NATIVE INSTRUMENTS Komplete 4

Aug 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Len Sasso

Three major upgrades make the Native Instruments Komplete 4 bundle a must.

Since its introduction at the 2003 AES show, the Native Instruments Komplete bundle of virtual instruments and effects has grown to include most Native Instruments offerings, and the price has remained consistent. Komplete 4 contains all of the company's synths and effects except Massive, the latest in its product line. Of particular note, Akoustik Piano has been added to the bundle, along with major upgrades to three of Native Instruments' most appreciated synths: Absynth 4, Battery 3, and FM8. Intakt and Kompakt, which were part of the Komplete 3 bundle, are discontinued products and not part of Komplete 4. (For a closer look at the changes in Absynth 4 and Battery 3, see the online bonus material at www.emusician.com.)

The Komplete Care option available in previous years has been replaced by a generous upgrade program. Owners of Komplete 2 or 3 can upgrade to Komplete 4 for $339. That is an incredible bargain considering the addition of Akoustik Piano and the quality of the three upgraded synths. Owners of two or more of the synths (not effects) in Komplete 4 can purchase the full bundle for $1,149, or they can buy the bundle along with Kore, Native Instruments' hardware and software plug-in hosting environment, for $1,708. (You'll find a full review of Kore in the October 2006 issue of EM, available online at www.emusician.com.)

At the Kore

In addition to the aforementioned products, Komplete 4 includes the instruments B4 II, Elektrik Piano, Kontakt 2, Pro-53, and Reaktor 5 and the effects Guitar Rig 2, Vokator, and Spektral Delay. These come with a huge library of multisampled-instrument, synth, and effects presets. All instruments and effects come as standalone applications as well as plug-ins in the usual Mac and PC formats. Furthermore, their presets have been integrated into the Kore browser.

Both Absynth 4 and FM8 have a browser similar to Kore's (see Fig. 1). Factory presets are assigned attributes in five categories — Instrument, Source, Timbre, Articulation, and Genre — and you use the browser to display presets matching the attributes you select. A very handy option displays the number of hits for each remaining attribute once one or more have been selected. You can change any preset's attributes and, of course, categorize your own presets. Searchable text attributes are also available, but the two types of searches — category and text — cannot be used simultaneously.

Keynotes

If you're a keyboard player, Komplete 4 has you covered with sampled acoustic and electric pianos and an emulated Hammond B-3 organ with Leslie. These instruments' sounds and highly evolved user interfaces set them apart from their competitors. And when you want to reach beyond authenticity, you can load Akoustik Piano and Elektrik Piano presets into Kontakt 2 for more-extreme processing.

Akoustik Piano won an EM 2007 Editors' Choice Award, and it ranked at the top of EM's survey of standalone sampled pianos, “Software Eighty-Eights,” in the October 2006 issue. It contains four exquisitely sampled pianos: Bechstein, Bösendorfer, and Steinway concert grands and a Steingraeber upright. The user interface is clearly laid out and uncluttered. The controls are pianistically meaningful, which makes tweaking the pianos a breeze. Although no sampled piano measures up to the real thing in solo performance, Akoustik Piano can hold its own onstage and in the studio.

Elektrik Piano (reviewed in the December 2004 issue of EM) starts with samples from four classic electromechanical keyboards: the Fender Rhodes Mark I and Mark II, Wurlitzer 200A, and Hohner Clavinet. The user interface is minimalist and most closely resembles a Fender Rhodes. Four knobs on the left change function depending on the preset; for example, controlling an ADSR envelope for one preset and tremolo, chorus, and reverb for another. The sound is great and the standalone version is certainly gigworthy.

From its inception in 2000, Native Instruments B4 was the preeminent organ emulation. B4 II added a bunch of new tonewheel sets, more speaker and amp setups, and improved MIDI playability. You'll especially appreciate it if you're an organist with back problems. (You can find a review in the July 2006 issue of EM.)

Synth Zone

Emulations of classic hardware synths are common these days, but Native Instruments was first with Pro-5, an emulation of the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5. That has evolved into the third-generation Pro-53, which, although enhanced with all the conveniences of software emulations, remains a reasonable facsimile of the original. (Its predecessor, Pro-52, was reviewed in the February 2001 issue of EM.) Among other things, you're not limited to the Prophet's arcane 8 × 8 preset scheme; you get full-featured plug-in host automation and MIDI remote control with prebuilt mappings for popular control surfaces; and you can import or create your own microtuning scales. You can even process external audio through the Pro-53 filter, amplifier, and effects sections. You might use that, for instance, to add the great Prophet filters after your favorite Yamaha DX7 patch in FM8 (see Web Clip 1).

Native Instruments' next classic-hardware target was the DX7. FM7, released in 2001, was a faithful replication of the original. The new FM8 takes things several steps further with some important enhancements. An Easy Page gives quick access to essential operator parameters. Morph Square (also found on the Easy Page) lets you seamlessly morph between four presets using automation, MIDI, or the mouse. The new effects rack adds 11 effects. In addition to the original factory sounds, the library now includes FM7 Sounds Volumes 1 and 2 and roughly 200 presets showing off the new FM8 features.

Arpeggiator/step-sequencer hybrids are the current rage, but the FM8 version is particularly robust. As with any arpeggiator, the note pattern is based on the held notes, but the order in which they're played, the number of steps, which steps are accented and tied, and octave and semitone transposition are all set on a step-by-step basis. You can randomize any or all of these elements for a kaleidoscopic approach to pattern generation.

Overreaktion

The original version of Komplete included Reaktor Session, a player for instruments and effects (called Ensembles) created in Reaktor. All subsequent versions of Komplete contain the latest full version of Reaktor — currently Reaktor 5. This is a great thing if you want to create or modify Reaktor Ensembles. But even if you don't have the time or inclination to get under the hood with Reaktor, don't overlook it as an Ensemble player. The dozens of factory and thousands of user Ensembles arguably offer more novel sounds and unusual effects than everything else in Komplete 4 combined.

The Reaktor Ensemble Massive (not to be confused with the new synth of the same name) is among my favorites (see Fig. 2). It's a 6-track drum computer that uses granular resynthesis, among other techniques, to mangle each track's sampled source material. The GrainStates Ensemble from the Reaktor 4 library is another favorite. It also uses granular techniques, this time to create a kaleidoscope of evolving timbres. SpaceDrone is another ambience generator. It starts with 96 noise sources and then uses bandpass filters and panning to spread them across the frequency and stereo spectra. Web Clip 2 combines those three instruments with compression and reverb effects Ensembles in a hands-free ambient collage.

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