Komplete

RiotNrrd · Post by **RiotNrrd** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:09 am

Ooh, ooh! Tomorrow (I know it's tomorrow due to internet package tracking), my copy of Native Instruments Komplete 6 arrives! Whoo!

Kontakt, with 60 GB of samples, Absynth 5, Massive, Battery, FM8, Reaktor 5 (which I already have), and Guitar Rig (although I don't really care about that one).

My computers hard drive isn't going to have a lot of space left on it.

marcus · Post by **marcus** » Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:40 pm

I just bought "Komplete 5" a couple months back! Now a simple Upgrade to "6". I am goin' to go for Kore 2 - Software edition as well. Have had Kontakt since version 2. I'm totally impressed with Absynth and FM8.

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:24 am

Always an area of interest for me--the softsynth route is so much less expensive.

Someone needs to teach NI how to spell though...

RiotNrrd · Post by **RiotNrrd** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 2:49 am

I'm installing the package right now. Man, it takes a LONG time to install 60 GB of samples. I've been at it nearly two hours now, and I've still got a ways to go.

Post by **Sharp** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 1:13 pm

After getting the V-Machine and feeling what it's like to have advantages of software in a hardware box, I can safely say that my next big purchase won't be a closed workstation.

Cheers
Sharp

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Tue Oct 13, 2009 4:48 pm

Nor mine ... that hasn't proved to be a good way to go.

I was looking to update my Absynth and Kontakt to the latest versions, but for a little more I can this Komplete 6 so I am sorely tempted to take the leap. The Oasys experience has changed my mind considerably about where I intend to spend my money in future.

Daz.

RiotNrrd · Post by **RiotNrrd** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:15 am

At full price, I think I'd take Reason over Komplete. However, because I happened to already own Reaktor, the upgrade price ended up being just $339, and that made it too tempting to pass up.

So far I haven't much time to play with it (or them, depending on how you look at the package), as it finally finished installing kind of late last night, and I had to go to work today (darn that "work" stuff). I think this evening is going to be a Komplete one, though.

RiotNrrd · Post by **RiotNrrd** » Sat Oct 17, 2009 1:42 am

Well, I've played around with Komplete for a few hours now, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with the purchase. Those are some pretty serious synths.

One unhappy note, though - my only DAW is Ableton Live, v5. I haven't used it much since I bought it, tending to favor Reason, but last night I loaded it up and tried recording some simple tracks in it with some of the Komplete modules.

Yuck. I don't know if it's because Live 5 doesn't like Vista, or what, but it runs like a dog on my system (which is a dual 3 GHz processor machine with 2 GB of RAM). It plays and records OK, but the UI just chokes while it's playing the tracks, making its "interactive" draw a little worthless. This is No Good.

I also discovered that I've forgotten how to use Live very efficiently, and that the interface isn't actually all THAT intuitive. Mostly I got pissed off while fumbling around with it trying to get it to do what I wanted.

I've never liked the Live UI, except for playing loops, but these days I don't want to play loops, and it doesn't seem like Live makes a very solid DAW for just straight up recording. So today I started looking at Sonar, Cubase, etc. All very expensive, unless I go for one of the "lite" versions. Maybe they would be sufficient, maybe not.

Then I ran across a program called Reaper (http://www.reaper.fm/). Does anyone have any experience with this particular program? It is uncrippled, untimed shareware (i.e., after 30 days you are supposed to buy a license - currently $60 for a noncommercial user - but if you don't... it'll just bug you when you load it, but otherwise run forever). I loaded it up, and very quickly recorded a three track, 30 sec test piece using two instances of FM8 and one instance of Battery 3. The UI was completely responsive while playing, and the CPU usage during playback was only 8%. It exported to .wav just fine.

What do people think of this program? How does it compare to the more "mainstream" programs? Does anyone, who has used it, have any comments about its strengths or (especially) weaknesses? It seems like a pretty decent program based on a cursory glance, and $60 is a sight better than $599.

laughing_bear · Post by **laughing_bear** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:25 pm

late to the party as usual...

This round about 200 euro upgrade path for Kontakt owners is a no brainer, particulary as I invested into Kore2 hardware as well.

I am selling all of my hardware synths now, Karma, M3, Roland, Radias and invest into a single 88 keys, not sure yet which one to go for, and having my Novation still left for the simple stuff.