Educate me: Max for Live or Reaktor?

[JES]

Hi All,

I know there are general Max vs. Reaktor threads, but at the risk of doing it again, I'd love to hear from those who are more experienced than I am.

If Live is my main DAW (as has recently become the case), is there an advantage to one or the other of these products in terms of

a) processor efficiency
b) intuitive workflow within Live
c) cool ways to mangle recorded audio (I do more processing than outright synthesis, though I guess at some point it's the same thing).
d) free patches from users. Seems like there's a decent Reaktor Library on the NI site, but it looks like a lot of the Max for Live stuff

??

Right now I'm not into designing devices, but you never know. I am less concerned about total control; I am mainly in it for wacky sound-mangling opportunities beyond normal plugins.

I currently own Reaktor as part of the Komplete 5 deal from last summer, but I find the patches I like to be HUGE processor hogs, and the interface not very intuitive. I'm running a C2D macbook pro (2007) so I need all the space I can get. I do big mixes with lots of instruments--somewhere inbetween indyrock and electronica--so I need all I can get. I freeze lots of tracks, but I also use a lot of returns (or set up tracks as busses) for real-time processing.

Even though I own Reaktor, I don't mind springing for Max for Live if that's the right thing to do. If I'm going to start digging deeper and really learning something, I'd rather not have to repeat the learning curve a few months later.

If there's a better place to ask the question, let me know.

Thanks for reading.

--JES