What are your thoughts on the relevence of NI Battery these days

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RustyShakleforde
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18 Feb 2019

Hello,

Ive had Komplete 10 for a while and always thought Battery looked cool. Have read numerous people talk about how its the best drum vst ever - but ive never been able to really get into it. I honestly find myself reaching for the Redrum time and time again.

Im gonna have a mess around with Battery today again, see if it can inspire me, but also wondering what your thoughts are on it? Ive heard it can be good for triggering loops too - but then i have octorex..

The more i have learned about vsts etc the more i have realized that Reason has had me covered the entire time.

One big drawback for battery for me is that its more strenuous to get individual channels for mixing.

Peace

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jam-s
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18 Feb 2019

I think the only thing that battery actually gives to Reason users are the included samples.

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Micha1973
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18 Feb 2019

if you play with machine(sequezer) - no one beats battery - in reason it´s kong and like jam-s wrote u can use the samples
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RustyShakleforde
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18 Feb 2019

Yea, Ive been mucking about with it and made a track since posting.

I used it for kick and hats, thought it was obviously cool with all the parameters and included eqs, compressors etc, workflow is cool. But after getting my initial drums down with it and then making a baseline with monark (im revisiting my ni stuff today for something to do) i found i was back dropping in re-drums for all my perc etc. Theres something to be said about rack extensions and being able to stay in the rack as opposed to opening and closing windows.

The samples are great in battery, even then though, i have been using the included drum samples from Reason v10 update a lot recently. I wasn't sure it was worth it at the time, but its nice dropping in a redrum, selecting a bassdrum from included ones then scrolling through them till i find one i like. From there i can change the sound of the sample with redrum / effects in the rack.

Think i'll use battery when im feeling like experimenting, but probably stick to the trusty re-drum (mad im not bored with it even after 10+ years)

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hurricane
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18 Feb 2019

RustyShakleforde wrote:
18 Feb 2019
Hello,

Ive had Komplete 10 for a while and always thought Battery looked cool. Have read numerous people talk about how its the best drum vst ever - but ive never been able to really get into it. I honestly find myself reaching for the Redrum time and time again.
Don't you think that if it was the other way around and you used Battery for 10+ years and then tried Redrum, that you wouldn't be into Redrum as much as Battery? I am sure if you knew Battery as well as you knew Redrum, and Redrum like how you know Battery NOW, you would probably be wondering if Redrum was all that. And then if you were a VST guy (which it sounds like you are more of a Reason guy) then you'd say "the more I learn about Reason, the more I realize VSTs have me covered the whole time" and you'd forget about Redrum and keep on using Battery. So your thoughts about Redrum vs Battery have everything to do with familiarity and comfort.

So:

Redrum is really good for making quick beats. I don't particularly like the FSB samples for it though. Sound scultping is limited, but then you have access to all those Reasony things to do that.

Battery has an excellent gui with considerably better sample content. Sounds are more polished, and if you wanted to polish them even more, Battery's sound sculpting capabilities are intense but easy to work with. And once you get familiar with it, you'll find you can get the sound you are looking for rather quickly, especially since everything is included under the hood and you don't have to deal with messy and cumbersome patching.
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QVprod
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18 Feb 2019

I would agree with hurricane. Of course preference will vary from person to person but I think preference toward Redrum is more about familiarity. Redrum is a very basic sampler and the only slight thing it has over Battery is the step sequencer if you're one who uses those. If you're not into step sequencers, then it's a no contest, but it's also possible to trigger Battery with a step sequencer so I'd still say Battery is superior anyway. The sound shaping and layering capabilities for samples far exceed both Redrum and Kong. The articulations also are a great help for rolled hihats for example. At one point Kong was my favorite drum sampler. Battery has replaced it in most of my productions nowadays.

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RustyShakleforde
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18 Feb 2019

Good points Hurricane and QVprod. I posted in haste, before opening and playing with it for a while.

I do rate battery, i have lots of experience with the NI FX and its awesome they are there under the hood. Your right that running battery and using the midi view is adequate, and the quality of sound is amazing.

I made a track today with it and it sounds good. Made a beat and bounced it down when finished, sounds polished for sure.

Your right its just familiarity, ive been using vsts and reason for ages. Got used to workflow of redrum, mostly having the sequencer running while i come up with ideas. I do like the rack, though im quick enough using vsts too, i think they implimented them well with the vst device. I was using syncronious to modify monark in the same track, which was cool.

I love Drumlab by NI too, often i design hits in there, bounce out and use redrum to trigger samples.

Cheers for the feedback, was intersted in what people thought.

danc
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18 Feb 2019

I have been extensively using Battery for some years and can confirm that it definitely has earned its place in my rack. However...

Since spending quite a bit of time learning to mix properly (thank you Dance Music Production courses - totally pukka) I have started to truly appreciate that it's much easier/better to use individual sounds direct on their own tracks... I can then totally fine-tune them using FX, dynamics, gates, compressors, expanders, whatever... and bus them into groups in the old traditional way. That way you have a lot of control over the final sound. Hard work maybe - but the end result is totally worth it.

So - where does Battery fit? Well - I've learnt to build specific percussion layers in Battery - not the entire drum kit. So - I will use say Punchbox or Kick 2 or whatever for my kicks. I'll find a really good clap/snare etc as samples (or create from scratch using my hardware Moog Sub 37 or Jupiter 80) and process using traditional methods and then just use Battery for my closed and open hats or toms or whatever.

Or... I'll use Battery for my quick and dirty experiments, where I drop loads of samples in and get a groove/sound I like. In the last month I picked up a NI Maschine 3. And now I'm hooked on that.

The point being. Battery is one of many things that I use. It's never going to be my SOLO drum source (although I did go through a phase when it was - but learnt that it wasn't going to give me everything I needed) - but it's great as another drum tool in my vast armoury.
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hurricane
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18 Feb 2019

You've got to check out the Articulations/Midi Echo/Humanize setting in each cell - works great if you want your snares to have some human feel. The built-in effects are also worthy of mention because Battery 4 includes the Solid G EQ, the Bus Comp, and Transient Master , plus it has a fantastic lo-fi effect and a solid tape emulation (the 'warm tape' preset is killer on snares). With Redrum you'd have patch things to other things and then those things to more things, only to end up with poor to mediocre results. Everything sounds slick in Battery 4.
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reddust
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22 Feb 2019

Battery would be one of my main reasons to update my Komplete Library Selection to one of the full versions, but still thinking about purchasing just the instruments and expansions I prefer.

Anyways, after I purchased Umpf Club Drums and watched some video tutorials on Reason's Drum Sequencer tool I'm starting to hesitate if I need Battery at all. I also own Maschine (Hardware & Software) and a couple of Expansions, so I'm not pretty sure about Battery anymore.

groggy1
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23 Feb 2019

I used to use battery 3. I liked it for the samples it came with, not the workflow.

I found in past few years that I liked Kong workflow more, since I don’t always layer. But I agree with others in this thread that if you find a vst that improves your workflow, go for it.

Lately, I started using Serato Sample in Reason since it has a unique workflow. I’m really digging it since I’m getting new results I never got before.

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tumar
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23 Feb 2019

jam-s wrote:
18 Feb 2019
I think the only thing that battery actually gives to Reason users are the included samples.
Not only. Battery has better FX and you can assign midi notes to cells as you wish.

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