What’s New: Komplete 26 by Native Instruments

Native Instruments Komplete 26 is one of the biggest bundle updates in a while. Sixty-two new products in Ultimate, nearly seventy in Collector’s Edition, and the return of Absynth after years away. In this summery we are breaking down reviews and consesnsus across the web of most of what is included in Komplete 26!

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s just get into it.

The Four Tiers — What You’re Buying

Komplete 26 comes in four versions. Here’s the quick breakdown:

• Select — $99: Entry-level, available in Beats, Band, or Electronic flavors. Good starting point, genre-focused.
• Standard — $549: 40 new products this cycle, including Absynth 6. The sweet spot for beatmakers and producers on a budget.
• Ultimate — $1,249: 62 new products. This is where most of the review below lives, and honestly where most people should be looking.
• Collector’s Edition — $1,949: 69 new products plus three exclusives you can’t get anywhere else in the bundle.

Update pricing is available and depends on what you currently own — log into your NI account to see your personal price before pulling the trigger.

What’s New — Instrument by Instrument

1. Absynth 6

Added to: Standard, Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

Let’s start here because this is the one everyone’s been waiting for. Absynth was one of NI‘s most beloved synths — a semi-modular powerhouse built for evolving textures, strange pads, and sounds that don’t exist anywhere else. And then it disappeared. For years. Now it’s back, and the good news is: it’s a full rebuild, not just a compatibility update.

Over 2,000 presets, 350+ brand new. MPE and poly-aftertouch support. A completely redesigned browser that makes finding sounds genuinely enjoyable. The semi-modular architecture is intact — oscillators, filters, deep envelope and modulator routing — but the whole workflow has been modernized around it.

“Not just anther update — this one is a full rebuild.”

If you’ve never used Absynth before, Komplete 26 is a great time to start. If you used to use it and moved on, welcome back.

2. Claire — Premium Grand Piano

Added to: Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

Claire is built around the Fazioli F308 — one of the largest concert grands ever made — recorded at Galaxy Studios in Belgium. You get close, mid, and room mic positions, the fourth pedal exclusive to the F308 (which softens the tone without changing the timbre), and the Particles Engine borrowed from Noire for granular texture work when you want to push beyond straight piano.

The sound is bright and forward in the Fazioli tradition — it cuts through a mix without feeling sterile. Sound On Sound described it as offering “crystal-clear tones and beautifully detailed dynamics.” MusicRadar went as far as calling it “the crown jewel of grand pianos.”

There were some early complaints about fast passage playability at launch, but updates have addressed that. Claire is in good shape now.

“They are calling this one the crown jewel of grand pianos . . . very powerful and beautiful harmonic richness.”

3. LCO Producer Strings

Added to: Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

This one is going to surprise people. LCO Producer Strings was built with the London Contemporary Orchestra — the ensemble behind the scores for Deadpool & Wolverine and collaborative projects with Radiohead, Frank Ocean, and Taylor Swift. These are not your standard lush orchestral strings.

The instrument has four independent layers. You can run a violin ensemble, a cello section, a synthesizer, and a granular layer simultaneously and blend them in real time. Articulations include cluster blooms, harmonic flickers, cascading runs, and percussive pizzicatos — things you won’t find in a traditional string library. The whole thing weighs in at just 8GB, which for this quality level is genuinely remarkable.

“Granular layers, synthesis and the entire LCO right there in your DAW.”

Sample Library Review published a First Look on LCO Producer Strings — well worth a listen

4. Cremona Quartet Ensemble

Added to: Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

Where LCO Producer Strings is modern and hybrid, Cremona Quartet Ensemble is classical and faithful. These are genuinely different instruments for different use cases, and having both in Ultimate is a real win.

The Cremona Quartet Ensemble is built from four historically significant string instruments made by Stradivari, Guarneri, and Amati, recorded in Cremona’s Auditorium Giovanni Arvedi with a 32-microphone setup. Auto Divisi, real recorded vibrato, phase-aligned stereo samples. The realism here is exceptional.

Community feedback has been strong — VI-Control described the instruments as “superb examples of just how good and just how playable sampled solo string instruments can be.” Sample Library Review also has introductory coverage linked below.

5. Moments: Vocal Clouds

Added to: Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

Moments: Vocal Clouds is a bit hard to categorize, which is part of what makes it interesting. It’s not a choir library and it’s not a vocal synth — it lives somewhere in between. Developed with Soundiron, it gives you four independent vocal layers: soprano, alto, countertenor, and basso profundo, performing vowels, hums, whispers, growls, and extended techniques.

Built-in arpeggiators, macros, and intelligent randomization mean you can generate evolving vocal atmospheres with almost no setup time. It’s squarely aimed at composers who need cinematic vocal textures fast — think alternative pop, experimental production, and film scoring without the overhead of programming a full choir.

6. Erosia

Added to: Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

Erosia might be the sleeper hit of Komplete 26. It’s a cinematic sound design engine built entirely around recordings of friction — ice crackling across cymbals, glass vases under tension, bowed bicycle spokes, dry ice, abandoned buildings, cracked pianos. All captured with contact microphones. The resulting sounds are genuinely unlike anything else in the bundle.

The engine has four layers: a Grain layer for fracturing and animating textures, plus three interchangeable Sampler or Wavetable layers. A Transform control morphs between tension, release, and decay states in a way that feels intuitive for building cinematic arcs. Over 200 presets included.

Sound On Sound covered the release, and independent reviewers have been enthusiastic. If you’re into film scoring, sound design, or anything atmospheric and dark, this one’s worth spending time with.

7. 24K Drums & 24K Keys

Added to: Standard, Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

These two come as a natural pair. Both were developed with MSXII Sound Design and are aimed squarely at hip-hop and R&B producers.

24K Drums delivers thick kicks, sharp snares, and polished percussion drawn from the early 2000s hip-hop aesthetic. Each kit comes with 16 groove patterns, MIDI drag-and-drop, and custom macro effects. 24K Keys is the melodic companion — opulent pianos, soulful electric keys, velvety synths, and orchestral elements in one instrument. Fast, polished, preset-driven. That’s the point.

Sample Library Review covered the launch of both. Links below.

8. Marco Polo Drums

Added to: Standard, Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

If 24K Drums is polished early-2000s hip-hop, Marco Polo Drums is golden-era New York boom-bap. These are two distinct instruments, and having both in Ultimate makes sense for producers who work across different eras of the genre.

Marco Polo — the legendary New York producer — personally curated these kits. Chest-hitting kicks, sharp snares with classic crack, dusty hi-hats that sit perfectly under sample-based beats. MPC-style patterns, MIDI drag-and-drop, custom insert effects. As a standalone it’s $49. Inside Komplete 26, it’s a nice addition that doesn’t ask anything of you.

9. Definitive Electric Keys Collection

Full collection in Collector’s Edition; Jade & Teak in Standard & Ultimate

Six deeply sampled vintage electric keyboards — Diamond, Phoenix, Jade, Moonshell, Ember, and Teak — built with Galaxy Instruments, the same team behind Una Corda, Noire, and The Definitive Piano Collection. The recording quality is exactly what you’d expect from that collaboration.

Each instrument comes with tone controls, cabinet options, creative effects, and full Guitar Rig 7 signal chain integration so you can build a completely custom rig. MusicTech reviewed the Tines Duo and called the Rhodes emulations “definitely among the best out there — beautifully sampled and affordable, offering a sublime playing experience.” For pop, soul, R&B, and funk producers, these are the electric keys in Komplete 26 you’ll actually live in.

10. Scene Series — Bloodplant, Lotus, Nightshade & Willow

Added to: Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

Four cinematic atmosphere instruments, each built around a distinct sonic identity. Bloodplant and Nightshade lean dark and menacing; Lotus and Willow are more organic and botanical. These aren’t instruments you’ll spend hours programming — they’re instant mood tools. Load a preset, adjust a macro, and you have a scene-setting texture ready for picture or track work. Great for TV, trailers, and sync.

11. Session Series Update — Electric Neon, Ruby Deluxe, Storm Deluxe, Jam Bass

Added to: Ultimate, Collector’s Edition

The Session series gets its biggest single-cycle refresh in Komplete 26. Three new guitarists cover clean modern tones (Electric Neon), warm vintage character (Ruby Deluxe), and heavier rock textures (Storm Deluxe). Session Bassist: Jam Bass adds a more improvisational, groove-forward bass option alongside the existing lineup.

The Session series has always been Komplete’s underrated workhorse for songwriters and pop producers. This update rounds out the guitar and bass palette in a way that should have happened a few cycles ago.

Collector’s Edition Exclusives

Three instruments are exclusive to Collector’s Edition and can’t be found anywhere else in the bundle. These are the real argument for that extra $700 over Ultimate.

Circular is an orchestral texture instrument built for layered, evolving cinematic soundscapes at the contemporary end of the orchestral spectrum. Nothing like it exists elsewhere in the bundle.

Odes is an orchestral library focused on rhythmic cinematic textures — designed for trailer and cinematic scoring, and particularly useful for building tension and momentum in scored content.

Claire: Avant takes the Fazioli F308 recordings from Claire and pushes them into experimental territory. Where Claire is for the performer, Claire: Avant is for the sound designer who wants something strange from a world-class source. Smart use of a single recording session.

CE also adds the full six-instrument Definitive Electric Keys Collection, plus bx_masterdesk Pro and bx_console AMEK 200 on top of Ultimate’s Brainworx suite — a meaningful step up for mixing and mastering.

The Bottom Line

Komplete 26 Ultimate at $1,249 is worth it, and it’s not a particularly close call. The combination of Absynth 6 returning, the best strings update Komplete has ever had (LCO + Cremona together), a complete hip-hop drum and melodics overhaul, Claire as a flagship piano, and a real mixing plugin suite from iZotope and Brainworx makes this a strong upgrade. If you’re on K15 Ultimate, the update is $299 for 62 new products. That’s a good deal.

Collector’s Edition at $1,949 makes the most sense for film composers and sound designers. Circular, Odes, and Claire: Avant are genuinely unique instruments, and the expanded Brainworx mixing tools round out a professional workflow that goes beyond what Ultimate offers.

Across the board, NI is clearly moving toward immediacy and inspiration alongside their traditional deep instruments. Komplete 26 is the best evidence yet that that direction is working.

Get more details at Native Instruments