Komplete Ultimate Hard Drive and Pro Tools Questions.

[PatriotsBiker]

A few questions after my rambling.

I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger. I'm pretty sure that I've decided on the Komplete route as opposed to the Komplete Ultimate. The biggest difference for me - V.I. wise - is the Session Strings Pro app. I did miss the sale for the free "Session Strings", "The Mouth" and Razor. I'm not terribly upset about missing out on The Mouth, but a nice taste of the strings app would have been neat. I'm sure the Razor would be worth a little consideration too, but I'm very much noob on the whole synth thing and would not appreaciate what I get or didn't get to that end.

On the Strings issue, I'm really tempted to sit on getting that component until I do more than just an occasional pad with them. Heck, Structure has been good enough for me for that. I'm looking at the $500 difference between the two packages and wondering what spending that difference on a QL-EastWest strings package would be like. Just in sample data size, it looks like 2.5 x's the amount.

So any how, the two questions.
#1: The Komplete Ultimate package includes two sets of Studio plug-ins that Spenner touched on. The "Solid" series and the "VC...." compressor groups. Are either or both of these much better than what we have that came stock with Pro Tools, or are they something that is simply different.
#2: Has anybody here had the opportunity to try out both the EWQL strings packages verses the Session Strings Pro to offer up a comparison? If not, do you have an opinion anyhow?
#3: Is the Abbey Road drum series a big deal, or is it just another series of drums that I can get close to using Strike or something that comes with the 1/2 size Komplete.
#4: The one big package that would seem to compete with Komplete is the EWQL stuff. Especially the Complete Composer's Collection. How would you charactarise the differences? Apples/Oranges? Songs verses Scores style of music creation? One much better sounding than the other? Personal preference? Needs & desires makes one an obvious choice? Other?

Thanks again in advance for the considering my onslaught of questions around this.

[nst7]

1. The Solid series is based on the SSL consoles. There are much better emulations of this out there. The VC ones are based on the 1176, LA2A, and DBX 160. Again, there are better emulations of these with other companies. You may find a use for them if you get Ultimate, but I certainly wouldn't pay the extra just for those.

2. East West strings are full blown orchestra strings, and are much bigger sounding than Session Strings. Session Strings is kind of unique in that it' designed to be a smaller sounding group. But you can experiment using 2 instances and possibly make it sound bigger/thicker. They may still be more appropriate when using them in conjunction with a pop song, whereas East West may be too big.

3. Some people really like the Abbey Road stuff, definitely different from Strike, etc., but I actually think the Studio Drummer that comes with normal Komplete is more useful.

4. These are Apples/Oranges. Komplete is a variety of everything whereas East West is generally much more orchestral sounding, geared specifically for film composers, etc., who want to sound as close as possible to the real thing. Virtually everything in it is samples of real life instruments, whereas Komplete has a lot of electronic/pop type stuff.

[PatriotsBiker]

Thanks for the additional in-sights, nst7.

[PatriotsBiker]

My pack-rat ways save me again. Anyone know where one can get a SATA cable ar 10:15 at night? Old dead PC in the closet, that's where. :)

WD Caviar Black 1TB installed just a few minutes ago, and I waltzed into a local store (I promised not to tell) with a 15% coupon. They had a brand spanking new Komplete for $499 and a brand spanking new Komplete Ultimate for $838. What??? $838? Only 300 more. Well, $400 more as surely the coupon would not work on the drastically discounted unit.

It did. $760 out the door after tax for the Ultimate. The guy recognized me from many a purchase and trip into the place and told me if the system would allow it, he wouldn't read the fine print too closely. Woo Hoo!!!!!!

My wife and I ran out the door.

Busy morning tomorrow and won't get a chance to begin installation until noon, but will post initial thoughts after I've botched my way through the set-up and all.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and sharing some insights. I guess the final bit about to get or not get the Ultimate became a mute point, but I'm still glad I went through the excercise so that I'm more familiar with what I brought home. Thanks again,

[PatriotsBiker]

It took a few days, but I have most of the wrinkles out. Everything is installed, updated and works. I had some major issues with the update downloads, but it ended up being my PC's fault. Everything that should run inside of Pro Tools works just fine and dandy. Especially impressive was the MIDI input mapping that goes on within Pro Tools made Reaktor work much more consistently inside of it than in stand alone mode. the offending issue has been solved, I hope.

Speaking of Reaktor.... If anyone is having issues with Reaktor and it being slow within Pro Tools, getting the latest versions of everything ended up being key.

Now it's time to start making some music again. I've touched my guitars only briefly maybe three times in the past 5+ days.

Thanks again to everyone for fantastic advice and steering me in on this thing. Onward and forward!

[DetroitT]

Kontakt 5.0.3 Working for you?
PTHD 10.3.1

[PatriotsBiker]

Originally Posted by DetroitT

Kontakt 5.0.3 Working for you?
PTHD 10.3.1

5.0.3 yes.
No HD. Have not installed latest minor PT version yet. Still on 10.2, or whatever it is. (the previous minor release...too lazy to go upstairs again. :) )