Big Companies That Get It Right

[Local Man]

I would say this is quite a oxymoron. They wouldn't be that big if they didn't cater to what most people want. Whether or not that is what YOU want is a different question.

That is not necessarily true.
Though you are right that many users (myself included) confuse personal needs/desires with what is wanted and needed by the general public (the latter being hard to predict and at times quite surprising).
In general the factors that helped a company grow are not the same as the factors that help them maintain market share once they are large.
With some companies I get an email a day for a variety of different products and see banner ads splashed across various websites, and YouTube ads for just about every video I watch. With a marketing outreach that extensive they can afford (literally afford) to disregard the actual needs of their customers and they also have little incentive to innovate in the way they had when they were still growing and battling for market share with limited resources.
And marketing is just one factor. There are many others.

[chk071]

NI: Best company in the biz.

Did you mean U-he?

Just kidding, nothing against NI.

And really, never had problems with Waves, IK Multimedia, Native Instruments, Plugin Alliance or Slate Digital. Waves, IK Multimedia and PA have some marketing strategies that I don't like 100%, but it's not a huge problem to me.

I think i'd like u-he more, if it wasn't for the do-gooder, "we are more ethical than others" attitude, and the almost religious worship of Urs around here and elsewhere.

No offense, i think Urs is a alright guy, it's just that i wished i could say the same about some of his followers.

Anyway, NI is a great company for me, because they have great products, i like the way they act, how they do sales, and i only had good experience with their support. Really, i can hardly say anything bad about them. Native Access sometimes is a bit flakey, but... it's still a nice piece of software, which saves me a lot of time, and doesn't hassle me unnecessarily.

[Butwug]

NI: Best company in the biz.

Did you mean U-he?

Just kidding, nothing against NI.

And really, never had problems with Waves, IK Multimedia, Native Instruments, Plugin Alliance or Slate Digital. Waves, IK Multimedia and PA have some marketing strategies that I don't like 100%, but it's not a huge problem to me.

I think i'd like u-he more, if it wasn't for the do-gooder, "we are more ethical than others" attitude, and the almost religious worship of Urs around here and elsewhere.

No offense, i think Urs is a alright guy, it's just that i wished i could say the same about some of his followers.

I dont think it’s worship, but more highly respected. Dude always keeps his cool, responds to a ton of questions on this forum, takes user feedback and uses it, friendly, etc...

Nothing but good things to say about Uhe as whole. No bullshit sales to entice buyers. Free synths that are more powerful than some paid for synths. Synths rarely need updates, and when needed, theyre on it asap. I dont “worship” Uhe but it’ll be hard to find a better big company.

[chk071]

See, that already would disqualify them for me, for the "companies that get it right" thing: No sales.

Not that i think that they'd qualify as "big" either, with their 15 employees or so.

[waltercruz]

hmm, but tbh, don't know if U-he qualifies as a 'big company', when comparing to NI, Waves, etc.

[Butwug]

See, that already would disqualify them for me, for the "companies that get it right" thing: No sales.

Not that i think that they'd qualify as "big" either, with their 15 employees or so.

It’s reasonable to not be fond of no sales. On the flip side tho, upgrading is cheap. Just upgraded to Hive2.0 for $20. Not too long ago they had a wavetable update for free. The newest update is pretty much a completely different monster than what it was half a year ago. Other companies would have charged full price for 2.0.

If you have Zebra2 and HZ you’ll get Zebra3 for free when it’s released. Stuff like that is possible with the no sales, no “35% off with 6th plugin purchase” type of deals. Also, it’s nice knowing I didnt get ripped off and should have waited to purchase it because it’s 50% off. I mean if it’s 50% off, then that means youre charging too much in the first place.

As far as it being a small company. What companies are actually huge besides Waves and NI? Maybe DAW companies? My favorite plugins(besides Uhe stuff) are by companies that are a 1man show if Im not mistaken.

Just thought about Waves. They must be a huge team, to put out that many vst’s. It’s sort of mind boggling how many vst’s they have

[chk071]

As far as it being a small company. What companies are actually huge besides Waves and NI?

There are not many, that's true. I would say u-he is mid tier, for a plugin developer.

The question already implies a bit that big equals evil, and there are few which "get it right". I don't think so, and, i don't think there's anyone which is really "big" in this game either. I posted this a couple of times before, but, the biggest companies in this business are as big as at least 3 mid tier businesses in the one-horse town where i'm living. I think, especially musicians, or people who produce music tend to be a bit on the... well... "rebel" side, if you will. Anything which is bigger than 20 people is a multinational, inhuman business which rips everyone off. Sort off.

[Local Man]

How did you get from this:

I just wanted to try to balance out some of the negativity here by recognizing one large company that I thing gets things right.

to this:

The question already implies a bit that big equals evil...

?

But here I think you have a point:

I think, especially musicians, or people who produce music tend to be a bit on the... well... "rebel" side, if you will. Anything which is bigger than 20 people is a multinational, inhuman business which rips everyone off. Sort off.

Even when I try to start a positive thread, the stone cold cynic in me creeps out.

Anyway, I shouldn't have named names in the first post as far as the companies that I view as having a somewhat negative reputation around here. It is not my opinion that those are bad companies and it certainly didn't help the point I was trying to make.

[Aloysius]

McDonald's

[chk071]

How did you get from this:

I just wanted to try to balance out some of the negativity here by recognizing one large company that I thing gets things right.

to this:

The question already implies a bit that big equals evil...

?

My apologies. Guess i rather read the topic title like "Big companies that actually get it right", as if everyone big would get it wrong.

[elxsound]

hmm, but tbh, don't know if U-he qualifies as a 'big company', when comparing to NI, Waves, etc.

Looking online I found the following:

Number of employees:

• Avid: 1458 (google search)

• IK: 626 (estimated from owler.com)

• NI: 500 (google search for number of employees)

• Wave: 260 (google search vs. 272 shown on owler)

• Ableton: 205 (estimated from owler vs about 200 from wikipedia)

• Izotope: 140 (estimated from owler.com)

• U-he: 13 (per the "meet the team" page of their website)

• Soundtoys: 7-8 (google search vs. owler.com)

Audio software, both DAWs and especially plugins, are a niche product. Companies don't really become "big" companies, but some do employ more than others.

[elxsound]

Some of the other so-called "big" companies mentioned, like Slate Digital show they have about 51 employees (owler) and then for Plugin-Alliance, I could only find info about Brainworx where they say have about 35 employees in gearslutz post.

None of these are big companies.

[Aloysius]

McDonald's employee of the year: Ronald McDonald

[elxsound]

McDonald's employee of the year: Ronald McDonald

McDonald's employee of the year in 2020: Kiosk

[Aloysius]