A couple of years ago after NI had just "ripped" me off with the Kore Fiasco, I purchased Mach 5.
I had a load of old Plugsound pro stuff, which Uvi swapped for me to the new format at a small charge.
I have purchased a number of very nice libraries since then, probably my favorite being the Vintage Synths bundle, which again Uvi were very accomodating price wise.
I have to say dealing with Uvi / Motu has been a breath of fresh air after dealing with NI - I have found them to be
a) Real people who answer your email requests personally and quickly
b) very nice and very fair people to deal with

I still have my Kontakt, which I have found I have had to keep for stuff like Hollow Sun / hideaway releases - wish I didn't but there we go.
Some people now release in Mach 5 format (Acoustic Samples) - I wish more would do this as I do prefer Mach 5 to Kontakt - only criticism I would make that very large patches can take longer to load in Mach 5 as opposed to similar sized patches in Kontakt - however this is no deal breaker for me.
Nigel

Hey, Stephen, if you're still around...I'd be interested in hearing any other thoughts you have on Mach 5 (or any other potential candidates for possibly deposing King Kontakt). My understanding is that Mach 5 actually has some kind of synth engine built in, similar to Omnisphere. Beyond that, I don't know much about it.

I don't have much more to say because although I have it here (sent to me by MOTU to mess around with), I've not yet installed it <blush!!> but Mario, my scriptmeister, is very enamoured of it. Seems the scripting language is less obtuse and more capable.

I gather there's a synth in there (there's a synth in Kontakt but you need to supply the oscillators ... hence The Shell) but M5 has oscillators, ring mod, better modulation, etc.. I could build my own synth with it ... which is attractive.

I'd have to install it and look into it more closely before giving any definitive comments.

We would really like to develop for it but it's a gamble. We could spend a lot of time (a precious resource), not sell many and also get a whole load of gip from users moaning about the iLok. And, of course, we'd have to develop for both Kontakt AND M5 which would be a hefty overhead.

Frankly, our time might be better (i.e. more profitably) spent developing mad little iPad apps along the lines of the MLMs, whatever - that could be good fun!

Cheers,


Stephen

Stephen

I don't think mentioning that you may go the IK Multimedia route and forsake all us guys here in favor of the quick buck iMoney market will go down very well - in fact it could well alienate many people considering what a shambles IK Multimedia has become. Many many people here have invested quite a bit of money in that company to only find out they don't really give a s*** now they love iCrap so much.
Nigel

Bajan Blue


Stephen

I don't think mentioning that you may go the IK Multimedia route and forsake all us guys here in favor of the quick buck iMoney market will go down very well - in fact it could well alienate many people considering what a shambles IK Multimedia has become. Many many people here have invested quite a bit of money in that company to only find out they don't really give a s*** now they love iCrap so much.
Nigel

IK Multimedia? Eh? Where did I mention that?


No - I was talking about doing a few fun apps, independently, for iPad. I didn't even know about IK Multimedia until you mentioned it!


And I wouldn't be forsaking anyone - business as usual but with some daft little, fun iPad instruments on the side.




Stephen

Frankly, our time might be better (i.e. more profitably) spent developing mad little iPad apps along the lines of the MLMs, whatever - that could be good fun!

Bite your tongue, man. Today you've got a huge amount of street cred on the boards that could be put at risk. 


I'm sure you've been following the backlash against IKM that's permeated every recording-related forum on the net. If you do go the iCrap route, I'd suggest doing it under another moniker rather than sullying the Hollow Sun brand. 

Who said IK Multimedia? I didn't. Just do a few fun MLM style apps on the side for a bit of fun (for everyone). I don't even know what IK Multimedia is to be honest.

I have a programmer friend I worked with at Akai Japan and we're looking to put together an iApp for a bit of fun.

IK Multimedia? What?

I am not sure I am following the trend of this thread now.

I said that I might do an iPad app and suddenly I am in bed with IK Multimedia and dropping everything else? Eh? What?! 

As they say in Japan... 分からない


Stephen

What would be even better is if NI had some real competition so they'd be motivated to improve their script-editing tools. Or at least open it up to third-parties. Scripting in Kontakt is a throwback to the 1980's, with unhelpful error messages, lack of editing shortcuts, no automatic code-completion or parentheses-matching, and you need to have the script reference open on another screen while you work. There is a nifty (and free) Kontakt script editor called KSP that's helpful but not integrated into Kontakt so you have to create the file and paste it into Kontakt for testing

Amen!!!
The documentation that's available is incomplete/vague...
You're left to figure many things out via trial/error.
For the non-programmer, writing Kontakt scripts is... uhhh... difficult.  

Stephen
Sorry about this, I'll try and explain.

IK Multimedia were a popular software supplier and many many people, especially those who frequent these forums, purchased and used their products. I think it fair to say (and to crib a few words from Bitflipper) they did have good "street cred", a bit like Hollow Sun do now.

However in the past few years, IKMultimedia have almost foregone their existing clients, many who had paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars for their products, to concentrate on the iCrap market.
For instance, their Sampler, Sample Tank has not been updated for many years and now most people have issues and can no longer use it at all,  as it is still only 32bit and VERY VERY OLD.

So people now equate, wrongly or rightly, companies that concentrate on the iCrap marketplace with what has happened with IKMultimedia.

Believe me, they have NO "Street Cred" left and they will really struggle to get their reputation back.

I hope this explanation helps you understand why everyone is so touchy about this subject.

All I can say I hope Hollow Sun never changes (except perhaps going to Mach 5!!)

Cheers
Nigel

Stephen
Sorry about this, I'll try and explain.... <snip> 

Maybe I am being a bit dim here (wouldn't be the first time!) but I have a programmer friend, a close friend who' s damned clever with whom I worked with for 10 years or more at Akai Japan on some serious products and he and I are discussing an iApp which we'd just put up on the App Store.... like the Animoog or PPG Wavegenerator, whatever.


Not sure where IK Multimedia comes into all of this, Nigel.


Unless I am missing something. 




Stephen