls with it, and it's my go to when I want to do that kind of stuff such as on this track

As far as mapping, it by default maps the same way Kong does, chromatically starting from C1. It's just that the cell order goes from top to bottom. That said, Battery cells can be assigned to any midi note (which you can set by playing your controller), whereas with Kong you're locked into it's midi mapping. Layering samples on the same pad/cell is more flexible in Battery as you still have individual access to tweak each sample. Battery also has more and arguably better fx built in than Kong does. The only Reason I choose Kong over Battery honestly is familiarity. I get things done faster because I've used Kong for so much longer.
I hear you Q I guess it boils down to preference right?

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QVprod
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15 Apr 2018

United South wrote:
15 Apr 2018


I hear you Q I guess it boils down to preference right?
Yep ultimately

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16BitBear
Posts: 247
Joined: 21 May 2016
Location: Arizona

15 Apr 2018

mreese80 wrote:
11 Apr 2018
It's worth it but i like battery 3 better. I like the layout of battery 3 better. So i don't even use battery 4 but it's worth having for sure man.
I agree. I have 4 but I still use 3 all the time.

mataya

15 Apr 2018

United South wrote:
15 Apr 2018
QVprod wrote:
14 Apr 2018


As stated earlier, I actually do still prefer Kong, but Battery 4 can quite literally do everything Kong can do (in some cases even better) except for the physical drum and synth modules, but I don't use those anyway. Clicking a cell (pad) does produce sound. Not sure why that didn't work for you. Sample choking isn't hard to do, and you can non-destructively edit a sample's start and end markers. Moving the markers aren't the edits that video was referring to, but rather cropping and cutting...etc... The roll articulation has adjustable speed. I've done trap style rolls with it, and it's my go to when I want to do that kind of stuff such as on this track

As far as mapping, it by default maps the same way Kong does, chromatically starting from C1. It's just that the cell order goes from top to bottom. That said, Battery cells can be assigned to any midi note (which you can set by playing your controller), whereas with Kong you're locked into it's midi mapping. Layering samples on the same pad/cell is more flexible in Battery as you still have individual access to tweak each sample. Battery also has more and arguably better fx built in than Kong does. The only Reason I choose Kong over Battery honestly is familiarity. I get things done faster because I've used Kong for so much longer.
I hear you Q I guess it boils down to preference right?
Exactly! But it's not trash, right?

danc
Posts: 1017
Joined: 14 Oct 2016

15 Apr 2018

Like everyone here... before VST I lived on Kong, Redrum and Dr.OctoRex. Since VST I've had the opportunity to trial everything, thus broadening my drum making palette. After much trialling I've settled for Battery 4 as my main Kong replacement. It can do way more than Kong. To get anywhere close in Kong you need to connect it up to a lot of external FX and CV devices - which can turn into spaghetti.

Irrelevant of what drum tools you use, the audio samples you use are more important than the environment you run them in... I rely heavily on Wave Alchemy's Drum Tools 2 sample pack (most of these samples are in their Evolution). Love it. However... in recent days I spend a huge amount of time constructing my own samples - processing/layering/EQing/saturating/compressing/etc until I get it all just right. It's the only way to properly ensure your drums sit in the mix just right (even if it does take an age to do it properly) - and to create your own layered samples you can do this directly within Reason on the audio tracks - you don't need any clever drum RE/VST plugin to do this. Just add FX etc as required to the audio channels. Once complete I then bounce down the result and add to Battery. This is especially useful for getting amazing/unique hi-hats.

My other fav drum VSTs... for kicks I heavily rely on Kick 2 (love the powerful/simple interface), Geist 2 (yes I know it's like Marmite - you either love or hate it) which allows me to go a lot further in terms of manipulation and sometimes I use Sample Magic Klip and Stacker, Soniccouture Electro-Acoustic (for 808 and 909's etc with total unique crunchy attitude - take a look at the lengths they went to add amazing depth to their kits) and N.I. Polyplex (which has some really awesome presets).

However... I still love and live on Dr.OctoRex for chopping/destructing loops. It's quick and easy, but like Kong I think it's far too basic and I do hope that one day Propellerhead take it to the next level, as there are a massive wish list of things I'd love it to do.
Check my Soundcloud:

User avatar
United South
Posts: 151
Joined: 27 Dec 2017

15 Apr 2018

danc wrote:
15 Apr 2018
Like everyone here... before VST I lived on Kong, Redrum and Dr.OctoRex. Since VST I've had the opportunity to trial everything, thus broadening my drum making palette. After much trialling I've settled for Battery 4 as my main Kong replacement. It can do way more than Kong. To get anywhere close in Kong you need to connect it up to a lot of external FX and CV devices - which can turn into spaghetti.

Irrelevant of what drum tools you use, the audio samples you use are more important than the environment you run them in...
I rely heavily on Wave Alchemy's Drum Tools 2 sample pack (most of these samples are in their Evolution). Love it. However... in recent days I spend a huge amount of time constructing my own samples - processing/layering/EQing/saturating/compressing/etc until I get it all just right. It's the only way to properly ensure your drums sit in the mix just right (even if it does take an age to do it properly) - and to create your own layered samples you can do this directly within Reason on the audio tracks - you don't need any clever drum RE/VST plugin to do this. Just add FX etc as required to the audio channels. Once complete I then bounce down the result and add to Battery. This is especially useful for getting amazing/unique hi-hats.

My other fav drum VSTs... for kicks I heavily rely on Kick 2 (love the powerful/simple interface), Geist 2 (yes I know it's like Marmite - you either love or hate it) which allows me to go a lot further in terms of manipulation and sometimes I use Sample Magic Klip and Stacker, Soniccouture Electro-Acoustic (for 808 and 909's etc with total unique crunchy attitude - take a look at the lengths they went to add amazing depth to their kits) and N.I. Polyplex (which has some really awesome presets).

However... I still love and live on Dr.OctoRex for chopping/destructing loops. It's quick and easy, but like Kong I think it's far too basic and I do hope that one day Propellerhead take it to the next level, as there are a massive wish list of things I'd love it to do.
I stop reading right there lol.

danc
Posts: 1017
Joined: 14 Oct 2016

15 Apr 2018

Maybe you should read a little further and see that I spend hours creating my own samples - bespoke for each project I work on. So hardly a crime!
Check my Soundcloud:

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miscend
Posts: 1955
Joined: 09 Feb 2015

15 Apr 2018

I just got Battery 3. I’ve only payed with it for 20 mins. But so far it seems like a good complement to Kong and ReDrum. It comes with a very decent and varied library of drums kits in many genres. You can use it for the drum library alone and not worry about making your own kits or sampling.

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Kenni
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16 Apr 2018

You guys got in a fight. About drum machines. Users were banned based on this argument. I can't imagine how dumb you must feel right now.

Besides, NNXT over any drum machine.

:lol:
Kenni Andruszkow
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Hauser+Quaid
Posts: 147
Joined: 06 Jun 2017

17 Apr 2018

I like Battery, also been a user since 3, but I never LOVED it. Still have it as part of Komplete so the other day inspired by this thread I tried it in Reason to see how I got on with it. Came to the conclusion that for me if I'm using Reason I'm using Kong for drums. It's just designed better. Of course Battery is WAY deeper but for my music Kong is more than enough. Any other DAW and I'd probably use Battery though.

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