Hi guys

my brother makes backing tracks for a living, and he`s been using loads of plug ins, some of the sounds he has created and edited and used are incredible, he wants me to get a Muse Receptor and i`m being convinced in to getting one...
theres just so many great patches out there, trouble is they are VERY expensive over here in the UK
some of these sounds he`s been using, i just cant imitate on my Roland Fantom X8 and Yamaha Motif ES7, really huge sounding patches, layer upon layer of thick sounding awesomeness, lol

any of you use a Receptor onstage for gigs?
how have you found it in terms of reliability?
could you now live without one? and with all these plug ins available, is this the way to go?

I do love my Receptor - I have the 2 with Komplete/Ivory/Atmosphere etc.

My biggest advice would be to see what plug ins are supported now and don't plan that any more will be released - I am sure that some will be - but I see a flame throwing cause some specific vst isn't supported - and I can definitely understand the frustration - I wish my Arturia stuff was supported for example - so if you buy be content with the plug ins that are currently supported and whatever else gets released is a bonus. We should take bets on how long it will take to Receptorize the new version of Ivory...

second - If I didn't have the receptor - which I love - I would seriously consider going the Mac Book Pro route instead.

Third - for the 35 - 50 a night gigs I do I am not bringing down a rack of stuff. So I have never gigged with mine - it is hooked up to my DAW - I hardly ever load tracks on the DAW - it's mostly done in the Receptor - oh and I don't use Uniwire - midi with a midi merge box seems to work ok.

It does sound amazing.

I have a Rev B, have had it for 5 years. It has been to almost EVERY single gig I’ve done. It’s a major component of my Pink Freud show. It’s been super reliable. I had to have it repaired a few months ago: the power supply went bad (they had gotten bad supplies that were expiring and this apparently a “known” bug…just not to me). Got it fixed for $165, good as new. If I didn’t have it today, I’d have to go buy another. I run B4, Pro53 (Prophet), Oddity (ARP), ImpOSCar (Oscar/The Cat), MiniMonstah (MiniMoog), Mtron (Mellotron), CS80v (Yamaha CS80…and screw Arturia btw), OPXpro (Oberheim), VirtualStringMachine (Polymoog, ARP String Ensemble, Omni, Moog Quartet, Elka…analog string machines galore), SonikSynth II (typical “workstation” sound engine), Atmosphere and LoungeLizard3, some FX freeware, some guitar freeware (very good actually!), and I use the Receptor not only for those great keyboard sounds (which blow away every hardware keyboard I’ve owned or tried), but I process my Breedlove 12 string acoustic through it, as well as my LesPaul, and I do this all live.
I had bought a second Receptor Rev C to run Akoustik Piano and Elektrik Piano (Native Instruments) thanks to a Keyboard mag article proclaiming them more efficient than Ivory, and was severely disappointed. Acoustik ran like a pig, was glitch, and I sold the unit. (regret it now) But Rev C is old technology (not as old as my RevB), and from all accounts Ivory, etc., run great.
My advice: know what you want to run (is it a piano-based module, or a synth-based module). If it’s the former, you are talking sample-intensive programs: samples take time to load, especially when you’re talking 20gb libraries. It’s not quick enough for live use for those types of sounds (although I am sure others will disagree and supply you with workarounds), but I also find that in a live context, the benefit of those huge libraries is lost…especially in club-Pas and onstage monitoring gear. But for the synth stuff, most of it is modeled (not sampled), and those loads are just as fast as any hardware piece, or will be if you spend 5 minutes before the gig slowly stepping through your programs: after the presets have been called up once, they come up instantaneously until the next power down. The synth stuff is why I bought it (and the Mellotrons), and I have never regretted it. One of my favorite pieces of gear ever.

Two thoughts come to mind:

1) you have arguably two of the best hardware workstations ever created at your disposal; if you can't get 'thick sounding awesomeness' out of those two units, you should spend more time learning your gear's capabilities.

2) 'thick sounding awesomeness' has very little place in a live gig, as all you'll be doing is stepping all over the other instruments and vocals in the band, more often than not resulting in a thick gooey mess.

As with most things, YMMV, but that's what came to mind immediately upon reading your post.

In Tony's case, he's using the power of the Receptor to cover all the bases that he needs to where workstations might come up short; in other words, there are specific sounds from specific synths from history that he needs to recreate on stage, and the Receptor puts them all in one neat little box. It's not about 'thick', it's about 'accurate'. Big difference.

Okay, back to the unrestricted GAS discussion.

Windows makes available an OS so you can build or buy your own as strong as you need. Apple was more like Muse in that you used to only be able to run their OS on their hardware but at least they made their OS available. These days one can actually run their OS on a buy or build. Muse wants to be the old Apple but worse. They keep things under lock and key so that you have to buy one of their computers, I mean receptors, (because they don't want you to call it a computer for their brain washing marketing scheme,) so you can buy their receptorized plugs and buy upgrades when a new OS comes out and they think you should pay for new hardware. I can buy or build a 2 unit rackmount that will easily blow away a receptor and upgrade when I want and not have to pay nearly as much as a receptor cost if only the OS was available.
Receptorized plugs are rarely up to date, alot of their claims are subjective if not misleading and most request to right these thing are answered with hollow promises or not at all.
their MOBO, CPU, RAM, Harddrive configs are way out of date. SO basically your paying all that mpney for the OS.
It's your decision, but if I could go back I would of avoided them like a bad smelling dog.
If you think I'm blowing smoke you can buy my pro2max.

I know that feeling... Some sounds aren't quite "there" in some workstations.



+1 here, I've had my rev. A for 5 years.



+1 again.



How much do you want 4 it? :-)

As always, YMMV. Do you buy gear for what it does and what it sounds like, or its specs? I buy for the what it DOES (not what it will do later) and SOUNDS LIKE now. In that regard, I don’t care that my Receptor specs don’t match the newest Apple or PC specs. I have 9 computers at home, and none of them will match today’s specs either, but they all work great and do what they were purchased to do.
As for “receptorized plugs and updates”, you are confusing the issue. Muse/Receptor doesn’t make plug ins, they make a machine to play them; Muse makes Receptors (to “receive the plug ins”, get it?), not computers (the Receptor won’t surf your interweb, or do your accounting, or play Tetris, or do spreadsheets, get it?). They are for one purpose, to allow you to play software without the risk of taking an undedicated computer to a gig. Before Throbert gets all wigged out, keep in mind the Receptor is as much a computer as your Fantom and Motif, no doubt. Muse’ writes the code/keys to get the plugins to work on their Linux-based OS. But if you are a hacker, you don’t have to wait, you can do it yourself. (I can’t, so it’s a moot point.) For the $20 “crossgrade” to get a plug-in to work, I’m very happy to fork it over. As for upgrades, that’s not Muse’s issue. You need to buy an upgrade (if you actually NEED the upgrade) for the Receptor just like you would for your computer: generally they come with expanded libraries, and so that’s the plug in company generating more revenue for themselves; wouldn’t matter if you were playing a Receptor, a Mac, or a PC: upgrades are upgrades. You pay to play, or you hack and deal with what you get (or break), or you don’t upgrade, the choice is your’s. I don’t hear anybody crying that they can’t play Motif XS sounds on their classic Motif, so why that entitlement would bear in this situation escapes me. But that’s neither here nor there: buy equipment for what it does today, otherwise, the Receptor is just like the computer, and whatever you have today is obsolete before you get it home.
I like the idea of having that power in a 2space rack, instead of a laptop (or tower), external hard drive, sound card, spiderweb of cables and adaptors, and dying computer batteries and crashes. But hey, some people like adventure.

Funny, I have a Rev C, and used it for AP/EP organ. strings, Moog. However since I bought a few bits of hardwear I have reduced my setup time, worry, and just find it more fun than a Receptor. Got a Plugiator ASX which is far better than Minimonsta and Oddity. Got an SV-1 for AP,EP duties and whilst not as detailed as Ivory and Scarbee, it's great to play and no ones going to know the difference.

If your big on strings and orchestral stuff live it's great, but otherwise it's probably not worth the hassle and worry.

Thick or Accurate - all I know is that my receptor sounds great and it is super easy to use - using the vst editor is easier than on any workstation - I have most of the vst's listed above installed and they do sound fabulous - but don't think you are missing anything by not having eliktric or akoustic pianos - Ivory / Loung Lizard / MR Ray shames them.

I have fingers crossed that muse will come through for Pianotek 3.5 soon - but that is the frustrating thing about the unit - having to wait for the latest VST to be made compatible - and I have trouble installing vst's sometimes - guess I am not good at following directions. But once they are in there - not many of the latest and greatest hardware boards sound as good - I mean Atmosphere minimonster Absynth reaktor oscar protron Garratan Stylus are amazing.

Guilty pleasure: Cheese Factory - it always makes me smile - the phased string machine sounds so...we so Cheesey!

See, different strokes for different folks: I’ve never investigated the orchestral/drums/bass software at all, just for vintage synth things. I’m not sure I agree with the contention that the Plugiator handles Moog and Arp better, but that may be (I had a Creamware MiniMax and Pro12 ASB for a couple weeks to play with, and they were awesome) especially with knobs and buttons at your fingertips. As for ease…my Receptor is in the rack with everything else: I plug in a midi cable, an AC cable, and I’m good to go. Doesn’t get much easier!

I never got to play a Minimax or Pro12 - wish that someone would make usb control surface to plug into the Receptor that looked like the original instrument being emulated - would be cool - I use a Peavy 1600X as well as the sliders on my VMK176 but it's just not the same. Even the NI Drawbar controller is out of production. Hell B4 is out of production and I love that plug in.

a Two-Can64-Intel from Coyote R&D for $2600. Yes it's a host for plugs

PM your shipping address and how you would like to do the exchange

I bought the receptor for what it sounded like and what I was led to believe it could do. (Before buying, I asked if there were any upgrades coming out. They said no and a month later the R2 showed up).

I have four computers, a receptor, an Acer Tablet that's over 6 years old and 2 relatively new rackmontsthat I built, one for audio the other for Midi. I can get through life easily with out a receptor. I use my tablet for all kinds of small task, that don't require too much processing power. I have one too many computers.

Apparently you haven't looked inside your receptor. I guess that, "don't open it or else," thing from muse along with the "It's not a computer, it's an instrument, it's a plug in player, it's your wet dream." Now I'm going to count to 3, when I do you will be completely awake and refreshed and every time you here the word receptor you will do any thing that the muse asks of you. One two ....
Receptor... News flash you will have to pay muse 50 dollars every time you fart so they can be receptorized

LOL

Well your just not dedicated enough to build or buy a system dedicated to what your so dedicated about[/quote]

I think you have your CPU's and DSP's all mixed together.
The receptor is a Wine/Linux based computer with additional tweaks. The receptorization process is mostly for bringing windows based plugs into it's authorization environment. that's why there are plugs that can be loaded strait in because they are either free or they authorize the same way. That's also the reason some don't, because there is no way to get them to authorize correctly or they just won't work in Wine and cause receptor to crash. That's also why you never get the latest revisions. .

the last big OS update didn't need an upgrade but you had to buy the upgrade to get it because Muse would not make it available. They were and still are now making a big deal about the process to upgrade the older units because if they went the simple rout they won't make enough out of it and there would be a risk of loosing control of their OS. I would rather upgrade when I want to instead of when they want to just to get an updated OS.

Well look at Coyote R&D 2600 dollars and all the latest with plenty of power at least 400 less and if muse wouldn't Bogart their OS so much you could have that aswell. I've already said what I really think so I'll leave it at that.

You could have stopped right there: You bought it for what you believed it COULD do, not what it DID. Nuff said.

Sounds like you've had a lot of fun building computers and loading software and cursing the gods. Me, I'm very dedicated about music, and I needed a device to give me authentic vintage synth and other instruments sounds. I bought a Receptor for $1800. I spent about another $500 on software at that time including $100 for those pesky crossgrade licenses. For 5 years I've been loving the $hit out of my Receptor, never had to put a dime into it, upgrade it, fellate it or anything else. I bought something for what it DID at the time (maybe that was your mistake?), and have been very satisfied since.

Don't be a snarky douche: I understand the Receptor is a computer, just like my Motif is a computer, and every other piece of hardware we buy is. Nobody drank any Koolaid, I researched what I needed, and guess what!!! I GOT IT!

Oh...and as for not being "dedicated enough to buy a dedicated computer" for my rig: I bought a module that allowed me to play, and it's played wonderfully. Sounds like I got the right instrument for MY needs. Maybe you didn't.

+1

All I can say is that I've gotten more miles from my Receptor than from any other digital device I've bought. I was a bit disappointed at first - I thought the Receptor would be the all-in-one solution, that I'd be able to load SampleTank, Ivory, B4, Pro-53 and use it as my only synth. But since load times for big libraries is rather slow (on all systems) I had to can my plans and keep using several boards. For me, the strength in the Receptor is as an add-on, I make snapshot banks and load what I need for that particular gig.

I'm pretty well equipped, I have a PC3, an XK3c, a Motif ESr, a G2 engine and a Blofeld in my gig rig. Sometimes I can't bring the XK3c because of stage size - cue Receptor running VB3. Sometimes I have gigs playing only Wurlitzer and B3 - I have the Scarbee sample library for those duties. In my 80's tribute band, I need great sounding VA and samples - i load Kontakt and OP-X pro. I did a gig where I played keys and synth bass, for that I loaded 4 instances of Trilogy with different basses.

I have a few gripes with the Receptor; I'd love to have more outputs. I bought a Marian ADDA which gives me 8 outs, but that meant more gear. I'd love to have a faster processor. My 5-y-o standard Rev. A isn't able to load as many plugs as I'd like to sometimes, so it's starting to look like upgrade time. Which is a hassle for me since I'm in Europe. Shipping will cost a lot and I'll be without my Receptor for the time it takes. I had a lot of trouble installing K5. At first I couldn't install any of my NI plugs since the versions in K4/5 are parts of a bundle rather than separate synths, and then there was some kind of problem with installing from my Macbook, direct install just wouldn't work. I had to borrow a friends MB pro to make it work. I'm not sure wether it was the Mac or the Receptor giving me a hard time.

Could I replace the Receptor?
Yes, of course. I won't use a laptop on stage since it's far too unreliable and unsafe. For my needs, I could get a Hammond XM-2, a Prophet'08 module or 2 Tetras, a FS1r, a TC M350 fx unit, a digital line mixer with several aux buses, a MOTU Midi Timepiece and a sampler with at least 1,5 gig ram and HD streaming features. That's at the very least 6 rack units (not counting the sampler since I don't know any HW sampler with that much ram. I guess an Akai Z4/Z8 would be the closest thing) and a considerable investment. So, for me the Receptor does it big time.

Throbert, I think I'll send mine in for an upgrade rather than buying another one. I'd really hate re-installing all my plugs...

This has been my beef all along with the Receptor. Each keyboard I play goes separately to FOH (in stereo!) so the engineer (our own) can mix and eq it according to the acoustics of the venue. When you have six (or however many) sounds coming out of one pair of outputs at once, they'll all get painted with the same brush, so to speak.

I know, I know...nobody here trusts their soundman and everybody submixes.

I got into a rather pointed email discussion with a Muse rep about this issue. He told me about the Marian. I said, "So to make this a professional piece of equpiment I have to spend more money?" He wasn't amused. (No pun intended.)



k.

Yeah, I was hoping the outputs issue would be adressed with the Receptor 2, but no... The output matrix on the Marian is a bit fiddly too, and locked globally. I want to choose outputs per patch sometimes. Foa instance, on one song I may need B4 -> outboard fx 1, on the next a string machine thru the same fx - no can do...

Hey a little off-topic, but I was looking at the price of a Receptor, cause everyone here seems to like them so I was curious, and well, at that price, why not get a laptop? I mean my understanding of what a Receptor is would be a computer that only does computer VST plug-ins and such, so why not just get the computer?

or a Sound Slate?

http://www.openlabs.com/soundslate.html

I don't have one, but am seriously looking at it...

Here's an analogy: you want to tighten a screw, and you have two options in front of you:





In case it's not obvious, the first one is the computer in this analogy; the second is the Receptor.

Right tool for the job, and all that.

Hope it's clear. If not, I'm sure others can chime in with more of a verbose response.

That's very interesting! The only direct downside I can see is that you'll need a computer or a screen to edit it...

Laptop + pci interface 8/8 = Receptor killer.

Reading this thread is just further confirmation that the Receptor may be the most controversy-provoking piece of gear on the market today. It seems that every discussion of the Receptor inevitably yields to professions of profound love or profound displeasure (with the latter always advocating the "just buy a laptop" argument).

Love it or hate it. Those seem to be the only two options with the Receptor.

It's interesting, because I honestly can't think of another piece of gear that causes the same reactions so consistently.

Noah

OASYS

Best,

Geoff

Sorry if this has been addressed already - is latency an issue for live use? Can you hear or feel any hesitation at all? I would think that if there was any detectable amount of latency, especially with piano or Rhodes sounds, that it would be a serious drag.

Mychal

You have to realize that there's no black or white answer to this question; the Receptor can be loaded with a myriad of VST instruments and effects. Latency is a factor of load on the system. So it depends entirely on what things you choose to install/have running, and the configuration of the system you purchase.

Kind of like asking what the fuel economy of a pickup truck is, without specifying what engine, what kind of load you're carrying, and how aggressively you're driving.

In general, though, the Receptor performs admirably if you're realistic about what you're running. I'll let others on here provide specifics.

Well put.

Ok, I get that. Thanks for the help!

Mychal