I use a Mac with Logic DAW. I am considering purchasing the AKAI 49 key controller, MOTU BPM for drums and either Kontakt 4 or IK Total Work station 2 bundle. Both are priced in my price range. However, without actually owning them (Kontakt and TWS2), I couldn't possibly know the actual details of how they sound or operate on a Mac.

QUESTIONS: Which is better for overall sound quality for the samples? Which is less CPU intensive? Which has less bugs, if any? I have been disappointed badly in the past: PlugsoundPro does not work with Logic. I found Cubase to be very time consuming, unfriendly to use, and bug infested, compared to Logic or Sonar.

I am interested in hearing from those who own both Kontakt 4 and Total Workstation2 Bundle.

My advice would be to try the demos. ST and Kontakt are two different animals. Very different. I have both, and they have completely different approaches. Kontakt has much larger libraries with greater detail, and there is scripting in Kontakt. ST is faster and it has great effects. Try the demos.

Kontakt is a sampler with an included library, Ik's workstation is a set of Romplers. I find that the included sampleset from Kontakt to be in general better, but the IK stuff has wider variety of samples included. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Kontakt would be your choice if you need to really manipulate the samples, or create your own patches from other samples you already own. Kontakt is also your choice if you are looking for expandability. there are lots of third party companies making samplesets for Kontakt, not so much for IK. IK would be your choice if you are just looking for a huge library of instantly usable sounds. As far as bugs go, I haven't had problems with either, but then I don't use a Mac, or Logic, so I don't know if either product has any bugs on your platform. If it makes any difference, I passed up my chance to get in on the IK groupbuy, in part because NI announced a new version of Komplete with more sample content for Kontakt. (I own Sampletank and Samplemoog, and a lot of expansion packs, not the whole bundle)

I don't like the IK sounds.
Everytime when there is one of their groupbuys I buy something although at first I did not want to, and everytime I am disappointed afterwards.....(very raw sounds, sometimes badly looped, sometimes one key has a compltely different soundcharacter/volume than the next key...)

The kontakt library on the other hand I love. Very well produced, even sound over the whole keyrange etc etc....


Alex

Maybe I'm picky. I don't know. I just listened to the choirs in Kontakt and they don't sound that good, more like synthesized choirs, nothing compared to Omnisphere choirs. I also checked out their urban category, which is basically 50 drum loops, split out. That is puny, when you consider that my Yamaha XS has probably a 1000 drum arpeggios for all commercial genres of music. I can't make an overall judgement of Kontakt 4 because they do not have song demos on their site as well as not much in the way of demo sounds for all the categories of sound patches. I am not going to lay down good money and hope that I made the right purchase. Without the details, I'm not convinced. Now I do know that Omnisphere has superb sounds. It's just that they appear not to have an array of sound patches diverse enough for commercial danceable music. So far, my Yamaha XS beats out all these products easily. Yamaha is tops for sound and a great instrument for almost any genre, and it can be expanded at quite low cost. Where Yamaha falls is the on board choirs which are stinko, and the arpeggios are not editable. But overall it is still the king of the hill for hardware sample based instruments, in my opinion.

for presets its six of one, half a dozen of the other.

every other way kontakt wins hands down.

cheers,

steve.

I wouldn't buy either of these things on the basis of "drum loops" look at the urban section of kontakt as a demo of the sorts of things that can be done, rather than a full loop package. Ik has some expansion packs available that are collections of loops, but it's not in the main product. Kontakts Choirs are the best I have, but considering that no sampled choir really sounds realistic it's probably as good as you're going to find, short of shelling out 700 bucks for EW's symphonic choirs (which was originally available as a Kontakt library) IK's samples are hit or miss, some are fantastic, some are not.