Native Instruments has announced Komplete 10 and Komplete 10 Ultimate, the latest versions of their production suites for Mac & Windows.
Komplete 10 and Komplete 10 Ultimate include six new instruments:
- Rounds – a new synth that combines digital and virtual analog engines
- Kontour – Native says that this instrument “allows you to create stunningly organic textures, going from mallets to plucked and bowed strings to distorted, aggressive and noisy sounds”.
- Polyplex – described as “a fast, fun way to design your own drum kits”
- Three new sampled pianos that make up The Definitive Piano Collection.
All in all, Komplete 10 now includes 39 instruments and effects, while Komplete 10 Ultimate now includes all 75 instruments and effects. A complete list of what’s included is available at the NI site.
The prices of the bundles have not changed.
Pricing and Availability
Komplete 10 and Komplete 10 ULTIMATE will be released online and in retailers October 1, 2014.
- Komplete 10 is priced at $499 / 499 €.
- Komplete 10 Ultimate is priced at $999 / 999 €.
Upgrade, update, and crossgrade pricing is also available. See the NI site for details.
Ahahaa, Komplete 9 was on sale through the past 2 months for 399 / 699 Euro. I’m so glad I didn’t pick it up, given that the updates are (over)priced at 199 / 399 Euros!! A Punch in the face of the unwary customer…
To be fair… I bought Komplete Ultimate 9 a couple of months ago with a price tag of $375, even with an upgrade price of $399 I am still saving $225. I’m good with $775 instead of $1000.
how did you get Komplete ultimate for 375?
The way to get in is to be patient. Buy one product on sale, like Reaktor or Kontakt. Then in about 9 months they will offer to upgrade you to the next version of Komplete for about half the price. Wait a couple more months and you can upgrade for even less than that. I bought Reaktor for $199, then Komplete 8 for $199, then Komplete 9 for $150. That’s a lot of software for not a lot of money, especially given that it was spread over a couple years.
^^^
this is a smart consumer!
I did something like this too.
Bough Reaktor for 100 eu, waited several months, upgraded to Komplete 9 for 200 eu and when upgraded to ultimate for 250 eu recently.
550eu total, but only with promo offers and stuff like that.
Well… I bought Massive and some other stuff meanwhile… so I’m not that smart or patient 🙂
I’ll probably wait for a year to upgrade to 10. 🙂
Maschine owners are eligible for upgrade pricing too. I bought last holiday sale for something ridiculously cheap.
i got komplete9 at a promo for 75 bucks.
Hmmm… I still haven’t got this… I’d consider it, but… since when has $ == € ??
The € prices include 19% VAT. In North America, sales tax is added to the retail price at the time of sale and it varies from 0% to 15% depending on the state/province/county that you live in.
European manufacturers also have to comply with equipment takeback and recycling laws that are not nearly as strict and expensive to administer in the USA and Canada.
Huh… thanks for the explanation 🙂
There are plenty of companies charging significantly different prices for the same product though, presumably things must be different for them somehow?
Market… The US market is around 50% of the Music Industry. Europe is around 30%. Generally speaking, there’s some exception for some products.
US are mainly based on big franchised stores such Guitar Center. The manufacture deal with global buyer and when he’s negogating to have 10 products in stock per store, it’s over 3,500 units sold. In Europe, there’s no franchised store. It’s all about individual stores. So they often have to go through an importer per country that will deal with all importation laws, required manual translation to be legally sold in some countries, some local language tech support, etc… So in the end, more fees, even when the product is developed in Europe. Because most of engineer are developing initially in English (because all software, synth, etc… menus are generally in English, it’s the universal language).
Nonetheless, as already said, US prices are always showed without local taxes, because it could depend of your states, etc… while in Europe, laws required that the price should be with taxes. What you see on the price tag is the exact amount you pay when you check out.
Because of the current Dollar/Euro change rate, it’s pretty common to have around 20% difference… which is often pretty much the VAT amount. Therefor, $1 = 1€
(It also prevent the need to change price in future if the USD/EUR change rate will vary too much).
All the new stuff included with the Ultimate bundle make the upgrade worth it for me. They always discount old version prior to new one coming out, as do car dealers, etc. 🙂
never thought I could be bored by a Stephan Shmitt synth until I saw Kontour. What a giant disappointment these new cookie cutter kiddy synths NI are pumping out now. A slap in the face is what it is
Komplete 9 to Komplete 10 is $200 upgrade. Komplete 9 Ultimate to 10 Ultimate is $400 upgrade.
The 6 synths/pianos are added to both version, so you’re paying twice the price for the same upgrade?
Is this because you can only get Ultimate with the hard drive? But if so and you’re upgrading you already have all the big Kontakt libs on your V9 drive.
Komplete is a great deal, but Ultimate to me is a waste. The only libraries that separate the two packages are pretty old and for specific uses. You’d be better off filling those instruments in with 3rd party alternatives as the need arrives.
If you buy Komplete, you can log in to the NI web site and download disk images of all the installers. Put them on a super cheap USB drive.
Thats’ what I really don’t understand about the upgrade pricing then. 9 to 10 and 9 Ultimate to 10Ultimate are the same upgrade at different prices!
I feel like they actually added some value to the base Komplete this time with the new instruments. K8 to K9 wasn’t very compelling.
All of their synths have been state of the art… until today
Personally I am very disappointed about the lack of Reaktor6 or even Massive2. The little blurb about the new synths does not grab my attention, but I will have to read further to find out what they may be capable of.
Not much economical sense in upgrading on every release, it’s better to skip one or two. This version was a little disappointing, I don’t think many people are going to use Polyplex and Kontour, but the Rounds synth could be more interesting. (Will have to wait for the demos.)
Rounds is the least interesting