Has NI Lost It's Way?
Comments
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For me, personally, KK software is unnecessary intermediate between plugins and the keyboard. Plugins should be able to talk to the controller directly (the same way as Kontakt does now), which would require opening NKS2 to third parties so they could implement direct support, including NKS patch browser visible on a controller.
KK should not disappear, but should become live show tool, to build chains of plugins and effects, multilayered and triggered from different keyboard zones and midi channels, a bit like Rob Papen’s Prisma or Apple Mainstage or like Korg performance patches. Fully recallable and with unified patch browser.
That’s what I would call a revolutionary and visionary approach.
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My problem is I’m much more disillusioned than most of you…
Companies do NOT want their products to be future proof. They want to sell you a new one in few years.
Things are NOT being introduced to open new possibilities. They are introduced to catch your interest (and your money).
If they presented us some years ago dumb controllers as the “novelty” is not because they’ve seen that putting the functionalities in the computers instead of the devices allowed for new functionalities to be added without having to change the devices. It’s because like this they created a new market. Proof of this is that now they are pushing us in the direction of wanting standalones with limited functionalities and expanding possibilities again. And in few years they will “introduce” to us again the superiority of having things in a computer and the controller just controlling them…
What interest them is making us have new inducted “needs” every now and them. And then “satisfy” these needs with new devices to buy
Their goal is to create new markets, not to satisfy users or give them devices that allow them to spend their money one single time and be happy for a long time
Am i seeing everything black? Probably…
But in the end I’m the guy thinking strangely: everybody is happy about a new bigger screen on S MK3 and hope for it on a newer Maschine…what I think is that the 2 separated screen were better because allowed me to see 2 different things simultaneously…or also only because like this the knobs underneath were divided in 2 groups of 4 and my muscular memory was faster in reaching knob 5 (the first under the second screen) knob 7 the third under the second screen),… to access my parameters 😂
This… plus the fact that I don’t give a f about a bigger static image of the library 😂 (meaning that they didn’t give us anything really useful and to be happy about that uses that bigger screen estate)
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I always make the example of the trucks I used to see passing by my house going to work when I was a little child.
The company that built them made such a good job that I’ve seen those same trucks going to work for 40 years. They were well built and very easy to fix with new components being disposable and easy to substitute.
Guess what happened to that company?
You got it right: they went bankrupt because no one needed to buy new trucks from them, since they lasted so long…
(well…that’s a lie: luckily they were so clever to change their aim from building trucks to building component to fix them… Yes…in the ancient days humanity was also so clever to sustain the good work they did, by reinventing themselves…another thing that nowadays industry fails to see…you can always build a good, lasting device and then build on top of it and ask the price for that…but evidently making new things and trashing the old is easier…)
Or…to remain in our field: what companies have seen with the introduction of the “dumb controller, intelligent brain” paradigm is that users could change one single piece (the computer) every X years to have novelties and a more powerful device… but then they noticed “Wait…but we don’t sell computer….we sell devices!” and that the money was flowing in someone else’s pockets. So they decided to make us think again the “more powerful devices” we needed were their controllers 😏
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I agree to a point. However, dumb controllers were a thing few years ago, mostly because they were cheaper to manufacture and less complex to design, so you could sell them at the same price as previous generation and have more profit in your pocket.
Whatever the initial problems were there, IT guys would have sorted it out with next version of Kore, KK, VIP, Nektarine or Automap. No need to re-design the controller or to re-do the firmware. Cheap.
The only problem was that they didn’t. For various reasons, mostly because IT world was progressing too fast for compatibility issues to be resolved in a timely matter and, despite what we’ve been initially told, every product has limited lifespan and can’t be supported in software forever.
Kore was the first one to go. People have bitter taste in their mouths still, being left with useless controllers they’ve paid sizeable amounts of money for. Then other platforms/wrappers were deprecated and ALL manufacturers turned back to smart controllers.
This goes well with current sustainability trend and prevents creation of an army of disgruntled customers left with useless controllers, who take it to social media to vent and thus tarnish the company’s reputation.
NI is actually the LAST one to follow the trend, not the first.
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@Maciej Repetowski Funny how things can be seen differently.
I see dumb controllers exactly as you see smart ones: since they don’t do nothing (the computer does), they are less inclined to the need to be substituted: it’s enough to update the program on the computer and tell that button on the controller to launch that function.
On the other side, smart controllers with basic computers on their inside will soon not suffice the request X future, more advanced functionality will require. Therefore they will need to be replaced by more powerful ones (instead of managing everything on the computer).
I have big difficulties in seeing it your way 🤪.
Anyway…that’s not a real issue, since, following my previous reasoning, companies will always find a way to make us believe we will need a new one in any case
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Oh that they will, that much is certain 👍🤣
As long as the software (the brain) is maintained and kept compatible, you are 100% right. The problem is that it never is, not in a long term. Just look at the examples of various wrappers in my previous post, they are all abandoned.
If the brain is in the controller, I don’t need to change my whole workflow when software is abandoned.
I can decide to buy new controller if they tempt me with new fancy functions, but I can as well keep old one and everything still works.
With software brain, you need to freeze your computer system at one point and do not upgrade it anymore. Then it still works, but not many people want to do this. And there might be issues with activation if hard drive needs replacing and so on.
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Controllers could be just a little smarter than QWERTY keyboards/trackpads and they could last until they physically fall apart. Design "dumb" controllers for 2 purposes:
1) Convert human mechanical actions into performance data
2) Remote control of desktop computer/laptop/tablet
And this simple paradigm could open up a range of controllers designed around different categories of bio-mechanical actions.
And what fun it would be to have a range of high quality builds and ALSO cheap devices that weren't so precious...
The innovation and ongoing profits for the developers would come from content for these devices and the collaborative ecosystem of the performance data generated by these devices... including AI performance partners aware of musical context.
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I don’t need much. All I want is MIDI Template editor and Play Assist on hardware and I will buy Mk3 just for this (and Lightguide). And Logic integration, which is working already.
The Mk3 series is built so nice and the keys action is great.
You guys can have KK software with all fancy new functionality to play with - I don’t use it and will not use it 😜
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What? You don't want a pair of NI tap shoes?
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You nailed the problem…if devices become obsolete is because they DECIDE to make them become obsolete and not supporting them anymore.
THEY abandon wrappers…is not that it’s impossible to maintain compatibility. And in the same way they can decide to abandon your brain controller…let’s face it: till we will accept anything they do, we are at their mercy…
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And this ecosystem of multiple "dumbish" controllers could enter the market with a "clean slate" given the market size of NI.
The ecosystem could have ONE singular direct connect sound engine... no wrappers... and a desktop/laptop/tablet UX designed specifically for an intuitive relationship with the wide family of controller form factors.
And these controllers could be mapped to their relative positions within a virtual space.
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Ohhhhh, I apologize... I understood you were actually confirming it was a thing, my bad.
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I’ve tried catching up in this topic but it would take me a month. I need a bigger popcorn box.
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Now we‘re talking…
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I wonder if we talk more about the strategy and future of NI than actual employees of NI do 😂
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