Hi guys.  i know i don't post much anymore.  I still love cakewalk, but work has me using other Daws more.  Recently i built a project studio at a middle school (Bitflipper, you have to stop by one day!) I considered a few DAWS including Cakewalk and even Reaper. I chose to go with Studio One primarily because they offered a free version that is certainly scaled down, but capable of supplementing what we do outside of classroom for students unable to afford a DAW.  No complaints so far.  The stock instruments are ok but the quality of the rompler (Presnce XT) seems on par with Sampletank.  Kinda thin.  I went way under budget and was considering an upgrade to Komplete or a Rompler.  We already have Komplete Select so the upgrade would be discounted.  Is there a better option in the price range of $400 anyone would reccomend?

"Better" is in the eye of the beholder... but you might want to checkout HALion Sonic 3.

thank you. I guess I should have specified that it is for middle school kids mostly into pop music

That's a tough one.  I tend to agree with Jim here and lean toward Halion Sonic.  It's got the bread and butter stuff, and sampled synths well-covered in one package.  That helps you, as you only have to learn the one instrument (To help the students).
 
Komplete would be great too, but it's more of an a la Carte approach -- and you would need to become familiar with all of the included instruments.

I have tried the free Studio One (Prime) and agree with your opinion on the Presence XT.  The biggest downside to the free version is that there is no VST support ...

I know Komplete seems to be the boring or easy choice but if you save on an upgrade, that's a good thing. If they learn Massive (or Reaktor or Kontakt or FM8 or Absynth) could they still be using it 10 years from now when they are in the studio making real record? It seems like a great foundation for a career to me. 

i will check out halion.  Some of the points brought up are why I am leaning towards Komplete. Abacab, I agree that lack of VST support is a downer, but the price is awesome.  

dubdisciple
Abacab, I agree that lack of VST support is a downer, but the price is awesome.  

Agreed!  But you think that they would offer an affordable step up plan, that included VST support.
 
I recently tried the demo of Cubase Elements 9 ($99), that includes HALion Sonic SE, plus VST support, plus Arranger Track, and musicality tools like Chord Track, Chord Assistant with Circle of Fifths, etc.   Looks like a good starter package.
 
The HALion Sonic SE sounded very good to me.  Probably worth checking out his bigger brothers ...

Of course if just one kid picked up on Reaktor and was inspired to do something with it Komplete would have been worthwhile. And there are masses of presets for the rest.

dubdisciple
Hi guys.  i know i don't post much anymore.  I still love cakewalk, but work has me using other Daws more.  Recently i built a project studio at a middle school (Bitflipper, you have to stop by one day!) I considered a few DAWS including Cakewalk and even Reaper. I chose to go with Studio One primarily because they offered a free version that is certainly scaled down, but capable of supplementing what we do outside of classroom for students unable to afford a DAW.  No complaints so far.  The stock instruments are ok but the quality of the rompler (Presnce XT) seems on par with Sampletank.  Kinda thin.  I went way under budget and was considering an upgrade to Komplete or a Rompler.  We already have Komplete Select so the upgrade would be discounted.  Is there a better option in the price range of $400 anyone would reccomend?

I'm just waiting for an offer of another burrito, Russel. Be glad to pedal on down your way and see what you've done since we first looked at that empty room.
 
I don't know how you could go wrong with Komplete, other than perhaps being overwhelmed by everything that's in the bundle. There's certainly something in there for every taste and genre, and I can't think of anything that has a better bang:buck ratio.