Hello NI; We're Late for our Bi-Monthly Community Update...

BIF · 2025-05-09T14:59:00+00:00

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We're overdue for our bi-monthly update.

I'm especially sensitive to it because "radio silence" from NI has historically been a prelude to some product line being killed off. So that has put me on edge. It always does, and that's not my fault. Anyway, the last "community update" was in February and we're coming up on a 2-month gap now.

Add to that the unusual quietness from NI regarding any new hardware updates or progress. Komplete Kontrol is still missing features and we haven't even heard if Native still considers Maschine important enough to be getting new features or a new hardware iteration. This is also worrisome since the KK MK3 lost almost all cross-capabilities with Maschine (compared to KK MK2).

So when will @Simon_NI (or a delegate) be back to talk with us?

Tagging a few people in case you know of plans that were communicated while I was sleeping. 😏

@Matthew_NI, @Jeremy_NI

Thanks in advance.

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Matthew_NI

It should be noted that we do not do these on a specific cadence, per se.

We share news when there's relevant news to share.

This includes updates such as the March 2024, June 2024, October 2024, and February 2025 updates from @Simon_NI, for instance, or more localized updates such as the 2025 outlook @Chris_NI posted in January, regarding Kontrol and Maschine or indeed the NAMM 2025 update we posted around NAMM-time.

The updates from January and February covered a lot of ground, ground we continue to traverse.

For instance, the updates mentioned the NKS hardware partnership program, an expansion of which is being announced at Superbooth, while the deeper integration referenced in the original rollout continues to be under development.

They also mentioned "we’re continuing to make Kontakt faster and more reliable", as proven by Kontakt versions 8.2, 8.3 and (soon) 8.4 coming out in quick succession this year, which again is ongoing and will continue.

Regarding your comment "we haven't even heard if Native still considers Maschine important enough to be getting new features " … new features were explicitly mentioned, and some have since shipped.

Perhaps most pertinently, the February update included the heading "So, what's next?" which laid out much of our year ahead, including:

New iZotope products, several of which have been released recently (more to come)
More Maschine updates, several of which have also been released, with more to come
The aforementioned focus for Kontakt, namely the "move to shipping updates every month or two – with a continued focus on performance and reliability improvements, not just new user-facing features."
More Plug-in Alliance products
More Synths.
More Traktor

So on and so forth.

I'd really like to emphasize that while some of us are engaged in the forum on a weekly basis, and that yes we may well be working on upcoming communications, blog posts, and so on, it was only 10-ish weeks ago that we provided an extensive review of the roadmap.

If you were to re-read that post, you'd see that not only have we already delivered much of what we said we would deliver, but that there's still a lot of other stuff we're still working on.

Again, it's only been a few weeks. Quotes such as this, from our February update…

It’s too early to share the rest of our plans, but I’m super jazzed about what the team is cooking up – including bringing some innovative new features to our synth products later this year.

… are still in progress as of early May

Please don't get too conspiratorial here :-)

Matthew_NI

Regarding your comment about "radio silence"

… I'd simply point to the sheer volume of releases and releases notes that we've shipped in the first four months of this year as the opposite of radio silence - rather, that's us meeting the commitments we outlined in the 2025 lookahead posts!

PoorFellow

Perhaps most pertinently, the February update included the heading "So, what's next?" which laid out much of our year ahead, including:
New iZotope products, several of which have been released recently (more to come)
More Maschine updates, several of which have also been released, with more to come
The aforementioned focus for Kontakt, namely the "move to shipping updates every month or two – with a continued focus on performance and reliability improvements, not just new user-facing features."
More Plug-in Alliance products
More Synths.
More Traktor

Really looking forward to see what is coming…

All comments

Matthew_NI

It should be noted that we do not do these on a specific cadence, per se.

We share news when there's relevant news to share.

The updates from January and February covered a lot of ground, ground we continue to traverse.

Regarding your comment "we haven't even heard if Native still considers Maschine important enough to be getting new features " … new features were explicitly mentioned, and some have since shipped.

Perhaps most pertinently, the February update included the heading "So, what's next?" which laid out much of our year ahead, including:

New iZotope products, several of which have been released recently (more to come)
More Maschine updates, several of which have also been released, with more to come
The aforementioned focus for Kontakt, namely the "move to shipping updates every month or two – with a continued focus on performance and reliability improvements, not just new user-facing features."
More Plug-in Alliance products
More Synths.
More Traktor

So on and so forth.

If you were to re-read that post, you'd see that not only have we already delivered much of what we said we would deliver, but that there's still a lot of other stuff we're still working on.

Again, it's only been a few weeks. Quotes such as this, from our February update…

It’s too early to share the rest of our plans, but I’m super jazzed about what the team is cooking up – including bringing some innovative new features to our synth products later this year.

… are still in progress as of early May

Please don't get too conspiratorial here :-)

Matthew_NI

Regarding your comment about "radio silence"

BIF

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/225545#Comment_225545

Thank you; I guess I jumped the gun there.

"Please don't get too conspiratorial here :-)"

Sorry. But NI kind of created this in some of us customers over all the years. I'm trying hard to reform, but I've been trained very well by the loss of products and features over the last 20+ years.

PoorFellow

Perhaps most pertinently, the February update included the heading "So, what's next?" which laid out much of our year ahead, including:
New iZotope products, several of which have been released recently (more to come)
More Maschine updates, several of which have also been released, with more to come
The aforementioned focus for Kontakt, namely the "move to shipping updates every month or two – with a continued focus on performance and reliability improvements, not just new user-facing features."
More Plug-in Alliance products
More Synths.
More Traktor

Really looking forward to see what is coming…

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