I heard word over at Synthtopia that Native Instruments Komplete 5, which I own and enjoy in copious amounts, just dropped to US$399. Marketing blurb:
KOMPLETE 5 is the high-end collection of 11 ground-breaking synthesizers, samplers, emulations, and a virtual guitar studio. Perfect for both studio and stage – this is the industry-standard bundle for serious musicians, producers and sound designers. KOMPLETE 5's instruments can be heard on platinum-selling records and in underground clubs alike, all over the world.
Among many in the collection, I'm a big fan of the Akoustik piano samples, as demonstrated in this video I did awhile ago:
You can spend ages on one of the instruments, like the Pro-53 soft synth which is one of the oldest in the batch:
At first I only saw the price drop at Guitar Center, but other stores like audioMIDI and zZounds have followed suit, so it looks like this deal is spreading. I haven't ordered from most of these places but consider this: Komplete 5's non-marked-up price is something like $1,000, and I got the Kore 2 + Komplete 5 bundle last year for about $650 from Nova Musik with eBay-Live (now Bing) cashback. Worth looking on eBay if anyone's offering this for $399 with free shipping.
(Yeah, Komplete 5's box is heavy because it consists of 12 DVDs and comes with lots of heavy reading. Dandy to curl up with while you dream of oscillators.)
So if you don't care about Kore, which makes it really easy to browse through those 1,000s of sounds but has some instability (odd crashing with my Ableton Live when the Kore controller is turned on it seems… needs more diagnosin') problems, and have been looking to save big on over a decade's worth of leading software instruments, this may be your ticket. Especially if you were looking to get a couple of NI software instruments in the first place, heck, this is likely the same price. And makes me wish there was a pro audio equivalent to Slickdeals.net!
I wonder if this price plunge comes in time for Komplete 6 — I took a survey on May 12 on that very topic.
Preemptive: I'm not officially sponsored by Native Instruments, all the above is because I love sharing great deals and love making music. However, support is a notion I wouldn't be opposed to.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Now that's a tempting price.. I'm going to have to consider that. Thanks!
BTW, the first link's missing a "t" – takes you to a domain squatter instead.
And if synth makers could buy into the idea of some of MUPromo's big seasonal bundles.. ! Those tend to package up around $500-600 of various apps, sold instead for around $50. ^_^ All download-only, of course, but generally complete, normal retail licenses, though vendors are free to impose restrictions like reducing the number of free updates. But even their daily offers, for one application, can be worth snagging, if it's one you've already got interest in.
@Porsupah Fix0red link. Thanks for spotting! Agree with you on the MUPromo front, "group buys" and "bulk buys" are very polarizing amongst some pro audio people. Maybe http://dontcrack.com/ can lead the way.
NI also sent out an ad graphic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/torley/3679198922/sizes/o/
hey Torley great clip + site…just curious what's the diddy played @ 6:38 on the akoustik video? is it off your 'pianoverse' album?
@michael Thanks! It's just a Mozart-esque improvisation, similar to some things I've played before.
not quite so up-to-date (haha) on my classics i guess…cool as always, domo
Hi, nice videos. I have been successful at running Akoustik Piano in Ubuntu Linux, which you probably know is a free operating system, so one can save money on the OS and spend it where it's needed like the actual VST packages. It works on my 1.6Ghz Pentium-M centrino laptop, but glitches a bit due to insufficient CPU power. I recommend a Core2Duo with 2Gb Ram minimum and a fast spinning hard drive.