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Raise your tracks to pro standards with new all-in-one referencing.

Since going into preliminary insolvency back in January, the future of Native Instruments has been far from certain, but CEO Nick Williams has promised that business at the company and its numerous subsidiaries will “continue as usual” during this restructuring process.

In that spirit, iZotope – the Boston-based software developer acquired by NI in 2023 – has announced the release of Tonal Balance Control 3 (TBC 3), the next generation of its referencing plugin and mastering tool that allows you to compare your track’s frequency balance, dynamics and stereo width against that of any other track.

Tonal Balance Control 3 captures audio directly from Spotify, YouTube and your DAW timeline for fast and intuitive referencing.

Tonal Balance Control works by measuring the tonal balance and energy distribution of your track and visualizing this against a reference target. The plugin features a library of targets based on the sonic profile of specific genres – so you’re able to see how your electropop banger compares tonally to the average electropop track, for example – but more useful is the ability to reference your track against the target curve of a specific track of your choosing.

This can be achieved by uploading audio files to the plugin, but new in Tonal Balance Control 3 is the ability to capture a target curve directly from your DAW timeline.

Additionally, the software is now available as a standalone app that’s capable of receiving and analyzing audio from elsewhere on your computer. This means you can easily route reference tracks from Spotify, or YouTube into Tonal Balance Control to create customized targets based on the sonic profile of tracks from your favourite artists, without having to download the songs first.

Targets captured in Tonal Balance Control 3 can be pulled up in iZotope’s Neutron and Ozone mixing and mastering software, enabling you to use them with Ozone’s Mastering Assistant to sonically match your own track to that of your reference.

Tonal Balance Control 3 also features an expanded target library that provides references for a longer list of genres, including dubstep, drum & bass, hyperpop and more, and multiple targets can now be blended together to create hybrid genre combinations.

Whereas its predecessor was a dedicated metering tool, Tonal Balance Control 3 boasts a built-in EQ overlaid on its metering window that enables you to correct the tonal balance of your track from within the plugin itself. You’re also able to remotely connect to other iZotope plugins like Ozone to control their EQ from Tonal Balance Control.

Also new in Tonal Balance Control 3 are three dedicated meters for comparing the dynamics, stereo width and vocal balance of your track to the reference target, and a Leveled View that allows for more visually intuitive tone-shaping.

iZotope’s Tonal Balance Control 3 is priced at $129. Find out more on iZotope website.

Slate + Ash, Bristol-based sound design studio – has announced the release of a new Kontakt instrument. Primaries / Woods is the next edition in the company’s Primaries series, inaugurated in 2024 with the release of Primaries / Strings.

Primaries / Woods uses woodwind instruments as the raw materials for expressive sound design.

Where that instrument focused on solo string performances across bass, cello, viola and violin, Primaries / Woods is based on the sounds of the woodwind family, packing more than a hundred recordings of bassoon, clarinet, flute, oboe and saxophone into an instrument that the company says is designed to “capture the physical exchange between player and instrument”, exploring solo woodwinds as “a fundamental colour in the orchestral spectrum. From guttural vibrations to fragile overtones, every texture is distilled into tactile breathing matter”.

Primaries / Woods’ library of multisampled articulations is accessible via the same sophisticated sound engine found in Primaries / Strings, which is capable of layering two sound sources together with independent controls for tuning, envelopes, filtering, and key-zone.

Each layer can be processed with a selection of fifteen macro effects, with delay, reverb, compression, tremolo, bitcrusher, pitch-shifter and more on offer, along with a master effects section on the output that features EQ, compression and a lo-fi processor. Effects can be modulated via the onboard LFOs or MIDI CC.

Primaries / Woods’ spatial mixer allows you to blend multiple reamped versions of its sample library together across an XY pad; recordings have been reamped in the Funkhaus echo chamber in Berlin and Real World Studios’ Wood Room, and processed via an EMT 140 plate reverb and Bricasti M7.

Primaries / Woods is equipped with four input modules, spanning a multi-mode arpeggiator, scale-aware harmony generator, and a randomizer that introduces octave shifts, tuning variations and panning into the mix. There’s also a tape simulator onboard that can be used to time-stretch and pitch-shift sound sources.

Though Primaries / Woods uses woodwind instruments as a sound source, Slate + Ash has creatively processed its source material to create a broad range of synthetic textures that sound worlds away from the original recordings, and the instruments’ 200 sound-designed presets offer everything from “warm pads and subtle underscore layers” to “arpeggiated sequences, synthetic pulses and granular textures”.

As was the case with Primaries / Strings, you’re able to drop your own samples into the instrument’s sound engine, effectively giving you a versatile and powerful sampler with which to manipulate and rework your own sounds.

Here’s the Preset Demo:

Primaries / Woods is currently priced at £149 and can be purchased with Primaries / Strings for a discounted price of £349. The instrument runs in Native Instruments Kontakt 7.10.7 or higher, or in the free Kontakt Player.

Find out more on Slate + Ash website.

The news that Native Instruments has filed for Preliminary Insolvency shook the music industry, because the company’s tools have been used by so many, for so long.

Many have speculated about what led to the company’s decline, but the best take we’ve seen comes from Music Trades Editor Brian T. Majeski, who calls Native Instruments as “the industry’s latest private equity casualty”.

In his newsletter, he shared his analysis of the company’s decline after it was acquired by private equity firm Francisco Partners:

“After five years under the stewardship of Francisco Partners, the company that pioneered computer-centric music systems filed for bankruptcy protection in the Berlin courts on January 27.

The catalyst for the filing was a steep decline in sales, cumulative losses of €288 million ($339 million) accrued in 2023 and 2024, and looming maturities on approximately €262 million ($309 million) in debt.

The bankruptcy court has a mandate to keep Native Instrument intact as a viable business and they are likely to succeed. The company retains a valuable product portfolio that is used on 80% of the Top Ten Billboard tracks and has over 1.5 million registered users. However, there will be serious post-bankruptcy challenges.

Despite assurances from management that “business will carry on as usual,” consumers are understandably wary. Many are deferring or cancelling planned purchases out concern that the restructured company many not honor existing software licenses or provide product support.”

Recent moves left many Native Instruments customers puzzled:

• In 2022, Native Instruments and iZotope announced ‘Soundwide’ as the new name of their parent company, and welcomed several new members to the Soundwide group of brands, including audio plugin platform Plugin Alliance and audio software company Brainworx. The goal was to provide end-to-end solutions, but the companies seem to have struggled to find synergy.
• Just a year later, they announced dumping the Soundwide brand, and that iZotope, Brainworx, and Plugin Alliance would become part of Native Instruments.
• The company also frustrated long-time customers by neglecting or retiring loved products. In 2022, the company retired Absynth – one of its oldest and most powerful software synths. In late 2025, though, the company introduced Absynth 6. It was a welcome return, but also left many questioning Native’s strategy for its software synths and virtual instruments.

“The failure of Native Instruments is a complicated story, worthy of a full-length case study,” notes Majeski, adding that “Misplaced growth expectations, poor product development, and a healthy dose of hubris surely contributed.

You can read more analysis and editorials by Majeski at the Music Trades site.

Have your own take on what created Native Instruments’ predicament? Share your thoughts in the comments!