Sad state of Native Instruments

[glokraw]

Lo Fi Af alone is was worth the upgrade price for the new Komplete.

OK thats massive hyperbole but its definitely in permanent rotation for me. Excellent.

I watched some of the videos, and it looks like a fine multi-effects tool. Once familiar them all, and their interactions, there's room for some hyperbole. I imagine lot's of people have found one or two things within a Komplete upgrade, that they use so well and so often, as to justify the purchase. And then there is even more if time allows

[glokraw]

...so perhaps one of their strategies is to become a one stop store front for music software...

This could be a tough year, so at least attempting new strategies, and sticking with the successful ones, may keep employee paychecks arriving. And hopefully new products appearing from many developers.
Cheers

[machinesworking]

My main gripe with NI at this point isn't as much with their lack of new products. Like I've said they have a massive line up of products right now, that all need updates and upgrades to make them actually amazing instead of so so.

The lack of MPE support, the lack of resizable GUI's and the terrible job they've done with any of their GUI's that do resize. I mean not a soul cared if the interface gets bigger and the font stays the same.

NKS is "free" but not really and it could be a hell of a loss leader for them, but it's still just such a mess that it's hard to imagine they've spent any time on it at all, while releasing new keyboards that support it.

I have no problem with them continuing to release Play series ROMpler style Kontakt instruments with a hard coded GUI on them, I just wish they would maintain their product line that's all.

[cptgone]

the lack of resizable GUI's

There's hope though, Kontakt is now resizable (apart from the instruments GUI)

[SLiC]

the lack of resizable GUI's

There's hope though, Kontakt is now resizable (apart from the instruments GUI)

(apart from the instruments GUI) The only part that matters.

Even the 'new' instruments its just a massive 'picture' wallpaper that resizes with a few knobs stuck at the bottom doing the same old things!

[Syngularity]

Reasonstudios did that scaling thing perfectly in the end (I'm addictively using some of the Reason VST players now), without promising us anything before.

[ROTMetro]

Got my Lo-Fi-Af time to start learning.

[SampleScience]

The reason they're not quick to provide resizable UI with 4K compatibility is because, for the majority of their customer base, it's not important. Most producers are still using 1080p monitors. At least, according to the statistics I've read (more or less 80% for SHD and the rest is 4K).

[audiojunkie]

The reason they're not quick to provide resizable UI with 4K compatibility is because, for the majority of their customer base, it's not important. Most producers are still using 1080p monitors. At least, according to the statistics I've read (more or less 80% for SHD and the rest is 4K).

That’s something I absolutely cannot understand. I’m using Linux, and I’ve been using a 4k laptop for a few years now. I would have expected Windows to be so much further ahead on this front. Yet, here we are with 80% of Windows users living in the low rez dark ages. Go figure!

[Shabdahbriah]

The reason they're not quick to provide resizable UI with 4K compatibility is because, for the majority of their customer base, it's not important. Most producers are still using 1080p monitors. At least, according to the statistics I've read (more or less 80% for SHD and the rest is 4K).

That’s something I absolutely cannot understand. I’m using Linux, and I’ve been using a 4k laptop for a few years now. I would have expected Windows to be so much further ahead on this front. Yet, here we are with 80% of Windows users living in the low rez dark ages. Go figure!

Hmmm... Personally, I've used 3 Dell UltraSharp monitors (2x24", 1x27") for years, and see no advantage whatsoever to going 4K. Additionally, here's some background/details on 4K and Windows issues:

https://www.ghacks.net/2020/01/02/the-p ... k-monitor/

https://www.howtogeek.com/661321/are-4k ... puter-use/

[Kypresso]

The reason they're not quick to provide resizable UI with 4K compatibility is because, for the majority of their customer base, it's not important. Most producers are still using 1080p monitors. At least, according to the statistics I've read (more or less 80% for SHD and the rest is 4K).

That’s something I absolutely cannot understand. I’m using Linux, and I’ve been using a 4k laptop for a few years now. I would have expected Windows to be so much further ahead on this front. Yet, here we are with 80% of Windows users living in the low rez dark ages. Go figure!

Hmmm... Personally, I've used 3 Dell UltraSharp monitors (2x24", 1x27") for years, and see no advantage whatsoever to going 4K. Additionally, here's some background/details on 4K and Windows issues:

https://www.ghacks.net/2020/01/02/the-p ... k-monitor/

https://www.howtogeek.com/661321/are-4k ... puter-use/

Both from 4 years ago, no more recent click bait articles to show us?

[xx JPRacer xx]

^ Yes, both of the articles are obsolete.

[paulm12]

When I started making music, Native Instruments was at the forefront of making innovative music software. In the past few years, it has become clear that is no longer the case. They sold out to some big business, fired a huge number of people, and stopped doing what once made them so great.
Feel free to add to my rant, disagree or just mourn NI’s demise.

Another point I should add is their Traktor software. They created "Traktor DJ," abandoning "Traktor Pro 2" claiming they wanted to rewrite everything "from the ground up," and then decided to continue with legacy code with "Traktor Pro 3" - we have been basically screaming for elastic beat grids, high DPI support, etc for over a decade. Traktor is a solid piece of software, always has been, but it hasn't gotten the love or updates other DJ software has gotten. We've also been asking for a new battle mixer for a long time, and we get these left-field devices that, while cool, aren't the "bread and butter" stuff we need.

They did release the X1mk3, the first controller in years, so I'm cautiously optimistic. I'll admit NI has always created good hardware. And when they have innovated, as they did with FM8 and Massive, they do a great job. I remember when FM8 and the original Massive came out, absolutely insane plugins even to this day. Massive completely revolutionized the way synths were programmed.

Perhaps NI should have doubled-down on what made them successful. Released an "FM9" rather than investing so heavily in Reaktor instruments. Massive was released in 2006; Serum came out in 2014 and Massive X came out in 2019. Too little, too late - Massive's sequel should have come out by 2016; would have been the 10 year anniversary (and maybe they should have listened to their customers more in terms of features and interface).

At a certain point their product line becomes overwhelming because they have so many brands in so many different places. They need to think about their "core" products. Kontakt is popular and huge. Reaktor is cool. No surprise these were updated. However they need their flagship synths to stay on top. If I was them, I'd have replaced Pro53 with another kickass subtractive analog synth (this was Monark's, but it wasn't quite a replacement. A step in the right direction though). Keep their FM line because FM8 was the leader for a while, but stay relevant and update it. Keep the Massive product line for wavetable stuff. If I were them I would have made something new for Granular (others have done this too).

What we got for a long time were these small "Reatkor ensembles," which didn't quite feel like full synths. Razor was an exception - it was awesome, but I think it would have been better if it was on its own. Same with Monark.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Massive X looks and feels like a Reaktor synth as well. It's like they looked in the Reaktor user library from 2010 and thought "yeah lets mash all the controls together like that, people seem to like it!"

[machinesworking]

the lack of resizable GUI's

There's hope though, Kontakt is now resizable (apart from the instruments GUI)

It looks like that's changed, It now does the 100-125-150-200% thing. The dragging the lower corner to resize the browser thing is only for the browser. That's a plus, now on to Reaktor, FM8, Battery, etc. etc.