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Native Instruments and iZotope has announced Soundwide as the new name of their parent company.

Just over a year ago, it was announced that Native Instruments and iZotope were coming together to form a music technology alliance with the financial backing of investment firms Francisco Partners and EMH Partners. Now, two more companies – Plugin Alliance and Brainworx – have joined the party, with the parent company being named as Soundwide.

Soundwide says that its aim is to make music-making “a more joyful and inspiring experience for creators everywhere by helping them to find, and stay in, their creative flow”.

The two new members of the Soundwide family will both be familiar to hi-tech music makers. Plugin Alliance is a software sales, marketing and delivery platform with more than a million account holders, while Brainworx specialises in creating plugin emulations of analogue hardware.

There’s also an all-new brand, Sound Stacks, which is the brainchild of Cesare Ferrari and Julian Storer, creator of the open-source audio application framework JUCE. Sound Stacks aims to drive development of new audio platform technologies for improving productivity and performance for developers.

Soundwide also has a new Artist Board, which features some big names. These include singer-songwriter Alicia Keys, musician/producer/composer Jacob Collier, recording and mix engineer Ann Mincieli, producer and rapper EL-P of Run the Jewels, composer Ludwig Göransson, producer and engineer Noah “40” Shebib, production duo Take A Daytrip, singer-songwriter Tayla Parx, and producer and engineer Young Guru.

The board will advise the Soundwide team on a regular basis, discussing creator needs, product roadmaps, community development and new methods of fostering inclusivity.

Soundwide’s brands:

• Native Instruments – one of the leading developers of music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing.
• iZotope – an audio technology company that creates professional audio software for audio recording, mixing, broadcast, sound design, and mastering.
• Plugin Alliance – a company that partners with audio developers to distribute and market audio software online.
• Brainworx – features high-end software emulations of analog hardware.
• Sound Stacks, born from the minds of Cesare Ferrari and Julian Storer, the creator of the industry-standard open-source audio application framework JUCE. Sound Stacks will drive the development of new audio platform technologies aimed at improving productivity and performance for audio developers across the industry.

Together, the brands have a user base of upwards of 10 million people.

To celebrate the introduction of the parent company, Soundwide will be giving away Native Instruments’ Ethereal Earth, iZotope’s Neutron Elements and Plugin Alliance and Brainworx’s six plug-in Welcome Bundle, as free downloads until April 26th, 2022, and you can find out how to claim your free software. Details are available on both the Native Instruments and iZotope websites.

Native Instruments releases Playbox, a new Kontakt-based software instrument that is designed to kickstart your workflow and refresh your creativity.

Playbox is the brainchild of Antonio de Spirt, Mickaël Le Goff and Nadine Raihani.

Roll the dice to create unique sounds

This is an instrument that is designed for everyone, regardless of their previous music-making experience.

Combining chord generation, sample layering and elements of chance, Playbox promises to produce unique sounds that you can play with just one finger. Roll the dice and it will randomise and blend between 905 samples, 224 chord sets, and 217 effects presets.

As well as playing the supplied content, users can also import up to 450 of their own samples, which are automatically repitched to the notes of a chord.

Here’s what they say:

“Our goal as creators was to establish a sound library that didn’t just focus on one specific sound, but instead explored the full spectrum of sounds available to us, and embraced the happy accidents you come across when working with randomisation.”

“A beginner can press one button, quickly randomise, and come across an interesting sound that can inspire their entire workflow,” explains Mickaël Le Goff. “With the same instrument, more advanced users can really dig into Playbox’s possibilities by adding their own samples and creating something brand new.”

Playbox is available now for PC and Mac priced at $149/£129/€149, until April 24. You can also get it as part of NI’s Komplete Now subscription service.

Find out more on the Native Instruments website.

Native Instruments is turning 25 this year. To mark the occasion, they’re sharing a newly developed free instrument and releasing a limited-edition run of six NI products called the 25th Anniversary Collection.

TWENTY FIVE is a new instrument from NI for KONTAKT 6 and the KONTAKT 6 PLAYER that’s intended to be a time capsule of their contribution to digital music making. Drawing sounds from 37 different instruments across the company’s history, it enables users to blend the sound of classic presets from their flagship synthesizers, KONTAKT piano instruments, REAKTOR, and GENERATOR, their first ever soft synth. Coming equipped with powerful FX, macro controls and a built-in sequencer, TWENTY FIVE is part of Native Instrument’s Play Series, a set of easy-to-use instruments for KONTAKT.

The 25th Anniversary Collection is made up of MASCHINE, TRAKTOR AND KOMPLETE hardware reimagined in two new colorways, Ultraviolet and Vapor Gray. The range of instruments includes MASCHINE+, MASCHINE Mk3, KOMPLETE KONTROL S49/S61, TRAKTOR KONTROL S4, and TRAKTOR KONTROL X1 – each has been hand-numbered and finished with reflective graphics celebrating Native Instrument’s anniversary.

Native Instruments is launching a producer challenge to commemorate their anniversary. Artists from across the globe are invited to submit tracks made with TWENTY FIVE, with the winning entries receiving hardware from the 25th Anniversary Collection and KOMPLETE 13 packages. The competition runs from today until 31 December.

Regarding the anniversary, Native Instruments Chief Product Officer and President Robert Linke. said: “We couldn’t have achieved what we have without the continued support of the creators who use our products on a daily basis […] TWENTY FIVE is a small token of our appreciation.”

Visit Native Instruments website to download TWENTY FIVE, which is available until 31 December. The 25th Anniversary Collection can be purchased via their online shop.