#battery 4

Forums, news feeds, social media networks, and email in boxes lit up Monday with the announcement from Native Instruments that their immensely popular Komplete software instrument suite will be getting an update from version 8 to the new version 9. This comes nearly two years after the Komplete 8 update which came out in the late summer of 2011. The official release of Komplete 9 is March 27th but we now know what instruments and effects will be included in the update which you can read in detail here. The big question for most of us is: Should we bother upgrading? Are we going to be getting anything worthwhile out of this update? While reading these forums, blogs, and social media posts, I began to notice that there was a lot of disdain mixed with "yeah whatever" when it comes to this release, and rightfully so. Many of the instruments and effects that are to be included in the update have been available for months and in some cases years. This of course varies between the standard Komplete 9 update versus the Komplete 9 Ultimate in a rather large way. The two different versions also vary in price in a rather large way with the Komplete 9 upgrade retailing for $149.00 and the Komplete 9 Ultimate upgrade retailing for $399.00. So what is the $250 difference between these two? Well for starters, Native Instruments have put all of the latest software goodies, released as single downloads for roughly in the$50 - $200 range, into a single update. This may come as a huge financial disappointment to some of us (myself included) who purchased these downloads individually only to find they are available for purchase as a bundle for a considerably lower cost. For those that haven't purchased these individually, Native Instruments is offering some serious software at a great price. The real news here is the inclusion of Battery 4, an update to their already popular drum sampler software, and the brand new Monark software which is touted as a monophonic analog synth instrument but is most likely a Moog sound emulator. Lets look at the features offered by each:

Monark

Monark runs in Reaktor and based on what Native is touting on their website, it looks like it will be able to be controlled with the Maschine hardware. The real power of Monark comes from its oscillators and filters. Native is pretty explicit about how you won't be able to tell the difference between Monark and an actual analog synthesizer. While the prospect of that sounds exciting, I am pretty skeptical about that. Prove me wrong NI! What is pretty cool about Monark and the folks working at Native, is they care a lot about their software. The algorithms they use to code the virtual sounds can only go so far so often times the engineers must rely on their ears to fine tune everything. Where most software developers would stop at the exact math involved when coding software instruments, its nice to see such care going into Monark and their other software. This shouldn't be news to most of us but its always great to be reassured when plopping down the cash for software. The bottom line here is that you can emulate some classic synthesizer sounds as well as create some futuristic tones. The possibilities remain endless and this looks to be a go to software for anyone looking for a great analog synth modeling plug-in.

Battery 4

Battery is the flagship drum sampler in the Komplete package. It's best suited for the electronic music or hip-hop producer and has a great work flow to get your drum samples sounding just the way you want them. Most of you of course already know this, so what's new exactly in Battery 4. Well for starters they have completely redesigned the work-flow to make things a lot more intuitive and less daunting when opening up a blank Battery session. Things like drag and drop drums and color coded cells help to keep all your arrangements organized and make work-flow quicker. They have also added something called Engine which allows you to add FX, EQ, tape saturation, one-knob compression, and a whole host of other tweaks to your drums. In addition the Library and Browser section has tags and search history to easily find the last sound you pulled up, or your go to sounds. If you already own Battery and use it often, this upgrade should be a no-brainer. If you are like me and have been looking at Battery over your shoulder as you work out your grooves in Maschine or some other DAW, then the new work-flow in Battery might be the appeal you need to finally give it a whirl. I know I will.

Should I Upgrade?

Making a beat for TV

Making a beat for TV is our thing.

As we were creating our next cue for TV network, we decided to show you our process. This video is very detailed demonstrating EQ, Compression, Reverb, Delay, and how we send a few channels to a Auxiliary channel to avoid CPU overload by using plugins on each channel. The Pop genre is very popular in the television world and that’s the focus. Were using Logic…