I used Izotope products for a while without buying them, then I realized it was time to buy them. I also tried to get on their team, but it didn't work out for completely different reasons. It's very difficult to buy anything sold overseas in our country right now... I hope things change, because their products often save my job, and I don't like being in debt.

 

Team R2R fills exactly this gap created by import restrictions!

In Cuba, there is a person who smuggles in a USB stick from abroad containing films and documentaries and broadcasts them (pirate radio station)!

 

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This is the key portion of this info, but the key thing most users care about is this one: existing licenses and servers may or may not continue working/servers remaining online depending on what gets sold or shut down. We all like to think of the insolvency related actions they may take, like which make the most sense for a music business. Kill off old unused products, keep the ones with the most potential but maybe not with the most sales yet. But its main function is for maximizing returns to creditors, and so some of these decisions will not make obvious sense to those of us without access to internal data, but will be jumping off the pages at the administrator. They will likely try keeping the crown jewels of their IP. Their core products' engines and their DRM. Izotope will likely be fine but maybe sold to another owner like :cough: LANDR.
Who can even guess about Plugin Alliance? (besides the guy who dumped it).

 

When you think of what happened to Native People, the fate of Native Instruments looks even more bleak.

 

This guys knows what he's talking about, and he's not worried, which is also my stance; and I basically bought (almost) and own all the latest hardware they made, from KK S88 mk3 to Maschine mk3 (and it's amazing companion Jam), all the way to DJ Traktor S4, and of course most the soft eko-system side of NI...Really sank lots of money in that company, and most importantly time -our most precious asset- to get to know them inside out. At this point, I'm completely dependant on them. And I am not worried. My 2 cents anyway...No way they're going away, just won't happen. In fact, as everybody xis in panic mode and runs, I'll right the other way. Just like in stock exchange, it's time to buy at super bargain prices when everybody sells

Edit: sorry if this vid has been posted before, not possible to read through 10 pages of posts

 

It's better than the stock exchange, as long as the hardware we already have has working firmware and software that future computer operating systems don't wipe out. Only then, is there is a problem if keeping a cheap older computer around the OS can be downgraded on is not an option. The real risk is only the possibility of no new updates, or old projects where we only have the saved state of the plugin instances inside the DAW session files.

If you are trading shares *which you already have bought and paid for, the risk is they potentially go to essentially 0 and become worthless. If that happens, you can't fire up a torrent client and re-download a different version of your money.

 

Last edited: Feb 3, 2026

I've no idea about German insolvency laws or procedures so I won't comment on that.

However, I do have some insider experience with "restructuring" in the context of an audio/video software company.

Simply put, it's likely that people (entire teams) will be made redundant or laid off. This means that some products, currently in dev, will be hard hit, or killed. By killed I mean deprecated, with no further development or support. People who own it may still be able to download and authenticate the latest stable/released version - unless the physical servers are erased or destroyed.

I saw multitudes of developers being let go, and entire product lines even being shuttered - it was heartbreaking, not least for the user base. Imagine updating your DAW, and in v20, products that existed from v5-19 are gone. Vanished.

I've owned Komplete since version 5 or 6 (I kept the boxes), and kept on upgrading every other release until the pandemic. Komplete is bloated with genre specific libraries I've never used, and never plan on using.

It's not unlike those Korg, Roland, and Yamaha workstations that are filled to the brim with presets and samples that 80% of us will never use. But "the German market" this, the "UK market" that, the Italians, Latin, and US markets... all want their meat and potatoes.

My point is, Native Instruments could benefit from going lean a couple of years or more - there's plenty to feast on (for us). Question is, what will they feast on during those years?

 

reminder...there is a top dog mixer/producer who uses TDM PT still to this day

i´m not updating shit

 

Who do you mean? Probably someone with a Nubus Mac, all that stuff was very expensive. Every 10 years or so, Apple remind us who is really running the show and give everyone the shaft. That is really a hardware caused situation, where you can't update the thing any further. That also doesn't mean that person hasn't bought other computers.

 

Literally like I've said, people need to stop crying.

Having 30% more focus will yield better results than having 30% better plugin and nobody is talking about it, on and on and on about crap.

I mean, the guy who mastered Billie E. top charting song used 2002 saturator plugin with the crappies gui with no oversampling. What are you people even talk about on this forum, let them sink, dude who cashed PA and BX already got himself Apogee and Manley, isn´t that a sign how far we managed to go? Don't update sh*t, back it up and run with what you got, time is flying by and you cant get it back...nobody will remember apple this or that but everyone will have a hole in the memory filled with crappy tracks and crappy mixes with top selling plugins on the master buss.

Most of the people only ruin everything with plugins anyway.

 

Why Native Instruments Is In Bankruptcy Court - February 4, 2026



The news that Native Instruments has filed for Preliminary Insolvency shook the music industry, because the company’s tools have been used by so many, for so long.

Many have speculated about what led to the company’s decline, but the best take we’ve seen comes from Music Trades Editor Brian T. Majeski, who calls Native Instruments as “the industry’s latest private equity casualty”.

In his newsletter, he shared his analysis of the company’s decline after it was acquired by private equity firm Francisco Partners:

“After five years under the stewardship of Francisco Partners, the company that pioneered computer-centric music systems filed for bankruptcy protection in the Berlin courts on January 27.

The catalyst for the filing was a steep decline in sales, cumulative losses of €288 million ($339 million) accrued in 2023 and 2024, and looming maturities on approximately €262 million ($309 million) in debt.

The bankruptcy court has a mandate to keep Native Instrument intact as a viable business and they are likely to succeed. The company retains a valuable product portfolio that is used on 80% of the Top Ten Billboard tracks and has over 1.5 million registered users. However, there will be serious post-bankruptcy challenges.

Despite assurances from management that “business will carry on as usual,” consumers are understandably wary. Many are deferring or cancelling planned purchases out concern that the restructured company many not honor existing software licenses or provide product support.”

Recent moves left many Native Instruments customers puzzled:

• In 2022, Native Instruments and iZotope announced ‘Soundwide‘ as the new name of their parent company, and welcomed several new members to the Soundwide group of brands, including audio plugin platform Plugin Alliance and audio software company Brainworx. The goal was to provide end-to-end solutions, but the companies seem to have struggled to find synergy.
• Just a year later, they announced that the Soundwide brand had been dumped, and that iZotope, Brainworx, and Plugin Alliance would become part of Native Instruments.
• The company also frustrated long-time customers by neglecting or retiring loved products. In 2022, the company retired Absynth – one of its oldest and most powerful software synths. In late 2025, though, the company introduced Absynth 6. It was a welcome return, but also left many questioning Native’s strategy for its software synths and virtual instruments.

“The failure of Native Instruments is a complicated story, worthy of a full-length case study,” notes Majeski, adding that “Misplaced growth expectations, poor product development, and a healthy dose of hubris surely contributed.

You can read more analysis and editorials by Majeski at the Music Trades site.

Have your own tak on what created Native Instruments’ predicament? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Source: www.synthtopia.com/content/2026/02/04/why-native-instruments-is-in-bankruptcy-court/

 

ppl use plugins because it is cheaper AND faster than hardware.
Time is money ... so the gain is doubled

A good example :
DimeHead NAM player : 600 euros
NAM plugin : free

And i could do it all day long ... but time is money and already lost too much

I totally agree anyway about using old plugins, softwares ... my fav plugins are abandoned legacy like OhmForce and Audio Damage.
Oversampling my a**

 

It's not nearly that simple, also do a mix with all plugins vs. all hardware (pretending like you could even feasibly set up an experiment like this where it would actually control all things equal) and compare and i promise you for a variety of reasons the hardware would be most likely better even just for simple fact of tangibility and how that influences humans in general.

Also, haven't you learned by now that this mindset you hold (that mindset in general) always and in all paths, leads to human obsolescence? Yes time is money this is my livelihood, however I'd prefer my job to exist in the first place lol

Journey before destination, journey before destination, Journey before destination, journey before destination, Journey before destination, journey before destination, Journey before destination, journey before destination

 

Machines set the pace; they are always faster and cheaper than human labor, so some people rationalize themselves down to mere machines. The pressure and the fast pace take a heavy toll on most people; they are stressed and unhappy.

Most people long for a slower pace. Humanity's destiny is humanity itself!
Don't become slaves to machines; let machines serve humanity.

 

I don't speak about MY mindset
But most professional mindset, because they bill with TIME on it.

They don't have time to loose to reamp an hardware amp (example).
Because a quad tracking 4 minutes long mean 4*4 = 16 minutes
Whereas on a plugin, it is seconds.

And my answer was oriented to previous post

 

So the next update to Kontakt may be the last one? Hard to believe that we might not get Kontakt 9 at all when it seemed almost certain just a few weeks ago.

 

We don't know. But the company still exists and people are still working there. There are betas for updates for their products still happening so who knows?

Whatever happens, I'm sure the business side still wants to sell things because it's money in the bank and a thriving userbase is more attractive to potential buyers/investors. But the thing is, would anyone buy NI products at this point when the future is this uncertain?

But out of all NI's products, I'm sure Kontakt will find an owner for better or worse. It's just too big of a platform at this point.

 

really devastated...this company made computer music history...Massive( the original One), Generator ( After Reaktor), Absynth,...Real milestones

 

What remains, and will remain forever, is:

Native Instruments Kontakt 8 v8.8.1 WIN-bobdule
Native Instruments KOMPLETE FX Bundle 2026.1 - V.R
Native Instruments Absynth 6 v6.0.2 Incl Patched and Keygen-R2R

Regardless of failures, bad luck, or mishaps!

R2R - V.R - bodule - and other Teams

 

Yeah up until an OS update breaks something and then you get to freeze your machine and stay behind everybody else who's moved on and found a replacement.