Native Instruments. Ok For Newbies? Options

[Foxyphil]

After (literally) years of reading (not always comprehending!) reviews of software products, but clinging onto hardware methods for dear life, Ive taken the plunge. Limited to an emac G4, I opted for a focusrite Sapphire as an interface and today bought the Native Instruments "essentials" pack - Abysynth 3, Battery 2, Pro 53, and Kompakt soft sampler. Do any of you seasoned experts thing it will be a tall order to get to grips with these? Abysynth, eg, is clearly targeted at sound designers.

And will these as my initial tools, (plus the cubase that gets loaded with the Sapphire) be sonically good enough to make broad-castable material (obviously the songwriting and arrangments are down to me). Or should I have put up with the ocasional clicks and buzzes of the Digidesign M Box to have acces to the plug ins that- it would seem - appear on most hit records?

Sorry the post is so vague, but I would really value any feedback.
Many thanks to ppl for making this such a supportive site for newies.

Phil

[Chris C.L]

Hi thereFoxyphil
Sound like a good selection on instruments in the "essential pack".There usability depends on your needs, someday you might want to upgrade from kompact to kontact. If your used to hardware I'me sure you will find similarities pretty quickly. There are enough presets around to keep you happy for a while until you get the hang of things(Cammel audio do extra absynth presets).Tecky stuff like this is one of those constant learning things.
Saphire's cubase should be fine too, gives you upgrade options if you like it. You might find power lacking though on your mac, being restricted to a few VSTi's at a time- bounce tracks to audio when things get tough. Metro seems to be quite economic on power http://www.sagantech.biz/.
Have fun

[mortalengines]

You can definitely do it with what you got. You will definitely have to watch your CPU & use some workarounds (rendering virtual instruments as audio tracks as soon as you are done etc.). I have to do it with a G4 powerbook (1.5ghz processor) & Ableton Live. Not to knock the bundled version of Cubase either but, I understand that particular version (or any version shy of Cubase SX) is a real bear. You may want to consider upgrading or moving onto Ableton, Logic, Digital Performer, Pro Tools, etc. in the near future...not that you can't get on with what you got for a while.

[DANO10]

Hello Phil and welcome to soft synths,

I think you will be very happy with the synths you listed. As for Absynthe 3, the learning curve may be a bit steep. Check out "Absynth 3 Tutorial DVD" about $45. at Sweetwater.com or audioMIDI.com. I found it very helpfull.

DANO10:cool: