NI is now part of Soundwide with plugin alliance etc! Lots of free stuff...

[Synth Master Jedi]

Kontakt, for example, has had the same boring non-user-friendly GUI overdue for a radical makeover for 15+ years now. Too small buttons to click and looking like it was designed in the 1990-s.

Kontakt is pretty much the only thing that I use from NI these days, and that's because it's a standard and I have some Kontakt Libraries.

If there ever was a widely used, popular and important plugin that needed a UI update, then that plugin is Kontakt of course.

I don't use it because I like the look, I use it because I must.

I don't like the subway system where I live. It's dirty, rat infested, criminals everywhere, people being pushed onto tracks etc., but I still take the subway from time to time, because I must.

I don't have any hope for the subway system ever improving, but maybe, just maybe I might still have a tiny bit of hope that Kontakt will one day be updated and receive a much needed facelift and modern GUI.

Until NI updates their most important product, I'm not interested in anything else they release, because of obvious reasons.

[satchnut]

What a great amazing deal, I wonder if they are NFR?
I've been trying to sell some of the PA items that are now free.
Edited.

Yeah feeling some heartburn from that.
Previously bought oberhausen and hadn’t even used it yet.

[0degree]

Avid is now subscription only: https://www.gearnews.com/pro-tools-majo ... tion-only/

[Prototype_human]

Avid is now subscription only: https://www.gearnews.com/pro-tools-majo ... tion-only/

Terrible new

[ghettosynth]

Avid is now subscription only: https://www.gearnews.com/pro-tools-majo ... tion-only/

WoW! Nobody saw that coming. /s

[ghettosynth]

Yet again - name a company - apart from Adobe - that started out as no subs, then optional subs, then subs only. Not saying it can never happen, but KVR does seem permanently paranoid about something that, among VI devs to date, has never, ever happened.

Heh. I can actually name one that is doing exactly this, preparing to walk exactly the Adobe route. But it's a small company (Softorino) that deals with small utilities. Had a chat with the support and they said they are moving away from individual sales and focus only on the subscription of apps.

But yeah - keep things real. None of this have happened in the audio world.

Well done! I've never heard of them, but we do have one name now. I, um, wish them luck.

To the other poster - yes, Avid is a PITA but I do have permanent licenses from them, and they are still being sold.

Not any more it seems. Yet another post that didn't age very well.

[0degree]

You're moving the goalposts.

Nope. I've always made the exact same point. Here and on many other threads, for many years. There is no trend for audio developers to move from perpetual, to optional subs, to subs-only. There IS a trend to offer subs as an option. Great. Everything else is hysteria.

I'll actually save this post for the future. Pretty sure it won't age well

[nightjar]

A bit concerned about the design philosophy disconnect between iZotope and PA. iZotope signal processing offers GUI's that emphasizes analytical display info... PA offers GUI's that are skeuomorphic.
Of course there is plenty of room for both, but if things evolve into a "Soundwide unified music making ecosystem" in a few years, I hope both design philosophies are maintained equally.

I myself like iZotope's approach of providing visual data that informs me of the sonic changes. Emulating the look of a physical piece of hardware might be "fun", but it really is a lessor tool to delve into signal processing with more understanding.

[beely]

Have you seen any statements about merging design and development teams of the three companies?

I thought Soundwide was more a marketing/alignment alliance/brand, to combine and access the userbases of all three+ partner companies and be able to push through deals and expand that way.

Somewhere down the line, it's possible that the design/development teams might do more work together and share technologies etc, but I don't see that happening in the short term...

Also: I'm a fan of not having everything having complicated visual graphics and displays. It's good to have some of those tools of course, but not *everything* needs to have them - at some point, we're all doing stuff for the ears first, and people often fall into the trap of ending up doing something for the eyes first, and the sound second... too much eye candy becomes an ear distraction imo.

[noiseboyuk]

Yet another post that didn't age very well.

I’ve already done this in another thread, but since we seem to be doing it again here…

I point I repeatedly made (that never gets quoted) is it can of course change tomorrow. With Avid it did. Terrible timing for my post, yikes. But that makes a… wait for it… 2nd data point after a decade for a major audio developer. So alas - that’s still not a trend.

The Avid thing is also more complicated than Adobe. Perpetual does, in fact, continue - existing licences can continue being updated. Weirdly, Avid are encouraging lapsed perpetual license holders to get up to date with the latest version via a reinstatement plan, and have withdrawn the offer to cross-grade to subscription. (There’s also a form of perpetual that exists with their hardware). So in terms of the “oh my god the sky is falling in, abandon ship” brigade - well my Perpetual license for PT still works just fine, and will keep being updated.

Before anyone else tries it as a case, CineSamples have just released Industry Brass as an exclusive to their new subscription service. But that’s temporary they say, and a Kontakt regular bought version will follow. So it’s another parallel service (and THAT is part of an actual trend).

FWIW I think we could see some of these subscription services get in trouble in the coming months. The oft-quoted rationale for their existence is that they provide regular, stable income for developers. With Netflix’s subscribers dropping in these financially troubling times, let’s see how the hobbyist music-making subs market does.

[Synth Master Jedi]

I don't think the companies are going to combine and all of a sudden all of their plugins will start to look the same, lol.

I think they will remain separate and they will continue to release plugins under their own brands if I'm not mistaken.

As for graphics, it depends what the plugin is. If it's emulating hardware, then I want the plugin to look like the hardware.

I also think that too many people probably mix more with their eyes than their ears. The end result will suffer because of that imo.

[nightjar]

I was very optimistic when NI and iZotope joined forces... I thought these two companies had complementary products, and a strategic vision was expressed (primarily via iZotope leaders) for what the goals were.

When Plugin Alliance joined later and the group was named Soundwide, I maintained optimism, though I was not too familiar with PA.

But as things progress, I am not nearly as optimistic as I was. It now seems the strategic lead is coming far too much from PA.... and it does not smell very good to me. Feels like the initial goals expressed by iZotope have been pushed aside.

And in the past few weeks, several key people that I consider forward-thinkers at iZotope have left the company. This is sad, sad, sad.

Soundwide has been dirked-up, and that ain't good.

[Double Tap]

And in the past few weeks, several key people that I consider forward-thinkers at iZotope have left the company. This is sad, sad, sad.

That's interesting. Who are they? If their names aren't in the public domain and you're not comfortable putting them there, then perhaps you could talk about job functions, or maybe just elaborate a little bit more?

[nightjar]

One is Jonathan Bailey.. he was Chief Technical Office at iZotope.. then Soundwide. He left 3 weeks ago.

https://www.pensadosplace.tv/izotope-ch ... an-bailey/

[fairlyclose]

One is Jonathan Bailey.. he was Chief Technical Office at iZotope.. then Soundwide. He left 3 weeks ago.

https://www.pensadosplace.tv/izotope-ch ... an-bailey/

any idea what he is doing next?