Native Instruments Komplete 26 released

[Echoes in the Attic]

A lot changed here in terms of licensing. It used to be the same price to upgrade for the last version or a few versions. Now there seems to be differently prices depending on which prior version you are on.

And it used to be possible to upgrade from collectors edition to standard if you wanted, whereas now it seems there is no upgrade path from CE to standard. I only really cared about Absynth and would have been fine just getting the additional stuff that came with standard, but it's giving me the price based on some old standard komplete version. So one you're on CE I guess it's the only way to upgrade now.

Hmmm, if they are doing this yearly now, I wonder if they will still do the half off in the holidays. Although just because they named it 26 doesn't mean they need to do one every year, they could just have a 28 next.

[mumpcake]

What's New? (for me 15 -> 26)

Absynth 6
Electric Neon Essentials guitar library
Jade and Teak electric pianos
Nectar 4 Elements
Ozone 12 Elements
FXEQ
Play Libraries
- 24k Drums
- 24k Keys
- Discoteca Drums
- Discoteca Keys
- Halo Vox
- Hypr
- Luxa
- Marco Polo Drums
- Roux
Some "expansions"
Some Leap expansions
8 Massive X expansions

The play libraries add 2 hip hop drum instruments to however many are already there. The Italo-disco are at least something that hasn't been done to death, but all of the other new Play libraries seem redundant.

[Sascha Franck]

For me, the only thing I could possibly do with (even if I don't use it much) would be Kontakt 8 (I'm on Komplete Ultimate 12, hence Kontakt 6). The rest is Absynth 6 and content, nothing I would need (or even want). At least not for a whooping €599.
No wonder NI's reputation is going south. Zero new exciting things, Battery and Reaktor as good as dead. What a shame.

[mumpcake]

Listening to the demos shows you how far they have fallen. Fifteen years ago you would listen to the demos and think "wow, I've never heard anything like that before". Today I was listening to a demo for a Play library and was struck by how much one of the demos sounded like "Thank U Next" by Ariana Grande. They went from blazing trails to being the best imitation of everything else on the radio.

[bermudagold]

In Multimedia (ads, film scores, documentary scores), that happens often enough actually.
Granted that is a small sector.
rsp

but that is a bigger question in the viability of sync work going forward...what brands are going to pay for sync in a world where the marketing team can prompt their own jingles and music?

[bermudagold]

They are extolling the "breadth" of Komplete 26. Ok, but how many musicians are actually scoring using choirs, then moving on to country music, then ambient, then dystopian, then pop, then chamber music and R&b? If you're that good (or that scattered?) there's probably some session musician gigs for you but otherwise too much is too much.

KEv

Even then there are probably better solutions than spending all the money on all these Kontact Libraries

If I am ever hired to score a movie where hyper realistic violins are super important I would then have the budget just to hire an actual violinist to do so and if the budget isn't there for that than the violins in HALion7 will have to do. Or I can spend $25 and rent UVI Sonic Pass for a month

You certainly don't need expensive and vast libraries any more

that doesn't seem to be the case...the sync musician community constantly states how you reach a point fairly quickly where you cant get access to a lot of work without spending the money on high end libraries...you don't have to believe me of course there are lots of podcasts on it

[zvenx]

In Multimedia (ads, film scores, documentary scores), that happens often enough actually.
Granted that is a small sector.
rsp

but that is a bigger question in the viability of sync work going forward...what brands are going to pay for sync in a world where the marketing team can prompt their own jingles and music?

Very Scary times ahead indeed.
rsp

[bermudagold]

In Multimedia (ads, film scores, documentary scores), that happens often enough actually.
Granted that is a small sector.
rsp

but that is a bigger question in the viability of sync work going forward...what brands are going to pay for sync in a world where the marketing team can prompt their own jingles and music?

Very Scary times ahead indeed.
rsp

i saw a sync podcast recently where guys were saying they were being saved by customers inability to speak in musical theory semantics and the weaknesses in the natural language processing models applied to music...so getting what they wanted out of AI was taking too many iterations...and customers were still willing to pay for a translation layer middleman...interesting to see if that holds up

[zvenx]

Also I think AI is great at polished productions more than making you feel something.
That is the emotional connection may not be mastered.... yet!!!
rsp

[bermudagold]

The problem with NI is the lack of focus. Way too many libraries and expansions. Instead of 6 vintage keyboards, make 1 with 6 presets and nice skins instead. Combine the 6 choirs, 18 Leap expansions and so on.

Does anyone even use the Leap expansions?

based on the success of output arcade, I would think they do...after all that was the inspiration and what NI was betting on

[bermudagold]

What's New? (for me 15 -> 26)

Absynth 6
Electric Neon Essentials guitar library
Jade and Teak electric pianos
Nectar 4 Elements
Ozone 12 Elements
FXEQ
Play Libraries
- 24k Drums
- 24k Keys
- Discoteca Drums
- Discoteca Keys
- Halo Vox
- Hypr
- Luxa
- Marco Polo Drums
- Roux
Some "expansions"
Some Leap expansions
8 Massive X expansions

The play libraries add 2 hip hop drum instruments to however many are already there. The Italo-disco are at least something that hasn't been done to death, but all of the other new Play libraries seem redundant.

the problem with the play libraries is they don't have a ton of appeal beyond casuals and newcomers because they aren't deeply sampled...they are mostly made from one shots and wavetables...they rely on signature branding like drake producer "noah 40" etc...similar to what waves was all about for a while...but to be fair casuals and newcomers is what they're aimed at and that is what they want

[bermudagold]

Listening to the demos shows you how far they have fallen. Fifteen years ago you would listen to the demos and think "wow, I've never heard anything like that before". Today I was listening to a demo for a Play library and was struck by how much one of the demos sounded like "Thank U Next" by Ariana Grande. They went from blazing trails to being the best imitation of everything else on the radio.

but that is the last proven viable market though...worked for output and others...the fastest route to sounding like the radio...that's what drives expansions and preset pack sales, especially for things like vital...and what drives the whole "type beat" culture and ecosystem on youtube and elsewhere

[bermudagold]

Interesting that they single out four applications as 'Flagships.' Kontakt and Guitar Rig are obvious I guess, but the other two are MassiveX and Absynth6. But not Reaktor

reaktor is the biggest value added proposition in the market next to max for live...to not consider that one of your flagship products moving forward is a wild decision...but isn't guitar rig still built in reaktor?...seems incoherent if so

[oobesan]

$399 for K14 Ultimate->K26 Ultimate
$899 for K14 Ultimate->K26 CE.

$400 to get Absynth and a few more cinematic and orchestral libraries is, like, crazy. Like the other poster said above, I’d rather spent $499 on Omnisphere. Or, $399 (on sale) on UVI SonicBundle.

I don’t understand why they don’t do sensible, focused Komplete bundles for different types of producers. I mean, they do this for Komplete Select. So, why don’t they do it for the higher-tier bundles? The person who needs Absynth and Reaktor probably doesn’t need Valves or whateverthefuck. Make it make sense.

[IvyBirds]

They are extolling the "breadth" of Komplete 26. Ok, but how many musicians are actually scoring using choirs, then moving on to country music, then ambient, then dystopian, then pop, then chamber music and R&b? If you're that good (or that scattered?) there's probably some session musician gigs for you but otherwise too much is too much.

KEv

Even then there are probably better solutions than spending all the money on all these Kontact Libraries

If I am ever hired to score a movie where hyper realistic violins are super important I would then have the budget just to hire an actual violinist to do so and if the budget isn't there for that than the violins in HALion7 will have to do. Or I can spend $25 and rent UVI Sonic Pass for a month

You certainly don't need expensive and vast libraries any more

that doesn't seem to be the case...the sync musician community constantly states how you reach a point fairly quickly where you cant get access to a lot of work without spending the money on high end libraries...you don't have to believe me of course there are lots of podcasts on it

Sure, and that's a world I actually know decently well. How big do you think that market is however? There thousands of people fighting for the same handful of jobs most of which are not going to pay well, a world where tons of people are willing to work for nothing except "exposure"?

Don't think for a second lots of people making podcasts like that are not acting as gatekeepers trying to discourage competition for the same jobs they are trying to get by telling noobs hey you need to buy all these super expensive high end libraries so you too can score a low budget film or documentary where the caterer will make far more than you.

Not to mention every six months more and more students graduate from Full Sail, Berklee, and endless University film school programs with all the expensive high end libraries they took out massive debt to buy. You will see them begging on a bunch of scoring and foley forums looking to score TV, or films for peanuts or even free because they are so desperate to do anything and build a resume

That is something the podcasters won't tell you, they also won't tell you that AI is destroying any chance you think you might have to break into that business. Why would any producer or director of any project that doesn't have a massive budget hire anyone when Suno and other AIs can score it without high end libraries. That situation is only going to get worse over the next few years as those AI tools get better and better

Anyone dropping serious cash in 2026 on high end libraries in the hopes of getting good paying film score jobs should just take that money to the casino or buy a bunch of scratchers. You will have much better odds of making money. There is already thousands of people in front of you that already have them, and already have a resume far better than you working for free because that's all they can get

And if you are scoring a film, documentary, or whatever for free it even for peanuts why own high-end libraries to make the pain sting even more?