It’s also worth noting that by US standards, Native Instruments is considered a small business. On forums, people talk about NI as if they’re a really huge corporation; they’re not.

NI has 400 to 500 employees and are estimated to have annual revenue of $78.5M to $113.7M. That’s pretty far from Microsoft and Apple or even a mid-size company (by…Read More

This is a slight update on Skybox Audio. I recently used J Celeste from their Chimes product in a sparse baby lullaby instrumental. During the solo there’s nothing else going on, so it’s quite exposed. I kept hearing a whirring/motorized noise in the background that was bothersome enough to cause me to dig into it. I loaded the waveform into RX11…Read More

@fretman I think those are really helpful insights. They also could be useful in a section I’m contemplating adding that lets us review developers, but for now, it makes sense to have it here (plus, the tool we use to break off comments from threads is presently not working).

I personally don’t have much experience with EastWest libraries. I only…Read More

On January 27, 2026 at 11:10 am fretman said
I’m still a heavy iZotope user, but their current upgrade pricing has caused me to stop buying. Not sure what I think about this…

I stopped buying Izotope after they discontinued my bundle and I had everything in another bundle — and more — and they refused to offer me upgrade pricing. I had adv…Read More

NI forum thread

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/49857/rumour-native-instruments-gmbh-is-in-preliminary-insolvency/p2

I’m still a heavy iZotope user, but their current upgrade pricing has caused me to stop buying. Not sure what I think about this…

So (and I’ve mentioned this before), I have an issue with EastWest. I love their pricing and variety of ensembles, but each time I’ve used them I hear background noise. Granted, so far I’ve only attempted to use solo instruments in sparse arrangements and the noise is quite noticeable. I couldn’t use any of their instruments (except their Gypsy…Read More

FWIW I see the linked article in the first post has been edited quite a bit from what I read an hour ago.  A little less “end of the world” feel.  My biggest concern is my NI hardware, as far as ongoing support and updates.

On January 27, 2026 at 10:26 am mira said
hello dear guys, this is for me hard impact and very bad news – i invest in NI almost from start – same in PA i have most interest plugins they do to year 2023 + some izotope ones…. but for ni machine, kontakt, reaktor… hope some big company buy it and will be continue , if not …..

I wouldn’t fall into…Read More

hello dear guys, this is for me hard impact and very bad news – i invest in NI almost from start – same in PA i have most interest plugins they do to year 2023 + some izotope ones…. but for ni machine, kontakt, reaktor… hope some big company buy it and will be contie , if not …..

Peter, thanks for that.  I think my blood pressure just dropped 10 points.  I’s liking the idea that Kontakt is too valuable to just vanish.  I was hoping that was the case as I read Satya’s article.  I’d love to know what developers, such as OTS, who are heavily invested in Kontakt are thinking.

On January 27, 2026 at 10:01 am jude77 said
Yow!  Just got a bit of a knot in my stomach.  Needless to say, I, like a lot of other folks, are pretty heavily invested in Kontakt.  I read the article that Satya posted and it looks to me like Kontakt will be sold.  Hopefully that will be to someone who wants to invest in and continue its exi…

Read More

Yow!  Just got a bit of a knot in my stomach.  Needless to say, I, like a lot of other folks, are pretty heavily invested in Kontakt.  I read the article that Satya posted and it looks to me like Kontakt will be sold.  Hopefully that will be to someone who wants to invest in and continue its existence.  Peter, we need you to weigh-in and tell us w…Read More