Have I missed the boat on sales prices (for Live & Komplete)

[GabryRox33]

So, I've been contemplating upgrading my Live-9 Intro for while now and when i saw the improvements in the 9.5 release, it pushed me over the hump. Soon thereafter, I noticed a black Friday e-mail from Ableton offering 25% off, meaning I could upgrade to Suite for less than $500. Unfortunately, I saw this e-mail a couple days after that sale ended and now I am having a really hard time justifying paying full price.

So, my question for you seasoned veterans is... have I completely missed the boat on this discount for a good amount of time, or do you think that Ableton might have another offer coming before the end of the year?

I have a similar issue NI Komplete, although I am leaning towards just Komplete and not Ultimate. I did also get a recent e-mail from them (window now closed as well) for 50% off selected products, but in looking at it closely, neither Komplete nor Ultimate was part of that offer, essentially rendering it useless for my purposes since even at a 50% discount, just 4-5 of those products alone would eclipse the regular $500 price of Komplete.

So, does anyone have any insight into when and if NI might be a doing a mark-down of Komplete 10? I know that there are a ton of upgrade or cross-grade "deals" offered from NI but none really seem to provide a cheaper path, unless you need hardware, which I don't due to my recent purchase of an AKAI MPK249.

Finally, I would like to ask for opinions on the following. Unless I can wait for some ridiculous discount on these, i will only be able to afford to the premium version of one, being left with the standard version of the other. My inclination is to go with Live Suite and Komplete, rather than Live Standard and Komplete Ultimate. Firstly, the former combination should be roughly $200-$250 cheaper than the latter (not counting any possible discounts) but also, in looking at the difference between Komp & Ultimate, most of it seems to be the addition of a bunch of extra Strings, Drums, and Guitar & Bass... none of which are atop my want list.

But, just wanted to make sure I am not missing something glaring with Ultimate and/or over-valuing some of the Live Suite features, such as the ~7 additional instruments, multiple additional soundpacks, MAX for Live, etc.

A bit about me, my likes/styles... indefinably beginner level DAW user although have been toying around with Live for a few years off and on and have learned a bit. I grew up playing several "real" instruments, including keyboards, and am at least fairly well versed in music theory. My favorite genres are Dance, Trance, Techno & Turbo Folk, and ultimately, that is the type of music that I would want to produce.

Thanks in advance for any feedback/suggestions!

[cskracer]

Gabry another way of getting either Suite or Komplete on the cheap is to try and get a second hand copy of an older version and then buy an upgrade to the latest version.

That's what I did to get my hands on Komplete 10. I found a seller who was selling Komplete 9 at a price that when combined with the upgrade price from 9 to 10 was substantially less than buying 10 directly.

[login]

You can buy Live Suite second hand at 400 USD approx. at kvraudio.com marketplace, and you will keep your intro license. Or wait, Ableton always has sales in spring and Black Friday too.

Komplete is on sale every summer, but just upgrades and cross grades, 50% offThe cheapest way to get it is to cross grade from kontakt, guitar rig, reaktor 5, maschine or the kontrol s kb.

You can find reaktor 5 for 99 Usd sometimes at kvr.

The crossgrade price is 400 and 800Usd for K and KU, but with the 50% discount it is a great offer.

[chrk]

So, I've been contemplating upgrading my Live-9 Intro for while now and when i saw the improvements in the 9.5 release, it pushed me over the hump. Soon thereafter, I noticed a black Friday e-mail from Ableton offering 25% off, meaning I could upgrade to Suite for less than $500. Unfortunately, I saw this e-mail a couple days after that sale ended and now I am having a really hard time justifying paying full price.

One thing to keep in mind: 9.5 is quite far into the life cycle of Live 9 towards 10, and I guess that's exactly why they've introduced so many new features in it: to hook users like you on an upgrade now.

Here's what I have done: Coming from Live 7 LE with a free upgrade to 8 Intro, I couldn't make up my mind abtout upgrading to Suite for quite a long time, and when I did make up my mind I decided to wait some more.

I bit the bullet when they announced Live 9 with the offer of buying Live 8 Suite then at a discount with a free upgrade to 9 when it arrived. That way I have enjoyed the full life cyle of Live 9 so far without having to think about upgrading to Live 10 only a year or less later.