Simon Cross on How Native Instruments and Akai Are Simplifying Music Creation

When two giants in music technology come together, it’s worth paying attention. At NAMM 2025, Native Instruments and Akai Professional are announcing a partnership that’s set to redefine music creation.

To understand the vision behind this collaboration, we spoke with Simon Cross, Chief Product Officer at Native Instruments, about how the integration of their expansive sound libraries with Akai’s hardware innovation is designed to inspire creators everywhere.

This Partnership At A Glance

Cross explained how this partnership merges the best of both brands: Akai’s legendary MPC and MPK hardware now seamlessly connects with Native Instruments’ Komplete Kontrol software and NKS ecosystem, providing access to thousands of instruments and effects. This collaboration isn’t just about technical compatibility—it’s about creating an intuitive and inspiring workflow that reflects the strengths of both companies. With Native Instruments’ Play Series and Expansions tailored for the MPC, producers can dive into the creative process without missing a beat.

As the music industry embraces hybrid and standalone setups, this partnership couldn’t be better. Cross emphasized how the collaboration empowers more creators, whether they’re seasoned professionals or first-time users, by removing barriers to creativity. From streamlined workflows to new educational initiatives, this partnership is all about enabling artists to focus on what matters most: making music.

Interview With Simon Cross

1 – What drew Native Instruments to collaborate with Akai, considering both companies’ independent strengths?

Akai and NI have long admired each other. We have a shared passion for serving the musician and removing barriers to creativity. 

Many people already use Akai hardware with NI software, and we’re excited to deepen the integration between them to enable a seamless workflow where creativity comes first. And MPC owners have long been asking for access to NI’s library of instruments and sounds. Given our shared love of the creator and our complementary strengths, it became a natural partnership.

2 – How does this partnership balance the identities of both brands while delivering a cohesive user experience?

This partnership reflects our complementary strengths. NI’s class-leading instruments and sounds with Akai’s market-leading controllers and the powerful MPC standalone platform. You’ll see NI’s brand in the Expansions and Play Series content on Akai hardware and you’ll see Akai’s brand in the NI’s Komplete Kontrol software signalling to the user their Akai device now works with all the instruments and effects in the NKS ecosystem.

3 – How does this collaboration respond to industry trends like hybrid production setups or standalone workflows?

By bringing NI’s world class sounds to the MPC platform, we’re making them available to more musicians and creators than ever before. This is about giving more creators, more ways to create.

4 – What new educational or community-building initiatives are you launching to highlight this collaboration?

We’ll be releasing tutorials and how-tos which help people understand how to use NI software with their Akai and M-Audio controllers to help them get started and into the creative flow as soon as possible. We’ll be listening to the feedback from our shared customers and use that to further improve our experiences over time.

5 – How do you see this partnership fostering creativity in music creators who might not traditionally use Native Instruments’ software?

The seamless integration of NI software with Akai and M-Audio hardware will enable more people to feel the benefits of not just any NI software, but also more than 2000 instruments and effects from more than 200 brands that are integrated with NKS. By giving creators access to a seamless workflow, including intuitive browsing of presets and reliable parameter control, creators will be able to spend more time creating, and less time trying to get their hardware and software to work together.