Yeah, it's pretty much VSL lite, but is definitely a step up from GPO4.

On the topic of Kontakt Player licensing, it's not necessarily that the licensing costs are too great, it's just that it's not feasible to license the Player for smaller libraries. That's why a majority of Kontakt Player libraries are collections of instruments and cost over $200.

cecelius2


But the upgrade price is still $119.  isn't this the same price for the upgrade as normal?

Yes! I got suckered into that deal last year!

I had to bite on this - thanks Bit.

@

You know summer has arrived when NI starts the 50% off sales.

Time to dust off the bank card for Komplete 8 sale.

gregjazz


Yeah, it's pretty much VSL lite, but is definitely a step up from GPO4.

Thanks, Greg.

No, I will not be upgrading Kontakt. I've upgraded 3 times so far, but not this time.

The library's exactly the same as K4, there is no new factory content. (Even if there was new content I wouldn't care much because the factory content is weak anyway. I use the tuba and orchestral bass drum. That's about it.) There are no new features in K5 that I care about (don't use loops).

The only advantage to upgrading is you will then be granted the privilege of buying other NI products, which require K5. But there are no must-have NI libraries. There is, AFAIK, not a single NI-branded sample library that doesn't have a better third-party substitute. And most 3rd-party products that require full Kontakt are compatible with K4, and a great many are K3.5+. 

This situation will likely change, I'm sure. NI, like Microsoft, have their ways to make you fall into line. Ultimately, resistance is futile. But I'm not surrendering today.

bitflipper

The only advantage to upgrading is you will then be granted the privilege of buying other NI products, which require K5. But there are no must-have NI libraries. .

All the NI libraries that work with the free K5 player so even that is not a reason to upgrade.
 
The bugbare for me is only Windows 7 is supported. Even if it works, its not supported on earlier systems and it would only take a patch somewhere in Windows or Kontakt for it all fall over.

gregjazz


On the topic of Kontakt Player licensing, it's not necessarily that the licensing costs are too great, it's just that it's not feasible to license the Player for smaller libraries. That's why a majority of Kontakt Player libraries are collections of instruments and cost over $200.

Ahh, thanks for that insight Greg.

I'm a sucker, I guess.  I didn't see anything compelling to upgrade Ozone or some others (I forget now), and I wasn't going to pay $250 to upgrade to K5, but $119 was near my threshold of pain ($100), so I pulled the trigger with free shipping.

I do wish it had some new libraries with it.