Native Instruments Acquiring Top DJ Technical Talent
Native Instruments is in the process of methodically hiring away DJ technology talent from around the globe. The hiring spree has affected NI’s competitors, Stanton and M-Audio, and now comes word that they have acquired the brilliant young innovator, Scott Hobbs, who kindled our imagination with his Attigo concept.
Jim Mazur, the technical lead from Stanton, was snapped up by NI in a move that came as a big surprise to the US firm. Mazur was the force behind several of Stanton’s products for years and most likely caused further insult to injury after the very public, and very ugly breakup between Native and Stanton over FinalScratch.
Now comes word that Chad Carrier, who was literally the industry face of Torq, has left M-Audio for Native Instruments. Carrier, who shepherded Torq from the genesis of the digital DJ system as the Product Manager to where it is today, was left out in the cold when product development for Torq 2.0, which will reportedly debut at NAMM 2011, was yanked out from him and given to the A.I.R. (Advanced Instrument Research) group. Communications to M-Audio/Avid have gone unanswered.
Native has also ramped up their initiative to bring more prominent DJs over to the Traktor camp and away from Serato, their only real competition. NI has always gone after top DJ talent, but now that they have the new Traktor S4 DJ controller about to hit the market, the strategy is in hyperdrive.
Last up is news that Native Instruments has just acquired the talented Scott Hobbs, who has serious interface chops and is known as a brilliant integrator, systems designer and coder. As mentioned above, Scott has already developed a provocative DJ system known as Attigo, and it appears that NI has secured this visionary to lead their next generation of multitouch-enabled DJ systems.
The Future: As we like to say when referring to NI, they play to win, and these hires are just another indication that they are extremely serious about making Traktor the software standard in the market. The upcoming S4, which will reportedly cost $999 / €799 (the perfect price point —Ed.) when it is officially announced in a few days, finally gives DJs the perfect hardware compliment to their software, something that no third party has managed to achieve, even after years of trying. However, the addition of Scott Hobbs to their team reveals that NI is definitely looking several years into the future of DJing. Hobbs prowess is an exciting proposition if NI buys into even one of his concepts.
