(very) serious question about NI "transparency"

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Comments

  • TheLoudest
    TheLoudest Member Posts: 110 Advisor

    a note about the "old/new" requests

    I must add that there are probably new requests which appeared with the arrival of Maschine+ given the particularity of this product.

    And it is possible that functions that seem essential for Maschine+ in standalone use (I am thinking for example of the possibility of editing automations)

    are dispensable for mk3 users because they all have it directly on the software..

    But everything that will be brought to Maschine+ will still benefit Maschine controller users since it will allow them to do more things directly on the hardware and to be less dependent on the computer screen (which is always a good thing)

  • Percivale
    Percivale Member Posts: 201 Advisor
    edited February 2023

    How old is Maschine+ anyway. Time is of essence and time to market (be it product or feature) is everything is it not?

    You know, Traktor was the leader in the industry when I first got into this hobby, and later someone fluffed it and allowed Serato to catch up, and things never turned around. Of course, you can say Rekordbox became mainstream also, leaving Traktor further behind.

    Now, if NI could be a little more transparent, just state for all to know how many actual full-time/dedicated software folks were designated to work on improving MK3/M+? We can interpret it anyway we want but at least it is one important indicator if Maschine will suffer the same fate (or maybe it already did).

  • Matt_NI
    Matt_NI Administrator Posts: 1,106 admin

    but to make everything clear to him, it would be nice to think of a way to efficiently centralize requests

    (there will be duplicates and the format of the threads is not ideal for synthesizing ideas...)


    By the way, it makes me think that a year ago we also discussed with you the possibility of having new ways of exchanging and collecting these ideas.

    via vote/ranking... or something like that. Where are we on this?

    Yes, we did that for Traktor already. I'd love to have this here for Maschine but we can only implement that if we get the green light that new features are worked on and that the team is happy with the process. Unfortunately, it seems like there is currently other development priorities and so I don't really have an ETA on when these discussions could pick up again.

  • Murat Kayi
    Murat Kayi Member Posts: 429 Pro
    edited February 2023

    I actually think that this "we currently have other priorities" is absolutely in the realm of what makes good communication. It is not a pleasant thing to hear, and it's not rewarding to be the one to make a statement like that. But it creates clarity.

    If this kind of clarity is maintained frequently, I personally think I am participating in a communication that is transparent and helpful.

  • TheLoudest
    TheLoudest Member Posts: 110 Advisor

    yes indeed

    even if it's not good news, that is crystal clear...


    (and actually confirms the concerns of most M/M+ users...)

    😞

  • maxmatteo
    maxmatteo Member Posts: 8 Member

    finally some words about future maschine+ at all, but loosing more and more hope...

  • Mutis
    Mutis Member Posts: 472 Pro
    edited February 2023

    It was written since release but almost it got some unexpected features like Jam support or Reaktor patches. It was designed as rompler more or less so…

    It will be great to know if NI will continue pushing the standalone path with an mk2 or other products but I’m not asking for an answer of course (since that kind of info is top secret)

  • Space Cat 303
    Space Cat 303 Member Posts: 108 Advisor

    I agree with many of you.

    I left the MPC world for the Maschine workfmow (and therefore acquired an M+), I don't want to change at all, I love working on it, especially since it has become very stable, and the autosampler is a great feature. But editing automation curves like on MPC, I miss a lot. I don't, as we've always found workaround tips on MC grooveboxes from the 90s/2000s. it also allows you to be ingenious, and sometimes find things that stand out. But if the M+ could be further optimized and provide some "basic" features, it would be the best standalone groovebox for me, and above all an excellent base for a possible M+ MK2, with just more ram and CPU power (even if that doesn't don't bother me on the current M+, but it would give more margin in the event of a big project), and Ni would have all my confidence to buy M+ again and again in the future.

  • LostInFoundation
    LostInFoundation Member Posts: 4,195 Expert
    edited March 2023

    @Matt_NI Edit: I add something at the beginning to be clear that this isn’t directed to you, but to the company in its totality.

    Sorry to be frank and honest…but…probably this is the first time I see some “transparent” answers in the NI forum. Maschine is NOT a priority, all the money we invested on it is NOT enough to be listened (and, believe me, I spent A LOT, having bought EVERY Maschine model that came out…included (dumb me) my recent purchase of a Maschine+…plus ALL the other NI products…Traktor controllers, Komplete Kontrol mk1 and then mk2, audio interfaces, Komplete Ultimate Collectors editions, expansions, and so on…).

    Transparency is NOT putting out some random questionnaire to make us THINK you are working on it.

    Transparency is NOT saying “this is the official statement about iMaschine being removed from the AppStore” and then telling us you are checking for compatibility with new OS…and then nothing happens for months (and please…to the other users…don’t tell me the app can still be downloaded from the my purchases tab so nothing changed for existing users…Yes, I know that, but if I reinstall the app and then I can’t even restore my purchased expansions because they care SO MUCH about their users to leave the inapp purchases store unusable for months/years… THIS is not “nothing changed”…)

    And transparency is NOT ignoring all the people complaining about all the things that are not working on NI…or telling them they are being “harsh”…


    Transparency IS working FOR REAL on the things that are not as promised, instead of focusing on advertising us on how lucky we are for being able to buy Izotope plugins under NI (well…spoiler: I could buy Izotope plugins even BEFORE…) or saying that you had too much work to do on VST3 or Apple compatibility (spoiler nr2: ALL other companies had to deal with that, but they didn’t take it has an excuse to stop fixing things or offering something new). And transparency is not even coming just to tell us the roadmap for Traktor is adding new payed functionalities when people asked you for ages to fix other functionalities (I know you are a company and you need to sell, but the best way to sell things is having your users TRUST you)

    Transparency IS not abandoning softwares/hardwares for which people have spent money just cause you don’t care about this sector (and I’m not talking only about iMaschine here… do we wanna talk about my Kore paperweight here? Or my very economic couple of Traktor D2 that has been abandoned after one year from their launch?)

    Transparency IS telling the people the truth about what you will do and what you WILL NOT do (let’s take back the iMaschine example: years and years of people asking “will we have a more complete version on iPad?” without anyone even making the effort of answering, while a good old “no, it is what it is, just a sketch pad” would have been so easy to do… clear and TRANSPARENT… or the Aftertouch aforementioned…like many other requests that are hanging there for YEARS without an answer…let’s not even dare to say “addressed”)

    Transparency IS saying “let’s see if someone from the Maschine team can chime in” when you KNOW that someone WILL chime in, not that they will ignore you too

    And transparency IS not thinking so many people saying you are not transparent are just harsh, but thinking “ok, it’s not working…what can we change?”


    Sorry for the long rant, but differently from some users saying they just entered the Native Instruments ecosystem, I’m here from almost 20 years, and I’ve seen these kind of things said maaaaany times (“now we will change”, “now we will communicate”, “now we will address things”)…or requests being ignored (not even talking about NEW requests here, but about fixes to problems)…and I shut up for soooo long…and then…nothing changed…

    As I said at the beginning, I’m not even blaming YOU for this, you are just a spokesman here, and I fear that you could be frustrated too of continuously reporting things to the people in charge without being listened too.

    I just hope saying things out loud can help Native Instruments as a brand to improve, specially in the relationship with their customers. Cause I think you too are aware that breaking the trust relationship with your customers leads to the death of a company.

    And…one last suggestion: show this and other complaints like this one to someone on the higher levels…maybe they will ponder about this and not just hope that having some spokesmen will just solve all their problems.

    Thanks anyway for listening (even if, I must admit, my hope that this will be useful after 20 years is really at a looooow level)

    LostInFoundation

  • olafmol
    olafmol Member Posts: 133 Pro

    Nobody in NI management cares about users and their opinions, they have P&L reports to deliver to their bosses. It's simply "a business" now. Sad facts. Waiting for a new questionnaire btw ;P

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