EWQLSO Goes 64-bit in July

dmacintyre · Post by **dmacintyre** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:30 pm

Ah, the joys of the misleading promotional email.

I got the $99 upgrade blurb but when I plug my serial for Platinum into the upgrade page, I'm told I need to pay $299 for Platinum Play version (24 bit) or $399 for the 16 and 24 bit samples. Lovely. If I want to keep my product current I get hit for a minimum of $299 because they are forcing me to upgrade to the Platinum bundle.........and those are SPECIAL OFFERS!!! The last time I looked it was $25 per product.

Absolutely no chance in hell I'm giving them that kind of cash. I'll stick with my Vienna libraries - I prefer them anyway. If I trash the EW libraries I own, I will be losing less money than it would cost me to upgrade to the Play version of the libraries at their regular price.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:10 pm

chucks wrote:Check out the Kontact 3 crossgrade offer @ http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Kontakt3cg/

It may be a better choice than the Play upgrade for the Gold Original owners (or any of the other NI player 3rd party bundles). $199 for Play vs $249, but you get the Kontact 3 library, ability to load other sample libraries, and a sample editor.

That is a good deal, no doubt. There are strong pros and cons on all sides with complex considerations to boot no matter which way you slice it.

The one major factor *for me* is that PLAY was free, so it was more of a no-brainer than it will be for others. I could still do the Kontakt 3 crossgrade and not come out too much further behind than someone who has no need for the PLAY engine at all-- and I'd have both PLAY and K3. It's an odd twist of fate. But I know that Kontakt remains important to many people for a lot of other purposes.

Things that make me go "hmm":

1. What are the pros and cons with K3 where EWQLSO is concerned vs K2?

2. What are the pros and cons with EWQLSO with K2 vs K3 vs PLAY?

3. Are these pros and cons worth the $99 now for PLAY, the $199 in two weeks for PLAY or the $249 crossgrade at almost any time for K3?

4. Should those comfortable with Kontakt just stay with K2 and save their hard-earned cash?

These are the kinds of questions I tend to ask myself when difficult decisions have to be made. While compatibility appears to be safe for now, I have to wonder if EW will eventually grow weary of supporting the same library in two audio engines. One of their next major rewrites is Symphonic Choirs, and I'm sure that the awkward restructuring of SO will have a huge impact on how they proceed since SO was their first NI-to-PLAY rewrite. Perish the thought, but if EW decides that it no longer wants to support its libraries under the NI engine there could be a whole other can of worms to sort through down the road for Kontakt users.

chucks · Post by **chucks** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 5:01 am

In my case and others with both the Original and bundle (purchased before whatever date), there is no $99 option. If there was it would be an easy choice. As far as East/West supporting their library in whatever format, I think we already have the answer for that. If you have the NI formatted libraries, then from here on with Kontakt 3, you would be counting on NI to continue support for existing products.

What about those who have multiple EW libraries based on the NI player - from the looks of things now, they'll have to pay to Play for each library upgrade. With the crossgrade, they have just one purchase to cover all libs.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 5:16 am

chucks wrote:In my case and others with both the Original and bundle (purchased before whatever date), there is no $99 option. If there was it would be an easy choice. As far as East/West supporting their library in whatever format, I think we already have the answer for that. If you have the NI formatted libraries, then from here on with Kontakt 3, you would be counting on NI to continue support for existing products.

Very true. I just hope NI continues to play ball nicely with the rest of the team.

chucks wrote: What about those who have multiple EW libraries based on the NI player - from the looks of things now, they'll have to pay to Play for each library upgrade. With the crossgrade, they have just one purchase to cover all libs.

Also true and a very important consideration. It's going to cost me when Symphonic Choirs is ready because it's just not working in Kontakt on my system at all. With some effort I can start a new project in DP with it, but if I boot the same project the next day and make no adjustments I can get no sound out of it whatsoever. EW and NI are both in the dark about this, and entire days of reinstalling hasn't helped. This makes me want to shy away from Kontakt completely where EW libraries are concerned. If it all worked as planned, I might be among the Kontakt-faithful, but I'm painted into a corner because of it.

Like we've all cited-- there are pros and cons all over the place and few of them address everyone's needs. It's really a mixed blessing.