Well, I just ordered
Native Instruments Komplete 2. I found a good deal on it, I already own Absynth 2 and there was a special priced upgrade so I should have my hands full for a while.
Here's the diference between warez and legitimate software:
First of all: value. You do not value what you do not pay for. It is of no consequence to you if you lose it or if it breaks because you didn't pay for it. It isn't worth anything to you. And because it didn't cost you money you probobly won't dive deeply into the program to learn all of it's uses and functions, never pushing the software to it's full potential. I can sit and create amazing sounds with Absynth because I took the time to learn it because it cost me something.
Making good music is not about how many cool toys you have but rather using the ones you do have to their full potential. Take all of your pirated programs and synths and make a song and I'll make something better with one legit sequencer and one legit soft synth. Then you'll be all "crap man - I need to download whatever he's using". But guess what? You've probobly already got it! You just can't use it very well because you don't see value in the program. Not just that but you might have so many different programs that you never mastered any one of them!
I don't really care if you try out warez. I've lived in an area with no real music store and sometimes it is the only real way to check it out. I downloaded Reaktor 4 and I liked it so much that it was one of the main reasons why I bought the whole package. I tried it, and sometimes a trial of 30days doesn't tell me much. My time is in such high demand that I don't always have enough time to check some of this software out or see just how stable it is with my hardware. I don't see the difference between that and a legit trial version. Both are temporary for me and if I do like the product enough to use it on a regular basis I will buy it. It's the
honest thing to do.
Also realize that what you do does come back to you. So if you make music with warez, don't be surprised if people don't pay for your music. They will probobly copy it and put it on a shareware program. Then you'll be out the $10 per cd or whatever. But don't worry, they won't see real value in your music so the pattern will continue. And music is unlike software because there is no application of it, it's something you do while doing something else. It's just a perk. Not an application. And it gets old faster than software. So people get sick of it fast.
Just some thoughts on why you shouldn't use warez as your main applications. I think you can gain knowledge from trying out the programs. I plan on going somewhere with my music so I think it's important for me to be legit. I plan on moving back into the performing field.
By the way, my music is available for sale but I allow people to copy it and give it away. That's a personal choice of mine. I have a day job that pays my bills for now. For these software engineers, this is their day job and they deserve our respect.
)
For me though the real deal seems to work better for me.