NI Summer of Sound 2025 Starts May 22

[GTsongwriter]

Is electric storm worth getting versus Hydra shredded 3?  My price that they have listed is $99 vs $149 regular..

[Carl Ewing]

Have both. Shredded series are exclusively instrument libraries - no phrases, etc. And it's much much more sophisticated in terms of playability, with many articulations and enormous control over almost every aspect of the guitar, and realllly big fx section with tons and tons of presets.

For articulations, Hydra has Sustain, Power Chord, Tapping, Tremolo, Mute, Power Chord Mute, Harmonics, Choke, Staccato, Power Chord Staccato, Pinch Harmonics, Rake and FX. And the scripting is pretty good for key switching between articulations in terms of how a real guitar plays. And you can customize that key switching a lot (velocity, key, etc.) Also has strumming section, and some great features like single guitar, double, triple and quadruple layering. This last one is pretty awesome, for getting really thick tones.

Electric Storm is pretty limited, with only 4 articulations (as far as can tell) ==> Open, Muted, Flageolet and Tremolo. And has limited control over the guitar. But it does have tons and tons of phrases, which could be useful.

I would say if you want a really dedicated metal guitar library, that has a steep learning curve, but results that are much more realistic and customizable get Hydra. If you want something more minimal, just play and go, get Electric Storm. Would also say these two guitars sound completely different, so you might want to compare some Youtube videos showcasing tone / effects section.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 01:12 PM by Carl Ewing

[GTsongwriter]

14 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

Have both. Shredded series are exclusively instrument libraries - no phrases, etc. And it's much much more sophisticated in terms of playability, with many articulations and enormous control over almost every aspect of the guitar, and realllly big fx section with tons and tons of presets.

For articulations, Hydra has Sustain, Power Chord, Tapping, Tremolo, Mute, Power Chord Mute, Harmonics, Choke, Staccato, Power Chord Staccato, Pinch Harmonics, Rake and FX. And the scripting is pretty good for key switching between articulations in terms of how a real guitar plays. And you can customize that key switching a lot (velocity, key, etc.) Also has strumming section, and some great features like single guitar, double, triple and quadruple layering. This last one is pretty awesome, for getting really thick tones.

Electric Storm is pretty limited, with only 4 articulations (as far as can tell) ==> Open, Muted, Flageolet and Tremolo. And has limited control over the guitar. But it does have tons and tons of phrases, which could be useful.

I would say if you want a really dedicated metal guitar library, that has a steep learning curve, but results that are much more realistic and customizable get Hydra. If you want something more minimal, just play and go, get Electric Storm. Would also say these two guitars sound completely different, so you might want to compare some Youtube videos showcasing tone / effects section.

 

 

I personally dont have a ton of time to "dig-in" and learn a whole instrument... I guess I could find midi files to buy of pre-made metal guitar playing and get Hyrda.. although.. right now it's not on any sale price that would make me think.. yeah.. let's get that.. although Electric Storm is in the price range of ... maybe.. if it was less, then maybe yes... plus I've seen you can actually drop the midi files into the DAW and further edit them... I watched the walkthru video for Electric Storm and seen you can do quite a bit more than people realize.. not as much as Hydra, but just enough to make it sound more real.. I wouldn't need to spend many hours  with Electric Storm and I think that is the whole reason of it..

I've bought instruments that have a complex huge flexibility, but they end up not being used... and I will often find something I can just throw on and use immediately with out much effort..

Overall.. .still looking.. but at the same time, I hate to miss a deal and wonder.. why I never picked it up when it was on a good sale..

[aidan o driscoll]

Really betwixt and between on this one. I have Komplete 13. Not sure there is a dramatic huge difference in usage terms or functionality between the two of them really? Better to put €100 toward something else perhaps  ..

Edited Monday at 06:01 PM by aidan o driscoll

[Fleer]

34 minutes ago, aidan o driscoll said:

Really betwixt and between on this one. I have Komplete 13. Not sure there is a dramatic huge difference in usage terms or functionality between the two of them really? Better to put €100 toward something else perhaps  ..

Similar here. K13 CE to K15CE. Still, a lot of stuff. And I also have K12 CE so I guess I can sell my still unregistered K13CE after upgrading to K15CE (although I’m afraid that K13CE is an upgrade version itself). 

[Mr No Name]

On 5/22/2025 at 4:26 PM, locrian said:

The upgrade price of $249.50 for KUCE15 at Plugin Boutique is good when you consider that it comes with 4.99 of Tokens and $12.45 of Virtual Cash effectively reducing the price to $232.06 (after converting Tokens to Virtual Cash).

Does anyone know of a better deal?

yeah $ 0.00  after you've kept your money any not spent it on this.

 

 

on a side note plugin alliance are having a super duper megasale at the moment, I haven't bought a single plugin there since N.I took over the site.

Edited Monday at 08:09 PM by Mr No Name

[Skijumptoes]

On 5/24/2025 at 2:48 AM, locrian said:

Is anyone else having problems downloading the larger  file-size instruments (>30GB) via Native Access?  The ones smaller than that download fairly quickly, but the larger ones start at a good rate and then stall at 20-25%.  I've tried starting over a few times but the same thing happens everytime.

Sometimes Native Access is installing as it downloads I think, as i've seen that too but I think what's happening is some kind of local unpacking/checking of content files, I see it on updates especially more though.

Oddly enough though, last year I had to re-download all of Komplete Ultimate and my home connection is about 20mb so used a 4G router that gets me about 40mb and doesn't kill my main line...  I was getting stalls as you've described, and it turned out to be the firmware in my router which fixed it thanks to a random forum post that I found with someone else having the issue.

Was only Native Access that seemed to cause it though, so perhaps the internal downloader does something a bit different?!

[husker]

What I "believe" happens (at least on Windows), is that NA downloads the complete file as an .iso, mounts it, then installs it.

[Skijumptoes]

1 hour ago, husker said:

What I "believe" happens (at least on Windows), is that NA downloads the complete file as an .iso, mounts it, then installs it.

That's what it used to do, but there's definitely instances that no installs and reads the content as it goes..  Especially for updates.

I say this, as i've seen 20gb updates that only download about 2-3gb so it's injecting that data into the pre-existing install somehow.  Yet the progress bar will stall as it does the local checks.  In the past i'd be careful about updating as it could kill my connection, but nowadays i'll do the largest items as I know it's not actually downloading anywhere near the data it looks like it is.

Edited Tuesday at 01:06 PM by Skijumptoes

[Carl Ewing]

45 minutes ago, Skijumptoes said:

That's what it used to do, but there's definitely instances that no installs and reads the content as it goes..  Especially for updates.

I say this, as i've seen 20gb updates that only download about 2-3gb so it's injecting that data into the pre-existing install somehow.  Yet the progress bar will stall as it does the local checks.  In the past i'd be careful about updating as it could kill my connection, but nowadays i'll do the largest items as I know it's not actually downloading anywhere near the data it looks like it is.

This is easy to test. Download something like Omnia (75GB). It starts downloading a ~70GB ISO first - at least it does for me. That file goes into the downloads folder defined in Settings / File Management. When I tried this last time it had many many problems. Ended up having to get the direct link from NI, which then required a download manager to not have to restart the download every time it failed.

Edited Tuesday at 01:52 PM by Carl Ewing

[aidan o driscoll]

20 hours ago, Fleer said:

Similar here. K13 CE to K15CE. Still, a lot of stuff. And I also have K12 CE so I guess I can sell my still unregistered K13CE after upgrading to K15CE (although I’m afraid that K13CE is an upgrade version itself). 

The only huge difference for me ( besides "Bloat" eg 53 expansions ) would be Kontakt 8 vs 6. You look at the synths - pretty much exact same as is in K13

Other than that of interest to me is - Session Guitarist – Electric Mint

Session Guitarist – Strummed Acoustic, Session Guitarist – Electric Sunburst are in K13 I think.

Ok there is iZotope Ozone 11 Standard, I have Ozone 11 elements.

Next we have Guitar Rig 7 Pro .. In K13 its Guitar Rig 6 Pro. Not sure there is a huge difference TBH

Komplete really is about the core products? - Kontakt,  Battery,  Guitar rig, Massive, Reaktor. Only update to these in 15 is Kontakt 8 vs 6 and guitar rig 7 vs 6 .. Is that worth €99?

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 03:23 PM by aidan o driscoll

[locrian]

3 hours ago, Skijumptoes said:

Oddly enough though, last year I had to re-download all of Komplete Ultimate and my home connection is about 20mb so used a 4G router that gets me about 40mb and doesn't kill my main line...  I was getting stalls as you've described, and it turned out to be the firmware in my router which fixed it thanks to a random forum post that I found with someone else having the issue.

Thanks.  I powered-down my cable modem and wireless router to force an ISP software update and tried again, but still have the have issue.

[locrian]

3 hours ago, husker said:

What I "believe" happens (at least on Windows), is that NA downloads the complete file as an .iso, mounts it, then installs it.

 

2 hours ago, Skijumptoes said:

That's what it used to do, but there's definitely instances that no installs and reads the content as it goes..  Especially for updates.

I say this, as i've seen 20gb updates that only download about 2-3gb so it's injecting that data into the pre-existing install somehow.  Yet the progress bar will stall as it does the local checks.  In the past i'd be careful about updating as it could kill my connection, but nowadays i'll do the largest items as I know it's not actually downloading anywhere near the data it looks like it is.

I think you're both correct.

For completely new installs it does the '.iso thing'.  I just saw an Explorer window open with an .iso file in it for Kithara (which is a new install for me).

But for previously installed VI updates, it's definitely doing the 'data injection' thing.  When that happens the progress bar makes several large jumps, presumably reflecting the downloading and installing of just new code.

BTW, when I checked the Windows 11 App History I noticed that most of the download size was attributed to the aria2c download utility.

[kitekrazy1]

I accidentally bought CE update and not upgrade. Got a refund and went with the usual UE. 

I probably won't install most of the new stuff since I don't need a bloated Ukulele

Space management becomes more of an issue these days.  The beauty of Kontakt is you can place those libraries anywhere you want without issues.

I often wonder if there is any point of keeping those factory libraries.  

I often wonder if there is poll of most used NI libraries.  

I miss the old days where you could download the ISOs from your account.

I have to wonder if there is any point keeping Kontakt 7 anymore. 

[husker]

1 hour ago, kitekrazy1 said:

 

I have to wonder if there is any point keeping Kontakt 7 anymore. 

I got rid of K7 almost immediately.  I did some quick testing, and had no issues.

I always worry about templates though.   I have a (close to) 2500 track Cubase template, about 80% of which is Kontakt.  Cubase/Kontakt support some feature in VST 3 that automatically replaces an old version with a new version.  Again, it worked beautifully this time.  I opened up my template, Cubase gave me a quick notification, and it was all automatically moved to K8.    Very cool.

[kitekrazy1]

I still have K5, 6,   I never cared for 7 visually.   Kontakt 8 should've been Kontakt 7.