Time to set Absynth 5 free

The first thing I do, I switch off usage data. So, NI thinks just few people use KK Sxx MK1…. I have three of them….

The best would be if NI sold Absynth back for 1 EUR back to the author. He might decide to go on.

I take care for programs that have 30+ years old codebases like for my babies. Many programmers treat their programs as babies…

The other possibility would be to make it public domain. But original author would have to agree. And maybe there is engraved his know how he uses in another products…. So, he might not be willing to let it be released to public. And his competitors….

Twenty Five was the perfect example of what NI can do to preserve its legacy. When a product, especially one as loved as Absynth, falls away - it would be nice to preserve it like comapnies do by sampling analogue synths. Turn it into a Kontakt instrument. Sure, this will not preserve the techncial editing capabilites of the synth, but it would allow others to experience it on a modern OS. It will be the same when Reaktor doesn't work on a modern OS. NI could let it go or at least partially preserve it.

Look at Korg, Roland and Moog, they're all in the preservation game now. I think NI could take a leaf out of their book.

For me it's the blatant disregard for the money users have spent... that is the crux of the issue with companies like NI.

Many of us have used their products since the earlier days, we have shown support not just through monetary contribution but also through recommendation. Whilst I understand things must move on, the lack of support for the products that were staples, the one's that got them their user base is appalling.

I would rather see them focus on updating the products so they work properly on newer processors, adding in extra's where possible, than to be selling sample packs. Don't get me wrong, it's ok if that is your jam, but I believe the lack of support for the user-base who bought in to NI based on the likes of Absynth, Pro-53, B4, Electric Piano, goes to show a disregard for what it was known for and good at.

I recently, rightly or wrongly updated to 14 Ultimate, so far I am pretty much unimpressed. My partner in crime only uses Maschine, well the Maschine controllers we both had won't work with the M1 Pro or M1 Max So I had to buy another Maschine controller (very annoying considering I've already forked out for a controller once) then we find that some plugins won't open in Maschine any longer....whilst also finding out that they have done absolutely NOTHING to deal with the cpu load of this program. There is NO way on earth this program should be struggling to load 4 or 5 presets at a time, especially when I can load 10's of instruments into Ableton, Bitwig and so on, jam the channels full of plugins and still have zero issue.

I am starting to get a very cold feeling about it all and it reminds me why I was so reluctant to update for a few years (only reason I did update was because of my new Macbook/Mac Studio).

The developers and company should hang their heads in shame, as should some that I have seen try to explain it away, "well it's old, no surprise they don't support it"..... meanwhile I will just have to make the most of the hardware I have that, some of which is over 40yrs old and still works perfectly lol.

Not sure why you're mentioning me in a reply that is only tangentially relevant to what I've posted.

Lol.

As I've stated, it didn't need "preservation," it needed updates and maintenance. You cannot "preserve" a digital synth whose function is to create new sounds. You can only preserve patches created with that synth, which is not the same thing.

If that user I responded to wants to "preserve it" in that way, then this is already 100% possible, so why would NI waste resources doing it for them?

The only way to "preserve" Absynth 5 is to maintain a machine that can run it, utilize something like Ableton Link, and program your patches there and either pipe the audio into your DAW or bring the stems over for processing and mixing.

I agree with the sentiment and oh how I love Absynth (and Kore2). I get that NI is in the end a bidnis and it’s going to focus their limited resources on development. Any business would. But it’s plain they’re conflicted about Absynth. I can’t imagine the uproar if they kill it so they’ll do just enough to keep on life support.
it ain’t coming back though, that’s clear enough.

Love Absynth.

Windows on ARM is here, so once people start buying those machines, Absynth 5 is dead there, as well unless they're going to want to run under emulation forever, Lol.

I don't have this installed anymore. Like I said above. Loom II can do the same types of sounds. There is no point in angsting over this. The GUI is unusable on HiDPI displays, anyways.