 Total Studio Max 4 is here, and whilst it's always been massive, now it's massiver. That's a word. Hi folks, I'm Mike, and I hope you're well. Total Studio Max 4 is a huge plug-in bundle from iCAD Multimedia, which includes audio production plug-ins, virtual instruments, and some great things for guitarists as well. Later on, I'm going to be asking, well, should you buy it? If you already own it, should you upgrade? And also, how does it compare to Complete 14? Now, full disclosure, they did send me this product to try out, but I wasn't even required to make a video let alone say anything specific, and I'm not getting paid, so these opinions are all my own. However, this video is being sponsored by DistroKid. If you follow my VIP link in the description down below, you'll get 7% off an already amazing price to distribute your music. Now I want to delve into what's included with Total Studio Max 4, as well as what's new, starting off with the audio production plug-ins. Included with the plug-ins is one of the most impressive plug-in suites around T-Rex 5 Max version 2. Honestly, this includes some of my favourite plug-ins which I use in many of my productions. There are EQs, compressors, reverbs, delays, tape emulators, channel strips, and some of them are modelled on absolute classics like the White 2A and Black 76. New to this collection, we have the Farm Stone Room, a drum room sound made famous by Phil Collins in the air tonight, and now ready as a plug-in sound. Also new is Joe Cittorelli's vocal strip. I've only had a quick play with this, but I'm already impressed with the really analogue sound that you get, and they've also added Fame Studio reverb for some really classic room sounds. Apart from T-Rex, we also have Mixbox, an effects rack which includes simplified versions of 70 effects from T-Rex, Amplitube, and Sample Tank. We also have the Lursson Mastering Console, and for room correction, there is the Arc 3 system. Now honestly, I'm probably not doing the breadth and depth of the plug-ins included here justice, but hopefully you get the idea. So what about virtual instruments? One of the most exciting areas of virtual instruments is modelled instruments, where instead of using samples or recordings of an instrument, we actually create the sound from the ground up, taking into account physical characteristics of the instrument. This enables a level of customisation which you simply don't get in sampled instruments. An example of this is the included Modo Drums 1.5. So not only do the drums sound great, but we can customise them based on minute details such as what skins are used, what sticks, tuning, the list goes on. New to this version, we have three new kits to add to an already impressive line-up. Much like Modo Drums, Modo Bass 2 is also a modelled instrument with all the flexibility that implies, and to be honest for me, it's one of the most authentic sounding basses out there. New to this version, we have eight new basses, including some cool upright basses. To expand our virtual instrument collection immensely, we have Sample Tank 4, a massive 600GB of piano, synths, guitars, basses, percussion, orchestral instruments and well, you get the picture. We also have the Hammond B3X, full of that authentic B3 loveliness and Leslie speakers. Since it's more your thing, Sintronic 2 gives you a wonderful collection of classics, including 12 new ones for this version. And for something a little bit more quirky, we have the Sample Tron 2, a melaton type instrument full of them perfect imperfections. I just want to give a special mention for Miroslav Philharmonic 2. This plugin has been around for some years, but I still feel that it's one of the best, most complete tools around for orchestral or soundtrack work. If you want to have all of your orchestral sounds there in one place, all with the great sound quality, then I think this is a much overlooked plugin. And although there is nothing new in this version, it is included in Total Studio Max 4. In a moment, we're going to take a look at the incredible plugins included for guitars. But before we do that, I just want to remind you about how easy it is to distribute your music through our sponsor, DistroKid. By using DistroKid, you get to release your music directly to some of the best platforms on the planet. We're talking Spotify, iTunes, TikTok, Amazon, you know, all of the household names. And you don't need to open any accounts there because DistroKid does all of that for you. Now, once you've created your master and your album artwork, it's as easy as filling in a friendly form, uploading them and DistroKid takes care of the rest. All for one flat annual fee and DistroKid takes none of your royalties. Sign up with my VIP link in the description and you'll get an extra 7% off. Amplitube 5 Max 2 is the maxed out version of IK Multimedia's popular guitar amp simulator. This version now includes Amplitube Messer Boogie 2 and 4 virtual X-Gear pedals, bringing the total gear models up to 435. You're going to find a huge collection of much-loved amp models and pedals here with lots of customization and a really great sound. It also now has seamless integration with something which has created quite a buzz in the last few months, Tonex. Newly included is the max version of Tonex, a guitar amp, cabinet and pedal modelling system. Not only can you capture your own gear with Tonex, making it more convenient to use any time of day in any place, but you can also choose from the 1000 tone models included, as well as the user models on ToneNet. So the question is, should you buy Total Studio Max 4? I think if you look at the sort of general overview of what I've given you here of what's included, you have to agree that there's a lot in there and if you try some of this stuff out, it's also really, really good quality. So when you consider that, I reckon the $799 this cost is worth it if you can afford it. Okay, now one thing I will say is if you already own some IK Multimedia products, make sure you follow the link in the description down below and log in because I often find that people end up getting things at a much cheaper price if they already own some things from that company. Let me know in the comments down below how that worked out for you. A much more difficult question is, should you upgrade from a previous version? Well, if you've got a really old version then probably the answer is yes, there's a lot of new things have been added, but for versions like 3.5, which was the last major version, that question's a little bit more difficult because you already have most of what's in version 4. However, there are some new additions, things like Tonex and you get the Max version of that. There's some new kits for ModoDRAM, there's new bases for ModoBase, and there's a few other new instruments for Sample Tank, etc. as well, which I didn't really mention here. You're going to have to evaluate how important those things are going to be for you. Then I would take a look at those individually, their price individually. I would also recommend that you do follow the link in the description down below and make sure you log in to see how much the upgrade price is going to be for you. Could you let me know in the comments down below actually which version you'd be upgrading from and how much that would cost you? Now, I know a lot of you will be weighing up whether you should get this or complete 14. Now, I'm in the fortunate position to have both and I will say I am a fan of complete 14, but let's compare apples for apples because the most comparable version of complete 14 in terms of price is the standard edition, which is around about $699. The ultimate edition is like $1,200 and the collector's edition I think is $800 or so, so you can't really compare those additions. Well, let me talk about where I think complete is really strong. And I'd say it's strong in terms of virtual instruments, okay? They have a great range, they're great quality, and I just think they're designed generally very, very well. That's not to say that they sort of beat Total Studio Max in all areas with this because I do think those modelled instruments, bass, drums, etc. with Total Studio Max are very, very good. But overall, I would say that complete is more of a thing for people who are heavily into composition. It's not very strong in terms of audio production plugins, okay? Definitely, I think Total Studio Max is a little bit stronger in that area. And finally, if you're a guitarist and you want to use effects for electric guitar, then Total Studio Max really does beat complete in this area. The only comparable thing is guitar rig. And honestly, I don't think it comes anywhere near closest, not the same at all. If you want to get more of a feel of what's so good about modelled instruments, I recommend you watch this video here. I made this about modelled drums. Take a look.