Native Instruments Kills Kore Kompletely

Native Instruments Kore

Native Instruments has announced that it is killing Kore – its hardware + software platform for finding, playing & tweaking sounds:

Native Instruments has decided to discontinue the KORE product range, in order to utilize its development resources in the best interest of its wider user base.

KORE 2 will be supported through further maintenance updates for the time being, with 64-bit plugin versions of KORE 2 for Windows and Mac OS X currently in development. Technical support for KORE will also continue to be available.

All owners of the full versions of KORE 1 or KORE 2 (excluding software-only versions) can purchase MASCHINE at a special crossgrade price of $449 / €399.

That $449 is about $150 off the current retail price for Maschine.

Kore was a solid product when it was introduced in 2006 – but Maschine stole its buzz.

21 thoughts on “Native Instruments Kills Kore Kompletely

  1. I feel for you noisetheorem. They lost me a few years back when they dropped the price of Komplete and did not offer an upgrade path to those of us who bought individual synths.

    Interesting that they made this move just after reorganizing stock and getting ownership back from investors.

    I now only own Absynth now (which was my first VST way back), I love Brian Clevinger's vision and work. I'm hoping they support Absynth in their new strategy, or work out a way for Brian to continue to develop it.

  2. Ohh… the ongoing horror of Music Tech… we grow to depend on gear and manufactures need to supersede it and sell us new products to make money.
    Our instruments are their cornflakes.
    sigh…
    Toilet paper and Comb anyone?

  3. It's not like it's going to stop working though… You can still use it. 😛

    On the bright side, at least they'll never release a horrid bloaty version that you hate.

  4. Sounds like soon will be a good time to pick up one of these for cheap. It would make a cheap, versatile solution for a live gigging keyboard with the addition of a cheap laptop and a midi keyboard.

    Actually, does Kore work sans PC?

  5. No.

    I have the controller but don't like it. It's clumsy, feels cheap, and the whole Kore concept is too complicated IMHO. I really understand that they kill it. Way to go!

  6. NI needs to buck there ideas up,Vokator,Spectral Delay, now Kore.All great products turned into abandonware. Meanwhile their still flogging Pro 53,which in these days of synths like Ace and Dcam Synthsquad should be loss leading freeware. Absynth,Reaktor,Kontakt and FM8 still rock,no doubt.However, they are beginning to look increasingly less innovative,with Alchemy and other products on the market.Let's hope that they don't just become obsessed with merely updating these four at the expense of new product lines.Let's hope what they've got planned is pretty awesome

  7. A few months back I bought Kore 2 from NI website; they had a special offer reduced price of €199 for two weeks.
    I reckon they knew back then that it was going to be abandoned and decided to offload the remaining stock…

  8. NI have already bsaidf they will make 64 bit drivers, the hardware will remain working, so will the software. Pick up a bargin- I'm glad I have mine (Kore 1 hardware). It's technology, it will always be replaced/superceeded (unlike my accoustic guitars!) – Thank God I say, back to pro 24 and shitty midi sound modules anyone?

  9. That might be right in theory, but I've been a through a number of hardware/software combos that technically could still work but are not supported on any recent platform (and by recent I mean platforms that came out just after support was discountinued). With the new Mac OS on the horizon and Windows 8 in the works I can only wish the owners of Kore the best of luck.

    At this point I just hope they don't mess with Komplete and don't consolidate everything down to Maschine and Kontakt or something similar.

  10. And this is the very same reason I went to hardware only when possible, all my synths keep going on and on, most of them 15 + years old.

    Some of those synths had programs to edit the sounds on the computer, guess what?, none of those programs work in current OS setups… well, to be honest they do if you keep an old computer around just for that, is it worth it?

  11. If they intend to keep supporting Kore, then why have they pulled all the soundpacks?

    I only found out about this when I tried to buy "Deep Freq" and "Deep Reconstructions" yesterday.

  12. The venom Synth, Arturia's drum machine, all of these Abelton knob boxes, Novation Ultranova- you are going to have to keep an old computer around to run these things in 15 years. I understand the concept of having the best of both worlds. It's just just that in several years this stuff will be useless. For my money I would rather wait and save and invest in quality hardware that will still be working in 20 years.

    One of the test oscillators that I am using on my next collection is from the 40s and it still works perfectly. ; )

  13. maybe the soundpacks will all come back, and core will be integrated into maschine. Thats why they said they will still support it. Odd that they would pull a sellable product. Some of those sets are very new… I almost guarantee theres a maschine update that wasnt quite ready for the last big update, where all your sounds are selectable under there..

  14. don't forget they also abandoned the b4 organ! and screwed over anyone who bought a kompakt or intakt product during the move to tiger!

  15. I use Kore a LOT in my work and am sad to see it orphaned. Of course I’ll use it until OS upgrades render it unusable, and maybe, just MAYBE, NI will have a fire sale on the remaining Kore hardware controllers in stock. I’ve been wanting one of those for a long time!

    I don’t quite get how they think MASCHINE is the crossgrade replacement for Kore. Even though I already own Kontakt, wouldn’t an upgrade to that make more sense to ease the pain?

  16. +1 on that. I'm really hoping that they don't let the IDEA of Kore die. No matter what, I've lost a lot of trust in Native Instruments.

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