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Native Instruments Kontakt - Future developments?

homie

homie

Active Member
Last year i bought several Kontakt libraries being fairly sure the Kontakt engine will be around forever. But now i see all kind of new proprietary players pop up everywhere and comments like this:

Quantum Leap said:
Developers made their own players to gain full control over their product and copy protection and for other good reasons. Everyone is doing it now because there is talk that Kontakt won’t be supported forever. I hope that’s not true, but that’s the word.
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Since i'm not interested in all these new players/romplers i'm eager to have some clarification on the future of Kontakt.
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They must challenge their profit motive a bit and give these other developers a better offer. RnD on Kontakt cannot cost that much, nor the server space ... It is about the best there is and the most fun to browse... but like many big companies they are too slow to innovate at this stage. If the next update does not include the ability to work well on 4k with Presonus etc ... lack of ability to willingness to keep with the times
 
I think it would take years if/when Kontakt is no longer supported, especially considering the thousands of professional users out there (100K+ maybe?). I wouldn't be concerned by any means. Nick Phoenix is merely relaying a rumour he'd heard. And even if it stopped, you'd be migrated to NI's new player along with the other developer's players (just like OT did with SINE).
 
Many good points made so far.

That Francisco Partners involvement makes me really nervous though.
 
Of course it is. As is everything! Nothing in this world lasts forever, yet alone digital products. They all have a lifecycle, a lifespan, and will eventually be replaced by something new. It will probably be around for some time still, especially for smaller developers, but the bigger ones are certainly moving to their own players for a reason. And some of them even bring on smaller devs with them to their new platforms. I think we’ll most likely see more of those kinds of collaborations. Kontakt may be the industry standard for professionals, but 90% of the market is not professionals but newcomers and hobbyists. The barrier of entry to something like the spitfire player, or SINE player is certainly much lower. :)
 
Kontakt is an absolute cash cow for NI. Not only selling the application itself, but all the libraries they own outright, or collect a cut from when they sell them on their website. It's gotta be tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Ain't nobody gonna pull the plug on that. ;)
 
Didn't they just launch a subscription service that includes loads of Kontakt instruments? Why would they stop supporting Kontakt now when they just built a new SaaS business model around it (not to mention all the existing users and libraries)? What evidence is this "talk" based on?
 
mybadmemory said:
Of course it is. As is everything! Nothing in this world lasts forever, yet alone digital products. They all have a lifecycle, a lifespan, and will eventually be replaced by something new.
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Sure, but what about our old project files which won't open correctly anymore? In the digital world it's perfectly possible to maintain backwards compatibility. I fear companies cutting corners there. But it's at least as important as innovation imo.
 
Mike Greene said:
Kontakt is an absolute cash cow for NI. Not only selling the application itself, but all the libraries they own outright, or collect a cut from when they sell them on their website. It's gotta be tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Ain't nobody gonna pull the plug on that. ;)
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This!

And if you look at the latest ProjectSAM update, you see what kontakt still is capable of.
The new Symphobia GUI is one of the smoothest, cleanest, most enjoyable experience, one can get from a VI.
No ballast, everything is there you wanna to have it.
 
AndrewS said:
While a lot of developers are bringing their own samplers into production, you really do have to consider the source on that quote.
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Given who the source is I personally think it's likely to be very well sourced.
 
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homie said:
Sure, but what about our old project files which won't open correctly anymore? In the digital world it's perfectly possible to maintain backwards compatibility. I fear companies cutting corners there. But it's at least as important as innovation imo.
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I think you'll have gone through a few computers and major DAW updates before that happens.
 
AndrewS said:
Undoubtedly. However, it is an opinion espoused by someone with a significant vested interest in a non-Kontakt sampler, so it's hard to view as unbiased.
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That same player happens to have been divorced from Kontakt for over a decade. EW are well established already. I don't see the point of him making a comment like that for what? Shits and giggles?


At least ask yourself this... What cut of the action does NI get from a "quickload" library that doesn't require that developer to go through NI for a license? Nothing obviously...


I don't necessarily see it being unlikely if NI did something like keep Kontakt Player around for non-subscribers, but make something like a "Kontakt Pro" version that required a subscription. That happens to be the same move Izotope made who are now under the same umbrella.
 
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