Native Instruments file for insolvency...

[Bohmes DSP]

Wow.

I guess the naughty people of the internet can keep Kontakt propped up for a bit... crazy.

Though its probably the way things are going to be heading. The entire music industry will change in the next 10-20 years, from top to bottom. Indi devs are becoming more powerful and can maneuver faster with lower overheads.

[grandmasterbird]

This may or may not be of use

https://www.mossgrabers.de/Software/Con ... hMoss.html

[HM]

This may or may not be of use

https://www.mossgrabers.de/Software/Con ... hMoss.html

Lost is lost, time to move on, and maybe better so,.

(speaking as loyal owner since early days, now Komplete 15, and lots of 3 part libraryes)


Like many said, format is highly shady, closed on purpose, due to greed, so its up the hill

For developers there might even be legal issues/claims from whatever maybe remains of NI

Intention was always trappy monopoly, to prevent you from using this format anywhere else

WHAT PROVES THAT A TOTAL NEW OPEN FORMAT IS NEEDED (for a new de-facto format)

Sadly you can, best case, only make a folder with all the waves, start porting from scratch

It makes no sense, and btw, even well working translators are often giving lot headache IRL

Snip from latest moss manual:

5.11 Kontakt NKI/NKM
Kontakt is a sampler from Native Instruments which uses a plethora of file formats which all are sadly
proprietary and therefore no documentation is publicly available. Nevertheless, several people analyzed the
format and by now sufficient information is available to provide the support as the source.
However, the format changed many times across the different Kontakt versions. So far, the following formats
are known and supported as a source:
Kontakt Version
1
1.5
2- 4.1.x
4.2.2+
5- 7
A NKI file contains one instrument which is a multi-sample with many parameters. Currently, the usual
multi-sample parameters are supported incl. loops. Furthermore, metadata information, the amplitude, pitch
and filter cutoff envelope, filter parameters as well as pitchbend. (Most) NCW encoded sample files can be
read as well. A NKM file contains up to 64 instruments and is supported as well as a source.
Encrypted files are not supported.
If selected as a destination, a NKI file is written and all samples are placed in a sub-folder with the same
name.
If selected as a source and ‘Performance’ is selected as the destination type, only NKM files are used as
sources.
5.11.1 Destination Options
• Output Format: Currently, only the Kontakt 1 format is supported which sadly does not contain any
metadata information

[martinjuenke]

Time to say Goodbye!

[IvyBirds]

In FlStudio you can use directwave to sample plugins ...
For example kontakt ...
But its just theory.

There are lots of Autosample options and ultimately this may be the only path forward

I have been autosampling my plugins for several years now every patch I like and use including factory presets and homemade gets autosampled

[HM]

In FlStudio you can use directwave to sample plugins ...
For example kontakt ...
But its just theory.

There are lots of Autosample options and ultimately this may be the only path forward

I have been autosampling my plugins for several years now every patch I like and use including factory presets and homemade gets autosampled

Interesting

Besides saving in our DAW-format, freezing all tracks and export as audio, this could be done
for key-instruments in very important projects, for more true recreation/remix in far future

I see that sample-robot is also an option: https://samplerobot.com/pages/products

What else is there ?

[IvyBirds]

In FlStudio you can use directwave to sample plugins ...
For example kontakt ...
But its just theory.

There are lots of Autosample options and ultimately this may be the only path forward

I have been autosampling my plugins for several years now every patch I like and use including factory presets and homemade gets autosampled

Interesting

Besides saving in our DAW-format, freezing all tracks and export as audio, this could be done
for key-instruments in very important projects, for more true recreation/remix in far future

I see that sample-robot is also an option: https://samplerobot.com/pages/products

What else is there ?

I have sample-robot, but I have been using the autosampler built into Gigperformer pretty much exclusively for the past year or so

That will Autosample and make a "Decent Sampler" Instrument. Decent Sampler is a free plugin that uses scripts written in XML

In the end you will with a folder with a bunch of WAV files, a small graphic file, and the XML file.

Gigperformer also makes it super easy to stack and mix as many instrument and effects together as you want into the Decent Sampler Instrument. Want to layer a Kontact piano with a pad from Omnisphere and run it into a Valhalla reverb and then make that your samples instrument? Super easy

The XML scripts themselves work great right out of GP, but they are also super easy to modify or cut and paste from one instrument to the next. The Google Gemini AI can also write and modify those if you choose. Decent Sampler can actually do quite a lot of different things

Beyond all of this is the fact that the samples themselves can be used in anything and if Decent Sampler ever goes away or if I find something better I can just use them in whatever else

Should add I gig out multiple times a week, most of all my synth parts are Decent Sampler Instruments sampled this way. They are very light on CPU and RAM compared with the actual plugins usually

[zvenx]

Forgive me if this has already been posted:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-th ... =share_via

I don't agree with eveything he says, but it is a very interesting read never the less.
rsp

[buffalo roam]

Forgive me if this has already been posted:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-th ... =share_via

I don't agree with eveything he says, but it is a very interesting read never the less.
rsp

Thanks for the link! Very interesting and insightful article. I didn't realize that the private equity purchaser of NI simply stuck the price of purchasing it onto NI itself as debt. I imagine no new potential purchaser would be willing to accept that debt situation as part of the deal. But I can imagine the current private equity firm finding reason in spinning off components of NI at bargain prices just to lessen the private equity firm's loss....

[bermudagold]

Forgive me if this has already been posted:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-th ... =share_via

I don't agree with eveything he says, but it is a very interesting read never the less.
rsp

most of the assertations in that article have merit...this quote stood out...
"NI's other plugins, the ones that aren't Kontakt, are in an even more precarious position. FM8, Absynth, Guitar Rig, the legacy version of Massive were great products 15-20 years ago. Their value is almost entirely nostalgic."...I pointed this out quantitatively in the absynth thread and in typical kvr fashion every body came for me...its difficult to have this type of objective rational discourse on kvr...at least not maturely and cordially

there is no getting around a lot of time has passed and things have changed...the crown jewels of reaktor and kontakt have lost their leading distance and have increasingly formidable alternatives...
for reaktor, low level dsp frameworks there is max/msp, csound, supercollider, puredata, sonicpi, faust, cdp, moselle, unreal, unity, and others...at the next higher level of abstraction there is synthedit/synthmaker/flowstone, mux, bespoke, vcv rack, and others
for kontakt, there is gorilla, hise, koda, bestservice, falcon, halion, and others

his view is another peg in my guess that the majority of their revenue was being reinvested in the hardware business...hardware is an effective dongle against piracy but margins vs R&D costs im sure have become pretty dangerous with covid recovery supply chains and tariffs...but the most interesting quote to me from the supposed "industry insider" editorial was

"Every music tech company should be asking itself: what do we build that couldn't be replicated with AI assistance in six months? If the answer is "nothing," your valuation is your brand equity minus your liabilities."

[Tone2 Synthesizers]

"...I say this as a co-founder of Splice, where we built one of the largest music creation platforms from the ground up, as someone who advises music technology companies today,..."
"...Discover Splice's AI and ML technology..."

[nightjar]

his view is another peg in my guess that the majority of their revenue was being reinvested in the hardware business...hardware is an effective dongle against piracy but margins vs R&D costs im sure have become pretty dangerous with covid recovery supply chains and tariffs...but the most interesting quote to me from the supposed "industry insider" editorial was

"Every music tech company should be asking itself: what do we build that couldn't be replicated with AI assistance in six months? If the answer is "nothing," your valuation is your brand equity minus your liabilities."

Well, I'd say that hardware is actually part of the long term solution to NI's recovery.

After all is said and done with how code is written, what remains is how humans mechanically interact with the code in the physical realm.

The end-game strategy for NI to be a profitable business is to boldly re-imagine how humans can create and perform music via physical controllers tied to a subscription service.

[bermudagold]

his view is another peg in my guess that the majority of their revenue was being reinvested in the hardware business...hardware is an effective dongle against piracy but margins vs R&D costs im sure have become pretty dangerous with covid recovery supply chains and tariffs...but the most interesting quote to me from the supposed "industry insider" editorial was

"Every music tech company should be asking itself: what do we build that couldn't be replicated with AI assistance in six months? If the answer is "nothing," your valuation is your brand equity minus your liabilities."

Well, I'd say that hardware is actually part of the long term solution to NI's recovery.

After all is said and done with how code is written, what remains is how humans mechanically interact with the code in the physical realm.

The end-game strategy for NI to be a profitable business is to boldly re-imagine how humans can create and perform music via physical controllers tied to a subscription service.

sounds good on paper but...sensel morph for custom controllers was elegant and went out of business...osc front ends to turn any phone or tablet into custom controllers didnt catch fire...leap motions with midi mappers for custom controllers didnt catch fire...all forward thinking executions...i wonder how well the volcas sell?...maschine seemed to have eaten into akai market share,...but i guess traktor wasnt doing the same to pioneer and serato...so im not so sure ur proposal is a slam dunk either

[Seafire Mk2]

Just let the horse have a decent funeral and move on. It's not like this wasn't obvious a decade ago....

[bermudagold]

"...I say this as a co-founder of Splice, where we built one of the largest music creation platforms from the ground up, as someone who advises music technology companies today,..."
"...Discover Splice's AI and ML technology..."

My knowledge of what splice was known for was one shot samples, rent to own serum, and the new home of spitfire labs...if that is still the portfolio for 20$ a month, that's a pretty grandiose bit of hyperbole describing their service lol...clearly i must be missing something