If you can wait til Thanksgiving you can save real money on Native instruments 50% off sale. The guys are giving you the straight poop here. ST3 can't stand up to Kontakt in any way but I like having it and use it more than I thought I would. But I got it for$99.00. Over $149.00 is too much and$200. To $350. 00 is mental. I bought Komplete 7 on Ebay about 14 months ago under $200. Then got Komplete 9 upgrade for $74.50 at Thanksgiving. Then got K9 Ultimate upgrade for $249.00 and I love it. Having all that stuff with the Fishman TriplePlay is too much fun.
 

This will take you directly to the Kontakt Crossgrade..

http://www.native-instrum...cing/?tx_magentobridge[vars]=license_code/42/product_package/33/manual_language/34/
 
The price did go up to $249, which I was not aware...it was $199...

BUT, you get ALOT with K5....AND it gets you up to Komplete for half off of the Komplete
Crossgrade price from Kontakt...which is $399 but will will be $199 during the half off Sale..

So you'll save $50 off Komplete that way...or just buy K10 and be done with it @ $499.00
which, IMO, is a STEAL....best bang for your buck out there...you won't be wasting your
money either way...

I have K10 and the new Piano's and Synths are excellent...and I still got to keep my other Pianos
from K9 which made me very very happy...

There's a whole of of Goodie Goodness in K10...and K10U even more so...that's 
my next leap during the half off sale...to me...there is NO CONTEST with ST3 and Kontakt...
Kontakt wins by a landslide ...for $49 more then ST3...

EDIT:  If you visit KVR at all you can find it there quite often for even less...

Some good advice here and I agree that ST3 has average sounds.  If I were you I'd wait for the half price or Black Friday sales and get Komplete 10.  It's really not much more than Kontakt alone.   I have several good libraries but If all I had was Komplete I could do anything I wanted with superior quality.  Just do it.  You will never be sorry.

I have Komplete 9 Ultimate (I am not willing to upgrade yet, but will) and ST3. I like both, but if you have to choose, choose Komplete 10, it just offers more, and opens doors for other packages. I would not get Kontakt over Komplete because the extra bits are worth the extra price.

ST3 is simply not worth it at $249. This is coming from someone who bought it and very satisfied with purchase...at initial offering upgrade price.  I don't bother comparing it to Kontakt because i think they fill very different niches.  At the same time, Komplete on sale is major bang for the buck.  i agree with Rain that for the Mac user,  EXS24 arguably offers even more bang for the buck than either since it comes with Logic, which happens to cost less than either. i guess the bottom line in all of this is that either is best purchased on sale.

Kontakt and the libraries included in Komplete beat ST3 hands down. Then there are many free and low cost third party libraries you can add.

But that's just the start in Komplete you get Massive, Absynth and the mighty Reaktor, all very powerful synths, and Guitar Rig.

Where St3 probably has an edge is for use as a live workstation.

I own both Komplete 9 and ST3. I like both. For the purpose I would only mention Kontakt but not Komplete. I bought ST3 at 99 as an upgrade from ST2.5. I would not pay for ST3 if it cost more than 199. Don't get me wrong. I am very happy with ST3 for the price I paid for.
 
Kontakt is more programmable and expandable. It has a lot of advance features that will takes time to learn. But ST3 also has some sounds and features that Kontakt doesn't have too. You can lay down tracks faster in ST3 and with very reasonable results. ST3 is a lot easier to program and it's build in effects are among the most versatile in the market.
 
One advantage Kontakt has over ST3 is disk streaming. Kontakt can play back a very large multi-sample file but only loads the beginning portion of it in into RAM and loads the rest from hard disk only when the particular samples needed. 
 
 
 
 

So, since Komplete 10 is 499.00 at Sweetwater does that mean it might be 250.00 at Thanksgiving? .. or that K-10 Ultimate might be 500 bucks? I can't imagine that I would need Ultimate but if K-10 will be half off or around 250 at Thanksgiving.... you bet I can wait! I had forgotten about the Thanksgiving sales. I need to stop buying and start saving.
 
Maybe I'll even sell a metal detector or two. (Yes, I am a true nerd, but I have a great collection of Civil War relics!).
 
J

jbow
I have GPO4, Dimension of course, I have a Yamaha PSR Workstation synth. All these sounds are appealing. Am I correct the ST3 is completely 64bit, it would be a deal breaker if it were not.
The price difference between the NI products and the IK products is what gives me pause. I think, why spend 1k when I could spend 350.00 for something similar, or is it similar?
What do you think? ..and thanks for your opinion.
Julien

Julien - in your list of what you have you don't mention Omnisphere. Omnisphere is not a sample tool like ST3 or a mega pack like Komplete, but Omnisphere is a killer in terms of keyboard sounds. Of the choices mentioned, I would throw money at Omnisphere and skip the rest.

That said, I do have ST3 and Kontakt and dig them immensely. But Omnisphere is too good not to have in your view.

Dang... from searching about past "Black Friday" sales it looks like it is only for instruments and upgrades (as far as software), not for Komplete. I'd rather spend 499 for Komplete than 199 for Kontact. 1k is too much for me s Ultimate is out of the question, maybe as an upgrade in the future but any way you slice it, 1k is a lot of money. Besides, Komplete 10 would keep me more than busy. Maybe is Kontact 5 is half off then the upgrade from it to Komplete 10 would be cheaper than just buying Komplete 10.
 
Question... in your opinion, is it (Komplete) intuitive? Is it counter intuitive? If you have used it was it easy to learn or hard to learn? Is it pretty much load and play, tweak if you want?
 
I know I am asking for completely subjective answers, but thanks if you can help.
 
Thanks!
 
J