July 2025 – a community update from our Chief Product & Technology Officer

Vagus

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/234146#Comment_234146

Thanks for the response simon.

I think my issue, and that of many others, is that KK software hasn't really been given much love for a while. This is the fifth product update that hasn't featured any substantive update for KK software since 3.+ that isn't focused on hardware functionality or expanding NKS through new partners.

Those new customers might be happy, or those that own Kontrol S hardware (myself included) - but what about the millions of customers that were already invested in the ecosytem through KK software?

It's absolutely fine to say you don't want to overpromise and under deliver, but the issue here is there hasn't been any promises for a long time. You've also said it yourself, the team working on Maschine and Maschine + are also responsible for maintaining KK software. Maintaining software is not the same as actively working on it.

Sure, Maschine is a paid product, but KK Software is the gateway for many - it's how I was introduced to Native Instruments when I picked up Rev from Output. Since then, almost every hardware or software purchase decision has been based on NKS integration. That's how powerful it is, and can be for the ecosystem; and it's largely why I would think you're expanding this other hardware partners.

In 18 months, the only significant software update has been a small fix for Spitfire Audio products to display correctly. You have a subbanks bug that has been there since 3.0 launched, but it's not being addressed, because those maintining KK software do not deem it important enough to fix. There are lists of these issues that go back years.

I'm not trying to be difficult, or argumentative, but I am passionate about the ecosystem. As I said, I appreciate the response, but it hasn't answered my questions or given me confidence in the future.

If KK software is just to be maintained, without any kind of roadmap, and play second fiddle to Maschine / Maschine + - both of which have already seen updates this year, and will see new updates soon - I don't really feel like fighting for features or fixes. I just feel like I've wasted a lot of time and money, and maybe I'm not Native Instrument's key customer base anymore.

Sûlherokhh

It seems, the only thing i have to say when updates are announced (apart from being happy something is going forward) is regarding priorities.

• First: work-breaking bugs are getting fixed.
• Second: a substantial chunk of backlog issues get addressed.
• Third: new features and hardware integrations are added (after sufficient beta testing of course).

As a coder, i know the appeal of doing it exactly the other way around. But after a few years of doing that kind of work, just about everyone around i know stops being distracted by the bling and focusses on having a stable foundation before putting anything on top.

This goes doubly for updates coming far apart. Reliability and trust is what keeps the community and customer base loyal. For that it is necessary not to listen too hard to the loudest new-this-or-that-fans.

I sincerely believe that this is in everybody's best interest. Please excuse me for pointing out the obvious.

Vagus

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/234163#Comment_234163

I don't disagree on stability, but there's a difference between not paying too much attention to the loudest voices and ignoring your biggest evangelists for years.

I wouldn't say I'm a loud voice (I hope not, at least), and I do offer constructive feedback and positivity in betas, but I also think you have to be honest where you feel like more progress should have been made.

Sûlherokhh

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/234167#Comment_234167

There is always a balance to be maintained. I agree wholeheartedly that constructive feedback should be considered at all times. It's the latest 'flashy thing' that should be weighed carefully before being added to the stack. My point about tending to the foundation still stands.

I may not have mentioned this but i assume that in a serious discussion, participants strive to be honest and critique is welcome, in particular well-founded critique. I am glad when there is a place for that, publicly or in beta groups. But i do wonder why it is so difficult to get feedback to feedback… 😉

killer7

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/234144#Comment_234144

Thanks for the reply Simon.

What I assume from this is, it likely won't make it to the next plus update but its still something you guys want to try implement down the road?

pixel85

The fact that they're prioritizing something like a simplified "player" view over features that are useful for the sound designers is telling me that NI is not prioritizing people like me, sound designers (and synth nerds) which also means that I'm not their target customer anymore.

For me Massive X has one of the simplest and easiest to follow GUI, besides Performers which are not user friendly at all. But then I know that some people need to have visualisation of even a simple ADHSR to use a synth (one of the first requests for MX).

If NI would really listen to their users, they would know that making a good preset browser would make everyone happy. Both pro users and those who rely on presets. But no, once again NI is doing something else. First OTT, now this.

I have a feeling that their next promised synths are going to be similar or the same to their romplers disguised as synths in Kontakt: just a few parameters on a giant background picture which is one of the worst UX (and waste of a screen space) for a synth IMO. I'm sorry but design of those romplers is something that I would make if I had to make a "GUI" for my PureData synths that I did at Uni million years ago, and it's really not a compliment 😜

I hope that they'll prove me wrong but I have like zero hopes by looking at their last few years.

If they would make Reaktor 7 with an ability to save synths/effects as a separate vst, it would be amazing and I would take it over any of their incoming synths. I'm fine with Reaktor working in the background, just hide it from the interface. Nobody would ever notice it.

Simon_NI

@killer7 thats a good summary, yeah.

chk071

@pixel85 This just shows fantastically that this "They don't listen to their users" argument is complete nonsense. They listened to "their users", and will implement a player view for Massive X now. It's just not what you or me imagined what could have been implemented, thus we can't talk about "they don't listen to their users", because they can't listen to every single one of their users.

NI knows what the market asks for, that's why they're no. 1 on the market. It might just not be what single users like you or me are expecting. That's life.

But, maybe you (deliberately) overread it: They will work on other areas of Massive X too in the future.

Ashley Brown

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/234143#Comment_234143

Thanks Simon,

Much appreciated—even this little update is a light of hope for the loyal Traktorists. We are not trying to be critical, but we do need the trickles of news that help give us the confidence that a platform we are really invested in and care about, is not going to be abandoned.

It get’s difficult when we see things such as “every major DJ platform” (except Traktor) getting Apple Music integration, when we only just got flexible beat grids (…which are awesome, by the way, so thank you for that).

Scott Frost

@Simon_NI - Was there a reason Traktor was omitted from Apple Music? Was it an Apple decision, or a Traktor decision - all other platforms had it on launch day, so it was odd not to see Traktor in the list, especially since Traktor has had a tight integration with iTunes almost from the get go.

storm303

The communication is appreciated. I wish the path described sounded better to me. Maybe it is what the market says, but I cannot help but cringe that emphasis is on yet more 'player' interfaces (Circular, Massive X Player) and features that sound innovative, but are not always really doing much for usability. I keep seeing over and over these reimagined interfaces to help with 'creative roadblocks' or whatever, but they are all basically the same thing: mixing samples in layers with dumbed down mixer controls and some built in effects. I have no interest in more niche sample packs with such interfaces that are being added to pad the Komplete sales each year.

I want my NI workhorse tools to keep working over the years and be improved where they are sluggish or have bugs in a timely fashion. Customers have been clamoring for a focus on software fixes and modernization for a decade! How is it so impossible that NI continues not to understand that ignoring the software foundations leads only to ruin and people moving off the product line? Most of the NI products cannot even properly scale beyond a 1080P monitor as of Maschine 3.2, KK3, etc. and that is after the specific and incomplete effort NI made to try to make some of them DPI aware. Many of the menus and general usability remain clunky and unfinished version after version. Old great products never get new browsers. Any basic test from a common sense perspective shows how flawed the software is, yet each year they slap it all into Komplete to get yet more package sales without fixing much at all.

To be honest, after 15+ years and several thousands of dollars to NI, I'm starting to give up on thisi. I can't even make support tickets about obvious bugs because the website(s) are so broken. My Maschine and Komplete hardware have been shoved off to the side recently for the first time in a decade because I am tired of fighting with monitor resolution changes, clunky plugin handling, and the barely working NKS headache every time I try to use Maschine or KK either standalone or in my modernized DAW (Sonar, which managed to properly added modern plugin handling and high DPI support several years back even though they lack much market share).

Please hear those of us who have been longtime customers who do not want more sampler mixer or redundant effects plugins. We want software and integrated hardware that is cared about by developers and works well.

Beatsandmore

I feel komplete kontrol software is due an update.. Hopefully in the next month.. that my opinion.. started using the other day unboxed again its 🔥 controller please give us something soon!!!!!!!

MangoMan

The highlight scale feature is game changing for me as I don't know scales off the top of my head. I cant thank you enough for that update.