The IK players are free. The version of Amplitube found in CS is identical to that found in all packages. The price differences are the amp sims and plugins included in the various packages.

I found this out by spending a bunch on a version of TotalStudio Max that included SampleTank 3 — right before ST 4 was released. Then MacOS Mojave came out and nothing was working right. WTF?!?! I had just spent a lot of money! Ok… So, before I wrote to IK giving them a piece of my mind, I downloaded the free SampleTank 4 CS to check compatibility.

Oh. Everything now worked and opened fine in ST4. Instant, no charge upgrade to everything.

The Amplitube 5 sale has some really nice bundles available so it's great that IK took care of you. I have nearly everything already so it's somewhat academic to me.

It's great that the IK, ARIA and UVI players are free. Wouldn't it be nice of Kontakt adopted that same business model instead of making Kontakt Player that will not play a lot of Kontakt instruments?


BIAB 2025 Audiophile Mac
24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP
Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5