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garyb wrote: Wed Feb 18, 2026 7:41 am corporate ownership in itself is neither good nor bad, but musicians certainly thrived without it in the past. there's no reason that they could not thrive in the present.

true that !

garyb wrote: Wed Feb 18, 2026 7:41 am ... it takes Budweiser(not the guy on the internet forum) ...

valis wrote: Wed Feb 18, 2026 6:59 am Question, in the absence of corporate ownership do you think the musicians would suffer or thrive?

This question is SO central and so smart, it is the BLOOD of the body here!

My answer would be: Yes, for sure we do need them.

But... why the word "corporate" should always be attached to this particular kind of people, that is, cold, difficult, materialistic, with a lack of sensitivity to art and extremely covetous for money. Of course, people like that do not represent the musician's approach to life, its interests and ways, that is why, perhaps, it is time for musicians themselves to get into these kind of topics and become the "corporate-musician" kind of person. We could be the corporation itself. I understand that doing that today it's easier than ever before, due to AI and many organizational corporate apps we have at hand.

We have the example of Miles Davis, (different context sure), that, being a black man, he went against the whole industry and started to do things by his own rules and hands with a pretty high success, economically speaking.

Funny, I just posted this on the DSP563000 community discord:

Interesting background on the RIAA filter, that's the same group of lawyers (really a lobbying group) that sued Napster users etc. In the peak of the Big Band Radio era, they used patents on the phonograph RIAA filter as a method to gatekeep who could record and thus be given airtime on radio. Miles Davis has to go to Texas to record as he was blocked in NYC at one point. The rest is history

"First thing we do..."

Ie, the filter is not just an EQ curve but also an impedance correction from what comes off of the needle to what most line inputs require.

AI will soon generate software on the fly, while I expect this will not replace all commercial software, it will make what you an already do yourself by visiting github and using open source software locally significantly easier and more widespread. The corporate ownership in that case would be the model provider, whether a large platform like Claude/ChatGPT or the entities making the hardware you host open source models on.

A huge divestment in SAAS (Software As A Service) has just happened to reduce valuation across the board, I doubt this was the only factor in NI's insolvency considering how the parent entity used them to swoop up Plugin Alliance and Izotope (as well as hire devs who were hungry). But they are certainly going to be aware of this. So it remains to be seen what the response to this will be by the industry.

I'll add my AI related note (because it overlaps with corporate ownership in obvious ways), but suffice it to say that big things are coming whether we want them to or not, and the more we engage with them the more we can participate in steering the outcomes.

Bud Weiser wrote: Wed Feb 18, 2026 8:04 am

garyb wrote: Wed Feb 18, 2026 7:41 am corporate ownership in itself is neither good nor bad, but musicians certainly thrived without it in the past. there's no reason that they could not thrive in the present.

true that !

Compounding the Corporate issue is a generational one.

How do you convince this generation to make music sound better when they don't hear anything wrong with what's there ..

The things that make you and me frown up about todays music makes them smile!

Likewise with todays Audio Gear. When it comes to one button AI Effects that do all the work for you we frown up at this but younger generations love it and smile from cheek to cheek.

Time will tell what's what. It always does!

In the year 1999, when I started using these DAW technologies, that is, Pusar I and Cubase 3.1 (if I remember well) with 3 basic VST synths I could get in those days, it was already amazing for me! Wow, what a joy, immense happiness I had with those toys! Then, in the year 2000 I've got a magnificent reverb made by one of us here, don't remember his name sorry, but this guy was part of the Creamware team, a German friend, you had to route it through Pulsar as it was not a VST.

Then years passed by, I changed my PC many times, tried other DAWs, came back to Cubase forever and what I'm capable of doing with what I have today with my powerful DAW is so..., so..., so amazing..., that I could live in this very point forever, even if I had 10.000 years ahead with this body that today contains my soul.

I honestly, don't need anything else but sit there and compose.

I do believe that, (it is not just a theory but a fact observed in the realm of all creative arts by decades), if you have way more than needed, if you are overwhelmed with new things to learn and use, you tend to be more distracted, you dissolve your creativity like sugar in water without even realizing it, you don't have momentum anymore. Momentum is something you can developed and build, but you need to be really focused on, the more you focus, the closer it is to you, whenever you need it, so much that you can compose at anytime, everyday.

Restrictions in the field of your DAW tools are a wise path to take and, contrary to what most younger musicians seems to believe, having trillions of sounds at hand to choose from, is less, not more. Restrictions are a way to concentrate your mind and energy in music instate of technology, you definitely do more having less options. I do believe in the concept of: "Jack of all trades, master of none", to whatever extend it might be, but it happens for real, it is nothing but mathematics, it's not a sentimental concept, it is related to what is available in real life, it is a mathematical fact.

Why do I say so? Because I did lose time having so much at hand at a given point in my life, until I undertook my own mental treachery and stopped willing to have everything.

There are, in the world of music, special categories of people, like it happens with so many programmers that are related to music, but they are mainly programmers, not musicians. Their real interest is in technology and they enjoy going that path, that's great, but that is different, I an relate to them and their feelings easily and love this kind of people. They approach music in a different way and are great creating new things, instruments, VSTs, etc., let it be, that is very valuable, but..., if your interest and tendency is music, to create music, you need to cut and clear the field in which you move, so you can protect your creativity from being washed away by the waters of technology.

This has been a fact for me, I experienced it myself, because my interest, (even if I like and enjoy technology), technology is not my focus, but music. I don't want to become a researcher of new technology, like we sometimes do, I only care about music, and I want to create as much music as possible before my life is over.

It is a proven fact that you will produce proportionally in regard to how much time and energy you spend and how you spend it. If you were to play guitar everyday for several hours, you will become a very good player, it is almost sure, but if you were to play 15 instruments everyday, you will play them all yes sure, but you will not be real good at any, so, master of none.

I wish the best for the industry that has given us such jewels, such enormous happiness, I wish for those amazing programmers at Native Instruments, Izopote, etc., to keep going with their fantastic job, but I, personally, don't need anything else at this point, but sitting there a compose for the rest of my life.

Note that if having cool tools are plenty because all that was needed, my music would’ve sold millions a long time ago. And if mastery of those tools was all that was needed, I would have been there over a decade ago.

For some things, there aren’t no shortcuts, not even with AI. I think we all agree on that.

For me, music and money have nothing to do with each other, not in my world at least. The world and its values have done this liaison over time, but art itself, in all its expressions and forms, (like music), does not depend on money to exist and least of all to be good and valuable, on the contrary, where there is lots of money involved the tendency is for art to become a "commercial" pursuit, it gets no deeper or more genuine because of money, it is not a step farther into sincerity or anything like that, no candid thoughts here. If you earn money because of art, that's fine, bless you are, but it is not a seal of authenticity or value at all, money does not equal natural inspiration, it is "interest". There are countless great musical groups that started being genuine and super creatively artistic and, over time, due to contracts and money in between, they totally lowered they quality and creative inspiration of their music becoming mainstream bland junk, they got lost in the path. There are hundreds of examples to call out, and very few who rejected money and embraced creativity instate.

This very thread is about the same thing, but in regard to the tools used to create music, it is exactly the same problem above described. "Money" is the true spoiler here, if money was not involved, (let us just imagine this utopia), Native Instruments would have created much better tools for musicians, they would have updated their products fewer times, (something everybody does for the money and not for real needs in many cases, like it happens with Cubase), the tools would be extremely creative and, perhaps, without much hype or fancy additions.

Music is music and money is money.

I would never measure the success of a composer or musician through his wealth, but for his music. I know composers that do amazingly beautiful pieces of music, nobody knows them and they do not earn money through music, nevertheless, they are way ahead creatively speaking.

On a brighter note Analog Devices seem to be doing ok these days
https://seekingalpha.com/news/4553128-a ... -estimates

That Comfyui granular rig you have going Valis, is a beautiful thing. Thanks for sharing

Looks like the VC firm that invested and then pushed huge growth led them into acquisition:

https://blog.native-instruments.com/upd ... arch-2026/

valis wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2026 3:22 am Looks like the VC firm that invested and then pushed huge growth led them into acquisition:

https://blog.native-instruments.com/upd ... arch-2026/

Well, I´ve read this yesterday and in fact, it doesn´t mean anything except it moves forward the way it always does by german law and when there is insolvency in the ballpark.
So,- all these speculation threads across the audio forums and by people from other countries are wasted time, wasted data bandwidth and obsolete.
Currently, everything behaves like it should, that´s all.
But when a new owner will be found and established, many thnigs can change.



Bud

see?
NI products are NICHE products(as is Scope).
it is asinine to expect unlimited growth, as banking partners and Corporate investors would like to require.

the fact that it's niche is what made it good. all it needs to be is profitable, it does not need to be infinitely so. it does not need to be purchased by everyone imaginable. the fact is none gives a fuck about the actual use of the product. they only care that every bedroom has one. it's the same for Gibson Guitars, who after 100 years was bought and traded by several companies in 10 years or Fender, who went from a (relatively) cheap but quality guitar into a crap-ton of junk on Musician's Friend. or Epiphone who went from a top quality instrument to another company's bitch product(yeah, i have palkyed guitar). it's the same as dBx, who went from SPECIAL products to cheap Chinese toys. all of those brands thrived until they had to be universally owned by every person in the world instead of being the special niche product that made the name famous.

oh dear, i have over simplified again...

garyb wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2026 8:12 am see?
NI products are NICHE products(as is Scope).
it is asinine to expect unlimited growth, as banking partners and Corporate investors would like to require.

...
oh dear, i have over simplified again...

Maybe you "over-simplyfied",- but it´s correct description and the truth !

thx



Bud

Hooray they are saved by InMusic!
Meh.....whatever. Lately I haven't had much interest in anything new, hardware or software aside from wanting a Moog Muse before I die of old age.

NI's been a known quantity for years. It's good they will survive, but yes InMusic is gobbling just about everyone up now.

InMusic have been around long enough - and I have registered other products - most notably AKAI stuff with them. To me its a good thing if they can consolidate their product management - both internally and for users. Licensing, download apps etc.

InMusic's installer app did update my AIR plugins that aren't registered with them (bought from AIR and protected by iLok), and they still work. So there is that.

But given the stuff that has occurred with NI's own installer, and with iZotope moving its userbase and installers to NI, I would prefer some stability for a while.

I haven’t had too many issues with Native Access - other than I think they should make it way easier to relocate sample libraries off the system drive when it gets too full.

I was able to move libraries from a newer laptop my mac pro 3,1 with current installers, only 1-2 things were too new to fully work in old kontakt. And I've been able to move libraries from PC to Mac, and to other volumes. With the 10.11.6 era machine pointing to the files was all it took (old unsupported native access version that doesn't connect to their servers), with newer ones it verified them against i presume the online hash or image.

dante wrote: Wed May 13, 2026 10:41 am I haven’t had too many issues with Native Access - other than I think they should make it way easier to relocate sample libraries off the system drive when it gets too full.

Yeah! Did that recently and it took almost a whole day!