What is the future of Maschine mk3?

@D-One - thanks for this. "NI doesn't give much of a heads-up for this type of stuff neither, so all you get with such questions is more especulation."

I'm in business myself, so I understand that typically you don't broadcast what you're going to do. That said, I think companies can take a lead here in clearly communicating their overall approach (without revealing product timelines). Ableton is a great example. They openly talk about how their gear is made for the long haul and they make it clear that they will continue supporting Push 2, even though Push 3 is now here. That too is being marketed as a device with a long time frame.

For example, baking in a promise that the company will continue to sell/support one hardware revision back. This allows the company to announce Maschine mk4 with no downshift in mk3 sales. I searched around for similar recent comments and I found that some people are reading press releases and coming to their own conclusions. This is what someone said on Reddit, rightly or wrongly.

My only other observation would be that your point holds if NI were completely tight lipped about the possibility of new hardware. But reps on this forum and on the socials can and do tease things as "coming soon" or responding to speculative comments about new HW/SW with "👀👀👀👀." You can say this is just playfulness or fun commmunity engagement. But I would also suggest this is communication about products and so therefore they are giving us something of a heads up, even if it's a cheeky wink on a forum.

In saying all this I recognise you are a mod not an employee, so hopefully this is taken in the spirit it's intended, as a comment about NI process & communication than my personal view. It's a pre-purchase concern about future compatibility vs a flaming from a disgruntled customer. I have bought plenty of NI software and I would love to have the confidence to buy hardware, but the current communications makes me wary and more likely to spend that cash elsewhere. One for the marketing team at NI probably!

Peace. ✌️

Good points folks. I think general principles are good enough at this point. A company rolling out big updates might internally decide that a roadmap is a good thing to do because it instills confidence that updates are coming to a platform that may be low on features. You can see this a little with (for example) Minimal Audio and their botched attempt to do a subscription. They've since changed their tune and offered more in the way of a roadmap because at this point, let's be honest, they need the subscribers.

As I mentioned, Ableton does this almost subliminally, when they offer repairability and upgrades for Push 3 & support for discontinued devices. Push 2 just got a few features that launched with Push 3, which is not bad for a device nearing its 10th year. Even without specific roadmap announcements, that speaks volumes about the intent behind the company and also goes a long way to justifying their high price points.

But Maschine is one of those products that has been developed up to a point now with that being 8 years old or so. It would seem to me that the hardware is well developed and now software will be key to upgrading the device. If S-Series keyboards can use Komplete Kontrol 3, then I would hope that a potential Maschine 3.0 software would work with Maschine mk3, and a potential mk3 (as well as the Maschine+ of course.) That's the best case scenario as it would see the device at least manitain parity and functionality for the long haul, even if it doesn't have the newest and shiniest features that may be locked into NKS2.

Back to @D-One and your suggestions, based on all this, I'm considering B-Stock direct from Native. I have heard good things about refurb units turning up "like new". But even if the unit would have some signs of being opened, the risk is shared. For a low price you don't get a new unit, but you do get a guarantee and no games with finding a software license etc, so the risk/reward balance feels OK for those devices perhaps. That might be the best balance for my use case.

Yeah I know what you mean about the reviews. Loopop is good ("Hi." 😄) and I also enjoy Weaver Beats, mainly because he pokes fun at music companies being way too serious for their own good.

But in general on Youtube you're watching online are advertorials, not reviews. Even Loopop does have a tendency to say "make up your own mind which features matter to you" though I think he's earned the right to say what gear he likes and doesn't. What I will say is his feature walkthroughs are a game changer for when you want to just get a grip of what you're actually buying into beyond the spec sheet.

But of course, what keeps the gear flowing through for any reviewer is describing the thing, talking up its good points, and maybe picking out the occasional flaw, which are often cosmetic or non dealbreakers which I imagine the music companies like, since it suggests honesty without being hyper critical.

In the era of release day drops, I think (or at least I hope) more people are getting wise to these tactics.