Komplete Users: pros & cons please...

[dum]

Native Instruments fan here...
I currently own/use:

absynth 4 & 5
fm 7 & 8
Massive
Reaktor 5 (edu license)


I've been wanting kontakt for ages, but too cheap to buy it new (or maybe it's too expensive new?), and never flush with the cash when a used license surfaces on KVR et al. I'd use battery if I had it, but can't personally justify the expense (new) either.. what with drum racks & already owning idrum etc... guitar rig, has never been on my radar but I guess it's just a badass amp modelling distortion plug ?


So, financially speaking it's making alot of sense to jump on komplete 6 (not forgetting this would also mean jumping on the kore2/controller bandwagon, again not already on my radar but it looks kool), and dumping my three re-saleable licenses.

But what are the pros & cons in doing so VS owning individual licenses ?
Mainly looking for unforeseen horror stories in terms of updates. Like waiting aeons for a komplete update, just so you can get access to the new Reaktor6 (hypothetical example)


thoughts ?

[alex.the.forge]

K6 is pretty stable now - I'm very happy with it

you'd probably get a pretty good price due to your licenses.

And don't sniff at guitar rig - I'm actually pretty happy with the sound v4 puts out - really impressive for a software amp sim

Kontakt's sound library is probably worth it alone, plus Battery's as well

[dum]

Sounds good, are you rocking the OSX ? (10.6 ?)

[alex.the.forge]

Sounds good, are you rocking the OSX ? (10.6 ?)

yep, snow leo

Live still has it's ups and downs with external plugins, but it seems to have settled down a lot with the latest updates... in fact I don't really recall too many crashes with the NI AU versions at all since Live 8.1.3 I think. I've had more crashes with Waves, and even then it was with the AU versions and it turned out Waves only officially support the VST versions.

K6 is the biggest no brainer out there IMO.

[dum]

Good to know,
but for the record I'm on live 7.18... which ableton have been testing on 10.6 "internally" for about a year now, so it's still not "certified" but user feedback seems positive from the thread I started on the topic...

I agree though, komplete6 is great value for money... not just because of the pricing structure, but really they make premium instruments...


*staying tuned for horror stories*

[timek]

you'd probably get a pretty good price due to your licenses.

Does that mean that NI proposes any crossgrade options for Komplete based on the product you have registered?

the only option I know was last year, they proposed a crossgrade from Kontakt or Reaktor. But it's over now

[Jarvisimon]

you'd probably get a pretty good price due to your licenses.

Does that mean that NI proposes any crossgrade options for Komplete based on the product you have registered?

the only option I know was last year, they proposed a crossgrade from Kontakt or Reaktor. But it's over now

No, that's not the case at all. I've just snagged myself a copy of Komplete 6 and am rather hoping my remaining NI licenses sell. Looks like two of them will go quite shortly....as for the other 3? well, who knows?

If I do sell them, then i've covered the cost of Komplete, so it's all worth it.

What I do know is, the cost of updating individual licenses is a lot more expensive than upgrading Komplete on its own.

[3dot...]

no cons. Guitar Rig3 crashes Live sometimes though

[Machinesworking]

Live 7.1.8 Komplete 6, Leopard, Kore 1 controller here.
Kontakt has gone from unstable to dead stable for me.

I think it's wise to take Glitchrock Buddha's advise here: stick with VSTs in Kore.
This cuts load time of kore in half at least. (which is the main downside to Kore IMO, minor CPU hit and 15-40 second load time depending on VST/AUs loaded) and ensures that if you want to share patches with PC users who have your setup VST wise you can.
Currently I use Kore with VSTs and AU outside of Kore. This ensures compatibility with Logic and Digital Performer and NI use the VST version of their plug ins in Kore sounds anyway.
So you have to load VSTs to use the library.

I don't have any complaints about Komplete outside the company model of slash and burn.
Spectral Delay, Vocator, B4 II, Pro 53, Elektric and Akoustic Piano, Bandstand all were recent plug ins that they decided to discontinue.
All of them still work in Snow Leopard from all reports, but none will make it to 64 bit systems. They've slashed more products than they've introduced, and
annoyingly enough most of the new products aren't in Komplete, (Kore, Maschine, Tractor)

I have a song where I'm playing a Kore sound with Pro 53 and B4 II, it puts a life span on the song.
Beyond that Kore is freaking awesome, completely underrated, morphing sounds is beautiful and such a great idea, really well thought out.
Kontakt is definitely a monster now, and I can't imagine that you wouldn't get some use out of Guitar Rig, seeing as how half of it's gig is modeling
cabinets and mic distances. Battery 3 still has a really nice selection of sounds IMO, and good dedicated FX, though I'm willing to bet it doesn't make it to Komplete 7.

Considering what price you could get Komplete for right now, I say it's a no brainer.

[Machinesworking]

no cons. Guitar Rig3 crashes Live sometimes though

FYI to dum, it doesn't at all on Leopard here. I use it all the time for guitar, with preset patch changes and all.
Might be a Windows thing? dunno?

[mholloway]

mmmm do it, you're going to love Kontakt. my 2nd favorite NI product after Reaktor....

-M

[3dot...]

yeah... Kontakt is THE deepest sampler alive

[luddy]

haha, no negative opinions here, so I'll chime in with a few cons.

I use Komplete 6, and the pieces I use most heavily are Kontakt and Reaktor.

IMO the real reason Kontakt has become a standard is the number of instruments available for it and not much to do with its "depth". It has a fantastic number of bells and whistles, but I find it to be cumbersome to work with when creating my own instruments. I do everything I can in Sampler, because I get work done so much faster. It's important to remember that the proper comparison is not Kontakt vs Sampler but rather instrument racks + Sampler compared to Kontakt, because Kontakt has a full-blown routing and effect structure built into it. To me, that routing structure becomes a hindrance rather than a positive thing when working in Live. Kontakt is designed to be run as a single instance, with a lot of instruments loaded up in that instance, and various MIDI channels running into it, and lots of audio channels running out of it. That model is a bad fit for Live, to say the least, which is all about integrating a single instrument into the larger rack structure. When you create lots of separate instances of Kontakt, it becomes quite inefficient.

Long story short, I use Kontakt with sample instruments that are only available in .nki format and that I can't convert to Sampler, but for anything where I have a choice I prefer Sampler together with instrument racks for layering and effects.

Reaktor, Massive, Absynth etc. are all great in their own way. Reaktor is a classic I think and one of the best modular programming environments. But I think that M4L is a better time investment when working in Live, on the balance. Similarly, any sound that I can make in Analog or Operator, I'd rather make there because it's so much faster to program via Live's simple and wide-open interfaces.

NI has a kind of "kitchen sink" approach to design, which makes their stuff feel "deep" but to me it's just that they are overloaded with features. It's kind of the opposite of Live's approach, which is a bunch of simple modules that bolt together really well.

-Luddy

[mode:masters]

Just to add to the warm fuzzy feeling going on here...

I bought Komplete 6 late last year, just upgraded to Windows 7 about 4 weeks ago and blew away my whole hdd and re-installed Live 8.13 and NI Komplete from scratch. Ever since then my laptop has run better than it ever has. There has not been a single instance where an NI plugin has crashed at all. In fact I can't recall Live crashing since the either...

I'm still finding new and interesting things in Kontakt that I didn't know about.

Best purchase so far I'd say. Massive is awesome, Absynth better than ever and Reaktor just blows my mind.

[alex.the.forge]

you'd probably get a pretty good price due to your licenses.

Does that mean that NI proposes any crossgrade options for Komplete based on the product you have registered?

the only option I know was last year, they proposed a crossgrade from Kontakt or Reaktor. But it's over now

No, that's not the case at all. I've just snagged myself a copy of Komplete 6 and am rather hoping my remaining NI licenses sell. Looks like two of them will go quite shortly....as for the other 3? well, who knows?

If I do sell them, then i've covered the cost of Komplete, so it's all worth it.

What I do know is, the cost of updating individual licenses is a lot more expensive than upgrading Komplete on its own.

okay, maybe it's just something they do as a promotion now and then, but I was sure that was the case at one point.

They had a pretty good deal recently for K2-5 owners - like $60 or something!