Why is Native Instruments so popular vs others?

[PatchAdamz]

They purely have good software with good ideas, and catering to different workflows. That, and a huge chunk of the market share.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head.
They have several very nice sounding synths, the number one sample player, some innovative instruments and effects and tasty drum tools.

Whats not to like.

[Sim.Sky]

They are not so popular - they abandoned kore and they are unable to create more virtual instrumets - only Reaktor based instruments and sample libraries.

admittedly that seems right for quite a while. i wonder if there will ever be a "massive 2" or something like that. however, if you ask me i'm pretty sure they have some bigger things in the pipeline, but they wouldn't release it just before a new version of komplete comes out. simply because they can charge money for it, even from those who bought the latest komplete (ultimate or not) version a short time ago.

[Phase47]

Are the bread and butter effects any good? Reverb, EQ, compression etc?

Yes. All very good.

[whyterabbyt]

They are not so popular - they abandoned kore and they are unable to create more virtual instrumets - only Reaktor based instruments and sample libraries.

Erm, no. Unwilling, perhaps. Unable, absolutely not.

And I suspect Maschine and Traktor have more than made up any lost 'popularity' in the past three-and-a-half years since Kore's demise. My understanding is that Traktor hardware is rather popular indeed.

[trimph1]

Having bought one of the Traktor hardware it is very easy to see why NI is as popular as it is.

Besides which, the discontinuance of Kore did not stop me as I am still using the VST as a VST...

[mutantdog]

Last year I bought a VW Golf. I don't know a great deal about cars and don't have the time or inclination to research everything available or try out loads of different ones. What I do know is that VW have a pretty good rep and a lot of fanbois. I see a lot of people driving Golfs and as far as i can tell they work well and have a decent life expectancy. I used to drive my ex's Polo so I kinda knew a bit about the company's products already. Sure, it might be a bit obvious for the serious motor enthusiast but I just want something fairly decent and reliable within my limited budget.

What has this got to do with NI? Nothing really, but I'd assume its a half-decent analogy for a lot of NI's customers.

[damayor]

I must be the only person who doesnt use or like NI sample libraries. I use kontakt but always 3rd party libraries. Their products never appealed to me. I like their vintage compressors, tube plugs but thats about as far as it goes

[CapnLockheed]

I hear they have a new hardware product in development......

[dune_rave]

I'd like to see FM9 (with correct preset database handling). FM8 is too slow with 15000 presets, even after a database rebuild...

They are not so popular - they abandoned kore and they are unable to create more virtual instrumets - only Reaktor based instruments and sample libraries.

admittedly that seems right for quite a while. i wonder if there will ever be a "massive 2" or something like that. however, if you ask me i'm pretty sure they have some bigger things in the pipeline, but they wouldn't release it just before a new version of komplete comes out. simply because they can charge money for it, even from those who bought the latest komplete (ultimate or not) version a short time ago.

[Gribs]

NI cheesed me off in a big way when they abandoned Kore. I guess that personally I just really clicked with the controller and the software. I had purchased Maschine already and was into it when Kore was killed, and I have to admit that my enjoyment of Maschine really took a nose dive after that. It was a purely emotional response and I got over it, but I would definitely say that the experience informed my buying decisions and personal studio and music-making approach. I understand the business decision and that it very likely stabilized the company, but due to the experience I am now wary of the transience of controller-software "hybrid" things.

I thoroughly enjoy Kontakt, Reaktor, and several of the Komplete synths, so I keep upgrading. I bought into Komplete sometime around version two or three, I think, when it was about $1200 for the package. The synth products sound good to me and the Reaktor factory and user libraries and good assortment of third party scripted Kontakt instruments keep me interested. I learned the basics of programming my own Reaktor instruments but decided it was too much like my day-time job! It is definitely the sort of thing I could see consuming me if I were to win the lottery

[optofonik]

NI seems to have become as much of an "industry standard" as Waves and PT. NI is a known quantity with a suite of tools that commercial composers can rely upon. A commercial composer can use PT, Waves, and Komplete knowing that his job will travel from one workstation to another with full compatibility. Those three product lines could easily be used exclusively by a commercial composer with little concern for not being able to deliver a product on budget and on time.

[Mace404]

I'd like to see FM9 (with correct preset database handling). FM8 is too slow with 15000 presets, even after a database rebuild...

Ditch the preset paths in FM8 and use Komplete Kontrol to browse presets.
Better and much faster browsing that way.
Same goes for Massive and Absynth.

[stroker_ace]

The bang-for-buck is insane.........especially when those "50% off" sales come up.

In addition to their excellent "core" (not Kore) products, I find their more "side" or "fringe" products to be incredibly inspired and inspiring, too: Molekular, Kinetic Metal, their Christmas freebies, etc.

Their stuff is so good that I think there's something seriously wrong with someone if they don't own some version of Komplete.

Also, the head honchos at NI seem like very cool dudes, and it's a pleasure to support such innovators and visionaries. I keep buying their stuff not only because I love it, but because I want to help them go further.

I can't wait to see what they're cookin' up next! There's a definite Willy Wonka vibe there.

I used to use Reason, and Propellerhead simply doesn't communicate with its users. And the very few times a Prop employee would come down from the ivory tower to communicate with the users, it would be on the forum (which they've famously closed), and it would always be in response to a post that asked maybe a half-dozen rather pointed questions, along with 2-3 smaller ones.

The Prop employee would invariably answer the teeniest, tiniest question of the bunch, and completely avoid the big ones.

It was just sad.

So, coming from that putrid environment, when I watched the NI guys at some Q&A event last year, I couldn't believe my ears. These were guys in charge of a huge music-making software company who were actually saying things! They answered questions to the best of their ability at the time, they shared some of their philosophy behind some of their products and the direction the company was going, and they even gave hints and clues as to what was coming next.

After years of the Propellerhead stonewall silence, it was a very welcome change.

What's strange is, if anything, it should be reversed: Propellerhead should be as accessible as a country & western artist, and NI is certainly big enough to get away with giving users and the media the high hat.

Then again, maybe that's part of the reason (get it?!?) NI is a much, much more successful company.

[yobare]

They have good software. also they r good software for pretty ok prices. I own massive and its pretty good. I think thier samplers r good. If u compare to other products. I like them!

[Numanoid]

Why is Traktor so nicely priced compared to Native Instruments other plugs

€99 seems very low, when compared to Absynth, FM8, even plugs that run in Reaktor like Molekular costs more

I mean Traktor is like the industry standard for dj mixing progs aint it?