Native Instruments

Last updated
Native Instruments, GmbH
Type GmbH
Industry
Founded1996;27 years ago (1996) in Berlin, Germany
Founders
  • Stephan Schmitt
  • Volker Hinz
Headquarters
Berlin
,
Germany
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Constantin Köhncke (CEO)
  • Robert Linke (President) [1]
Products Reaktor, Kontakt, Guitar Rig, Maschine, Traktor, Akoustik Piano
Number of employees
500 [2]
Parent
Website native-instruments.com

Native Instruments is a German company that develops, manufactures, and supplies music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing. The company's corporate headquarters and main development facilities are located in Berlin, with additional offices in Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Paris, and Shenzhen. [4]

Contents

History

Native Instruments as a company was founded in 1999 in Berlin, Germany, where its headquarters are still located. [4] Founders Stephan Schmitt and Volker Hinz began using the name Native Instruments in 1996, when they developed Generator, a modular synth software package (which would later form the foundations for their ongoing product, Reaktor). [5]

Following the release of Generator, the company's employees expanded to include Bernd Roggendorf (later a founder of Ableton) and Daniel Haver, who later became Native Instruments' CEO. [5]

In 1999, Native Instruments expanded its staff count and moved to its current building in Berlin's Kreuzberg district. [5]

In 2000, the company began creating products for the DJ community, beginning with the first version of their Traktor software. [6] In 2002, they expanded further to include software samplers, in the form of ongoing products Kontakt and Battery. [5]

In September 2004, the company began a partnership with the DJ hardware manufacturing company Stanton Magnetics and with online music store Beatport. [7] 2004 also saw the release of their guitar amplifier and effects pedal emulation software, Guitar Rig. In 2006, Native Instruments restructured into 3 divisions: instruments, DJ, and guitar. [5] [8]

In March 2017, Native Instruments acquired remix-licensing startup MetaPop. [9]

In January 2020, a works council was elected that represents the employees of the Berlin office. [10]

In January 2021, it was reported that private investment firm, Francisco Partners acquired a majority stake in Native Instruments. [11]

Native Instruments now also has offices in Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Paris, and Shenzhen. [4]

In April 2022, Native instruments briefly became a subsidiary brand of Soundwide, [3] a parent company created with the backing of Francisco Partners and EMH Partners.

In January 2023, Soundwide laid off 8% of its workforce, citing "challenging market conditions" as the reason. [12] In June of the same year, the Soundwide name was retired and substituted with Native Instruments' own branding, citing familiarity concerns as what lead to the change. [13]

Products

Absynth 4 Absynth4.jpg
Absynth 4

Software

Software produced by Native Instruments includes the following:

Native instruments also produce a number of other sample libraries, virtual instruments and effects processing plug-ins, many of which function through the architecture of Reaktor or Kontakt. Some of these software items are also grouped together in their Komplete software bundle. [21]

The company also develops the Native Kontrol Standard (NKS), a plug-in extension which allows integration with Kontrol and Maschine products (both hardware and software). [22]

Hardware

Traktor Kontrol S4 MK2 DJ Controller NI Traktor Kontrol S4 MK2 Controller Top.jpg
Traktor Kontrol S4 MK2 DJ Controller

Native instruments also produce music hardware, such as:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music tracker</span> Type of software for creating music

A music tracker is a type of music sequencer software for creating music. The music is represented as discrete musical notes positioned in several channels at chronological positions on a vertical timeline. A music tracker's user interface is traditionally number based. Notes, parameter changes, effects and other commands are entered with the keyboard into a grid of fixed time slots as codes consisting of letters, numbers and hexadecimal digits. Separate patterns have independent timelines; a complete song consists of a master list of repeated patterns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual Studio Technology</span> Audio plug-in software interface

Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface that integrates software synthesizers and effects units into digital audio workstations. VST and similar technologies use digital signal processing to simulate traditional recording studio hardware in software. Thousands of plugins exist, both commercial and freeware, and many audio applications support VST under license from its creator, Steinberg.

A rompler is an electronic musical instrument that plays pre-fabricated sounds based on audio samples. The term rompler is a blend of the terms ROM and sampler. In contrast to samplers, romplers do not record audio. Both may have additional sound editing features, such as layering several waveforms and modulation with ADSR envelopes, filters and LFOs.

Reaktor is a graphical modular software music studio developed by Native Instruments (NI). It allows musicians and sound specialists to design and build their own instruments, samplers, effects and sound design tools. It is supplied with many ready-to-use instruments and effects, from emulations of classic synthesizers to futuristic sound design tools. In addition, more than 3000 free instruments can be downloaded from the growing User Library. All of Reaktor's instruments can be freely examined, customized or taken apart; Reaktor is a tool that effectively encourages reverse engineering. The free, limited version called Reaktor Player is a software that allows musicians to play NI-released Reaktor instruments, but not edit or reverse-engineer them.

Ableton AG is a German music software company that produces and distributes the production and performance program Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments and sample libraries, as well as their own hardware controller Ableton Push. Ableton's office is located in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin, Germany, with a second office in Pasadena, California.

Traktor is DJ software developed by Native Instruments. It is also used as a sub-brand for Native Instruments' associated DJ hardware products.

Final Scratch is a DJ tool created by the Dutch company N2IT with input from Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva that allows manipulation and playback of digital audio sources using traditional vinyl and turntables. It seeks to cross the divide between the versatility of digital audio and the tactile control of vinyl turntablism.

Arturia is a French electronics company founded in 1999 and based in Grenoble, France. The company designs and manufactures audio interfaces and electronic musical instruments, including software synthesizers, drum machines, analog synthesizers, digital synthesizers, MIDI controllers, sequencers, and mobile apps.

Gareth Jones is an English music producer and engineer notable for working with Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten, Wire and Erasure.

iZotope, Inc. is an audio technology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. iZotope develops professional audio software for audio recording, mixing, broadcast, sound design, and mastering which can be used in wide range of digital audio workstation (DAW) programs. In addition, iZotope creates and licenses audio DSP technology including noise reduction, sample rate conversion, dithering, time stretching, and audio enhancement to hardware and software companies in the consumer and pro audio industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DJ controller</span> Type of music controller

DJ controllers are devices used to help DJs mix music with DJ software using knobs, encoders, jog wheels, faders, backlit buttons, touch strips, and other components.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guitar Rig</span>

Guitar Rig is an amp and effects modeling software package developed by Native Instruments. The software can function either as a standalone application, or as a plug-in for other software. It was originally released in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Controllerism</span> Art of using musical software controllers

Controllerism is the art and practice of using musical software controllers, e.g. MIDI, Open Sound Control (OSC), joystick, etc., to build upon, mix, scratch, remix, effect, modify, or otherwise create music, usually by a Digital DJ or Live PA performer, often called a controllerist. Controllerism is also a nod to traditional musicianship and instrumental-ism paired with modern computer sequencing software such as Ableton Live and Native Instruments Traktor. However a working knowledge of scales and chords is not necessarily required as the performers typically focus their efforts more on sequencing events, software effect and instrument manipulations using buttons, knobs, faders, keys, foot switches and pedals than on instrumental notes played in real time. With recent developments in music technology, particularly in software instruments, a USB MIDI controller enables musicians almost unlimited possibilities to control a wide variety of sound types.

Digital Sound Factory is a sound design company that creates sound libraries, known as SoundFont libraries, for playback on synthesizers and computers compatible with Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk Sonar, Reasonstudios, Steinberg Halion, Native Instruments Kontakt, Apple GarageBand, Apple Logic, Ableton Live, GenieSoft Overture, Finale, Creative Labs Audigy/X-Fi, E-MU Systems EmulatorX/Proteus X, LMMS, FL Studio, MuseScore, Mixcraft, VSamp, SFZ, SynthFont, Ardour, FluidSynth and more.

Samuel Morris Zornow, better known as DJ Shiftee, is a New York City based DJ and turntablist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NI Massive</span> The software wavetable synthesizer created by Native Instruments

Massive is a commercial wavetable software synthesizer plugin manufactured by Native Instruments for use in professional audio production. It utilizes several wavetables and oscillators in the creation of synthetic timbres. The software can be used as a VST plugin within a digital audio workstation, or as a standalone program. Released in 2006, the plugin has gained widespread popularity in the electronic music field, and is one of the most popular synthesizer plugins for modern dance music production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School of Synthesis</span>

School of Synthesis is a musical school in Melbourne, Australia specializing in electronic music. School of Synthesis was formed in 2010 by ARIA Award-winning Australian music producer, composer, sound designer Davide Carbone and DJ and music producer Mike Callander. Carbone and Callander met at RMIT University in Melbourne where Callander was a student and Carbone a teacher in sound recording.

Maschine is a hardware/software digital audio workstation developed by Native Instruments. Maschine consists of a controller that connects to the included sequencing software, which can be installed on any compatible computer or laptop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moldover</span> Musical artist

Matthew Edwin Moldover, known as Moldover, is a musician and instrument designer based in San Francisco, CA. The MIDI Manufacturers Association has referred to him as the "Godfather of Controllerism". He is known for his musical instruments, including the Mojo, Robocaster, Octamasher and Guitar Wing.

References

  1. ↑ "Constantin Koehncke Named Chief Executive Officer Of Native Instruments". futuremusic.com. 12 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  2. ↑ "Native Instruments Raises $59 Million From EMH Partners". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
  3. 1 2 Roberts, Rachel. "Soundwide named as parent brand of Native Instruments, iZotope, Plugin Alliance, Brainworx and Sound Stacks". MusicTech. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 "Native Instruments GmbH: Private Company Information". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "10 Years of Native Instruments". Sound on Sound. October 2006.
  6. ↑ "The Evolution of Traktor - DJ TechTools". DJ TechTools. 2011-02-11. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  7. ↑ "Stanton, Native Instruments, & Beatport Join forces for a new era in Digital DJing". computerdjsummit.com. Retrieved 2017-09-25.
  8. ↑ "In pictures: 15 years of Native Instruments". MusicRadar. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  9. ↑ "Native Instruments buys remix-licensing startup MetaPop". MusicAlly. 2017-03-28.
  10. ↑ "Vier neue Betriebsräte". IG Metall Zeitung (in German). 2020-04-01. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  11. ↑ "Native Instruments acquired by investment firm Francisco Partners". Music Business Worldwide. 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-02-05.
  12. ↑ MusicRadar (2023-01-30). "Native Instruments and iZotope's parent company Soundwide lays off 8% of staff". MusicRadar. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
  13. ↑ Rogerson, Ben (2023-06-14). "iZotope, Brainworx and Plugin Alliance are now part of Native Instruments, which means that Soundwide is no more". MusicRadar. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
  14. ↑ "Reaktor 6 – Getting Started" (PDF). Native Instruments. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  15. ↑ "NI Kontakt 5 |". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  16. ↑ "Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 Pro review". MusicRadar. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  17. ↑ "Native Instruments Massive |". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  18. ↑ "Native Instruments Absynth 5 |". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  19. ↑ "Native Instruments FM8 | Vintage Synth Explorer". www.vintagesynth.com. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  20. ↑ "Native Instruments Traktor Pro 2 review". MusicRadar. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  21. ↑ "Review: Native Instruments Komplete 11 Ultimate". EMusician. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  22. ↑ "Native Kontrol Standard - inSync". inSync. 2015-11-05. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  23. 1 2 "Native Instruments unveils brand new Maschine and Komplete Kontrol hardware". FACT Magazine: Music News, New Music. 2017-09-07. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  24. ↑ "Review: Native Instruments - Traktor Kontrol X1 MK2". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  25. ↑ "Komplete Audio 1 / Audio 2 : Audio Interfaces | Komplete".
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