Has NI Lost It's Way?
Comments
-
Re stems - the irony is NI actually introduced the standardised STEMS format several years ago so I don't think one can accuse them of not anticipating the need for it, it's more a case of not really having good follow through (I wonder if that is because so many competing products came out quickly to capitalise on this that NI quickly fell behind?)
https://ar-onlinemastering.com/services/online-mastering/mastering-native-instruments-stems/
2 -
Yeah, but to be fair, NI stems are meant for producers to enable playing their tracks out, not for MPC users wanting to rip off drum breaks from old soul records with vocals on them. Two entirely different use cases, requiring completely different tools.
NI of old tried to enable creators making something out of nothing. Nowadays people want to be enabled easier remixing/reusing of existing content
0 -
Nowadays people want to be enabled easier remixing/reusing of existing content
Pretty sure people always want that.
Could say the same about .. the cassette deck allowing to record from the radio and sampling it.
3 -
"people in charge feel like really big endeavors for them like VST3, Apple Silicon support show a commitment that Maschine is not dead, they don't get it that for us that's cool but means nothing in the big picture, It's just compatibility, not improvement."
D-One hit it out of the park with this comment.
2 -
Yep, before samplers people would splice tape together and loop things, play 2 of the same vinyl records to be able to manually repeat a part, etc... It's definitely not a 'nowadays' thing, but this depends on your genre/culture, if you're into classic rock or something than these facts might just pass you by...
They do deserve credit there, wasn't Traktor also the first DJ SW with Sync? If they didn't create it they at least popularized it, and it did change the world.
NI Stems were great for producers that also DJ but they marketed it only towards DJing if I remember correctly. Major Labels will never offer real stems of their catalog, they will want to profit from what they own in every way possible, not to mention bouncing every mix means spending money and resources! If it's hard to get companies to join the NKS standard imagine a new Audio File format, that was never gonna pop off for the majority of genres. For Stems to flourish, they have to be forced/illegal, just like sampling in the first 20 years or so....
Heck, Maschine itself was the first hybrid controller in 2009, the MPC Renaissance came much later in 2012. The Maschine Studio was the 1st with a Hi-Res screen in 2013, the MPC Touch came out later in 2015... Respek! That is why I am here and not in the MPC camp.
It was ahead of the curve with innovation! I remember thinking: Finally, I won't need to depend on a ****** CPU/RAM for a music box, I can just hook it up to my computer, and update the PC when it's slow! Now we are circling back around to standalones, which I get that lots of people want but it doesn't feel like innovation or disruption anymore... Especially when a it's SW rooted company struggling to maintain it's own SW...
So no, it's not all bloom and gloom, NI is still top dawg in the Industry and did/does amazing things, it's just that some of us remember the (more meaningful) innovation days when it was clearly ahead.
6 -
Amen to that...
0 -
That's really how I feel too.
The standalone M+ interested me greatly and seemed to be what a lot of people were asking for when I first heard about it and saw the pictures. It just wasn't ready when it arrived to market so I gave it a wide berth because it got the bad press and feedback from a few people (and a lot of people still use and quote the early bad feedback to talk it down when they probably haven't even tried one out for themselves). I might never have tried one for myself due to the countless negativity towards the M+, but one day, I re-checked the specs, there was a deal on and I took the plunge and loved it.
I do think if more people actually tried one now, at least if they've had a similar path that I have had in the groovebox market, then a lot of those people would feel like their prayers have been answered. I know there will always be people that think they need specific features so this might never satisfy them, but if they approach it with a blank slate from seeing what it could do and how easy it is to use and think about the bigger picture that the speed and quality of these equates to a large output of polished sounding beats and actual music pretty quickly, then maybe they would see it's real strengths and not worry about it's shortfalls. It's almost a greatest hits of some of my favourite other grooveboxes and then some.
So NI's sales and returns of their investment will probably force their priority of where to put it's budgets and if people keep talking NI down, even people who accept that this is a great machine but are just wanting more, then there's less chance of future development happening I would expect.
I come here some days and some people have just bought one and are mad because it doesn't have a feature that they assume (rightly or wrongly) that they need. Or have seen something in another machine and start demanding we have it or we all will go on a rampage setting fire to every village en route to NI HQ or something. Then there's the old school users that have been with NI forever looking for innovation and a steady output of fresh features. It can look like a large proportion of users are less happy with their Maschines than other users of other gear.
But try other gear if you can and learn about what it offers and if the headline grabbing features are so well implemented that they will change everything forever. A lot of speed and amazing output of the Maschine's projects can always be arranged and added to later, but ideas and burst of productivity can come and go in a flash and if you're using clunky gear you might quickly lose momentum.
Maybe NI just peaked too early.
3 -
Gonna be MUCH sooner than this.
Another big hint is the recent update for MASSIVE to NKS2 compatibility.
MASSIVE being a Day 1 requirement for a new Maschine that featured NKS2.
2 -
Sounds like wishful thinking to me.. the suggestion threads for a new version are still pretty new!
Of course I guess they could release new hardware despite no new Maschine software features.... but what would be new about the hardware?
0 -
Great news! Not only is Massive NKS2 compatible, but they have added over 50 new automatable parameters, including the Osc wavetables. That means you can now control the wavetable selection from the Maschine hardware, something which was not possible before. Well done NI 👏
1 -
Which is clearly most important for Maschine+ users.
2 -
Yes, NI is so far behind at this point I doubt they can catch up. Software instruments are about to get replaced by hybrid devices and both Roland and Akai are miles ahead of NI here. NI is still trying to figure out how to control their old software with their old hardware…not to mention MPE destroying the use case for articulations/Kontakt.
As for “new blood,” they do have a new team as far as I know run by a former DJ they hired away from Meta. I doubt any good will come from that, but we’ll see I guess. They always seem short staffed from an outsider perspective and typically that never gets fixed. Further, Tthe Kontrol MK3 has zero buzz and the discussions I do see online are all negative, rightfully so imo considering all the functionality that was stripped out. I have the S61 and can tell you it is far from immersive, and I am still working almost entirely on the computer. It’s more frustrating than fun to use, so I find myself avoiding NI plug ins in favor of Zenology, which I mapped to may $200 M-Audio controller.
The MK3 keyboard simply doesn’t do anything that a midi keyboard is supposed to do…no template creation; minimal tactile controls besides the 8 knobs; limited mapping in all their plug-ins. It’s a very bad user experience although NI keeps promising to drop new features in the future. I am skeptical as it reminds me of how Maschine+ users begged for updates to fix crashing and bugs only to have NI recently pull the plug on that device (my speculation based on recent price cuts). I would expect them to do the same with the MK3 - release a few updates to stop all the backlash then move on to whatever product they think is next. There are only so many times you can burn customers before they move on.
2 -
The owners of NI sold their majority stake to a private equity company in 2021, essentially taking advantage of a huge uptick in revenue and monthly users during the pandemic. This is a highly stereotypical move in business called, “cashing out.” My guess is the statistics the deal was based on have all fallen off a cliff, and we all know cash is much tighter now so imo the burden is on you to explain why you think the sky is so blue. The Kontrol MK3 release was very obviously plagued with shrinkflation style cost cuts. This isn’t something I would expect if NI was operating from a position pf strength.
0 -
Wait, what? When did this happen? This is very good news! If the same happens to FM8, I will be very pleased.
Just updated Massive, and I'm not sure if the new mappings can be found in the "- NKS Init -" preset? It allows one to set the wavetables with Maschine encoders, and all of the parameter pages have also been named. Did this preset used to exist? Would be awesome to have this exact same mapping available on M+ standalone. It wouldn't allow compex sound design (I dont know how one would set up modmatrixes and env/lfo destinations), but it'd be great for quickly building some more basic sounds
0 -
I get what you mean. D-One had a great thread in the older NI forums for feature requests and that must be over 5 years old now. I assume it's a new set of devs and the fact they are having open dialogue with us is a good start. It might lead to a complete rewrite of the software that will sync with the new keyboards etc. I'm not asking for much, I just want better automation, RT stretch at sampler level and time sig automation and I'm good!
0
Categories
- All Categories
- 19 Welcome
- 1.5K Hangout
- 62 NI News
- 785 Tech Talks
- 4.1K Native Access
- 16.5K Komplete
- 2K Komplete General
- 4.3K Komplete Kontrol
- 5.7K Kontakt
- 1.6K Reaktor
- 379 Battery 4
- 845 Guitar Rig & FX
- 429 Massive X & Synths
- 1.3K Other Software & Hardware
- 5.8K Maschine
- 7.3K Traktor
- 7.3K Traktor Software & Hardware
- Check out everything you can do
- Create an account
- See member benefits
- Answer questions
- Ask the community
- See product news
- Connect with creators