Best value virtual instrument bundle? (particularly guitar/drums)

[therestisnoise]

Thanks. Will keep an eye out in November

[wtptrs]

Although IK Multimedia seems to be disliked here by many, their Total Studio 3.5 MAX bundle is now on sale for $249. If you ignore their other sales throughout the year and just get that, you get a lot of value for money imo: Amplitube 5 MAX, T-Racks 5 MAX, Mixbox, MODO Bass, MODO Drum, Sampletron 2 ... And although I agree that a lot of their core Sampletank libraries are not up to standard anymore, some of the recent expansions, which you also get, have been great.

If you decide to go the Komplete route, another cheapish method would be to buy a second hand Komplete Kontrol M32 (it's a great little controller) for about $50, which comes with a Komplete Select license, so you can already start exploring some of the libraries. Next year during summer, upgrading from Select to Standard will probably be discounted to $199.

[therestisnoise]

Thanks for this.

[srv-musikmaker]

Hello,

There's plenty of fantastic free virtual instruments out there but I'm at a point now where I want to 'level up' and get a more comprehensive and versatile virtual instrument arsenal. Am quite open to spend a bit but am interested in what the opinions are in terms of best bang for your buck.

All round pop/rock stuff is what I'm after, but in particular a decent drum and electric guitar library (I am a keyboardist and can't play guitar or drums unfortunately!). Am very tempted by NI Komplete 14 Standard (the Electric Mint guitar looks very good - need to investigate drums more) but am wondering how much use I'd have for all the various plugins included. When I roughly price up purchasing a decent drum library and decent guitar library, i'm well on my way to half the price of Komplete Standard (if not more) so am wondering whether to just go full hog? Thought appreciated.

Cheers.

Xpand2, Steven Slate Drums, IK Multimedia free amp stuff

[Philou11]

Magix Independence free
https://www.magix.com/us/music-editing/ ... -software/

Neo Soundstation 2
https://neo-soundstation.com/

Komplete Start free
https://www.native-instruments.com/fr/p ... ete-start/

Cakewalk Studio Instruments (included in Cakewalk Bandlab free Daw)

[jeffn1]

Yes, after thinking about this, I would get Kontakt and maybe Neo Soundstation2.

Then you can add particular quality libraries/instruments when on sale (there is a big difference in price) or through license transfer.

I feel Kontakt is really essential for using quality libraries by smaller 3rd party developers, though it also includes a variety of instruments.

[therestisnoise]

Magix Independence free
https://www.magix.com/us/music-editing/ ... -software/

Neo Soundstation 2
https://neo-soundstation.com/

Komplete Start free
https://www.native-instruments.com/fr/p ... ete-start/

Cakewalk Studio Instruments (included in Cakewalk Bandlab free Daw)

Thanks for the suggestion. Can you use the Cakewalk instruments outside of Sonar?

[Philou11]

"Technically" yes, you will find them if you look for them (youtube/google), but i don't know how legal it is, if Cakewalk agrees about that, even tough these are free instruments.

By the way, to clear any possible misunderstanding, "Neo Soundstation" works with the Kontakt free player.

[Psynthax]

IK Multimedia Total Studio 3.5 MAX bundle on sale now is what I would buy now and look for Impact Soundworks for guitar library, but you need to buy NI Kontakt for their libs, some of soundworks libraries might work with free player too..