Now that Akai dropped MPC Keys when will there be Maschine + Komplete Kontrol Keys?

trusampler
trusampler Member Posts: 72 Helper
edited November 2022 in Maschine

Obviously this will be the next iteration of the Maschine/Komplete Kontrol family one would tend to believe based on the market, and how companies do business vs inventing original instruments anymore.


Anyways when you do this NI please give us full pads, and AFTERTOUCH WITH MPE!

Make Layering EASY ! Browsers decent, but please don't forget to add a script for making NKS with 3rd party Vsts..


That's all, and don't skimp on the actual keybed! I don't care what it costs.

Comments

  • Flexi
    Flexi Member Posts: 366 Pro
    edited November 2022

    Good for you that you don't care what it costs, the rest of the world does, especially right now, and this is very unlikely to happen at any cost.

    1 Maschine software is not even in the ballpark when it comes to keyboards, NI have nowhere near as a big a catalogue of synths and effects running in standalone, like Akai do, yes NI are known as higher quality than AIR (Which is false) but they do not have the infrastructure in place to port plugins to a standalone Maschine/Kontrol, or indeed a standalone Maschine/Kontrol that could actually run these hungry desktop plugins.

    2 MPC Keys has not actually sold that well because of the cost, and is outsold by the much cheaper MPC range, notice here the word range, again, NI do not have the infrastructure in place to put out a range of standalones, they released one, and it gets very few to no updates, and is outsold by the hybrid counterparts MK3/Mkro.

    3 Soundwide, the elephant in the room, NI are not NI, they are now NI that is part of a VC portfolio called Soundwide, Soundwide make all the decisions, right now nobody knows what their plans are for NI, Traktor is still very much on the open market for purchase by another developer (Unlikely, because it is so out of date) and the rest of the range will either become legacy or slowly get updated to keep them alive for a few years longer at least, but very little in the NI portfolio is getting major updates or upgrades at this point, again, nobody knows if this will change, but the economy of the world is not exactly booming right now, development funds are scarce.

    Apple Silicon and VST3 should be celebrated a lot when it is completed, it puts a few years on the Mac versions of any of the software and a long long long time on Windows versions.

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,811 mod
    edited November 2022

    I wouldn't be so sure that an NI standalone keyboard would be released alongside a major update, the only time that happened was with the M Studio in 2013 so If they do release a keyboard I would expect it to be just as the M+ has been...

    From my experience as a longtime user, new HW doesn't fix what matters for most of us and the smart approach would be to release the SW features people want on their M+ and only then permanently sticking some keys to it.


    @Flexi said:

    3 Soundwide, the elephant in the room, NI are not NI, they are now NI that is part of a VC portfolio called Soundwide, Soundwide make all the decisions.

    All the higher-ups in Soundwide except for the CEO are from both NI and iZotope; officially both companies "operate independently", only Brainworx and Plugin Alliance were actual acquisitions but NI and iZo seem more like a merger of sorts so It doesn't look like those 2 companies just lost decision making power entirely, and if they did... that's not necessarily bad.

    Idk know business enough to try to predict how this will affect NI but I like the fact that SoundWide announced Sound Stacks since the folks behind that created JUCE (C++ application framework) and SoundWide is hiring C++ devs right now with a fancy video and all, so they prob need a lot of devs (?)... This gives me some hope that the focus will be SW instead of shiny new HW constantly with the same issues.

  • Peter Harris
    Peter Harris Member Posts: 470 Pro

    I will take my M+ with my connected S49 keyboard over the MPC Keys any day.

  • Flexi
    Flexi Member Posts: 366 Pro
    edited November 2022

    Yeah you might be wrong, word from people working at NI is fransisco partners have been making the decisions now for a long time, and that seems to hold true at Izotope too, who seemingly remove features, change the UI and charge for an update nowadays, and anyway, the people who used to make decisions at NI are not even there anymore. (Honestly, I refuse to say that is a bad thing, it has been a long time since NIs haydays of great stanalone effects releases etc etc, but Maschine has been mistrested by them for soooooo long anyway)

    There was no merger of NI and Izotope, that was wordplay, both owned by Francisco partners, then wordplay was aquisitions so that forming the sounwide group sounded bigger and bolder, this is just marketing blurb, it is a VC portfolio held by francisco partners, by the way i am not judging this at all, InMusic changed Akais fortunes for the better, I had hoped they would aquire NI, InMusic is basically a mega huge VC portfolio, so who knows how this plays out.

    Also I actually know Jules who created JUCE, hiring him means nothing, trust me on this, the guy is super super versatile and flexible, he could have been hired to create databasses hahaha, I would suggest he may have been hired to create some new way for them to rent plugins per use from online servers, just a guess but look at the PA model currently, subscription and rental seems likely to me, imagine something like splice for plugins, so say you need a reverb in a particular song, you load one from the server and pay 50p or whatever that is in your currency, it always works in that song, but if you want to use it in another song, another 50p, people will scream at how terrible this is, and I agree, but trust me, that is the next big goal for these music investment companies, making sure you own nothing and pay forever.

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,811 mod
    edited November 2022

    "Word from people @ NI ?" - What people? What's your source? Who was making decisions that is not there anymore? Constantin moved to Image-Line but that was very recent.

    What I said is public info, (source), but as you say what is put out there and reality might be different, no way to know unless someone from the inside confirms it.

    Well, the subscription thing for plugs is already a thing with K-Now, if it's a bundle or single-use plugs wouldn't make much difference in terms of monetization direction. Dang, it I was trying to be optimistic for a change and you ruined it 😂 😁 jk.

  • trusampler
    trusampler Member Posts: 72 Helper
    edited November 2022


    With the focus on a platform strategy, do users need to be concerned about support for and investment in existing products?

    We are fully committed to our existing brands Komplete, Maschine and Traktor. The reason why we are focusing on a platform strategy is actually to improve the experience for all users of our products. We strongly believe that by improving accessibility and usability of our portfolio, we will be able to provide an enhanced and more cohesive experience, both for existing and new customers. Rather than releasing more and more products, we want to ensure that users are getting the most out of our current products through a connected and unified experience.

    Will Native Instruments continue to release integrated hardware?

    Creating deeply integrated experiences between hardware and software remains at the core of our vision. However, we want to deliver more value to users of our hardware by implementing new features in the software that will allow for a better overall experience of our ecosystem. Mate Galic, Native Instruments’ Chief Innovation Officer and President.

  • Flexi
    Flexi Member Posts: 366 Pro
    edited November 2022

    Yeah I am not giving out names, there are a bunch of discords around for NI products, join them all, you will come across a few staffers, that is all I am going to say, I am not putting anybodys job at risk for a flippant forum comment ;) (Or PM me and we will chat)

  • Flexi
    Flexi Member Posts: 366 Pro
    edited November 2022

    You are quoting Mate Galic who hasn't been in charge for many years.

    And it does look from Soundwides info like non of that original team is even involved with Soundwide.

    So Mate/Daniel/Constantine gone, does that not qualify as people who made decisions all gone?

  • D-One
    D-One Moderator Posts: 2,811 mod
    edited November 2022

    Oh... That's interesting. I thought you were talking about some public interview or such; in that case then well.. of course, no names! Is your POV also the same for iZo? As far as decision-making goes?

  • Flexi
    Flexi Member Posts: 366 Pro

    No, Izotope seemingly have a seat at the table, and everything seems to boil down from Izotope, I think they are viewed as the poster child for how it should be, in terms of business model, regular (Yearly) paid updates, no matter if it is actually an update or a downgrade, discontinue products, but carry on selling them via 3rd parties etc, Izotope have a few reputations right now, some good some bad, true or not, most people who are not invested in NI are looking in at NI just see them as an IP sell off waiting to happen.

  • trusampler
    trusampler Member Posts: 72 Helper

    Ok so just more soundpacks then, thanks!

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