Absynth3, Kontakt2 and Battery2 are out
 

check them out at http://www.nativeinstruments.de

Battery 2 and Kontakt 2 are must-haves. Especially Battery 2.

i used to work with Battery1 and then moved to HALion. Battery was very heavy for my CPU. i hope they fixed that in the 2

I know that Battery is a good drum sampler but is it much different than using the Redrum in Reason (I generally bounce the audio tracks out of reason and fatten them up with T-Racks). Does it have any special effects that can be applied to the drums that you can't do in Reason? I'm looking into getting it but if Reason can do the same why spend the money, ya know.

well ReDrum is one of the best drum samplers i've ever played with, but i prefer working in SX rather than Reason, and i don't like to rewire it because it is a waste of RAM, having reason running with cubase at the same time is painful for any CPU :S

Understood but what I do sometimes when I am bored is lay down a bunch of different drum tracks in Reason for future use. Trust me when I say it saves loads of time down the line.

The samples of Battery 2 is alone a good enough reason to get one. And in addition who's so insane that would prefer Reason over Battery 2. ?hih.

Please explain the key features of Battery, please.

The samples of batt2 are outstanding, Esp those afro-cuban section and timpani. :) It allows all kinds of samples to load, additional filtering, EQ, compressing, looping, tuning, panning, saturation. $200.00 is a bargain for this softy.

Indeed. Definetly one of the best software around. Light and effective. Battery 2 and DFH Superior would be a set that would have all the drums one would need (except Storm Drums if one is in majestetic soundtrack stuff).