I just updated my collectors edition. A bunch of plugin alliance VST came with it. I’ve just been updating and adding new installs so far. No playing yet. Roll on tomorrow!

I finally broke down and upgraded to 14 Ultimate. I have way too much software, but with the 50% off, I couldn't resist. Will be my last upgrade (I hope) this year.

Some of their stuff is based on a good idea, but just sounds dreadful (eg Session Horns), some is just too general, or lacking detail (like their orchestral library), and their recent additions (Play Libraries) don't seem to have much in the way of direction, in spite of there being a billion of them, for each and every sub-genre of dance music. I love the sound of the Electric Mint guitar, but its rhythm presets are just way too shallow. Way too many drum libraries. Battery has the same problem - too many sounds but not enough organization. Komplete Kontrol is another kind of okay idea, but poorly implemented with a dreadful UI and to be honest, its obvious that they only came up with it to allow them to push their keyboards. I mean, we survived for many years assigning cc's to sliders and knobs on keyboards. Now we have the same knobs, but they have to be assigned in NI's own software. Kontakt 7 seems to be going in the same direction as Komplete Kontrol, and its just annoying to use for things like string libraries where you want to put together a set of channels from a single library, rather than search by preset name. There's no uniformity to their UI's, or method for preset searching. They're just in a real mess. I do use some of their libraries though - Noire is a lovely instrument, though a bit limited in its scope for use. All the pianos are decent. I use some third party libraries in Kontakt too. I kind of half read with some dismay, a thread on VI Control that implied NI were not going to allow registering of discontinued products, and that is a big problem. Honestly, they might have backtracked on that idea (I hope so!). I used to use their Rhodes and Hammond B3... until I heard the Arturia ones that just sound so much better. Arturia's synth collection has taken over from most of my NI synths too, not only because they sound better, but they're easier to find. With NI's stuff... some of it is in Kontakt, some of it is in Reaktor... then there are a handful of individual products. You have to remember where everything is. I guess Komplete Kontrol would fix that problem if the UI was better implemented. For bass, piano and drums, I make a lot of use of Toontrack products (not keen on their piano sounds, but the concept of EZ Keys is great, and EZ keys 2 which is just around the corner, looks fabulous). Superior drummer sound fantastic. EZ bass is just okay for sound, but the convenience of writing bass parts is fabulous. This said, Toontrack causes their own frustrations, so NI is not alone in that regard. I like a lot of NI's effects VST's, and I was happy to get Ozone Standard in the last update of Komplete. I had a friend who used to release fairly obscure sample libraries for Kontakt that made it into the hands of some top film composers. I know how much work they were! I once recorded some percussion instruments to create a library, but never ended up doing anything with it.

Why do you think you have drifted from Kontakt libraries? They are quite broad ranging. I can understand getting something else where you don’t have Kontakt libraries, or not updating libraries, but the various synths are generally pretty versatile and whether you like lofi or lush audio scapes or real instrument synthesis, there’s something there. Not that I am an NI pusher, I just wondered if it was a drift or an intentional step? Was it sound/result lead, or more working practice etc? One more question… have you tried building your own library?

I have Komplete 14 Standard. I become less impressed each time I give NI money TBH, and although their upgrades to Komplete have generally been worth it to get one or two new titles that interest me, I don't like the way they're going with all these play expansions, and many of their other general expansions to be messy and disorganized. I also have their Komplete Kontrol M32. It's not my main keyboard (an old Novation SLMkII), which I will replace at some point, but I doubt it will be an NI keyboard. I think they're a bit overpriced. Synth-wise I find myself choosing Arturia products over NI products almost completely, and there's actually not much of Komplete that I still use other than Kontakt with 3rd party libraries.

I hear you. I'm focusing quite a bit on Omnisphere 2 and Falcon 2, and I have several boutique libraries. I picked up Westwood's Lost Piano and I'm having more fun with that than I have in a long time. I also bought a ton of Sonic Couture's stuff, and I love everything they make.

Ultimate has a lot to explore, with some awesome sounds. All the Cremona strings are awesome, but to be honest I like most of their orchestral libraries. That said, I would love to add the Spitfire libraries as well. Their BBC orchestral sounds are stunning too. There are so many other synths available in the ultimate collection, the issue is more "overwhelm". You could spend so long exploring that you would never get any music done. I get around this by dividing my time into song recording time, pastiche recording time and exploration time. The latter two can overlap quite a bit. During pastiche time I record the interesting bits of reference tracks and trending tracks. Sometimes it is about catching the overall vibe, but most of the pastiches I have recorded focus on the song sectional transitions. During that pastiche time I might do some exploring trying to recreate key sections of target songs, learning new production skills and new production tools. Once I have the technique, the skills, the tools, I then might explore further to see how I might use that technique myself. This way my personal recording time progresses much more smoothly, with my creative flow being less interrupted by "how to" distractions. When I first bought ultimate I lost so much time exploring that it was ridiculous. It was fun, but for all it was time consuming I felt that I had only just scratched the surface. That in part has left me with less need to get the latest. It has a few libraries and updates that look and sound great, but they are very much "nice to have". I am already spoiled for choice. I bought ultimate pretty cheaply, combining Black Friday/Cyber Monday pricing with upgrade pricing. It made it very worthwhile and ultimately worth the price tag.

I don't have ultimate, just the regular version of 13. I do have a number of libraries, particularly in the stradivarius dept, bought separately. Just don't want to fork over an upgrade, though I would love to have molekular. The Ashlight series seems promising to me, but not sure the upgrade is worth the money.

not yet. I hope to soon. It isn’t essential so there is less pressure. I already have some awesome plugins. What about you? What features would you be wanting to get hold of?

@johnDid you upgrade?

The most interesting plugins I've purchased recently are Unfiltered Audio's Silo and Devious Machines' Infiltrator.

I'm kind of on the fence. I already have the bx stuff. Might be worth it to get Ozone. I love the play series stuff. Honestly, I find myself using Ethereal Earth more than any other instrument except Kontakt and Battery. I dunno. I bought some Omnisphere libraries from Simon Stockhausen's website and they're awesome.

Hey Time to upgrade? I have Komplete Ultimate 13. I like to keep up to date and Komplete has had some interesting new synths etc added over the last year. Pricing will be better during Black Friday period. It always is. They always run a bunch of offers that are hard to resist. It is expensive keeping up, but very worthwhile. Still, there’s no sense paying out money I don’t have to. To be honest there are a bunch of other VSTs that come up for renewal over the next few months. Are you planning to get Komplete 14? Is there any of the synths you are really looking forward to getting? Cheers John

Anybody else? I would have thought there would be a lot of Kontakt users!

Good point I have the Output collection as well as a few legacy 3rd party Kontakt libraries.

I'm a longtime NI software user (since back before they even did Komplete). Right now I have Komplete 13 and Stradivari violin. I have a ton of third party Kontakt libraries and Reaktor ensembles as well. I've been collecting them since Kontakt 2 and Reaktor 3.

Hey Guys What NI gear do you have? I have S61 Mk2 and Komplete Ultimate Collectors Edition. I love the S61, but Komplete is an awesome library of sounds. Worth the price they ask, but we’ll worth waiting for their special offers. Cheers John