Native Instruments to be acquired by inMusic

[IvyBirds]

While that would be great for MPC users, for non DAW users we can already do that in our DAWs and computers. I can sample something in my DAW from a record or a tape or a field recording and clean it up and enhance it with Ozone and RX and I can already play Kontact Libraries

InMusic only has so much money to put towards so much development after all and the founders and lead developers of NI, Izotope, and PA are now all gone

I get your fear, but so far Air have released dozens of new plugins for AU, VST and the MPC in standalone. The old plugins currently do not work in standalone on the MPC. So the precedent set is for plugins to also work mostly in the MPC standalone not exclusively, but there are a few Air plugins that are not MPC SA compatible.

So far InMusic has not over prioritized the MPC lineup, the main issues IMO would be not fixing technical debt on older Air instruments and updating their dammed GUIs. I mean if what you fear was happening I would hope to see Moog Marina, Loom II, Hybrid etc. on the MPC standalone, but they aren't.

You seem to think just having VST instruments is somehow revolutionary

Taking a look at what AIr is actually doing

https://www.airmusictech.com/

and OMG there is nothing innovative

It's mainly the same old same old vintage synth emulations, and a bunch of sample based instruments

On the effects side there doesn't seem to be a single thing of interest for anyone who owns a full featured DAW that came with a decent selection of stock plugins

Where is the innovation?

InMusic is now going to take over the development and improvements for Ozone, Kontact, RX, Absynth, FM8, Massive, and Massive X. Those are the plugins I care about and use the most.

No offense , but I already have VST3 versions of them so you saying that there are VST Versions of yet another Juno or Minimoog plugin isn't very helpful as I already have those covered rather well multiple times

The legitimate fear I have is not that somehow they will drop VST3 support for Ozone or Kontact, but rather they won't do anything new or innovative with them

My fear and concern is that those plugins that I use, and that have already been neglected for years and will continue to be neglected because every dime and man hour spent making RX work on an MPC is one less dime or man hour being spent not making Ozone it Kontact better and more innovative

Again the only people who seem excited over the inMusic purchase if NI are MPC users because they want deeper integration of existing NI and Izotope products into MPC, and while that's awesome for them it sucks for everyone else no matter how many Juno and and Minimoog AIR plugins exist

Maybe I will be be proven wrong and I hope I am, but it seems to me that it's very possible if not plausible that this purchase was done to eliminate competition and keep NI out of that hands of companies that directly compete with them currently

Based on the track record inMusic fighting against the 2023 acquisition of Serato by AlphaTheta (Pioneer DJ's parent company) that concern is well founded

As a result over the next 10 years you will be able to buy enhanced MPC devices but they will still essentially be selling the same NI and Izotope plugins as VST3 that exist today with no actual improvements or advances

[seangm]

[...]

•This post was made possible by ChatGPT. Your source for information.

I was feeling impish and just posted Gemini's reply to seangm's question.

My post was more of a vent than a question, but I appreciate the irony of your response.

[TechHaus]

[...]

•This post was made possible by ChatGPT. Your source for information.

I was feeling impish and just posted Gemini's reply to seangm's question.

My post was more of a vent than a question, but I appreciate the irony of your response.

I didn't appreciate it. No reason to raise the ambient temperature in some American town and ping a data center for that nonsense.

People use ai for so much jackassery.

[seangm]

People use ai for so much jackassery.

Agree on that.

[JonSolo]

It appears that many don't like inMusic. But to be fair, inMusic has stepped in to keep brands afloat that were ALREADY sinking or even sunk. inMusic did not make Air worse, Air did that to themselves. No new innovation? Again probably on Air. inMusic is the investor.

Native Instruments was on the brink of disappearing. This at least keeps the brand up. I cannot speak as to how involved inMusic is with decisions around updates, new products, visions of the future, etc. when it comes to brands. But for today, we still have NI.

If there is one thing that I DO fear, it is the handling of the licensing. inMusic's app is thoroughly flawed, and products that were purchased by them don't work/authorize as anticipated due to this (ie 2getheraudio, Air, etc.). Still, for now, I will try to be optimistic that NI is still around to support the way I make my music.

[cron]

I'm hoping Reaktor will be kept alive - maybe because it'll be useful to them as a testbed for quickly building prototypes of new instruments/FX? - but it seems like a bit of a pipe dream, and even if it were to happen there's no guarantee it'll be available to the public rather than just an internal tool.

I think the stuff Tim Exile is doing with Reaktor at the moment (namely Scapeshift and New Modular System) would make it feel like the most exciting/relevant music software out there if we didn't already know how desperately unloved it is.

[IvyBirds]

It appears that many don't like inMusic. But to be fair, inMusic has stepped in to keep brands afloat that were ALREADY sinking or even sunk. inMusic did not make Air worse, Air did that to themselves. No new innovation? Again probably on Air. inMusic is the investor.

So what you are saying is we shouldn't fear inMusic not innovating the NI or Izotope products they just acquired, as all they will do is maintain the status quo of not innovating anything

So at the end of the day we shouldn't expect anything to change and NI will just fade into the background as plugins that used to be cool a decades ago

[machinesworking]

Personally I don't think anything will change. NI have been stagnant for a while but not entirely. The Kontrol keyboards are great, the last update fixed the main issue with them. Reaktor was already an issue for them, the GUI was reported here on this forum as being way too big of a job to change, but the interface for the instruments and FX created in Reaktor is going to be put into the framework of Komplete Kontrol. I don't think that work is going to stop because InMusic bought them.

I'm not worried about NI becoming second fiddle to Akai, NI are likely going to be as large of a money maker for InMusic as Akai is. Air haven't been innovative in at least 15 years or so, hardly a new thing. That said SubFactory is fantastic, and there are a few unique things to Delay Pro.

I suppose it's not possible that people don't worry, but personally I'm just happy that NI didn't get parted out, or die entirely.

[cryophonik]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like the notion that MPC and Maschine are incompatible under the same umbrella is probably overblown. Yes, they are competing products, but they're different enough that I think their development could each continue along their own trajectories and continue to be successful separate product lines. As a long-time Maschine user (I bought v1 on day one and have owned almost every iteration since) and also someone who has owned several MPCs (One and a couple of Live 2's), I feel like they are pretty different products that appeal to different people. As much as I love the idea of the MPCs, I simply do not jive with their workflow, but I (mostly) love the Maschine paradigm. I think a lot of other people feel the exact opposite and, of course, there are those people who love both product lines. Ideally, we'll still have that option going forward, but time will tell...

[CapnLockheed]

many think Akia MPC has benefited

I don't know about this "Akia" of which you speak but clearly Akai MPC is already being serviced by NI...all hail the Golden Cash Cow.

[Sound Author]

The whole "Machine can't compete with MPC when both companies are under one roof" argument doesn't really add up when you look at different product lines from various inMusic companies that have been competing with each other: Rane, Denon, Numark, all live performance audio companies that produce similar gear, openly competing with each other even though all three companies are owned by the same parent company. If "competition doesn't make sense under one roof", then why has it already been going on for years? And Traktor just brings even more competition to that market.

There's a reason why you would choose a DJ system from Denon rather than one from Numark or Rane. Knowing what that reason is can be traced to brand identity, pricing, user experience and design philosophy-- literally all the elements of a BRAND that appeals to a target audience. So, it's not a matter of "if" competition exists, but WHY that competition exists in the first place. And getting down to the bottom of that is quite literally what InMusic BRANDS does. It doesn't matter if you like InMusic or not. That's what they DO.

There are a LOT of Maschine users who will never transition to MPC, and vice versa. Knowing why that is suddenly becomes really powerful information for both companies. Maschine has an identity. MPC has an identity. Both products attract different users for different reasons, and those reasons become a roadmap for a product line.

[bk]

It appears that many don't like inMusic. But to be fair, inMusic has stepped in to keep brands afloat that were ALREADY sinking or even sunk. inMusic did not make Air worse, Air did that to themselves. No new innovation? Again probably on Air. inMusic is the investor.

So what you are saying is we shouldn't fear inMusic not innovating the NI or Izotope products they just acquired, as all they will do is maintain the status quo of not innovating anything

So at the end of the day we shouldn't expect anything to change and NI will just fade into the background as plugins that used to be cool a decades ago

I'll be honest, I'm more concerned that the products I already own, continue to function, and be able to authorize on a new system. I would guess this acquisition will allow that to happen.
If that comes at the cost of innovative new products from NI and Izotope, so be it. It's not like either have been pushing the limits, for years. I don't necessarily think that's going to happen, but if it does, someone else will innovate.

[sonidomolino]

InMusic is no "savior" or "competitor". they are a vulture feeding off the distressed assets of legacy products that failed to survive market conditions. they may be smart enough to pick companies with an established reputation and sufficient user base but their business model is to beat a dead cow for all it's worth.

(NB my experience with InMusic is limited to their acquisition of BFD3 from Roli.)

the only "innovation" i'm aware of is the in-house DRM train wreck bolted on to BFD and launched with a bait & switch offer after it was acquired. took them over 2 years to get a release stable enough to tolerate for commercial purposes and it's still a major PITA which checks every license for everything you own every time you load a project, which takes minutes, every time. great way to treat your best customers.

why did they do it? they're too cheap to pay for iLok licensing which would be quite expensive for the size of their catalog and yes, a reasonable business decision. i assume they have the numbers re piracy to justify this "innovation" over anything a customer might consider as adding value, but it's been a factor in driving the existing base to alternatives. i wouldn't expect to ever see iLok on anything they own, but there are more than enough examples of better implementations.

anybody hoping for a UI overhaul for NI might sorely disappointed. BFD got a UI update which reorganized a few bits but is clunky to use, still not scalable and another step backwards imo. at one point, might have thought any iZotope resources still on board with the previous m&a could have helped with a Kontakt overhaul, even wondering if some of that might have influenced the newer PA "branded" releases, but nothing of substance to date that i'm aware of.

InMusic did deliver on a long standing request for VST3, a new (rather good) expansion pack and an entry level version (BFD Player) which initially looked promising but perhaps did not meet their expectations for ROI. to be fair, i think it's accurate to describe the current market as a "red ocean" and a significant challenge for any plugin company, and expect it to be the bottom line every time for InMusic.

as for "AI", pure speculation and imho irrelevant for this thread. any investment in innovation would cut into their profit margin and take considerable more sw expertise than anything i've noted in their DNA. the UI/DRM for BFD smell like the work of contract resources with no clue as to best-in-class user experience/preferences/DRM in general. jmho.

ima bit relieved my initial UX with NI was bad enough to put me off in any investment other than Kontakt Player. -almost- pulled the trigger on Kontakt 8 for just one library, glad i held off. thinking the major challenge going forward might be sorting out a strategy for the existing ecosystem, wondering if the change is enough for existing partners to explore alternatives.

ofc, all this is just my 0.02. i'd like to think there's some interesting potential in the critical mass of assets InMusic has managed to accrue. however, that would take some very forward thinking. as they say, past performance is no guarantee of future results but your track record is what you are until you prove different. lmk when they buy UAD.

[JonSolo]

It appears that many don't like inMusic. But to be fair, inMusic has stepped in to keep brands afloat that were ALREADY sinking or even sunk. inMusic did not make Air worse, Air did that to themselves. No new innovation? Again probably on Air. inMusic is the investor.

So what you are saying is we shouldn't fear inMusic not innovating the NI or Izotope products they just acquired, as all they will do is maintain the status quo of not innovating anything

So at the end of the day we shouldn't expect anything to change and NI will just fade into the background as plugins that used to be cool a decades ago

I'll be honest, I'm more concerned that the products I already own, continue to function, and be able to authorize on a new system. I would guess this acquisition will allow that to happen.
If that comes at the cost of innovative new products from NI and Izotope, so be it. It's not like either have been pushing the limits, for years. I don't necessarily think that's going to happen, but if it does, someone else will innovate.

Yes. This. Thanks for capturing the spirit of what I was saying. Honestly, innovation is something we all would love to see. However, AI, not NI, is what has slowed that down. I would love to see more predictability in my "realistic" virtual instruments, but many would argue that AI is already doing that (see Ace Studio for example). What I need is for my investments to continue to be that for as long as possible. For instance, I can still make music using Camel Audio Alchemy (I was one of the many who saved the download for my account). It is still a fresh tool that I have not fully explored, yet.

Am I concerned? Yes. But that really has nothing to do with inMusic.

[havran]

[...]

•This post was made possible by ChatGPT. Your source for information.

I was feeling impish and just posted Gemini's reply to seangm's question.

My post was more of a vent than a question, but I appreciate the irony of your response.

I didn't appreciate it. No reason to raise the ambient temperature in some American town and ping a data center for that nonsense.

People use ai for so much jackassery.

Have you taken the same stance against crypto-miners and online gamers or others with high-wattage rigs? Never mind "carbon footprint": may I ask where your "waste-heat" footprint falls on the graph?