Considering Maschine+ instead of an MPC Live/X/One? Think..

EnochLight wrote:

Eyalc wrote:From the opposite perspective, a company is now poised to invest capital into the NI ecosystem, likely pushing it to the next level. And they don’t have the pressure of selling new units to generate that capital.

Make no mistake - NI absolutely are under pressure to sell new units in order to remain viable. That's certainly not lost on the new majority owner, nor the new CEO that replaced Daniel Haver. The new owners wouldn't have bought a majority share if they didn't see value in NI's current product line up (while also seeing plenty of room for growth).

That said, I can't see InMusic selling off Akai anytime soon - they know a money maker when they see it.

Sales is always essential to viability. But I wasn’t referring to that. Only referring to selling units to generate funding to support additional development. NI has runway now from the infusion of capital from the deal.

Industry rumors and some reports suggest that you give Akai too much credit. LOL. In two years we shall see. But I hear you.

So NI is getting a serious face lift with the backing of new money and new blood.
Stocks went up with investors saw Joe Biden to be president.
Mow this economy need to get to a great place. If people can't work them they can't spend to get things from any company.

EnochLight wrote:

Eyalc wrote:From the opposite perspective, a company is now poised to invest capital into the NI ecosystem, likely pushing it to the next level. And they don’t have the pressure of selling new units to generate that capital.

Make no mistake - NI absolutely are under pressure to sell new units in order to remain viable. That's certainly not lost on the new majority owner, nor the new CEO that replaced Daniel Haver. The new owners wouldn't have bought a majority share if they didn't see value in NI's current product line up (while also seeing plenty of room for growth).

That said, I can't see InMusic selling off Akai anytime soon - they know a money maker when they see it.

Eyalc wrote:Sales is always essential to viability. But I wasn’t referring to that. Only referring to selling units to generate funding to support additional development. NI has runway now from the infusion of capital from the deal.

Industry rumors and some reports suggest that you give Akai too much credit. LOL. In two years we shall see. But I hear you.

I guess to play devil's advocate, we can look at Propellerhead (which is now Reason Studios). A very similar thing happened to them - a venture capital group became a majority shareholder (they own it for all intent and purpose), the founding CEO stepped down and got replaced, and now Reason has become arguably a much better product since the takeover.

I'd wager NI may take a similar course. Maybe a new Maschine Plus ++ will appear that instantly addresses all of the OG's issues in a way that Akai never bothered getting around to.

Looks like NI about to do some damage in the near future. There are a lot of people that want offline activation if they do that again they could get that ecxtra dough.

Exactly! Like Reasons time stretch is ridiculous. The suite is crazy you can open it in other DAWs. Whomever thought of that is genius. Now they have make it so you can record in a DAW.

New blood is the key.

EnochLight wrote:
I guess to play devil's advocate, we can look at Propellerhead (which is now Reason Studios). A very similar thing happened to them - a venture capital group became a majority shareholder (they own it for all intent and purpose), the founding CEO stepped down and got replaced, and now Reason has become arguably a much better product since the takeover.

I'd wager NI may take a similar course. Maybe a new Maschine Plus ++ will appear that instantly addresses all of the OG's issues in a way that Akai never bothered getting around to.

EnochLight wrote:

Eyalc wrote:Sales is always essential to viability. But I wasn’t referring to that. Only referring to selling units to generate funding to support additional development. NI has runway now from the infusion of capital from the deal.

Industry rumors and some reports suggest that you give Akai too much credit. LOL. In two years we shall see. But I hear you.

I guess to play devil's advocate, we can look at Propellerhead (which is now Reason Studios). A very similar thing happened to them - a venture capital group became a majority shareholder (they own it for all intent and purpose), the founding CEO stepped down and got replaced, and now Reason has become arguably a much better product since the takeover.

I'd wager NI may take a similar course. Maybe a new Maschine Plus ++ will appear that instantly addresses all of the OG's issues in a way that Akai never bothered getting around to.

Yeah, I think the course could be similar, but the other line of thinking is also valid... it could result in a fire sale of NI assets in the next few years too, if not managed well. We shall see. But that infusion of capital *should* have some upside.

I don't know much about the company buying NI... but you see investment firms makes these kinds of plays in the US... laying off staff to make the business look profitable... move debt to the company so that the investment firm frees up resources... continues to squeeze the company... eventually sending off the company with toxic debt so that it ultimately goes into bankruptcy.

Not saying this is what is going on here... but would be disappointing to see that happen. Also probably a huge reason that In Music wouldn't have been a target, and Native Instruments looked so good... software is much easier to move to a service oriented business... nobody is going to pay a monthly or yearly fee to a hardware provider for music gear... but look at all the software companies... they are all moving to cloud/service models... it gives them far more control... a *very* long reaching revenue stream... and the profits almost always go up once you've got the customer base converted.

I've been working in both the hardware and software space for over twenty years... and the plays that I suspect to be made here will likely be fascinating to watch. My advice, pay attention to what happens to the NI hardware platforms... are they further embraced or are they pushed to the side... stay tuned for service based and subscription based models... watch for things like Reaktor or Kontakt to move to a freemium model... where the platform is commoditized in order to create a marketplace... the real question to ask yourself is what do you pay for and how much do you own versus the business own at the end of the day?

If anything, the new majority owner and CEO for NI will kickstart them getting things more polished and release a follow-up to Maschine+ that addresses all of its shortcomings - which in turn should keep Akai/InMusic on their toes and get us continued development of the MPC (which is really all we can hope for).

EnochLight wrote:If anything, the new majority owner and CEO for NI will kickstart them getting things more polished and release a follow-up to Maschine+ that addresses all of its shortcomings - which in turn should keep Akai/InMusic on their toes and get us continued development of the MPC (which is really all we can hope for).

Agree

NearTao wrote:I don't know much about the company buying NI... but you see investment firms makes these kinds of plays in the US... laying off staff to make the business look profitable... move debt to the company so that the investment firm frees up resources... continues to squeeze the company... eventually sending off the company with toxic debt so that it ultimately goes into bankruptcy.

Not saying this is what is going on here... but would be disappointing to see that happen. Also probably a huge reason that In Music wouldn't have been a target, and Native Instruments looked so good... software is much easier to move to a service oriented business... nobody is going to pay a monthly or yearly fee to a hardware provider for music gear... but look at all the software companies... they are all moving to cloud/service models... it gives them far more control... a *very* long reaching revenue stream... and the profits almost always go up once you've got the customer base converted.

I've been working in both the hardware and software space for over twenty years... and the plays that I suspect to be made here will likely be fascinating to watch. My advice, pay attention to what happens to the NI hardware platforms... are they further embraced or are they pushed to the side... stay tuned for service based and subscription based models... watch for things like Reaktor or Kontakt to move to a freemium model... where the platform is commoditized in order to create a marketplace... the real question to ask yourself is what do you pay for and how much do you own versus the business own at the end of the day?

Yes, this is the path that NI is on. EMH Partners, the majority owners sold their stake to Francisco Partners. Not sure what the transaction price was but EMH did invest 50+ Million Euro into NI. It's a wait and see thing for sure, but based off the past its not looking so good.

Reduce workforce: Check
Consolidate Platform: Check
Move to services: Check
New Investors: Check
Further reduce the workforce: N/A
Sell off parts of the company: N/A

i've been on maschine up to 1.8 iirc, it was nice, enjoyed it but mpc is mpc and i prefer to go live with no computer.
that said, the only reason i considered for a moment the maschine+ is the reaktor compatibility (huge fan of reaktor here, this year i started seriously messing with reaktor core level and the thing is a beauty), but it seems still far the day when you can have your own full reaktor patches on a standalone instrument. so, not interested at the moment, but curious about the future of the platform (if any). very happy with the mpc live mk1.

Here’s hoping they can get the price down on Maschine plus a bit.

As a heavy NI/NKS VI user, I had high hopes for the M+. Ultimately it fell short of what I needed. But if they drop an "X" version with an I/O upgrade, the ability to run all/most NI/NKS VIs and a touchscreen, I'm all over it.

But I'd also want to see an upgrade to the software. I just don't get why NI nor Akai seem interested in getting their software on par with DAWs. Especially NI who has a true ecosystem. All this time, they could have an Ableton equivalent by now. The MPC software has been out for a minute too.

Bezo wrote:As a heavy NI/NKS VI user, I had high hopes for the M+. Ultimately it fell short of what I needed. But if they drop an "X" version with an I/O upgrade, the ability to run all/most NI/NKS VIs and a touchscreen, I'm all over it.

But I'd also want to see an upgrade to the software. I just don't get why NI nor Akai seem interested in getting their software on par with DAWs. Especially NI who has a true ecosystem. All this time, they could have an Ableton equivalent by now. The MPC software has been out for a minute too.

Because people have been telling them they just want a featured sampler sequencer that works lol.I think there in the middle of what people want.Not specialist in either.

Anyway F””” MPC.........i got Maschine + now

hyena wrote:but it seems still far the day when you can have your own full reaktor patches on a standalone instrument.

What makes you think so, or what is missing? A couple of users have Ensembles from the User Library working on their M+. The only problem at the moment is to map all the controls to be able to create new patches from scratch.

In fact, IMHO, running Reaktor user ensembles standalone is actually the aspect which turns the M+ into a game changer and is way beyond a „Groove Box“.

I‘d expect the next NI hardware to be a standalone keyboard with the M+ guts. If they only incorporated Massive, it would already kill most of the currently available digital HW synths. Throw in Monark and watch analog/VA mono synth sales crumble. Add Reaktor with Blocks and every other synth is obsolete (except for some nostalgic emotions). That’s a huge potential.