UVI | Friday 13th 25%

Can somebody give me the lowdown on UVI Workstation?
 
I remember looking into it a couple years back, when I was feeling unhappy with Native Instruments and hoping to find an alternate sampling universe. UVI seemed like a candidate, offering the sampler for free and making money off the libraries. It sounded better than NI's strategy of coercion via planned obsolescence, forcing you to re-purchase the sampler every couple years.
 
For some reason, though, I abandoned that avenue but can't remember why. Is it that the libraries are too expensive? Lack of third-party libraries? Meager bundled content? Requires a dongle? Company funds terrorist organizations? I don't remember.

I just browsed a few UVI libraries. The ones I looked at were relatively pricey compared to the median for Kontakt products, and there weren't that many. Nobody appears to be sharing free libraries, a common practice in the Kontakt universe.
 
That may have been the deciding factor for me - the cost. It's a free sampler, but that's no bargain if you need to spend a grand to get the same quantity of usable content that comes bundled with Kontakt.

Mello is pretty cool. UVI use iLok but you don't need a dongle...registration was pretty painless. You download the iLok program and it does the registration work for you.
 
The libraries don't seem out of line with pricing offered by other vendors but I get sales in my email all the time which can sweeten the pot if I happen to be looking for something they have....correction. I just looked at the recent pricing..they are a little high compared to some others. 

I definitely prefer UVI's interface over Kontakt's, but that's about its only advantage that I can see.  No cheap 3rd-party libs that I know of, and yes it does require iLok.  Quality stuff but at a price.
 
Cheers,
Eddie