KVR Audio

Juhazea · Post by **Juhazea** » Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:24 pm

IK Multimedia's Total Studio MAX is on sale at the moment. It includes:

AmpliTube MAX
T-RackS MAX (not T-RackS 5, though)
SampleTank MAX
Miroslav Philharmonik 2

Together they seem to cover most of the stuff IK has to offer.

For about 450 euros (~520 USD), is it a good investment for a beginner who already owns Komplete 11 Ultimate? I compose primarily rock/metal but dabble in other genres too.

I have read about people's opinions (complaints) about IK Multimedia as a company, about their customer support and about their marketing tactics, but I'm mainly interested in the quality of their software. For the same price, are there better alternatives?

Edit: Also, I use Reaper, in case it makes a difference.

PeterP_swe · Post by **PeterP_swe** » Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:38 pm

If you do mostly rock and metal then you should absolutely get Amplitube, it's much better than Guitar Rig.

The SampleTank and Miroslav libraries are not that useful if you already have Komplete 11 Ultimate.

T-Racks have nice effects, but quality is a bit mixed. Some good stuff in there though.

So, overall, I think it comes down to if the price difference between Total Studio MAX and Amplitube MAX and how much value you'd put into the T-Racks FX plugins.

I was in the same situation and I went for only Amplitube MAX.

Saukar30 · Post by **Saukar30** » Fri Dec 29, 2017 3:55 pm

I agree. With Komplete 11 Ultimate, you have a enough of a diverse sound palette as far as synths & instruments go. I'd say the only reason to even consider getting IK's instruments is if you don' really like the "sound" of Komplete. Even then, you can change those with effects.

Amplitube MAX is great. For metal, I'd think you would definitely need that kind of sonic arsenal. The T-Racks FX you dont really need unless you want something simple & specific... but that can be done with Komplete 11 Ultimate as well.

Juhazea · Post by **Juhazea** » Fri Dec 29, 2017 7:12 pm

Yes, I'm buying the AmpliTube MAX in any case. Buying it alone would cost me about 250 euros, so that would leave 200 euros as the price for the other three. Are they not worth that?

To be honest, I was hoping there would be enough diversity between NI's and IK's stuff to justify the purchase. I was mostly tempted by the T-RackS MAX, because I read on another forum that the plugins are actually very good quality, in which case it would appear to be a good value for money. Then again, I'm not quite sure what I need. On the other hand, now would be a good opportunity to get things cheap, just in case.

This is not going to get any easier with more experience, is it? Choosing what to buy, I mean.

shidostrife · Post by **shidostrife** » Sat Jan 06, 2018 11:58 pm

As said above, if you have Komplete Ultimate, only amplitube is worth money.

That's the upgrade price, right? I assume you have a qualifying product in your account?

Do not buy IK products full price. Wait for 40-50% sales, they do that often, sometimes on full products, sometimes on upgrades. But quite often nevertheless.

sin night · Post by **sin night** » Sun Jan 07, 2018 3:30 pm

I'm not into rock/metal, I know next to nothing about guitars and such and I have none of those bundles (but I have some single products by both brands). Keep this in mind when reading my opinion on the subject.

From my point of view, since you wrote that you're a beginner, I think that you probably can find some weak points in your setup that could benefit from those 450€ more than what you would gain by adding another plugin suite that covers a lot of ground already covered by Komplete.

I don't know if Amplitube is significantly better than Guitar rig (I'm not a guitarist, so...). My personal purchase policy is that I buy something even if that ground is already covered by something else, if the differences make it worthwhile (that's something that only you can tell), but at the same time I keep an eye on the weaknesses of my setup to decide if there are other priorities.

Just my 2 cents.

Juhazea · Post by **Juhazea** » Sun Jan 28, 2018 9:18 am

Thank you, everyone, for your input and my apologies for the late reply. Real life got in the way.

I ended up purchasing the Total Studio MAX, against everyone's advice.

Since I was going to buy the AmpliTube MAX anyway, the additional price for all the rest (~66€ each) seemed small in comparison.

I studied the prices very carefully and after some additional purchases (owning more stuff gave more discount) I'm confident that I got the best possible price, with the possible exception of buying it second-hand. Even more so if I can resell some of the stuff I bought and don't need.

Afterwards, I can say that I'm comfortable with the decision I made. I can't say I'm pleasantly surprised by the quality of SoundTank or Miroslav Philharmonik as a whole, but both contain enough usable sounds to justify the price for me. (Of course, human brain is really good at justifying bad decisions, so...)

I'm new to mixing so I can't really say anything about T-Racks just yet.

Time will tell.

simon.a.billington · Post by **simon.a.billington** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 2:58 am

There are guitar amps such as from Fender that will also be good for blues styles as well as funk and jazz.

I have SampleTank and its compatible with most other Factory Libraries you get. I must admit I was disappointed at the direction it took for its expansions. It also doesn't appear to come with any multi's, you kind of have to make them up yourself. The onboard effects are great with many of them taken from Amplitube or T-Racks.

Although Syntronik is great, it's more like what i expected from them with SampleTank. I don't own that though.

T-Racks is great as well, often overlooked very under approached, but it certainly has what its takes. Version 5 is definite improvement and its a shame that it doesn't coe as part of the bundle. It's been out for a while IK really should add it in.

Can't say I've used Miroslav though, since I'm on board with the EastWest libraries. Little bit unhappy at the expense of those too, with many older libraries that should have come down in price staying quite expensive. I think its to deter people from buying because that want people subscribing, but that's them.

IK does make good quality stuff even if they sometime miss the mark like with SampleTank. Its not bad in any way, the factory library is quite decent, we're just not seeing expansions like you would get with NI Kontakt. Now that sampler does open up the doors to many, great 3rd party libraries.

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Fri Feb 02, 2018 3:53 am

This was on sale for $300 from Musicians Friend and Sweetwater. I bought it a couple days ago for this price.

Ryan_IK · Post by **Ryan_IK** » Wed Jun 06, 2018 4:09 pm

If you're on the fence about Total Studio MAX or the components included in it. We are having a great promotion on these and related products right now with some great savings. Check out the promo below!

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/news.php?id=1033

Scotty · Post by **Scotty** » Wed Jun 06, 2018 4:22 pm

delete... read post incorrectly.

Peter - IK Multimedia · Mon Jul 09, 2018 8:54 pm

If anybody is interested in Total Studio 2 MAX, author/musician Craig Anderton posted a great piece on how to Build a Better Backing Track using Total Studio 2 MAX (and you can even follow these tips using the free versions of our flagship software products, too, for a good head start).

weckl · Post by **weckl** » Tue Jul 17, 2018 1:07 am

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

Ryan_IK wrote:If you're on the fence about Total Studio MAX or the components included in it. We are having a great promotion on these and related products right now with some great savings. Check out the promo below!

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/news.php?id=1033 (http://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/news.php?id=1033)

The link doesnt work!

I just bought SampleTank Max, for 200Euro (summer 2018 discount).
I am not too satisfy with the drum acoustic kit in Sample Tank library, but in this pack I got 4 real acoustic drums! So worth it!
Still thingking to upgrade to TOtalSTudioMAx, for another 250Euro

tbadeanu · Post by **tbadeanu** » Sat May 30, 2020 9:10 am

Will this worth it now at the current discount? I will mainly buy it for T-Racks, Modo Bass, Amplitube and maybe Philharmonik.

I don't think i'll ever use SampleTank (i remember everything sounded really dated) or the other synths as i own some Komplete 12 instruments and the Arturia V7 collection.

Thank you

penfever · Post by **penfever** » Sat May 30, 2020 10:23 am

I recently purchased TS MAX 2. I own a LOT of Komplete/NI content already, and I already had Amplitube MAX, so for me, the purchase was about everything else in the set. Here are my thoughts, as of now, particularly as it compares to Komplete Ultimate.

TL;DR version -- TS MAX 2 is worth the money if you only have Komplete Ultimate. If you have Arturia and Waves, you probably don't need it, but could still find value there.

STRENGTHS

Amplitube MAX is great, just as people have said. Be sure to read the manuals and figure out what all the amps are supposed to be emulating, then A-B them with hardware and each other. Use your own impulse responses and bypass IK's cabinet emulations, there are stronger ones available.

Syntronik is fabulous. I use it (with FX disabled) as a yardstick for measuring how well VIs capture the sound of the hardware they're emulating, since Syntronik with the FX off IS what you would get if you plugged a $10k Jupiter 8 into your setup and recorded it well. It's also very good if I don't want to get bogged down in sound design and I just need "that sound". I really appreciate that IK didn't do a 'secret sauce' thing (like NI does with all of its new expansions) and just TOLD me which synths they used for which patches.

MODO Bass is very good. I think it is a little overrated on this forum -- I don't find it more convincing than Trilian or even NI's Scarbee Rickenbacker, for instance, and sampled basses have sounded great for ten years or more at this point, anyway. But it is really cool to have such a lightweight plugin that sounds 90% as convincing, and is infinitely customizable (down to having your bassist play fingerstyle vs slap).

IK's T-Racks is, in my view, stronger than the FX included with Komplete for day-to-day work. Plugins like NI's Driver are fantastic for creative FX work and, in my opinion, don't really have a peer in the IK system right now. But T-Racks's emulations of LA-2A, etc, are better than NI's, albeit a bit less convincing than UAD (but not much!). The real appeal of T-Racks is that it doesn't eat a ton of system resources or require outboard gear. The only thing comparable at the price point is Waves, on sale. I have particularly gotten a lot of use out of the standalone Lurssen Mastering Console, which provides a fast, 1-click 'dirty master' suitable for demo work and the like (it's comparable to Landr or Izotope, but much easier to use than the latter and much cheaper than the former if you produce a lot of tracks).

Sampletank has a few interesting ethnic instruments, particularly world percussion. The basses and guitars aren't bad either.

Miroslav Philharmonik 1 (included in MP2) has a classic, dry, forceful sound that was emulated on many of the Roland JV boxes, Kurzweils, etc. Therefore, it's surprisingly useful for emotional, retro-sounding orchestral work (the opposite of the ultra-realistic Spitfire libs). For me, it's more useful than NI Symphonic series, which is caught inbetween the two sounds, and isn't great for either.

WEAKNESSES

MP2 and Sampletank 4 contain very little that stands out, when compared to the current competition. IMO, you're unlikely to get much mileage out of either instrument.

The Sampletank browser, and how it handles its content generally, is far inferior to NI (and Steinberg and UVI -- with Play, it's a tossup, they're both very frustrating). It's hard to get it to find your sounds on your HDD, and difficult to figure out how to edit them once they're loaded.

Syntronik's UI can be confusing, and it isn't easy to control via MIDI learn/automation, which is a shame, because filter sweeps and the like sound GREAT on Syntronik.

If you template, I find Sampletank, Syntronik and Miroslav load very slowly and eat a ton of RAM compared to NI/Steinberg instruments.

IK's download system is pretty stone-age compared to NI, Steinberg, Eastwest, Vienna. Hell, even 8Dio and Soundiron have automatic downloaders/installers at this point.

Is Total Studio MAX worth the money? (IK Multimedia)