native instruments

[ronnie35]

I need some help I have been on the Native instrument web site not sure how this works do i buy the komplete 10 then buy ex.. the string series. or do i buy kontact 5 in the long run I am looking for strings, brass and percussion to create a mellow to bombastic sound for recording trailors

WHERE DO I BEGIN?

Ron

[Len911]

Well Ron, there is only a $100 difference.
Looks like Graham beat me to the punch,lol!
If you decided you were going to buy the "string ensemble symphony series". With Komplete you would pay the crossgrade price $299, vs Kontakt only price of $499. So you'd be $100 ahead by purchasing Komplete initially.

And $100 for the instruments and effects you get with Komplete, it's difficult to justify only a Kontakt purchase.

On the other hand, the same "string ensemble symphony series" also runs in the free Kontakt player.

Many third party libraries need the full version of Kontakt or will run in demo mode, 15 minutes at a time. And for some libraries they will run on Kontakt player.

If you knew you were ever going to purchase just 3 Kontakt programs from NI, if the crossgrade price difference was $200 per library x 3= $600, and Komplete is $500, so you still come out ahead without considering anything else!

[Paulie]

You will end up upgrading, so by Kontakt 10 if you can afford it. Then wait for a 50% off sale to upgrade later. There are so many great libraries that you will have plenty to work with.

[Kolstad]

NI is a great place to start, and especially getting ultimate may save you money despite it is the more expensive version. The reason it may save you money, is beacuse you won't need so much else at first. It's all there, so you can experiement and get great sounds right off. The expensive part is when you try to buy all sorts of things instead of just a few great tools.

Komplete will probably evolve into version 11 this year, and probably some time around summer NAMM, so I would hold on getting it for a few months. Kontakt 6 is reportedly in beta testing now, so big things are to come..

NI's main target group are electronic musicians and DJ's (of course many others use it), though, so if you are working in more organic sounding genres, you may look into Spectrasonics, Project SAM and/or Spitfire Audio. All of them will probably work for trailer music.

[MattCurious]

I use NI for orchestral stuff as well as hybrid, and for that reason went with the Komplete Ultimate pack - there's so much in there I haven't even begun to scratch the surface.

But what I did discover is that the string and horn instruments in the bundle aren't really aimed at orchestral arrangements and, in my view, sound wrong when used alone in that context (although they can sound great mixed with more orchestral stuff). As a result I ended up buying String Ensemble and Brass Ensemble as well, but I (fortunately) got the crossgrade price because I'd bought the full version of Kontakt in the bundle.

So if you're looking at orchestral stuff, I'd buy a package that allows crossgrade to the Ensemble series.

[ronnie35]

Thanks so much

Ron