iZotope, Brainworx, and Plugin Alliance are now part of NI

Kaiwan_NI · 2023-06-14T13:38:20+00:00

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Kaiwan_NI

iZotope, Brainworx, and Plugin Alliance are becoming part of Native Instruments.

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nightjar

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/77748#Comment_77748

From D-One quote: I also dislike with passion the obsession with emulating old analog gear, especially the UI's, it's the same things over and over and over again,

This x1000!

PoorFellow

What will this mean for me ?

Will the fact that I have several plugins already give me any benefits with respect to discount on software packages , upgrades , and so on when under the N.I. umbrella !?

604way

So what's the subscription cost for all this going to be...

nightjar

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/77794#Comment_77794

Well, I hope there is an OPTION for those who want it. Brand new users might be more inclined to dive deep into this new unified ecosystem if they can use a broad range of all the products without a huge upfront cost.

And users (like me) who already own Komplete 14 CE and iZotope Music Production Suite 5 might be very happy to welcome an "add-on" subscription that lets us enjoy all the new products as they are released rather than wait years for version level bundle upgrades.

Please, please, please!

I wish I WAS one of those new users that hadn't already spent thousands and thousands of dollars on NI and iZotope products. I'd sign up day one for a sub!

Think77

In the best of all worlds, in the future they will all share the same code base making the whole plugin series more responsive to new OS’es and so on. Right now, PA/Brainworx plugins don’t even work under MacOS Ventura (1 year later) with Logic, while NI and Izotope do.

I own Komplete 14 CE and LOTS of Izotope and PA/bx stuff.

Vagus

I did a tiny bit of research, because I was bored. Since SF Partners bought into NI, almost all senior leadership has left NI & iZotope. They've gone to Image-line and others.

The only searchable person, is Rob Singer, who is now CEO. Zero experience in running a music techonoly company. (I don't call being part of the team that created a popular Karaoke app, experience).

The next 12 months will be important for the group, but they might also be important to the 2-3m NI customers.

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/78392#Comment_78392

Thank you for your post which I found most interesting and spurred my own digging into the subject.

But I do not understand your SF Partners reference. From what I can see then the majority stakeholder groups name is Francisco Partners (does not say San Francisco !?)

Also say that : Native instruments is now part of Soundwide ! , quote : "Soundwide (formerly Music Creation Group, which was a combination of Native Instruments and iZotope)" .

Also , I honestly have given up of finding out exactly who is in charge of what ! You may not understand that before reading the whole article "What Exactly Is Soundwide?" , it's so stuffed with info that I honestly just gave up trying to digest it all...

Reference:

What Exactly Is Soundwide? :

https://futuremusic.com/2022/04/26/what-exactly-is-soundwide/

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Instruments

and

https://www.franciscopartners.com/investments/soundwide

MLARS

To NIs credit this sound a bit clearer than before but the sister companies still has to make great sounding and class leading presentable products - preferably with great hardware and software integration and good crossgrades and bundling for users to get excited. A logic and attractive cohesion to the portfolios that customers understand and like. Just adding a bunch of old plugins with aging presentation to Komplete does not necessarily show that strenght and may not sell any bundles. Right now I dont see this working so well.

All the organization stories with people leaving does not sound great and may lead to customers to find other products and brands that are aligning better than NI does at the moment.

Honestly not sure how well this strategywill work short term - it takes years to build great brand loyalty adding Native instruments at the bottom does not help right now if product portfolio feels messy, weak or maybe even the wrong target audience.

Personally I am more excited for other plugins and libraries from other makers than these companies, with the exception of maybe iZotope.

As an owner of Komplete Collector's Edition and iZotope's production suite I have no interest in a subscription and hope the bundle experience stays where I can upgrade at my own pace. Important NI continues to support the loyal customer base who may be looking elsewhere if things changes in the wrong direction.

BOYRICH

lets get live stem separation on traktor asap honestly its a big pain not having it now that ive used it on other platforms it makes DJing feel limited now. i chose traktor because the software could do much more then serato or virtual DJ but now it just seems like its behind and playing catchup

Paule

Myself like the brand Native Instruments more than soundwide.

Thanks to your head of NI for rechanging! 🙂

Ikatxu

Benn Jordan just released an interesting YouTube video titled "The Venture Capital Buyout of Music Production", large part of which is about the Native Instruments merger and Francisco Partners, the venture capital firm that holds a majority stake in NI since 2021. He makes some interesting predictions that in the core boil down to the idea that FP is looking to cut costs and bundle up things and exit their investment with a profit. Most interesting prediction is that he belives NI/FP is looking to acquire Spitfire Audio and bundle it up to a subscription service (an acquisition that he thinks would be a terrible one).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_Aq3pCtsZo

These are of course just predictions, but I would not be the least bit surprised, considering that in recent years NI has clearly moved away from innovation and more and more towards a company built around Kontakt Sample Libraries (a market that will most likely be wiped out by physical modelling within 5 years).

D-One

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/80608#Comment_80608

Benn has been becoming one of my favorites on youtube since the MPC Keys controversy, one of the very few who's not afraid to burn relationships with companies by being honest, most seem scared of stopping their stream of free stuff from companies.

That was the most informative and saddest piece of content I've seen on the subject... Invest, make it look more valuable than it is and exit the investment with a pocket full of cash and leave a mess for someone else to try to solve. 😬

nightjar

Thanks for sharing this link to Benn Jordan. His earlier video on the Expressive E Osmose was a great watch too.

https://youtu.be/77zKAr9-b-s

Ikatxu

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/80636#Comment_80636

I completely agree. He has probably lost a lot of potential sponsorship deals, but in return is able to make some of the most informative and thought provoking content on musician Youtube.

And yeah, it is kind of a saddening thought, and Benn is most likely right, since that is how venture capital firms operate. It is hard to imagine the current owners of the company having the same vision as Stephan Schmitt and Volker Hinz when creating Native Instruments, or even a genunine passion in music technology for that matter, when they also own Ruggs USA and Pet Circle.

emasters

Perhaps with Native Instruments' and iZotope's help, Plugin Alliance can fix the product defect(s) that make is such that users can no longer run PA products when using Logic with Mac OS Ventura. Really a show-stopper for many, including myself. A benefit from the combined technical brain-trust -- make it such that Mac/Logic customers can once again purchase and use PA products.

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