And you'll want to install it to a fast NME SSD unless you want to get coffee while samples load. Komplete started life out as Native Instruments’ ‘best of’ in 2003 with nine products (classic titles like Absynth, B4, Kontakt, FM7 and Pro-53) and has been updated every one or two years since and, dollar for dollar, has been increasing in value ever since (that first pack cost around 1500 and the price has remained pretty static, even though the size has grown exponentially). Created by top artists and sound designers, Expansions can be used in any DAW and work with a range of Native Instruments products, including MASSIVE, BATTERY 4, and MONARK. Plan on > 100GB if you want to install most of the included VST's and sample libraries. KOMPLETE 12 ULTIMATE Collector's Edition includes more than 45 Expansions - genre-specific sound packs loaded with synth presets, drum kits, one-shots, samples, and loops. It has the single largest install footprint of any product I own. One note about NI though, Your hard disk is not prepared. These days I mostly use NI for drums or wind instruments when i can't be bothered to get on my drum kit (like the middle of the night when I'm still working on tracks)
I use both, along with others like Omnisphere to get my sound. But they don't really do drums, and the wild experimental stuff like Absynth though.
They do give you some sampled libraries of stuff like the Solena, and Mellotron in their factory patches, but they are not very interactive and are essentially samples.Īrturia for instance does a much better job faithfully emulating vintage synth hardware, even preserving much of their interface and patch creation flow. One area where I wish they would pay more attention is in the reproduction of classic synth sounds. Ultimate mostly adds film scoring/orchestral stuff. They are also widely supported by other instrument makers, and there are some very good Kontakt libraries out there. Dont buy Ultimate yet, see what you can do with K12 first, and maybe upgrade during a sale. It's strong points in particular are excellent drum VST's from realistic studio drummers, to classic drum machines. For a one stop shop, it ticks most of the boxes you'd want.