Komplete 11 Ultimate Conundrum

[wagtunes]

I own Komplete 9. Not Ultimate. Just regular. Didn't upgrade to 10 regular because not much changed.

Now I'm looking at 11 Ultimate with the sale. Unfortunately, not being an Ultimate owner I can't get it for $199. Will cost me $299. Still not the end of the world.

Looking at all the things I don't have, on the surface, it looks like a no brainer.

So what's my conundrum?

Two things.

1) I bought Komplete 9 at Sam Ash in a box. Even installing from CD, it took like 6 hours. It was a nightmare. Now I'm looking at downloading this monster from their site. I can't even comprehend how many countless hours if not days it's going to take. This is really putting me off from getting it. If only I could take advantage of the sale by going to Sam Ash and getting the box version.

2) How much of the stuff that I don't have am I really going to use? Honestly, I have no idea. Do I use Komplete now? Sure I do. I use it a lot. But what exactly do I use from it on a regular basis? Honestly, not a lot.

Kontakt (already have it)
Battery 4 (already have it)
Reaktor 6 (already have it)
Abbey Road Drummer (already have it)
60s Drummer (already have it)

And that's really about it. Yeah, I did one disco track a while ago where I used the Motown Strings and they fit absolutely perfectly. But it could be a year before I use them again.

Sure, maybe having stuff like Razor and Rounds and Molekular will get me to use them. I don't know. But it's not like I'm looking at the things in K11 Ultimate and saying to myself "Man, I gotta have that."

What I really knew I wanted, I either already had with 9 or bought after the fact, like Reaktor 6. Had I not bought that, given that the upgrade was only $99, for another $200, yeah, getting everything else makes sense. But having Reaktor 6 already, I just don't know.

But honestly, between 1 and 2, 1 is the bigger problem. I really don't want to download 500 gig of stuff. That's just plain insane.

Anyway, that's my conundrum.

Honestly, I'm not even asking for advice. There will be people who say it's worth it and people who say it's not. I guess what I'm looking for is some suggestion of how to go about evaluating this so that I can ultimately determine what I'm going to do. Because quite honestly, I don't even know where to begin. Yeah, if the download wasn't ridiculously huge, I'd probably bite the bullet. $300, for me, is not a ton of money for so much stuff. Provided I use it.

[mutantdog]

Refuse to upgrade until they make a bigger GUI for Absynth!

[sjm]

Ultimate comes on a hard disk, at least mine did. Things might have changed since then. Doesn't mean installation is quick, but it's tolerable. And you don't have to install everything (at once).

I use the compressors a fair bit, can't remember if they are only in Ultimate. But you might already have emus you like. There's a bunch of Kontakt libraries included in Ultimate, which depending on what you want to do, might be interesting or not.

It might be worth it for you to wait until Kontakt (assuming you use it semi-regularly) goes to the next major version, and then upgrade to Ultimate, using the same rationale as for Reaktor 6. I'm still on Komplete 9 (U) and see no need to upgrade for now. You don't want to fork out a few hundred bucks now, and then have to upgrade Kontakt separately in a year or three.

[egbert101]

<delete>

[rod_zero]

You have too much stuff already.

For me it is worth because I don't have that much stuff, I need the orchestral instruments, some of the FX. I don't need all the synths for example (serum, diva and Live instruments are almost enough), or most of the pianos (just the UNa corda).

SO how much is worth depends totally on what you will really use.

In your place I would not get it and invest that time you think "its too much" making music.

[zadillo]

You don't actually have to download 500 gigs of stuff at once. It's all done through Native Access, and you can install each product individually.

[wagtunes]

You don't actually have to download 500 gigs of stuff at once. It's all done through Native Access, and you can install each product individually.

So in other words, if I want, I can download like 1 or 2 products a day until I'm all done?

[mjudge55]

Yep, there’s way more stuff in KU than I could use or want at any one time. I just use native access to periodically install stuff I’m curious about.

[dangayle]

You don't actually have to download 500 gigs of stuff at once. It's all done through Native Access, and you can install each product individually.

So in other words, if I want, I can download like 1 or 2 products a day until I'm all done?

Yes. Or, like I did, have them send everything to you in a nice USB 3 hard disk. Installs most plugins within 30 seconds.

Don’t forget, if you buy Ultimate for $300, you can flip all those other plugins for almost that price, making it essentially free.

[wagtunes]

You don't actually have to download 500 gigs of stuff at once. It's all done through Native Access, and you can install each product individually.

So in other words, if I want, I can download like 1 or 2 products a day until I'm all done?

Yes. Or, like I did, have them send everything to you in a nice USB 3 hard disk. Installs most plugins within 30 seconds.

Don’t forget, if you buy Ultimate for $300, you can flip all those other plugins for almost that price, making it essentially free.

Aren't they going to charge me extra for the hard disk? I know EWQL didn't when I got their collection but I'm not sure of NI's policy on shipping hard drives.

[Chapelle]

---

[BBFG#]

You don't actually have to download 500 gigs of stuff at once. It's all done through Native Access, and you can install each product individually.

So in other words, if I want, I can download like 1 or 2 products a day until I'm all done?

Yes. Or, like I did, have them send everything to you in a nice USB 3 hard disk. Installs most plugins within 30 seconds.
Don’t forget, if you buy Ultimate for $300, you can flip all those other plugins for almost that price, making it essentially free.

Aren't they going to charge me extra for the hard disk? I know EWQL didn't when I got their collection but I'm not sure of NI's policy on shipping hard drives.

Since you'll be upgrading from Komplete 9, you will not be able to sell them as they're tied to your upgrade. From what I saw on the website, the 50% off deal was on downloads only. And even with the hard drive, it still requires a certain amount of more data from them, e.g. installing Una Corda from the drive still required an additional 1GB to complete it through Native Access. Probably a great deal for those using the NI way predominately, but given your particular setup, most likely not. Upgrading would be more for resale value at this point.

[rlared]

Download size is like 200 gigs. When uncompressed it takes like 450 gigs.

Native Access makes it pretty easy. Just "download all" and walk away. My reasonably fast internet connection did it in about 24 hours.

My resolution in buying it was to use only the stuff in Komplete Ultimate going forward. . . no other synths. I formatted my PC before downloading and refuse to install anything else. Komplete Ultimate already is enough to make any kind of music I want for years.

From your other posts, you already own like 100 synths. So depends if you want to feed your GAS or not You're probably better off waiting for next year. . . maybe they will have resizeable GUI or something to make it really worth it.

[wagtunes]

You don't actually have to download 500 gigs of stuff at once. It's all done through Native Access, and you can install each product individually.

So in other words, if I want, I can download like 1 or 2 products a day until I'm all done?

Yes. Or, like I did, have them send everything to you in a nice USB 3 hard disk. Installs most plugins within 30 seconds.
Don’t forget, if you buy Ultimate for $300, you can flip all those other plugins for almost that price, making it essentially free.

Aren't they going to charge me extra for the hard disk? I know EWQL didn't when I got their collection but I'm not sure of NI's policy on shipping hard drives.

Since you'll be upgrading from Komplete 9, you will not be able to sell them as they're tied to your upgrade. From what I saw on the website, the 50% off deal was on downloads only. And even with the hard drive, it still requires a certain amount of more data from them, e.g. installing Una Corda from the drive still required an additional 1GB to complete it through Native Access. Probably a great deal for those using the NI way predominately, but given your particular setup, most likely not. Upgrading would be more for resale value at this point.

I'm not really worried about not being able to sell this stuff. There is only one synth I've ever purchased that I'd like to sell and only because it has stopped working completely. Total bug fest. But otherwise, everything I've purchased I intend to keep.

And if it's on downloads only, as long as I don't have to download 500 gig all at once, I'm fine with that.

[generaldiomedes]

The reason I didn't get Ultimate was because the 'big ticket' items seem to relate more to ethnic or soundtrack composition and I am more electronic focused. Plus, I already have Albion One so the Symphonic libraries are an overlap (plus they are a crippled version of the full one).

The effect VSTs are nice, but I don't think they are really best in class (with possible exception of Replika XT) so I plan on getting those on a case by case basis such as Valhalla for reverb.

The only think I would for certain use would be Razor, which I can just purchase separately.

But if you do get Ultimate you are certainly ready to go for practically any style you should choose.