[Shell vent/review] Komplete 13 UC - first impressions

Hi gang!

Last year I picked up on Maschine to replace my Akai MPD24 and I also stepped onto the Komplete bandwagon, something which was brewing for quite a while. When I discovered the near to perfect integration with Maschine I upgraded to Ultimate and when N.I. gave us a 50% discount on upgrades during last years Holiday season I decided to go bold and became a collector. A decision I still enjoy today (I've become a huge fan of the Symphony series; if you enjoy orchestral setups as much as I do then trust me: this can blow you away easily (but... don't underestimate the Essentials collection either, if you only care for sound quality then you're good with either collection)).

So yah, this is my first Komplete update and I felt like sharing my first impressions.

Context: I consider myself a semi-professional hobbyist. My home studio centers around Ableton Live 10 (suite) & Push and is basically "Powered by Komplete": my audio interface is the Komplete Audio 6 hooked to a pair of JBL studio monitors, next to my Push (literally) is my Maschine Mk3 which I use for percussion / complementary material within Live (when using the Maschine plugin) or as an extra Live controller in between (using NI's Ableton Live template (Tip: don't copy those scripts to the Live installation folder but instead make a "Remote scripts" folder in your Live user library, copy stuff there. Now you never need to re-install those scripts whenever you updated (or upgraded) Live)).

Remember: these are first impressions only, I already know that some of my comments below may not be completely fair but... as mentioned.

What's new?


My starting point here was Komplete 12 Ultimate collectors edition and I figured I'd upgrade to Komplete 13 UC as well. As you can see there's quite a bit of new material available however: do keep in mind that the above overview also includes 5 items which I never installed with 12UC (selection libraries for Kontakt, Maschine, Reaktor and the Play series, and I also ignored Traktor LE).

So the first thing which I noticed right away were all the Maschine extensions which I had seen in the past but didn't buy when they got released. In specific Pure Drip and The Stereotypes; I'm very happy to see these included with K13UC. Next I also noticed Pharlight up there (having become a huge fan of Straylight myself) but... where's Guitar Rig 6? As it turned out some items like GR6 (and Super 8) became available later during the day. After I installed the first parts I refreshed and installed the final parts.

Now... as before I didn't install everything. I decided to ignore the Cremona Quartet for the simple reason that I already have so many strings in my library (Emotive Strings, Action Strings, Session Strings 2 & Pro as well as the amazing String Ensemble). And I don't want to install something which I probably won't use (which is also why I de-installed some piano sample libraries during the upgrade).

Tip: Even if you're using Komplete mostly within your DAW then still fire up some of the main components stand alone in order to ensure that they can refresh their library. It might work as a VST as well, but I always prefer to start them manually. In my case: Maschine, Kontakt and Reaktor:

When I first started Maschine after the upgrade I was wondering where "Full Drip" was at, then I also noticed that my 'Expansion selection' was still there even though I had removed this. Then I noticed the rotating icon in my library tab. Figuring that I should try and help speed things up I powered up my Mk3 and started messing around a bit. It didn't help so off I went to the supermarket to get some dinner

Kontakt

Arkhis & Pharlight

... also notice "Cloud supply" in there.​

When it comes to sound pads then I believe it's fair to say that Straylight has become a phenomenon within the genre. New to the 'series' is Pharlight but although I think it's a very convincing sounding instrument I can't help shake of the feeling that this is merely a "Straylight 2" using different samples. Each to their own but if this instrument will remain in my library remains to be seen.

Instead I am more impressed with Arkhis. This is also something you can use to create pads but as you can probably see in the screenshot the emphasis lies on orchestral buildups. And yes, bias goes into effect here because that happens to be a huge favorite of mine. On first impressions Arkhis somewhat looks and seems to behave like Straylight but there's so much more to this one.... Notice the yellow ring? Yah, Push users are advised to press select, then hit the touchstrip in order to switch from pitchbend to modhweel.

Arkhis isn't only about pads, but also about applying variation within that pad, you can use it to actually build up your pad going from (maybe) subtle to strong. Or from a buildup to something even more varied. By using the modwheel you can create a mix between 3 instruments and/or effects and us that as a dynamic backup for your main material, this is displayed by the yellow "partial circle" on top.

And there's more... if you look closely you'll notice that there's a second "half ring" at the bottom, this can influence the intensity of your pad and is apparently normally operated by your mouse. Yeah right!



So here is the Kontakt VST device as it's used by Live. I mapped the "half ring" or better: FX Blend control and made it available within Live itself. Now I can control this however I'd like. Say, did you know there's a touch strip on the Maschine just like there's one on Push? And have you noticed that it's horizontal vs. the vertical one? Gee whiz! Did you know that in order to move the FX slider within Kontakt you actually need to move your mouse horizontally as well?

I wonder what would happen if I were to assign both touch strips to control Arkhis' parameters....

I'll tell you: you'll get the most dynamic out of Arkhis is what! Yah, and pardon a small side step (and major display of bias) but this is once more one of those so many examples why I personally believe that any "Push vs. Maschine" (or the other way around!) comment is utter nonsense. These two controllers can seriously support the others workflow, especially when your main DAW is Live (obviously...).

Cloud supply


Have you ever wondered what would happen if you'd try and combine pads with melodies? I know it sounds vague but... it's the best way to describe this I think. Now sure: Mallets, Organs, Plucks... there's a wide variety of sounds in here. But they all share one specific aspect: all those sounds can make an ideal pad as well. Also.. notice the lack of a Sustain envelope up there?

I can't describe this any other way than a very intriguing "mixture" of melody and pads. It uses melodic sounds which, over time, gain more variety which in its turn results in something you could use as a pad. Not the full blown pads you'd get from, say, Straylight, sure but.. this is special in its own way.

Now, I'm going to ignore Scarbee's A-200 and Clavinet/Pianet because I'm worried that my post might end up exceeding limits and blows up the whole forum I also think there's a maximum of screenshots which I can use so... yah...

Electric Sunburst deluxe


I'm not 100% sure which guitar instruments are part of K13UC for the simple reason that I already got some when they got released. I'm just as much a fan of electric guitars (Metallica!) as I am of orchestral setups (huge!). I also recall having written a review about Sunburst before and it's right here. If you enjoy electric guitars, if you enjoy heavy metal riffs and if you can't play these yourself or don't have the time or.. whatever: this is your instrument. Ah, you can play these yourself? Then this is still your instrument because now you can combine the melodic power of Sunburst with your own creativity. The power of "Komplete quality" applied to electric guitars (not necessarily heavy metal, but it can be!) and combined with your imagination.... THAT's Sunburst Deluxe!

Mallet Flux & Butch Vig


So... Butch Vig is a very interesting instrument: it provides you with a series of percussion rhythms which you can use in your own material by simply hitting a single note. In a way comparable to Sunburst which I mentioned above. It's good, but it's something I already had for a while with Reason's drum machines. While I'll be the first to share that NI's percussion sounds a lot better I also can't help mention to try and imagine what would happen if you were to "glue" both Reason and Kontakt together.. maybe using Live as "glue"?

Instead I'd like to focus on Mallet Flux which seriously impressed me. It's a "multi percussion arpeggiator" which blends 4 percussion based sounds into one quite diverse rhythm. And of course you can configure and control pretty much everything from within the instrument. This is a pretty new and interesting take on melodic percussion if you ask me...

Maschine


Now.. 'Stereotypes' and 'Drip' are new, I can't comment on the rest because there are so many expansions provided by Komplete that I lost count. Reason I still wanted to mention these is because this stuff is more than just presets alone! Apart from the fact that many expansions provide material for both Massive X & Maschine there's also the issue I'm showcasing above: groups vs. individual sounds.

But did you know that some (?) expansions also come with their own samples?



Don't get misled by the mention of "Ableton" at the start: because Live sits at the heart of my home studio all my material (including VST's, sample collections and thus also Komplete data) sits under D:\Ableton on my computer. But... do you see? Samples within Pure Drip which I could easily (ab)use somewhere else There is so much more to these expansions than you might realize at first.. (at least that's how I fared).

Guitar Rig 6


Very mixed feelings... I haven't tried GR6 yet so I cannot comment on its sound, but I can comment on the reason why this is so: the new interface seriously set me back. I can't help get the feeling that all devices were thrown onto a big pile and it's up to us to discover which is what. That's not very productive you know... Sure, I know I can click one of the categories above after which all devices get filtered, but there's a reason I picked the example of Guitar Rig 5 as I did: what if you want to find a good combination of 2 (or more) types of devices? Sure, I can use the control key while selecting the categories in GR6 but then I'm left with the same mess: I can't easily determine which device is what.. Sometimes the names give it away ("Grain Delay") but you're more than often left to wonder for yourself. What type of devices are "Ensemble" and "Fire breather" according to you? As it turns out "Ensemble" is a "Chorus / Vibrato" effect, listed under the "Modulation" category which seriously tells me nothing at all by filename alone.

Also if you take into consideration that there are several types of modulation effects available. Yah, sorry to say but I'd rather know what kind of effect I'm grabbing instead of having to guess what I'll get. GR5 also has a "modulation" category but when I open that one I see device names which make sense: "Tremolo", "Rotator", "Phaser nine". When I open the modulation category in GR6 I get: "Flair", "Freak", "Phasis" amongst those I already knew from GR5.

Sure: if you select a single category then things will make more sense. But I usually work with combining and switching out devices. I prefer having several categories open at the same time after which I try to find that special combination which matches for me. I can't do that anymore if I have no idea what kind of device I'll be dragging into the rack.

I need to stress this out: I haven't listened to the new effects as of yet, my impression only covers the interface. But unfortunately I'm not quite ready to replace GR5 with GR6 because of the impact it'll have on my current workflow, I'm having problems as of yet to find my way in here.

Super-8

And I'm out of attachments / screenshots This is why you should get a blog but ey, watch me no care If you insist on a nice picture please check the Super-8 product page.

Super 8 comes as a VST-3 instrument (I guess the rumor about the "VST2 blockade" are true) and it's a polyphonic synthesizer which a very convincing sound. At first (when skimming presets) it probably sounds "casual" because... well... I've heard plenty of these sounds before. "Sorta". See, the real power here comes from experimentation: having the ability of (ab?)using both oscillators to generate a wavetable which.. is "different". Sine, sawtooth, square and a sub all mixed into one combined with a second oscillator. This isn't your average synth here....

I understand that this synth is new in its VST state and well... the only thing I was missing out on here was an option to reset the device to a vanilla "ready for tweaking" state. But that's something I picked up from Reason

In conclusion

So the big question in every review of a new product is obviously: "Is it worth your cash?". And that is a tricky one, also because I have to set aside some bias (or doing my best to). Yah, that may sound like a funnily meant comment but I'm serious.

I went from 12UC to 13UC which cost me E 499,-. I'm a little set back with GR6, the interface wasn't exactly inviting for me and right now I'd rather use GR5. But I am very much impressed with Cloud Supply, Mallet Flux and Arkhis. I also think highly of Butch Vig and the new Super 8 VST3 device especially because there's a lot more underneath the surface to discover here.

Being a vivid Maschine user (remember my previous bias comment?) I am obviously very much in agreement with the collection of new expansions we got. Also if you take into consideration that Maschine can be a huge interface into Komplete. Yah, but now I also need to share a critical side note: I was expecting that the changes in Guitar Rig 6 were made to better accommodate "NI devices" (Komplete Kontrol, Maschine, etc.), surely you (yes, YOU random reader!) can see the resemblance with Maschine when you look at the category list in both programs?

So needless to say that I was also surprised to discover that GR6 is still the massive black box when used in combination with Maschine same as GR5 was. Now.. I am well aware that the combination of GR6 & Maschine is probably by far what NI had in mind. But like I said before: for me, in my home studio, Maschine is so much more than a percussion tool, I consider it as my main 'Komplete controller'. And since Guitar Rig has become an active part of Komplete....

And then we come back to that difficult question again

Is it worth your cash?

If you're new to the Komplete series then I think it's a no-brainer. Native Instruments only added several new instruments and effects to a collection which was already iconic by itself. Maybe you don't like everything it provides, each to their own, but there is no denying that Komplete provides a wide variety of high quality sounds and sound effects which are bound to fit in everywhere. I truly believe that Komplete has that potential: to fit in everywhere.

And for those who may think "it doesn't have enough xxx"... So here I am remembering "Faith no more", a band who - at that time - pretty much did the unthinkable and combined Heavy metal with rap. Don't believe me? (official music video). Why not try and combine things yourself? Who knows what might happen...

If you're upgrading...

Then I say it heavily depends. Trying to put all bias aside and looking at the combined value (how does one value acoustic?) of the new instruments, expansions and effects then I say yes. But... obviously I cannot determine if this applies to you. See, going from 12 to 13 (UC) myself was the first Komplete upgrade for me and being quite happy with my "Komplete setup" (Audio 6, Maschine Mk3 + Komplete 12UC) this also was kinda special. Now, I didn't just throw money at a good feeling: there were several expansions which caught my interest but I didn't want to spend the cash on them, Mysteria was a "so so" experience and I'm still not sure about Pharlight either.

Having said that I do recognize their musical potential (sometimes something simply doesn't appeal to you, but that doesn't make it worthless ya know) and if you add stuff like Cloud Supply, Mallet Flux, Arkhis and stuff like Drip & Stereotypes into the mix....

I believe that if you're upgrading Komplete 12 to 13 you'll get your moneys worth. But if that's also applicable to you is only you can answer. Oh, I've been here: Reason (other DAW I favor) went from 4 to 5 all the way up to 11 (= current version). Yah, and I went from 4 to 6 and from there on to 10. I only got access to 11 because I bought 10 at the right time. I know the need to skip versions. Only reason I went from Live 8 to 9 was because they included their Orchestral collection and I only grabbed 10 same reason I got Komplete: to keep up after so many years.

Do with that as you see fit. I pre-ordered Komplete 13 UC and I am very satisfied with the end results. But I'm also not impressed with some individual parts of it, Guitar Rig 6 comes to mind here though I do want to point out that this is on a first impression only (I don't keep saying that to be friendly, but because I know that you sometimes need to set prejudice and such aside to try (and learn) something new).

Thanks for reading, I hope this was helpful for some of you.