KVR Audio

stillshaded · Post by **stillshaded** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:06 am

Hmm..

you have Hive and Bazille which will cover all "analog" sounds you could want.

If you got Zebra or Serum, that would cover just about everything else.

With 3 of those I think you would be good for a long while.. keep it simple IMO. That's a ton of synth already.

That said... I really like razor, but I don't even remember if that's in komplete 8

ExTheSea · Post by **ExTheSea** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:02 pm

Shirt wrote:Also not meaning to hijack the thread, but how do you like Reaper?

I personally really like it. It fits to my Workflow (or i could adapt to its workflow the easiest). When looking for a DAW you should demo every DAW you can to see what fits best and Reaper has probably the least limiting demo there is. You'll probably see if the DAW is good for you quite quickly. When i was evaluating ableton it took me around 3 hours to set up just a few tracks with effects and midi/audio send which took me mere minutes in Reaper. So just give it a try but compare it to other ones on the market. Never force yourself in a DAW when it totally isn't for you just because its cheap or all the cool kids use it

Btw: For my post on the last page: Just demoed Guitar Rig and it sounds really good. I could even make my acoustic sound like a rocking E-Guitar with large amounts of distortion

So one point goes to "Getting Komplete". Is it enough though?

ExTheSea · Post by **ExTheSea** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 6:26 pm

So i just made a "horrible" discovery. Two of the three effect plugins i tested from Komplete (namely Molekular and The Mouth) are in the Ultimate bundle and not the normal one. As i'm currently mostly looking for effects to "live-mangle" audio and i'm trying to get the broadest effect-palette possible this is quite a big hit for my decision...especially as close to 1000 bucks are a way over what i want to spend here. From the Komplete (non-Ultimate) bundle the things that would interest me would be:
Reaktor (as it also has a lot of free effect libraries), Kontakt, GuitarRig, Massive, (some of the other synths though i haven't tested them), a good piano sampler (my favorite soundwise is the grand right now), session strings, a good drum sampler and then all effects i can use live live Traktor's 12, Driver and the Finger (though i didn't like it when demoing).

Does it sound like Komplete would still be worth it for me? Note that i haven't tested all the plugins so i can't tell if there are "hidden gems"...

After looking on the NI website a bit i see that there are quite a lot of effects already in Reaktor 5 included (http://www.native-instruments.com/de/pr ... 5/library/). Might those make Komplete already worth it for me from what i explained so far. (I couldn't find any examples on those effects in action on the web so i can't tell for myself)

Phorous · Post by **Phorous** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:23 pm

A year down the road I am thinking of selling Komplete 9. Although it offers unique features and an ecosystem around it, Kontakt's UI and workflow is getting long in the tooth. I only really use Kontakt and Battery 4 at this point. I mainly just see NI focusing on their hardware integration which I don't really care about. I am not using the plugins in my projects and what I want to do with Kontakt for the most part is replaceable with Halion.

IMO, Komplete has less value as time marches on and the plugins show their age increasingly. Also the more high quality plugins you have the less you will reach for anything from Komplete. Take that as you will.

Its great for hobbyists and people starting out, maybe not so great if you spend too much money on this hobby

EDIT:

Not to disrespect how powerful Kontakt is our how big the ecosystem is, I just don't like working with the small UI.

Shaloxeroligon · Post by **Shaloxeroligon** » Wed Jul 15, 2015 1:54 am

ExTheSea wrote:So what whould you say: Do I need Komplete? Would it be overkill or would i get a a nice "complete" package of plugins for a relatively low price?

No. You do not need Komplete. Depending on which DAW you have, 90% of the stuff that comes in Komplete will already be available among the stock plugins, synths, and samplers of your DAW. Further, I would argue that most people will likely not use 80% of the content that comes in Komplete.

Is Komplete a nice thing to have? Yeah. It's a nice toy. NI plugins definitely win points for having a straightforward user interface. And they sound good. However, I presume you're coming from a "necessary for production of sounds" standpoint, and if that's the case, you DEFINITELY don't need it. It would be a waste of money. You would be better off spending your money on an actual studio necessity (i.e. a DAW, good studio monitors, acoustic treatment, an audio interface, a good mic, etc.). Once you have the necessities, THEN you can start worrying about nice-to-haves like Komplete.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Wed Jul 15, 2015 5:46 am

Kimuchuu wrote:So, as the title says do I need Komplete? I'll start by saying that I have U-he's Hive and Bazille, and I am planning on buying Zebra and Serum. I have Komplete 8, but I was wondering if I should sell it. I mean there's is Kontakt Player, which I could use for libraries. Komplete Ultimate could have been and option, but it seems like it is more for film scoring (Effects and stuff), unlike ProjectSAM's stuff like the Symphobia series. I mean, I probably wouldn't get too much money for it, but I feel like I don't need it at all, and can use it on something else.
What do you think?

What DAW do you use?

What kind of music do you want to be creating?

ExTheSea · Post by **ExTheSea** » Thu Jul 16, 2015 8:17 pm

@Voice303
What i'm grasping is that you probably have a few other plugins that are more suitable/better for what your doing, rendering Komplete useless.
As you say though for a Hobbyist which is exactly what i am....and as such i try to get a good package so that i don't have to look around a lot and read hundreds of review and ineviatably buying plugins that then turn out to be useless/not good enough for me.
I hoped that Komplete might be the solution here. Especially as with Reaktor you can make a lot of ensembles yourself so getting more out of it than there is (that's at least what i think)

@ Shaloxeroligon
I have Reaper and even if it has "good" plugins its synth isn't really usable and its effects (even the js ones) aren't that great...also there aren't that many different.
Other than that i also have a good audio interface, a few good mics (for live usage especially) and a (in my opinion) good daw. What i don't have is something like professional studio monitors but as i want to create a live-looping + effects setup I won't really be mixing or mastering something but rather do things on the fly. Sure i would use it for "normal" music production too and if I find more time for that i will get myself good monitors but as it currently stands monitors aren't really a priority of mine.

I'm just looking for a good versatile synth collection, bunch of good, customizable effects and than maybe a good sounding piano sampler. Now instead of asking "Do i NEED Komplete" I just want to ask: Would Komplete be a good idea for a hobbyist with this requirement who just wants to be out of the "Plugin-hunt" for a bit while having a bunch of good plugins?

PS: Sorry for being quite annoying with this question but i just don't to make a bad purchase and this really helpfull community always helped me with my music related question so why not this one.

Shaloxeroligon · Post by **Shaloxeroligon** » Thu Jul 16, 2015 9:50 pm

ExTheSea wrote:
@ Shaloxeroligon
I have Reaper and even if it has "good" plugins its synth isn't really usable and its effects (even the js ones) aren't that great...also there aren't that many different.
Other than that i also have a good audio interface, a few good mics (for live usage especially) and a (in my opinion) good daw. What i don't have is something like professional studio monitors but as i want to create a live-looping + effects setup I won't really be mixing or mastering something but rather do things on the fly. Sure i would use it for "normal" music production too and if I find more time for that i will get myself good monitors but as it currently stands monitors aren't really a priority of mine.

I'm just looking for a good versatile synth collection, bunch of good, customizable effects and than maybe a good sounding piano sampler. Now instead of asking "Do i NEED Komplete" I just want to ask: Would Komplete be a good idea for a hobbyist with this requirement who just wants to be out of the "Plugin-hunt" for a bit while having a bunch of good plugins?

PS: Sorry for being quite annoying with this question but i just don't to make a bad purchase and this really helpfull community always helped me with my music related question so why not this one.

Okay so if you're doing live stuff, then yeah, studio monitors aren't a big deal. You can probably get away with a set of good PA speakers (unless the place you're performing at has them already).

But in my opinion, Komplete would still be kind of overkill. I would argue that Reaper's effects are pretty darn good (I've messed around with them myself and had some positive results, especially the ReaJS). It's all about how you use them; don't take this the wrong way, but if they don't sound good, it's probably not the plugin's fault.

I would not say Komplete would be a "bad" purchase, but it would definitely be too much for what you're doing. I'm going to assume that price is a concern for you, because if it wasn't, you probably would have just bought Komplete by now. But if you're at a point where you need to think twice about dropping $500 (or $1000 if you're going Ultimate) on a plugin bundle, then I think there might be better choices.

I mean, if I wanted to be narcissistic, I would recommend spending $300 on FL Studio Signature Edition, because you can get pretty much everything you would get in Komplete for $200 less (and some things you CAN'T get in Komplete), plus have a fully-functional DAW that works great for live performances. But I would rather not. So, instead, I would advise you to do your research into some plugins that fill the gaps that Reaper has.

Honestly, as far as synths go, you only need, at most, 3 or 4, and you can probably make 80% of sounds you'd want to make using just one. To cover all your bases, you would need an additive synth, a wavetable synth, an FM synth, and maybe a low-CPU subtractive synth (optional). That's it. Komplete has 11 synths. That's WAY more than you would probably ever need.

As for pianos, I've had some good luck with the free Piano One plugin. Route it through a multiband compressor, some EQ, and a reverb, and it sounds like a concert grand.

ExTheSea · Post by **ExTheSea** » Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:41 pm

Thank you for the answer Shaloxeroligon.
I'm now going to keep building the setup using reapers plugins and freeware plugins.
It's not that the ReaPlugs are bad it's just that they seemed to me a bit tedious to use in a live performance as oppose to Komplete effect plugins.

As for synths I'm also going to stay with my freeware ones for now but if i eventually decide to get a paid one....do you think i should go the Native Instrument route or go a different route and look into sylenth, zebra, ....etc. ?

I'm also going to check out Piano One if i find it somewhere.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:51 pm

If you need a decent sampler/rompler a drum machine plug, plus some great synths, then Air Music Instrument Pack is worth a look to compare it with Komplete

Shaloxeroligon · Post by **Shaloxeroligon** » Tue Jul 21, 2015 1:54 pm

ExTheSea wrote:Thank you for the answer Shaloxeroligon.
I'm now going to keep building the setup using reapers plugins and freeware plugins.
It's not that the ReaPlugs are bad it's just that they seemed to me a bit tedious to use in a live performance as oppose to Komplete effect plugins.

As for synths I'm also going to stay with my freeware ones for now but if i eventually decide to get a paid one....do you think i should go the Native Instrument route or go a different route and look into sylenth, zebra, ....etc. ?

I'm also going to check out Piano One if i find it somewhere.

Here's a link to Piano One: http://www.supremepiano.com/product/piano1.html

As for choosing some synths, it really depends on what you want. NI has a wavetable synth (Massive), an FM synth (FM8), and an additive synth (Razor). But you can get all of those kinds of synths from other sources. It's all personal preference, and whichever one you find easier to use. I've heard good things about XFer's Serum (wavetable) and FAW's Circle 2. Find some synths that interest you, download the demos and plink around with them for a few hours. I'm sure you'll find something you like.

Jorgeelalto · Post by **Jorgeelalto** » Sun Sep 13, 2015 9:54 am

I was also looking for some commercial plugins (since I only use freeware now, and Reaper) and saw Komplete 10 and Air Instrument Expansion Pack. I chose AIEP because I have a discount and I can buy it for just 100$ but I think if you will pay full price for any of them, it's better Komplete since it has more instruments, and effects. AIEP doesn't have any effect and it's 300$.

hivkorn · Post by **hivkorn** » Sun Sep 13, 2015 9:58 am

i think you should take a look @ Arturia , i play a lot with their synths and despite the fact the GUI are too small , they sound great, especially the Mini V

.

Hank the Knife · Post by **Hank the Knife** » Sun Sep 13, 2015 9:58 am

I'd love to see a version of Komplete without sample VSTis.

BBZ · Post by **BBZ** » Thu Oct 22, 2015 11:27 pm

Buy the last komplete ultimate at the cutdown rate, when its going for £500 its so much value in there, i have had for a while now, still havent explored everything. Its alot but you wont want for anything. Unless your greedy, then you will be trolling to market place still (like me)