Native Instruments pours newer and newer Soundpacks: now a dramatic percussion set, True Strike Tension came out. It costs 69 euro, check here.

You only have to pay half price at Native Instruments for all the updates during the Christmas season - it is the first good news from the company. Second is for the interface buyers: Audio Kontrol 1 will contain a bundle of a great Native synth of your choice from Absynth 4, FM8, Pro-53 or Massive. Third, Guitar Rig Kontrol Edition will contain a Cubase LE, a Kore Player, plus Pop Drums as a Soundpack. Check here.

Native Instruments pours the soundpacks for the Kore elements: now they gave a task for the Massive engine with Massive Expansion Vol. 2, a new package full of synth sounds. It costs 49 euro, here.

Native Instruments will sure make a big hit with a new generation of DJ software: Traktor Pro and Traktor Scratch Pro. What is the most interesting is the totally redesigned user interface which seems very logical. It even displays the album art of the tracks that playlisted. A huge bunch of new effects will improve the excitement, and the loop functions make it a real sequencing instrument - just check the demo videos.

Native Instruments' next sound pack for Kore uses the Reaktor engine: 200 sounds of evolving pads and soundscapes, called Animated Circuits. It costs 49 euro, here.

Three Kore-news came from Native Instruments, together. At first, Kore 2 has a reduced price from now: 400 euro, instead of 500. Second, you can buy Kore 2 software without the hardware, only for 200 euro - name: Kore 2 Software Edition. Third, a huge deal on sound programs: Kore Electronic Experience is a package which contains seven Soundpacks for Kore, for only 160 euro. Click here to learn more.

Native Instruments' Kore got a now soundpack, Absynth Twilight, which will bring you more than 200 fine, mystic sound programs that use Absynth engine which sits inside Kore. Price is not more than 49 euro, click here if you want it.

Next summer price hit at Native Instruments is related to Traktor 3, the company's DJ solution which can be bought for the half of the money, 99 euro. Check it here, for a limited time.

Users of Kore 2 and the free Kore Player is targeted with two new sound packages from Native Instruments. Transient Attacks (50 euro) and Deep Transformations (70 euro) both contains FM sounds that uses the FM8 engine burnt into Kore. Order them here.

You can buy Komplete 5 from Native Instruments 30% off if you own one of the following sequencer packages: Live, Cubase, Sonar Producer, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, Pro Tools, Noendo, Samplitude Pro. The actual price in this case is 699 euro instead of 999 euro. If you pay in USD you can make an even better deal because of the current rate: you have to pay only 779 USD in the Native shop. Check here for more, the offer is valid until 31th, July.

Native Instruments fills your Kore 2 or the free Kore Player with synth legends: Kontakt Retro Machines contains 135 classic synth patches taken from the Kontakt library. Not less than 11 analogue monster, 5 digital FM synth, plus 6 drum machines - all this takes 1 gigabyte from your hard disk, and costs 49 euro, here.

Native Instruments now serves the need of the beginner and amateur guitarists: the released Guitar Rig 3 XE, based on their popular modeling and effect software. It has the same audio quality like the bigger brother, and provides five amplifiers and 21 effect types. It plays mp3 files, too. Price is 100 euro, check here. A complete package bundled with an audio interface is also hits the shops soon, called Guitar Rig Session (229 euro). The stereo in-out box has a stunning 24/192 resolution, and accepts microphone, too - check it here.

Apple's latest Leopard release, 10.5.2 caused big headache in the studios - from the audio producer's viewpoint this release is like a nightmare. Synth software from Native that worked perfectly under the previous OS X versions started to hang up, and the overall audio performance has dramatically fallen, causing glitchy playback in even the easiest situations. The official Native Instruments communique is here.

Today Native Instruments has released the already-announced Kore Player, world's currently best free synthesizer software. The 300-megabyte download contains six sound engine of the leading company: Kontakt, Reaktor, Guitar Rig, Massive, Absynth and FM8, with the exception of total sonic editability. You can have as low as 50 high quality presets for start, and if you want to dig yourself deeper, you have to buy sound packages from Native - this is the base of the new business model. We are very curious about the success of this method which seems rather sympathetic at first - and the download page seems to be very overloaded in the first hours...

It's a joy to own a Battery from Native Instruments: they now released a new free, downloadable sample pack under the Artist Kits program. Dobie, Johnny Fiasco, Pete Davis, Marcus Rossknecht and Santiago & Bushido made these hip hop and realted kits - you can get it from here (registration and Battery licence are required).

Native Instruments has left a revolutionary announcement: from March, anybody can download and use Kore 2's software part for free. They hope decent revenues from selling cheap Kore SoundPacks for the freely distributed sound generators - these sound packs will dramatically expand the sonic horizont of the instrument. Kore Player, the free instrument features Kore 2's all software capabilities, including the KoreSound Browser, and the six different synth engines. Individual sound programs can use any of these sound generators, and any combinations of them. What we see now is a completely new business model on the virtual synth market: give your instrument free, and sell powerful soundsets cheaply. If succeeds, this can change the whole industry. Check Native's web announcement here.

Muse Research, father of the VST hardware synth module, Receptor released a new product based on their classic. Receptor Komplete is an ordinary Receptor but it has Native's full Komplete package factory preinstalled. Its price is 2500 USD, check it here for more details.

Christmas is still two weeks away but Native Instruments placed their present under the tree. They lowered some prices seriously and permanently: Komplete is now under 1000 euro, Komplete Synth, Reaktor, Kontakt and Komplete Classics cost 400 euro, all the individual synth products are 200 euro, not counting the GM supersynth bandstand which is 99 euro only.

Native Instruments spread the shops with the long-awaited version 2 of their Kore hardware-software system. Kore 2 was previewed already during the Musikmesse of this spring but we had to wait more than a half year to get the final product. This is rather an integrated hard-soft solution than the first, slightly chaotic version - Kore 2 now has six different synth engines bundled, with 500 very complex sound programs which use the sophisticated hardware features extensively. List price is 500 euro, all the other details can be found here.

Traktor 3.3 from Native Instruments is out as a free download for all the registered users of Traktor 3. It has a big news: Native's analog turntable time code system, Traktor Scratch is fully integrated. You can control your digital files with up to four turntables in the new software, and it has numerous additon among it, check the feature list here.

Native Instruments has poured all their new products announced earlier into the shops worldwide. Kontakt 3, Guitar Rig 3 and the new Komplete packages can be ordered in their webshop, too.

Native Instruments has announced the availability the next version of the world's most popular sampler software. Kontakt 3 comes in 1st, October, and will bundle an immerse 33 gigabytes of sampling content, and you can tweak this huge library on a smarter and more intuitive interface. All the loaded instruments can have an own edit view in the rack which features tabs that unveils the most important editing parameters to reach simple. All the parameters now have online help, and a very effective free-text search will help to find the sounds you need. Kontakt 3 will rebuild database automatically, no need to use the manual Rebuild function any further. it also has new DSP effect algorhythms. A graphical envelope drawing is also on the feature list, check the product page here. Pricing is 400 euro for the all-new box, upgrade can be arranged for 130 euro from any previous version.

More Native news are the new package offers. Komplete Synths consists of the four NI synths, Pro53, FM8, Massive plus Absynth, and Komplete Classics covers Akoustik and Elektrik Piano, B4 plus Pro53. The full Komplete is also new: Komplete 5 means the present state of the NI line now. Guitar Rig will be also renewed in October, with version 3.

Both giant soft synth factory decided to enhance their summer sales with incredible price cuts so we will not buy any soft instrument any time but summer. Arturia offers not less than their all synths - the V Collection holds Minimoog V, Moog Modular V, CS-80V, ARP 2600 V, plus the two Prophets, and the very big bonus, the new Jupiter-8V. The full kit would cost more than a Porsche if you buy them as hardware but prefer the software versions and you will top at 549 euro - that's a price of wonder. Order here until 30th September.

Native Instruments has numerous smaller offers instead of a big one - buy Kontakt 2 now for a half price of 250 euro, or the classic keys edition which covers Akoustik Piano, Elektrik Piano plus the B4 II for 349. For more Native offers click here, their Summer of Sound action closes at 31th, August.

A new version is valid for Native Instruments' high end drum sampler software, Battery. 3.0.2 has some bug polishment but the big news is three new drum kits from three leading artists: Gorillaz-producer Curtis Lynch, Alexander Hacke from Einstürzende Neubauten and Turntablerocker composed these kits. Demo can be found here.