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Komplete Ultimate or Omnisphere?

@proxima , okay , I need to do more research. I thought full Kontakt was only for rolling your own sample libraries and that the player was for playing back existing libraries. Looks like I can upgrade to standard which includes the full Kontakt for $269 I may do that, learn it all and then make the next jump when the next sale arrives. … I really wish there were demo versions. Anyway, thanks again for the advice.
Kontakt Player enabled libraries pay NI a fee for every copy. Lots of developers don't want to do that, so you'll see them say you need Kontakt Full. And the free stuff, e.g. on Pianobook, will require it (or another sampler, but Kontakt is king for now).

As for a demo, your Komplete Select basically is. Komplete Standard and Komplete Ultimate is just way way more where that came from. Komplete Standard is another great deal, and as you said, Ultimate can come later.

No demo for Omnisphere sure, but there are a billion walkthroughs of it on youtube. You might even start with the Unfinished preset libraries for Omnisphere to see what you think.
 
Thanks, this sounds good. Just curious, what Kontakt libraries do you like?
 
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Thanks, this sounds good. Just curious, what Kontakt libraries do you like?
That's too broad - what kind of instruments? Searching for those on this site will turn up lots and lots of threads full of opinions more informed than mine. Check out the threads that list free libraries as well.
 
@proxima , okay , I need to do more research. I thought full Kontakt was only for rolling your own sample libraries and that the player was for playing back existing libraries. Looks like I can upgrade to standard which includes the full Kontakt for $269 I may do that, learn it all and then make the next jump when the next sale arrives. … I really wish there were demo versions. Anyway, thanks again for the advice.
Komplete Standard is better for Pop, EDM types. The sy the are good, battery is great, some of the expansion packs are very decent. Its chock full of A./E. Pianos, Guitars etc. to bulk up the package.

If you're doing cinematic, all of the better orchestral and cinematic libraries are in Ultimate. You should go straight there.

Otherwise you will end up buying more stuff on top of Komplete and spending more money than if you had gone straight to Ultimate during a sale.

I do think NI has good cinematic libraries. Opinions on their orchestral stuff is very split, esp. with how they were developed by different companies.
 
If you're doing cinematic, all of the better orchestral and cinematic libraries are in Ultimate. You should go straight there.
I agree that the better orchestral/cinematic libraries ended up in Ultimate, I disagree that one needs to go straight there.

Komplete Standard is an inexpensive way to get Kontakt Full, Reaktor Full, and a bunch of other synths. There's a lot there. The cinematic stuff in Komplete Ultimate might be awesome for some, but not for others. The Symphony Series is a lite version, and it's pretty rare that people want to build their core orchestral samples around that. Many people (myself included) love some of the other libraries (even pretty old Heavocity stuff is a lot of fun), but they're by no means essential for many.

With the sale right now, Komplete 13 Standard is a $269 upgrade from Komplete Select (what the OP has). Komplete 13 Ultimate is $669. That $400 can buy some top-shelf stuff, including nearly Omnisphere itself. Furthermore, supposing the OP decides they want Komplete Ultimate, it'll probably be a $400 upgrade at the next sale (that's what it costs now to go from Komplete Standard 13 to Komplete Ultimate 13). Wait two years or so and that same $400 will probably buy an upgrade from Komplete Standard 13 to Komplete Ultimate 14.

Unless the OP is truly excited by the additional libraries in Ultimate, that $400 is better saved for some other library right now or down the line.
 
I agree that the better orchestral/cinematic libraries ended up in Ultimate, I disagree that one needs to go straight there.

Komplete Standard is an inexpensive way to get Kontakt Full, Reaktor Full, and a bunch of other synths. There's a lot there. The cinematic stuff in Komplete Ultimate might be awesome for some, but not for others. The Symphony Series is a lite version, and it's pretty rare that people want to build their core orchestral samples around that. Many people (myself included) love some of the other libraries (even pretty old Heavocity stuff is a lot of fun), but they're by no means essential for many.

With the sale right now, Komplete 13 Standard is a $269 upgrade from Komplete Select (what the OP has). Komplete 13 Ultimate is $669. That $400 can buy some top-shelf stuff, including nearly Omnisphere itself. Furthermore, supposing the OP decides they want Komplete Ultimate, it'll probably be a $400 upgrade at the next sale (that's what it costs now to go from Komplete Standard 13 to Komplete Ultimate 13). Wait two years or so and that same $400 will probably buy an upgrade from Komplete Standard 13 to Komplete Ultimate 14.

Unless the OP is truly excited by the additional libraries in Ultimate, that $400 is better saved for some other library right now or down the line.
Like I said, Komplete standard is choke full of rudimentary near-redundancies to bulk the package up.

If doing cinematic work, I would get Kontakt on its own and skip the rest, if Standard Komplete were the only option. Kontakt is worth it. I don't think the rest is. The value is in the libraries that come with KU, beyond what standard has.

For people starting off in pop, electronic music or beatmaking Komplete Standard is practically meta.

For cinematic stuff, NI has shifted most of the value to Ultimate and Ultimate CE... purposely. Even Kontakt is seeing diminishing value as vendors jump ship to their own players.

How good Symph. Ess. is vs third parties is ignorablw. The OP is comparing Omni with KU, not Symph. Ess. with BBCSO Pro or VSL Libraries.

In the absence of other options, those libraries are still better than anything that costs less than ~$250.

Practically, KU is the better option.

If the sample Libraries that come with Komplete don't matter, then I'd go with Omni.
 
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While I still stand by my original impulse of choosing Omnisphere if forced between the two...

...I'm now strongly considering upgrading from Komplete Ultimate 11 to 13 sometime this year. I didn't realize how many expansion packs they'd added, and honestly, that alone would really help on a lot of stuff I'm working on. Particularly for Battery sounds.

Annoyingly, Sptifire BBCSO Core is exactly the same price as my KU13 upgrade, and I think that's gonna win this time around. NI will have to wait another few months to get more of my money...
 
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