native instruments is cooked........

Hmm… now where did I see this before. Oh right, on that platform of Reddit filled with "haters", yet even they don't appreciate any of this nonsense given the downvotes.

First… I can't help but laugh at anyone who seems to take YouTubers seriously. All most Tubers care about is the views, attention and revenue that they hope will come from all of it. There are some exceptions of course (Hi Coffee!) but even they still have their own agendas.

Second… I also laugh out loud when seeing videos like this because it's so obvious that the person in question has no clue what they're talking about. And it's just so … dumb. And I say this not to try and insult, but because it's just so obvious that they're looking at the situation from their own narrow perspective without even bothering to even TRY and look at things from another angle.

Which makes them both stupid and utterly narrow minded in my opinion.

No, this isn't your usual "haters gonna hate" kinda comment. Lets break this stupidity down.

Working yourself out of the market

What do companies like Ableton (!!), Native Instruments (!) but also Reason Studios, iZotope, Steinberg, Cycling '74 and Bitwig studio (👎️) have in common? Pardon my biased emoji, let's just say I'm not a fan of Bitwig but I will take them seriously, especially in this rant of mine. And honestly? Yah, I dislike them, and you betcha that my Ableton favoritism is showing. But I also respect them, because dislike or not … they did manage to turn what I consider to be a stolen concept into something that is truly their own.

Back ontopic ⇒ all these companies are doing their utmost best …. to work themselves out of the market.

Why do you think that all of them provide you with major upgrade discounts? Live Suite edition sets you back E 599,-, but if you were to upgrade from a previous version then you're only paying approx. E 150,-. Komplete then… the Collectors Edition (!!!) sets you back E 1799,- (😲) but I can tell you from personal hands-on experience that it's also way worth it 😎 …not to mention that NI often provides major discount periods. But the normal upgrade… E 499,-.

So, here's the thing… why upgrade? 🤔

Seriously: why would you want to upgrade? New features you say? WHAT new features exactly? More importantly: what will those new features do for you?

My point? No worries, I'll spell it out for ya… serious companies are in it for the quality; companies like Native Instruments, Ableton, Image Line.. they will provide you with awesome features. But those always come with a (major) risk, for them, that you (as a customer) will no longer be interested in the next release.

We do realize that companies need revenue to continue working, right? We also (hopefully) DO realize that the awesome men and women working for companies like Native Instruments, Ableton, Image Line… yes, going on the record: also Bitwig Studios (!) … they all are trying to make a living, and want to support their employees too who are also trying to make a living for themselves.

And so here we are… media companies are still busy pushing out awesome updates with awesome new features and each and every time a new version comes out… the risk of potential customers not wanting to buy into the next release anymore is potentially shifting. And yet these companies are still going at it.

And what do some people do? Giving such companies ****** for all their honest efforts.

Way to go guys, I hope you're proud of yourselves. I have no doubt you are, considering the sheer display of ignorance.

The devil that is SaaS

Yes, Reason Studios.. I am thinking of you right now.

SaaS stands for: Software as a Service and it basicaly means.. you rent access to using software, usually on a monthly basis. And you get nothing for it in return. I mean, what are you going to do with those project files you may have created now that the working environment is gone after your subscription ran out?

Reason Studios even took this concept so far that they're actually hiding perpetual purchase options and pushing the subscription forward in every way they can. Yah, that seems to have caused quite a bit of backlash and things have somewhat toned down a little. But it does show us just how deperate (?) some companies apparently are. And let's be honest here.. can you really blame them? For the record: Reason Studios has also fallen out of my grace ever since they dropped support for ReWire and the push for SaaS also didn't really work for me.

… but that does not and should not make people ignore the amazing legacy they have (Hi Frank!).

Strength in numbers

So now we're finally getting to my main point… and more ontopic again. So what did Native Instruments do?

I'll tell you what they didn't do: they didn't try to push SaaS down our throats. In fact, they did something way more awesome… they tried to join forces and Soundwide was formed. Companies talked (so I assume!), data was analysed, analysis were made. And the conclusion was.. Native Instruments would be the overshadow.

Do you guys have any idea of the complexity of such endeavours? The involved effort, trying to keep things civil "within the ranks" and .. making it work?

Of course you don't! Otherwise you wouldn't be whining about all this.

Yah.. I still recall the fan talks in 2022.. oooh, NI was surely going to cave and we needed to ph33r because they were going all on out on rentals: the nasty SaaS virus would consume us all!

… fast forward to here and now. iZotope (mad respect! 🤘) has become part of NI. During the Soundwide period iZotope was already pushing SaaS. Lo and behold: I can now purchase Komplete 15, perpetual license, from their own website. Together with other awesomeness like, say, Music Production Suite? (seriously: that bundle is amazing! I got it myself, worked with it for a few years before I could afford .. everything).

Sure.. NI went 360 but you cannot deny the fact that perpetual.. takes precendence.

Disrespect?

For the record… I suppose I qualify to be considered a bit of an NI "fanboy". At the time of writing Komplete 13 UC (!) forms a major part of my setup, courtesy of the Maschine Mk3 which I use as my de-facto Komplete controller and all of this is rounded up in my Live 12 Suite edition home studio, powered by the awesome Komplete Audio 6 (Mk2).

Fanboy or not.. I think it's plain out disrespectful to see people whining about certain companies while they apparently don't even realize the facts at hand. I think it's stupid.

Let's just say that I see too many people upgrading to Windows 11, and then blaming companies like Native Instruments, Ableton, Image-Line and even Cockos when things suddenly don't go their way anymore...

And instead of looking into a mirror… people prefer the "modern route": putting the 'blame' on everyone and everything other than themselves.

Fun fact: it tells us more about you than the company you're ranting against.

IMO

An Ableton fanboys perspective…

Just for the record: I'm just as much an NI fanboy, as well as an Imagine Line ("FL Studio") fanboy 😎

Seriously though… Ableton and Cycling '74 have been working on mutual goals for years, this is also how "Max for Live" eventually became a thing. And now… Ableton took over the whole Cycling '74 company.

Here's the thing: if you'd go to the Cycling '74 website you wouldn't be the wiser at first. Everything works as it did before, it doesn't look as if Ableton is trying to plaster themselves all over.

Now let's look at what I consider to be the awesomeness in sound: iZotope. ONLY if you scroll all the way down will you notice the NI brand. HECK About iZotope still exists to this very day. And they are still "obsessed with great sound".

And I go on the record: if you ask me then the joined forces of Native Instruments ("awesome sounds creation") in combination with iZotope ("awesome sound processing") is a match made in audio heaven.

Yet "some people" still see the need to try and bite the hand that fed them?

Each to their own, really, but I also think some people don't recognize a fair deal even if it hits them in their face.

I wish I could take with any amount of salt. Native Access recent update bricked my content (which is a lot). I sent up a flare in the forums here where an @NI agent expedited my question to 'answered' status.

Basically spammed a link a couple of times and marked Answered.

Meanwhile, I've managed to troubleshoot on my own and have figured out, at least, some of the issue.

Fine for me, sure. I don't mind banging my head against a wall if the intent is a hole in it (the wall). But not a lot of folks in the music industry, at least on the "playing music" side of the spectrum are as savvy or insane when it comes to troubleshooting the hardware and software they rely on for creating their songs and whatnot.

I have the luxury of music as a hobby so, when my ****** goes down, I'm still able to bring home the bacon, albeit, with the added annoyance of having to fix my ****** (which I'm currently doing again, for the 3rd time since returning to NI and upgrading my hardware/software).

Lets not forget the excruciating ordeal of receiving my M+ bricked out of the box and having to endure a month long, back and forth with support (essentially as part of their Tech Support team, just not getting paid) until they FINALLY believed me (I guess) that the product I received was indeed DOA.

Imagine spending $1400 on a dud and then having to interact with tech support in a civil manner for 4 weeks… No partial reimbursement on the purchase. Hell, NI didn't even refund the Express Shipping I paid for from the initial order.. Que sera…

So yeah, praise singing??? I've done that for well over a decade with NI. If we Read the Runes ya'll, the writing may indeed be on the wall. And don't get me wrong. It would major suck because their content is some of the best in the industry (when its working) and I, personally, happen to be heavily invested, even for a music as a hobby guy.

ahhh, Some good points we're in the video made like it or not. I agree with alot of what he said. The facts are pretty obvious, unless you just don't want to admit that NI has taken on more than they can manage properly.

No one here would have posted any complaints. ;) Judging by our forum, we can see that's not the case.

I don't wanna join in some lets attack NI fan club, the guys on board are doing what they can, but to think NI management doesn't need to add a few more good developers to the staff, would be illogical. NI needs more man power end of story.