ok after some time considering and refconsidering which products to buy to definitely improve my studio, I am now 95% convinced that what I need is NI's Komplete. It does have everything I need (a good nsubstractive synth, an amazing synth (absynth), a modular synth, well you know) and at a good price (just sum up the individual prices of the products)

well my questions are:

1. does anyone here have it? opinions?
2. will absynth 3 be included in the package?

origami wrote:

1. does anyone here have it? opinions?

love it. but it's a bit overwhelming to get everything all at once; you want to taste everything! I'll admit to not even scratching the surface, but it's a great package. You won't regret it.

Quote:

2. will absynth 3 be included in the package?

from the NI website:

Quote:

Stay up-to-date The NI KOMPLETE 2 package will now always include the latest versions of those products contained in the package. How does this work? If you buy NI KOMPLETE 2 after a major product update has been released, you are entitled to recieve the update merely for the price of post and packaging. Simply register your copy of NI KOMPLETE 2 and you will then be offered the chance to order the update.

thx blue dad. I know it must be intimidationg, but what I look for is precisely to have the necessary tools so as not to need to buy anything else in a long time. and I'd like to have the best.

thx mate.

then komplete 2 is definately the way to go: i have it six months now and i still feel like i've barely scratched the surface...
I found vokator a bit disappointing though...

Yes

NO

will need upgrades (Absynth 3, Batter 2), but its just great.

And you realize that you still can find the $499 upgrade offer boxes at some retailers?

(Spotted one in the local Guitar Center last friday.)

Let me try a different aproache:

EVM Komlete (14 cool VsTi's)
(EVM Synpack-1 for only 30.00 euros)
http://www.sinte-virtual.com/evmsynths/

Crystal (Free, the Absynth replacement?)
http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/219.html

M42 Nebula ($45 great atmo synth)
http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/1003.html

Synth1 (Free, one of the best virtual analogs)
http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/214.html

Triangle II (Free, great mono VA synth)
http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/203.html

sfz (Free, Worlds best SoundFont Player)
http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/769.html

sfz+ ($60 the big brother)
http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/770.html

Big Tick Rhino (100 Euro, a great synth)
http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/394.html

Wusikstation ($50-$100 depend on the scheme)
http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/1102.html

Last but not least:
Synthedit $20 as the Reaktor killer !!!
http://www.synthedit.com


The only gap I see is FM7,
also Absynth is really cool.

You can still buy those and still save many $$$
And your studio will be much better and way more
flexible.

Also take a look at the KVR user charts
http://www.kvr-vst.com/ratings/0.html

To add the No1 CAMELEON 5000 would add the
'cream de la cream' to your set up.

Spend your hard earned money wisely !

Komplete 2 is the best music purchase I've made. Got it for $900 at Scitscat music, and I use parts of it in ALL my projects, without exception. I would have paid several hundred more for it too. I do think you will still have to pay for Absynth 3 and Battery 2 upgrades as if you had bought Absynth 2 or Battery - but I could be wrong.

SynthEdit does NOT compare to Reaktor in terms of depth and programmability (or even interface). The VST export function, of course, is much nicer.

i really hesitated to buy Komplete because the cost was so much higher than my usual comfort level.

and a lot of the early wow factor and experiments with Intakt and Reaktor ensembles has worn off,

but now every project I do is almost exclusively Absynth, fm7 and kontakt and I'm just beginning to use Battery.
the complexity of sound between the Absynth banks available from the NI user group and the 5 new banks of 'Gravehill' sounds for fm7 on patcharena and I could easily be busy for the next year.

and the cpu usage is incredibly low (and the high cpu usage of Reaktor is one reason that sits idle)

i had some favorite synths before I bought Komplete 2 that I hardly reach for these days. the sounds seems kind of tired and old now. i really didn't expect that at all. I think that says a lot about how complete Komplete is.

if you qualify for and can find it for $499, the web site assures you you'll be getting the latest versions at the time of purchase. I'd do it again an dwould probably undo some earlier purchases.

Midiworks wrote:

The only gap I see is FM7, also Absynth is really cool.

Name me a sampler that beats kontakt and then we'll talk...
Spectral delay is just simple, but a great tool; can you replace it?

But i do agree with you that people tend to be too enthousiastic about reaktor (although i also love it, it's not that it's the best thing i could ever imagine in music software- but that's ot innit?); but that don't mean it's not worth the money...

The only quite useless thing in the package, imo (or better, to me), is b4.

Intakt? Dunno, don't use it very often, maybe it's my system, but it keeps crashing and deforming the sound- i think phatmatik pro is better slicer.
And kompakt is just a budget replacement of kontakt i have the impression.

But: reaktor and kontakt are worth it all alone, and you get absynth and fm7 with it: best deal ever.

regards,

p

actually what I wanted to buy until this week was Korg Legacy Collection (because it has good substractive synths and a very good wavestation) but the high cpu usage disappointed me. however, I realised Pro-53 is also a good substractive synth and its cpu usage is lower, same for the great Absynth, and there's also a good sampler, a modular synth etc
I'm almost convinced...

Actually.. I think B4 is quite cool. It's as close to the real thing as you can get. Not worth it alone, I guess, but I've found lots of uses for it (especially if you throw some distortion on it). I think the most useless things are Intakt and Kontakt, honestly. Kompakt has all the capabilities of Kontakt outside of the sample mangling, which I don't care about since I can get mangled sounds from Absynth or Reaktor. I rarely go above 8 channels either, so Kontakt's multitimbrality is no big deal - it IS, however, a little buggier in FL and has a more confusing interface. As for Intakt: why use it, when you can use the Fruity Slicer? I can't think of a reason.

The rule for Komplete vs upgrades is the following: if you register your Komplete after the start of the "grace period" for free upgrades for a given product, you get the upgrade for free (other than shipping/handling). You can't really aks for much more than that....

The grace period starts before the new version ships. Battery 2 has already shipped, so you get the upgrade to Battery 2 for shipping/handling.

The grade period for Absynth 3 has not yet been announced. When it is, it will be posted here:

http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?absynth3upd_us


But as long as you get Komplete after that grace period starts, you'll also get Absynth 3 for shipping/handling.

NI intends that when you buy Komplete, you are actually buying the latest versions of all the included programs, even if they aren't in the box.

-- Green

Yeh, if you bought it now... You would get Absynth 3 and Battery 2 for free, if you want to think of it that way.

Quote:

I rarely go above 8 channels either, so Kontakt's multitimbrality is no big deal - it IS, however, a little buggier in FL and has a more confusing interface. As for Intakt: why use it, when you can use the Fruity Slicer? I can't think of a reason

Fruity Slicer crashes FL whenever I open it for some reason. It's not a crack either, it's legit. I also got the $500 deal on Komplete 2, but I've had difficulties with registering INtakt so I can't register Komplete until NI resolves my registration problem. I'll be pissed if they don't fix this before the grace period, believe that.

origami wrote:

actually what I wanted to buy until this week was Korg Legacy Collection (because it has good substractive synths and a very good wavestation) ..

have you checked out xphrase?
and short of the that, williamK has made his dash ensembles available, free I think and one is a wavestation 'clone'

ahja wrote:

Yeh, if you bought it now... You would get Absynth 3 and Battery 2 for free, if you want to think of it that way.

While this is *probably* true, it is not clear that the Absynth 3 grace period has started yet... they haven't said. Keep checking the link in my previous post for the real info.

bluedad wrote:

origami wrote: actually what I wanted to buy until this week was Korg Legacy Collection (because it has good substractive synths and a very good wavestation) .. have you checked out xphrase? and short of the that, williamK has made his dash ensembles available, free I think and one is a wavestation 'clone'

Off-topic, but another "wave" based synth that is catching a good buzz lately is ConcreteFX Kubik. I just got it, so I haven't had time to really check it out yet. Apparently, it is more of an additive synth patterned after the Waldorf MicroWave, than a WaveStation clone. In any case, it's cheap, and it's on sale now for about $54 US (for the next month or so).

See here for details/demos:

http://www.concretefx.com/Kubik.htm

See the ConcreteFX forum here at KvR for further user opinions.

Also, check this thread about Kubik... it is what led me to buy it.

http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=63196

Green Red Brownell wrote:

ahja wrote: Yeh, if you bought it now... You would get Absynth 3 and Battery 2 for free, if you want to think of it that way. While this is *probably* true, it is not clear that the Absynth 3 grace period has started yet... they haven't said. Keep checking the link in my previous post for the real info.

If the release date is for next month... Someone who bought Komplete 2 right now would definitely recieve Absynth as a free upgrade. No question about it.

and is it Reaktor Session or Reaktor what's included in Komplete?

origami wrote:

and is it Reaktor Session or Reaktor what's included in Komplete?

Reaktor full

ahja wrote:

Green Red Brownell wrote: ahja wrote: Yeh, if you bought it now... You would get Absynth 3 and Battery 2 for free, if you want to think of it that way. While this is *probably* true, it is not clear that the Absynth 3 grace period has started yet... they haven't said. Keep checking the link in my previous post for the real info. If the release date is for next month... Someone who bought Komplete 2 right now would definitely recieve Absynth as a free upgrade. No question about it.

They haven't set the grace period because they aren't certain they won't slip the release date. Hey, it's been known to happen....

"williamK has made his dash ensembles available, free I think and one is a wavestation 'clone'"


where are these available? Thanks.

Midiworks wrote:

Name me a sampler that beats kontakt and then we'll talk...

sfz, but it is missing the editor...
Untill the sfz format specifications are not finished,
It wount make its way into sfz+,
trust me or read the forum,
this baby is powerfull.

Quote:

Spectral delay is just simple, but a great tool; can you replace it?

Should I ?
It uses way too much CPU...

Quote:

But i do agree with you that people tend to be too enthousiastic about reaktor (although i also love it, it's not that it's the best thing i could ever imagine in music software- but that's ot innit?); but that don't mean it's not worth the money...

cOMPARED to the $20 for SYNTHEDIT ?
Reaktor IS cool, but Synthedit much cooler
and more flexible.

Quote:

The only quite useless thing in the package, imo (or better, to me), is b4.

That is a question of taste and need,
I think B4 is great but not much use for me...

Not as good as B4, but it does a nice job, free !
http://www.soundfonts.it/?a=read&b=3

Here a cool VE-Piano for free too:
http://www.soundfonts.it/?a=read&b=9
NI Komplet does not have one...

Quote:

Intakt? Dunno, don't use it very often, maybe it's my system, but it keeps crashing and deforming the sound- i think phatmatik pro is better slicer. And kompakt is just a budget replacement of kontakt i have the impression.

Your impression is right.

Quote:

But: reaktor and kontakt are worth it all alone, and you get absynth and fm7 with it: best deal ever.

I can not agree, sorry.
Its about making music, not about collecting VSTs.
For that money you can get a lot of great and
flexible instruments and FX if you know where to look.

Its all about making music !

zircon wrote:

SynthEdit does NOT compare to Reaktor in terms of depth and programmability (or even interface).

I can not disagree more !
It beats Reaktor these days in EVERY aspect.

Maybe you should try the latest betas.
http://www.synthedit.com/beta/beta.htm

With the 3rd party modules nearly everything is possible.
http://www.dehaupt.com/SynthEdit/semodules.htm
http://www.synthedit.com/modules.htm
http://www.soundfonts.it/?a=read&b=6
and a few others.

Using the SDK everything is possible !
http://www.synthedit.com/sdk.htm

David Haupt wrote:

SynthEdit's SDK lets C++ programmers add custom modules to perform DSP functions and other tasks. A number of developers, including myself, have been actively creating modules to extend SynthEdit's capabilities. My most recent releases are DH_Sub-ControlPak, a suite of 28 modules that expand upon SynthEdit's Sub-Controls to provide enhanced GUI-building capabilities, DH_RegControl System, a licensing and registration package for SynthEdit VSTs, and DH_ControlOverlay, a control display manager with live mouse tracking.

Time to change your mind or ?

if you are a hobby musician
> you can live well with freebees

if you have too much money
> you can add komplete2

if you are a professional
> it's nice to have komplete2 in your setup
as it's the "industrial standard"


but:

we live in the synthedit-era and
at this time the ni-standalones are much
too expensive and enforced small
companies to do it the same way.
you can't compare a softsynth with a
hardsynth regarding costs of production,
guarantee and delivery !
also the livetime is much shorter !

perhaps they have to pay additional licence fees
to yamaha (FM7), brian clevinger (absynth),
hammond (b4) or dave smith (pro53).
or there are involved too much or too
expensive programmers. i don't know.

B U T :

ni knows about that and offers
this incredible 499 USD - price for
11 (eleven !) products.

you can get nearly the komplete
ni high quality product range for
that price !!!

if you don't qualify for this and you are only a hobbiest, than i would say no.


only

Midiworks, while sfz+ is great, it defenitely misses something to be a real Kontakt competitor. At least yet. But as René is a kickass dude I guess he might be working on something terrific. Still, it's not there yet in terms of doing your own patches, library support and so on - sfz+ however allready eats Kontakt for breakfast when it comes to sound quality.

There's also some drumsynth missing in your list, so a replacement for Battery would be needed as well. Lately DR-008 (which imo is a better drum sampler) could be bought for 70 bucks or so, so that might be an option.

As far as Reaktor vs. SynthEdit goes: I *may* agree that SynthEdit has potential (no, I even KNOW it has), but I don't remember much SynthEdit creations sounding as deep, as squelchy, as whatever as some Reaktor ensembles. Actually, the most impressive ones so far have been Ugo's synths, MrRay and Sophia. But the latter is a CPU hog of a special sort - which still is true for some SE creations while a lot of (complexed) Reaktor ensembles seem to comparatively easy on the CPU side.

Anyways, as a Komplete 2 owner who hasn't even tried out all things in depth yet, I must say the package is worth the money (well, I bought it for the special deal they had back in the beginning of the year).

There's some drawbacks with NI products in general though, and that's product maintainance, at least as of lately. You don't see things being fixed quickly anymore, instead they're coming up with something new almost every month. Having said that, if you buy something from NI, expect it to be "as is" (and to stay like that for a while) indeed.

Another point, perhaps worth mentioning (at least for me it's more or less important): NIs products are platform compatible. So once you collaborate with some Mac dude, your patches will all be compatible - which isn't the case for a lot of mentioned alternatives.

However, I wouldn't want to live without FM7, Absynth, Battery and probably Kontakt anymore, and I'm sure that as soon as I'm fooling around with the various Reaktor ensembles a bit more, I wouldn't like to live without them anymore either.
Oh well, and in case you got no beat slicer allready, Intakt is a nice thing to have too (there's better ones for sure though, but as said, in case you got none yet...).

Sascha Franck wrote:

Midiworks, while sfz+ is great, it defenitely misses something to be a real Kontakt competitor. At least yet. But as René is a kickass dude I guess he might be working on something terrific. Still, it's not there yet in terms of doing your own patches, library support and so on - sfz+ however allready eats Kontakt for breakfast when it comes to sound quality.

Hi Sascha, its all already inside sfz.
But not that easy to tweak, you need: B I G E D I T !
http://audio.clockbeat.com/sfZed.html
THATs THE LINK !

Read in here:
http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25440&start=1245[/quote]

Quote:

There's also some drumsynth missing in your list, so a replacement for Battery would be needed as well. Lately DR-008 (which imo is a better drum sampler) could be bought for 70 bucks or so, so that might be an option

You are right, forgot to mention DR008...

Quote:

As far as Reaktor vs. SynthEdit goes: I *may* agree that SynthEdit has potential (no, I even KNOW it has), but I don't remember much SynthEdit creations sounding as deep, as squelchy, as whatever as some Reaktor ensembles. Actually, the most impressive ones so far have been Ugo's synths, MrRay and Sophia. But the latter is a CPU hog of a special sort - which still is true for some SE creations while a lot of (complexed) Reaktor ensembles seem to comparatively easy on the CPU side.

Yes, the down side is EVERYBODY can quickly put something together...
Without the real knowlage how to do it or how to save CPU.

Quote:

Another point, perhaps worth mentioning (at least for me it's more or less important): NIs products are platform compatible. So once you collaborate with some Mac dude, your patches will all be compatible - which isn't the case for a lot of mentioned alternatives.

Point taken !

Go for it. I bought the original NI Komplete Collection (same as Komplete 2 + Traktor Studio & B4 Tonewheels), and i think it is great value for money. Pro 53, Kontakt and Battery goes in pretty much everything i do, often with some absynth or fm7 too.

People do a lot of NI bashing these days, but my personal experience is this: NI have always been very helpful to me, they've always provided great value for money, and i have had almost no problems with their products.

On a side note, i emailed NI about two weeks ago and asked about the situation on Battery 2 and Absynth 3 (am can upgrade to Komplete 2 for 99 €), and at the time they told me that Battery 2 is included if you get Komplete 2 now, while Absynth 3 isn't. "Next year...", they told me. On the other hand, i agree that there will most probably be a grace period, and that if you buy now you might well get absynth 3 when it is released. Personally i'm going to wait a month or two though and see what happens.

ok I have read all your opinions and they are useful precisely because of your differences.

I am an amateur, however, my aim is to make better music every day.

I use FL Studio, and all the synths I use are free. The ones I use the most are Synth 1, Ugo synths, Superwave, Drumatic and Ersdrums, etc
and I admit these are great synths. But now what I want, and that's why I started this thread, is to improve my studio and my possibilities. I know it's money...I still have to think and think...

but the fact is that ourside Komplete, when I think of the 2 or 3 synths I may be interested in usually sum up almost what the whole Komplete pack costs...

Midiworks quoth
Yes, the down side is EVERYBODY can quickly put something together...
Without the real knowlage how to do it or how to save CPU.


And how is that a downside? People learning to create their own stuff? Did you just wake up one monring knowing 'how to do it or how to save CPU' or did you have to learn?.

Yet other people starting to learn is a 'downside'? Elitist.

Montana wrote:

"williamK has made his dash ensembles available, free I think and one is a wavestation 'clone'" where are these available? Thanks.

they are over at patcharena
he's changed the name of course, from dash to wusik.
the vector is the wavestation ensemble.
I paid $30 for that thing and now you guys are getting it for free!
What a wonderful world!

whyterabbyt wrote:

Midiworks quoth Yes, the down side is EVERYBODY can quickly put something together... Without the real knowlage how to do it or how to save CPU. And how is that a downside? People learning to create their own stuff? Did you just wake up one monring knowing 'how to do it or how to save CPU' or did you have to learn?. Yet other people starting to learn is a 'downside'? Elitist.

Oh, not at all !
But people put 'those' VSTs on the net and users
blaim the CPU monsters on SynthEdit not on the
creator of those VSTs....

Whatever, but the developer of Sophia is hardly a newbie and yet the plugin still takes up more CPU-power than Reaktor ensembles doing similar (and even more impressive) things...

Also, I'd like to reiterate the point someone made a while ago that even though Synthedit is very widely used these days, I've heard far far more mindblowingly unique and inspiring Reaktor ensembles that Synthedit creations...

BTW, I just noticed that Sam Ash (http://www.samash.com) has 8 copies of the cheap-o "Upgrade" version of Komplete 2 in their Closeout area. Still at the $499.99 price. This is still a valid deal, as long as you already own a registered version of one of the qualifying NI products (and that's almost all of them).

Great deal if you're after Komplete 2.

I do not own a NI product...
anyway I don't think Komplete is expensive...the included products amount to 2000 euros...

If I had the money, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

You should head over to Ebay, though. Some guy's selling his (and has already freed up the registration), and last I saw it was $400.

origami wrote:

I do not own a NI product... anyway I don't think Komplete is expensive...the included products amount to 2000 euros...

Couldn't you buy Battery for $119, (from Sam Ash)register it, then register the upgrade versions of Komplete 2?

I believe that the "Upgrade" version of Komplete2 works, as long as your qualifying product is registered first.

If in doubt, E-mail NI Support. They were pretty good about getting back to people who had questions, when Komplete 2 was first introduced.

I'll think about it, thx!

In response to an earlier poster: no, I still believe Reaktor is far superior to Synthedit. Absolutely no doubt in my mind. With Reaktor, you have maximum 'programmability' right out of the box, without having to touch a single line of code or download any modules to suit your needs. Nor do you have to put up with an ugly, more confusing panel interface. I've used both pieces of software, and while Reaktor has it's faults, I'd take it over SE any day of the week.

Quote:

I believe that the "Upgrade" version of Komplete2 works, as long as your qualifying product is registered first. If in doubt, E-mail NI Support. They were pretty good about getting back to people who had questions, when Komplete 2 was first introduced.

that is my recollection as well
if my memory holds some people bought the Komplete 2 package before they bought a qualifying product. (and some simultaneously) As long as they bought and registered a qualifying product before they registered Komplete 2 they were qualified and valid.

and to recap buying now would mean a free upgrade to Battery 2, but likely not for Absynth 3
one could gamble and see just if a $499 supply could last long enough to qualify to get Absynth 3, but that's high stakes.

with a confirmed upgrade to Komplete 2 in the works, I imagine it's a bit of a mess for NI to figure out who qualifies for what.
what if one grew impatient and went out an dbought Battery 2, would one then qualify for a rebate when the upgrade comes out.
and if upgrades are ongoing, this could get really complex
as long as products are registered and computer records are maintained things may hold. I know sites like Cakewalk have all sorts of different pricing based on what you own and what you want to upgrade or buy

HI

If Reaktor ensembles could be hosted in a transportable adaptor IE in a way that meant they could be run without you needing Reaktor then there would be no competition but it can't and IMO this makes Synthedit a different beast altogether - I don't see the two as comparable beyond the building aspect because Reaktor IS tied to its host-so to speak.

Flipper.

original flipper quoth If Reaktor ensembles could be hosted in a transportable adaptor IE in a way that meant they could be run without you needing Reaktor then there would be no competition but it can't

Technically speaking, this is already the case, so it can. The 'transportable adaptor' is called Reaktor Sessions.

thx. Im checking out the Dash-wusik collection now.

zircon wrote:

In response to an earlier poster: no, I still believe Reaktor is far superior to Synthedit. Absolutely no doubt in my mind. With Reaktor, you have maximum 'programmability' right out of the box, without having to touch a single line of code or download any modules to suit your needs. Nor do you have to put up with an ugly, more confusing panel interface. I've used both pieces of software, and while Reaktor has it's faults, I'd take it over SE any day of the week.

Uhg, I can't resist...

"maximum 'programmability' right out of the box"
With SE too, no doubt about this.
I can not code C++ or such... Man, if I could !
SE is a very open platform with a great community,
part of this community creates those modules.
They are enrichment to SE that is simply not present
in Reaktor.
Granular and sample mangling is there since quite some time.
Even tho most people dont know about it,
thanks to 3rd party modules.
SE is richer and deeper than Reaktor,
and lets face it, it is $20 not $498 like the normal
Reaktor price.
Even if it would be the other way around,
I would still go for Synthedit.

"they are over at patcharena
he's changed the name of course, from dash to wusik.
the vector is the wavestation ensemble.
I paid $30 for that thing and now you guys are getting it for free!
What a wonderful world! "


hehe. indeed.

Whcih are the best dash ensembles over there? Any opinions?

wrench45us wrote:

Quote: I believe that the "Upgrade" version of Komplete2 works, as long as your qualifying product is registered first. If in doubt, E-mail NI Support. They were pretty good about getting back to people who had questions, when Komplete 2 was first introduced. that is my recollection as well if my memory holds some people bought the Komplete 2 package before they bought a qualifying product. (and some simultaneously) As long as they bought and registered a qualifying product before they registered Komplete 2 they were qualified and valid. and to recap buying now would mean a free upgrade to Battery 2, but likely not for Absynth 3 one could gamble and see just if a $499 supply could last long enough to qualify to get Absynth 3, but that's high stakes. with a confirmed upgrade to Komplete 2 in the works, I imagine it's a bit of a mess for NI to figure out who qualifies for what. what if one grew impatient and went out an dbought Battery 2, would one then qualify for a rebate when the upgrade comes out. and if upgrades are ongoing, this could get really complex as long as products are registered and computer records are maintained things may hold. I know sites like Cakewalk have all sorts of different pricing based on what you own and what you want to upgrade or buy

This is exactly the reason that they made it so that Komplete 2 owners qualify for the "free" upgrade grace period. it treats everyone equally, even if it is a bit of extra work for NI.

BTW, which upgrades you qualify for with Komplete 2 is based on when you *register* it, not on when you bought it, despite what it says on the NI site. It is simply far too much work to make people prove when they bought it. So, since you can't really use it without registering, they use that date instead. What this means is that oyu can do some minor "gaming the system" if you are willing to buy it, and then hold off registering until you are past the start of the grace period for Absynth 3. I don't really consider this to be "cheating", because you are foregoing the use of the entire product. It's pretty much the same thing as if you bought it a little later.

I think it still isn't too hard to find the LTO version, amazingly. Must be everyone (who was going to) bought it before the "deadline". I saw a few copies of the LTO version on the Manny's Music online site yesterday too.

Midiworks wrote:

zircon wrote: In response to an earlier poster: no, I still believe Reaktor is far superior to Synthedit. Absolutely no doubt in my mind. With Reaktor, you have maximum 'programmability' right out of the box, without having to touch a single line of code or download any modules to suit your needs. Nor do you have to put up with an ugly, more confusing panel interface. I've used both pieces of software, and while Reaktor has it's faults, I'd take it over SE any day of the week. Uhg, I can't resist... "maximum 'programmability' right out of the box" With SE too, no doubt about this. I can not code C++ or such... Man, if I could ! SE is a very open platform with a great community, part of this community creates those modules. They are enrichment to SE that is simply not present in Reaktor. Granular and sample mangling is there since quite some time. Even tho most people dont know about it, thanks to 3rd party modules. SE is richer and deeper than Reaktor, and lets face it, it is $20 not $498 like the normal Reaktor price. Even if it would be the other way around, I would still go for Synthedit.

This reminds me of the Linux vs Windows argument. Either one can work for you. If you like being part of "the community", enjoy the low price, and are willing to put up with a certain amount of hassle because of it, it's a great way to go. If you are willing to pay more, and want something a little more polished (note that I did not say "more functional"), then you can go the other way.

Unlike the operating system debate, you are not really forced to make a choice and stick with it here. You can use the best of both worlds on one machine (assuming you can find the $100 to purchase Reaktor Sessions).

REAKTOR and SYNTHEDIT are
two different ways (sound,production,...)
to build synths/effects.

you can go with none, one or
both.

in KOMPLETE2 REAKTOR is
included for FREE.

Quote:

Granular and sample mangling is there since quite some time. Even tho most people dont know about it, thanks to 3rd party modules.

Reaktor can do both of those extremely easily. Without 3rd party modules.

I fail to see how this is similar to a Windows vs. Linux argument. If we were talking Tassman vs. Reaktor, that would be different, because Tassman has a different goal than SE/Reaktor. However, SE is aiming for the same thing Reaktor is (presumably), which is open-ended graphical audio programming with as much depth as possible. And if you go by that, I just don't see how SE could possibly beat out Reaktor. Having put a fair deal of time into both programs, I truly wonder if there is anything that can be done in SE (besides VST export) that CAN'T be done in Reaktor.

Midiworks wrote:

Let me try a different aproache: EVM Komlete (14 cool VsTi's) (EVM Synpack-1 for only 30.00 euros) http://www.sinte-virtual.com/evmsynths/ Crystal (Free, the Absynth replacement?) http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/219.html M42 Nebula ($45 great atmo synth) http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/1003.html Synth1 (Free, one of the best virtual analogs) http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/214.html Triangle II (Free, great mono VA synth) http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/203.html sfz (Free, Worlds best SoundFont Player) http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/769.html sfz+ ($60 the big brother) http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/770.html Big Tick Rhino (100 Euro, a great synth) http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/394.html Wusikstation ($50-$100 depend on the scheme) http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/1102.html Last but not least: Synthedit $20 as the Reaktor killer !!! http://www.synthedit.com The only gap I see is FM7, also Absynth is really cool. You can still buy those and still save many $$$ And your studio will be much better and way more flexible. Also take a look at the KVR user charts http://www.kvr-vst.com/ratings/0.html To add the No1 CAMELEON 5000 would add the 'cream de la cream' to your set up. Spend your hard earned money wisely !

midiworks, i cannot download any of the free software u posted. do u know where to go about to obtain them? what type of music do u make?

its a good try from headquest

but

would need a beat slicer

a much better sampler or a wave editor - keep the sample the same length and change the pitch is a button away in kontakt

dr-008 to replace battery - cos that interface is great

no sign of B4 either

vokator and spektral delay are unmatched as far as i know - both are very deep - I can't stnd them myself and i would worry if someone was deciding to buy komplete becuase they were thrown in - but try the demo you might like em