Bad news from Native Instruments, the following instruments have been discontinued:

Akoustik Piano,
B4 II
Bandstand
Elektrik Piano
Pro-53

The article can be found here. http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92744

Sad day

Bill

Another one bites the dust....thanx for the heads up Bill.

Why is this sad news ?. NI is not closing and they are certainly not in any trouble.


They are only discontinuing a selection of old software they have because it's likely not profitable to keep on updating it now. NI has made a fortune from those programs and they can't keep selling the same VSTI forever regardless of how many updates the release.

James.

[This message has been edited by Irishacts (edited 10-02-2009).]

Yep, like James says this isn't a big deal. They are simply legacy products that are no longer being developed as they have been replaced by newer NI releases either by a specific VSTi or in Kontact.

With the latest version of Complete they where allready missing in the listings...

B4 II is epic, people that don't own it yet will certainly miss out on a great Vst.

The others also had their pro's and positive things.

This is the problem with VSTi vs. real keyboards...

If I buy a Nord, it's going to work forever. If I buy a T3, it's going to work forever. But If I buy a VSTi, it's only going to work as long as they keep updating it for new OS's and hardware. You aren't BUYING a VSTi, simply renting it until the owner takes it back...

But wait, you say..! Your computer is still running, isn't that the same? Unfortunately, no. VSTi's are designed to run WITHIN another program. As you move onto more powerful hosts, sadly, the VSTi's don't always move with you. Unless the maker updates for, say Windows7 or Snow Leopard, or whatever the latest thing is, you are BONED...

Waves already has a subscription service, that basically pays for ongoing development to at least work on current OS's and hosts. The VSTi industry needs to move to this, or, as we'll see with NI, some users are going to get pretty sore.

I disagree to this...

If you move to another hardware arranger brand, all your samples styles and songs become obsolete.

When you move to another OS, there is only a slight chance that the VST will not run, and you can allways run the vst in a virtuall environment of the old OS (just costs some more processor power) but it will never get obsolete.

This however requires extended computer knowledge, thats true. But then you can keep using your vst's for as long as you want.

While your user stuff and such on your hardware keyboard runs obsolete when you sell the hardware.

So its just the other way around.

Difficult to see how a Nord Electro ever COULD be obsolete...

All it does is vintage sounds!

But I buy one today, barring electrical failure, it will work in twenty years' time, a hundred years' time, whatever. I doubt that ANY VSTi will work in 20 years' time unless you keep the computer it runs on now (it's obvious you haven't tried running VSTi's under emulated OS's - it is so far a nightmare at best )

I am afraid that VSTi's and arrangers are two different things... But then again, you are talking to a guy that tries to not change arrangers more than once a decade or so, too! The only time I want to change arrangers is WHEN all the samples, sounds and styles are completely different! Otherwise, why move?

New VSTi's are always coming out that need the latest greatest CPU's and OS's just to run. Unfortunately, if you can't bring along your legacy VSTi's, you are boned. Do you go with the new, and lose the old, or do you stay with your legacy VSTi's and get denied access to the latest stuff..?

The thing is, NI have updated B4 etc. through quite a period. But now it's gone. Now you HAVE to buy something new, or freeze your VSTi rig where it is and forget anything new. But your Nord will still work... even when we are on 128bit computers with 32 cores running faster than light!