Apart from the odd little update here and there, Native Instruments has been worryingly quiet with their products. I’m sure we DJs are all hoping there’s something big on the horizon, but in the meantime there’s a new bit of software called Native Access they’ve put out to beta testers. This bit of news actually almost completely flew under our radar when it first emerged, and the only reason I caught it was because I was checking out the NI Facebook page while Mark was writing this story a few weeks ago.
My thoughts
There isn’t really much to say, but it’s fairly widely accepted that NI’s current system, the Service Center, is a bit of a mess. Much like people might say about Traktor, The Service Center is a clunky, borderline user-hostile fudge, which feels like an extra layer of inconvenience, constantly demands to update itself and just plain looks dated. The new software, Native Access, is still in testing, with this call-out to get the public to help iron out some bugs.
I’m hoping we’ll see the application as a viable, central way to manage your NI software and licenses: De-register your software when you need to, and notifications for updates, for example. I’d imagine this would also pave the way for subscription payments for software (like it or hate it). Something akin to Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which seems to work pretty well. For now, the Native Access app doesn’t seem to do much more than the current system, but it is much more streamlined, more user friendly, and, yes… prettier. The app finally supports high resolution (ie Retina) screens.
Something that’s really worth noting on top of this is that the beta (and the Traktor beta) are running on a platform called Centrecode, designed to manage business enterprise beta testing. After the huge problems (both PR and actual) that happened over the last couple of years thanks to several buggy updates to Traktor, it’s good to know that NI has pulled its finger out and understood the need to improve their QA before releasing a product.
Your thoughts
Are you looking forward to a new system to keep your Native Instruments apps up to date?
You can get in on the beta over on the Native Instruments Native access beta signup page.