Native Instruments Reviews 467

Purchased Komplete Standard package that came with Kontakt 6 (July 2022). Back in a day I paid 299 euro to get it, and it was actually a good deal (used a discount program). Plugins themselves are legit good.
Used their installer to upgrade plugins yesterday, and half of them disappeared, and can't be used anymore. Projects I worked on yesterday can't be opened anymore. Apparently, installer upgrades the plugins to the versions that aren't compatible with each other anymore.
Solution they offer is to uninstall the plugins, go manually to some google drive folders, download old ISO installers, and reinstall/reconfigure everything manually.
So ultimately, it's some hours of wasted time, or 100 extra euros to upgrade the Kontakt.

As an engineer myself I can imagine that it's an unintentional neglect, but with plenty of paying customers impacted, it looks very bad on them to ignore the issue.

Will avoid buying native instruments in the future.

I went to the Native instruments forum, and posted a way for people to protect their past investments by listing the steps to make sure this happens.

I was given a warning
Infringed rule Be constructive

Avoid inflammatory language, sarcastic comments, or derogatory remarks, and strive for positive and respectful interactions. Make sure to maintain a professional tone and refrain from disruptive actions that may harm the community's atmosphere.

Here's what I posted

My Wish for NI users is that you find an alternative to NI

It's clear NI is not interested in end user things. Look at this thread for validation.

Again, I'll suggest if you want to continue using NI product, great, I don't blame you, but the best thing you can do for yourself is save off what works, and take that computer offline. Don't let it talk to NI severs. Just use the tools.

You have to run 2 systems to use NI stuff, but it's a hell of a lot better than dealing with NI nonsense.

I've invested so much over the year in Native Instrument's products. Now, their Native Access never recognize my licences & most of my Kontakt & Reaktor products randomly switch back to demo mode every few days. Basically, everything I have from them is useless now, along with all the Kontakt products I've bought from other companies.

I've tried every techniques I came across & I'm only able to use the products now & then, without any explanation as to why it always get back to demo mode.

Such a shame that a great company like that ruined their own line of products because they can't invest into a decent installer/licence software.

I won't invest another penny into any Kontakt or Reaktor related product until Native Access is fixed.

Amazing plugins! Just taking hella long to set up and they can be a bit slow. But when they’re up finally🥵they’re doing amazing

I would rate this shitty company a zero if i could bought something for almost $200 in 2023! and here am i in 2025 and still haven´t recived the product and their support still haven´t answered the millions of emails ive sent since TWENTY TWENTY THREE WHAT THE HECK!!!!!

In response to a complaint I made about a longstanding issue previously acknowledged by the company's parent (Native Instruments) which has been unresolved for 18 months, this was the latest response I received:

"Hi Stephen,

We're not lecturing you, we're telling you.

It is not your job to fix this, but ours. We understand the frustration. I share your frustration.

However, threatening to bother people on Linked-In is not something we tolerate.

Telling us how to do our jobs is not something we tolerate.

In this support case, I am the captain of this ship, not you. I give the orders on what we do here with your account.

My job is make sure your problem is solved and dealt with properly.

When you go to the Doctor do you tell them how to treat you? Step off of your high horse please.

Do you, or do you not need account log in assistance from me and my team?"

Unfortunately, while this is an astounding choice of language, this type of response is not atypical from NI and its subsidiaries.

I haven't purchased anything from NI (or Izotope) in a long while ... and, on the basis of the hubris contained in that response, to a Support Ticket simply expressing my dissatisfaction with how much time and effort I had squandered on this matter, I won't be.

Disgustingly unprofessional.

PS I've posted this here as well as on Izotope's TrustPilot page because I anticipate a response and an apology from NI. This matter will be raised in a formal letter to NI's senior leadership because I simply do not expect and will not tolerate this type of abuse.

Been a loyal customer of NI, and Maschine since the MK1 2012. However I recently purchased the Trash plugin, and it doesnt work. i did everything NI suggested, that is reasonable for a customer to undertake, supplied screenshots and even videos of their software not working in different hosts on my PC, where everything else works perfectly, and i am not prepared to start messing with my pc settings on NI's guesswork (everything they suggested failed to resolve) just to get this one plugin to work and jeopardise the current stability of my system for this utter piece of aptly named, TRASH.

1 month later and still it does not work, and the way i feel about this company right now... I wish to sell all their product and go back to my Akais and Emu samplers, that all still work perfectly, unlike the rubbish/garbage/Trash plugin.

UPDATE.. REFUNDED

Bought a presets pack like 2 months ago and I haven’t been able to get it to work. I tried every solution they emailed me step by step and even got an IT person on my computer to try and problem solve. So I requested a refund as I have been not able to use the product, and support has been diverting my request and replying with completely irrelevant rules/facts about their website. I cannot get a refund for the life of me on a product I don’t even have!

Traktor pro 4 chashes all the time, I did not pay for a BETA version... :(

I'm trying to buy Kontakt 8. After payment, it took a day to get an email with confirmation, now, 2 weeks later, the order is still being processed.

Tried contact support, there's no response.

It really seems like they don't want you to buy their product. I guess I'll pirate it?

NI used to be groundbreaking but now the company is a mess. Products destroy CPU and are unusable in any production. Obviously the owners sold to some venture capitalist or whatever trying to cash in.
Goodbye NI, no more purchases from me.

As SO MANY others have already pointed out: NI customer service is apparently become THE WORST, they do NOT even respond to warranty claims! Filed a warranty claim and been waiting for a WEEK but not even a single reaction. They simply ignore it. So now I sent some 75 emails in response to the open ticket in the hopes that MAYBE gets their attention. Sry NI but you are really forcing my hand to spam your mailbox in the hopes I'll get the RESPECT your customers deserve. I paid 825 euros for a device which suddenly just broke down and is still under warranty. I WILL take legal steps against NI if they do not take the necessary action AS PER THEIR WARRANTY! If not fulfilled I have the legal proof to have them in court. And I will!

It seems this company has thoroughly gone to ***, meaning I will never buy from them again nonetheless. Way to go NI. Another one bites the dust!

I tried to buy a Kontrol S88 MK3 since there was a special promotion on the keyboard. When ordering it mentioned it was out-of-stock. (This can happen ... nothing wrong with that but then ... ) When contacting support to ask for an explanation, the operator confirmed it was out-of-stock and that the promotion was time bombed and he could NOT guarantee I could still order it under promotional condition when it would be restocked. I suggested to make a reservation for the item under today's condition, but he refused.
Pure promotion scam ...

A couple of days waiting on support after a couple of emails and there is never a "chat rep" available.

Issue: If you get to the card entry portion of the payment screens and decide to back-out to double-check some things(compatibility due to their convoluted ecosystem) and then try to place an order again later... The system will think the order was placed rendering any promotion as "used" because it THINKS I placed an order.

At this day and age, 4 days after they charge my credit card, there is not a single communication from the company. Also retailers actually sell cheaper than their own online shop. Their ‘customer service’ are completely useless, actually that’s not fair cos they never bothered to reply. Never buy from them please.

Don't waste your time with these newer Komplete packages. The sounds are great but I've had so many technical issues:
1. My hdd drive wasn't big enough to start off with for all the files
2. once i had an external i had to spend ages repairing all the files so the apps would recognise the library content
3. slow loading times cos of the external hdd
4. Komplete Kontrol vst crashes Ableton
5. Their customer service chat bot and email response is awful - i've still now received a response 2 days later
6. there is no refund policy on downloaded apps

I can not believe how untrusted this company is.
I spend 1500€ on their products and I CANT USE THEM PROPERLY BECAUSE I RANDOMLY FOR NO REASON GET STUCK IN DEMO MODE

I have been a musician for +30 years, will never buy anything again, tried to get support and after 15 minutes of looping around the website I could not see a way to do it, so gave up

Customer Service was So great

They did so much and even gave a refund when the issue couldn't be resolved.

The fact that their Komplete Collection does not come packed with Maschine & they want us to pay an extra $29-69 for it I personal find as a gross cash grab to customers who pay up to $600 a year for upgrades. I will personally not be purchasing any more upgrades from this company until they make this change and show that they actually appreciate consumers spending that much on their Komplete package or they need to rename the pack to partially Komplete. These are not business practices that I appreciate or respect from any company. Leaving my reviews for other In hopes for a change we will be utilizing Ableton software & hardware instead if anyone needs alternatives. It was fun while it lasted NI