Native Instruments GmbH is in preliminary insolvency.

@Scott @pitermach @jscholes They do have a soft underside.

@Scott In related news, you see my video on MK3 accessibility? Instead of NI's poxy 14 minutes, mine was 48. Covered a lot more in a lot more detail.

@antiquedigital @fabio Right, but if you're trying to do *that*, this is specifically what you *don't* want to happen -- because then you lose control of breaking up the company.

I'm the last person to be a fan of private equity, but this is actually worse -- and the role of private equity is typically to avoid this case. So this has a lot of people really shocked.

@FreakyFwoof Bookbarked it and sent it to some folks but I haven't watched yet. Slightly concerned it might tip me over the edge of spending money on a thing that I shouldn't spend money on right now.

@bntn Unfortunately, all assets are out of your hands in the insolvency proceedings, so you would not be able to open-source anything, no.

@Scott I'd be more worried if they didn't just release Absynth, if their store wasn't still online etc. I'm not head in sanding about it or anything, but what's gonna happen is gonna happen, you know? Some people would love to see them go under but that's just churlish.
That would take down iZoTope too, same parent company, and it's just shit for the industry in general to be honest.

@FreakyFwoof I can't see them going under man. The product catalogue is still wicked valuable and the brand is super well known, even if its rep isn't all shiny all of the time. At most I'd expect chopping of some comparatively dead wood.

@pkirn@mastodon.social I've not exactly been following this, but I have heard a few things here and there over the last few years, and this isn't coming as a surprise.

For me, since shifting to Linux and open source a few years ago now, I haven't done any music production, or tried to set anything up yet, since I need a new machine really. I had tried to do some research in finding a Kontakt alternative that could either load up Kontak Instruments, or remap them to a another format - as after 20 years, Kontakt was the only NI product I used in the end - but used very heavily. And I have a ton of unfinished tracks I would like to finish, even if just for myself.

So, if anyone reading this more familiar with Linux audio knows of such a way, please let me know. It has been previously recommended to me to try using Carla, and hacking Kontakt VST to work in Linux, but I was already reluctant to go that way. I would rather find a native sampler that can somehow use Kontakt instruments, and then import the midi regions from older tracks that I've made. Thanks.

@pkirn @fabio Fair, and I certainly don't take it as an endorsement of PE. It's just frustrating all around to see a good company that has a sizable user base, which by all outside observations seemed to be doing middling to well, suddenly keel over like this.

@pkirn @bntn also it's not always possible to open source stuff for a multitude of reasons including (but not limited to): third-party libraries, code-cleanup & having staff to do that.

@shye @pkirn C @dingodoppelt maybe you have an idea about this?

@pkirn

I guess a few people having invested in Kontakt (as users or library producers) will now be unpleasantly reminded what *vendor lock-in* means.

@FreakyFwoof @pkirn And whatever happens I hope to all hell their incredible work to keep their products accessible to everyone including their BVI (Blind and Visually Impaired) users remains. I hate insolvancies like this because there's no guarantee that the folks who get broken up will land in good hands for those of us who use products on the daily.

@the_spc @pkirn I've made this company the backbone of my musical career for the last 10 years so trust me, I hope the same...

@FreakyFwoof @pkirn Makes me want to scrape together the money and grap there A series 61 key...yesterday. *sighs* I want so bad. I wanted it before this, but now so bad.

@the_spc @pkirn Did you see my accessibility video about it I did a couple weeks ago? I love this keyboard. Best thing I've ever owned honestly.

@antiquedigital @fabio @pkirn Damn on Saturday I was literally hanging out w/ an NI employee…Now looking back some of the things he said may have been his way of saying he knew about this but he def didn’t make it seem like there was much of a problem so maybe actually he didn’t know. He did express some issues with the company that bought them but said that NI’s folks in Germany were all really brilliant.

Maschine+ is my main instrument.

@oscillik @pkirn I’m a web dev, so I’m not naive to the hurdles and potential blockers. But for the sake of art, humanity, e-waste, lost IP, etc… I wish it could be done.

It’s a bummer @pkirn point that the insolvency state means stake holders or workers can have no say on it.

@FreakyFwoof @pkirn I did, but I haven't watched it yet. It's 245 USD, and I have no job, dammit. *sighs*
But dammit *lust item*

@FreakyFwoof @the_spc Here's the unusual situation: because *so much* is owed to creditors, the future of these products is really secured. You have to sell it to pay the debts, and the insolvency process makes that happen.

I'm happy to remind would-be future owners of how important accessibility is to that value proposition.