On a previous silly bargain, I'd bought Total Studio Max 3.5 a few years ago. While there's a lot of stuff I will never install, Amplitube 4 Max, the basic Tonex, SampleTron, the Hammond B3X (outstanding) and some of the effects earn their keep. And even more so than with Komplete, you only need a tiny fraction of products which are worth it to you to make it worthwhile.
On top of that now that comes the current offer of Total Studio Max 5 - $99 update price for anyone with any Max product. JRR Shop have a 10% off voucher plus a few points I had knocking around, and the whole upgrade cost me £62. Here's the new stuff (to me, anyway):
Pianoverse Max (all 9 pianos)
Pianoverse enjoys a very good reputation. I'm a lousy piano player and have Keyscape, all the good NI pianos like Noire and tons more besides, so I don't need it. I've installed 3 pianos for a whirl, sound very good but the loading times are not a patch on Keyscape. There are some really nice effects patches, I'll find these more useful than the straight pianos tbh. EDIT - but see end of this post.
TONEX Max (all models inc 9 Signature collection)
I can't get quite as excited as some about these, but they are particularly good at handling drive naturally.
T-RackS 6 inc 10 new processors
Amplitube Morley Collection
Modo Bass 2
I never used Modo Bass 1 cos either I play real bass or use Trilian. But this is a very good collection I must admit - I might well turn to some of the more esoteric models from time to time, and it's nice to have things like muting mapped to a CC. I found putting hammer-ons to sustain pedal worked nicely for me.
Modo Drum 1.5
SampleTank 4 Max v3 inc tons of expansions.
I've only installed a couple of these. The Resonator is actually rather good for quick and dirty bottleneck Dobro, I like the programming and it gets That Sound right.
I'll likely only use 5% of everything, but it still makes financial sense. Crazy times. To buy it all new it's only $249.
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/?id=T ... zyDeal2025
EDIT oh hello, I have discovered the Liberty Upright Relic in Pianoverse and I take it back. It's wonderful, and not a tone I have at all in the arsenal - a flawed upright that isn't cod flawed. Bags of character, worth the loading time wait.