Sad state of Native Instruments

[concealed identity]

Look I know this thread is just a soggy pit of misanthropy, but I think it's hit self-parody when it's gotten to the point of "things I like are unpopular because they're too complex for youngsters these days to understand". This thread is teetering on the edge, one "presets are cheating" comment away from folding in on itself.

[loungepanda]

You can't have products like Molekular if your goal is to target the broadest possible demographic, which it clearly is.

I'm talking about the 20-something that doesn't know how file folders work and just want to create "competitive sounding bangers" or w/e. That person is a kore part of the NI consumer group now.

[noiseboyuk]

That person is a kore part of the NI consumer group now.

Wasn't that discontinued a decade ago?

[Ficciones]

You can't have products like Molekular if your goal is to target the broadest possible demographic, which it clearly is.

I'm talking about the 20-something that doesn't know how file folders work and just want to create "competitive sounding bangers" or w/e. That person is a kore part of the NI consumer group now.

If this were entirely true and entirely relevant then Max for Live wouldn't be thriving, which it is.

Edit: I'm just saying the market for complex sound design products exists, not that NI is necessarily interested in targeting it.

[machinesworking]

You can't have products like Molekular if your goal is to target the broadest possible demographic, which it clearly is.

I'm talking about the 20-something that doesn't know how file folders work and just want to create "competitive sounding bangers" or w/e. That person is a kore part of the NI consumer group now.

Dance music was always the core part of NI's customer base.

There's a flat logical fallacy here. Any amount of thought about this points out that the younger generation grew up on technology. I've never had to teach a millennial or zoomer anything about tech, but boomers, yeah a whole hell lot of hand holding. Even saying that some boomers are absolute wizards at tech, of course. I would say without a doubt that in no way is it a "youngster" thing to want to search for presets instead of creating sounds from the ground up, the 90's were absolutely dominated by Rompler workstations and that was 25-35 years ago now.

Some people want preset packs, PLAY instruments etc. and some want into the guts of a synth. I would say my guess is NI don't want another situation where they hired multiple developers who all worked with their own GUI frameworks, then left for greener pastures. Leaving them sitting around like idiots when Apple moved to Arm. Currently Microsoft is partnering with hardware developers on their own Arm port. So creating a GUI for a low level product like Reaktor or Kontakt is much more involved than a PLAY instrument.

Lest it be thought that the market for PLAY is the crowd that buys "The MIDI Pack!" "The chords are made for you!" from everyone's youtube feed, a 75 yo friend who is a fantastic jazz player likes the PLAY series.

[egbert101]

Someone says "zoomers" and people lose their shit. Funny.

[machinesworking]

Someone says "zoomers" and people lose their shit. Funny.

Mostly because framing younger generations as technologically challenged is about as out of touch boomer yelling at clouds as it gets, and let's face it, KVR is mostly boomer at this point.

[egbert101]

Mostly because framing younger generations as technologically challenged is about as out of touch boomer yelling at clouds as it gets, and let's face it, KVR is mostly boomer at this point.

I know right. I guess we're all a bunch of manchildren.

[funky lime]

Someone says "zoomers" and people lose their shit. Funny.

Mostly because framing younger generations as technologically challenged is about as out of touch boomer yelling at clouds as it gets, and let's face it, KVR is mostly boomer at this point.

In my millennial experience, Gen Z are barely better than Boomers at computers. GenZ (and particularly Gen Alpha) largely grow up on mobile devices and dumbed down operating systems. And boomers grew up on lead poisoning. I remember I was f**king around in QuickBasic at age 8, meanwhile my 8 year-old nephew doesn't know how to use a mouse or keyboard, but is glued to a tablet all day long.

Obviously there are exceptions, but I think being computer-savvy is a skill that was needed a lot more when computers were a lot harder to use, and when there weren't really any alternatives like tablets. And some people really leaned into the "power user" aspect as a hobby as well, which seems to be a dying breed.

[egbert101]

And boomers grew up on lead poisoning.

True. Lead was added to petrol in cars so the fumes got us. Also in paint on our toy cars which we would chew on.

[VariKusBrainZ]

I thought it was mostly GenX here, ie middle aged not old aged

[egbert101]

I thought it was mostly GenX here, ie middle aged not old aged

Zoomers call anyone outside their gen (over 30) Boomers. But yeah, Gen X here.

[IvyBirds]

I thought it was mostly GenX here, ie middle aged not old aged

The young whippersnappers always confuse my generation the great Gen X with our parents the boomers

[IvyBirds]

It's interesting how there's two narratives here. NI were bought out by venture capitalists early 2022, and since then:

NARRATIVE 1
They're only interested in the lowest possible hanging fruit, or:

NARRATIVE 2
They had to consolidate their line up to move forward.

You are missing door #3 where it's both not ether or

They will continue to sell the low hanging fruit and the abandonware for dirt cheap prices which you constantly see FM8 and Massive for such cheap prices

My guess is they will evolve into making Kontact super easy to create preset sample based instruments even more so than now and strip away most the elements that makes it a sound design tool

The goal being to collect royalties from 3rd party vendors who will license the platform and have all of the focus will be on that, while the rest of the products continue the slow but steady march to obsolescence and 5 for $50 bundle deals on PA

That is the way to maximize cash flow while doing the bare minimum

They are more than happy to allow Falcon, Pigments, Omnisphere, HALion, etc to be the tools of choice for sound designers

Of course the risk IMHO for that model is that the other players especially Steinberg want to be a platform for 3rd party sample based instruments as well

Will be an interesting 2nd half of 2024 to see how it all starts to shake out with Kontact and the upcoming AWM2 Montage plugin and how Steinberg will integrate that with Cubase and HALion

[machinesworking]

I thought it was mostly GenX here, ie middle aged not old aged

Zoomers call anyone outside their gen (over 30) Boomers. But yeah, Gen X here.

The cut off for Gen X is 1965, it used to be earlier, but it changed and a lot of my friends became boomers overnight. I would bet most of KVR are boomers, with the second crowd being early Gen X like me.

All of it is BS marketing, but the point stands, Gen X and younger are going to be more likely to be tech savvy, regardless of the unwashed masses of Android/iPhone only users. Gaming is still very much alive, and it's not all on Xbox.