Since my last update in February, we’ve been hard at work on new products, as well as important and long-awaited updates to some of our most-loved tools. I wanted to update you on what we’ve shipped, and give you a sneak peek at what’s coming next.
Superbooth
Superbooth, along with NAMM, is one of the highlights of our year. It’s great to connect with partners, customers, and collaborators and nerd out on the latest technology in music and audio production – in a really unique setting. Two highlights:
Arturia devices now integrate with NKS
Following the announcement of the NKS Hardware Partner Program at NAMM in January, at Superbooth we announced Arturia as our 6th controller brand. Owners of selected Arturia controllers (KeyLab Mk3, KeyLab Essentials Mk3 and MiniLab) will now find their controls mapped in Komplete Kontrol, and newly registered owners can claim a free copy of Komplete Select. Arturia has been a long-time NKS software partner, so it’s great they’re joining the NKS Hardware Partner program too.
Leap Builder Station
At Superbooth, Cris from our NKS Partnerships team ran workshops showing developers just how easy it is to build their own Leap Expansion. While building a full-blown Kontakt instrument means learning KSP and Komplete Script (our scripting language and front-end framework), building a Leap Expansion is about putting together 10 sets of 16 loops or one-shots that work well together, setting up send FX, perform FX and macros, and picking some cool artwork.
With Leap being built directly into Kontakt 8 – which is already being used by hundreds of thousands of people – instrument developers have a quick way to reach new audiences. And for our customers, it means more Leap Expansions that inspire creativity and help get new tracks off to a flying start.
Cris showing some developers just how easy it is to build a Leap Expansion at the NI Booth at Superbooth 2025
More for Maschine, and even more to come in 2025
Earlier this year, we said we’d have more updates coming to Maschine 3 software and Maschine+ this year.
Back in March, we shipped Maschine 3.1 which brought User Custom Chords – a highly requested community feature, as well as a number of other features like better DAW integration when using Maschine+in controller mode with Ableton Live.
Then, in June, we released Maschine 3.2 which brings Piano Roll lightguide support for NKS instruments and selected scales on NI hardware devices, MP3 export, and the ability to select different takes in the audio module in different patterns, as well as more bugfixes.
We also shipped a stability update for Maschine+(1.6.1) which improved stability and performance, added the Mod and Crush Pack effects, compatibility with Massive 1.7 and broader USB audio interface support. This release prepares the ground for us to bring Maschine 3 software to Maschine+later this year (see below for more on that).
This is all part of making Maschine an even better place to create beats by improving key elements of your workflow. I know these updates have been a long time coming – but I hope you can see the accelerated progress being made by the team in the last few months.
iZotope: Immersive Reverbs and Catalyst
As I teased last time, we’ve been thinking about how to serve immersive audio pros for a while. iZotope acquired Exponential Audio back in 2019, bringing their awesome Stratus and Symphony reverb plugins into our product suite. But these products were built on an old tech stack that was different to what the rest of the iZotope products are built on. This means they were becoming increasingly expensive – and eventually impossible – to maintain.
So we decided, instead of deprecating them, that we’d take the core awesome-sounding spatial reverb algorithms, migrate them to our modern supported plugin framework, which also enabled us to mix in some intelligent iZotope technology.
The result is a new product, iZotope Equinox which we launched back in April. It’s a premium spatial reverb which gives pros the ability to sculpt and craft their sound using controls which few other reverbs have.
We also recently launched Velvet, the 4th in our intelligent Catalyst-series of iZotope plugins – where each plugin does one job really well. Velvet is a 3-in-1 sibilance tool for smoother vocals that goes beyond what a basic de-esser does. I recently spent time in Nashville visiting studios and meeting customers, and it was cool to see how Velvet has already found a place in the workflow of every single producer we visited.
Plugin Alliance
The Plugin Alliance catalogue continues to grow. We added the Lindell Audio EQ825, Adptr Audio Utopia, Cut Classic High Flyer the Vertigo VSS-2 – and most recently a major update of Elysia’s flagship Alpha Compressor.
We released the Brainworx Mastering Studio as a free product. This awesome standalone tool lets you not only apply the classic Brainworx mastering algorithms to your tracks, but it also lets you process batches of files in one go. A major workflow upgrade for people who need to master a large number of tracks at the same time.
Finally, we updated our Plugin Alliance Pro subscription to include PA Perks which offers 20% off Adam Audio products, 30% off Sonarworks, 25% off Mix With the Masters membership, and 30% off the Safari Pedals Everything Bundle. Even more value for our loyal subscribers.
NI Instruments and Sounds
We’re continuing to develop sonic tools which not only sound great, but help people overcome creative blockers.
The latest product launch designed with this in mind is Circular – a creative polyphonic sequencer developed in collaboration with Frank Elting. Using Circular can start with a single note, but from there, it can evolve into something much more. This is one of those instruments which I’ve sat down to play with, and suddenly realised an hour has passed. Just a powerful, inspiring, creative tool.
As well as that, we released the next installment in our Scene series - Nightshade, two new Leap Expansions (Melodic Trap, Modern Latin), the Zona Ritmo expansion, and Electric Keys: Reeds Duo – a pair of classic reed-based pianos which along with Phoenix and Diamond round out our modern Electric Keys series.
Finally, we shipped Kontakt 8.4 – a free update which fixes a number of important bugs and adds a whole bunch of additional features for instrument builders which will show up in new NI and 3rd party Kontakt instruments over time.
So, what’s next?
Our teams have a packed roadmap and while there’s some things I can’t share just yet – here’s an idea of some new products and features you can expect from us in the next few months.
iZotope
Our first four iZotope Catalyst-series products have been really well received by our customers. Whereas Nectar, Neuron, Ozone and RX are like swiss-army knives for audio pros, the Catalyst series is a suite of intelligent plugins that each do one thing really well.
Following the launch of Velvet –we’ll soon release a 5th Catalyst-series product: a multi-effect plugin that can easily add drive, dimension, texture in specific frequencies by applying five powerful creative effects through the workflow of an EQ, all without complex routing, buses or sends.
On top of that, it’ll soon be time for the next major update to Ozone. The team have been hard at work developing cutting edge AI-powered DSP technology that can solve some sonic problems that really were impossible to rectify in the past. The feedback we’ve been getting from our highly-engaged Beta community is promising, so I can’t wait to share more in the coming months. This is shaping up to be one of the most innovative and compelling releases of Ozone ever.
Plugin Alliance
Following the success of Brainworx Audio’s reverb bx_aura back in 2024, the team are working on a follow up product that brings Brainworx’s signature sound to the world of delays. We’re also continuing to partner with some of the best pro-audio plugin developers in the world, and have new utilities from HEARS, plus more powerful tools from the likes of Shadow Hills in the works.
NI Synths
As I mentioned back in February, while 2024 saw major upgrades for Kontakt, 2025 is a year where you’ll see more from us in Synths.
First, we are working on chapter one of a bigger story for Massive X. While Massive X sounds amazing, it can be hard to use. Our killer product design team threw themselves at this problem, and later this year we’ll be introducing a new Massive X Player view for finding and expressively shaping sounds in a fast, simplified way. We’ve just finished a round of user testing and the participants loved the concept, and gave us ideas for how to make it even better which we’re now building into the experience ahead of the launch.
Second, we’re working on a big update to a much-loved synth product. Can’t say more at this stage, other than stay tuned.
Lastly, we are modernising several of our classic Reaktor synths as well as building some new ones, and all of these will be hosted as individual plugins in the DAW. Reaktor is great for building, but customers have told us that they would love to have quicker and more direct access to the instruments themselves. These won’t ship until next year, but I wanted to let the Reaktor developer community know that this is something we’re actively working on.
Maschine
As I mentioned above, later in July, we’ll bring Maschine 3 software to Maschine+. This long-awaited update takes the on-board version of Kontakt from v6 to v8 which, along with bounce-in-place, dramatically expands the range of content and workflows available on Maschine Plus.
This update has taken a bit longer to develop than expected, as it required deep integration work to ensure stability, performance, and compatibility across all existing projects. It also lays the foundation for Maschine+to receive future Maschine 3 updates more seamlessly going forward. Thank you for your patience.
And we’ve already started work on Maschine v3.3 where the focus is on… automation and expression. These are other areas where the demand from the community has been strong, and it’ll result in a big upgrade to what you can do in terms of workflow and performance in Maschine.
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I really appreciate the questions and engagement on my previous community updates back in Feb, and in March, June, and October last year. I hope you can see from this post and several other recent posts from our product team that we are investing more time and energy in listening to and engaging with you: our passionate and loyal community.
As always, I’ll do my best to answer the questions you post below over the next week.
Simon Cross
Chief Product & Technology Officer
Native Instruments - including iZotope, Brainworx, and Plugin Alliance
