Absynth (2000-2022)

RIP 

https://cdm.link/2022/09/ni-has-retired-absynth-soft-synth-after-22-years-heres-a-statement-from-its-creator/

I've been considering getting Komplete soon, but there's been a bit of a shake-up at NI with the leadership changes and the merger with iZotope. Dropping Absynth might make some sense business wise, but publicly it concerns people like me.

There have been a LOT of mergers and acquisitions lately in the world, not necessarily in the musical business world but all over. And the common thread amongst all of these are unnecessarily throwing away products and features so that they can cut out employees to make more profits. Twitter, and Time Warner - Discovery, are the big ones but there are plenty that don't make headlines. 

This is especially popular here in the US where the new CEO is located. So maybe, in fear of paying for something that is going to be unsupported in two years, I'll just wait to see what happens. 

Native Instruments lost their way a long time ago. Most of the people who were driving innovation left and they've mostly been coasting on Kontakt content and their various controller keyboards/machine. That being said, there are good synths in the Komplete package but I wouldnt expect anything more than what you're getting.

Also, I think Apple's move to ARM processors is most likely triggering a lot of this tree shaking in the product line, across multiple companies. Izotope is dropping Trash 2 (great plugin!). I can imagine that a lot of these legacy plugins would take so much work to port over to a new processor that they've decided its not worth it. So, if you see some plugins that you're interested in and they aren't ported over to ARM yet, be wary because they may never and end up dead in the water.

Apple moving to ARM is just a poor excuse, things run well under the Rosetta 2 compatibility layer just as the article says. The true reasons are probably more related to diminishing returns maintaining old software. 22 years is a nice run for software, and this plugin will probably be used for a very long time going forward.

I can still use DirectX plugins from like 1996 if I want to in Windows.

I used to use Reaktor a lot but its update/support cycle is ridiculously slow these days, particularly with respect to Mac OS update support. 

I think it still works for now but I can’t really justify continued investment in NI stuff.  

  On 2/27/2023 at 5:08 PM, baph said:

I used to use Reaktor a lot but its update/support cycle is ridiculously slow these days, particularly with respect to Mac OS update support. 

I think it still works for now but I can’t really justify continued investment in NI stuff.  

Think it's still a big app for NI and we're getting VST3 and Silicon support soon (or now if you're happy using the beta) - https://synthanatomy.com/2023/02/native-instruments-reaktor-6-5-0-brings-vst3-and-native-apple-silicon-support-now-in-beta.html

  On 2/27/2023 at 6:30 PM, mcbpete said:

Think it's still a big app for NI and we're getting VST3 and Silicon support soon (or now if you're happy using the beta) - https://synthanatomy.com/2023/02/native-instruments-reaktor-6-5-0-brings-vst3-and-native-apple-silicon-support-now-in-beta.html

Thanks, good to see some signs of life!