Akai releases way faster then NI…why?

ozon

Provoking proposal:

Maschine is a way more finished product than the MPC is.

Or more accurately:

Maschine was a way more finished product than the MPC back in 2020, when NI decided to invest all of their development resources into the new technology stack for KOMPLETE KONTROL and associated hardware.

MorrisEd

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/143516#Comment_143516

I find that hard to believe. NI has over 300 1 star ratings on Trustpilot and every message board for NI is a collection of complaints and product issues. Every Akai forum is filled with people discussing new products with excitement and sharing music. Simply, Akai forums are now what NI forums used to be. Most Akai products actually control NI software at least as well as the Kontrol Keyboards with wireless DAW control that is far superior to anything NI has. All this to say, I don’t think NI is as large a user base as it used to be. If it were so, the Company would not have laid off so many people and be so aggressive with cost cutting measures such as removing a literal button from the MK3 keyboard. Also, NI is focusing on selling old vsts while the industry in focusing on integrating a hybrid workflow with hardware. I don’t think this is a great strategy. Who needs another vst? My two cents.

Ojustaboo

While what you say (about trustpilot, can’t comment on forums) is correct , and while Akai only has 20 reviews compared to NI having 308, neither are great.

NI have only 11% 5 star and 77% 1 star overall score on Trustpilot is Bad

Akai have 15% 5 star and 75% 1 star overall score on Trustpilot is Poor

It could be read that people tend to give bad trustpilot reviews if they have problems or dislikes but don’t bother giving 5 star ones if they happy (although Arturia goes against this theory, see end of post)

NI needs to do something fast to address these bad reviews, at least have someone on there admitting past mistakes and promising better for the future, had I not already been a NI customer and checked Trustpilot before I bought, to be honest, I wouldn’t have bought.

Both Akai and NI, the majority (not all) of complaints are about customer service. NI (or Akai) simply not bothering to reply to the reviews can give would be customers the impression the reviews are totally correct and they don’t care about their customers, hence drive potential new customers away.

I don’t agree with the reviews I read about the quality of their software etc, and someone at NI needs to show their face and stick up for their products.

I don’t judge a good company on just their products, I judge them on what happens when something goes wrong, for me, I have almost zero complaints from the 8 times I’ve been stuck and had to ask for help from NI in the past year, personally I can’t fault them but it obviously isn’t working for others. Have I just coincidently been very lucky, or is it something else, could it be the type of support I needed being different to others? Was it because I was friendly and polite? Was is it because I’ve managed to work out a way to answer the questions on their support page in order to be able to create a ticket and others haven’t (their support system really needs to be simplified)?

Whatever the cause, those trustpilot ratings aren’t pretty and silence does more damage than good.

Then there’s Arturia. 160 reviews in total, overall score is excellent

84% 5 star and 11% 1 star. The vast majority of their 1 star reviews are complaining about how bad or non existent their support is, meanwhile the first couple of pages of 5 star reviews (only looked at first couple of pages) are praising their support saying how good it is. If I was a new customer and read these reviews, I would appreciate companies can’t get it right all of them time, and as the vast majority of reviews for Arturia are 5 star and praising their support, I would be very happy and confident to purchase from them.

Psyearth5

I dont understand need for the next, newer version when Maschine + didnt achieved its maximum ?

Maschine + Standalone mode is more capable then many other "competition products " to say .

new AKAI with stems separation created more problems and struggles violating copyright.

Everything else is on Maschine side but there is always something to complain about Maschine, a critique which is just a sign that its amazing instrument .

Psyearth5

… I have to say that so called "Industry standard " doesnt exist and its all about maintain equipment and be aware that it is what rock musicians doing … this is busyness and investing is essential as you grow and it can easy happen demage any HW instrument or equipment during just using it or while performing live . Thats how it is for many, many many others before .

holonology

I have reservations about all music companies in a way. None are perfect. But I've always worried about AKAI to the point that I just haven't invested any money in their stuff. Just look at the way Stems is playing out for AKAI, a massive big hitting new feature, and in theory bringing the people what they want. Yet after the initial hype died down, it's only available on desktop and at least a little disingenuous to advertise it with hardware when it looks like hardware version is a good while off.

But y'know I just picked up Maschine and I have to say it's really good. Easy to use, loads of fun. But with NI the one downside is I may eat my words if they don't bring it along for the ride when Mk4 arrives. This is the sort of thing I expected when I jumped headfirst onto the NI bandwagon. The software direction of the company is pretty clear at this point. The problem is the comms around new and old hardware I think. I asked about this in the last forum post by team NI and got no response. This is the sort of thing that doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

A lot of the comments I see on NI follow a pattern. The composing community has their doubts but tends to err of the side of using NI gear from what I hear, or they've jumped ship to Spitfire. Those walking away seem to have jumped from a synthesis perspective. Typically, these are Absynth, Reaktor and Massive people who have gone over to Pigments, Serum, or even Current. For them NI is now a "sample pack company," which if you're a sound designer - I kinda get. I think NI would go a long way by giving Massive X some TLC in the GUI department, I feel that broadly, NI is doing the right thing by focussing on Kontakt. I even think that if the likes of Absynth and one day Reaktor fall by the wayside, a nice touch would be to turn these into sampled instruments to keep the legacy of the company alive. I hear Massive is being ported to NKS2, and Reaktor should be OK as long as the M-chips are out, so we have a few years left to enjoy these synths.

I've seen this happen to other companies bought out by VC. Initially, as the focus goes on making the company profitable it feels a bit fallow. In the end, the company is returned to profit. Then what often happens is that the company finds a true steward to take it forward, and that's when the going gets good again.