Kore discontinuation

Quite a few of my colleagues use and rave about Omnisphere. I'd been resisting it because the Kore+Komplete combo covered a lot of my needs. However, the decision to can Kore will be the catalyst for me to migrate to Omnisphere. Unfortunately they don't have any plans to add VST hosting so it's not a total solution. Having said that, I'm looking into running a slave PC with Vienna Ensemble Pro and apparently VEP has some of Kore's functionality. Haven't confirmed that for myself yet.

 

Huge potential!

I don't think it's just marketing.

If you want something to sell, it has to be user friendly and appeal to a wide market like apparently Maschine does.

Going back to the late 90's with Generator and Transformator, Native Instruments has traditionally had the worst operation/owners manuals. The Kore2 manual was no exception. Yes, everything in the manual was accurate in description, and quite functionally impressive, however there were no practical illustrations about HOW to apply what was written in the manual. No examples, no scenarios, just endless descriptions of what this knob does plus redundant effects descriptions.

So NI finally decided to release some tutorials that came out many months after the product was released. That is poor marketing. And if the tutorials didn't help then the best place to go would be this forum with experienced Kore users.

If Kore was going to appeal to a larger market, it needed to be more user friendly without a compromise in its functions. Many times I often wondered if musicians (those on a deadline that already have enough PC problems) used it, or if it were more of a experimental hobbyists delight. Or perhaps the majority used it for live performance? For myself, too many times I was writing/producing and got distracted with something going wrong in Kore or something I wanted to accomplish in Kore but couldn't figure out. So the result was spending an hour trying to figure out how to use this tool...Kore2 when I should have been completing a song.

With Kore1 and Kore2 IMO it seems you had to have plenty experience with PC's, Windows, then somehow get a grip on NI's weird file structure where Kore puts things. How many times did someone need to know where something is located? How many times were there database issues where you need to trash the data base and rebuild? These are things that should have been clearly stated in the owners manual from the start. These are issues that a working musician doesn't have time to investigate. And these issues perhaps made some casual users abandon Kore.

 

I've used Kore2 for half a year, don't know about Kore1, but haven't had any of your problems. It could also be because I'm a Mac user.
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You mean upgrade. I also have a Halion 2 pack laying around. Steinberg never made an update for intel Macs. They told me I had to buy Halion 3. Not nice.
So I converted most instruments to Kontakt. Fun to have all these old familiar samples back

 

same here on Win. Getting the sound you're after, creating completely new sonic experiences never was any neither easier nor quicker than firing up Kore and simply do it.

Problem is, you need discipline, cause the whole process of experimenting was so amazingly easy and inspiring, if you don't have a wife who calls you for lunch, you might end up with your affaire having dinner in no time, as you forget everything around you.

I should thank NI being able to get social again

 

Hey folks. I worked myself through 50 pages of posts now and still don't get what all the fuzz is about. I am a Kore user myself and I really love to play around with it, to be able to create sounds in a rather simple and intuitive way, but what is the problem with it being discontinued? I mean, there won't be any new Kore Plugins to download, there won't be any new versions (besides the one, that has been put on schedule since Kore's discontinueation) but you will still be able to use it as this amazing tool, which it is.
It won't crash on your computers, showing a pop up which says "sorry, due to Kore's disconinueation, you wont be able to use this program anymore".
I will keep using it, and just don't care about, whether there will be more add-ons, updates, whatsover. The discontinuation won't take awy, what you already have invested in it. So why are people asking, if you can export the ratings and all the patches you have built already to Maschine? This is unecessary, since you still can use Kore - you just won't get any new updates on it.
Well, maybe I am alone with my opionion on this issue, but I would rather focus on how to get the best out of Kore, how it is now, and will be for - probably- ever, instead of crying about its discontinueation.

 

I suggest you think about the future. There is a process whereby people are virtually forced into upgrading machines and OS's. When that happens you may be without Kore. I am reasonably (only reasonably) happy that I'll be able shuffle all of my Kore stuff over to what will be an 'older' machine (or leave it on the current one and buy a new one for more modern stuff) but that option may not be available or acceptable to others.


I also suggest that you do not seek to belittle those who are upset about the fact that Kore is, in effect, dead. There is much that could have been improved. There was a vast number of enhancements requested by some very clever people.

To suggest tht people "focus on how to get the best out of Kore" is an utterly specious statement. Most here would be doing that as a baseline activity.

 

The problem is we love Kore, it is a great tool and one many of us use everyday as part of our work and leisure. Discontinuing it does not stop us doing that of course, or stop us trying to make the most of it, we already do that.

What it stops is any hope of Kore becoming more than it currently is, something anyone using and loving an app as much as we do should be able to hope for. Any hope for more products and addons to use with it, or for the huge NI portfolio of sounds to be made available to the Kore library. Any hope of addressing the few but sometimes serious flaws it had (which many of us are acutely aware of), and any hope of problems that are likely to occur in the future more and more as it becomes increasingly incompatible with other hosts, plugins and systems being resolved, not just because of NI but because other devs won't see the need to bother making their stuff work with a defunct app (this is not just a problem for the future, it is already happening). Finally for those of us who are sound designers and who use Kore as a tool for that, it takes away a central source of output and products - who is going to be interested now in anything made in the Koresound format apart from a decreasing circle of enthusiasts?

Don't forget Kore is not just any plugin, it is a host (a very unique one at that) and one that many people have built their whole workflow and performance sets around. Imagine if Steinberg stopped selling Cubase and told people they were not even going to make any future products load Cubase projects? (in fact it reminds me of when Apple decided they were no longer going to develop Logic for Windows users - ironically I was one of those too)

 

Well that is a point, yes. I have an old windows machine with the (also dead) Logic 5.5. running on it, which i use for my productions next to a newer mac. So I did not care about this problem - since I like the saying, never touch a running system, and me liking that kind of retro feeling.

True, I have forgotten that. But on the other hand I can not see, what's beneficial about it to be used as host. But that of course is a used case discussion, in which I don't want to get into.

On this I have to disagree. Yeah it will be dead, and no, there won't be no new features. But I myself never considered, that, if I purchase a piece of Software, I would have the right to demand new features and improvements (I am not talking about bug fixes). In my eyes you buy a piece of software as for what it is and not for what it is likely to become.

you are right.

 

Not sure how much you saw of of Kore advertising and editorial back in the day. It was touted as being the 'the future'. It was proposed as a hub to all musical activities. I agree with you that software is, essentially, bought 'as is' but, with Kore, we bought promises (stated and tacit). I grizzle about standard plugs failing (I'll be honest, I grizzle that some of my DOS games won't run), but Kore was far from being a standard plug. Kore was more a concept and, more than that, it was a unique one and it was one that, by it's very nature, involved many of us old-time users (esp. the likes of kymia) in vast amounts of work. And this has made us a little prickly

 

@ ReCire:
Kore being discontinued is one thing, the soundpacks being pulled the same day as the announcement of the discontinuation a whole other. The first decision is regrettable, though ultimately something the company has to decide for themselves. It is however a decision that potentially will lose NI quite a few customers + damage their reputation somewhat. The soundpack decision on the other hand, is a scandal that will most certainly do serious damage to the company.

 

And, even here, there are differences of opinion Some will regard the pulling of soundpacks as being akin to being told that CD manufacture is going to stop while others sneer at soundpacks in the same way that they sneer when they hear a preset being used.

I think I'm on the fence on this one as I certainly never spurn the work of others (there are FARRRRR better programmers out there), I'm happy to try to do what I want myself.

That said, I can certainly see where anger might come from.

 

Keir,

While you're finalizing the crossgrade deal, can I suggest you include a free update to Komplete 8 for Komplete 7 owners - I'm just not seeing the value otherwise, and I suspect I'm not alone. The future is a choice between me continuing to buy NI products, or never spending another dollar with you.

Thanks for your continued presence in the forum.

 

Yes. I myself might sneer a bit when I hear presets being used, a bit like when artists use samples from other tracks in their music. There is however a difference in using presets of traditional instruments and using specially programmed sound effects & such. I think one should always program ones own special sounds. Having said that, such presets might make a fine fundament for further tweaking.

Personally, though, my interest is primarily in the effect packs. Having had no oppurtunity to buy any before this summer, I was shocked to hear these news. Shocked & pissed.

 

I totally agree with this point.

I guess I can understand the most guys' anger now better. But I hope you also get my slightly ignorant view somehow.

 

When we don't even know if there'll be a Komplete 8?

As someone completely outside this particular argument, could I ask your reasoning on this demand, please?
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DEFINITELY I guess our 'prickliness' is, to the world ingeneral, a strange and esoteric thing.

 

ok here 's the masterplan for all the people who want kore to stay alive!
stop complainig, losers complain , winners have a plan:
:
1.wait until ni looses income from the kore people
2. raise a fund
3. buy ni
4. continue kore

or just make a better plan

//edit: in stead of rasising a fund we can also make some number 1 chart hits (with kore ) to get enough money

 

....and if that fails, whine some more.

 

I like my Kore2 and I'm not a big fan of the NI management decisions but still I have a question for for angry users: Do you think that a business owner would give up a product that make money ? Yes, there are isolated cases, but I can't figure out what interests may be in this case.

You may be too little Kore user for NI standards.

 

well if that fails it's your very own personal fault and not a fault of someone other, i don't expect people to whine about themself

 

Ouch and touche!