I'm finding it VERY difficult to buy the NI sales now. Here's why...

"For example, Schema Light and Schema Dark both look super interesting to me. Might they become part of Komplete 15? If so, and I buy them on the sale, and then Komplete 15 SuperCalifragilistic is announced in September, will I have wasted the money I spent on the bundle sale?"

You will only have wasted money if you buy both. But then again - "wasted" is only relative to the buyer and the deal they can score on Komplete.

My strategy when one is "between" Komplete versions is to either stand down (Hard I know) - OR strike on specific sales while throwing coupons and vouchers at a specific target. I did this during the Xmas sale and after the voucher smoke cleared - I snagged Schema Dark and Utopia for like 4 bucks.

Also note - the "next" Komplete - usually contains anything released directly AFTER the last Komplete hit the streets. So almost a 100% certainty that the Schema Twins will be in there.

TIP: Komplete always drops in the fall (Sept-October) in any given cycle. You have a way to go IF there even is a Komplete 15 this year - which has not even been alluded to as of this writing.

Power TIP: Never buy Komplete when it launches. While the "upgrade" deals for existing users always look tempting - IF there is a K15 in the fall of 2024 - a real juicy deal WILL BE HAD during the Christmas sale in early December 2024 - when 50% off upgrades is the usual drill.

VP

LIF - thanks for the note.

Firstly - I wanted to correct my exuberance in that last post. I was mistaken with my calculations. The Schema Dark/Utopia combo was actually $67.00 to me - but I still managed to score and use a voucher.

If you remember - there was a very limited "extra" Christmas Sale voucher issued to eagle-eyed folks (in a very narrow window from about Dec 20-31) where NI had a special voucher code that for me (in Canada) gave an $70.00CDN value on anything in the store as long as I spent $130.00CDN.

But this one was different than all the rest of the normal vouchers - and I quote:

"The holiday e-voucher is valid for all Native Instruments software products in the NI Online Shop, excluding hardware, educational versions, NFR versions, and subscriptions. The holiday e-voucher requires a minimum initial spend of $100 or equivalent in other currencies in order to be valid. The holiday e-voucher can only be used once per user/Native ID. It is not transferable and may not be resold. If not redeemed, the holiday e-voucher expires on December 31, 2023. If the total amount of the holiday e-voucher is not redeemed, the holder is not entitled to payment of the remaining balance. Only one holiday e-voucher can be used per product purchase. The holiday e-voucher can only be redeemed at the NI or iZotope Online Shop. The holiday e-voucher may not be redeemed for cash. The holiday e-voucher is valid from December 21, 2023, to December 31, 2023"

Notice that there is no mention of things already on sale.

So - here I am needing to get to $130.00CDN to use my voucher so I loaded up Schema Dark at $99.50 (50% off of $199.00CDN) and Utopia @ $34.50 (50% off of $69.00 CDN) to get me to exactly $134.00. 4 bucks more than my threshold. Applied my $70.00 voucher and there I was @ 67.00.

The $4.00 I mistakenly quoted before was actually the difference between what I needed to spend and what I spent.

All in all - great value and a nice use of a voucher for the win.

VP

Ah ok…that voucher… Yes…that one was made expressly for the sale period.

For a moment I hoped there was a way to use vouchers during discounts ☺️

BIF

Have only had maybe an hour with Dark so far - but I can say it is deep and easy to get lost in. Having real trouble staying focused in some of these newer instruments - you just keep spiralling down the rabbit hole :)

That said - this one (to me anyway) is very genre specific. I do a lot of experiments in the "Cliff Martinez" pulsating soundtrack stuff and it will work very well in that space.

Dark is definitely not something you will pull out for a typical pop track etc. It's a bizarre sound maker - in a good way.

Whether that is worth the full price of it - is on the individual.

VP

Yeah this is a good shout. I think people coming into the ecosystem for the first time with Komplete (like me with K14) can sometimes strategically pick off your personal "must haves" using sales and vouchers to build a custom bundle on top of Standard or Ultimate. But I agree that once you've got your base bundle and a few ala carte options (or if you go straight in with Collectors,) then it's best shut your wallet and wait (easier said than done.)

I think there are 2 ways to use Komplete. 1. For things you really want/need/use in your music, and 2. as a library of new ideas you might not normally use - which brings inspiration and variety to the table. Obviously when you first buy Komplete you get both 1 and 2, so you have a bit of work to do to decide which content is in which category. When between Komplete editions, I feel like stuff that comes out in category 1 is worth picking up if you're going to make use of it heavily and immediatley. Stuff in category 2, probably not.

I bought K14U in 2023, and then picked up the 9 for 99 Expansions. I tried to be strategic by choosing Expansions that have never appeared in Ultimate, or Komplete, so the risk of something being "wasted" is reduced. I also picked up a couple Play Series instruments that will be in K15. I use these now, but I'm not sure I'd do that again from K15 onwards. I'll get Session Percussionist, as I use LOADS of percs. On pure probablity I will have 2x Play Series and 1x Kontakt instrument to sell next year, plus maybe an expansion or two if anything drops into K15U. Which is not bad, since I will make use of these meantime. I may change my view if selling them becomes more hassle than it's worth. You have to judge for yourself, whether it's worth the "today tax" of having instruments and libraries now but possibly needing to sell in a year or so, which means you may or may not get your money back. You could almost see it as rental. The risk is less if you're not doing an upgrade or if you will make heavy use of those instruments meantime.

If you think about the gap betweek Komplete editions (24 months) it can help to use this as a guide for when to (or if you should) buy. As of the moment, we are 14 months away from K15 on Summer of Sound, and 9 months away from an upgrade sale . If you buy something now and would get value out of it it - you've got a year to do that. Depending on how much you want it, it might even be worth the risk that you can't resell it. Or you could go all out and join the "buy one skip one" crew. In this case your purchases in 2024 need to last until you upgrade to K16 in 2027. But let's be real here that's not happening for most of us 😂

I like the look of Schema, they seem to be K15's version of the Light Trilogy as a flagship Kontakt instrument. But I have some 3rd party stuff that plays that role, so no need to jump on that for me. It'll be nice when it comes in K15, but I can wait.

This should also be said in the context of the fact that you can of course augment Kontakt with 3rd party libraries. But these are almost always NFR. Meaning, you do at least have a small opportunity with your NI money, to resell that software in the future.

Some of the value in the upgrade this time will probably be around the included iZotope stuff, so if you're using that, then Ozone 11, Neutron 4/5 and possibly Nectar 4 being included would be good reasons to get the upgrade. And of course there will be the expanded sub option when that comes too. I think NI will market this as a good option for people wanting to stay on top of current releases.