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Native Instruments heads east for Scene: Lotus, its latest cinematic instrument

Having launched its new Scenes series with Scene: Saffron, a quick route for composers to find lush atmospheres with rich textures constructed from strings, synths, brass, and beyond, NI is now travelling to the far east for Scene: Lotus, a new instrument inspired by the sounds of Japan.

Once again, configured as a one-stop route to a ‘cinematic sound’, Lotus features new breathy shakuhachi and hichiriki alongside other timeless instruments from Japan such as the delicate plucks of the koto, all teamed with orchestral swells and radiant synths.

Native Instruments has been working hard to simplify its offerings and the Scenes series is its current roadmap for delivering keenly priced, powerful ‘instruments’ made up of hybrid synth and samples that focus on specific sonic duties – most specifically delivering instant, production-ready sounds built from multiple sources, delivered under one simple interface.

In the background there’s Native Instruments’ long-established sampling and sample manipulation skills of their Kontakt standard plus the synth-and-sequencer construction kit power of their Reaktor engine, but you don’t need to know that… Instead Scenes act as standalone instruments, appearing as instrument plugins, easily assignable to a track in your DAW then instantly producing sounds that sound like you’ve spent weeks building them.

All their power is kept neatly behind the scenes, with simple and intuitive controls and an X/Y pad allowing players to fine tune and perfect their sound to perfectly fit its purpose and then automate and animate the performance as it plays.

And with 16 hybrid sound layers and effects there’s plenty to play with inside Scene: Lotus. Lotus’s tuning modes keep its output perfectly in key with your choice of scales and modes while composers morph between textures and effects for evolving soundscapes that transition from serene to intense.

Native Instruments promises it’s the perfect way to achieve ambiences that are ready-to-go for film scoring, game soundtracks and music production.

Scene: Lotus is available now for $29 / €29. Find out more at Native instruments site.

Native Instruments released Claire, late last year – a virtual instrument for Kontakt 8 that captured the sounds of a Fazioli F308, a 10-foot Italian concert grand that also happens to be the world’s largest grand piano.

This week, Native Instruments has announced Claire: Avant, a new “avant-garde” instrument also featuring the sounds of the F308, but with a more experimental spin. Designed to be “as expressive as it is unconventional”, Claire: Avant is said to explore a variety of unorthodox articulations and preparations that reveal unexpected resonances, overtones and percussive textures in the piano.

Recorded with the piano’s lid off, these unique playing techniques and sound modifications alter how the strings are struck, plucked or dampened, expanding the instrument’s sonic palette beyond traditional piano tones. Each note has been equipped with up to 13 different velocity zones and three round robins in order to create a “living, breathing” instrument that creates evolving and complex sounds.

Claire: Avant’s samples can be processed with the onboard Particles engine, a granular effect that generates shimmering textures, or a selection of additional effects that includes reverb, delay, compression, saturation and EQ. Its sample library also features a number of different microphone placements that can be blended via a slider on the instrument’s interface.

Claire: Avant walkthrough video:

Native Instruments has described the F308 as “the crown jewel” of pianos, an instrument that delivers “immense power and harmonic richness”, with an extended string length that contributes to its exceptional clarity and deep low-end. Rather unusually, the F308 equipped with a fourth pedal, which allows the player to soften the sound without changing its timbre, by reducing the distance between the strings and the hammers.

Claire: Avant is available now for $99/€99/£89, or as part of a bundle with the Claire grand piano.

Find out more on Native Instruments’ website.

Reads the company’s post on its community forum.

Back in January, Native Instruments announced that it would be bringing Play Series instruments and Expansions sound packs to the Akai MPC platform and teaming up with Akai and a number of other leading controller brands to integrate their products with the NKS control standard.

That news understandably ticked off a number of users of Maschine+, Native Instruments’ standalone groovebox and rival to the MPC, that are currently unable to use those very same Play Series instruments on their own devices.

More broadly, the decision was interpreted as a sign that the company may be shifting its focus away from Maschine altogether, a platform that hasn’t seen a hardware update in five years, and only recently received a long-awaited software update that many of us found somewhat disappointing.

Native Instruments has responded to those frustrations with a post shared to its own community forum on January 31 that reinforces the company’s “strong commitment” to Maschine and provides some clarity on when Maschine users can expect the updates they’ve been hoping for.

Native Instruments has confirmed that Maschine 3 – the recent update to its DAW-like companion software for the Maschine controller range – will be coming to Maschine+ standalone in 2025. First, the company says, it’s catching up by releasing Maschine 2 for Maschine+, which enters beta this week and will bring a number of Native’s desktop effects to the standalone groovebox, while allowing users to change sampling rate and buffer size to expand compatibility with USB class-compliant audio interfaces.

Further down the line in Q2, Maschine 3 for Maschine+ will bring support for Kontakt 8, the latest version of Native’s sampler plugin, to Maschine+ users, along with a “selection of full Kontakt instruments” that includes Play Series titles. Also on the way is a “highly requested” bounce-to-audio feature that will allow Maschine+ to run CPU-heavy instruments like Kontakt efficiently.

Maschine 3 introduced stem separation to the Maschine platform for the first time. Native Instruments says it is exploring the possibility of bringing stem separation to Maschine+’s standalone mode, but notes that the “technical complexity” involved means that it may not be available in the upcoming releases. However, Maschine+ users will be able to separate stems on desktop and import these projects to their hardware following the forthcoming updates.

The post also touched on the controversy surrounding Native Instruments bringing Play Series instruments to the MPC platform before its own hardware. “Some of you may have seen our recent Play Series and Expansion content releases on the MPC platform, in partnership with our friends at Akai Professional,” the post reads. “This collaboration allows us to bring high-quality sounds to more creators, but we want to reinforce our strong commitment to Maschine.

“It’s also important to note that the Play Series MPC Editions are not direct ports of the original Play Series instruments. Instead, they are custom-built for the MPC platform, utilizing its sample engine and featuring MPC-specific presets. This makes them a unique experience tailored to the MPC workflow, rather than a replication of the Play Series desktop version.”

Read the full post on Native Instruments’ website.