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Native Instruments Komplete 26 is here, and with it comes the return of an old friend. The mighty Absynth 6 has rejoined Native Instruments’ lineup, and, like some sort of green eclipse, its resurrection has drawn so much focus that we can all be forgiven for missing the other incredible instruments joining the mega bundle.

Across the three core editions – Standard, Ultimate, and Collectors – there are goodies aplenty. Here are a few standouts that might have flown under your radar.

Speedy Songwriting

One of Komplete’s biggest drawcards is its ability to cater to a range of different workflows. There are times when you want in-depth control over every parameter, and times when quickness is key – and the new Session Guitarist Neon Essentials falls neatly into the latter category. Available in the Standard edition, it sounds slick immediately, has a streamlined UI, and comes with ‘song’ patterns to get an arrangement past those pesky writer’s blocks.

As it says on the tin, this instrument boils things down to the ‘essentials’, and so you don’t get all the playing techniques of a full-fledged Session instrument, but in practice, I find Neon’s four includes articulations (open, muted, flageolet, and tremolo) more than enough to get started. And, while I could easily have been satisfied with the 30-odd amp and effects presets that come with the instrument, I couldn’t resist running the signal through Guitar Rig 7 Pro to open up new vistas of tone.

Anyone familiar with Komplete will already know the Guitar Rig series, but I feel compelled to state that this has become one of my absolute essential tools – not just for guitars, but for sound design too. I’ve put everything from vocals to bird tweets to a recording of an espresso machine through this thing, and every time I end up getting something surprising.

Since first joining the Komplete lineup in version 14, another set of essentials has been the Brainworx suite of mixing and mastering tools. In particular, I regularly pull up bx_glue when tackling multitracked guitars or vocals. Also available in the Standard edition, this dual band compressor offers independent control over both the high and the low end frequencies, and if I need some vintage saturation on a subgroup I seldom need to look further.

Scene stealers

A similar ‘it just works’ tool is Scene. This collection of cinematic instruments offers minimal controls – just an XY pad to blend between two sound sources and a smattering of envelope, tone, and effect macros. While each is ostensibly tailored to a specific mood, the whole series broadly lends itself to horror, sci-fi, and dystopia.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to like these. ‘Too streamlined and too simplified’ was my initial takeaway. However, after coming back to them a few times, I have to admit that there is a real attraction to loading up a lightweight plugin that creates a specific kind of musical atmosphere, and does it well.

If your music needs a bit more meat on the bone, look no further than Claire. Developed in collaboration with Galaxy Instruments, and sampled from one of the world’s largest concert grand pianos—a massive 10ft Fazioli F308 —there is serious weight to this instrument. It’s not all sonorous chords and bright arpeggios, however; Claire is a surprisingly versatile library. It can sound soft and intimate, punchy and modern, and even believably evoke the rich acoustics of a classical concert experience. This adaptability is largely thanks to its easy ability to blend between close, mid, and far microphones, and to control the instrument’s overtones, resonances, pedal dampening, and key noise.

Claire might give me the sound of a concert piano, but my keyboard skills certainly don’t approach that of a pianist. Luckily, Kontakt 8’s MIDI Tools have gotten me out of more than a few jams. There’s plenty of Tools to choose from, but my favourites are Scale Lock, which allows me to quickly improvise a melody safe in the knowledge that every note I play will be shifted to fit with a chosen key signature, and Chord Builder which lets me work out complex harmonies and then trigger them all from a single note.

The new Kontakt 8 player is available in Standard, but both Claire and Scenes are reserved for Komplete 26’s Ultimate edition. However, for my money, the most exciting new additions are the instruments which push into sound design territory.

Extending The Sound Palette

The first of these is actually a companion library to Claire, titled Claire Avant. Instead of normal keyboard techniques, this library sees the piano’s strings stroked with brushes, thumbed with ivory or wooden plectrums, and hit with soft, metal, and rubber mallets. It’s the kind of sample library that was almost impossible to find a decade ago, and to hear these techniques sampled on such an impressive instrument is a delight.

Another newbie I enjoy is Erosia. The source material, which includes creaking ironing boards, squeaky wheels, and rattling chains, would probably be more at home in a mechanics workshop than a recording studio; the results speak for themselves. Hard to define tones grow into enveloping walls of sound thanks to four audio layers that can be quickly morphed using a macro knob. Dual LFOs, granular synthesis, waveshaping, and harmonic resonators offer extensive sound design potential – especially when working with such idiosyncratic samples.

Last but not least is Odes, which occupies a space between sound design and contemporary scoring. This is the third entrant in a trilogy of instruments developed by Evolution Series, the others being Fables and Lores. Where those two instruments draw heavily on strings, woodwinds, and choir to craft beautifully evolving textures, Odes instead puts rhythm front and centre. Staccato notes and pulsing drones are all tempo-synchronised to your DAW.

Alongside a well-considered sound engine and plenty of articulations to choose from, the primary attraction in Odes is the gorgeous and somewhat lesser-known instruments that have been sampled. We get bowed instruments like the Iranian kamancheh, the Mongolian horse-head fiddle, plus a Japanese shakuhachi bamboo flute and a Swedish nyckelharpa.

While Erosia is available in the Ultimate edition, both Odes and Claire Avant are reserved for the Collector’s tier. So, you’ll need to be serious about your sound design and have seriously deep pockets to access these beasts. However, if you’re not ready to splurge on the higher tiers, then I’d recommend trying iZotope’s Vocalsynth 2 as an off-label sound design tool. Available in the Standard edition, and designed for voice processing, there’s actually a wealth of weird and wonderful effects here to discover. Whether you’re working on monster sounds for a video game, or running some nature recordings through it to get some psychedelic ambience, it’s a surprisingly powerful plugin.

A strong move by Native Instruments

I’ll readily admit my bias toward weird and wonderful sounds, but I genuinely think the move by Native Instruments to include more libraries of rare and non-Western instruments, extended playing techniques, and hybrid textures is spot on. Increasingly, these are the kind of sounds that media composers are looking to work with, and Komplete 26 offers a wide selection.

Of course, for those who didn’t already grab it on first release, Absynth 6 is sure to be the first thing you boot up when Komplete 26 lands in your Native Access library. But once you break free of that intoxicating green fairy, there is plenty more here to keep you busy.

Check out the full suite at native-instruments.com

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