Native Instruments Layoffs?

[machinesworking]

However, it's also not unreasonable to believe that a 20% layoff is a signal that things aren't as rosy as they want people to believe, and, that there is some degree of incompetence at high levels.

I guess I've been a customer for so long that I almost forget that people can be at all rosy colored about NI. I do not hate them, but they have always made weird half baked decisions. Shortly after getting Komplete 2 they announced Komplete Care™ a system where you paid upfront for upgrades for the next year, with a promise of "amazing things". Subsequent development issues meant they released absolutely nothing that year, ending in them giving free upgrades to the next version of Komplete and free copies of the newly released Massive. Honestly I only bought it because they discounted it heavily probably because no one was stupid enough to believe that they could pull it off with all the OSX Intel work they needed to do and Windows updates etc.
They make great products, but they've always done half baked business decisions that make you scratch your head. Why they didn't attempt to take Guitar rig Further and really compete in that market? for instance, then abandon the foot controllers in Rig Kontrol. Kore abandoned for Maschine, which still is a shit sequencer compared to literally any other drum sequencer out there, the Pro 53 fiasco, Spectral Delay etc. etc.

I'm not interested at all in subscriptions, and I'm just going to go ahead and put 3rd party devs on notice now. If I have to subscribe to Kontakt to use your product, then I won't use your product. If you think that this is a concern, then now would be a good time to start thinking about moving to something like Halion as an alternative.

I think NI will find everyone making only Kontakt Player libraries if subscription happens.

The thing, for me, that is new here, is that I now have better insight into who NI is as a company. Up until this week, I had never read their Glassdoor reviews. What is written there makes sense to me, it mirrors what we see externally. I think that they are internally dysfunctional, and no, I don't think that all firms are to the same degree. I think that this does impact consumers in some ways. I think that this helps to explain their weirdly inconsistent support. I think that this helps to explain botched releases and, what appears to us as, odd decisions with respect to their product lines.

So, for me, this will impact my decisions. Not only of their products, but also 3rd party content. I'm not sure that I want to buy any new Kontakt libraries right now. I buy stuff like that on impulse and for fun, not because it drives some bottom line. I'm not saying that I won't, but, every time I see one, I'm going to think "can I still use this in a few years?" Is that thought somewhat irrational? Yep, it most certainly is! Welcome to human behavior 101, that's how we roll.

I'll still buy libraries, I've got an old Mac Pro that's too many cores and too modded for speed to sell for any decent price, that will be a Vienna Ensemble Pro host for anything I own that gets abandoned by companies like NI in the future. Laptops are more than powerful enough for any future computers I get, and that solves any upgrade BS.
Halion is a realistic competitor, UVI are also. UVI might have the larger third party support as of now though. I don't own Halion, I do own Falcon, since it's more of a workstation synth plus than Kontakt.

Basically this doesn't really change much to me. NI aren't doing anything crazy here, sounds like they're being forced to show more profit, so they will continue to be much much slower with upgrades, like they already have been for quite a few years, and we will see more and more "content based" things....

[AnX]

companies often get too big and lose focus

its often best to go back to basics and start again....

or do what NI will prob do, the lazy option, go for the easy money

[machinesworking]

Its alright. That wount impact me not making music.

That's the wrong attitude. You need to uninstall all your NI plugins, and look for alternatives online. And post on KVR about it, of course.

I'm basically not upset because I never thought a company with over 70 employees and as many products was somehow going to always make decisions I approve of.
The CEO of NI from what I know has never posted here, it's not at all like Angus from FXpansion or Urs from U-He, but they make some fantastic products, I was listening to something I wrote using only a single Reaktor Ensemble and Zebra, made me want to jump back into using Reaktor.

You don't have to love everything about a company to like their products. This should be blatantly obvious considering 99% of us are using either Microsoft or Apple products to host the DAWs we us, for the plug ins we seem to hold the devlopers of up to a higher standard to..

[chk071]

TBH, the only thing which is of interest for me, is the product itself. I don't care about CEO's walking around in forums, and informing about and praising their products. That's also why i never cared about Urs or others posting on these forums, playing the social media manager. That's not of interest for me. I'm not interested in politics, or religious following. That's nothing which is of relevance for me, when i'm using software. I'm interested in quality software. And NI mostly delivers on that front.

[DrGonzo]

You don't have to love everything about a company to like their products.

What the H??? Can you please stop making sense!!!

[machinesworking]

You don't have to love everything about a company to like their products.

What the H??? Can you please stop making sense!!!

Sorry, forgot, talking about software, must think only in binary.

[ramseysounds]

Surprised no-one has suggested a PA / NI merger...

[machinesworking]

TBH, the only thing which is of interest for me, is the product itself. I don't care about CEO's walking around in forums, and informing about and praising their products. That's also why i never cared about Urs or others posting on these forums, playing the social media manager. That's not of interest for me. I'm not interested in politics, or religious following. That's nothing which is of relevance for me, when i'm using software. I'm interested in quality software. And NI mostly delivers on that front.

My biggest complaint with them is their abandonware thing. I get compatibility updates for Ohm Force products that are 20+ years old for instance, NI will not do that, they see a revenue resource stream dry up, they give no f*cks whether or not people like the product it's being discontinued, their hardware is ruthless, subsequent versions will lose all compatibility with newer OS's and versions of Controller Editor..

Urs is a bad example for me, because he's the real deal, I've known him online since probably 2001 when he only had More Feedback Machine for sale for donationware, I did presets for Zebra 1.0, and he walks the walk, almost zero flash sales, but the upgrade to Zebra 2 was $20 and it's looking like Zebra 3 will be about the same. All of his synths sound fantastic in a distinct and different way from other developers. It seals the deal for me that his company does upgrades for next to nothing, It's total pet peeve of mine when companies charge 60-75% of the original price for upgrades, then offer 50% off sales excluding upgrades...

[chk071]

Novation also still support their nearly 20 year old software... it's still full of bugs, though.

What you also need to keep in mind is that NI is the biggest player in the business, so, obviously, apart from the talk on forums, they seem to be doing something right. What we forum dwellers often forget is that we're not the center of the world, and we're mostly complainers, while the majority of people seems to be quite happy with what they get.

Anyway, i'm not sure in general if this discussion really has a point, when noone knows what is really happening, and what they're up to. Especially when they say "revenue is steady, but we need to focus on this and that".

[machinesworking]

Downsizing is not a good sign though, and there's no way to sell it to me when you make as many products as NI do. The marketing speak NI posted was beyond thick, at murder trial defense team levels of nonsense.

Also to be fair, other big software companies are making dumb decisions all the time. Look at the fiasco that is InMusic and Air Instruments. It's sickening, Loom is fantastic, and Transfuser with an upgrade would keep me away from the Reason 11 VSTi upgrade, but the subsequent subscription service for plug ins previously sold at $15 apiece and $76 for the bundle is crazy??? AKAI so far haven't been hit with this and the MPC lines are flourishing, but it makes you wonder..

[robotmonkey]

Yeah right listen to KVR. This is what you want:

What DO you guys want?

I for one simply want more synths

I want a new deeply integrated hardware controller and software combo based on new unified platform strategy that would allow me new seamlessly integrated experience of accessing NI's core products and services. It should offer me a unique and premium experience by connecting NI's existing ecosystem of award-winning software and hardware to a centralized online service. I'd like to see a mandatory online store and subscription model integrated into all future NI hardware and software products.

[chk071]

Also to be fair, other big software companies are making dumb decisions all the time.

Dumb by what measure though? Another good example would be Waves. I rarely ever read a good word about them here, yet they're one of the biggest players, and seem to do very well. I think there's a huge difference between the opinions stated, and the people present here, and the world out there. It's just that noone realizes that or wants to realize that here. The people here are extreme niche, at best.

[HM]

Novation also still support their nearly 20 year old software... it's still full of bugs, though.

What you also need to keep in mind is that NI is the biggest player in the business, so, obviously, apart from the talk on forums, they seem to be doing something right. What we forum dwellers often forget is that we're not the center of the world, and we're mostly complainers, while the majority of people seems to be quite happy with what they get.

Anyway, i'm not sure in general if this discussion really has a point, when noone knows what is really happening, and what they're up to. Especially when they say "revenue is steady, but we need to focus on this and that".

Noone knowing what realy happens, NI being foggy, is a problem on its own,.. to me lack of respect

The "forum dwellers" could be more representative for the average user than you think ,.. who feed them in the last end

Fire own staff, and unifying, focus on the core,.. etc,.. probably just mean "focus on keeping the formatmonopoly going"

While letting other devolope content and doing the hard work

I am not sure that the developers would continue to support the format for any price

[machinesworking]

What you also need to keep in mind is that NI is the biggest player in the business, so, obviously, apart from the talk on forums, they seem to be doing something right. What we forum dwellers often forget is that we're not the center of the world, and we're mostly complainers, while the majority of people seems to be quite happy with what they get.

I think NI did quite a few things right, but I do not think that their success is a measure of that. Plenty of successful things are worse than unsuccessful things, too many variables to success beyond good product to discount all the examples we could give. Bheringer up until recently mostly made cheaper knock offs of successful products, and still do for the most part.

Anyway, i'm not sure in general if this discussion really has a point, when noone knows what is really happening, and what they're up to. Especially when they say "revenue is steady, but we need to focus on this and that".

They are being squeezed for cash to prove to investors that they can make money. I would like to think otherwise, but the pure marketing speak of their announcement about this points directly to that, almost as much as a 20% lay off does.

They will be OK, I'm hoping for the parts of the company I love to be fed of course, comparing to InMusic and how there's a good boy, bad boy thing going on at the moment with Air being drained, and AKAI being fed, fingers are crossed.

[robotmonkey]

2) Rename Native Access as One Native

Isn't that some boy band?