Native Instruments Installation Fail: Exhibit A

Just purchased Komplete 8 Ultimate (see previous post) and found this gem (as well as several others) in the obligatory installation readme.txt:

In case you don’t see a Komplete 8 Ultimate entry in the Service Center’s Activate tab, re-start the Service Center, but not from any of the Native Instrument applications: find the Service Center executable in the Finder (on Mac OS X) or the Explorer (on Windows) and start it directly via double-click.

Don’t know about you, but if I was a software developer, this kind of caveat would keep me up at night. They might as well have simply written, “Hey users! We know you haven’t actually used our software yet, but just a heads up that it’s half baked. You know, bugs and workarounds and stuff. But have fun.”

That said—and forgetting the fact the name “Komplete Ultimate” sounds like the spendiest option at a full service car wash—once you get it all rolling, my experience with NI products has been pretty smooth sailing and great sounding. And it’s still a helluva bargain.