The Maschine 4 (Speculative) Thread

Polyend had a half price Tracker sale recently, but after a few days they returned to full price. I think many thought it meant the mk2 was ready to drop, but probably just clearing a bit of over stock.

Companies do understand. Selling software will almost always have a larger ROI than selling hardware. Simply because there is zero cost to duplicate and distribute software.

The problem is the customers. More customers are willing to shell out large amounts of money for hardware, than to pay anything for software. If it’s not tangible, it’s worthless. A hilarious mindset for creators of non-tangible art (aka musicians).

Just look at the reaction to software subscription models: They are hated and seen as the most evil idea since the invention of slavery. But IMO subscription models are a very honest and fair system. The customer pays for using a non-tangible good while the producer gets paid for maintaining it. The customer can cancel the subscription anytime, which motivates the producer to develop and improve the goods in order to keep the customer interested and subscriptions running. The producer gets a constant income stream, which allows to continuously work on new ideas as well as less flashy features and important improvements.

What we were saying is the opposite: we would love to pay for SW upgrades (which, as you say will not even cost them for the new hw duplication/distribution).

Anyway…about subscriptions: see how things can be seen in different ways? I have exactly the opposite view of yours. With subscriptions, you are forced to pay them even only to continue using the product or accessing what you created with it, while with payed updates they are forced to offer you something better or new interesting features, otherwise you’ll simply not buy the new version and continue to use what you already have (unless they cripple it and make it slowly unusable 😏). That’s why industry is so interested in them: it’s sure money no matter what they do. What you really can “cancel anytime” is buying new version, since you already have what you need and they don’t offer enough in the new one. Canceling subscriptions means not having access to anything anymore

Different angles, different views. But frankly I find hard to understand yours: what would force them to innovate, if you have to pay them anyway just to use it?

There are actually some very good reasons why subscriptions are despised and almost seen as slavery.

Having optional subscriptions, rent to own and perpetual licences is arguably the fairest solution as most options are catered for, The problem with subscription only models is that in the majority of cases no subscription means no usage, not only can you not edit what you've worked on, you can't even open your files.

The argument that it encourages development falls flat in that there is often decreased development in subscription only models, as there's no incentive to do more than will stop people leaving.

Look at the costs of usage for users once Adobe and Autodesk went subscription only, and it wasn't benevolence or user-friendliness driving that decision.

You want a good return......make good products and foster a good relationship with your consumers isn't in my mind a bad approach.

The ethics and morals of environmental science are no "slippery slope" to avoid unless you are suicidal, and want to take others with you. The science is clear, it is non-ideological & political, and we have to act on it TEN YEARS AGO, before the earth warms up too much to reverse. This isnt even complicated.

And of course, like most everything else the wealthy western world needs to dispose of, the imminent damage to the ecosystem concentrates in the global south in the looted, exploited remains of the colonized world. Some western governments, unable to figure out what to do what the insane amounts of trash that pile up every day, have begun paying "3rd world" countries to dispose of it for them. Or they just dump it in the ocean.

As a parent of 2 young children, this is all very, very real to me, and my love of music and electronic instruments will inevitably have to take a back seat to ethical, sustainable living.

And this is beyond the exploitative economics of subscription models, etc, which are discussed as a "value-add" for customers but are just a more reliable income stream for investors. Any "value-add" to customers will evaporate when the buyer's market turns to the seller's market, as it always does.

It didn't take much reading between the lines of the Kontrol Q&A to see that there will be no Maschine hardware any time soon.. I'd bet on 2025 or later..

A mk4 with a single large screen to match the new KK is the obvious play from NI , but i do think there may be a reason to “decouple” them in a way.

i had a kk mk2 and i returned it because i had my Maschine right next to it and the same exact 2 screens on the kk felt way too redundant. I ended up replacing it with a basic midi keyboard. I feel like lots/most kk users use a different daw so that might be the reason Maschine integration isn’t the highest priority or a priority at all. Perhaps the next version of the A series will instead integrate better with Maschine for this reason. Or Maschine will allow scales/chords on other midi controllers.

That way if you use another daw, get KK as your way into the NI ecosystem. Maschine is another way, and you won’t need to necessarily have kk s-series also to get the full experience. More people use other daws so i understand appealing to those customers first and perhaps as their own segment. This is why i can also see less of an incentive to make a mk4 to match the new kk. And hopefully more focus on the Maschine sw/mk3/plus

All just guesses but stuff that just crossed my mind