Hi everyone
i´ve spended already much time for the decision to buy the Absolute 2 VST Instrument Collection, but for me it was ever too expensive to just buy VST Instruments for this high price. my question: is it really worth as a weapon for your productions or is it a little bit overpriced? anyone got experience with that?
Possibly. However for a similar amount you could get Komplete which is probably a much bigger bang for you buck. Not to mention that you get Kontakt and Reaktor, simply the most useful musical tools out there, as well as loads of must have instruments, sample libraries and effects. Komplete 10 is now £279, or you can wait for 11 which will be a bit more. I’d get 10 at that price.
Komplete’s (non-Ultimate) strong point are the synths. The acoustic instrument sounds except for maybe the pianos and Studio Drummer are kinda underwhelming. Kontakt only really shines when used with (usually expensive) third party libraries. Note that not all Kontakt libraries actually require you to buy Kontakt/Komplete, many work with the free Kontakt Player.
Absolute 2 has better stock acoustic instruments overall. Halion Sonic 2 is IMO the best hardware ROMpler-style plugin around, and it’s well complemented by Halion Symphonic Orchestra. I also think Groove Agent 4 is a better drum sampler than Battery, and that Halion 5 is faster and more intuitive to use for your own sounds than Kontakt. The Cubase integration makes both GA4 and H5 very fast and powerful tools. Halion Sonic 2 and Groove Agent 4 have very different, higher quality content than Halion Sonic SE and Groove Agent SE which come with Cubase.
I’ve had both for some time and overall I’m more happy with Absolute 2 than Komplete. I personally only use Kontakt (mostly for libraries that I already had…) and occasionally Monark. If you’re more of an electronic music guy, having access to Reaktor, Massive and FM8 may make Komplete a more attractive package than Absolute for you.
Komplete will also give you the solid compressors etc plus guitar rig. Supercharger is an excellent character compressor too. Alicias keys is a cracking goto piano.