Native Instruments GmbH is in preliminary insolvency • Hacker News Board

Re: Native Instruments GmbH is in preliminary insolvency

#11

Post by olafmol » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

_fzslm wrote: post #6

How much of this is the consequence of piracy? So many musicians use NI VSTs, but because of the expense they're pirating. What if they'd targeted the hobby musician more?

Almost nothing i assume. NI really lost the plot several years ago when the original founders left the company. Crappy after-sales support, lack of product vision and corresponding crappy execution, and a ton of technical debt all over their product-range. Plus competitors made better/right moves, came alongside, and then moved faster and better, leaving NI in the dust. It's sad to see a company that once was leading in several categories now in this state.

Re: Native Instruments GmbH is in preliminary insolvency

#12

Post by IndySun » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 9:53 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #4

techblueberry wrote: post #2

The changing economics of soft synths seems to have made NI this weird case of like reverse enshittification that is still enshittification. There products are probably better than ever. But like from their marketing material: "Komplete 15 Standard includes over 95 premium instruments and effects, over 50 Expansions, and more than 50,000 sounds. Get to know some of the highlights below." 10 years ago their complete h…

> There products are probably better than ever. I would say only Kontakt and Guitar Rig are in good shape. Reaktor is abandonware at this point. Massive X is still lacking basic features. Absynth 6 is basically a new GUI over the old engine from 2009. Etc.

There were recent rumours of a Reaktor update. Reaktor still sounds out of this world. I use a fair amount still, it never ceases to amaze.

Some corp will likely buy. And all the NI sounds will get absorbed into music generation via AI, alas and hooray.

Re: Native Instruments GmbH is in preliminary insolvency

#13

Post by mycall » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 2:55 AM UTC

IndySun wrote: post #12

pier25 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There products are probably better than ever. I would say only Kontakt and Guitar Rig are in good shape. Reaktor is abandonware at this point. Massive X is still lacking basic features. Absynth 6 is basically a new GUI over the old engine from 2009. Etc.

There were recent rumours of a Reaktor update. Reaktor still sounds out of this world. I use a fair amount still, it never ceases to amaze. Some corp will likely buy. And all the NI sounds will get absorbed into music generation via AI, alas and hooray.

I dream of a day when some Reaktor/Max LLM can start producing all kinds of random instruments and patches.

Re: Native Instruments GmbH is in preliminary insolvency

#14

Post by Aldipower » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 8:36 AM UTC

audixdude wrote: post #5

sillyfluke wrote: post #3

Any current or former NI people? Penny for your thoughts.

Honestly, internally everyone has seen this coming. The company has gone to shit ever since private equity has been involved. Surprise, surprise, if you replace most of the c level executives with people that have no clue of the unique space that Native Instruments and its brands operate in, things start to go downhill. There are still a bunch of very skilled and passionate people working there, but NI really needs t…

So, basically a disrespect of company culture from the new management? Had that too in another company I've worked for and this was part of the reasons why it went downhill. Employees are not willing to do innovation anymore and for whom?