Winter NAMM 2019: You Komplete me - Sand, software and sound

Native Instruments are trolling the low end and that ain’t bad.

I haven’t jumped into the deep end of the NI pool. Over the holidays, I downloaded the free player versions of Guitar Rig 5, Kontakt and Reaktor 6. I believe in the low end theory which says that you can make good music without dropping a lot of change.

Native Instruments have announced KOMPLETE START, “a new collection of sounds, instruments, and effects that’s 100% free; and new software integration that puts millions of loops and samples from Sounds.com at your fingertips.” The latter part of that message steals a page from Loopmasters’ Loopcloud. This builds on the success of NI’s Sounds.com site.

The KOMPLETE START page promises:

Produce and perform with over 2,000 studio-quality sounds — for free
15 pro-grade synths and sampled instruments, plus effects, loops, and samples
Browse, preview, and play it all in your recording software with KOMPLETE KONTROL

KOMPLETE START includes over 6GB of instruments, effects, loops and samples. Synths are: TRK-01 Bass, Mikro Prism, Lazerbass, Carbon 2, Space Drone and Newscool. Sampled instruments include World, Band, Synth, Vintage, Urban Beats, Kinetic Treats and the Play Series Selection. Guitar Rig 5 Player is included (17 cabinet emulations and 13 effects) plus the Supercharger tube compressor.

Now, a lot of this sounds like the old free bundle and you would be right. There’s a few new freebies here and there. If the first taste is good, you can upgrade to Komplete 12 Select for $99 USD.

NI have new low-end hardware, too. The Komplete Kontrol M32 is a keyboard controller (32 mini keys)with OLED display, touch strips, knobs and NKS integration. Street price is $129 USD. Ableton Live 10 Lite is bundled in, just in case the ten copies that you have aren’t enough.

Komplete Kontrol M32 features are:

Play Smarter: Chord progressions and arpeggios
Eight touch sensitive knobs premapped for presets
Buttons for DAW control
Octave transpose buttons
Two touch strips
A four-direction push encoder for navigation
10GB of content including the Scarbee Mark I
USB MIDI (USB bus powered)
TRS pedal input (assignable to sustain)

This sounds like an inexpensive way to get familiar with NKS integration. Not bad. I like these kinds of introductory packages because I can try the software and donate the microcontroller if I don’t like it. There is always some deserving youngster…

NI also announced the Komplete Audio 1 (one channel) and Komplete Audio 2 (two channel) audio interfaces. Street price is $109. Specs for the Komplete Audio 2 are:

2 inputs: 2x combi-XLR/jack inputs with 48V phantom power and individual gain control
Outputs: Stereo jack out
VU-meter for adjusting levels
Direct monitoring for blending audio playback while recording
Big volume knob
Headphone out with high power output and volume control
USB 2.0 bus powered
Audio quality: Premium quality at 192 kHz and 24 bit
Included software: Ableton Live 10 Lite, MASCHINE Essentials, MONARK, REPLIKA, PHASIS, SOLID BUS COMP, and KOMPLETE START

Per Internet tradition, let’s gripe before we’ve even seen product. I wish it had 5-pin MIDI IN and OUT. The new Mackie and PreSonus interfaces one-up the new NI interfaces in this regard.

The Komplete Kontrol M32, Komplete Audio 1 and 2 are pre-order items. NI are projecting March 6, 2019 availability for the M32.